238 TEA AND SILK FAEMIXG IN NEW ZEALAND. 



can cultivate as many silkworms as produce 100 lbs. of cocoons 

 in thirty-five days ; and, considering the average actual price 

 paid in Europe, she would make 2s. per hour for the time 

 employed in that cultivation, and I consider that a good return. 

 The mulberry tree has two other advantages, namely, in autumn 

 the fallen leaves make excellent food for fattening sheep during 

 winter, and the timber is considered one of the best for making 

 receptacles for wine, spirits, &c." 



Such, then, are the subsidiary industries which it is proposed 

 should be grafted upon the stem of the more important chaseri- 

 culture, with the double purpose of securing economy in working 

 the whole estate, and with the view of attracting to the colony 

 as wide and varied a circle of immigrants as possible. There 

 are other useful yet disregarded plants which time will doubt- 

 less add to the list of ancillary products, such as cinchona, cork, 

 dye-saffron, dyer's madder, the Japanese chestnut, the persimmon, 

 medicinal rhubarb, and tallow trees of China, besides many 

 more ; all fairly hardy, and no doubt well adapted to thrije in 

 the climate of Auckland. 



The fourth of the leading features alluded to at page 230 

 now falls to be expiscated: — The land settlement proposal on 

 the lines of the Eangitikei colony. This interesting experiment 

 was commenced in 1871 by The Emigrant and Colonists Aid 

 Corporation, presided over by the Duke of Manchester, from 

 whom the new community obtained the name of the " Man- 

 chester Special Settlement." A block of land twenty miles in 

 length and about eight miles broad, containing 106,000 acres, 

 was purchased at 15s. per acre, and paid for by bills bearing 

 5 per cent, interest, maturing at different dates over a space 

 of ten years. On the one hand the corporation undertook to 

 settle on the land some 2000 people within six years, and on 

 the other part the Government promised to provide free pas- 

 sages for the immigrants from England, and to find work in 

 the formation of a railway through the property, or in connec- 

 tion with other public works in the neighbourhood for a current 

 number of 200 labourers. The Provincial Government made a 

 conditional agreement to expend annually for five years a sum 

 of £2000 to assist in forming bye-roads. On arrival in port the 

 immigrants are taken by steamer and tramway car to the 

 boundary of the settlement without charge, and are there looked 

 after by the corporation, and eventually settled in township two- 

 roomed cottages, each standing on an acre of land, or on country 

 blocks of 40 to 100 acres, the wages to be earned meanwhile at 

 wood-cutting, carpentering, bricklaying, and saw-mill work being 

 from 7s. to 15s. a day. Against the immigrant the charges 

 made by the corporation are : — In the townships, 7s. per week 

 for the rent of his cottage and land, with the certainty of both 



