Tea and Silk Farming in New Zealand.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4611, 15 October 1883, Page 2

Tea and Silk Farming in New Zealand.

[continued.] (To the Ed.tor of the * vening Star.)

Sir—Although all I have said, and much more, regarding the deteriorated quality of China tea, has again and again been dinned into the ears of all connected with the trade of that vast country, there is no improvement. When slock was recently taken in London it was found that the quantity of China tea remaining in bond was " four million " lbs. less than it was at the corresponding period of 1882. Here, then, seemed the best and most natural of all excuses for unusually high prices on the arrival of the first ship of the season. On the other hand it was knowtf" thai seven large sttamers had sailed- from Hankow with consignments amounting to twenty two million lbs on board, so it was argued by other parties that ,price 3 instead of mounting high "would immediately tumble down to zero.; That actually happened ? The Stirling Castle arrived on the 22nd June ; 4500 packages of the best of her cargo sold readily the same evening at very fair, indeed full, prices; 3000 more went by auction the following day at from Is to Is 7£d |?af Ib,

and then the markst completely shrivelled Four days thereafter the second steamer, the Gienogle, sailed up the Thames, but the prices realised for her cargo were from l|d to 2^d per lb less than the opening rates of the first arrival, attributed—not to the state of the market, to a poverty of demand, or to the depressing effect of tho large quantity on the sea, bat—solely to the disappointing quality of the present new season's tea.

Truly it is surprising that, acquainted as your Government and merchants must undoubtedly be, with facts similar to those given—for they are mere repetitions of event 3 which occur year after year— they should hesitate for a moment, no matter what difficulty may appear to block the way; about producing their own tea, and so getting rid for ever of the adulterated article, and of the reproach of encouraging fraud in the Chinese by admitting their rubbish into your ports. One of the strong reasons urged during the last fifteen years why the silk industry ought to be pursued in New Zealand, was the decay of silk farming in Europe and parts of Asia, owing to the ravages of disease. Perhaps no better illustration of what the consequent loss meant could be adduced than to quote M. Dumas, who assured the French Senate that ,in 1853 the value of the world's annual silk crop at that time was one thousand millions of francs (£39,583,333, at an exchange of 9|d), of which France alone yielded onetenth. Abo«s,l;hat period the silkworm maladies in France fairly got the upper hand, when the harvests of cocoons speedily diminished as follows : —. . In 1853 the crop amounted *$5i to 26,003.030 kilos In 1854 it had dwindled to 21,500,00 J „ 1855 „ „ 19,800,000 „ 1856 „ „* 7,5C3,CC0, „ 1863 „ „ 6,500,000 „ 1864 „ .-■ „ 6,000,00^ „ 1865, ■ „ „ 4,C00,C30 „ 1879 „ „ 3,503,030 „ and had no cure or check far the diseases been discovered, an easy exercise in arithmetic would have been shown, when, in all probability, the pursuit of sericulture in that country would have become extinct. Fortunately, ere such a crisis arrived, the distinguished French phyn-"' ologist, M. Pasteur had mastered the causes and symptoms of the three most dreaded diseases—well named the furies of silk-farming— muscardine, ftacherie, and pebrine, and was enabled to suggest remedies which are now proving effec* tual. A vast amount of crying, how* ever, had meanwhile been done, so that many years are likely to elapse ere the silk ifdustry of the world resumes its former platform of prosperity, a3 in Europe alone thousands of acres of mulberry trees had been rooted oat as unlikely to prove of farther use, and legions of skilled workpeople had gone into other employments. The ameliora* lion thus inaugurated by M, Pasteur, although not unchequered, is on the whole progressing fairly. Last year's silk crop in France and Spain, for 1 example, was more copious and beWer than that of the previous year, whilst the harresL just gathered there and i« Italy is represented as havicsc again fallen off to t*ie e.tieit of from 20 (o 25 per cent. China '..-'?.?. hitherto maintained pretty well Jier character for a steady yield of silk, but this spring she also hai partially col!aps?d. Early in the season the estimate was that 100,000 bales would be available for export, but clioratic disturbances having occurred daring April, from this cause acd disease, the actual q aautity will only be 45,003 bales. Making every allowance for error and interested ' reports, and allowing due weight to tbe ro?y influence of the good returns the silk farmers on t Tie Levant and in parts of Asia Minor have this year obtained, it is believed that the whole silk harvest of the world for 1883 will not exceed, if it equals that of last year. ,Wiat, it will be ask d, does such a state of things imply P. It certainly signifies higher prices, more outlay by manufacturers for a raw material, very little of which is as yet producel anywhere by our own country-: mep, and the profits connected with which find their way into other pockets than ours. *

Surely these are convincing reasons why the tea and silk industries ought to be immediately promoted on a terge scale in Few Zeiland, a country acknowledged on all hands to be so admirably adapted for tbeir prosecution, and wuy the Colo* nial Government should li'.arPily encourage in every possible matioe?' those who are willing to undertake the enterprise.—l am, &c, William Cochran.