A NEW INDUSTRY FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume XI, Issue 1410, 16 May 1867, Page 3

A NEW INDUSTRY FOR NEW ZEALAND.

The " Southern Cross," of the 2nd instant, has the following article: — " Our readers will have perused with pleasure, we doubt not, an advertisement which appeared in our issue yesterday from Messrs Mandeuo and Smith, of the Mount Eden Factory, to the effect that men were wanted to make from 150 to 200 dozen American

brooms. On making enquiries, we discovered that the raw material of manufacture was grown in the province, and not imported. This gave the matter j additional interest, and we readily | accepted an invitation by Mr "Wren, of JRemuera, to visit his grounds, where | the broom corn was still standing. j Yesterday we had the of inspecting the first crop of American millet, or broom corn, grown in any quantity in this colony. The field is not far from town, being close under Mount St. John, and adjoins the road. It was sub-soiled and double-ploughed by Mr Wren early in the spring, and sowed by hand, the ground being thoroughly pulverised. The rows are more than twelve inches apart, which enabled the cultivator to be kept at work during the earlier stages of the growth of the plant. The crop well repaid the labor bestowed upon it, for now that the broom corn is ripe, it averages twelve feet in height. The ground is free from weeds, and may be easily prepared for another crop in season. Four years ago Mr Wren obtained a small parcel of American millet seed— not a cupful—which he planted for the purpose of raising seed. He succeeded, and the result of his persevering experiment is the splendid crop of two and a-half acres which we saw yesterday. The acclimatization of the American millet is now accomplished, and a new source of employment and wealth opened up to the country. Thanks to Mr Wren, there is now as much seed saved as would stock the whole country ; and if the brooms which Messrs Mandeno and Smith purpose making from Mr Wren's crop at Remuera meet with a ready sale in Auckland, there will be every encouragement to settlers to grow it iv large quantities for export. And we may mention the fact that the " Australian," in a recent issue, called the attention of Victorians to the. advantage to be derived from growing the American millet, and supplying the Australian markets with brooms to the exclusion of brooms of American manufacture. We thus start at least on equal terms with the £ Victorians, and we trust we may keep pace with them. The crop is cut by men armed with bill hooks. It is arranged in bundles, after which the heads are cut off, with about twelve inches of the stem, and passed to the hackles, at which two little fellows are employed drawing them rapidly through the hackle-tins, thus removing the seed, which is carefully preserved. The stems are bound up in bundles and put aside for future use, either to be chaffed for cattle feed or utilised in some other way. Mr Wren thinks that the fibre which the stem contains might be pulped aud converted into paper. He proposes sending a parcel to the Sydney paper mill, with the view of testing this ;• and if it should turn out to be available as a material for the manufacture of paper, another advantage will have been gained. At all events, Mr Wren has demonstrated that there is no necessity for importing at least one article of foreign manufacture, the material for which we can grow equally well at home and manufacture also. He deserves every credit for his enterprise, and ought to receive some mark of approval from the Acclimatization Society. Last Saturday we suggested the advisability of bestowing a medal upon gentlemen who distinguished themselves by adding to the animal or vegetable wealth of the country, and this is a case in point. However that may be, the country settlers ought to be grateful to him for enabling them to procure seed, and grow a crop that will pay by careful cultivation, and provide I useful employment for leisure hours in ! the bush. The Price of a Tooth.—lf you kiss a woman against her will, you have to pay five shillings for offering ber tbe unwelcome though delicate attention. But if you want a peculiarly piquant and exciting pleasure, you muy pull out one of her teeth, however she may resist, and you will only be charged twenty shillings for the gratification. This is certainly the cheapest amusement which has yet been offered to the public by a benevolent magistrate. Mrs Brown, the person who learnt from Mr Tjrwhitt's lips that the cost of this pleasure is considered equal to that of her on four different occasions, had been attracted, it appears, by the advertisements of a certain advertising dentist, and she went to his house to know what he would charge for putting in three or four new teeth. What was her amazement and indignation when, instead of answering her inquiries, he suddenly pulled out a perfectly sound tootfi with which she had not the least desire to part! Whereupon, she and the " female friend " who was with her very naturally departed in anger, aud took out a summons against the deutist for the assault.—"Pall-Mall Gazette."