THE NELSON EXAMINER. Tuesday, October 16, 1866.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 128, 16 October 1866, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Tuesday, October 16, 1866.

Journals become more necessary »s men become more equal and individualiani more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty ; they maintain civilization. Di Tocquevilli!, Of Demooraoy in America, vol. 5, 230. The recent arrival of the Sylphide from Valparaiso with 2,000 bags of flour and 1,777 bags, of wheat calls up some ideas which are not altogether gratifying. It is, of course, a very pleasant thing to get cheap bread, or, at least, not very dear bread, but it is not very pleasant to take off our hats and tout for it. Ample food supplies are primary conditions of existence ; but, after all, it does matter somewhat from what quarter they come. England imports corn because she cannot help herself; she has her crowded crew adrifc on the raft, to borrow an American simile ; or, if we go to the reality, because it pays her better to manufacture the articles which can only be created by a crowded life and concentrated civilization, than to raise those elementary products of the earth which the inferior races can produce so well. Tet England, with all her infinite excess of non-agricultural over agricultural population, remains constant to the culture of the soil, Although every throb of her mighty heart tingles albng the arteries of commerce', and the surplus of the world is ever flowing to the one central market, where the true value is certain only to be obtained, yet the motherland clings the more persistently to the time-honoured acres, aud by her talent, energy, and science, draws forth a yield second to none from what would otherwise be the worn-out refuse of an exhausted soil.

Our ease here in New Zealand is a ratter different one. We are a fine, promising community, but we are not exactly regarded by the outer world as the equals of England. "We would fain assume, and have the world concede, that not only are we adolescent, but fairly grown up, or at least in the muscle of incipient manhood. Unluckily, however, we cannot feed ourselves, and we must depend upon the aid of some benevolent Samaritan, who puts his sympathizing paws, by way of return, into our helpless pockets. We certainly ship plenty of gold and plenty of wool j but as for food, we are always sitting on the watch-tower, like Sister Anne in the nursery tale, and waving our 'kerchief for relief. The situation, in truth, is neither honourable nor safe. It is not honourable to be spoon-fed with the leavings of the rich man's table, and to come in for what semi-civilized Chili or California, our younger sister, or South Australia, whom we respect, but with whom our acquaintance has as yet been very limited— may vouchsafe: to spare us. And it is not safe, because ex- j perience shows that, however surely London may calculate on having her wants relieved,

New Zealand,. in this respect, is not London, nor likely to be for many a long year to come ; and that if an energetic people, inhabiting a virgin laud, with almost limitless resources cropping up daily, choose to place themselves, by their own shortcomings, in the position of a beleaguered fortress, they may at any time share the fate of the garrison, and have the supplies cut off, or at least seriously embarrassed — a contingency which, as far as the consignments from Valparaiso were concerned, seemed lately by no means improbable, in consequence of the misunderstanding between the Spanish and Chilian Governments.

