CROWN LANDS DEPARTMENT REPORT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1657, 23 June 1887, Page 2

CROWN LANDS DEPARTMENT REPORT.

The Crown Lands Department report for the year ended March 31st has been issued. As usual, it tabulates figures showing the results obtained during the year ; and from it we learn that there were disposed of on immediate payment, 33,337 acres to 491 purchasers ; deferred payment, 50,327 acres to 557 selectors ; nine special settlements, 43,873 acres to 655 selectors ; village small farms, 585 acres to 112 selectors; perpetual leases, 49,475 acres leased to 249 selectors ; village homestead settlement, 28,700 acres to 896 selectors ; homestead, 6977 acres to 49 selectors ; small grazing runs, 105,857 acres to 68 selectors. The pastoral rents, we observe, now reach the large sum of .£170,595, and the revenue from coal and mineral leases to .£IB,BOO. Such, shortly put, is the work of the year, and it is, we think, very satisfactory, so far, but the problem is not merely how people may be put upon the land, but bow they may be retained there with profit to themselves and advantage to the community. There are some remarks in the report on settlement, which we may refer to some other day. Referring to other matters spoken of in the report, we find that the Forests bianch of the department has been pushing on its work. In the School of Forestry, near Whangarei, a beginning has been made in the preparation of the ground for plantations and orchards. About 1900 acres are being enclosed in a ring fenc^, 600 acres have been ploughed, and it is proposed to plough 200 acres additional for plantations and to plant fully 2000 fruit trees — oranges and olives, &c. ; also to commence a series of experiments with grasses and forage-plants. Some wattles and eucalypti, planted at Wairenga, Waikato, have not done well owing to the dry season and poor soil, but it is intended to make another trial, and six hundred acres, with wattle and red gum will be sown. It is mentioned as a matter of congratulation that last season no serious bush fires occurred in any of the State forests in the Auckland district. The silk industry is still being promoted, and mulberry plants are being actively distributed among the settlers all round Auckland. Mr. Schock, the Government officer engaged in this department, sent to Italy several pounds weight of cocoons, the produce of last season, to be reeled, and it is expected the result will encourage the sending of more next season. The greatest difficulty apprehended in the successful introduction of silk culture is that of overcoming the prejudice and inertness of the population, to whom the industry is new. Olive culture is being tried on on extensive scale at the One Tree Hill estate of Dr. Logan Campbell, Auckland. About twenty acres were planted four years ago, and the young trees show a vigorous growth. It is expected that about a ton of berries will be gathered this season. As there was between =65000 and ,£6OOO worth of olive oil imported last season, and the demand is constantly growing, the industry would have considerable support fro.n the local market ; but there is every reason to believe that it would soon become a valuable article of export, for the genuine article is not easily obtained. Little has been done towards supplying local demands for linseed oil, for last year there were imported 183,483 gallons, of the value of £21,537. A. good deal of attention is being paid to apple orchards, and before long it is hoped that fruit will become a valuable article of export. Last year, however, the colony imported fresh fruit to the value of £67,930, and also jamsj ams to the value of ,£12,172. As to dairying, the report contains a reference which is of especial interest to this district, and which we give in full from the report. Jt s iys there are in the colony " about forty factories in operation, besides several extenbive private dairies, whore cream-separators and other factory arrangements are in daily use. The export of both butter and cheese for 1886 shows an increase in value on the previous year : in butter £105,537, as against £102,387 ; in cheese £45,057, as against £35,742. This is all the more gratifying in the case of butter from the fact that, notwit.hstai.ding New South Wales took less by £5500 than the previous year, t'ue export to the other colonies and to the United Kingdom more than made up for that falling away iv the demand for New South Wales, which has hitherto been the best market. The recent moist season there has rendered that colony less dependent on New Zealand for supplies for the present. Further, a great deal of systematic attention has been given lately in New South Wales to butter-making. Cream-separators have been extensively introduced, cool chambers have been erected in Sydney, and a well-organized co-operative system set at work to supply the market. Further, there is the import duty of Id per pound, so tbat altogether the New Zealand farmer has more against him in that quarter than formerly. The supply of the English market is the hope of the future extension of butter export from New Zealand. It is being tried, and apparently with success, for in 1886 there were 635? cwt. exported, against 273 cwt. in 1885. The account sales just received

of a shipment from Wellington of good ordinary keg butter in the cold chamber of one of the large steamers shows a gross return of from £3 5^ to £5 12s per cwt. The unequal quality of the butter produced in the colony is what greatly lessens the price in the export market. Every effort should be made, by the dissemination of information about the make of butter, to raise the standard of quality In the south of Ireland, where butter is the principal agricultural produce, the quality has been very sensibly raised by the establishment of the Munster Dairy School, near Cork, where the principles and practice of butter-making are taught to farmers' sons and daughters, also by a travelling dairy going round the couutry giving lessons in other districts. In the south-west of Scotland, where cheese is made extensively, the quality of the out-turn was greatly and permanently improved by tbe agricultural association introducing the Cheddar system, by employing a skilled cheese-maker to travel from place to place, making a cheese or two at a dairy in each district, and explaining the process to all who choose to attend. In similar ways the quality of butter and cheese in New Zealand could be improved and brought nearer one high standard, and it will have to be done if the settlement of the country is to advance, for dairy produce is the mainstay of successful farming on the 100 or 150-acre scale, and it is on the export in the cool chambers of the direct steamers to London that the future extension of this businons must depend. All the countries of the world have now been brought so close to each other by steamship lines and submarine cables as to be so nearly equal, that no one has a preference in the free markets of the world except such as is legitimately due to the superior article. The country that cannot, or will not, keep up in quality with the similar products of other countries must succumb to a competition from which there is no escape. Bearing on the question of dairy products is the cultivation of the best aud most nutritious grasses. Mr. Thomas Mackay's first volume on this subject is now in the press, and will be issued shortly." It will be seen that the report embodies some interesting information on genuine local industries, the success of which would do the colony and the settlers more good than nineteentwentieths of the industries, sham industries really, which some people want to have bolstered vp — " stimulated" as it is rather suggestively put — by heavy Customs duties.