NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner, October, 27.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 446, 10 November 1849, Page 3

NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner, October, 27.]

The present moment seems well suited for us to return again to the subject of steam <iOK.raunica.tion in this colony. The recent vote of £1000 by the General Council, and the promise of Sir George Grey to add to -that sum the cost of the Government brig, making together £2800 a-year, which the will be willing to give far the conveyance of the mails by' steam between the -different settlements, is an inducement which should not be disregarded by the trustees of the Nelson Trust Funds, should the next arrival from England, which may be looked for in the course of a week or two, bring -us the .positive intelligence that the Company is prepared to pay over to our Trust Board, when the amount of the funds which are; due' to the settlement. Since we wrote upon this subject last December, when we furnished, to the best of our ability, an estimate of the probable receipts and expenditure of a steamer of about 300 tons, to be employed in our inter-colonial trade, circumstances have shown that the amount of traffic we then calculated such a vessel weuld .command was not overstated, while we have never yet heard it said that our •calculation oC expenses was, to any material •extent, below what would be the actual cost. Without going again into all the details, which we have already twice published, we may briefly state that our estimate of the expenses of a vessel of 300 tons, with two 50-horse power engines, running to and from Nelson, Taranaki, Manukau (Aucklaud), and Wellington, twice every month, including insurance and every other charge, was about £5800 a-year, and that we estimated the receipts at £7000, which, supposing both tables were verified by experience, would give a nett yearly profit of 1200, besides paying an interest of 5 per cent, on the capital invested. But we never pretended that the calculations in question were more than a rough approximation to the probable results, and we were prepared to allow the receipts to be reduced to the amount of actual expenditure, and even to sacrifice the interest on the capital invested, which we had set down at £500 a-year, looking to the advancement of the general welfare of the settlement as the true and solid gain. But in our calculations of probable receipts, the assistance we assumed would be rendered by the Government was only £1500 a-year, whereas the Governor, in his anxiety to promote an undertaking which would so largely benefit the colony, has promised a yearly bonus of £2800 to a steamer willing to convey the mails, so that here is a gain of £1300, which we had not calculated upon. Let us consider the probable amount of coasting freight which a steamer would obtain that should unite together, as it were, all the present isolated settlements of the colony. For the various articles of grain, flour, potatoes, beer, timber, dairy and garden produce, salt pork, fat cattle and sheep, and general merchandise, we gave the sum of £4500. Before us lies a return printed in the Government Gazette, giving the amount of imports into Auckland for the quarter ending the sth July, 1849, which shows, that at the rates of freight calculated by us (flour £1 a ton; cattle £1 a head, add sheep 2s. 6d. each) on the three articles of flour, cattle, and sheep alone, supposing we had the supplying of the Auckland market, there would have been received in one quarter £831, which is more than onesixth of our calculation of freight for thd year for the trade of all the settlements. Of course we do not mean to argue that we could, under any circumstances, monopolize the Auckland or any other market, but by the aid of steam we are satisfied that we could undersell other colonies in what we emphatically would then call our home market ; for we anticipate no such very decided preference towards the producers of New South Wales and Van Diemen's* Land as would induce our fellow-colo-nists, north or south, to prefer drawing their supplies from them, rather than from their own settlements at a reduction of price. If, during the present year, it has paid to send grain from Nelson to Sydney, where it may have been transhipped again to Auckland, making two voyages of upwards of a thousand miles each, with all expenses doubled, and then to bear an import duty of 10 per cent., it is clear enough that the same produce sent direct to Auckland from here (a distance of less than 300 miles), unburthened by any import duty, and only subjected to one set of charges, might be made to pay us much better, and yet afford to undersell the foreign

producer. Nor does this argument apply to bread, stuffs, and such articles alone. Even live stock — fat cattle and sheep — might be sent from the Wairau to Auckland by steam, to the mutual advantage of the colonial breeder and consumer, notwithstanding the comparative little value of stock in Mew South Wales. What with the frequent scarcity of Jodder in Australia, the losses and suffering which so frequently occur to stock on the voyage to New Zealand, and consequently, the lovr coaditiort in which they are generally landed, it is rarely that imported cattle are fit for the butcher for several months after their arrival, and in the north, from the scarcity of pasturage, at least within a reasonable distance of Anckland, we believe it is seldom that really any prime meat graces their stalls. But suppose such ripe stock as we have seen put on board vessels leaving our harbour for Wellington could be sent in a few hours to Auckland, or indeed to any other port in the colony, without injury, or losing an ounce of flesh, would not such meat command a sale there ? Undoubtedly it would. The increase of the stock in this settlement alone is now advancing at so rapid a rate, that any question of the ability of the colony to supply itself with animal food cannot be raised, and importations from New South Wales, except for breeding purposes, shold be discontinued, as to longer continue them will be only to rob the colony of so much capital. By the end of this year, our cattle will number probably 5000 head, and our sheep 55,000. The want of a market has not been felt by us so severely yet as it is likely to be soon. The male stock for a time was kept down by our own consumption, and nearly all being bred in the colony, no consieerable number were allowed to reach the age which brings perfection, and when, if longer kept, it is at a loss to the breeder, The reverse is vow the case, and as runs become stocked, the want of a market for steers and wethers will be more strongly felt. It is therefore no less the interest of the stockowner than of the farmer, to get a home market for our produce, where every advantage will be in our favour, instead of driving us to seek for it in Sydney and elsewhere, to compete at a disadvantage with the older colonies of New i South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.