OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8265, 26 May 1890, Page 6

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[from our own correspondent.]

London, April 19. A NEW FIBRE INDUSTRY.

The hemp growers of New Zealand seem reluctant to recognise the uselessness of sending home an article of inferior quality, and the formidable character of the competition they are exposed to by the development of the fibre industries of Yucatan and the Bahamas. I have been able to pick up a few facts winch may, perhaps, convince New Zealand producers that they are exposed to very real dangers from the appearance in the market of a new hemp plant. Sixteen years ago the State of Yucatan raised little besides cotton and cattle, but a plague of locusts came and destroyed the vegetation, and the cattle died. The people turned their attention to the cultivation of the sisal plant, known in Yucatan by its Spanish name of "henequen." The industry prospered amazingly, and now there are in Yucatan some 200 hcueqnen farms, some employing 500 hands and running 20 or 30 machines. Many of the farmers have daily incomes of 500 to '2000 dollars clear profit, They no longer live on their hemp plantations, but in the city of Merida, the capital of the State, where they drive their carriage and pair, their incomes, during the last year or so, having gone up 200 per cent., the price of hemp leaving them a profit, net, of i) cents on each pound. The henequon plant does not require good soil to nourish it, but shallow, impoverished land that will grow nothing else suits it. It is described as an airplane, requiring the ground only to hold it up. The land requires little preparation for planting, and the whole expense of cultivation is estimated not to exceed ;i">s to £2 per acre. About six hundred plants can be counted to the acre. The leaves when matured and tit for cutting are about four feet in length. The fibre extracting machines in use are simple, efficacious, rapid, and not expensive. The crop of Yucatan for 1889 sold at prices ranging from 10 cents to 124 cents. It is estimated that a lot of" land planted with 25,000 plants Mill produce at the end of the second year two crops yearly, which would yield about 70,0001bs of fibre a year. The Pita plant which is destined to do for the Bahanas what the henequen has done for Yucatan, is pronounced to be the best of the fibre-producing plants. Indeed, the hemp from it has a market value of two cents a pound over the sisal hemp of Yucatan. It grows on almost all of the Bahanas, but was until recently treated as an obnoxious weed of no value. It is being extensively planted, and the industry is making rapid strides, probably some 3000 acres being set up. The islands of Abaco, inasjua, Andros, and New Providence are the best adapted for large plantations, but the plant can be readily grown on several other islands. The prospects of the new industry are regarded as quite as promising as that of Yucatan. It is thought that the hemp can be grown and dressed for barely three cents per pound, while its value in the foreign markets would be 11 or 12 cents. The present price is £2.3 per ton, last year it was £00; but it would pay handsomely even if the price declined to £20. It is thought that 1000 acres can be laid down at a cost of between £7000 and £8000, and in three years the yearly produce will be worth £10,000. Possibly these estimates are 100 sanguine, but the experience of Yucatan seems to justify them. In any case the results arc not encouraging to tin? growers of New Zealand hemp. It is thought that the sisal can be advantageously grown in parts of Australia. It has recently been discovered that the okra plant, an annual of South American origin, yields an excellent fibre, which can be extracted at a cost, of one cent a pound. It is thought that okra fibre, extracted at so small a cost, will largely displace jute, and come into competition with henequen.

MEAT PRODUCTION IN THE COLONIES.

