THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1872.

New Zealand Herald, Issue 6568, 5 December 1882, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1872.

We must not forget that the International Exhibition at Amsterdam is to come off in May next, and of course a colony now so important as New Zealand will need to be properly represented. It may not be too soon to have the necessary arrangements under consideration, and we observe that the Industrial Association in Christehurch are communicating •with the Government on the subject.

Perhaps there has been a superfluity o£ exhibitions ou the original plan, the now well-worn track. There was something superfluous in two international exhibitions in Australia in close proximity both of time ancl place ; and if both were successful, it was in spite of tfaat circumstance, and was a striking evidence of the general interest these colonies are now attracting. And we must recollect that those gatherings at Melbourne and Sydney, among other services they rendered, first made widely known through their European visitors the merits of Australian wines, of which an export of the highest promise is now arising. Of course such international fairs do render practical service, and any charge of superfluous frequency on the old pattern does not apply to the forthcoming one at Amsterdam, for an industrial exhibition to be confined exclusively to what new countries and the. colonies of all nations are able to send, is a new development—a change novel and unique from the ordinary plan. The display of all sorts of produce, raw and wrought, from colonies alone, and from all of them, all over the globe, cannot but be of great material use in a variety of ways. Their exhibits will be placed side by side, and so will afford those opportunities for comparison by which their progress respectively can be most correctly gauged. And .'or many articles of colonial production such an exhibition is just the most likely means to cause an enlargement of existing markets, or an opening of new ones. For example, the wool and the preserved food which New Zealand and Australia furnish, and are able to more largely export. The manufacture of woollen goods is rapidly spreading on the European Continent — notably in Germany, France, and Belgium. In Germany the advance has been extraordinary witliin the last 30 years. Those several countries will soon be great importers of the raw material—they are already beginning to get some from without. But France has no wool-producing colonies except Algeria, which gives a very limited supply ; and Germany has no colonies at all. Australia and New Zealand are the great m col exporting countries of the globe, bou: in the superior quality as well as quantity, and their production of it is enormously increasing. The wool clip has more than doubled in 10 years. It was 193 millions pounds in IS7O, and 392 in 1879. In the twenty years from 18G1 to ISSO the increase in the number of sheep has been —in New South Wales G2B per cent.; in New Zealand, 47 4 per cent.; in South Australia, coming next, 112 per cent. "With this rapid increase it is very important to look betimes for enlargement of the foreign market, and as the quality of the wools to be imported from any other quarter has no preteasions in comparison with what we are able to show, a suitable display at Amsterdam <;o.n hardly fail of good effect in extending the Continental demand. Then there is the export of preserved and frozen food, for which New Zealand is peculiarly well adapted. Preserved meat is a particularly portable and handy thing for army stores. In the late Egyptian expedition the War Office made large purchases of preserved meat to lessen the necessity for great herds of cattle following the troops. The Continental Governments now maintain at all tiroes vast armies—half millions of men always with the colours; and duringthe last few years the German ancl the French Governments—both when there was some possibility of war and when there was no anticipation of it—have repeatedly purchased large quantities of preserved meats as a convenient branch of supply in the commissariat. We should take care to have our capabilities in this respect well represented at the Amsterdam Exhibition. It may lead to a regular demand from us for such articles by the Continental Governments. France, a country of small farms and peasant proprietors, is not a grazing country, nor is Germany much so either, and they yearly fetch a great deal of cattle from Russia and Hungary. So to assist the rationing of the masses of soldiery, even during peace, there is little doubt that an extensive market food, if the,quality be approved,. can be easily opened on the Continent of Europe, as a supplement to the great English market which is now inviting us.

i Brit besides such articles prominently in our view at present, we should take care tosend samples of our produce of all sorts. Indeed it is difficult to say what we ought not to send—even things among our natural products which may be quite unconsidered at present, may

be found to have a Talue little suspected. Let us not forget that what i« waste and despised at one period often, comes to have commercial importance s.t another. "We know that sea-weed was once regarded as so preeminently worthless that it was termed the inuCilis alga, and yet the world has now discovered no less than eighty different ueo3 for it! The Spanish grass, known as esparto, is nnw in exj tensive requisition for paper making, and a certain Mexican grass is largely employed as a cheap and excellent substitute for bristles in brush-making - and both these things now sedulously cultivated, and exported with greit profit, were twenty-five years ago mere troublesome weeds in their respective countries. The International Exhibitions inEuropebrought many fresh discoveries to light, and still more remarkable results in this line may reasonably be expected from a great International Exhibition, devoted to the resources of new countries, whose wild, natural products are as yet but imperfectly examined or known. Specimens of the indigenous plants, itc., ought to be a special feature of the exhibits forwarded from each colony.