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Southland Times, Issue 921, 23 March 1868, Page 9

In a recent issue it will be remembered that the attention of agriculturists was directed to the cultivation of barley for malting purposes, and the probability of a ready and remunerative market for its sale. Since the article was written application has been made at the Provincial Treasury for payment of the premium set aside at the last session of the Provincial Council, for the production of a certain quantity of malt from barley ground in the province. The application has been supported by evidence and the vouchers which the claimants of the premium are able to supply, leave no doubt but that had the quantity required to secure the bonus been double that at which it was fixed, the present applicants would have been able to make good their claim. The result of enquiries in the Eiverton District, in which district only has much attention been paid to the matter, gives over two hundred acres of barley cultivation. The quantity of barley grown fit for — and which will most probably be taken for — malting purposes may be reckoned at 2000 bushels. Eeference to the price now paid for English malt and that at which provincial malt of good quality can be obtained leads to the conclusion that although we are ordinarily very sore on the subject of taxation, and chafe excessively at the bare mention of a direct impost, yet, voluntarily, we tax ourselves to a much heavier amount. By refusing to avail ourselves of that which we are able to produce within our own borders we doubly diminish our means and yet fail to notice it unless attention is specially directed to it. At present the price .of English malt in Invercargill is twelve shillings and six pence per bushel, while provincial malt of a quality from which ale equal to the best ales imported may be brewed is offered at nine shillings. The present consumption of malt in Invercargill alone may be taken roughly at 100 bushels per week. Even at this estimate the loss by the use of an imported article is seen to be very considerable; but we may fairly assume that the demand for provincial ales would rapidly increase if, with the materially diminished cost of production, abetter article were furnished at the price now charged. With our limited population, however, it is not so much in the matter of home consumption that the benefit appears, as in the production of an article of export. Eecently a small shipment of malt to the West Coast was made by a firm near Eiverton. It was readily taken up on its arrival, and netted, after deducting expenses, a small margin of profit on the price for which it could have been sold here. Had the quantity offered been three or Tour times as large it would have been as readily disposed of, and at the same rate. Erom the neighboring colonies, and even from Tasmania — generally understood to be favorably circumstanced for the production of most kinda of grain — we have applications for malt, or, failing that, for barley for malting, and the inducement held out to us of a ready market for large quantities. With, however, a market such as that at the West Coast — close to our own doors — we need not go far for a field in search of customers. Under a very largely increased breadth of cultivation, and with much extended appliances for manufacture, all that we are able to export thither for a long time to come will find ready sale. The success which has attended the operations of the first malting establishment in the Province has induced a spirit of competition in the district and projected the laying down of a new floor, and during the next malting season every bushel of barley suitable for malting purposes within the district will be so applied. The experiment (if it can be called one) is one about which no apprehension need be felt

as to the result, and it is much to be desired that the principle were applied to other branches of industry in- .which the same reasonable prospect of success exists. It is undoubtedly the duty of manufacturers, but more especially of consumers, to encourage and promote the growth and production within ourselves of that which can be produced as well as, and more cheaply than, elsewhere. The lessons of free trade and political economy show the folly as well as the loss resulting from the contrary course. By it we drain ourselves of our resources, and by diminishing our capital lessen our capabilities of production and the probability of our recovery.