OUR PROSPECTS.

Southland Times, Issue 1170, 24 November 1869, Page 3

OUR PROSPECTS.

(Southland Times, Nov. 8.)

The old saying, " when things are at their worst, they must begin to mend," is one with which the people of Southland are only too familiar. During the past few years they have been adducing it in suppDrt of their liugering faith in future greatness with such frequency that its iteration has almost become a habit of nature. The phrase, however, like most of its class, is disfigured by one tantalising defect, in sa far as it leaves the precise moment at which the worst is reached as much a moot-point as ever. In our own case, so often have hopes been expressed that we had passed the critical period, and begun once more an era of progress, and so repeatedly have those anticipations been falsified by subsequent events, that we have to a great extent lost confidence in ourselves, and become disposed to doubt the most tangible evidences of returning prosperity. It is, therefore, hazardous to allude to indications of the advent of better times, or to affirm that the tide of our affairs has turned, but even at the risk of being considered visionary, we venture the opinion that the depth of our depression has been fathomed, and that, with j udicious management now, the province is in a fair way of emerging from its difficulties. Notwithstanding all that has been said and written of a depreciatory nature, and despite the most prejudiced preconceptions of our position, uninistakeable signs of revival exist in our midst, and are gradually increasing. Apart from the question as to whether the Oreti Railway is a prudent undertaking or otherwise, the fact remains that a public work of that magnitude, equalled by none in the colony, is being vigorously prosecuted. Next, there is the certainty of the immediate erection of a meatpreserving and boiling-down establishment at Long Bush, with the probability of another at Winton, which, although only determined upon the other day, has already resulted in the calling for tenders for the completion of several miles of the East road. Again, there is the confirmed improvement in the prospects of our wool-growers. Next there is the commendable energy and enterprise lately displayed in connection with prospecting, and lastly there is the rapid growth of a new industry — the manufacture of flax — which bids fair soon to reach considerable dimensions. Although an enterprise not yet advanced beyond the stage of experiment, and consequently encompassed with many deterring considerations, it has attracted throughout the colony during the last twelvemonths probably more attention, and made greater progress, than any other branch of commerce. For many years the excellence of the native flax as a material for fibrous manufactures had been acknowledged, but the difficulties encountered in the very first processes of its manufacture were so serious as to make it doubtful whether it ever could be profitably utilised. The trade therein was therefore long confined to the very limited operations of the Maoris, by whom a few bales, prepared by the tedious method of scraping with a pipi shell, were annually brought in to the Northern seaports. Meantime, however, science and ingenuity were patiently at work, searching for the means whereby an almost exhaustless s upply of superior raw material might be made at once available for the use of man, and a source of wealth to the country in which it was so abundant. Perseverance has, as usual, at last met with its merited reward. The problem has been so far satisfactorily solved, that capital and skill are being largely invested in the enterprise, the commodity has acquired a status in home markets, and its local production has been made a source of profit to the colonists. Since the project received a fresh impetus, some eight years ago, when Mr M' Millar and Messrs Pttbchase and Nijtas patented their inventions, improvements in the , machinery employed, and in the manner of I treating the fibre, have followed quickly upon each other, and mills are now actively employed in every province. In our own, there are at least five or six, either actually at work or in course of erection, and we hear of others as likely to be started. When it is remembered that each mill runs, on an average, two machines, that each machine turns out some thirty cwt. of fibre per week, and that there is scarcely a limit either to the source of supply, or the modes of consumption, it will be seen that the trade possesses an expansive elasticity which must shortly extend it to wide dimensions. Why it should not develope itself as rapidly in Southland as elsewhere, or even" more speedily, considering our means of internal communication, there can be no reason ; and no doubt when the experiments now in hand have been fully tested, others will be induced to commence a pursuit in which there is ample room for all. The establishment of such industries as those we have alluded to, are healthy signs, and do more to restore confidence— the indispensable pre-requisite to success— than either elaborate political theories, or the | most vaunted party panacea.