THE KARVEST IN CANTERBURY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 3, 21 April 1880, Page 4

THE KARVEST IN CANTERBURY.

The Canterbury harvest this season is the most bounteous ever garnered in that rich agricultural district (writes the Auckland Star). The grain yield is 12,361,956 bushels, against 7,230,291 last year. The wheat crop has turned out 5,461,400 btishels, as compared with 3,621,810 bushels for 1879, or an average of 28J bushels to the acre ; oats, 5,776,275 bushels, against 3,237,462 bushels in the preceding season ; or an average of 37f bushels to the acre ; barley, 1,124,281 bushels, against 381,000 bushels last year, averaging 30i bushels to the acre; potatoes, 37,466 tons, against 26,766 tons, or 8f tons per acre. Truly, these are magnificent returns, looked at in every way, and are full of promise for New Zealand. Crops like these in an agricultural community ought to speedily revive any temporary business stagnation and set money in circulation with its wonted freedom. But the question remains to be asked : What will be done with the surplus ? The Australian harvest has also been good, and left a considerable overplus for shipment. The seasons have smiled on the labors of husbandmen in many lands, and the abundance of supplies has brought down prices. Our own farmers have suffered from this, for where all the most improved appliances in the cultivation of large tracts of country are pitted against less advanced methods, the competition is unequal. Looking at the Canterbury returns and foreign prospects it is safe to predict exceedingly low rates for grain through the ensuing months, unless large export clearances ai*e made in the South expressly to steady the local markets. A slight tone was given to the New Zealand market for oats by a Victorian demand, but latest cablegrams advise that this has relapsed. Consumers, therefore, who are in the majority, will find satisfaction in the reflection that the season will, in all probability be decidedly favorable to them — more so, perhaps, than to the producer.