THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam." DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 366, 21 February 1863, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam." DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21.

The amount of attention which is being given in the Australian colonies to the encouragement of colonial manufactures, should not be without its lesson to this colony. In Victoria, as in New Zealand, the discovery of gold has had the effect of monopolising the attention of the people, and it was not until the gold fields of Victoria began to show a declining yield that the natural resources of the country, for the growth and manufacture of valuable products, were, recognised as' a source of national prosperity, scarcely second to the production of gold itself. In a few years; very considerable strides have been made >'hv the direction of colonial manufactures' abJd .new industries. The cultivation of the £/vine ■ iri J Victoria and South Australia, and the manufacture of wines, which already occupy a good position in the market, have opened a field of wealth to the colonists which, in a few years, will no doubt result in the Australian Colonies becoming the great wine growers and suppliers of India and the South. In Queensland, the cultivation of cotton will, no doubt) result in the development of a colony, rivalling, in wealth and importance, the Southern States of America. Tobacco is proved to be as capable of successful cultivation and manufacture in almost every part of the Australian Continent, as in Virginia itself, the fabled wealth of whose planters will in time descend to our neighboring colonists. The cultivation of the silk worm, and the growth of the valuable products of the Indian Archipelago, will all in time be naturalised in Austra ia, and that Continent will in aftev generations be as much noted'for its superiority in these respects, as it has been for its' 7 golden I treasures. " ' ~ | The colonists, of New Zealand have not, certainly, the advantages of their neighbors in Australia. Except in the extreme North, the climate is unsuited to the growth of any. of the products for which the clim-ite of Australia is so peculiarly fitted. Future travellers in these islands will not have to commemorate in terms of rapture, either I teeming vineyards or fragrant tea plantationsj Neither cotton nor tobacco will figure among the exports of New Zealand, and the inhabij tants will always remain dependent on the more favored peoples of sunnier climes for most of their luxuries. But if New Zealand is poor in all these things, it has compensating advantages, and advantages which, if only duly availed of, will prove of equal^yalue. Setting aside the special product of gold, tlrere is not a mineral of importance but what is found in one part or other of the. colony. Take the .' Middle' Island alone. Its.,vast deposits of most valuable coal, planned 'in the'most available localities for shipment,, will become the suppliers of the ; steani fleets of the Pacific, and the parents of!i steam communication. Deposits .of copper, lead, and iron only wait the hand of the miner arid the mighty agency of steam to supply all the metallic requirements of the country;,, and vast forests of the finest timber point out New Zealand as the iuture shipbuilder of the • Southern hemisphere. , .

- Na!ure'has_beenbeneficent in ,the, supplyof -a-v*rrei;y-b cf-rnpst" valuable'plants.' Foremost amongst these •is the tall flag-like flax plant, which, .after having supplied for ages the' rude' wants of an uncivilised race, will become, in the hands of skilful artizans, a. product rivalling in importance the produce.of the flax fields of Russia or Belgium.- Dye woods of various colors and value are to be found-in every forest, side by side with trees whose .nature—painted and veined grains rival the famous woods of Central America; and from the ashes of the fallen timber and tangled scrub cut down by the hands of the pioneers of cultivation, can be eliminated valuable alkalies, which in their turn are agents in other important inmufactures. The .climate is peculiarly adapted for the development of a race maintaining all the robust health and vigorous energy of the energetic workers of Great Britain. Thus, with a people preserving undeteriorated the characteristics of their forefathers, and fitted to toil with the same relentless vigor— to become a race of workers in coal, iron, and the many other laborious industries which have built up England's greatness, there is no reason why New Zealand should not become the workshop of the Southern, as England id of the Northern Hemisphere.

In the development of these natural resources, upon which so much of the future prosperity of the colony will have to depend, the closest attention of the people should be given. Nature having provided so bountifully the necessary elements of prosperity, it remains for the active intelligence of man to cultivate and fashion themtothedesiredend. This task, however, in a new country, deprived of the mechanical resources and abundant labor of the mother country, is beset with many difficulties ; and it is all the more necessary that every encouragement should be afforded by the conservators of the public interests, to every enterprise having for its result the development of the natural resources of the country. To do this by imposing restrictions on outside competition—a system adopted in the case of other countries in the early stage of their development—has been proved to be productive of only a sickly, languid exertion, and would not tend to the desired end. But, by affording encouragement, towards providing facilities for meeting that competition,—by exciting and stimulating enterprise by rewards for successful skill—an impetus and emulative vitality would be created.

We will for the present take the single instance of the preparation of the Native flax. The Government of the Colony, alive to the mportance of the subject, has offered a handsome reward for its successful accomplishment. Although the required conditions have not as yet been fulfilled, it cannot^ be doubted that the attention thus excited to the subject has been productive of beneficial results. It has set the ingenuity on the colonists at .work; and from the results already obtained, we believe the successful achievment of the desired result is not far distant. But the Government reward should be supplemented by local encouragement. The Provincial Governments ought to offer additional inducements, either in the shape of ; money or a liberal provision for the cultivation of the plant; and by thus exciting an industrial rivalry, it is more than probable that the addition of flax as an article of profitable export, or local manufacture, would soon be accomplished. The commf rcial community, through their Chambers of Commerce, should second these means. Competitive exhibitions, and the liberal aid of the community to individual efforts, would soon result in the development of many industries, which lacking encouragement, would die unheard of. .