232 



TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



Fourth aiid Fifth Yea/rs. 



To Balance with which to commence the fifth and sixth years, £35,414. 



In this statement it will be seen that a sum of £5000 a year 

 or £20,000 is laid aside in aid of future extensions ; dividends, 

 amounting to £36,250 are earned and debited to the company; 

 a balance of £35,414 is carried over for the purposes of the fifth 

 and sixth years, when large additions, especially to the income 

 from silk, may be anticipated ; the whole being accomplished 

 within the limits of the capital supposed to have been originally 

 subscribed. 



It will of course be understood that these results are only 

 to be regarded as tentative in illustration. Whilst every item of 

 a liberal outlay has been as far as possible anticipated, any 

 tendency at exaggeration of the income has been repressed. 

 Indeed, the return is far more likelv to meet with adverse criti- 

 cism on account of its modesty, seeing that, according to well- 

 authenticated experience, a thoroughly well-managed mulberry 

 plantation, started with five-year-old shrubs, doubles its yield 

 by the time the fifth season in situ has been reached. As the 

 cultivation of such an estate progresses and the tea and mulberry 

 bushes approach robust maturity, unless very material exten- 

 sions are undertaken, the annual outlay, after the fifth year, 

 must necessarily bear a diminishing proportion to the out-turn ; 

 so that by the time the whole of the original area secured and 

 planted has reached a period of full bearing, the net income of 

 the company promises to require a pleasing row of probably six 

 figures to represent it. 



So much for what may be termed the immediate and special 

 objects of the New Zealand Chasericultural Company (Limited) ; 

 but the subsidiary purposes to which portions of their spare land 

 are proposed to be devoted should not be overlooked. In the 

 course of time these will no doubt multiply both in number as 

 well as in importance, but at present reference need only be 

 made to six — small fruit, such as currants, cherries, &c., honey, 

 sugar, oranges, vines, and olives — all of which, being usually 

 more remunerative than the returns from ordinary farming, 



