THE VALUE OF FRENCH EMIGRANTS TO THE COLONIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2534, 6 October 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE VALUE OF FRENCH EMIGRANTS TO THE COLONIES.

Ix tho evidence given by the French Consul before the Gold fields and Mines C-nn-roittee he points out some curious facts showing how the French who had gone to California had been instrumental in bringing their special knowledge acquired in their native country to bear on the resources of Ciliforuia. He says, quoting from a French Departmental report: — " It is shown that when the first French emigrants are unsuccessful at mining they turu to other pursuits and engage in them with success. They had been taught, and remember liosv, to grow the vine, and at this timu the wine industry, originated by French people of California, represents more than 30,000,000 gallons annuity. As with wine-making so with gardening ; tho French grow vegetables and fruits for the mining people, and the crops hive been so largo that they have j largely gone into the canning iudustry. The fruit industry of California is now worth 10,000,0Q0d0l a year. In the Sacramento Plains they have supplied the mining camps with fresh provisions. In dairy fanning the French have done a great deal by introducing many processes of fabrication unknown to Anglo-Saxons, livery kiud of French cheese is manufactured in California. You produce very good cheese here, some particularly good at Gore in the south, but you have 110 variety. If you were to go to America you would find from twenty to twentylive varieties of chccse at San Francisco. Any kind of cheese made in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, or France is made there quite as good as, sometimes better than, in th". original country. I might mention the Cameinbert cheese, which is very largely imported from Normandy to Russia, in my opinion the best cheese in the world. The Camembeit cheese,is m'ide by old miners of California, and is excellent. I might al3o mention the Gruyere, which is now very much demanded in Melbourne, to which plaeo a great quantity of it is imported from Europe. There is nothing to prevent New Zealand doing the same, as it has similar resources. It would be better for this colony if you could manufacture these varieites. You would be sure of a market, for these varieties from Europe oauuot very well stand the Equator. A great many industries have been established by the French ou a large scale. I have marked different pages in this book, showing tho number of Frenchmen living in California from 181!) to 185G, and the amount of capital they possessed, proving that the French, after the English, were the be.it class of immigrants that oamc to California at the beginning.