FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13450, 29 May 1907, Page 8

FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

A COMPARISON WITH WEST

AUSTRALIA/

Some time ago we published an interview with the. Hon. George .Throssell, an exPremier of West Australia, who was on a visit. "Mr. W. T. Tattle, of Waipukurau, Hawke's writes' to- the West Australian newspapei ,as follows on that interview : • :_■'■■■ ''/ :/ { ';. ~ ; : :'■". ! .",;;

" Having recently spent, nine years in West Australia and travelled very considerably over the south-west corner between Fremahtle and Albany, both by rail, road, a.nd bush tracks, I have had ample oppor*? tunity of becoming acquainted with the nature of the ooil and its great productiveness. % Knowing personally and by repute so: many successful farmers,! pastoralists, agriculturists, orchardists, . etc. (including Mr. George Tlirossell), and knowing of scores of thousands of acres of capital land as ; yet untouched in the south-west, ][ cannot allow Mr. Throssell's statements in an interview with a reporter of the New Zealand Herald to go unchallenged.

" Much significance has "been "placed on Mr. Throssell's remarks by virtue of his position. I have spent 24 years in New Zealand, but after what I have seen in West Australia I say, without tinder-esti-mating the productiveness and prosperity of this colony, that unless an immigrant has a large sum of money to invest West Australia has far more to recommend ;it than New Zealand. In New . Zealand a settler cannot acquire the freehold of any Government land, and the riding rental in this district .is „ 10s ; per acre " per , annum, which sum in West Australia would buy the freehold of an acre, beside having 20 years to pay it in. Farms" are ' changing "hands daily, and' Australians who can profit by the high prices offering for here are iselling their farms and returning to Australia, where the freehold can be purchased at a reasonable price. ' * The immigrants arriving by almost every boat are of a very desirable class, and, although many have Hot sufficient. capital to start farming successfully in New Zealand, with the Government's free homestead and the Agricultural Bank to assist them, there would be no excuse for their not being successful in West Australia. Land is scarce in New Zealand, and the lands which the Government is splitting up are repurchased estates, and many hundreds of applicants are unsuccessful when the sections are balloted for. It is too late now to send a lecturer to the Exhibition, but if the Government ever had the intention of sending a lecturer to this colony the time was never more opportune than at. present. The • remarks of Mr. Throssell are very much to.be regretted, as little that is favourable has been put before the public in New Zealand regarding West Australia, and that little will absolutely fade away after such statements being published throughout the country. . " New Zealand has been boomed for many years, and the influx of immigrantr is due very much to the activity of the Tourist Department, also to the fact that- every New Zealander abroad ' embraces every, opportunity to .sound the praise of his native land. Mr. Thrbssell owes a great deal to , West Australia . and its land, and,'. comparing'the patriotism of his remarks with those of the late Mr. R. J. Seddon or the" present Premier (Sir Joseph Ward.), or even the boy in the street here, his utterances not only hold him 'up to the ridicule of any loval, well-informed West Australian, but throw doubt upon his fitness to have a hand in the destiny of what in the next decade must -become- a populous and flourishing • State. The advantages;which-West Australia offers to intending settlers, viz., 160, acres free homestead, cheap land on liberal terms, assistance by the Agricultural Bank, advice and assistance by the Agricultural Department, its capital internal" markets, productive soil, salubrious climate, regular rainfall, its splendid educational system,: and its mineral wealth, etc., make it without doubt the most; inviting State in the whole world for the pioneer and settler. If : the West Australian : Government em-; ployed •a i thoroughly efficient advertising agent to tour and lecture throughout New Zealand} -I-am,'confident the result would ■be ari'-influr of immigrants: from New' Zealand:" . V' "'■■', ~': ■ :