NEW ZEALAND AS A FOOD CENTRE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1504, 23 February 1882, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND AS A FOOD CENTRE.

At a recent meeting at Brighton, devoted to sanitary science, Mr A. F. Halcombe, of New Zealand read an interesting paper (which was well received) on the above subject. I have before referred to this matter, and am confident that much may be done by colonists even before the Panama Canal is cut, though of course, when that is done facilities of intercourse will be immediately increased. Mr Halcombe pointed out that New Zealand already took the lead of the Australasian Colonies in the matter of grain production, and that, moreover, the production there per acre was double that of Aus« tralia. He, moreover, compared fanning in New Zealand with America, and stated that, as in Australia, the produce per acre was far in excess of the States, and he considered that, with their heavy land carriage, American farmers were practically no better .off, than New Zealand farmers as regards conveyance of goods to this country. Mr Halcombe urged the emigration of capitalists form home, and expressed his opinion that they would not be disappointed at the result. Your readers, are, of course, better judges than I am of how far the facts brought forward by Mr Halcombe will bear investigation, but I must confess they have a plausible air of truth about them. The President of the meeting (Dr Richardson) stated that he had tasted the meat sent from Australia, and that he considered it almost xmrecognisable from the best English meat. lam bound to join issue here with the Doctor, though not from any enmity to the colonies — far from it, but justice compels me to say that either the process injures it, or the meat, in the first instance, is not up to the mark ; but there is a wide gulf between the two meats, in my humble judgment. — London Correspondent N.Z. Tunes.

The bed is a bundle of paradoxes (observes Colton) ; we go to it with reluctauce, yet we quit it with regret ; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late. When we see that the work of a great man's life, the toil of years, may be pooh-poohed as a mere nothing by any conceited coxcomb, it makes a little boy wonder whether" he will be a great man or turn out bad and have a good time. A Monarch's Break. — The eccentric King Louis 11. of Bavaria, who is extremely fond of solitude, has built a mystei'ious house on an obscure slope of the Alps. The mountains here are close together, their white, snowy, veils surround the horizon, imposing a profound silence upon the expanse of scenery which they encircle. The very 3tep of man produces no echo in this stillness, as though afraid of sound. Here stands a hut, entirely constructed of wood and bark, .-4gwnt to the very door-locks ; it is the cabin," designed after the pattoSHfiMJ pne one described in Wagner's "r" r WaSfefre," the roots and logs of Which" had to be brought up from low down in the valley. Above the hut is^a hermitage^ also made of wood and bark : beldw it an artificial lake, its bottom and sides lined with tin, in order to prevent;, its waters from runningiout., When in hot summer days the snow begins to melt on 'the~"mountams and fills the basin of, the lake %6 'overflowing, King Louis • lp?es*:"is .retire Aq this wonderful solitude, , in. v w,hich, it i« said,-he'is-feometimefl visited^ Is^ chamois —so strictly is every noise avoided '