You have had "a chiel among ye takin' notes " in the person of Professor Wallace, and now he's printing them in Scotland. Very instructive and suggestive some of his observations are. He was evidently greatly impressed by the rapid development of the New Zealand trade in frozen meat, and correctly appreciates the revolutionary influence it must necessarily exercise upon the habits of meat consumption among the poorest of the labouring classes in this country. He has no patience with the prejudices which still keep alive the foolish impression that even the best of New Zealand mutton is far inferior to Scotch. He warns those who are building false hopes on the supposed distinct inferiority of colonial mutton that ere long they will be undeceived. Mutton, he considers, the natural product of the Australian colonies, while beet is the natural product of Is'orth America, and he evidently does not greatly regret the drawbacks which have attended the frozen beef trade of Australia and New Zealand. He warns Scotch consumers that the long wool and crossbred mutton they receive from New Zealand is the produce of the best blood of England, selected from those breeds that are found to thrive best in the conditions peculiar to the colony. He points out that the change of climate and general surroundings lend a renewed vigour to the constitutions of suck classes of imported European stocks, and indeed of living things generally. The natural advantages that New Zealand offers for the production of food for stock are also explained, and it is shrewdly pointed out that the system of providing a better supply of winter food is rapidly bringing about a change in the age at which sheep arc killed, and will ultimately raise the average quality of the mutton. lie deprecates the practice of killing ewe lambs, and thinks that the returning prosperity of Saw Zealand will put an end to it. Professor Wallace considers it quite feasible to increase the mutton-producing capacity of land already stocked with sheep, and also looks forward to considerable extensions in the North island where the value of the land as sheep country has never been properly acknowledged. " Certain parts," he says, " have been difficult of access, and consequently little before the notice of the public: ami again, it has been in the interest of holders to say as little as possible of the superior qualities of their soil to retard the rise in the amount of taxes. The fact remains, nevertheless, that no inconsiderable portion of the country in the neighbourhood of Hawke's Bay is, when sown with English grasses and clovers, as line as any that, could be found in any part of the world—laud which carries a stock of ten large long-wool .sheep per acre during summer, and six in winter." He sees no reason why " in almost an incredibly short space of time," the volume of the New Zealand export trade in frozen mutton should not exceed 2,000.000 annually. The trade he regards as established on such a basis that there is no possibility of its collapse, as even if the meat sold in London at considerably less than 4jd per lb. the export need not diminish. Jt would pay all concerned better to take even 3d per lb for a time than to discontinue the trade. The learned Professor has a good deal to say in explanation of the extraordinary erratic course of the Australian meat trade. The prevalence of the merino sheep on the Continent, and the natural difficulties arising from climate, have largely helped to retard the full development of the capacity of Australia for meat production. He anticipates a decided expansion of the New South Wales frozen mutton trade. He believes that the prejudice which has existed in England against the merino sheep, owing to its thin condition and dark colour, will decrease when more precautions are taken to preserve the natural excellence of flavour and fulness of condition, which can be secured when the sheep are killed at their prime on the station where they are bred. It is also possible, he says, to increase the tendency to flesh production in the case of the merino by selection. Looking forward then to a wide, though possibly gradual, expansion of the meat trade— New Zealand first, but ultimately in Australia—Professor Wallace, in conclusion, asserts that the British workman may congratulate himself upon his good fortune in securing his Hb of sausages or mince for breakfast at the wonderfully moderate cost of ]£d, and cautions the British farmer to begin "now to lay his plans to meet the reduction in the price of the home products, which appears to be the most natural result of the growth of the foreign trade. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson writes to a friend in Scotland about the delightful home he is building for himself at Apia, where, miles away from America and England, he will be secluded, free from visitors, and able to please himself, and uncontrolled by anybody. That seems significant of a protracted stay in the Pacific, and yet we hear he is expected home in October next. The following fine lines, which he wrote, and which have appeared in a Scottish paper, appear to suggest the same thing. After a beautifully poetic description of his deserted Scottish home, Mr. Stevenson writes :—

There in the silence of remembered time Sounds yet the innocent laughter of a child, Sound yet the unresting footsteps of a youth, Now dead for ever, and whose grave I am. There, on the sunny frontage of a hill, Hard by the house of kind's, repose the dead, My dead, the ready and the strong of word. Their works, the salt-encrusted, still survive: ! The sea bombards their founded towers, the night J Thrills pierced with their strong lamps. The I artificers, . i One after one, here, in this crated cell, j Where the rain Erases and the rust consumes, j Fell upon lasting silence. Continents I And Continental oceans intervene ; A sea uncharted, ou a lamplesa isle, Knvirons and confines their wandering child : Knvivons and confines their wandering cbild : In vain. The tolce of generations dead

