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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5338, 7 May 1878, Page 2

Amongst the. many and ,varied resources of this favored colony the grain traffic of the Middle Island holds a prominent place. Some idea of its magnitude may be, gathered from returns published in the Canterbury Times of Saturday last. From this it appears that the ,loqal.cailway,s : have.for some weeks been carrying at the 'rata, of, 9000 tons /of grain per week, and.special./trains have been ,ruuning night' and day. The Canterbury ‘ people have for a long time been complaining of the insufficiency of the railway .accommodation to meet the traffic, and have been calling upon the Government for extra trucks; From a paragraph appended to the returns however, if; is stated that “ with two blear days all the grain , in the country stores could be brought to its destination.” There does not, therefore,, how appear /to be any danger o( serious embarrassment 'to the traffic on this head. The authorities at all events, we are glad to see, are, in addition to what has been already done, giving pretty liberal'orders for additional rolling stock. “In the Government workshops,” says our contemporary, “trucks are now being turned out at the rate of about 13 per week, and at the Addington depot the contractors, Messrs. Campbell Bros.( are turning them but at the rate of 25 per week. A further contract for the production of 150 trucks has been entered into with Messrs. Langdownand Co., who will commence operations immediately, and it may, with the utmost ' confidence, be ' asserted' that within eight weeks, from the present time 200 additional trucks' will be in use upon the Canterbury railways.” •; The. grain growers of New Zealand have excellent prospects before them,: and a new market for their exports appears to be springing up: at the Cape. A letter from a correspondent of the Press Agency, dated Cape Town, 16th February, and published in our issue of yesterday, points out i that in consequence of the drought (to which the Cape Colony is periodically liable) there is a great demand at the present time for breadstuffs, and that large orders have been sent to America and Australia. The soil and climate of a large portion of New Zealand are well known to bo admirably adapted to the growth of cereals, and with the increasing population of the country and the beat mechanical appliances 1 , and seeing, the requirements ‘ abroad, there can be no question that wheat-growing will continue to be a leading industry here, and will ultimately attain milch greater dimensions than it has at present reached.