PROTECTION TO, AND PROFITS OF, AGRICULTURE IN AUSTRALIA.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 241, 10 February 1860, Page 3

PROTECTION TO, AND PROFITS OF, AGRICULTURE IN AUSTRALIA.

We [Lyttelton Times,) have received from a correspondent the following letter, which contains an inquiry of much practical interest, and therefore deserves attention:

To the Editor of the Economist,

Sir, —It would be interesting, I have no doubt, to many of your readers, as well as to myself, were you to notice an article in Frazer's (September) Magazine "On the Effect of the Gold Discoveries on Australia itself A or at least notice the subject. I have a relative intending to emigrate there or to New Zealand, taking out a few thousand pounds with him; and its strikes me that the arguments of this writer are sound,, viz., that the application of capital in agricultural, pastoral, and other pursuits must not be expected to be steadily remunerative as long as the gold-diggings maintain their present position*; that in point o'fTact Australia imports a large portion of its corn, butter, and timber from Europe or other countries, where it can be produced at ,a cheaper rate, because the wages of labor are much lower; and that this state of things cannot alter while the gold-diggings average 10s. a day. The outcry for more emigrants, re-echoed in every colonial newspaper, shows how severely this disadvantage is felt. But neither is this a very enlightened cry, because if emigration was much greater than is likely, or even I may say possible, while other quarters of the globe also offer so many attractions, the profitable gold-diggings would draft off the laborers from the lands and the flocks, and leave the capitalist much in the same position as he was before.

Now, do you agree with this writer in his conclusions ? There have been two or three able articles in the Economist on the effect of tbe gold discoveries on the world at large, with regard to the great question of depreciation or non-depreciation of prices, but not one, I believe, on the effects upon Australia itself, and upon capitalists settling there.—l am, Sir, yours faithfully, H. M, Manchester.

Our correspondent fears that the agriculture of our gold-producing colonies will be injuriously affected by the high money wages which have been paid there since the discovery of gold, and he does not seem to stand alone in his appfehensions. The most recent intelligence from those colonies affords a singular comment upon them. A cry—not, we are glad to say, a very strong cry—has been raised for a protection to domestic industr)*-, and especially to domestic agriculture. Public meetings have been held both in New South Wales and in Victoria; and we have now lying before us a newspaper published in the latter colony, which is by no means ill-written, and which decidedly repudiates the " crude system" of free trade. The demand for legislative encouragement is based, as usual, on the ground that agriculture is not without it very profitable.

The gold colonies are, in fact, in a very exceptional position. In general, new communities which have at their command a virgin soil raise their own food; and where the soil is reasonably productive they export food for the subsistence of older and more densely-peopled countries. They in that manner purchase comforts and luxuries which they could not otherwise enjoy. But Australia and California are circumstanced differently. It does not pay them to produce corn for exportation; they have a most wonderful facility in producing gold, which all the world wants, which they export to older countries, and by means of which they obtain such an abundance of luxuries as no colonies ever before had. It is more profitable to the colony to produce gold than it is to produce corn. The general interest of the world requires that the peculiar facilities of this community should be employed; and even if it were not so, that community will, with the instinct of self-interest, select the pursuits in which they have such facilities in preference to all others. Even, therefore, if the agriculture of Australia and California had not increased, or even if it had diminished since the discovery of gold in them, we should have seen no reason to regret the fact as far as these countries are themselves concerned. They have means of producing another commodity, and were right in using those means as far as it was possible.

The fact however is, that the agriculture of these countries has of late rapidly progressed. We find from an official document printed by order of the Governor at Melbourne:—

"Since the year 1854 the progress of agriculture has been much greater than that of the population. The increase in 1857 as compared with 1854 was more than 400 per cent, while the increase in the number of inhabitants, according to the censuses of those years, was 73 per cent. If agriculture continues to progress in this ratio, the country will not merely supply its own wants, but produce a larger quantity in excess." The same return gives the following table :— 1852. 1853. Total number of acres cultivated 57,298 .. 237,720 Acres under wheat ~ .; .. 29,623 .. 87,230 Acres under barley 1,327 ... 5.407 Acres under oats 6,426 ~ 40,118 Acres under potatoes .. .. 2,375 .. 20,693 Other Crop?—acre's .. .... 17,547"... 84,281 In California, the progress of agriculture is even more remarkable. In spite of the enormous increase in her population—the growth, in fact, of a numerous, highlypaid, and highly fed community—she ex- | ports food.

