MR VLENTINE'S PAPER ON COLONIAL PRODUCTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 224, 28 May 1896, Page 3

MR VLENTINE'S PAPER ON COLONIAL PRODUCTS.

Towards the end of iVUrch Mr C. R. Valentine, whose short-lived connection with New Zealand as its chief dairy expert will still be fresh in the memory, of our readers, read a comprehensive paper before the Foreign and Colonial Section of the Society of Arts. The paper was entitled "The Colonies and the Supply of Dairy Produce and Products of Petite Culture," and it dealt very exhaustively with the supply of the food products named. Mr Valentine emphasises the importance of the trade by pointing out that while the population of the United Kingdom has increased within the last 15 years from 34| millions to 40 millions, Home production has done nothing towards feeding the new mouths. The increase in number, also, has been coincident with a general rise in the standard of living among the working classes. These causes have created a demand which the Home producer is admittedly "unable to meet, and it so happens also that the colonies from the peculiarity of their circumstances as well as because they had reached a suitable point in their development, began to pour their products into the United Kingdom. There are certain advantages which the colonies possess. The chief of these is that they can excel any European country in the production of ''the articles named. They can supply grass-fed butter, summer fruits, and spring chickens when the north temperate zone is in the depth of winter. The colonist has cheap land and favourable climatic conditions, bat

he has to contend with dear labour and freights, and Until recently had to introduce his products to the market and to batfcle against uneven distribution. There is still much room, Mr Valentine says, for improvement in distribution, and producers should not consider London the only market. Around Birmingham, in South Staffordshire, in the Lancashire cotton towns, in the mining and iron districts, and in West and South Yorkshire there is a vast consuming population composed of wellpaid earnei's whose standard o£ living opens a large field for the consumption of colonial products. "The produce should not be gambled with, and the consignments might be sent direct to the large consuming centres," says Mr Valentine. He also thinks the freight is unnecessarily heavy from the absence of organisation in shipments and*, consequent want of uniformity in bulk and sequence o£ delivery. He states as a fact that owing to this the cold storage capacity of the vessels that actually sail is little more than half availed of, and,, basing his calculation at per sheep carcase, estimates that where vessels make Bix journeys four would have sufficed. It will have been observed that $he whole question is to be taken up by the National Dairy Association at a conference to be held in Dunedin on June 9, and we shall take an early opportunity of dealing with the proposals to be then submitted. With such preliminary remarks Mr Valentine deals separately with each article. Having shown that the import of butter to the Kingdom in 1895 was 2,825,682cwt, valued at i£14,245,*230, and that this was nearlya million hundredweight more than it was six years previously, he asserts that Denmark, which .had increased the export in a greater proportion than any other country, cannot continue at this rate of progression, and that when the next increase of a million hundredweight is recorded, Australasia will be found to claim the largest share. Britain may hold her own in the production of specially choice cheese and butter, but in " ordinary finest " the Home producer cannot possibly compete with the colonial. Sir Valentine deals most exhaustively with the rise and progress of the dairy industry in JNew Zealand, telling his audience that it is still only in its infancy. In this connection he is lavish in his praise of work done by the Department of Agriculture in .the matter of spreading information, and in procuring the various enactments dealing with dairying and exportation. " And," he continues, " despite all New Zealand has done, it is in the infancy of its productiveness, for of every IJ3OO acres of its area only i 22 have been brought under cultivation ; I and its cultivated area under crop is 1,250,000 acres, or little more than the total acreage under crops of the West ■ riding of Yorkshire." He predicts for ! New Zealand pre-eminence in the supply of cheese because of the exceptionally favourable conditions. Already it fetches top prices, and he quotes a remark of a Cheshire cheesemaker who pointed out that the competitor Cheshire farmers had the most to fear in future was New Zealand. !It is a very nattering picture that iis drawn by Mr Valentine o£ New Zealand's productiveness and the energy and ability of its people. Though he deals with each of the • colonies in the same exhaustive way, jit is for this colony he reserves his eulo fo s, and speaking as an acknowledged expert to an audience

presumably well informed and infiueu- | tial, it cannot but be believed that his | address will have a wide and beneficial influence, since it must be brought under the notice of many who would gladly escape from the depression that hangs like a pall on the agricultural industry in the UnitedKingdomtothe more wholesome conditions in the colonies, especially New Zealand. Of course Mr Valbntinb says nothing new in the foregoing. " Anyone who chooses may have access to import tables, and ascertain for himself the position held by New Zealand in the produce trade with the Kingdom. It is when lie goes pn to deal with the products of petite culture that he indicates branches not yet fully explored by New Zealand, and in which this colony ought to enter without delay. He barely alludes ..to the bacon industry, which ought to be, but is not yet, a most valuable adjunct to dairying; but he deals more fully with poultry and eggs. The British farmer neglects his poultry yard as a source of profit, and the colonial does the same. Yet there is an almost boundless market for poultry in England, and it is becoming more clamorous every day. Almost every cottager in New Zealand might earn considerable sums in poultry raising without any special skill, and with very little labour. England pays for imported poultry upwards of half a million sterling a year, and in 1895 New Zealand received £1009. Yet fat fowls realise in spring from 5s to 7s 6d each, and the price never gets below 2s 6d. These are artificially fattened, of course, but the operation is one of extreme simplicity and involves the expenditure of little capital. The poultry industry is worth £2,000,000 a year to so small a country aa Belgium. According to Mr Valentine what the colonies must look to ia to provide for the spring trade in England, and also for the cargo bird trade at Christmas. Victoria is leading the way among the colonies, and last year drew £5000 from England for poultry. Poultry raising is -an industry especially suitable for small settlements, and it is ■to be desired , that it should receive e^-ly attention. Mr Valentine also indicts, large returns to the colonies from the export of" rabbits, and quite joyfully expatiates on the possibility of converting this curse into a blessing by the export of edible rabbits to England. Colonial rabbits fetch a shilling each at Home, frozen, and with the skin on. We should, however, regret to see a large expansion in the export trade in rabbits, as it would undoubtedly tend to the perpetuation of the nuisance. Mr Valentine appears to have gained but a superficial view of the magnitude of the evil in New Zealand, since he dismisses it thus curtly : — " In New Zealand the rabbit has been equally a pest, and is energetically dealt with. The natural enemies, the stoat and the weasel, have been let loose upon him, the Maoi'is and others are paid so much for his skin, aud other means have been largely practised. The pest appears to be held in check" The italics are oura. We could follow Mr Valentine at much greater length in dealing with the fruit, honey, wine, and tobacco industries, but space at present forbids.

Stoddard's Port-folios OF PHOTOGRAPHS Of FAMOUS CITIES, SCENES, and PAINTINGS, No. XV Contains :— Santa Lucia, Naples > Yezo Hen, Japan Ihe Petrawslri Palace, The Citadel, Cairo, Moscow, Russia ISpypt Batfleof Uiv<>H, Gallery The Capitol, Rome of Battles, Versailles Mosque of Suttan, AchPanor'nia of Seville met, Constantinople, from the Giralda, Tur.rey Spain - La Guaira, Venezuela Govurnnent House, Gunna junto, Mexico Calrutta, India Ihrune Room, BuckingKacßicJf, ludia ham Palace, London Chve strefct, Calcutta Pej-nsylvauia Aviinue, Excursion Bouts on the Washington, D.C. Kile, Egypt Price, Sixpence ; posted, Bd. PRBGT©SI & OKS^SBY, Staffoed and Pkinces stueets, Dunedin.