TEA CULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 998, 12 November 1881, Page 2

TEA CULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

["From the Pastoral and Agricultural News']. Considerable discussion is going on in the Auckland district over the question of the feasibility of growing tea in the northern parts of the Colony. A gentleman has recently supplied many of the settlers with tea seed, and we hear that action is being taken to put the question to practical tests. From a paper supplied to the Auckland Weekly News on this subject we quote the following : —Both the wellmarked and the minor advantages of successful tea-raising are we think offered of the interior of Otago and that of all the beautiful province of Auckland by New Zealand. If we institute inquiries, it will be found that the climate closely resembles that of the tea and silk districts of China ; that the thermometer indicates from ninety to a hundred degrees of Farenheit nearly every summer; that as high as one hundred aud ten degrees have been noted at A lexandra, on the Molyneux River ; that the mulberry, ailanthus, and castor-oil plant grow luxuriantly, particularly in Auckland; and that the experience of tea and silk farmers in other parts of the world has led to the oriental apothegm, that “ wherever the mulberry grows in profusion, there nature indicates a suitable spot for tea.” These enquiries would also ascertain that throughout the latter province snow is seldom seen, except upon the mountain tops ; that even slight frosts are necessarily a rarity in a land where the forests are evergreen, and semi-tropical fruits grow with lavish prodigality in the open air ; that moderate and vivifying showers to the extent of forty-seven inches fall during about a hundred and eighty-six days of the year ; that the mean of the coldest month is fifty-one degrees, and that of the warmest sixtyeight degrees ; that the grape vine and olive may in some districts be seen intermingled with the ordinary fences ; and that the hot, blasting winds and sandstorms of Asia and Australia, so inimical to tea and mulberry culture, and so deadly to the silk-worm, are unknown. Such, are the natural attractions and advantages which invite the tea and silk farmer to New Zealand.