The Waikato Times THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1970, 21 February 1885, Page 2

The Waikato Times THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

hqunL .md exact justice to all men, Ot \vf<atsof\er st ttc or ptrsuasion, religious or politir.il. Here sh ill the l're^s the People's right maintain, L rawed by nittiicnce and unbnbed by n*tn

SATURDAY, FEB. Jl, JSSJ.

Tiiourni little has been done for the hist week or two, the piomoteis of the sugar-beet industry have by no means gone to sleep. With such gloiious weather as we ha\e been having, harvest operations have claimed the undivided attention of the farmers, and in their anxiety to get everything snug before the rain conies, they have had very little time to bestow even upon such an important matter as sugar-beet. it is quite true that the icpoit of the canvassers did not aftbrd much encouragement, but the promoters, unless they have changed their character, are not the men to give in after the Hist round, so to speak. There is a feeling, which amounts to s>omethingmoreth<in .1 suspkion,thnt the failure of the canvass (though it is scarcely correct to cull it a failure) is not to be attributed wholly to the apathy of the farmers whose co-operation was sought. It would bo ungracious to attribute, in even the slightest degree, the want of success to the canvassers themselves ; but we may, without ofiending the amour propro of anybody, assume that the want of reliable data seriously handicapped those

who wore at the trouble of niter- \ lew ing the prospeeti\e growers of i.hHi. The absence of any certain inform ition concerning the menus ,iiul the c >st of «,'ettin^ the Meets to the, null \v,i>. ;i gie.it •stumbhugblock in th" finii'M's path. Tiie ean- \ is vi ■> could tell him what price he womM get Hiv liis produce when lie hid deposited it at Hamilton, or at ,ri> other speebHl place, hut no ()•!»' w.is in a position to say how in iuh it would cost to get it there. Sixteen shilling-, a ton might represent a fair and reasonable profit, pio\ided the freight or haulage charge only e.in:e, to two or three shillings, hut if it totted uptoiive or six shillings, the prospect of making anything would melt into thin air. Such, \vc take it, was the shape which the farmer's reductions assumed, and in the circumstances he did well, perhaps, to hesitate. Since then the promoters have appealed to the Waikato Coal and Shipping Company and to the Government, and both have e\ inced a desire to render assistance to the new industry, by making very large reductions on the ordinary tariff' rates in favour of beet roots. We have published the figures, and need not now j repeat them. If the calculations iof Messrs Graham, Swarbriek, Gillett, and others are reliable, and we know they have been tested in e\eiy possible way, the return to the grower after paying f eight, according to the published scale, ought to be remunerative. It is one of the failings of humanity to expect too much. Mankind would never invest sixpence in a patent medicine unless they believed it to be a panacea for e\ery evil of the flesh, and, similarly, when a new industry is sought to be launched, it must, to be immediately successful, carry the promise of instant wealth. Now, sugar-beets will put gold in the farmer's pocket, hut he must not expect that each particular root is a solid nugget of the precious metal. What we want, and none know this better than the farmers themselves, is an industry — and moie than one, to be sure — which shall suit our soil and climate, and which, working in with those already established, shall make the practice of agriculture a little more profitable than it has been for some ye.n s. Many far-seeing men recognise an industry of this sort in beetroot culture and the manufacture of sugar, and it is for the farmers to closely examine the deductions which these men have drawn. We ha\ c arrived at a very critical pei lod in our agricultural history, and too much attention cannot be given to the pi opos ils of those who profess to lune discovered an avenue leading to a condition of prosperity.