PROSPECTS OF THE AGRICULTURIST. (From the Nelson Examiner, Aug. 6.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIII, Issue 958, 2 September 1856, Page 3

PROSPECTS OF THE AGRICULTURIST. (From the Nelson Examiner, Aug. 6.)

Uhere is no ignoring the fact that money is becoming, indeed has become, a very scarce article in this province. Merchants, traders, producers, are all making the same complaint, and bills, oveidue bills, are a iertile topic of conversation in commercial circles. Many persons are beginning to croak, and are wondering how it will end, and prophesying a general bankiuptcy. Agriculturists are doubting the utility of sowing much grain crops, not seeing any likelihood of a market for iuture piodnce. Things arc ceitainly very dull, but we cannot view everything in so sombre an aspect. We believe the country to be really in a good state, and have great reliance in its buoyancy. We believe that the present state of affairs is only temporary, and that it will pass away, leaving us in a more healthy and satisfactory state for the lesson it ought to teach us. The present state of things is not unexpected, and has been long foreseen by those who look a little in advance of the present. In the first place, the discovery of the gold fields in Australia gave an unnatural stimulus to trade ; the price of all articles of consumption, the rate of wages in producing those articles, all rose unnaturally high. Then came the new land regulations : land was to be bought cheap : every effort was made to purchase, in many cases upon credit, but with wheat at fifteen shillings per bushel there was no fear of meeting bills when they became due. But has wheat continued at fifteen shillings a bushel ? or could any one who reflected ever think that it would remain so high ? Alas, we see that it will not now realize half that price. For those who have speculated in land, thinking these high prices will continue, we can only foresee a loss ; but to those who hare been able to pay for their land, we believe the pressure will be only temporary. The question now arises, At what price are we able to produce wheat ? We must not look to Australia as a market inclined to give any price we may like to ask, nor fancy that wheat cannot be grown there. Already she has not only supplied her own wants, but has actually exported. We must not calculate upon drought — that was all very well when only a small portion of her vast continent was inhabited ; but now her population is spread orar so large a surface, extending

through so many degrees of latitude and longitude, that it is not at all likely that she will sustain & drought in all parts at the same time. Though Sydney may be suffering, yet Moreton Bay, or Melbourne, or Adelaide, may Btill be able to grow large crops. The price of wheat in the various parts of Australia, and in Tasmania, averages about eight shillings a bushel, and we think this is a fair sum to tak^e as that which it is likely to be in average seasons ; we must therefore consider whether we can produce so abundantlj as to be able to compete with them at that price. We are inclined to think that we can. In 1849, flour was s>old in Nelson at i,lO pei ton, and tbeie teitainly was no distress at that time; everybody was employed and everybody well led. Labour certainly was low, but then every necessary of life was equally low. The late high rate of wnges has in reality benefited no one in the province, for houserent, firing, clothing, and every article of consumption, has risen in proportion; and four shillings in 1849 would procure certainly as much as eight, probably as much as ten shillings in 1800 Wages are now falling, and we believe the working classes will be better off under the lower rate than the higher. Under a lower rate, with all articles of consumption and use equally low, trade and commerce will flow on in a more equable uninterrupted stream than under higher rates, where no one can say how long it may last, and every one is afraid to lay out capital, or undertake any work of importance. In the United States agricultural labour has commanded about 4s 6d. a day. Ihe soil is vastly inferior to ours, the crops not averaging more than two-thirds the quantity of ours, with a climate passing from the extremes of heat to the extremes of cold, where fieldwork is unable to be undertaken for six months out of the year ; and yet, with all these disadvantages, they can grow corn to supply nearly all parts of the world. Surely we, possessing so fertile a soil, and a climate second to none in the world, ought not to despair.