NEW ZEALAND AS IT IS.

Evening Star, Issue 6759, 26 November 1884, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AS IT IS.

The following, taken from the ■* Lincolnshire Chronicle’ of October 3, will be read with interest

Saturday last saw the return, after an absence of two years, of Mr C. P. Hayward, of tne enterprising firm of Messrs Tomlinson and Hayward, manufacturing chemists, of this city, who has been making a tour of the Australasian colonies in the Interest Of his firm. Mr Hayward speaks very highly of the Australasian colonies, especially New Zealand, ~ and has collected a deal of information especially'valuable to the agriculturists of Hoglandi and particularly those of his 'own county—Lincolnshire. . • • Australians (he says) are beginning to find what a great competitor New Zealand is in her sheep, and several gentlemen from Australia are in consequence taking up stations in New Zealand, for there are numerous other advantages, as well as climate, that New Zealand possesses. The fanners are enterprising and industrious. Miles and miles of fencing have been put down to divide the runs, and there is no fear of flocks getting mixed in any part. The difficulties the early settlers experienced, such as swimming rivers with their horses and cattle (often with great loss of life), getting their produce to the railway stations and to Home markets, 1s now a thing of the past; good substantial bridges span the streams and rivers, and good metalled roads that will carry traction engines are to be found; railways extend all over the populated parts, and often tapping the back country for tho enormous yields of grain that it produces. The yield on soms farms is astonishing; as much as 73 bushels of wheat to the acre being grown on the alluvial lands, and seldom is a crop less than 35 bushels. In the Timaru, Oamaru, and Canterbury distric's last year the average yield waafiomo 40 bushels per &cre of very superior red velvet and tusoan wheat. Hunter's white is also grown with equally good results. Oats yield from 70 to. 150 bushels per acre, and barley is grown to .great perfection; indeed it is not, equalled even , by the Lothian barleys grown at Home. The color is beautifully whiti-,, and it malts excellently. Owing to the impetus given to New Zealand sheep-farm-ing by the established trade the country has secured in frozen mutton, land is slightly advanced in price, but good grazing land can yet be secured at from L 4 to LlO per acre on deferred payments, that will feed from three to eight sheep per acre. There is Und at Ll2 and Ll4 that will feed up to ten Sheep per acre, and in Hawke-’s Bay Mf Hayward saw as many as twelve sheep per acre on some land which had, of course, beau laid down in English grasses. These sheep melted 561b of tallow at the boilingdo w» works, and tallow of such purity that it was too good to make caudles out of. In Otago Mr Hayward saw farming to great perfection bn the farms of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company; Mr"John Reid, Elderslie; Mr hj. Menhfvp, Windsor Park, and others, and Hqipo farmers would .learn in

not sqU at .a .sufficiently, remunerative Srica' at Kome, they grow wool that oea, and, as Lincolhwooli&now at so low a price, the New Zealanders are crossing with a merino ram and Lincoln ewe, and a moat remunerative sheep' is the result, not only for wool, but for the mutton. The wbol is danse and fine, andf has realised Is 3d per lb this year. The: carcass, either as hurib, two, or even; four-tooth mutton, is tender in 'the extreme, and is superior to the Southdown; Su6h sheep assise cpnld be gfowa in England; and th&&ii|lisblamer should, therefore,, like the “make what will sell,” for'what, would do tee waftl, ago "will nbt ; do ’ fot the present time, and farmers must a grow what •will pay. Everybody how has a taste for finer fabrics, even in wearing apparel; and consequently the demand of the mahufacterers is for finer wools, which, unfortunately, the Lincoln wool is not p hut sheep can be made'to produce this'wool'now sought for by. the aid’of the sire, lie New Zealand people are kind id ' the extreme, and give every assistance to a new. comer who js not a loafer, being hjdy, too glad to do so, and tj weloome him as a co-worker with them in advancing New. Zealand., Population is what they want, not alone for the consumption of the produce i hj vt is grown there, hut to take up the land# that are- lying dormant for the want of workers. Xhe new Ministry,- of which Sir Julius Vogel is now the head, is bound to progress, as all Conservative interests have done there ) before. - He is. again putting his shoulder to the wheel for the further progress of this important Colony, to which he, like all Englishmen who have seen New Zealand, areso njuch attached, Ereeeducation is doing much for young New Zealand, and this is now permanent, there,being Government reserves which pay for’ he endowment of the.several schools* Theshildren ofNewZealand pro wonderfully healthy, and contrast greatly with some of the childind oiEnghutL. 5 is literally a land honey,’” for-Mr Hayward stations where it-was no unusual thing to have two tons of honey, which could-be bought at 4d per lb.' The whole population of New Zealand are thorough 'workers, thrifty apd pfbyident, and few are without' their own houses pud land. | The' ladies of New Zealand are domesticated, accomplished, and clever, and’ exceedingly prstty, but, like the male population, there are no idlers. The New Zealand Prqss, t< 0, is hot behind the Mother Country: It is ever heady to advance a new thing that will be Of advantage to the> Colony, and. Mr Hayward ipet with every kindness from it. Owing to the-small population aud thie hjghrato of (even for a common laborer 8s and 10s psr dayk'tho Colony is not ripe for large industries, as she could not compete with England and 'America, and Mr Hayward If under the impression she will never mana-.’ facture much beyond' her woollen goods, cheese, and small implements.