The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 590, 2 March 1876, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, "Of whaterer «tate or periuMion, rettgloui or politica 1 ##*■*« Here ihall the Prerthtf People's right maintain, TJnlwed b/ lnftlionce and unbnbcd by 'gain.

THUIiSDAT, MAIWK 2; 1876.

There 1 has been some little ''attempt made of late to show 'that free immigration on the part of the Government should rather be checked than encouraged, that the labour market i? beginning to show signs of being overcrowded, and that with the cessation *of "•'Hihe construction of v public works on -the "present scale, large numbers of men so employed- will be thrown oat of work and be unable to* find' occupation. Looking at the state of the labour market," "we cannot say that it warrants any one of the above assumptions. is a fact that since the free itn .Migration schsrae of the government has-been brought into play and thousands of the working classes have ' been' brought/ into the colony the rate of wages has risen and labour has been more difficult to obtain. The desirability of encouraging agriculture^ properly so-called, in the place of the present rough and ready system of utilising the land merely for pastoral purposes, -regolveß itself simply into a "question of labour. There can be no doubt, but that it would be exceedingly ' desirable, tw 'suggested by •Mr Every Maclean, thatevery formershould grow his own wheat, and such other grain, indeed; as he requires upon bis farm, or ac our correspondents have from time to time suggested somewhat' roughly, that he should- be- sufficiently ente rpming "to -onpply the local markets with bacoa, hams, butter, cheese, potatoes, and other produce now imported in -large quantities from «utside the Provinoe and even from outtide the Colony. Any experienced agri cukuralist will, however, ' tell such, that sa^e in exceptional cases, these product* cannot fee grown with a profit, -partly'because of the high price of labour, and partly because of the high percentage demanded by fcbe middleman who acts as agent between the growar and the general consumer. Between the exactions of the two, farming languishes. If a farmer, for instance, grow beef, he sells his beast at 3d pev lb, the 'butcher getting -an average of 5d ; if, on the bther hand, he goes in for grain, before he has got the land tilled, the grain sown, harvested, thrashed, and sent to the mill, every bushel thmfc he Bells for five shillings, costs him git. There is loss on the cultivation, but there is some profit, though not what there Bbould be, ■on the beef, %ud hence the reason that grass 'and cattle supersede farming properly so-called. The question, however, before us just now is not the middleman ! phase of the difficulty, but the labour one We may have 6oraethiug to say of the former on a future occasion, but it is to the latter we now coan'ne ourselves, nnd we do not hesitate to say that should immigration be too suddenly checked, it, is •more than possible that the industrial pro-

gress of the Colony will be seriously inter-, feved with. We have heard a great deal uponalateocoasionofdistress&ttheThames, but it is nevertheless a fact that at the the very time Government was being importuned to provide what might almost be called bogus work for tue unemployed of Grahamstown, the bavvest was being with some difficulty and at great expense got in in this and other country districts, and that southern contractors were advertising for men, a single such conti actor needing as many as four hundred hands for the construction of a line of railway and being unable to obtain them. Nor when (he public works at present in course of construction are brought to a close is atall probable' that the labormarket ■ will be over-crowded. This might tempor-arily-happen were they brought ton sudden termination, but such is not likely to be the case. On the conti'»ry the impetus given to the industrial progress of the colony by the completion of these very works will more than provide for the surplus ol labour gradually thrown upon the market as oue after another of them it brought to complstwm. Wo have no \fish to see 'the laborer brought into the same impoverished aud dependent position he occupies at home, bet there is a h^pny 'mean between the present rate of wages and those df the mother country wJiich mmt be reached before any other than the Government oan afford to employ* him, and this meau may be reached not solely by a reduction in the rate of 'wages, but by cheapening the cost of living to'hira It is very clear that if the piice of laboui makes produce cost more to the farmer than he can sell 'it -for he will soon coase to produce. The same thing bus been going on at the Tharaea, arid hns more than some are inclined to give it credit for to do with the present depressed state of 'the gold mining industry. What is needed is not to check free immigration but to take care that in introducing new immigrants skilled labour of the kind in request is obtained, arid should "the wtgts of agricultural labour fall, as fall they must, in exact proportion will the demand for laborers be increased. Where one man is unprofitably employed nbw at a loss the services of two men could then be profitably made use of.

'CAUBlulxHt.— Tbe letter of our Gambriged Correspondent arrvved too late for iniertion in to-day* paper.

