Russian Colonisation.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 178, 13 November 1886, Page 7

Russian Colonisation.

The Russian journals are publishing very seductive descriptions of the Caucaeian districts abutting on the Black Sea, with the object of inducing agricultural colonists to repair thither. The land is represented a an earthly paradise, iv which the climate excels the most favoured parts of the Riviera, the vegetation iesemi-tropical in variety and luxuriance, and the virgiu forests abound in costly timber, such as the Caucasian palm and the red mahogany, which grow to an enormous size. The valley?, and even the mountains to a considerable height, are clothed with rhododendrons und azaleas fcr the greater part of the year, the ports are never obstructed by ice, in fact there if? no winter, and autumn insensibly merges into spring. All the daintiest fruits flourieh to perfection in the orchard?, and the vine ii not only gigantic but prolific Theie is an indigenous tea-tree which will stand comparison with the Chinese plant, and hops, tobacco and cotton find a, oongonial homo in the soil. Cereals of all kinds multiply exceedingly, a grain of maize fructifying several thousand-fold. 'I ha abundance and richneB3 of the mulberry tree offer brill iant prospects to tho cultivator of the Bilkworm, and tho bee-master cannot fail to thrive where a perpetual tea^t of aromatic flowers is spread for his hives Yet this land of Cocaizore is almost destitute of in habitants, notwithstanding many attsmpl? madobytheßus&iun Govctiaieiiu during Ui o years that have elapsed eince the fall of Schamyl to attract tho tide of emigration thither. Free allotments of land at the rate of 185 acres per family have been made to rural communities, aud tractsof various >sizes up to a maximum of S 000 acres have beer. sold at themoderato price of le«a than -i rubies an acre, payable in ten annual instalments. The failure of these laudable endeavours to people and develop tho country is attiibuted to the lack of adnpcahility to change of circumstances in the Russian agricultural classes. The modes of cultivation required are very different from, and the scale of expenditure far higher at the outset, than what prevails in the plains of Russia proper. Gratuitous grants of land have also from time to time been made to Government officials throughout the Caucasus amounting to nearly 150,000 acres in the neighbourhood under mention, but from want of capital and labour few or no efforts have been made to bring them into cultivation. It is now contemplated to rescind those grants and to resume possession to the Stale of all lands whi'jh have been allowed to lie idle, and to inaugurate a new scheme of colonisation by Cossacks, who have phown themselves in their settlements — the Kuban and theTerc-k —to be the best pioneers of civilisation to he found among the subjects of the Czar. One essential political advantage expected from this project would be the disseverance of two hostile elements by planting a war like Christian race between the Musßu'man tribes of the interior and their co-religion - ieta in Turkey. The frontier they would occupy has ever 6ince its annexation betn one of the weakest points of the Russian Empire, exposed, from the nature of ic* coast line, in time of poace to the incursions of smugglers, and in the case of war or threatened hostilities to the introduction ot arras and foreign emissaries, and extremely difficult to control by means of cruiser^. Whether the Cossack, whofe admirers eav he is the best- known combination of sailor and light dragoon in the world, will also prove a good gardener, forester and farmer, and bring with him sufficient capital for the exploitation of the modern Eden depicted in the previous lines, is to approach the question from a point of view ignored perhaps by his military patrons.