NEW ZEALAND HARVEST.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1086, 14 September 1883, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND HARVEST.

The Colonies and India of Juno 8 contained an article on the harvest of New Zealand, from which we extract the following “ Although there is ample room for largo supplies of labour in all parts of New Zealand, and though considerable Areas of' virgin land still remain to b'6 taken up, agriculture in New Zealand has reached a high state of efficiency, which Manitoba cannot be expected to attain till her rich prairie lands have begun to exhaust themselves, as they inevitably must under the simple process of ploughing, sowing, and reaping wheat year after year, to which they will be subjected for many years to come. Unskilled but patient and regular labour is all the North-west asks for the present. The supply of capital need not bo large to enable a family to subsist and grow rich on the produce of the allotment which the country invites it to take up. The same is true, though to a lesser degree in New Zealand. No honest and willing worker, with nothing but strong arms, a clear head, and a willing heart to call his own, need fear to face a start in New Zealand any more than in Canada; but while New Zealand will welcome men of such a type, fhe position which she has made for herself is such that skilled agriculturists able to utilise judiciously a moderate amount of capital are what she particularly invites. The returns of the late harvest, brought by the last mail from New Zealand, show what sort of land this is which is thus holding out its arms to welcome the British immigrant. The latter pait of March and the greater part of April were devoted in New Zealand to

the garnering of one of the most bountiful harvests which the Colony has ever seen. Borne of the yields which have been recorded are enormous,” Specific instances are then given of various large yields. “ Such an abundant blessing will stimulate enterprise in (bo colony in every direction. New Zealand is not dependent on her wheat harvest alone. Her exports of wool amount to over 50,000,0001b per year. She is rapidly taking up the culture of the vine, of tea and silk, and other articles, both for home consumption and for export. Her exports of meat are likely to increase vastly, and the trade in frozen mutton is expected to rival in extent and value that in wool. Indeed, in the introduction of the refrigerating system, New Zealand sees the opportunity of vastly increasing her resources. Hitherto, every year, thousands of sheep have had to be boiled down for the sake of the tallow, which was all that could bo made out of them. Under the new system sheep can be killed when they are fittest for the market, and the carcases sold fresh in London as soon as the arrangements on this side for receiving them are complete. This will enable the New Zealand sheqpowners to make the most profitable use of their flocks, and will lead to an enormous increase in the number of live stock kept. The capacities of extension possessed by the Colony are enormous, although there is possibly a little exaggeration in the claims of a New Zealand paper that while in ‘ Australia a shcepowner will have one sheep to five or six acres, in Now Zealand one acre will carry five or six sheep, and there arc some cases -where eight or ten sheep are borne to the acre,’ In the fact that from its natural formation the whole country is readilj accessible to of shipment. New Zealand has an advantage possessed neither by Australia nor by its great rival the United States, and to the Antipodes we may safely look for a large proportion of our future meat supplies as well as for our imports of wheat.”