I.—lo.

18

see introduced into the colony the cork-tree, olives, prunes, almonds, and the castor-oil tree. A friend of mine from the Cape of Good Hope has told me that the ostrich feather industry would do very well in the colony He tells me that it has been found extremely profitable at the Cape ;in fact, ostrich farming is a mine of wealth there to many people. A young ostrich of only one week old is worth £10, and £20 a year can be made on the average from each full-grown bird. He states that they are cheaply and easilv kept, but that they must have ample ground to run over. It would take a considerable amount of money to start ostrich-farming ; but there would be no difficulty whatever about that if the thing was only begun and set going. The same gentleman states, too, that Angora goats are most valuable property I have also always thought myself that the distilling business ought never to have been stopped "in the colony If we are going to drink grog, I say we may as well make it ourselves as import it. Then, again, we do now make bells in the colony, but it is a singular fact that while a fire-bell has to pay duty a church-bell comes in free. There should, in my opinion, be the same duty on church-bells as on fire-bells —they should be both on the same footing. I think, also, protection should be given to gas machinery and apparatus, wood and iron lasts, kiln tiles and fillers, iron grates, baskets, and several other things. Canary seed —all bird seeds, in fact —coriander seeds, and a number of others we could supply ourselves with if they were a little protected. Those are the things which, I think, ought to be protected; and, I think, the things that ought to be encouraged are tobacco-growing, sugar-production from beet or sorghum, the growing of the American hickory, elm, and ash ; the introduction and growing of the cork tree, olives, prunes, almonds, the mulberry, the date-palm, the walnut, chestnut, liquorice-root, the castor-oil plant, the caper shrub, aniseeed, saffron, and several others. And, as I said before, I think our distilling should be done in the country; and, I may add, that, after what he told me, I fully agree with the opinions of the gentleman I have referred to as to ostrich-farming here ; so much so that, were a company or an association formed to undertake it, I would take shares in it myself. And I think, too, he is right as to the introduction of the Angora goat. Ido not know that I have anything further to add, as I believe what I have just said includes, briefly, all I adduced to the Committee when before it a few weeks ago.

Captain Colbeck's statement. Captain Colbeck made the following statement: My object in calling attention to the culture of the olive is the fact that I see that our woollen and worsted manufactories, and, in fact, all manufactories of woollen goods, will be at a deadlock, or will at least suffer inconvenience, for want of olive-oil. From information that, I have been able to obtain, and from having been engaged in the importation of olive-oil, I am quite certain that the growing of the olive-tree and manufacture of olive-oil can be most successfully carried on in this country It is not generally known that over two ounces of olive-oil is used in the manufacture of every pound of wool made into cloth or worsted fabrics. It is almost exclusively used in England for lubricating purposes, and is the best-known article for manufacturing soap for cleaning wool before the manufacture of cloth commences. As an article of food, it is of so much importance that it is said, and, I believe, correctly, that more oil is used in the City of Naples for food alone than is imported into England for manufacturing purposes. So large is the quantity used in England, that I have imported into that country 1,000 tuns a year, and have also bought large quantities from other importers. It is a singular quality of olive-oil that, mixed with wool, it does not produce spontaneous combustion, as do most other oils. In the earlier days of the manufacture of cloth in the old country, before (dive-oil was easily obtainable, rape and palm-oils were used. Palmoil came in at a much later date than rape-oil; but both would produce spontaneous combustion if the wool with whi.h it, was mixed was not put in process of manufacture within a short time after such mixing had taken place. Rape-oil would be more likely to produce combustion at an early date than palm-oil. Then- are few oils free from an offensive smell, and this smell is not easily extracted from the cloth after manufacture. If, for instance, fish-oils were used, it would be found impossible to eradicate the smell from the cloth after manufacture in the scouring or cleansing process ; but olive-oil is entirely free from this objection. Such oils as I saw used at Mosgiel were, in my opinion, not only dangerous, but the after-effects 1 fancy I detected in the handling of the cloths. My opinion is that nearly all the New Zealand cloths and varns are injuriously affected by the inferior oil used, as may be discovered from the soft slimy feel in most of them, lacking the crispness of the English-manufactured cloths, in which olive-oil is more generally used. The value of the washings of the cloths, after the use of olive-oil, is very considerable. It is used for making scented soaps, and the residuum, after taking off the oily particles, is very valuable as a manure. The process of expressing the oil from the olive is very simple. It may be said to be a domestic manufacture ; and the industry would give employment to a considerable number of people, in the gathering of the olives, expressing the oil, and preserving the fruit. In fact, the value of a small oli^jgrove to our children would be a fortune. I believe that in the future we shall be large producers of that valuable commodity—(dive-oil, for colonial manufactures and for export lam convinced that we ought to be the largest woollen manufacturing country in the Pacific. I believe the olive can be successfully grown north of Gisborne ; but it can be grown, I think, as far south as Napier, where I feel sure the commoner sorts will succeed admirably, while in the North the very best varieties can be grown. By the commoner sorts I mean such as would produce oil for woollen manufactories, for the manufacturing of soap, and for lubricating and other purposes.

APPENDIX. JAMS AND PRESERVING FRUITS. Mr. S. Kirkpatrick to the Chairman, Colonial Industries Committee. Sir— Wellington, 27th July, 1881. As you requested me this morning to state in writing what I consider necessary for the successful establishment of the jam-manufacturing industry in New Zealand, I beg respectfully to lay before you my views on the subject.