South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2138, 28 January 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28, 1880.

We are unable to quite agree with the views expressed by Mr J. 0. licit!, whose letter, in reference to the Liu colnshire Fanners’ delegates, appears in another column. Mr Bcid is perfectly right in stating that we called attention some time ago to the desirability of according these gentlemen a suitable reception, and placing every possible facility at their disposal, for obtaining the information which the farmers of England require. But our correspondent jumps at a hasty and ill-drawn conclusion when he assumes that there is any desire to mislead or deceive the delegates in question, by shewing them the results of an exceptionally fine harvest, and assuring them that the splendid crops that cover the district are a fair average. We understand that Messrs Foster and Grant arc practical fanners, and it would be anything but complimentary to their technical skill and large experience in agricultural matters to assume they are capable of being humbugged in the way suggested. If they have made a fair use of their observational faculties, they must have been aware long before this, that the present season is an unusual one, and that so far from having the average returns of the soil and climate presented to them, they are simply afforded an opportunity of witnessing what the land and sunshine of Now Zealand can do when meteorological influences arc favorable. We are aware of no desire on the part of the press or any jmrtion of the community to practise the slightest deception on the gentlemen who are now making a tour of the agricultural districts. If they are capable of being deluded by the fair appearances of things and of turning a credulous ear to the exaggerated tales of crops and rapid fortunes from farming which interested colonists may whisper, no good object can thereby be attained. The delegates, we believe, will exercise, freely, both their eyesight and reflective powers, and they will see and judge for themselves quite independently of the advice and assurances of land jobbers and others.

Our experience of other parts of the world teaches us that there should be no necessity whatever for imparting a roseate tinge to this part of New Zealand in order to make a favorable impression on the agricultural expert. The climate is wonderfully adapted to the constitution of the transplanted Britisher. The facility with which the birds, beasts, and tisbes of the British Isles arc accilimatised in Canterbury affords conclusive evidence of this singular adaptation. In the warm latitudes of the North Island and Australia, there is a danger of deterioration,but here there is none. The British farmer who migrates hither can rest tolerably well assured that the generations that will follow him will be no disgrace to the stock from which they have descended. As regards soil and climate this portion of New Zealand will bear comparison with the most favored spots in the southern hemisphere. True, the seasons are variable, but as a rule they arc mild and agreeable. The average crops are frequently double and treble the crops of Victoria, New South Wales, and the other colonies of the Australian Continent. Occasionally the ripening grain may he slightly damaged by heavy winds or rain, hut it never runs the risk of being thrashed by hot winds as in Australia. In the grain growing districts of Victoria 18

to lb bushels of wheat to the acre is reckoned a tolerably good crop ; bore the farmers grumble if they have not a yield of 50 to GO. These farmers’ delegates have only to see and judge for themselves, and they will be able, we think, to form comparisons highly favorable to South Canterbury. If the crops of the district happen to look unusually pleasing, Mr Reid must blame the favorable season and not the press nr the land jobbers. These fluttering appearances are due to causes over which we

have no control. If they should be the means of inducing- an influx of British farmers of the stamp that this part of the colony wants, men who have plenty of caution, fortitude and patience, who will never invest beyond their means, and who would no more think of dealing- in paper currency and signing liens and mortgages than they would of committing suicide, South Canterbury will have no reason to regret the result.