The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 979, 1 October 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. ***** Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain. • / TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1878. With the return of tine weather we may expect to see many visitors m Waikato from Southern provinces and elsewhere m search of suitable investments m land. Already, we have heard of several sales and (f the names of move than one Southern capitalist now among us for this object. On Saturday, we referred to the sale of a farm of two hundred and sixty acres of land halfway between Hamilton and Cambridge for the sum of .£ls per acre , to-day we notice the sale of one hundred and fifty acres about three miles from Alexandia for the sum of £10 per acre. Everywhere throughout the district laud whether ; mproved or unimproved is on the rise, and what four or five years ago could have been purchased for JL2 to £4 per it ere cannot now be obtained for less J than treble the money. Nor need it j be feared that these are exceptional * prices which must m turn recede, that the value of tbe land will find its lerel bstwoan late and present , rates. There is. gocd reason to

believe that throughout the colony, and notahh^o m this di3tiicf., land iJßj^^^^TTglvßr^ric.; I o go before ir. reaches anything )Jike a fixed standard o^..viliijjß. Those who think otherwi|je ponmto the immense sums borrowM bofhS by individuals and the Static thejjlublio <lebt being some twenty miliums and th-i mortgages on -Jand^iif' New Zealand some seven millions sterling, and cry that a clay of reckoning must come. Bat they must-look" farther than to the mere fact that so much money has been borrowed. They must enquire for v what"purpose it has-been-boiTowed, aiii howvexperided. „The system has Been goiugtoa-" for years, and, if it hacVmy foundatibh^if the returns were not commensurate with the outlay, the borrowing must long before this have come to an end. 'Che borrower has simply discounted the produce of the soil, and the soil has met its liabilities fourfold. The proof of this is found if we analyse these sales. Of those which have taken place m Waikato during the last two or three : years, liow ; rfta i.y have been made for purely speculative purposes ? We scarcely know of one. These 'farms have bee.. bought 1 by agricultural capitalists, as bona fide agricultural investments, the question of re-sale being ;« merely secondary consideration. That Southerners should fix on Waikato as a field of operation, is not' surprising. Many have thouglii that it was? superior soil and superior climate that attracted them.' 'Tin 1 real attraction is the lower price of land ranging here, as compared with the price of land in rx Canterbury, \ Otago; and i'elsewhere^^and^ia the latter districts is than ; fiv^n/ithe hign^,^(ce^|mrm which has yet been aoid^n^Waikato, and, hence the exodus northward. ; That New Zealand ; bas a grand future before iher, that the time will come when] spite of Victorian prb : gress, ancl go-ih.ead yigourj. New^Zealand will become m wea.ltn, ,population and importance vthe' premier colony of Australasia is not only the hope of each one of us, 'but a reasonable faith on which to build. The climate is the most suitable, perhaps, that could have been, found for the propagation m this hemisphere of the Anglo-Saxon , race m all j its ' mental khdpnysic^l vigour— th'e*s >il fertile and well watered is as admirably adapted for those products, and many others, which have formed the staple produce of Britain's agricultural greatness. Compared witlf the capabilities of other Australasian colonies, New Zealand stands preemierit m these respects. Il another column we publish a letter read recently m London by Sir Julius Yogel which gives ample reason for the belief that New Zealand as a field for the investment of capital m agriculture must become the favourite colony of Groat Britain. The source whence the letter, comes may ! be- arr -'interested orio, but it deals, f not; /with, opinions* but With facts, f.icts which are capable' but of one, construction. The averages (which .these reliable statistics show nre all m favour of New Zealand. For the growth of cereals the land will produce a better average than any other country m the world with the exception of Belgium and Holland which owe so much to spade labour, and a system of manure saving scarcely to be met with outside of China. With all the accessories of science and capital, the average growth of wheat per acre m England is less than it is m New Zealand. The average of the great wheat growing colony of South | Australia is little more than a third, and if we look further into the comparison drawn between New Zealand and the other Australasian colonies, we shall find another item m our favour, the extraordinary grass producing qualities of the soil aud climate, which render our soil, when recuperating from the effects of the production of cereals, to be m the meantime producing immense quantities of wool, beef and mutton The amount of produce procurable from a certain amount of tillage m a certain period must fix the difference m value between one acre of land and another ; and if the cost of labonr and other things be equal, then the acre of land m New Zealand is, as shown m the letter referred to |as published elsewhere, of so much greater annual value than an acre m, say, South Australia, as the difference between the average wheat crop of 31 bushels ia the one colony aud eleven bushels m the other. The regular issue of statis tics makes these facts known year by year to the outside world, and it will soon become a recognised fact, that land m New Zealand is a more large and more certain producer than land m any other colony, and we have, therefore, every reason to believe that the price of land m New Zealand, instead of receding, will steadily advance, until j^-*eq,ches a far higher figure than anything as 3'et touched. As to this, our own little corner of the Colony, we have again advantages over a very large proportion of the remainder, which may reasonably be looked to as ensuring to us a future agricultural prosperity above the average, even of New Zealand.