228 TEA AND SILK FAEMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



quite possible that the English and Scotch farmer's panacea of 

 " mitigated rents," and the Irish cure of ''no rents/' are power- 

 less to remedy the evil, and that the bane of the British farmer 

 lies elsewhere. We humbly think that high rents are not so 

 much to blame as the comparatively small size of the farms, the 

 lack of chemical knowledge on the part of cultivators and their 

 servants, insufficient capital, and the very partial use yet made 

 of both permanent and shifting machinery. It is not to be 

 wondered at, considering the average size of farms, that land- 

 lords object to the expense of adding to their fixed engines ; but 

 were half a dozen holdings thrown into one, and fitted with the 

 best machinery of the period, so as to tempt men of capital and 

 experience to embark in the business of farming over several 

 thousand acres, the rents might be safely increased and the 

 British farmer might again hold his own in the face of foreign 

 competition. Meanwhile what is to become of the smaller men 

 who shall have been displaced ? To this important query an 

 answer will be found in the last few pages of this essay. 



The third of the philanthropic objects the enterprise now advo- 

 cated has in view is that of attempting to wean the natives from 

 sloth, by opening up to them vistas of usefulness, in which they 

 might be engaged in a manner not uncongenial to their habits. 

 Some authorities who have been consulted think that there is 

 every hope of persuading the Maories to assist in industries 

 which, to native ideas, have nothing menial about them, espe- 

 cially as in a few districts they have already, to a small extent, 

 taken to sericiculture on their own account. Others unhesitat- 

 ingly condemn the aborigines as being utterly untrustworthy, and 

 that their labour, even if willingly given, would be dear at any 

 price. " The Maori is a noble specimen of man," said Sir Julius 

 Vogel, late Agent- General for New Zealand, addressing the 

 Eoyal Colonial Institute, London, on the 19th March 1878. 

 " The Maori was not an utter savage when we first knew him, 

 and it is far from improbable that he would have worked out 

 to a great extent his own civilisation. He wanted the know- 

 ledge that has been handed down to civilised man from past 

 ages. He was not without an appreciation of the value of 

 labour. The missionaries found him of a reverent nature, and 

 eager to imbibe their teachings. The wars which from time to 

 time desolated the colony threw the Maori back, for in time of 

 war, alas ! the sword is the only medium of education. . . . The 

 greatest efforts are now made to educate Maori children, and espe- 

 cially they are taught the English language." The Hon. Judge 

 Bathgate, of the Supreme Court, Dunedin, in his pamphlet on 

 the resources and prospects of ISTew Zealand, published by the 

 Messrs. Chambers in 1880, at page 18, says : — " The Maories 

 are now as quiet and orderly as their white neighbours. The 