The explanation of this remarkable progress is given by another of the same series of returns. Both Victoria and California are not only rich beyond example in mineral wealth, but their soil likewise is of the greatest natural fertility. Although, therefore, they have an enormous inducement to produce gold, they have a still greater inducement on the most fertile parts of their beneficent soil, to cultivate corn. The facts are these:—lt appears that in the newly-peopled States of America, about twelve or thirteen bushels of wheat are considered to be a very fair, and rather more than an average yield for land per acre. How much that of the two gold-producing regions exceeds this, and also how much, it exceeds that of one or two other countries which are not barren, is evident from the following table :— Bushels per acre. Contents. Wheat Barley. Oats Victoria, average of the year 1855-6-7 . . . 231 .. 30.3 .. 29-3 Tasmanian, 1850 . .. . 16-5 .. 24-2 .. 237 South Australia, 1857 . 12-0 .. 22-0 .. 250 New South Wales, average of 3 years .... 154 .. 16-7 .. 16.7 State of New York . . M-O .. 16-0 .. 260 State of California, 1855 . 20-0 .. 31-5 .. 2Q-2 It seems rather hard that South Australia, which produces no gold, should be under so great .a disadvantage likewise as respects agricultural fertility. Such is evidently, however, the case. The gold-pro-ducing parts of Australia, and likewise California, are in a position to resist the extreme temptation which we mentioned, to forego all other pursuits for that of gold production. In one at least there is a prospect even more tempting. This view of the actual facts gives an easy answer both to the Protectionists of the colonies and to our correspondents. It would not be surprising, if so rapid a progress as that which we have indicated may have for a moment gone further than was desirable, though we do not know that it has done so. The most singlar natural advantages may be pressed too far. It may be, that a temporary check to an overquick progress is the explanation of the alleged depression in Australian Agriculture. Rut this only shows with greater clearness the absurdity of asking legislative protection for the cultivation of such soils with such a market as that of the goldproducers so near to them. If these natural advantages will not induce people cultivate the soil, legislative inducements would probably be ineffectual as well as undesirable.

The difficulty suggested by our correspondent is also, by the aid of the facts, to be seen in its true light. It is quite true that the discovery of gold has raised wages in the colony, and has not raised them in Europe. It is quite true that for a long time the value of labor in Australia is likely to be considerably greater than in most other countries. This is the certain and necessary consequence of such events as the gold discoveries. They increase the price of commodities, and they augment the cost of home production, and therefore they act as a premium on importation. The able writer in Fraser is quite correct in insisting that the gold discoveries by giving a singular bounty to one pursuit, operated to that extent as a discouragement to other pursuits. But experience proves that the natural advantages of agriculture are so great as to enable it, nevertheless, to maintain for some years, a rate of progress that is certainly very remarkable, and is nearly unexampled.*—Economist.

* We recommend those of our readers who are interested in the subject to read the essay in the September number of Fraser's Magazine above alluded to, as it is very careful, lucid, and instructive.

Colonial Governors.—There are few subjects upon which colonists ought to be more jealous than the interference, without cause, with 'their Governors by the Home Government. In proof of which I need but shortly refer to the Cape of Good Hope. Few men have been more successful in colonial government than Sir George Grey. In South Australia and in New Zealand he exhibited administrative ability in the highest degree, at the latter place, during somewhat troublous times. After having served his time in those places, he returned to England. In 1854, at the time when the condition of the Cape required the appointment of a skilful Governor, he was selected. Arrived there, he so exerted himself as to produce a rapid improvement. Not only did. his intestine wars cease, but he also managed to produce comparative harmony amongst its mixed population. Everything; went on smoothly until the death," in 1856, of the Auditor-General of the Cape. To fill the vacancy thus caused, Lord Derby despatched a gentleman, whose only qualification appeared to be that he was a cousin of the noble Earl's. This not appearing a sufficient one to Sir George Grey, he protested rather strongly to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. This was not pleasing to the Home Government, who did not relish this show of independence on the part of the Governor. Sir Bulwer Lytton thought it necessary to show his authority prior to giving up the seals of office, which he then foresaw would not be in his possession long. Sir George Grey had now but a few months of his term to run when he might have been replaced without remark, but the author of "Pelham," with a little mindedness thoroughly contemptible/ recalled him. When it became known at the Cape that they were to lose their respected Governor, public indignation was .aroused* meetings were held, addresses adopted, and such other means taken as, though insufficient to prevent his leaving temporarily, will be the means of his soon returning, if so inclined. Immediately on the receipt of the addresses from the Cape, which came home in the same ship' with the ex-Governor, the Duke of Newcastle (the present Colonial Secretary, who was a leading member of the Aberdeen Government, was sacrificed through the popular

indignation at the mismanagement exhibited during the early part of the Crimean war, but who has since been exonerated), in the most handsome manner offered to reinstate Sir George. Up to the present time his decision has not been announced, but it is to be hoped, for the sake of the Cape, that he will consent to return, and teach all future Colonial Secretaries that they cannot recall a popular governor because he will not acquiesce silently in their jobbery.

