LAND SETTLEMENT AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9153, 7 September 1888, Page 5

LAND SETTLEMENT AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE.

[BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] Wellington, Thursday. Mr. Walter B. Paton, editor of the " Official Handbook" issued by the emigration office in London, bearing a letter of introduction from the Agent-General (Sir F. Dillon Bell) waited upon the Minister of Lands this morning, and had a long interview. Mr. Paton comes to the colony for the purpose of reporting upon the lands most suitable for settlement. His circuit, I understand, comprises the Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand, and the Australian colonies. The Hon. Mr. Richardson informs me that Mr. Paton will spend a week in the Wairarapa district. He will probably spend the next week in Taranaki, then proceed to Auckland, where he will remain for a fortnight, visiting the Waikato and the North. The opportunity afforded me of the interview with the Minister of Lands led me to make some inquiries: respecting Mr. McCallum's report upon dairy produce and industry. I was the more particular in my inquiries because I thought I observed that some effort is made to convey the impression that the farmers in the Auckland province treated Mr. McCallum's visit with indifference, or that Mr. McCallum himself thought so. I am enabled, upon the best authority, to disabuse the minds of any of your readers of any such impression. " The fact I believe is," said the Minister of Lands, " in districts where the holdings are large, and there are markets near for other kinds of farm produce, the dairy industry is not a matter of such vital importance ; but in the bush farms in various localities of the West Coast its value was at once recognised, and as women are immediately concerned in the development of this industry, they have in large numbers contributed to the success of Mr. McCallum's journey through particular localities." The report upon this subject is in the hands of the printer. Mr. McCallum retires from his connection with the Government through ill health. That there is increased attention being given to the export of agricultural produce of all descriptions I have a good many reasons for believing. Another gentleman of some importance had an interview with the Minister of Lands this morning. He is a Mr. E. Meadows, the representative of the large firm Trengrouse and Co., provision agents, London. He comes to buy and make arrangements for consignments. It is curious at the outset to note his opinion on this matter. Naturally he thinks that it is not so much the produce as the market for it that should be considered. Everything, according to him, can be produced according to the demand of the market. He says the people of New Zealand appear to be almost ''asleep" with regard to the vast markets which the provision trade affords. Some of the "finest butter he ever tasted came from New Zealand, but he says it is not uniform either in colour, flavour, or method of packing. Uniformity in these respects is necessary, for buyers will not give themselves the trouble of a special test for every sample. If a man wants to buy 500 kegs of butter he cannot afford the time to 'sample every keg. The Danes, who have studied the English market thoroughly, find their immense profit for observing these particulars, but neither Denmark, nor Canada, nor Australia possess such a field of enterprise in this special trade as New Zealand. The climate, the soil, the facilities for internal and external transits, should have the effect of making this colony one of the great food producers of the world, especially in kinds for which favourable climate and soil are essentia 1 . Such is the opinion of a man with a keen eye for business and an eagerness to transact it. I regret that there should be anything to shadow this glowirg picture, but there are rumours here that there is likely to be an increase of freights owing to some shipping amalgamations that are spoken of. I hope such sinister predictions may be falsified by the event.