The Wanganui Chronicle AND TURAKINA AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. WANGANUI November 30, 1864.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 8, Issue 457, 30 November 1864, Page 3

The Wanganui Chronicle AND TURAKINA AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. WANGANUI November 30, 1864.

The meeting* at Turakina on Thursday last week, though not in itself of a very important kind, is interesting as the first which the Turakina Agricultural Association has held and as the beginning of a revolution in agricultural matters in this neighbourhood. We auger so much from the character of the directors, who are gentlemen engaged in the practical application of those theories which the Association has been formed to test, and occupied personally in the prosecution of the work which it is the object of the Association to foster and encourage. Thus formed, and having an able and zealous secretary (that office-bearer being in a great measure the life aud soul of such associations) we have great hope that this Society will be a permanent o,ne, and will be productive of much benefit, to the district. While there can be no doubt that the results hitherto of extensive agricultural operations with the view of raising cereal crops has not been encouraging, and that the attention devoted to pastoral pursuits is meanwhile much more and more certainly remunerative ; it yet becomes a question of great interest whether some improvement might not be made in the mode of raising grain crops which would equalise the profit and on an average make the plough as profitable as the fleece. For the satisfactory solution of this question we look to such an Association as that lately instituted at Turakina. It seems not at all a desirable thing that this district of country, so favourably situate as regards soil and climate for the growth of all kinds of cereals, should 3 7 et be dependent for the supply of its own population, with the staff of life on such countries as South Australia or Victoria, where an acre of ground scarcely yields one half of the grain that is produced here. There surely must be some mode of accounting for this anomalous state of matters and for remedying it. This year there is not perhaps a breadth of more than 100 acres laid down in wheat throughout the whole district for the supply of a' population exceeding 4,000, and. consequently the money made in the district must be sent out of it for the purchase of this indispensable commodity ; and this at a time too when wheat is at a famine price, and when if ever there is a fair prospect of a good price for grain brought early into the market. The principal cause of this state of things is not indeed far to seek. It is the difficulty of obtaining hands for the various processes of agriculture. This at least is the principal reason ; and to the remedy for this difficulty it behoves the Turakina Agricultural Association to direct its attention. The advantages or disadvantages of tlie employment of improved machinery in the process of agriculture is a subject which must early claim their attention. Is the want of meu co be supplied by their inti’oduetion, or by the importation of steamploughs aud the best machinery for reaping and threshing? Oris the difficulty to be removed by the adoption of both of these means 1 The great object to be sought is the reduction of the cost of production ; and if the Association can point,out how this is to be done, and can lead the way in doing it, it will confer inestimable benefit on the community. Another cause of- the diminution of agricultural operations in this disti'icts is the uncertainty that has hitherto attended them. The fiuctuacions.of price, and still more the sudden changes in the weather, have disappointed and disgusted many of our ablest and most extensive agriculturists and have led to the almost total disuse of the., plough except for the purpose of breaking up land for the sowing of grass. The former cause of uncertainty—the variation of prices—is one which peculiarly affects small districts such as this ; but still grain ought to be produced here to bear the cost of transport to Wellington, just as easily as it is grown in Canterbury affa price to allow of its being shipped to Wanganui, The latter cause is probably the much more generally influential ; and it becomes agricultural associations to institute a series of experiments as to the proper seasons for the different agricultural operations on the different kinds of soil. The question to be determined is whether the uncertainties attending the raising df grain crops from atmospheric influences might not be greatly reduced by the adoption of different periods' for sowing from those generally occupied in this way. We trust that though the Turakina Agricultural Association canuot hold another ploughing match for ten months, at which time also a cattle show will bo

held, it will at its intervening meetings discuss -such subjects as have been indicated above, and engage a number of its members in a series of experiments for the purpose of ascertaining whether niore attractive prizes in the shape of regular yearly golden crops, cannot be held out to the holder of the plough, than the t£p or the i? 10 note which a well drawn furrow puts in his pocket.' Both incentives to improvement are good ; but the former must be the more lasting and influential.

The despatch of artillery •sand of reinforcements to the several foot regiments now in this country, which is announced by the last mail, shows that the Government does not look upon the war here as one which ought to be concluded without some definite assurance that peace when proclaimed will be lasting, or as one which the latest accounts it had received rendered likely to be finished without a further appeal to physical force. In this matter it has judged rightly, and much more to tl?e point than some of its employes nearer the scene of action, and who therefore ought to have beeu more accurately aware of what the necessities of the case i*equired. That it has judged rightly is evidenced by the deaf ear which the natives have turned to the Governoi‘’s offer of peace —an offer the clemency of which could not well have been surpassed by the most ardent lover of peace, or the warmest admirer of the Maoris. Even the greatest enemy of these people must regret that they are so blind to their own interests, and so confident in their own resources, as to reject with scorn the overtures that have been made to them. But the,Home Government,notwithstanding its neted leaning -towards them, has understood that the feeling which prompted these people in their resistance to the conquest of the Waikato and to the advanced a force into the country from Tauranga was not to be quelled except by sharp and decisive measures. It is evideut also that it is not under the influence of that huckstering spirit which has been attributed to it ; and that whatever may be the demands made upon the colony for payment of the expences of the war, these demands will not be pressed further than a regard to justice and equity will allow. Our case requires only to be properly represented to ensure the certaiutv of its meeting with a fair and equitable adjustment. If a requisition has been made for the additional assistance now on its way, that requisition has been complied with without delay and without question. If no demand was made for the Home Government has rightly interpreted the emergency and at ouce resolved to meet it. This prompt rendering cf assistance shews that however equivocally despatches may be worded, to interpret them in a naiTOw sehce unfavourable to the interests of the colony is unjust to those who have the conduct of Hew Zealand affairs in downing St. While the Governor's proclamation was prompted by' the despatches, which seemed to him to convey- a desire to settle the war on almost any terms, the advice of the Whitaker Ministry and the'- voice of the General Assembly will be strengthened and made irresistible by this practical comment on the despatches. Whatever may he the principle on which the expences of the war are adjusted, it seems pretty clear that for the additional expenditure occassioned by the delay in active operations during the last six months for which the Governor alone is responsible, and by any other delays in the conduct of the war, of which it can he shown that the Ministry did not approve, the Colony cannot be held liable. But there will pei’haps be no need to condescend on such particulars. There must always be two parties to a bargain, aud as the Home Government made no bargain at the time of entering on the war for a certain proportion of its expences being paid by the Colony, much less can it now insist on the colony paying lor what it did not approve, but could not prevent because the Governor alone Had the control of the forces, and he acted in many respects differently from the course advised by his Ministers and desired by the conn try. In respect to these matters we shall receive further information from the statements of the Ministry and the papers laid before the House ; but meanwhile it is satisfactory to think that if we have a Governor who has not comprehended the spirit and intentions of the natives ; and who has suspected nothing opposed to his wishes and predilections ; the Home Government, taking a more comprehensive survey of the position, has, with less to guide them in respect to facts but with a more accurate prescience of what might be expected from tribes not i merged from barbarism, and coming

under the influence of a superstition moulded to suit their circumstances, and to inspire them with a determination to resist to the last, suited its action to its understanding of the condition of affairs, and has at once sent the necessary reinforcements to the military force in this colony, convinced apparently that its withdrawal at the early period previously fixed upon was not to be looked for.