Summons me, sitting distant, to arise, My numerous footsteps nimbly to retrace, And, all mutation over, stretch me down In that denoted city of the dead. • THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER. The Right Rev. Dr. Moorhouse is " a man of the world " in the best sense of the term. It has often been said that he was a born statesman spoilt. His mind naturally turns to questions of social reform, and he occasionally speaks out with a plainness which horrifies, while it convinces his Episcopal brethren. He has been distinguishing himself at the York Convention this week, where he proposed a resolution to the effect that the clergy ought to encourasre Boards of Conciliation " for" the settlement of industrial difficulties. In the course of his remarks he boldly declared Trades Unions _ to be salutary institutions, and that strikes were not only lawful but inevitable. But at the same time he took care to point out that Trades Unions must not be allowed to exercise coercive authority, but must rely upon the weapons of argument and persuasion. If councils of arbitration or conciliation were formed, they might be made the means of preventing nine-tenths of the disastrous material and moral consequences of strikes and lock-outs. The Archbishop of York denounced strikes as a kind of Lynch law of political economy. Convention adopted the Bishop of Manchester's resolution. MISCELLANEOUS. Sir Thomas Esmonde has returned home, looking thin but well and ruddy, but he has naturally had a good deal to say respecting the triumphal progress— the Freeman's Journal terms it—that he and his fellow delegates made through Australasia. It is evident that they had a real good time, and found it possible to combine pleasure with patriotism very largely. Everything seems to have worked in their favour. The opposition they experienced, and even the "furious" demonstrations of the Melbourne Argus and the "scurrilous attacks "of the Age are described as doing the mission more good than harm. Sir Thomas had some very hard things to say about the cable services, but it is' but fair to add that lie was only following the cue of his interviewer. He sums up his experience of Australia by declaring that the people there would give the Irish, to-morrow, a more extended form of Home Rule than is now demanded, if the decision rested with them. The mission is described as having been very recently taken up in New Zealand, and the Maories are described as strong supporters of Home Rule for Ireland. Sir George Grey's splendid speech at the Auckland meeting is recalled, and Major Atkinson's "Warm letter of sympathy. The services rendered by Archbishop Redwood, Dr. Moran, the Hon. Mr. Tole, and the Hon. P. Buckley are also acknowledged. The action brought by Messrs. Crow, Rudolph and C 0.," the owners of the s.s. Selembria, against the Merchants' Marine Insurance Company, who were the underwriters on the hull of the vessel on her voyage from New Zealand in March, 18S8, occupied Mr. Justice Charles and a special Liverpool jury three days, and then the case was withdrawn and settled, the defendants pasing two-thirds of the claim and costs. After rounding the Horn a fire broke out on board the vessel, and in extinguishing it the refrigerating machine room became too filled with smoke and heat to be habitable. The consequence was that the refrigerating machines were unable to keep the holds perfectly cool, and a quantity of meat had to be jettisoned on arrival at Monte Video. The defendants alleged that the machines for keeping the holds cool were inefficient and in bad working order at the time the fire broke out through the neglect of the refrigerating engineers, but they could not sustain this and. consequently", settled on the basis indicated above.

The result of the Victorian loan is a great disappointment to the pessimists who nave been croaking for the last fortnight that the gold colony was to be taught a lesson, which would be equally applicable to other colonies which are too fond of borrowing. The Treasurer of Victoria exhibited no little boldness in daring to run so directly counter to his financial advisers. But it was almost imperative that Victoria should receive £4,0(X),000 at least without delay, consequently Mr. Gillies was compelled to turn a (leaf ear to all remonstrances. He would not hear of limiting the loan to £1,000,000 with the understanding that the colony would require another £2,000,000 in duly. The banks next tried to keep the minimum as lowas possible, but here again Mr. Gillies was obdurate. He stilly refused to reduce the loan below par, but he permitted considerable inducements to be offered to intending investors in the matter of interest. The result showed that his confidence was justified. Despite all the attacks of the financial press upon Victorian finance the public rolled up generously, and offered upwards of £13,000,000 in place of the £4,000,000 asked for. The price realised was £101 10s 3d, which was nearly 10 per cent, higher than good judges believed. Mr. Goschen declared that he would hold tightly to his postal surplus, and not be tempted into extravagance by Mr. Heuniker Heaton or any other disinterested postal reformer. The pertinacity of the hon. member for Canterbury has, however, proved too much for him to withstand, and so he has conceded a substantial reduction on existing rates. This announcement constituted one of the chief surprises of the Budget, and is evidently one of its most popular features. Loud and long were the cheers which greeted the statement that Her Majesty's Government proposed, if they could persuade the interested parties to do so, to deal with the question of the postage to India and the colonies, and to reduce all rates, by whatever route, to 2Jtl —the Postal Union rate. The concession will involve a loss of £105,000 per annum, because the foreign transit charges equal id per letter, and the cost of transmission in this country and the colonies at least lid more. Negotiations are to be at once opened with the Agents-General and the Government of India. Mr. Heaton, of course, is not satisfied. He intends to agitate for an all-sea postage to Australia at Id. Sir Francis Hell is believed to favour the reduction, and Sir Saul Samuel has advised his Government to enter the Postal Union. The general impression in Anglo-Colonial official circles is favourable to the proposal, but it is doubted if the colonies will all care to face the loss involved. The Western Australian Constitution Bill is still before the Select Committee to whom it was referred. Under the presidency of Baron de Worms, the committee are taking a trreat deal of apparently very unnecessary evidence. They have finished the examination of Sir Napier Broome. He acquitted himself very well, and evinced a thorough knowledge of his subject. He displayed a great deal of tact, and certainly contrived to subdue no little hostility towards the measure. Sir T. Cockburn Campbell was less felicitous. He was far from conciliating in his answers, and showed little regard for British interests. He told the committee yesterday that the Eastern colonies of Australia cared more for the wishes of 40,000 Western Australians than for those of 40,000 at home. He was asked how long Western Australia would be able to protect herself if the whole of the huge territory she desired were handed over to her, and British protection withdrawn? Sir T. C. Campbell inno wise dismayed replied that the Eastern colonics would help to repel any French or German attacks, and he believed the utimate victory would end with the colonies. The views he expressed were decidedly aggressive, and were certainly unwelcome to the committee, and 1 believe to the other Western Australian delegates. There is little chance of the Bill becoming law before •July.

