The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1883. NELSON’S PROSPERITY.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1033, 11 May 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1883. NELSON’S PROSPERITY.

Nelson must be a sort of settler’s paradise just now, if we can believe half that we hear about the prosperity of the place. No doubt business was always tolerably sound in “ Sleepy Hollow” sleepy no longer—but .lately it has been brisk, and everybody seems in a contented and hopeful frame of mind. This happy state of things has been brought about principally by bops. To read the .glowing, account forwarded by the correspondent of the Industrial Gazette is enough to make one’s mouth water and wish that the Nelson hop gardens could be transplanted here.-or that some Geni would be good enough to put Patea in his pocket, fly away with it and drop it in the centre of the new Arcadia. Let us give an extract or two from the Gazette :—" Public attention has been directed tp Nelson during the past few months, by-; the extraordinary, success of the 1882-3 hop season. No previous season has been anything like so remunerative to the growers, the yield having been the most abundant on record, and the price, principally owing to the failure of the English crop last season, alike exceptional. This-year it is estimated that the value of the hop crop to the growers is somewhere about: £-75,000, of which fully £40,000 has gone into . the MoUieka and Riwaka districts. The influx of this money, as might be expected, has exercised an important influence upon the condition of the country’ settlers, who are at present in. more affluent circumstances than they have ever been before.” Of course with such an unusual .abundance of money, there is bound to be a disturbance in the business world, and it has taken a very novel form indeed. The lawyers,; usually so childlike and bland, have lifted up their voices and wept. They are actually complaining, complaining of the general movement in the direction of paying off mortgages. Was ever such audacity shown by clients before ? The next thing we shall hear of will be a rebellion... “,Too -much prosperity, or the Nelson hop episode” would form a nice title for ah interesting story about the rise of hops, and the decline of law. Special prominence should be given to that; part where the legal fraternity, finding there aiA no more mortgages to pay off, burn their books, shy their wigs into the harbour and commence to learn the business of Hop-picking.' We leave it to the imagination of onr readers-to work up. As might be expected;the Banks are in high glee—they usually are when people have money to lend them. Branches are being opened in country districts to take care of the settlers’ recently acquired wealth, and in town thenumber of new deposit accounts is said to be something astonishing. Happy banks ; would that we could write the same about our own local branches. They, poor things, are struggling to make two and two into five, and if in their endeavours the cord is drawn rather tight sometimes they ought to be condoled instead of abused. But to turn once more to the pleasant picture of the Nelson hop gardens. We read that one settler put down three acres, which brought him £6OO, £250 profit; another got £B2O for acres ;; another £I4OO from three acres, A ! similar area yielded ’£l7oo to a settler at Takaka, and at Brooklaml Yclley the product of dj acres realised £2OOO. These few examples show that the hop industryr is a remarkably, profitable one,and well worth the consideration of farmers. There, is no need -to go too largely into its cultivation, a small patch of an acre or two would be enough at any rate to commence with. The settlers at Normanby have already given some consideration to the matter and we hope that they yvill not allow it to drop. We .believe that it would be a good thing if farmers clubbed together and either sent one of their number over to Nelson to get an insight into the method of cultivation, or else obtained the services of a thoroughly competent grower who could visit the farms of the subscribers and impart instruction. With the visions of the wealth pouring into Nelson district in such profusion we cannot but hope that we may yet share a similar experience. Soil and climate are, we think, suited to the hop industry, but this would have to be thoroughly enquired into before , any= outlay was incurred. The expense of preparing a field of hops is great, but the return is magnificent.