NEW CALEDONIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7191, 4 March 1885, Page 3

NEW CALEDONIA.

STATE 01? THE COLONY,

The Neo Caledonian of the 28th of January draws a very gloomy picture of the condition of the Colony, which, it asserts, is less advanced than it was 10 years ago, and the expectations of progress and prosperity which were then entertained, have all been dissipated. Nothing remains but doubt and apprehensions, which, it is to be feared, may be changed into frightful certainties. The year 1884 was a disastrous-one, and an unprecedented drought has filled up the cup of the community's misfortunes. The mines, are being closed one after another. Operations have ceased in those of cobalt and antimony, leaving numbers of liberated convicts without employment and without food; the copper, mines in the north have been abandoned, depriving that district of an important source of well-being; and when the nickel-minea cease working there will be from £7000 to £8000 a month withdrawn from circulation. Agriculture is at its last gasp. The decree of August 16, abolishing free immigration, dealt it a heavy blow, and the drought promises to complete its ruin. The cultivation of maize and haricots is no longer remunerative, coffee-planting cannot be pursued for the want of suitable labour, and sugar • growing is impracticable for the same reason. As to cattle breeding and grazing, which 10 years ago were a fortune to the country, they are now ita ruin. Production has far outstripped consumption. Stock has fallen bo low in price that boiling down has been resorted to; pigs are being fed on the carcasses of sheep and, in the absence of feed and water, a mortality has broken out among cattle which threatens to become dangerouß to the public health. Should the orisis continue, it ib alleged, the graziers will be glad to give away their herds to be disembarrassed of them ; or a time may come when they will be obliged to burn them. In short, the outlook is described as being a gloomy one for the f armor, the miner, the grazier, the planter, and the trader; and it is declared that the only remedy for this disastrous state of things is the annexation of the New Hebrides. THE MOBTALITY IN 'CATTLE. Great uneasiness iB being occasioned by the mortality in cattle resulting from drought. It is increasing daily. One settler at Kone is loßing 12 head per day, and between Ouameni and Noumea the putrefying carcasses are extremely numerous. Numbers of flies feeding on them become venomous, and many cases have occurred in which human beings bitten by them have sustained serious if not fatal injuries. In one place the Government has found it necessary to pay a settler £1 a head to burn his cattle; and this is a higher price than they are selling at. Unlesß preventive measures of this kind are promptly adopted, it ia feared an epidemic will break out.