AN AMERICAN VIEW OF NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5539, 17 November 1879, Page 3

AN AMERICAN VIEW OF NEW ZEALAND.

The Scientific American having been asked to solicit American inventors, manufacturers, and other friends of industrial bdubatjon, to send specimens or models of watiiral products, mechanical inventions, «&c, to tile Canterbury College, in connection with which it is proposed to establish a technical science museum, ■warmly supports the proposal, and in so doing says of New Zealand :— New Zealand is one of the most worthy and pi*omising of the younger members of the Greater Britain made up of all the English speaking countries of the globe; . As the youngest, too, among the rising nations allied to us by blood, and bound to us by rapidly strengthening commercial ties, New Zealand is in every way desrving of all the educational assistance ;we can give her ; and it can be safely promised that her people will be du'y grateful for anything we may do in this way. tThere is a lower (possibly to some a mor"e cogent) reason why this request should be granted : ft will pay commercially. Alread New Zea.land. isi one of the most inviting of foreign markets -for American manufactured products ; and there is no way by which American manufacturers can place their machines, implements, and other wares more effectually before the New Zealand era than by having them thus favorably placed on perpetual exhibition at the chiaf centre of intelligence in the colony. It is hot yet forty years since the first white settlers landed in New Zealand, and already the population numbers something like half a million of •wide" awake, active, and intelligent English pedple. The islands have an area of over 100,000 square miles, a trifle less than that .of Great Britain and ,Ireland, and something more than twice that of the State of New York. About J 2,000,000 acres are fit for agriculture ; 50,000,000 acres are suitable for pasturage; .'20,000,00.0 are forest lands. The climate ia much like that of England, but more equable. There ija more sunshine and a smaller range Vf temperature. The annual mean for t theJ North' Island is 57 deg., that of the South Island is 52 deg. The mean temperature of London and New York is 51 deg:' . ;The country is rich in minerals, and *its resources are being developed rapidly. In 1867 the fereign commerce of New Z£Kland:was equal to that of Norway. It .was more than that of any of the South American States except Brazil ; more than <tha;t: Of any African States except Egypt and Algeria ; greater than that of Japan ; and was-.exceeded in Asia only by China, Java, and the Straits Settlements. It was exceeded" in "Australasia only by ,-Victoria and New South Wales. In 1875 its'tfade'-with the United Statesexceeded 10,000,000 dols. In 1876 the colony had -600 miles'- of railway, and in 1878 something like 1000 miles. In 1875 there were itf operation over 3000 miles of telegraph lines, with a mileage of telegraph wire exceeding 7000 miles. These are the latest statistics at hand ; and the c fa v te 'pi iprogress is such that they must te largely increased to bring them up to tho fig r ureß ; -required'- to indicate the present condition of the. colony. It is to a country possessing such notable capacities for commercial developments, and offering so many inducements for the cultivation of friendly relations, that the asked-for models and specimens of machinery and industrial appliances are to go, to be placed on view, as already said, under the most favorable conditions possible. We ■ Bincerelytrußt that our energetic, generous 1 and far-seeing 'manufacturers will take the matter in -hand earnestly, and that while Canterbury College is enriched by specimens of high educational value, the industries of the United States will have in thein,,.a> full and honorable presentation before the students of the institution and the public at large.