240 TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



hand a sufificiency of food for the infant colony wherever it 

 might be planted would be felt, and an ever-increasing supply 

 of both juvenile and adult labour for emergencies would be 

 secured. 



Is Chaseeicultuee IN 1\EW Zealand likely to Pay? 



The last, although perhaps not the least, important inquiry 

 connected with the proposal to farm tea and silk in Xew Zealand 

 — Will it pay ? — although to some extent anticipated and 

 answered already, still remains to be practically dealt with. 



In advocating the commencement of a new industry in a new 

 country there must always be many important points to be con- 

 sidered, and the promoter naturally endeavours to give his 

 proposal as favourable a complexion as possible; yet he that 

 would blazon forth all the apparent or expected advantages 

 whilst carefully ignoring or suppressing all impediments or 

 hindrances to success, would prove no true friend to this, r any 

 other enterprise, to the country in which it w^as proposed to be 

 conducted, to those he desired to interest in the scheme, or to 

 himself. Accordingly, it is but fair that, having already dwelt 

 chiefly upon the bright side of the picture, we should now take a 

 peep at the reverse. Fortunately, there is only one small speck 

 to arrest the eye there, but that little blot is important, and may 

 be called "deficient and expensive labour." We have already 

 seen what the average wages are in other chasericultural districts 

 of the world, and the fact is forced upon our consideration, 

 whether we like it or not, that in JSTew Zealand at present rates, 

 probably from four to five times more money would be required. 

 It is well, however, to reflect that the quantity of work per- 

 formed in the latter country under all the advantages of its 

 delightful and exhilarating climate — set against the more meagre 

 results obtained amidst the rain deluges, the fierce heat, the 

 scorching winds, and the terror produced by the proximity of 

 beasts of prey in Assam — might, after all, be such as to minimise 

 the apparent difference in wages. It should be recollected, also, 

 that the hitherto high rate of wages paid at the Antipodes has 

 been owing to the sparse population viewed in connection with 

 the vast amount of heavy work to be done ; but as immigration 

 gradually peoples the soil with miscellaneous labourers and their 

 families, and as the openings for female industry, which this 

 chasericultural enterprise proposes to inaugurate, increase and 

 become widely known in Europe, there can be no question that 

 the rates of remuneration will be more equably adjusted than 

 they are now. Again, if the average individual wages paid in 

 China are small, the total expenditure by the planters and mani- 

 pulators cannot be insignificant because comparatively little 