The Wheat Crop of 1859 w California.—What disposition shall be made ofthe superabundant wheat crop of California the present year is becoming quite a serious question with the merchant, as well as the farmer. How we are to dispose ofthe large surplus advantageously, or how indeed at all, is a problem the solution of which is beset with much difficulty, but which solution is daily becoming desirable. Thus early in the season, notwithstanding a strenuous export effort, our receipts have vastly accumulated, and what further we are to expect in the way of supplies before the termination ofthe present crop year, is but too plainly shadowed forth in the accounts .which constantly, reach us of storehouses filled to repletion throughout the wheatgrowing; districts, "Never. befor6."::was':'-a-State blest or afflicted as the case maybe with such abundance, and at a time, too, when bountiful crops have also been realised in most other important sections of the civilised world. Some idea may be formed of the yield of the last harvest in this State from an inspection of our weekly tables of the receipts of cereals in this city for corresponding periods of the last three years. From these data it appears that from July Ist to October Bth of the. present year the receipts of wheat almost equalled those of the entire harvest year preceding; and exceeding those of the entire year 1857-58 by nearly 170,000 sacks.— San Francisco Mercantile Gazette.

Frightful Calamity at St. Petersburg.—According to St. Petersburg journals, 15 or 16 persons were drowned on the occasion of the illuminations in honor of the majority of the herditary Grand Duke, off a parapet of what is called the Police Bridge, over the Canal de la Molka, in that city. As many as 80 persons—men, women, nd children—were precipitated into the canal, and a large number of them would, it is said, have perished, had not three Frenchmen made extraordinary efforts to save them. The scene of confusion on the bridge when the parapet gave way was frightful, everybody of the large crowd on it struggling to escape. In the course of the same evening another incident occurred; a large cornicestone of granite fell from one of the angles of the Stogonoff Palace at the moment a crowd was collected in front of the edifice, and several persons crushed to death, others«grievously injured. ■.■•'.

. , Boots.—" Boots ?"—There is something to my thinking particular imposing in that simple monosyliable. It conveys to mind an : idea of solidity, strength, swiftness, power of endurance, personal capability; it images all the energetic and active properties of our nature. The man walks not on two legs who has forgotten the joy and pride with which he put on his first pair of boots. Hats and gloves are temporary adornments; other articles of clothing depend, more or less on the skill of the tailor —the boots depend upon themselves—selfreliant—they stand alone. What^a wretched slipshod creature a human being is without boots; In that forlorn condition he can undertake nothing; all enterprise is impossible; he is without motion; a thing fit only to have his toes trodden on. But, if the thought flashes through his brains that he must be up and doing, what are the first words that rush to his lips? "My boots?'' Nothing else could express the fixedness of his new born purpose. Suppose he called for his horses or his arms, what sort of a figure having them only, would be cut without his boots? He could not ride a furlong, or hold his ground against his foe a single inch. Bufc give him time enough to draw on his " boots," and a newf man starts at°once into existence ready for anything. You have only to say, in language that savours rather of blank verse, or the Elizabethan period, that an effort is bootless, and the folly attempting any adventure without boots becomes at once apparent. — Household Words. Increased Circulation op the Bible.—A correspondent of a journal in Edinburgh writes as follows:—Having seen the statistics of crime rc•ported in the Northern .Whig, and perverted in 'conformity with the anti-religious instincts and infidel leanings of thafc paper, to the prejudice of the great revival work in the north of Ireland, I went to the Depository of the Edinburgh Bible Society, to know what effect the revival had upon the circulation of the Word of God in Ulster, and fdund that from that one source alone the increase is as follows:— 1858. June 1482 copies. 1859. June 2575 „ July 1673 ;, „ July 6133 „ August...l9o3 „ „ August...s4Bs „ Sept 1171 „ 5 , 5ept.......5448 5829 19,641 showing an increase on the last four months of no less than 14,312 copies of the Word of God. A Marvellous Story.—As a party of workmen were resting some days back during their dinner hour on the banks ofthe Rhone, near Lyons, a large ant crept into the ear of one of them. To the amazement of his comrades, the man started up, and ran away as if mad, paying no attention to their shouts. He was soon seen to fall and roll -iboufc in paroxysms of pain. His companions .arried him home, and a medical man was sent for, bled him, hut apparently without affording Mm any relief, for he again escaped, and ran into the fields.. He was in consequence removed to a lunatic asylum to be taken care of. All attempts to get the insect out of his ear have hitherto proved fruitless. I Another fact for the Whig.—-At the Ci'umljn licensing sessions, held this week, no fewer tjian ten publicans declined to seek renewals, for the express reason that their trade had become so ijuich reduced, on account ofthe revival movement, that they could no longer follow it profitably. Six cithers applied for and obtained renewals solely in order to obtain time to dispose of their remaining stock, with a view to giving up what they have reason to regard as, in that district at least, the, jumed trade of a publican, '■>'