THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1885.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7340, 29 May 1885, Page 4

THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1885.

It does not need the agricultural statistics, just published, to make us aware that rural settlement fails to increase, as k ought to do, with the natural inducements of North 'New Zealand. With our lot cast in the golden zone of agricultural opportunity, we have been content to confine our enterprise to the cheap crops of commerce, of which there is a glut in the markets of the. world, and which they can grow quite as well in countries like half frozen Manitoba.

We have been doing nothing more profitable, only because the practice did nol ; go to school with us or with oar fathers! "Nevertheless,'it is usual in new countries to prospect for auriferous deposits where there is a suspicion that they may be found; and surely where the climate gives more than suspicion, affords good promise of auriferous harvests in return for a little novel husbandry, something of the prospecting suitable to the occasion ought to have been carried out—the, needful amount of experiment and example might have been long since exhibited, in which case some one or other of thehighpaying sub-tropical industries would ere now be firmly established in this island. But the way was not pioneered either by private energy or by the State, and so we drag along.

It is not the rise and presence of big towns that can make safe the welfare of the public. Abundant and prosperous rural settlement- is the natural back, ever the sure, reliable support of the commonwealth, and it is no true political economy which does not practically see to this. The great growth of towns is artificial when it mainly depends on other things than home agriculture, and Oobbett was not wrong when he termed the mighty modern London " a wen on the neck of England." Better than London, with its streets six miles long and its five millions of inhabitants, would it be for England, to still possess her stout .yeomanry of the olden time, her bold peasantry—their country's pride. "We have not to struggle here with the entangled circumstances which have grown up through ages in an old country. In a new land, and one so naturally favoured as this island, there should be no rural discontentment. Here, at any rate, agriculturists ought not to be few and grumbling. Nor would they be if the opportunity which Nature offers them, but which they do not know how to deal with, were turned to account. No doubt they are of late giving more attention to fruit growing, and we hear of the .increase of orchards and orangeries, and it is a hopeful sign. But a great deal more will have to be done. Why should not the State play its part in the starting of such great industries, as, for instance, the production of wine, the production of olive oil, which become the staples of national wealth wherever they are successfully established? Such rural industries can no more be set going by unskilled hands than were the manufactures which are now the great employments in English towns, and which were originally introduced by Flemings fetched over for the purpose, and by French Huguenot refugees. The co-operation of the State is wanted to. bring hither the suitable number of experts, and to allot the lands required for the experimental proceedings. And the practicability, of the thing being thus shown, the modus operandi exhibited, the farmers around would quickly follow suit. After that a school for developed instruction in subtropical agriculture ought to be instituted. It is superfluous to say that a school for such novel branches of husbandry is infinitely more important here than is in the other island the institution well endowed which already exists for teaching the sons of farmers the English agriculture which they are more familiar with. Why has not the State co-operated for so necessary an end? If this is not the business of Governments, truly it is difficult to know what the business of Government is. If the public advancement is not legitimate matter for the attention of rulers, it might be better to have no hand on the helm, but let the barque of State drift. Statesmen—Ministers, too—have often individually expressed their admiration of the capabilities of this end of the colony, but collectively they have done nothing. In the Cabinet or I in Parliament they practically forget alf about it. The opening of "the King ■ Country " has long been called for, but if there are not bodies of settlers to plant themselves there it will, to the permanent detriment of the colony, fall into the hands of syndicates or of the mammoth landowners of the old country, who have got hold of millions of acres in America, at last to the alarm of Congress. Does anybody imagine the tillers of the soil, who show among us in such very modest proportion at present, will be found in large numbers .to take to farming in the King Country. No, they must see some evidence that the husbandsman's pursuit will be more profitable than it has hitherto proved, and the measures which ought to have been long since adopted to introduce the subtropical farming into this island should now be promptly carried out. If we really desire the King Country settled to the lasting public benefit, there should' be no more delay of such arrangements as would put the farmers of this Island in the way of cultivating the great paying crops of commerce. In regard to such novelties, it should quicken our spirit to know that winegrowing, it is now considered, will become as representative an industry of the neighbouring colonies as woolgrowing. There are already markets for the Australian vintages in England and Northern Europe, while in France they import them to blend with their own. There is no question that the three subtropical Australian colonies will rank among the most esteemed wine countries of the world, and it 'would be well to ascertain with no mOre unnecessary delay if we may not be able here to take a place with them. In the series of papers on " Picturesque Victoria," which are appearing in the Argus, from the graphic pen of "The Vagabond," there is an account of his visit to the vineyards of de Castello and Rowan, on the Yarra Track, one of whose wines iC will be remembered took the German Emperor's gold medal at the Exhibition. We have only space just now for an extract to indicate the magnitude of the operations : Going through the new buildings and cellars, I find rows of new casks of 1500. 1200, and 1000 gallons capacity. The value of the plant and oases here is about £15,000, These are necessary for the largely-increased productive power of thi* vineyard. The tit. Hubert's estate is 3000 acres in extent. It carries 7000 sheep and 150 head of fat cattle. On an average, 25 men are employed every week here, bnt during the vintage 70 hands are in fall work. £2400 is paid away annually in wages. This ia claimed to be nearly the largest vineyard in the world, not-only that 260 acres are now planted with the grape,. and more land is being broken up, but that this land now. carries over 600,000 vines, and produces an average of 300 gallons of wine per acre—in good years more, in bad less. "It is not"how many acres one has," says Mr. de Oastella, "bnt how many vines they will carry, how much wine one can produce. . And so the vignoble of Yering is the largest in the world." Besides St. Hubert's. Mr. Paul da Castella haa

80 -Acrei planted j ouVof!the 1000 a* v^; asrea oat of 1200 aores. At both thee* yard, the •«»£*, m at St. Bufcft, »£ be taken;at 300 gallon* per acre. *™* From the latest published work on lWdiaii* et ae« Vine, I obtain the informatlonttS the produce of the Chateau d'Angiade th largest vineyard in France, was, in 138? vn tonneaux, or 100,000 gallons. The next L, size only produced 60,000 gallons, where*. St Hubert's last year produced 74,000 «i lons. Only one vineyard in Prance lareJ than this Victorian . one. ? Shade of M r Anthony Trollope, we have someihiaß to blow about! y>: . s .jv,;, Where does aUth* wine produced in the Yering vignohie go to* St. Hubert's is now bottled at the cellars in town, and the pure juice of the grape comet to' us and is exported at first hand-. . Mr. de Pury sells all his wine to merchants in Lon don. Mr. Paul de Castella also followed thii plan, but has lately pat a most excellent Chateau Vering on the home market The amount of Australian wine wbisa is now " blended " in England and Fran** is enor. moos. : - ■" ■' ■-"'•"'; \: S-- :.'■'■- -.."■.