The Standard AND PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 300, 21 August 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1875.

“ W« .hall sell to no man justice or right: M e shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

It is now nearly a year since we addressed ourselves to the subject of the formation of an Agricultural and Pastoral Society in Poverty Bay; and it gives us unfeigned pleasure in having to chronicle the fact that another effort is about being made, we trust with renewed vigor and spirit, to do that which twelve months ago proved a failure. It will be seen by a reference to our advertising columns that a meeting is to take placeatthe Makarakahotelon Tuesday next, to take decisive steps towards the above object, which, should the Fates be propitious to the cause, ought to be attended by all country settlers who may be supposed to have an interest in its success.

We do not hold with some that the formation of an Agricultural and Pastoral Society in this district, is prematnre. Of course, everything, including our most successful undertakings, might be considered to be premature, if, as is the unreasonable expectation of some, no beginning is to be made until the end is in view. The A. B. C. of an alphabet which may yet prove of great value on which to build a geoponic superstructure must be learnt, and well understood, if we are to form it into a language. To say that Rome was not builded in a day, is no less a truism than to expect to f oun d a fl o u r i sb - ing Agricultural and Pastoral Society in this or any other district, without taking the means to accomplish that end, is a fallacy it would be no more unreasonable to find a builder insanely conjuring his brains, and wasting his time seeking after the impossible by endeavouring to erect the upper stories of his structure before he laid the foundation thereof, than it would be to postpone the consideration of the project now under review, because that success is not now attainable, which years and unwearied exertion, and enlightened emulation alone can secure.

The sustentation of our argument by analogy is an easy task, but we conceive there is little more required than the operation of a sound judgment guided by common sense. There are cognate subjects which an Agricultural and Pastoral Society would be able to consider which must operate to the advantage of every settler in the Bay. Amongst these are the growing of grain crops and the rearing of farm stock and dairy produce. There cannot be a doubt existing in the minds of those who have paid the least attention to the subject, that the future prosperity of Poverty Bay will depend upon the present industry andenergy of its yeomanfarmer population. Sheep farming has got its footing, but these others are of primary importance. The district is eminently adapted for the purpose, and if the land is to be made to yield its choicest fruits, the time and opportunity are now at hand to sow the seed from which they are to spring. The subject of cerial growing is one which admits, we allow, of much controversy, but good must follow an intelligent, and dispassionate argument based on experience. It is a seandal to us in being contented to subsist year by year on imported articles, at extravagantly high prices. Take bacon at 16d a pound ; butter at 2s 3d and 2s Gd ; eggs, as scarce as sovereigns, at 3s 6d a dozen, milk at 5d and 6d a quart, and most other articles at a proportionably high figure. Besides bacon, we import oats from Canterbury to sell at 7s a bushel, and cheese at any price it will bring ; hay from Australia at £l2 a ton, indifferent salt butter from Wellington at Is Gd per pound, while our stocks of potatoes always give out, which we are luckv to get supplied at anything under £2O a ton. Therefore, we trust, without enlarging on selfevident facts, that the embryo Society will have the encouragement it most decidedly merits.