THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9887, 19 April 1893, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

With which are incorporated the Wellington Independent, established 1815, and the New Zealander,

In the paucity of their products the agriculturists of New Zealand ought to recognise an evil which threatens their future. In the fulness of their courage and prudence they should find a remedy. We are all too painfully familiar with the dreadful position occupied by wool and wheat in the markets of the world. Before the latter there is an immense future, guaranteed hy the fact that in ten years the United States will cease to export, and before twenty are over will be an importer. But this roseate future is hidden behind a curtain nearly two decades thick, and for the present the New Zealand wheat-grower has to make his living out of half a crown a bushel. He is doing it, but ho grumbles ; occasionally he is even heard to whisper a preference for the sustenance which lives on the ‘smell of an oiled rag ’ Wool, on the other hand, has, like wheat, the present basis of terrible prices, and, unlike that more fortunate cereal, has not not the same prophecies of a grand future to rely upon. For oar part wo think the prophets have neglected a fine opportunity for vaticination. It has long ago been remarked that the human race in the world is growing faster than the ovine. The enormous increases in Argentina and Australasia of sheep are periodically checked hy droughts and floods, while the increase of the humm consumers of wool is steadily uniform. Part of the climate of the United States is undoubtedly good for the growth of wools of many varieties ; but when Americans are importing wheat from Now Zealand to help feed their 200 millions, it is pretty safe to prophesy that then they will likewise be importing wools, and possibly woollens from these shores. But for the present this future is hit off by the old Scotch proverb about tbo ‘ Far cry to L' ch Awe.’ The story of the last ten yeirs of prices ruling for Australasian wool is simply appalling. In 1883 84 —we quote from the Hauling and Insurance Jiecord the total production was 1,112,000 bales, valued at Ll 6 each ; in 1892-93, ten years afterwards, the bales had increased to 1,810,000, and the price had fallen to Ll2- an increase of 05 per cent in the quantity, accompanied by a loss of 25 per cent in the average value. The figures have their bright side, however, for they disclose the” really remarkable fact that the enormous increase of 65 per cent did not throw quantities of wool out of use. The whole supply was absorbed, at a price. The steady fall and fluctuations of the price is a very remarkable feature of the history of the decade. The stages are thus marked on the table of years beginning with 1883 84—L1C, 1.11, LI3J, Ll 4, LI3J, Llsl, LI4J, LI3I, Ll2, Ll2. As wool is just now in brisker demand, there is some room for hope of a return to better prices. Fur nothing is so clear in the table as the fact that each depression is followed by a rise, showing that the increased use produced by low prices .effects an increase in prices with tolerable rapidity. We are inclined to believe in the words of a settler of olden days who was wont to conclude all controversies about the wool market with the oracular statement that so long as the wind blows and the snn shines and the rain falls, so long will Australasian wool, flourish in the markets of the world. Just now, however, the price is unmistakably bad ; the worst on record in the half century of this remarkable trade. So is the price for wheat. These facts are unpleasant. They make one think. Some one who thinks to some purpose wrote the other day to an newspaper the result of his had taken the shape of the rather curious statement that it is more profitable to produce silk in Australia than wool. This meant merely that an acre devoted to silkworms will produce considerably more than an acre given up to sheep. In that sense there is nothing more in the statement than there is in any other ingeniously handled truism What was more to the purpose in the letter was that the climate and soil of parts of Aus tralia had, been proved by experience to be remarkably favourable for sericulture. The remnant of the unfortunate expedition of the Marquis ds Rae, which was sent under false pretences to the islands of New Britain, a few years ago, found its way to New South Wales. About one hundred families were seitled in a loca tion on the Clarence River, now known as New Italy, and there they set to work upon, amongst other pursuits, the cultivation of ailkwor.es. They found that the mulberry trees bear edible leaves the first year after planting instead of in the third as in Italy, and that the mortality amongst the worms is actually nil, though in Italy and Franco the annual loss is not leas than 20 per cent. These are the best conditions obtainable for sericulture. New Zealand has algo tried the industry, nnd has discovered that most of the North Island and a portion of the South Island are as well suited for sericulture as any part of the world. The yield per acre is computed variously at from L 24 to L 54 per acre. It depends, of course, on the number of mulberries an acre will carry, and that depends on the quality of the acre. One estimate declares that an acre producing 80001 b of leaves will rear worms enough to produce 401 b of raw silk, which at 27a per lb gives L 64 ; another estimate places the yield of silk at half a crown a tree, and considers 800 trees a fair average for an acre, thus getting L 25. Here is what in continental Europe is called ‘small culture,’ and the statistics of commerce tell us that there are millions iu it. A very little teaching and a very .little supervision ought to enable the small settlers of tbo West Coast and the Northern valleys to odd half a million pounds’ worth of silk to the exports of Now Zealand. There is no reason why in three years the silk export should not bo equal to the kauri gum export. For the small settlor the industry is belter than wheat, or wool, or fruit-growing ; it is safe, of unliniited capacity, and appeals to a steadier market.