NEW ZEALAND HOPS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3759, 2 August 1883, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND HOPS.

More than once lately reference has been made in the Home papers to the excellent quality of the N.Z. hops. "Land and Water" of a, recent date contained the following paragraph:—The cargo of 325 bales of hops which has lately arrived from Melbourne are found to bo m capital condition and far superior in quality and color to any that have previously been imported from that colony. A few bales only have been received in the past few years the English market having hitherto supplied the Australian with this necessary. Within tho past six years, however, the spirit of cmi'Tation has set in amongst the Kentish hop-"rowers and has scattered them over the face of tho globe. Some have settled m Tasmania and New Zealand, and their proclivities being naturally " hoppy, they have commenced the bitter, twining, blue in those distant colonies. .Soils and situations favorable for their cultivation were noon found, especially m the North Island, both the Nelson and Manawatu districts producing remarkably line specimens. Hop roots, or nets as they are called, were sent out frwm England, together with the other appliances necessary for hop cultivation: and it is a fact that in Tasmania, Nelson, and Mau.'iwatu, hop gardens in complete cultivation, poled with straight poles and with kilns for drying, arc to be found almost equal to anything existing m the hop counties of Kent and Sussex. The remarkable feature so far is that in the colonies no destructive insects have as yet presented themselves; tho aphis, the red spider, and even the troublesome flea so often recorded as destroying one of the most valuable agricultural crops in _ England, arc at present conspicious by their absence. The excessively high prices reached by hops in our market, and still more so in Nuremberg and iv New York, are due to the fact that the hop crop in the Northern Hemisphere was a failure. In Australia, however, the season has been good, and tIIUS it is we find :<. speculator bold enough to bring into our London market a large parcel "of Australian hops of the 1883 o-rowth. Unfortunately for tho speculator, the market prices are much lower now than •when this cargo left the colonies, and as prices arc very high in Melbourne, it is a question whether any great amount of money will be realised by the adventure. There is, however, something gained. English planters can now see that New Zeidand and Tasmania can grow hops_ as well as themselves, superior in quality, though perhaps not so strong in colour."