Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6825, 2 October 1883, Page 4

Our enterprising neighbours of Mel- [ bourne are bestirring themselves to I commence that trade with India for which these colonies are so favourably circumstanced, and which is quite certain to grow to great importance some day. Arrangements are now made to have samples of wheat of the coming harvest shipped to Calcutta, and there exchanged for Indian products likely to be of value to Victo- '■ rian agriculturists. We ore also told that Australian wines, of which there have been several shipments this time back, have made a great impression upon epicurean palates in Calcutta, as [ was to be expected. But a trade is to | done in many other things besides corn and wine ; and the Melbourne men are taking the opportunity of the Calcutta Exhibition, which will open on the 4th December, to have their colony properly represented for the Indian market. During the last couple of months committees have been at work in Melbourne looking after the different departments --a committee on preserved meats, fruit, confectionery, butter, cheese, bacon, &o. ; another on Victorian wines, one to see that Victorian machinery is duly put forward, and so on. Then the curator of the Horticultural Society is despatching cases of all varieties of fruit grown in the colony, with descriptive particulars attached, and these are to be reported upon at length as to condition upon arrival, the selling prices and market prospects, for the information of Victorian fruit-growers. It is expected that there will be a lar<*e demand for the fruit, and if these first experiments turn out as anticipated a large export will begin. Although this forthcoming International Exhibition, at Calcutta was not in the first instance the undertaking of any local body, but originated with a private person, M. Joubert, nevertheless the Indian Government seem to have heartily taken it up, inasmuch as they granted £15,000 towards the necessary expenses, have given the use of the Indian Museum and its contents, and are building annexes to provide the additional room. The other Australian colonies, as well as Victoria, are to have their courts, and the affair is quite sure to be a great success. As we said, when the facts respecting it were first made known, New Zealand ought not to he absent. This is an extraordinary year for exhibitions, including no less than three, two of which have already gone off. Discrimination needs to he exercised about such industrial gatherings, fairs to which the nations and -world at large

are invited.' Some are mere contri- S vances to draw a crowd, undertaking S forced and artificial, no real oppor. Wm tunity or occasion for them. Therefore* Ifi it is very necessary to discriminate* W§ But it so happens that-the three Hi exhibitions of 1883 hjtve real in. ||| torest and importance.' Aid the Austral ffl lias were and are to be represented SH —Victoria and New Slouth Wales HI at all thrai, New Zealand not at any ifff one. Yet our concern in the forthcom. sPI ing one at Calcutta ought to be aa Pil strong as theirs, for our natural pro- fl% spects in the Indian.trade are as great. ! "§i| As for the two just cloned, the Inter- Iff colonial at Amsterdam was equally ill worthy of our attention, and that of jflj the Fisheries in London far more con. pf* cerned us than our nei/fhbours, because l§| with our richer fisheries we can offer [s|B more inducements for tho immigration Isff? of that seafaring population which jg' pK needed in these colonies, &% If such matters are worth the con- £S sideration of our neighbours they are \iv certainly worth ours, and if we figure t. differently in regard to them the cause is intelligible. An Australian colony is commercially looked after by a single city—not by four, as ia ; New Zealand. The coast line of that con- ■-. " tinent has such few excellent harbours • ■' that each of the three elder colonies >; 3

has really but the one port, and the \'M gateway of trade becamo the town of - ?;i| altogether paramount importance. In j"M the early "Victorian clays Geelong y'o. cherished the idea of rivalry -with ! ; ?^ t Melbourne, but that soon died out, and i : ? is forgotten when the one town has f-,.-come to hold 290,000 inhabitants, and S ffi the other some 20,000, It is not a i-K? wholesome thing to have too great a PM proportion of the population concen 1 feS trated in the one city, as is the case in s%t. Sydney and-in Adelaide, and even a |K; whole third, as is* the case in Mel- K:)S bourne. It is far better—a far more U'tL auspicious circumstance for a nev fM country, that instead of one huge Uj;. centre each district should have its U& own—that instead of one town, over- \'B': grown and unwieldy, there should be a S* ; "A number in proper balance, as is the <££ case in New Zealand. But still there : : '% are occasions when the want is ex- •' '- perienced '•of that he£,d-quarters of ■ ; public opinion, which a great centre of >f:A population becomes. The jealousies of Hrival cities are as old as history, and >■ '3 are dignified by abundant classical pre- \'. il cedent; but, particularly in a young [.■ l\ community, these local antagonisms ;,;y can work ranch mischief, as we have W v reason to know in this North Island, l<;ji by the backwardness in regard to semi- ■':•;; tropical industries, for the introduction £*; of which the co-operation of the State !%! is so valuable and often indispensable. \ : : i There can be no doubt, too, that if— t;> like Victoria and New (South Wales— &t we had one city of unquestioned pre- f3 dominance, a colony with the standing !).*■;« and prospects of ours would not take a H back seat or stay away altogether in |.:'-j the matter of these Intel-national Exhi- £~ :' :i bitions. i*-

No doubt by-and-by we will find our p way into the tiidian market, but it &'; would be all the soone;.* by displaying ; V our wares at the approaching fair. . This is a grand fruit country, a. country '.-;? of butter and cheese; and we can also iy send, as well as Australia, wheat, frozen ££ meat, fish, game, &c —welcome dainties y^ in the bungalows on thrj sultry plains V,-. of the Ganges.or Indus, as in the cool i,temperature of Simla or the Neilgherry P Hills; nor will the Anglo-Indian be ;2 ; the only customer. Our fruits and f\ vegetables, for instance, are pretty cer- # tain to find favour with the native ?5 princes and nobles, the crowd of na- \!\ waubs, ameers and rajahs, who are p. luxurious fellows, and look out for a [* novelty, like Lucullus. Z