ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 165, 27 February 1847, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

1o the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Hawkshead, River Hutt, 27th Feb. 1847. Sir, — Without following up the subject of my last communication, I yet feel called upon to advert to it, and to notice some errors and misconceptions your correspondent R. seems to have fallen into, on his remarks upon my introductory " Notes." In the first place he states that my " considerations are too limited in their extent," by which I presume he means that the Hutt valley is too limited a field for making experiments, and from them deducing inferences, more or less applicable, to other of our settlements. It seems, that I have taken "part for whole, assuming that Wellington is New Zealand, and the Hutt valley the only portion in which large farms ever did, or ever can exist." All this I must deny. Its absurdity would rival that of the simple Corinthians, who fancied that their moon was a finer one than that of the Athenians. Whether these " objections" are urged against my remarks upon forming pastures, or my assertion that pastoral agriculture is more profitable than arable, does not appear. If the first, I must still think that what can be done on the Hu*t valley, can be done in every other valley of New Zealand. But, if your writer objects to the latter assertion, I must refer him to Messrs. Ludlam, Riddif'ord, and all the large farmers who have left this valley : my only regret is, that for the same reason I cannot follow them. They would not have done so, I presume, if their farming had been piofitable. To compare the lands of the Hutt with those of Taranaki and of Nelson, and then to say that because the latter are profitable as arable districts, the former should be equally so, implies either an ignoiance or a forgetfulness of the peculiarities of each. Forest lands require five times as much spent upon their clearing, as open lands: the former are full of stumps and roots, and cannot be ploughed for several years, the latter are ploughed at once, and consequently will yield a handsome profit on {he capital invested, while the forest land will gire none. It is well known the farms of Mr. Bell at Wanganui, and Mr. Duppa at Nelson, are of the latter description, that is of "fern and flax land." But even admitting that their farms are sufficiently profitable, why should these settlers "cry for ten times their present holdings?" when }our correspondent confesses, in his very next paragraph, that their produce of grain is already so plentiful that purchasers are not to be found! I have always thought that production was regulated by demand, and that no farmer would be so inconceivably billy as to grow crops for which he could find no purchaser*. When I simply stated the fact, that large farms on the Hutt valley had been found so unprofitable that their owners had relinquished them, I neither implied, or intended to imply, that all the misfortunes we have suffered under, from the natives, had no influence in bringing about such a change. This is a perfectly gratuitous assumption of your correspondent, and wholly unauthorized by what 1 havd written. On the contrary, it is obvious to the must obtuse understanding that these provocations and aggressions have been the root of all our misfortunes. One half of the woikiug population have been driven away, while a large pioportion of those that are left are now engaged in the public works. Labour has thus become so scarce, and wages so high, that we have neither capital or hands to cultivate the laud, or to gather in our crops. From this latter cause, alone, Mr. Ludlam suffered last ye<jir, a loss of near £230. No one would run sudh a risk a second time. To crown our disasters, and as if to put a finishing stroke to all further cultivation of grain on the Hutt, we are ordeied by the late Trespass Act, to fence in our crops, or they will be at the meicv of droves of cattle, now sent from Wellington, to roam where they list. Such is the state of arable farming in the Hutt district. What it is in the other settlements I pretend not to know, I merely write these notet from -what passes before me, and I should have thought every one of your readers, at least in Wellington, would have been aware of this. I have, in short, " limited the extent of my considerations" intentionally, and not, as your correspondent thinks from the absurd tancy of supposing " the Hutt valley was New Zealand." It. is hard, however, to imagine, that if arable farming, close to the capital (and in such a fruitful soil as ours) cannot now be conducted with profit, that it should be the reverse in other settlements, where it must be exported, The subject however, is too important in itself to be thus superficially treated, and is so irrelevant from the immediate object I had in view, that I feel sorry it has been thrust forward by your correspondent in such a loose and desultory manner. It by no means follows that because local or incidental depressions at present exist, they are always to continue. The Hutt valley has been formed, as it were by nature, for the granary of Wellington; and time only is necessary to render it so in reality. To return to the matter more immediately before us. I must be allowed to question the accuracy of your correspondent on another point, namely, that the grazing districts now in use "do improve" instead of deteriorate. How, let me ask, is this supposed improvement effected? Of what are 'these natural pastures composed? Low shrubs, fern, flax, rushes,* and grass, are, from all JL, have seen, their component parts. The shrubs will be destroyed the first year, fern and flax are nevet touched by any cattle, and are therefore left to increase and multiply, so that a few of the rushes, and all the grasses alone r.emain~as,food. Now it is quite obvious that although, by being eaten off, these latter may and will acquire a thicker turf, or sward,