It would seem, however, that we are not the only culprits or sinners, and that our sister colonies sin and suffer as well. Queensland, the young Benjamin of our tribes, being only six years in existence, of course has his bread and milk brought to him, and apparently has for the nonce quite enough to do to keep his house in order ; Western Australia chooses to be an Egyptian, and we perforce eschew her society ; but New South Wales, with its offspring Victoria, is still our venerable predecessor, and she, with her progeny, is quite as badly off as ourselves. Tasmania has saved her distance, but not much more, and the one success has been South Australia. It has frequently happened that her surplus export has for several months together alone kept down the price of flour in Victoria to anything like a reasonable rate, and it is not long since that Sydney, had not the wiud changed, would have been absolutely breadless for a week or two. We have lately had an opportunity of perusing the official report of the produce of the South Australian Q-oshen, for the year ending the 31st March, 1865. In many respects the document is eminently noteworthy and instructive. It contains a succinct and clear preliminary statement of reBults, followed by eight most careful and elaborate tables of particulars ; but it is with the results that we have chiefly to do. It appears from these that Adelaide, with all her surplus, is not likely to give us any remarkable lessons in agricultural skill. Taking the produce of the land, per se, the result, as compared with the British returns, is truly miserable. Blest with a virgin soil, a climate which, if often too dry, is still better suited for the production of cereals than the damp dripping atmosphere at home, and a population both industrious and intelligent, the return for the year 1864-65 was but fourteen bushels to the acre (only about half the English average), having with this wretched average exceeded the average of the five preceding years by nearly three bushels ! The report itself, instead of assuming the tone of conscious victory, regrets that the farmers depend "on the growth of one cereal, and that almost without intermission or replenishment of the ground." Did we stop here, the overflowing garners, to which we are occasionally so much indebted, would appear inexplicable. A little further on the mystery explains itself. While in Victoria and* New South Wales the ratio of land in cultivation is but four-fifths of an acre per head, in South Australia there are four acres of land in cultivation for each individual of the population, so that the area of South Australian land under cultivation, as compared with the population, is five times greater than in the neighbouring colonies. Victoria, with 557,444 inhabitants at the end of 1862, had 465,430 acres in cultivation ; South Australia, with about 140,000 inhabitants, had, at the end of 1863, 559,968. The acres cultivated by the more westerly colony were rather more than double those under the plough six years before, and the produce, with no inconsiderable increase per acre, had risen in the same proportion from 2,109,544 bushels, in 1858-59 to 4,697,919, in 1863-64. During the same time it appears that the area of land under cultivation in Victoria continued to decline. The actual acreage sown with wheat was 196,900 acres in the year ending March, 1862 ; 162,000 acres in 1863 ; and 151,000 in 1864, the gross produce for the last year being 1,273,000 bushels, as compared with 3,000,000 two years before. We are not sufficiently acquainted with Victorian statistics to be able to define whether the climatic difference, or superiority of culture and industry is adequate to explain this simultaneous retrogression in the one case and progress in the other.

Although we learn that the population of New Zealand, in 18G4, amounted to 172,158 souls, while the number of acres under cultivation was 382,655, we have no means of ascertaining, year by year, the exact proportion to the increase of the population in which the cultivation of the land had proceeded up to that time, further than that the census of 1861 gave the European population at 106,315, whilst the total number of acres under cultivation was 226.621. The native Avar and other causes, many and far reaching, have doubtless operated very powerfully in retarding our progress in this respect, but at all events we may console ourselves with the reflection that, unlike our Victorian cousins, our area of laud under cultivation has certainly not declined, though i we cannofc hope, for many years to come, to J enjoy such a yield of cereals as shall free us from any apprehension on the score of obtaining a regular and sufficient flour supply from other quarters.

The New Zealand Herald, in a late article on the Panama Mail Service, labours hard to show that Captain Vine Hall, the late Manager of the Panama Mail Company's steamers, Captain Benson, the present Manager, and the numerous other authorities who have investigated the question of a mail service between Australia and Panama, have all committed a serious mistake in making Wellington the port of call for the steamers running between Sydney and Panama. If the present route is maintained, the Herald assures us, the mails for Sydney can never be delivered with punctuality and despatch. " Vessels will fail," it says "in keeping their time, at least every other voyage, and in twelve months' time, the service will break down." The Herald is of opinion that the mail

steamers, on leaving Panama, instead of making a direct course for Cook Strait' should steer more to the westward in the early part of the voyage; and although this would bring them into proximity with the groups of islands and coral reefs which stud so thickly that part of the Pacific, the Herald scouts the idea of danger arising to a steamer passing rapidly through this archipelago. We are afraid underwriters would take a different view of the matter, notwithstanding this assurance of the New Zealand Herald : —

To say that the passage from Panama to Tahiti is a dangerous one, is absolutely absurd. All navigators who have had any experience in traversing the Southern Ocean know this. Vessels would pass north of the Dangerous Archipelago. Better passages could be made on the return voyage, calling at Tahiti, than will ever be made by the route now adopted.