Messrs. William Denny and Brothers have just launched from their shipyard at Dumbarton, the steel-screw steamer Rotokine, built to the order of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. She will be classed 100 Al at Lloyds, and will be fitted with Brocle's patent quadruple engines. Her dimensions are :—270 feet by 37 feet 6 inches by 21 feet 9 inches, and of about "2000 tons gross register. »

The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, which has branches all over the •world, has just held its annual meeting. The general secretary reports that last year 15 new branches were opened, six being in Australia. There are now 471 branches, viz., 348 in England, 20 in Ireland, 21 in Scotland, 33 in the United States, 8 in Canada, 6 in New Zealand, 32 in Australia, and 3 in South Africa. The membership numbers 26,472, and the income last year amounted to £75,000.

The Rev. W. S. Green has been winning fresh laurels as an explorer among the Selkirk glacieis on the route opened up by the Canadian-Pacific railway. He reached the summit of Mount Bonney, 10,622 feet high. He came across a curious beast, named sewelett, which he says is remarkable for its habit of collecting bouquets of plucked flowers, with the stems laid neatly together as though a child had arranged them. These bouquets the sewelett transfers to his burrow for its winter solace.

The monthly meetings of the Royal Colonial Institute are becoming more uninteresting than ever. The papers read during the last year or two have been below the standard of excellence to which the Fellows have become accustomed. Sir Arthur Hodgson's contribution on the 15th instant achieved the unique distinction of being distinctly the weakest paper submitted for years. And yet a man whose experiences of Australia date back 51 years, ought to have valuable experiences to communicate to an audience in the year 1890. Sir Arthur has had a wonderfully successful life. He was one of the first overlander's from Sydney to the Darling Downs, that paradise of squatters, There he " discovered" the splendid run which he now owns in fee

simple, and which in good seasons will produce an income of something like £25,000 a year. For the last 15 years he has been an ''absentee" colonist, and dispenses liberal hospitality atStratford-on-Avou. He gained his title for services supposed to bo rendered during the Colonial Exhibition, when lie acted as chairman of the Distinguished Visitors' Reception Committee. The emigration statistics tor the past year indicate a very distinct lull on the eagerness so long exhibited to seek fame and fortune in distant climes. During the last 75 years some 1,663,000 persons have left the United Kingdom for Australasia, and 1,352,000 of these during the last 37 years, viz., from 1853 to 1889. The greatest number leaving in any single year, was in 18S3, when /3,000 sought refuge in the Antipodean colonies. Since that date there has been a rapid decline until, last year, only 28,834 proceeded to Australasia. Of that number 23,103 were of English origin, 2374 Scotch, 2817 Irish, and 540 foreigners. The emigration to the British North American colonies amounted to 38,000 souls. _____________