* The Cjipr4ac4ttai Caricetot BoUniiU.

yet they will increase but very little in eextentt t because the bite of the cattle prevents them from flowering and so producing their full quantity of seed,— the ttnly mode by which they can increase. The idea of fern being destroyed by the tread of cattle, I consider altogether chimerical. It is one of the most obstinate of weeds ; for, by the roots creeping under ground, and every fragment vegetating, it springs up in all directions, so that in spots where it is thick and luxuriant, more than one ploughing is necessary to eradicate it, this I assert from my own experienced That grass pasture, nevertheless, will improve in tome situations, and under peculiar circumstances, is an obvious fact, although, as the causes are not generally known, I shall attempt to explain them hereafter. This natural increase, however, is so slow that I am fearful a stockkeeper, reckoning upon it, will have to verify the old proverb, " While the grass grows, the cow starves." Lastly, your correspondent says, " If any of the settlers have selected ground where twothirds of the growth consisted of koromikc, &c, they necessarily suffer for their own lack of sense." Ido not think so, and for this reason — Captain Rhodes, whom I look upon as a vory good judge in these practical matters, has himself done this: without showing any "lack of sense." He has for some time taken temporary possession of between 3 and 400 acres of deserted native clearings, up the Hutt valley, over which a large herd of his cattle is now roaming, in fine condition, fattening on koromiko and other shrubs. The Captain, I dare say, is very well satisfied with this run, or he would not have selected it. How long, indeed, it may latt, is quite another affair. I am afraid he will not find it one of those grazing districts which "improve." I walked up there the other day, and very little herbage was left beyond the remnants of shrubs, young potatoes, old dock steins, and a few tufts of native grass. In six months, I apprehend, the pasture this run once had, will be pretty well exhausted. Your correspondent, if he has visited Australia, must surely be aware that natural pastures) in that country do not improve, but quite the. reverse; and unfortunately the heat and dryness of the climate is such, that none of our fine English pasture grasses will grow there, while in these humid and temperate islands they flourish more luxuriantly than in Britain. I have now, I trust, given a satisfactory reply to all those objections to my " Notes," which your correspondent has brought forward. lam sorry he has not specified the "few others" which he thinks are "liable to exception," as they might at once have been admitted, or disproved, in the same reply. When first I thought of placing these notes upon record, I had no idea they would have given rise to a newspaper controversy, or I most assuredly should never have sent them to you. Not, I trust, from any unwillingness to at knowledge an error of deduction, or of hasty judgment, still less from a belief that I have acquired, in this confined district, one half of the knowledge requisite to do justice to the entire subject, .but it is irksome to write with a feeling that every proposition may be questioned, or every opinion cavilled at, betore a writer is allowed time to state his reasons for one or ihe other. It is irksome to combat popular errors and popular prejudices; for it is like a Tnan presuming to give advice, which none are willing to follow. A writq§iii newspapers, is peculiarly exposed to this, but unfortunately we have not, a3 yet, any other channel of public communication. I shall therefore esteem it a favour if R., or any other of your readers, will permit me to con elude my notes, (if they should be continued) before they state their objections to them. In the mean time I shall feel obliged to any and every one, for all the facts they can communicate regarding the pasture districts, in othpr parts, where I have not been. By doing this, in your journal, your correspondent R will be conferring a real obligation on the public, and fiom his having "travelled to a very considerable extent over these islands" he has had far better means of judging, and a much more extensive field of observation, than one like myself who has never been beyond the sight of Port Nicholson. It is only from a variety of facts, gathered from different quarters, that just conclusions of a general nature, in many cases can be drawn. They are obviously as great a variety of s.<ils in these islands, as in other parts of the world. And as it is a law of nature that each of these bears its own peculiar vegetation, each will require some peculiarity of treatment in attempting to improve its productions by artificial means. In conclusion, while I beg to offer my best thanks to R for his flattering appreciation of my imperfect labours, I must assure him that they are estimated so far, so very far, above their real deserts, as to be altogether hyperbolical. Your 'a, &c, W. Swainson.

t I must here be understood to speak only of the PterU etculenta er common Brake fern, the species which is more particularly called /«•«. and the only one which I hay- yet see" (.-rowing, in any abundance, upon large open heathlike tracts of flat land and clay hill; usually mixed with native flax and dwarf shrubs