AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 157, 14 May 1864, Page 3

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1864.

; AVe cannot too often rail attention to the j resources of tilt; magniliccnt district of Ilie ! Waikato, about: (o be made available for the requirements ot' Euni])e;iu settlers. 'liiis is ' tin! heart of the northern island, and from I the formation of tin; country mid its natural ! advantages, it is here that, in all probability, the bulk of the European population of the northern island will congregate in pursuit of tlu; riches to be obtained from its mineral ; resources, and the manufactures arising therefrom. Willi its grand river (lowing so : majestically through the linest; alluvial val- ! levs. and past so many commanding siles on ; which all circumstances agree in announcing ■ that future great cities must arise, Mature , has marked it out as the centre of the future. : wealth and population ot .New Zealand. il is there, if anv where. lhat wealth will be. earned, and there, if anywhere, will he found ■ the land for the skilled agriculturist with capital sullicienfc to introduce farming. as a, i science.—a class of men whom we hope to see attracted to this country by the report; of t'iic advantages offered them, ill the rich fertile districts now available.

There are many parts of New Zealand possessing advantages similar to those of the Waikato, to a limited extent, but nowhere else can be found a combination of so many attractive features. In other places a valley lit for a few agriculturists may be found, and there are splendid pastoral districts, and here and there, rich mineral productions, conferring wealth upon the province in which they tire situated ; but nowhere else will there be found a tract of counrvy equal in extent" to the whole of some provinces, "with a jjrand river opening up the entire length and breadth of the land, with here and there a spot suited for farming, containing soil of almost: a fabulous depth and richness. and capable of growing all that our English thnns produce ; and, in addition to these, till the semi-tropical fruits of the earth, with, further 011, a tract of mativ thousand acres of land lhat might: be converted into grazing grounds for (locks of sheep, without anv outlay, or with little trouble, into fat pastures for silky-skinned shorthorns, such as luxuriate in the midland counties of England; and again, a few miles and a mining district, offering a profusion of wealth to tiny who have the sense to grasp it. Iron sand, lving on Ibe ground in millions of tons, and this not the common iron, but the purest steel —litn-r than the celebrated Swedish ore, and containing a larger admixture ot'tlie principal constituent of thi' best steel, liamelv. titanium, than any iron ore yet found, (..'lose by t lie iron, nature lias planted the wood for the charcoal, in inexhaustible forests, and coal of a quality that should relieve 11s of the necessity of procuring our coal supply from England.

It is known, also, that gold and copper have been found in the ranges bordering the Waikato; but, though useful in drawing a country into notice, gold, tlie most precious of metals, can never confer lasting wealth upon nations, and glittering though it may lie to the eye. it is a deceitful outer covering to the seeds of dest met ion which itself implants, unless there he some solid substratum to support the fahricai ion of the sudden populal ion, the false, baseless commerce, t he Meet - ing luxury and habits of reckless expenditure. and equally reckless pursuit of means, which the discovery of gold alone creates in a people. It is not gold which has planted England's Hag 011 every corner of the earth, and covered the seas with her ships, and sown the whole world broadcast with her untold millions, and enabled her sous to traverse the earth and erect other tuitions wherever man lias set his loot ; and II H'ns gold, and gold alone, that made Peru a fabulous kingdom—a fairyland such as Sinbad oven could not discover—while its days ol prosperity lasted, and left il the worn out. wretched picture of an eut-at-elbow inmate of a debtors' prison among nations that il is at present. No !Itis to coal and iron, industriously made use of. that Kngiand mainly owes her power of absorbing all the gold hitherto found, and to such means it is to be hoped Ilia! the future population of ew Zealand will look for prosperity, rather than to gold. -All these many combined advantages making it an epitome of tin- whole of New Zealand, the \\ aikato possesses ; and with industry it should become the richest liehl for enterprise in the southern seas.

111 a general notice of the broad features of tlk- whole "Waikato district. it is hardly well-timed lo diverge into remarks uj»on one in part iettlar of the many elements of its greatness, but that one t" which we have several times before called attention, the coal. is in our estimation one of so nmeli importance to the whole colony that we cannot refrain from further allusion to it. The experiment of making New Zealand coal an useful and marketable production Ims gencrallv tailed from its being of a later formation than that of Knglish coal, and not yet fully developed into true coal bring, in fad. only lignite, and devoid of the distinctive i|ualifv of coal, namely, its convcrtahilil v into coko. When first discovered, in ls.">(). some experiments were made upon the \\ aikato coal, to ascertain its litness fur producing coke, which were found lo be satisfactory ; and further experiments showed a calorific power ei|ual to parts of carbon, and experiments on Newcastle blacksmiths' coal (of far superior <|iialitv to New South \\ ales coal) showed a superiorit v of 1 -1 Ith only over that from the Waikato mine. It has been for some time past plainlv proved that it is a first-rate steam coal, being in fact, if anything, too tierce; and the steamers employed on the \\ aikato have used it for months past, and from the nature nf it. it is evident that it will be an excellent gas coal. The power of convert ing it into coke will make il also an excellent railway coal, and will also render ii available for smelting purposes. It is not. therefore, too much to anticipate that this inexhaustible mine is such close proximity to an endless supply of iron ore on one side, and with supposed copper mines at an inconsiderable distance in the other direction, will, before very long, be tin* foundation of maimfac!tiring enterprises in the Waikato, that shall render New Zealand famous. The river, as a line of communication, affords facilities lo the opening of such enterprises, and 1 he necessity id'a special roadway is thus obviated; and we hope for the sake of the advance of the country that no time will be lost upon the settlement of the, native (piestion, in Starting some practical demonstration of the feasibility of all that: we have more than once dilated upon, If is this that; will bring wealth and stability to New Zealand, with il progressive power never attainable by a country hurried along with the excitement of the gold lexer. from the production of raw material w ill spring, as a natural consequence, manufacture, and that, in ils turn, will require other product—ami that of a kind for which this country is so eminently suited, flax, tobacco, wool, besides flit; food supplying requirements, ail ha\e been tried ill the Waikato, and all found productive. In fact the natives have grown and manufactured their own tobacco for years past. All these are suggestions of millions of money, and net of the mere empty words. In such a climate as that of Jreland the change of weather at a certain season is suliieient to make a difference of a million or two in the value of the llax crop alone, and with the splendid climate of this country it is not an over sanguine, ideal speculation, to speak of 1 lie future prospects of the Waikato country in such it strain. There can Ik; no mistake about realities, and there are the actual foundations of prosperity in the shape of the coal and iron, and splendid wafer carriage, to be seen and judged ol' hy ever}'

within a ,lay's r j ( | t . „f A - klan.l. I lie oiil\ u:hi(, 1o S( . r ~]] mouon. is f| l:e »'kl ontcrju-i/.c. :ind stoailv iii.lus.trv. Labour will soon I H . obtainable from u'ic sirp.s l.H' (Jovcrnini'iit is taking to rnsiuv jicaa-. A\ lit'ii one,' pca<'(> is mado, !;.)ld will lend ils powerful aid in afl rad ini; j.ojmlation l.i-tor,. 1 fit- r.mnlrv is mii.-'i older, onlv il; is l o be hoped 1 hat -uld will never be looked upon but as an iissistiuiee oil Ihe road to luteal nes:-, and will not beeomc the one absorbing ennnera of the ])eople.