The Westport Times. AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1872

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 911, 9 January 1872, Page 2

The Westport Times. AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1872

No better proof of the industry and perseverance which animate British colonists can be found thau the trade which they have established during the last twenty years. From £63,000,000 in 1850, the total value of the trade i between Great Britain and her liumej roua colonies advanced to £280,000,000 in ISG6 ; and since then its progress ■ has continued unabated ; new countries have been taken up, and their resources developed ; and although at the outset these new channels of industry have not been always productive, yet, perseverance has overcome obstacles, and trade has gone on augmenting in value. The above figures include India in the estimate, and leaving out that empire, we find that what may be regarded strictly as the colonial trade of Great Britain has advanced from £31,000,000 in 1850 to £157,000,000 in 1860. This is the result exclusively of tho efforts and enterprise of colonists in Australia, Cajiada, South Africa, aud the Indian Islands. On this subject an interesting paper was read at a meeting of the Society of Arts. In the words of the writer, the figures " tell of mining enterprise deep in the bowels of the earth, employing hundreds of thousands of hands, representing millious of capital expended in labour aud machinery, and producing results which seem almost fabulous; of ploughs set to work in remote bush lands of Australia, upou distant uplands in Africa, amongst the pine forests of the Canadas ; of flocks and herds spreading over the new pastures of unpeopled lands ; of homesteads springing up in regions where barbarism lias lorded, aud where nature alone has reigned; of multiplying mills, out-branching railways, and thickeuing traffic in and through countries which but yesterday I were untrodden solitudes." To colonists these figures tell also a further tale of privations endured ; of sacrifices undergone, of disappointments borne—a tale of struggle with stubborn difficulties ; of battle with iguorance, enterprise, and novelty; of contention with nature's baffling forces encountered under unfamiliar conditions. If we except the single item of gold, in no colony has any one export been established without a measure of failure or loss on tho part of its first promoters, such as can only be understood by persons who have passed through such au ordeal. In the early days of all new settlements agriculture is entirely experimental, and industry is often fruitless. Before a body of colonists can feel confident of what the country of their choice is capable, and how its resources can be most profitably developed, they have to pass through a wearisome probation of trial and of failure. Nothing can be truer of tho New Zealand flax trade. Want of knowledge in preparing the fibre for export, and the prejudice attending its introduction into the home market alike contributed to the unsatisfactory returns ' obtained from earlier shipments. Gradually, how" ever, these difficulties are being overcome, aud ic may now be fairly considered that this export will be found a very important branch of the trade of this colony. On comparing t the import and export tables of New Zealand for the quarter ended September 30, with those of the corresponding quarter of the previous year, we find that our exports have increased by nearly half a million, and during the whole year we imported less and exported more than during the previous year. This, while a source of

embarrassment from a revenue point of view, owing to the latter being chieflyderived from duties on imported merchandise, is satisfactory evidence of augmented wealth, and of the establishment of new industries in our midst.