THE COMING SEASON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 915, 13 September 1889, Page 28

THE COMING SEASON.

Seeing is upon us, and behind it the produce season, teeming, we hope, with abundance

for the country’s good. The lambing season and the wool season, and the busy time of the dairy farmer ars once more uppermost in men’s minds, aud thoughts of the harvest further on are compelling attention. For it is the harvest aud wool, and meat, and the golden butter and fragrant cheese that are the Colony’s staples. We look to them for sustenance. There is nothing else on which to place implicit reliance. ’Tis true there are minerals and flax, both of which indigenes will tell tre'

mendously by-and-bye, if our coal measures obtain legislative fair play, and the people who are rushing the tiax market, just now, wisely make provision for tho future as well. Foresight is essential to the profitable conducting of the flax trade. At present flax is always with us ; by-aud-bye, like other things, it Will have its season, and the flax season will be as perspicaciously considered as the seasons for wool and grain. Indeed, the products of the soil demand intelligent supervision. The watchful eare of a master mind is something that it would be profitable to the Colony to provide and pay for. When economy of administration is in the ascendant, an economy we have advocated with no uncertain sound, it may, perhaps, appear inconsistent to recommend the creation of another department of the public service. But we have long been impressed by the official neglect of matters agricultural. There is a quasi supervision that provides returns, such as they are, but not a guiding and directing discernment capable of administering sound advice and instruction, not to all.who apply forit, but to all who need it; instruction transmitted through channels that must come within the cognisance of everyoue engaged iu agricultural pursuits- The recent lour of a Government instructor ia the art of dairying was a step in the right direction, but does not go far enough. What is really wanted is a permanent head to a small agricultural department—a thorough expert who would make it his business to become conversant with the lauds of the Colony from North to South, and to whom all, who liked, could apply for special advice on special questions.

It is time to forecast on the coming season and to calculate the chances" of the Colony in the world’s markets. How does New Zealand stand in that respect ? Our markets are those of Australasia and Europe. Any contingency deterimentaliy affecting the products of those parts is the gain of Now Zealand, and when they swell with plenty our opportunity is proportionately circumscribed. Arid therefore, while we can and do heartily rejoice in the good fortune of our neighbours and our faraway relatives in the North Atlantic, it is palpable to those who can see that the outlook of the coming season for grain at any rate is not so encouraging as it might be. Australia is promised an abundant harvest this year, and deserves no less after her direful experiences of the last one. Great Britain will, at least, have an average harvest, and the United States also. But an average harvest in Great Britain does not nearly provide for the wants of the teeming millions of the two islands, hence a market for us is still there, a market which even the surplus of an average harvest in “ The States ” will not satisfy. A good harvest in Australia means a very large margin for exportation after providing for home consumption—say, from half a million to six hundred thousand tons of grain. All this has to be transported across seas, and means a tremendous call upon the carrying trade. And we Bay there is every prospect of Australia finding herself in this agreeable predicament this coming season. Now, what are New Zealand’s prospects? So far as may be judged by early indication the coming season will be quite an average one. The lambing and wool returns will be good; dairies will overflow in due course ; the yield per acre for cereals will be as usual, and for the next twelve months, at any race, tho output of flax will increase. And more than this, there is still in store a great deal of last year’s wheat. Too many farmers missed the golden selling opportunity before the Australian market was swamped by Californian grain, and have bad to house their grain instead of banking it. This amounts to a colonial calamity, for, unless the outside demand next season is very much more brisk than we anticipate, the mingling of the old and new grain must have a depressing effect on prices. And in close connection with this there is another serious consideration to be entertained. Is reasonably sufficient over-sea transit being provided for; will it be possible to provide for it ? The Colony occupies a somewhat unique position in exporting more than it imports ; and, therefore, the tonnage that must come here with the execution of orders is palpably insufficient to take away all that is for sale. The Wellington district will have for esport, this year, in dairy

produce only, some fifty thousand casks of butter, and three or four hundred tons of cheese. The wool, and meat, and flax will be more abundant than ever, and will run into many thousands of tons. And as we showed the other day by a comparative statement the other main districts will be close upon Wellington’s heels in every thing/and will exceed her a little in one or two. Again we ask what about means of transit; who is taking steps to ensure a sufficiency, or is dependence to be merely placed in blind chance ? If Australia should have only five hundred thousand tons of grain „to send away, that would necessitate a fleet of vessels numbering 250, each of a carrying capacity of 2000 tons ; and, just too, at the nick of time when New Zealand’s surplus produce would be ready for shipment. It may not be forgotten, and Beriousiy tells against producers, how, when abundant tonnage was provided last .year for transit to Great Britain, producers here declined it and sent to Australia instead, on the chance of obtaining better prices. We did not think at the time that tho slight increase iu,price warranted giving the permanent, sure market in England the go-bye for the uncertain one in Australia. And results endorsed the doubts entertained by many others than ourselves. The Australian market was soon glutted, and the opportunity of shipment to England was lost. This season it will be all the other way. The greater dependence will, as it should be, be placed in the world’s market, and we hope that the owners of tonnage will keep New Zealand in mind, and remember there will be freightage in abundance here in three or four months. Merchants will understand that to be first in the market is great gain. Should New Zealand unfortunately be last the loss would be appalling. Andidiere is a chance of it if those most interested do not bestir themselves in time to provide shipping. In connection with dairy produce, frozen meat, and liar, we are constrained to reiterate admonition as to the vital necessity of unexceptionable quality; given this, and the result is as certain as any thing sublunar ean bo. Wherever the New Zealand products enumerated find their way they are bound to top the market. Nothing ean suppress or excel them. But even quality is dependent upon sagacity. He who “ plunges ” for the top of the market before selling, is sure to fall short. This was painfully demonstrated last season to many a toiling farmer. Moral: Don’t hold till the last moment, but sell on the rise.