MORE SLANDERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 20 November 1880, Page 2

MORE SLANDERS.

(FIIOM THE OTAiiO DAILV TJM HOME

i OOIUtKiU'ON' DIiNT.) A very damaging lector " from a Dm>edin correspondent" appeared in the .North British Agriculturist for September 22nd. This correspondent attacks Kow Zealand emigration agents in general, and 1 Judge Bathgate in particular, for having lied about New Zealand in the Old Country. According to him " the \v<ire« house in Dunedin are choked up with unsaleable bad harvested grain. Ono agent, who was obliged to make room, sold some by auction, and oats were sold at from 8d per bushel of 401bs ; wheat, ;it from Is per bushel of 001b ; and bailey, at from 0d per bushel of 501b. . * < So that the farmers, though tlioy h"' fc' o '- the grain in a present in tho stcks in cases, would not hayo pocketed a prolit. What good wheat js to be got is selling very readily, from the fact of such being scarce, up to 3s 9d per bushel. I havo heard of very much higher returns from single fields in the Old Country than 1 have ever seen reported here. , . • • And I believe that the average prices realised this year will not be more than lOd for oats, 2s for barley, and 2s 9d for wheat. I see Judge Bathgato says Zealand and its resources are not rightly apprehended in Britain. In this case I can quite endorse his remarks —thanks to New Zealand emigration agents such as Judge Bathgate, and it is only on landing here that they apprehend how they have been duped. ... At tho present moment agriculture here is in almost as depressed a state as with you, and with less ohanoe of a reaotion, seeing wo are dependent on the Home market for an ! outlet for our surplus, the expenses » Q which are very heavy." To this letter a rejoinder appeared on the following week (Septombor 29th)> signed " Samuel Grant," one of the L' n " colnshire delegates. Mr. Grant says. " I think I am as capable of judging the quality and quantity of a crop of ao? >n your Punedin correspondent, and I u "" hesitatingly say that I suv some crops) Canterbury and Otago better than any ever saw in Eugland, WhenwewerepaS9i n » through Canterbury Plains the fields "CP beautifully white unto harvest, and tl. J wore being rapidly cut and carted. ' aur return from Southland nearly eve / sheaf wa3 gathered, and where y°. correspondent's badly-harvosted g l

be found I cannot say. I believe *"% of the farmers did not give the corn ttf-gat time to harden in the atook, and '"'heat was in some instances threshed *irlr which would render it unfit for * ; n i to England ; bnt that was the Wf- o |j of the Colony, or of the cli- ' f but of the farmers, who did not the work. I cannot but note 3D ' "discrepancy of yonr correspondent's in th® former part of bis letter hiijh price of labor, and in the c part to the starvation point to tlw laborer is brought, as no work '"be had at any price. His quotations ?''j l 0 price of grain are also incorrect. J was in Canterbury. Mr. Grk'g, of (beach r had sold 50,000 bushels of a t 44 lid per bushel, and 20,000 of .'"ty. at 7l- A letter now lies before f tom , Mr." J. Gould, in Christchnrch, he states that they had averaged jjLjghela of wheat and 45 of barley per * ott their Ashburton estate, and had *ll the former at 4s, and the latter at " 'till pgr bushel. He further states that fur have no reason to complain of this Sj crop, as it has left them a net profit u 13 per acre—not so bad in these " ;„oustinie3onafarmof 10,000 acres. . . . to met with a great number of farmers v oltt W e knew who had gone from this f 'fs and also from Scotland. Almost all pressed th3tnselve3 a3 thoroughly satisfy with. their farm 3, and also with the Colony- Many had grown rich in a few 0 and had surrounded themselves the comforts and luxries of an Engrt home. . . - There are abundant -ortimuies at the present time for any In of industry and perseverance to do je |[ by obtaining a farm at very reasonjjjlg terms, and he can safely calculate a large percentage of profit on his OUtiay.