Cambridge Farmer's Citru.— The usual monthly meeting of the Club will be held -on Tueiday evening next, when Mr Geo Clarke will read a paper on the " Culture of Boot Cropi." We vrould take this opportunity of suggesting to member* the -desirabhty of discussing the subject of cheese and butter factorial with a view to the application -of tha system to this district.

Oh SOiebobb!— A want whioh tnu»t have been long felt not only in Hamilton but in all Waikato hai now been supplied. Strange ai it may appear and paradoxwal to boot, the people of Waikato hare now an opportunity of returning to the barberom usages of more civilised communities and yet are in doing so to be congratulated on having innde a step forward* in civiliia tion. The hay season and the harvest weather have been as unfavorable ai they well c&uld be yet every one will be fcble to got a crop now. The barber's pole is to be exalted in Hamilton for the first time, and Waikato will rejoice in the pretence of a professor in the art of hairdressing. Amateur jftrforinances will no l longer be necessary, and tho "' basin" cut will ceaie to bs fashionable. We wish Mr Ruge every sucoess in his new venture and for farther particulars refer our readers to his advertisement elsewhere.

WaikATO -Shbkp. — We have lately htd t> notice the introduction of ninny 'flr»t *clai< imported Lincoln sheep into the W&ikato diitrior. procured direct from home by some of our flook. masters at great cost,' or purchased in Auckland when imported by speculators. 'Within the last few days, bowerer, Waikato baa been exporting fir»t class "Lincoln rams to the -South. Mr Loslie of Tamahere has just- sent to the order of Sir Donald McLean, received Inst year, fbrtv Lincoln rams of hii own ' raising, bred from imported itock on the lire* tide and from ewe i the stock of which had been oomparatirely recently imported but br«d by Mr Leslie on his estate. Thoso'juit tent to Sir'Dotfold'i run a Napier, Are »if fine a lot of aheep at any raised i i the Province, and it is satisfactory to find our fiookmasters now bogioning, at in this case, to reap the fruit of considerable outlay and the expenditure of much oar* and skilful penereranoe.

Am Ekohmotts BtrLEoCi.— Wanganui has the oredit of raiv.Dg the hearioit ox over bred in the coloaiei, one and three quarter torn of beef in a single skin : " Quite a -sensation wu crontod on the Queen's Wbarf (says the Wellington Post) by tbe arrival and landing of Ib e big bullock "Prodigious" from Wanganui in the steamer Manawatu. Tbe work of getting it ashore was no easy one, And was rather badly managed, as the pressure of the ropes on ■ the body of the animal caused it much pain, but ultimately the huge morfster-was boiited up. "Proper slings ought to have bee a vied instead of an ordinary rope. For general length, breadth, depth, and massivenets, ' Prodigious ' beata all the bullocks we ever oame - across. He has been , purchased for £120 by Mr Murdo M'Lean, who has brought him down • here for 'purposes of exhibition 1 Prodigious' turns the scale at 3,0451b5, or 35 I cwt and one quarter. Can any of our stookI raisers beat that ? The following are his measurements : — Height, 6ft lin ; length, lift ''din ; girth, 9ft lOin 5 at belly, 10ft llin ; hocks, 2ft liin; arm, 3ft; width across loins, 2ft llin; yoke, 7ft Bin. His age is eight y«ars, and it is not likely that a larger framed or heavier baa** 0U everproduoed south of* the Line. 1 '

Oub LiM«BToKß\jo*Raws. — There i*' capital limestone in Raglan, ai indeed, in other parU of the Waiiato, and it wert reallj to be wished that attention could be drawn to the matter of utilising it. Prirate enterprise, it would seem, it not able to 1 cope with the matter, but unquestionably muoh might be done by 00-oparation at in working ooal mines or any other valuable mineral. The "limestone ooald be won and burned at no great expense. The difficulty probably would "consist in the oarriage. But here, co-operation would ttep in and smooth matters. A. tramway would be an undertaking of considerable, •xtsnt for an individual to enter upon, but not muoh to a company ; indeed, from the hill* where the lime would be burned to the river, there would be no great difficulty in such a work, and the lime at once discharged into barges it oould be conveyed to all .parti of the district. There are rut traoti of land in 'Waikato which might be largly increased in value for agricultural and pastoral purposes too by the application of lime, and none more so, perhaps, than reclaimed swamp land. The matter is one well worthy the consideration of our settlers. 'Our notice has b«en drawn to it by thefeoelptof a prtrate letter from Raglan from which we learn that since the ■teamer has called in thar«, and made that district and its lesources better to own to the outdoor world, a gentleman from Taranaki has offered one shilling and twopenot per bushel for tea thousand bushels of lime, to Le put on board tho Go-ahead, and the manager of the Waikato Steam Navigation Company has mlso offered one •hilling and three pence per bushel for lime by the Tetsel load delivered at Port Waikato. Our informant states that the offers will not go begging at Raglan, as the lime oan be burned at a dost of fire penes per bushel leafing a h»nd|ome profit for hiuluag and .putting 01 hoard.

