RURAL NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 241, 11 October 1893, Page 7

RURAL NEW ZEALAND.

_r John Hou-ETOn,

„'.',!«•<- and Solicitor of tho Supremo Pr of N°w 2ca,and and Attorney \ i fnnncillor-at-Law of the Supreme , :r B Court Of California, U.S.A. ;

rPrinted an<* PnWUhed by Uonry Bretb, i* 11 Auckland.]

L jjpponTOS is convinced of the nataral • i?h of tho colony where ho haa lived so *° years. After reading hia booklet, ib ' i_»rt f us that ''""' convictio" " no* ? _ "ded on a superficial knowledge of tho Souroea of No* Zealand ; and wo i Id to surprised if he was nob £ means of convincing others. His > Kile-ion ia more especially addressed to K, e mall and large capitalists of the *iT 6'tad Kingdom —two classes of colonists Utah Now Zealand should in every way > W l ■'- to attract—and tho object of the I v'a '° demonstrate to tho^e men the ' "iinoMnoltl tlie colouv ou"ers ior the ro* ? m „ ra tive investment of thoir money in m\ „ ur3 oit3. Such an object is nob altoMher neff- n tlie mu^itudo of books htiahed on New Zealand, tho advantages Übfo colony for men with large and men 'th sou" BU:nii °" mon°y at thair disposal r j een sob forth. But, Boeing the rate Mongrel* that prevails in a young coun- _ v especially la connection with the Semen* of the land, thero is generally Voomfor a bandy and concise up-to-dato oablication like the ono beforo us. On Ihabground alone, "Rural ISew Zealand " Would find purchasers. < Bub tho booklet I ia more to commend it than its newness Lr hiwdioess. It differs from the usual -Udbook in being profusely illustouted wibb pictures thab, oven without explanatory lotterpreos which accomLm'osthe-, v/onld convoy to Englishmen _, oloaror idea of whab farming in Now ZeaDandia than they are likely to gain from boat sources. The fact of the writer having _ Mn in America is also an advantage L |,|a readers, for ho is able to presenb (tbem with a comparison between iarmin" in tho States and farming jL Now Zealand. That comparison, wo bowk with pleasure, is oven more in (favour of the colony than we had imagined ji could be. In sheop and cattlo raising, train-growing, and dairying tho Britain a tho South has a record that mesb Latriea would envy. The depressed feritish agriculturalist looking ab tho pictures of those sleek milkers thab from Lr'a end to year's end need no shelter bom tho biting blasts; thoso verdant valleys Liters noithor sleet nor snow aro jjmonn; and thoso comfortable sunuy jbome.te-.-l-, mighb well sigh to exU tn ge hia heavily - ranted farm tor a Ir-bold in the South Pacific whoro Lloment seasons do rob mako tho farmer's brofeasion tho most uncertain of all. Mr 800ß-ton's carefully collected figures and Hetaiia are the vory things thab a practical farmer wants. Vague picturesque general i-_ ties may chnrm tho British business man who has visions of an idyllic life, something after the stylo led by the youths and maidens of tho golden age. Bub thoso who havo had to do with tho realities of farming can dispense with those. They want to know tho price of booves, how much buttor a cow will yiold, ami how much money it will fetch; where tho besb land is to ba foaod, how much ib will Co3t, what tho expen.ea of putting ib in frrasa are, and how many sheep or cattle it will carry when ib is in grass ; thoy vranb to know those and a thousand othor things. In " Rural New Zealand " thoy can slako their thirst tor information, for the author has endeavoured to givo a true picture of farming in all parts of the colony. Wr Houghton touches on the towns of Now Zealand, but ho does not linger thore. Lika Cciee "he loves tho breath of kine," and hastens into tho fields as soon as ho mn. There lot us lonve him expatiating on the dewy pastures, the fertile cornfields, and the heavy-oeced or tendorjointed liheep, and tho'fat cattle on tho thousand jilll-i of Now Zealand.