VITICULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1263, 14 May 1896, Page 7

VITICULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.

The six-year-old wino from the vineyard of Messrs Williams and Beetham at Masterton received on Saturday very high commendation from a number of visitors well qualified to give an opinion. They pronounced the wine to be indistinguishable from the best wino produced in the favoured districts of tho Continent of Europe. Wo will not take this literally, because tho results of centuries of experience and patient study are not to bo overtaken in a single bound. We take tho verdict of the connoisseurs who gave it as ! a graceful expression of appreciation which the ordinary cordial rule of hospitality stretched a little over the lino of exaggeration. Wo take it, at the O <imo time, as perfectly honest as well as competent testimony to the fact that this wine made in New Zealand is fit to stand comparison with tho wines that have been famous for centuries. That is tho most important fact in tho short history of New Zealand viticulture. The fact is that wino has been made in New Zealand, and is being made, which is of a quality fairly comparable with the prod net of vineyards of E uropean distinction. Other wines have been mado in the country, in Napier and in tho districts north of Auckland. They have received a meed of admiration from connoisseurs, and some, like the wines of Meaneo, find regular sale at fairly remunerative prices. But none have received such a testimonial as the wine from the famous Wairarapa vineyard. That, if wo may use such an expression, is the present high-water mark of f New Zealand vintages. Hero is an industry growing up quietly amongst us, with enormous possibilities of development. It offers moro gold to the poor volcanic soils of the North than lies buried in all tho mineral deposits under tho surface, The prosperity it holds out is

a permanent prosperity, not like the prosperity which draws millions for investment and tens of millions for speculation, and is at most a thing of years. Tho goldmines of Spain are memories, but the vintages of Spain, of which the miners who havo been dust for 2000 years drank, are still drunk with delight by millions of men, at prices which maintain populations in comfort. It is ono of the most potent of all the aids required to keep alivo small settlement, which must depend on the ever vigilant, well-trained industry of a peasant proprietary. It is, therefore, a great argument for the only land policy which promises to solve the problem of making this Colony carry the population it ought,ts carry. It behoves New Zealand to take up this industry, and do all things for it by which its practice may be mado perfect throughout the land ; or thoso parts of it which are fitted for it by nature. We do not want ono vineyard of four acres, wo want thousands of them, and wo require vast establishments for treating tho grape crops of whole districts. As there are butter factories for dealing with i the milk of their districts, so there ought to bo wino factories for the grapes. Capital is wanted, and co-operation of labour and of science. Given these bases, : Now Zealand must, with her propitious climate and favourable soil, raise a proi digious industry of most comfortable profit. Tho State is on tho right track. It has a law which closes tho ports against vino disease; it has got an expert report (that of Signor Bragato) second to none—full of practical information of the utmost value ; it lias exports who givo part of their much occupied time to those who want to study the subject. All this is at tho utmost a, mere beginning ; and not altogether a good beginning, because the law which keeps out phylloxera requires amendment so that it shall admit what it now oxcludos, viz., cuttings of tho bust vines from tho host wino countries. An establishment is wanted like tho famous Californiau establishment at Berkeley. It is under scientific care, the host informed talent is engaged in investigating by experiment all tho properties of all possible varieties of tho {vine, their adaptability for various soils, the best methods of cultivating them, everything knowablo about them. The placo is open to any man who wants to make enquiries. Ho is told in a few moments what grapo (if any) his soil is, from its chemical constituents, best fitted to grow, what sort of tilth is required, what, in a word, he has to learn and to do to grow good grapes for cither tho table or the cellar. That establishment lias been found most useful, thousands of acres of vineyard having come into profitable being under its guidance. What has boon done on the Pacific slope can bo done in New Zealand. Information is also wanted of tho grapo cultivation in wintorless countries, such as Madeira, Teneriffo, tho Canary Islands and some of the Mediterranean wine countries. Tho few exports in this pait of the world are men of French, Swiss and Rhenish experience. Knowledge is wanted of the treatment of tho vino under tho more stimulating climatic conditions which tho absence of the long European winter implies. Thero is experience of that kind in Australia, of course, but it cannot be so extended or so long tried as that of the countries referred to. Wo commend tho matter to tho Agricultural Department.