Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5348, 18 May 1878, Page 2

A vEßYoonsidorable portion of the address recently delivered by the Agent-General of New Zealand (Sir Julius Vooel) at the -Colonial Institute, was devoted to a description'of the soil in New Zealand in its various classes of mineral, pastoral, forest, and agricultural lands, and to a demonstration of the superior value of a groat portion of the' agricultural land as measured by its productiveness, in comparison with land of the same class in the other colonies, in America, and in Great Britain. ‘ Ho showed that from the time of the discovery l of gold in l Otago in 1801, and—-including the quantity obtained previously to that time on the Nelson and Coromandel goldfields—up to the end of the j'ear J. 87.0, the value of‘the gold pro-

duced in this colony was thirty-two millions one hundred and seventeen thousand pounds sterling ; that there was besides gold, in our silver, copper, and iron ores—which latter are especially abundant and rich—a wealth that only slumbers, and that must in time, as population and the power that labor gives increase, prove of the greatest importance. The receipts obtained from pastoral lands for a period of 15 years ending with the year 1876 were shown to be the production and export of wool valued at £27,716,000 ; the comparative results of the production of the first year of the period, 1862, and the last year, 1876, being respectively £674,000 and £3,1)95,000, In illustration of the statement that the history of Now Zealand Was one continued record of an increase in the value of and demand ,for land, and that the “ earth-hunger ” which prevails amongst all classes of the people was very great, Sir Julius Vogel read extracts from a letter addressed by Mr. Morton, the chairman of two companies owning large tracts of land in New Zealand, to the officers of the companies in the colony, some passages of which we reprint as having interest for our readers : Mr, Ford's estimate of the value of Acton at £7, as corroborative of our own, is .satisfactory. My own conviction is that a much greater rise in the value of good freehold land in Now Zealand is certain to take rdaoe, and tills at a much earlier period than yon in the colony or the public generally has any conception of. In looking into the agricultural returns of Great Britain, with abstract returns for the VnUtd Kingdom, British possessions, and foreign countries, for 1876, 1 And that the average yield of wheat per acre in New Zealand, out of the 00,801 acres under this crop for 1875-C, was 315 bushels, while in Victoria, with its 321,101 acres, the average yield for the same year was only 15 5 -bushels per acre; New South Wales, with 133,010 acres, was 11:7: South Australia,, with 898,820 acres, was 11'8 ; Tasmania, with 12,715 acres, 10 1: Natal, with 1810 acres, was 12'6 ; and Cape of Good Hope, with 188,000 acres, was 8 0. Dominion of Canada, for 1071, the latest date given, the average of the Lake Ontario district is O'l: - Quebec. B's: New Brunswick, 10 8; Nova Scotia, 11 8. Then if we turn to the United States, the great competitor, so to speak, for the population of Europe, the Average yield of wheat for 1874 (the latest date given) is 12 3 bushels per acre, and the United Kingdom, in which the best of the land only is cultiv ited for wheat, and this highly cultivated and manured, only yields an average of 27»V bushels per acre. . . . Then, when you take into consideration the fact that in all Australia the land may be said, after being cropped, to be left in an unproductive form, and allowed to revert to its natural state, no permanent pasture of an artificial character (viz.i English grass) is given for Adelaide in 1876, and only 10,260 acres for 1875; for New South Wales non© stated; for Victoria, out of 1,120,000 as imder crop and grass, only 293,000 acres la given as under artificial grass; for,Western Australia and Queensland none given •. and for lasmania (the most favored for this of all the Australian colonies), out of 332,000 acres, only 102.000 w given, or under ono-thlrd of the whole ; whereas in New Zealand, out of 2,377,000 acres, not less than 1,770,000 acres Is given as sown out in permanent artificial grass. For Natal and the Capo, none. For Can«da.jnone stated, but I have no doubt both in ifc’ and the United States—viz. the Atlantic—a .relative proportion to New Zealand will also be sown out, in English grass ; but, on the other hand, they have a six months winter, when the ground is wholly covered with snow, and when there may, be said,to be no oiitside feed for cattle and sheep. So far as I can make out all that can be said of small agriculturists in Canada, the States, or in any of the Australian Colonies, Iho yield of wheat per acre, or the ret urns therefrom, will only piy the farmer fair wages for his own labor, or in some cases yield him probably 10a. to 20s per acre beyond this ; whereas in New Zealand, with a climate much more pleasant to work in than any of the others, the after allowing himself wages at the same rate as in the other colonies for self, family, and horses—viz., manual aud horse labor—would have from, £4 to £4 15s. per acre net returns, instead of 10s. to 205., as in the others. Then, after the. land is cropped; andsown out in English grass, the yield in feed for sheep is four to five times (viz , equal to 20s. per acre of yearly wool return) what it was. previousYo being broken up and laid down in English grass, instead of (in Australia at least) yielding - less returns in pasturage than it did in its natural state. You thus easily see how much better It will be for a man to pay *lO per acre—ay, even £2O per acre—for. good land in New Zealand, than £1 to £2 per acre for fair land in Australia. The cultivation of 20 acres of good land in Australia (I mean the labor and ploughing, sowing, harrowing, and reaping, threshing, carting to port, &c.). cannot be put down with safety at under close upon £3 per acre, basing my estimate upon the current rate of manual and horse labor in the several colonies. The returns from the wheat crop in these colonies will not yield ss. per acre over this sum one year with another, whereas the.= returns, from New Zealand will yield £4 in excess of this. • As before stated, I am taking the wheat all rounq., at ss. per bushel at the shipping port in the several colonies in this statement. From the foregoing it will be seen that the net return from wheat Yo tuo landowner, after paying £3 per acri> for the manual and horse labor, is fifteen times more In New Zealand than Australia and for the United States; and for Tears after the laud has been cropped in Australia, it will yield next to nothing, until the natural grass again springs up and gets a sole, when two or throe acres must go for each sheep ; whereas in*New Zealand one acre of good English grass will keep four to five merino sheep, and for three cross breeds; over the year. I daresay, when you have all the-foregoing weighed over and thought out, you will conclude with me that at no distant date good agricultural land will be selling at £lO to £ls per acre in New Zealand, according to quality and locality, and A 1 agricultural land at from £2O to £25 per acre. . The chairman’s estimate of the probabilities of the future as to the price of laud may be regarded as somewhat excessive ; biit the rapidity with which, in the Provincial District of Canterbury especially, the waste lands are being bought up, and the high prices which in all the agricultural districts in the South Island are obtainable for first-class land in small blocks, show that the profits from judicious farming are in the highest degree encouraging, and that the Public Works policy of 1870 is realising the expectations of its promoters in the rapid and healthy development of the resources of the colony.