The Mobderk* Wjhiata. — W« ha»e no newi *n-d iv (mm our front'pr qorreapondeu respecting Winiata's morementa, bat rathar incline from prirate correspondenc* to belief.) that Winiata it not »t Te Kuiti. Manj natiri* •b*Ye been don n from the up oountr? to Alexandra and these §ay that if Winiata had reallj reached that far, it would be knjwa to all of them and none yet state that they hare themselves seen him. The information &• to uu whereabtfuti ia bo contradictory that it is hard t j came to any condtision. Truly he it a pea of which it it impossible to say under whioi thimble you may find him.

Habd-op tor a Vote.— ln fcht New South Wales Assembly the other daj, Mr Buchanan, in the course of a speaoh, Mid : — When the Ministry ms ia danger, hoir anxioua their faoes b >• came, and with what decided impulse the*' •coured the country for -rotet. The telegnp'i was put in notion, and orerj corner of the cit y was ramaeked. He had heard of the Minister of Landi dragging an honourable membtr out olo l a prayer-meeting) "where he^rai on fail •kueei'— (laughter,) and told him not to be fooling 4heri while the Government wai in danger. (lUnewti laughter.)

Land REStrtATlONfl.— The following regulations hare been passed by the Governor for act tlement in special blocks of land :— l.' Daring th : first four-year* of bu occupation, if the sstthv shall have erected on the land selected, a habitable dwelling-home, and »haU bate improved the land by felling the bush thereon, croppin ; or laying down in grdai, aud fencing at least five seres thereof, he shall be allowed to continu < hit holding or to purchase the land at a price © £1 per acre, payable in equal annual instalments ; such instil monto to be payable at the end of eaob. year after the expiration of the first four yean. The money to be paid in such a manner and to such persons as the ministers shall from time to time direct. -2. if at the and of th • first four years' b occupation the settler shall b & iv a position to pay for his land at onoe, he shall be at liberty to do so at the rate aforesaid : PrjTided that nothing in this regulation shall pre Tent any 'settler from paying for his land at th 3 j end of two years' occupation, at the rat* afore- | said, if ho shall then have satisfied all th* con diiions required by the 7th regulation of tha 24th day of November, 1874, *nd the '7th day of Ootober,'lS7s, respectively, in lieu of which the Ist regulation hereunder haa been substituted. Hamimon Town Boxed. — So little interest wa^taken dn Tutiday afternoon' in the elsetroa of a trustee to the vacant seat in the Hamilton Town Board, that-after waiting some little ti«n after the appointed hour, two o'clock, the meeting lapsed ior the wsnt -of ft. quorum. Perhaps, after all, we are wroag in attributing the fsilura in getting a meeting together, on Tuesday, ta public apathy. The unseasonable hour may have had something to do with it. Whatever hour is most generally convenient to the piibiio interested is the proper hour ut whioh to call all such meetings, and after the result of adjourning the late okuroh mesting from the afternoon, when only thirteen were present, to tihe evening of a future day, when bstween sixty and seventy persons attended and took "part in the proceeding*, shows clearly enough that it is peoples business avocations and not their indifference to their public duties as citizens that causes meet* ings of this kind to be often-so thinly attended. If the Chairman of the Hamilton Town Board intends caliinganother meeting, 'we would eug- . gest that the experiment might be tried. It u always desirable to have foil meetings on such occasions, and if it is found that Dy holding them in the evening instead of in the afternoon this result can bee'ffected, one great difficulty iv successfully working local institutions will have been got, 6ver, that of making 'them thoroughly representative, and their action in coasequtno* more generally acceptable to the public