Has not one, if not more vessels out of Auckland, been lost during the last year on coral reefs — of which no mention is made in charts — in or near the very course the Herald recommends for the Panama steamers ? The course taken by these steamers at present gives the islands and reefs of the Polynesian Archipelago a wide berth, but this leaves them, on approaching New Zealand, to contend against the prevailing westerly winds at a time when they are least able to do so by being light. This evil, however, is not without a means of remedy. There will be no great difficulty in making arrangements to keep the steamers in sailing trim, by enabling them to ballast with water as they diminish their stock of fuel, and this, we believe, is contemplated. The whole object of the article is, of course, to show the superior advantages a northern, port would possess over Wellington, as the New Zealand port of call for these steamers ; but, as is often the case with over zealous partizans, the writer proves far too much. He says : —

We have again and again pointed out the fact that the speediest route between Panama and Sydney will be found to be that abovo mentioned [by TahitiJ. In such case the most northernmost port of New Zealand will be the most suitable for The port of call at which to leave the New Zealand mails and passengers. Mongonui or the Bay of Islands, either of them unexceptionable harbours in every respect, has the rightful claim to be made the port of call. By this arrangement the eervice to Sydney would be performed with certainty, and at the least in seven days less time than by way of Cook Strait, and as the mail steamer would arrive at Mongonui fully six days sooner than it would arrive at Wellington, Mongonui would practically be a more central port than Wellington. Tho mnil would reach Otugo earlier (arriving on the Ist day of the month at Mongonui), than it would if it arrived in Wellington, and were despatched from thence on tho 6th. Both New South Wales and New Zealand would benefit by the adoption of the Northern route.

The absurdity of this is apparent. Supposing it to be desirable for a steamer leaving Panama to make for Tahiti, either for the purpose of calling there, or to get westing before reaching a southerly latitude where she would encounter head winds, from Tahiti to Wellington, is not more than one hundred miles greater distance than from Tahiti to Mongonui; and how this is to occupy a powerful steamer six days whose contract rate of speed is ten miles an hour, we are at a loss to understand. Why, if the steamer called at Mongonui and then came on to AVellington, the voyage would not be prolonged more than three days. Nor would the difference in the course be so great, in steering for the North Cape or the East Cape of New Zealand from Tahiti as to lead to any material difference in the weather likely to be encountered. The great objection, however, to the course recommended by the Herald, is its danger, aud this, the assurance of our contemporary to the contrary will not, we fear, remove.

It is the practice in our Post-office, some time before the mail closes for England, to discontinue selling stamps, the object being to have the services of the whole staff in making up the mail, while, if stamps were supplied at the office up to the moment the mail closed, one clerk would be required to attend to that branch of duty. This is the office view of the question ; but the public complain, and naturally, when they see it advertised that the mail is to close at a certain hour of the day, find, on reaching the Post-office, perhaps half-an-hour before the hour of closing, that unless they have previously provided themselves with stamps, they are unable to get tlfeir letters posted. Yesterday morning, the English mail closed at nine, a.m., but some time before that hour we saw several persons apply at the window for postage stamps, which they were refused, and although some were able to borrow stamps from neighbouring shopkeepers, others lost the chance altogether of getting their letters away. We do not blame the clerks of the Nelson Postoffice for this. If the entire staff is required in the work of sorting letters and papers for the last two or three hours before the mail leaves, they must give their attention to what is the more pressing duty. But if the Government does not choose to so far strengthen the staff at the Post.office, as to enable stamps to be served so long flB the office is open for the receipt of letters, it should at least enpourage the sale of stamps by tradesmen, sp that, if not procurable at the Post-office it? self, stamps may be always got in the neighbourhood. The miserable cheese-paring in knocking off the allowance of five per cent, to stamp-vendors, has put the public to a very serious amount of vexation and trouble for no adequate object; but Mr. Stafford's policy is to tax the people of New Zealand to the utmost, and at the same time to vex them with small economies, which yield little or nothing but annoyance.