September i, 18S3.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



191 



with whatever mm a man might start farming, he 

 would find, ere he had gone far, that he woidd have 

 been all the better of "'athusand raair" ! These are 

 but samples of the opinions I got from practical men in 

 regard to agriculture as a profession. 



If on this important point, the probable financ'al 

 success of farming, I found such opposite views, there 

 was no hcsitaucy among any of the questioned, of a 

 man, when he did come to New Zealand to settle, not 

 being in a hurry to begin. A year's looking about, if 

 you have money to invest, would not be too long, and 

 wben you do buy, buy good laud, was tlje advice of 

 all. Those who had only a few hundred pounds of 

 course H-ere different : the sooner (hey tackled to work 

 the better, and they were not to be jjarticular in re- 

 gard to tUe kind cf start they made. To make a start 

 was with them the one thing needful : they could as 

 Well acquire the local knowledge valuable to know 

 while in employment as when idle. 



For a man to make anything like a fair start in 

 farming the capital required was more than I had 

 expected would have been needful in a new colony. 

 As far as I could gather, something like £.3,000 was 

 the sum^ wanted, and all tlie better of " a thusand 

 mair." Still, starts could be made on very much less, 

 as there were all kinds of land and jnortgage com- 

 panies about, with property to sell and money to 

 advance. By means of these oompauies a man with 

 £1,000 could buy a farm worth three times thai.: 

 but whether a man were wise to do so, would be 

 for him to consider. The interest charged on loans 

 of this kind was from 7 per cent to S per cent ac- 

 cording to circumstances. I was assured that the pro- 

 fits on farming %vould average 1.5 percent, nett, so that 

 to go into the hands of a mortgage company was not 

 an unsafe thing: indeed people with nothinrj had some- 

 times induced the managers of the co'm]i.anies to 

 advance money towards a pnrcliase, and in time cleared 

 their feet. Tliat however was very c.vceptioual, and the 

 sum of £500 was fixed as aViout as low a sum as a 

 man could with any pretence to prudence and future 

 success enter a farm with. 



That my readers may experience some of that 

 mental confusion whicli resulted from my numerous 

 inquiries I may say that the gentleman who named 

 15 per cent nett t>> me as the average proht on farm- 

 ing operations introduced me to the gentleman who 

 had been thirty years out, and who had wnvr made 

 money by farimmj, stating, at. the lime when he gave 

 me the letter of introduction, that I might depend 

 upon his friend giving me nothing but sound advice, 

 as he was a man of great experience in tlie colony ! 

 I am enclosing an estimate of working a farm wliich 

 speaks for itself. I am indebted to Mr. Carswell, of 

 Messrs. Carswell, White S; Co., Invereargili, for it, a 

 gentleman who showed me much kindness and who 

 was very patient in answering my enquiries. Mr. 

 Carswell is a man of high standing and experience 

 in Southland, and if any Ceylon men think of try- 

 ing New Zealand as a ''pasture new," they could not 

 do better than consult him, and he will ba glad to 

 give all information as to laudaud its belon.;ini.s. In my 

 run through New Zsaland I went in at the Bltilf, and left 

 at Auckland, and consequently saw something of the 

 Middle and North Island, hut more of Southland than 

 elsewhere. Mr. Carswell's estimate refers to land farmed 

 in Southland, and, from what i saw of i";, it is a 

 wonderfully productive pirt of the country. The 

 coloni.sts there are quite a sight, so robust are they, 

 and the climate is not by any meaus unsuited for 

 Ceyloti people. While there I met two men who had 

 beeu in Ceylon for several years, and who spoke 

 highly of the climate of Southland. 



IuNj* Zealand it is well to ecj a place for your- 

 self, i'heie is so much petty jealousy and parochial 

 littleness about, that you cannot gel anything like 



an unbiassed opinion in regard to the merits of any 

 province or place. Each man extols his own, and 

 depreciates everywhere else. Canterbury scorns 

 Dunedin, while Dunediii poohpoohs Cinterbury aud 

 regard.? Southland with contempt. I collected the hard 

 things some Dunediniles had regaled mo with respecting 

 Southland, and they amounted to this : — "Southland! 

 ugh ! who would ever think of going there ? It cau't 

 grow anything : it 's a place where it rains seven 

 days every week, and in bad weather ei^ht ; the out- 

 skirts of the universe, made of the leavings of cre- 

 ation ; a Godforsaken part of the world, to be 

 avoided, if by any means po.ssible." I found it, the 

 portions I went through, bathed in sunshine, studded 

 over with homestead?, inhabited by a hospitable 

 people, fruitful exceedingly, aud a laud of much 

 bauty. I had a most en joyable day in the Wyndliam- 

 Fortrose district througli the kindness of a farmer 

 there, who was good enough to show us about, and as 

 we had heard so much of the poverty of Southland, he 

 gave us a striking refutation ou the spot. G jing into 

 the garden of his beautiful homestead near Fortrose, he 

 seized a " potato-.shaw" that was growing, gave it a 

 vigorous tug, and pulled the potatoes up. Oue of the 

 tubers unearthed in this rude way weighed two 

 pounds all hut three ounces. " We can't grow anything 

 in Souihland," said our hospitable friend as he 

 handed the enormous potato for inspection : " oh no," 

 adding^" but you might take it back with yon to 

 your hotel, stick it up in the public ruoni, label it 

 'liotato which should have grown in Dunedin, but 

 realy grew in Soiithlaud.' " 



Farming in New Zealand is not the severe drudgery 

 it was in the old-couutry. The want of cheap labour has 

 forced the colonists to employ labour-saving machines : 

 and besides this everything can he done by contr.act, 

 as chciiply, I was a^sured, if not cheaper, than by 

 days' wages. I visited a fine property, some 700 

 acres and learnt there, that there was only one team 

 of working horses on the place, all the work was 

 given out to contractors. Uf course a man who goes 

 in for Government land, either on immediate or 

 deferred payment system, is not as a rule in a position 

 to take advantage of this, but must n claim his wilder- 

 ness with the sweat of his face. It did not seem to 

 me, liowever, that the colonists worked very bard : 

 but 1 may be doing them an injustice. Certainly I 

 had my view on this matter confirmed by an American 

 " drummer," who was travelling for a Chicago firm 

 of agricultural implement makers, aud who told me 

 that the farmers of New Zealand should take a run 

 through the Eastern States to see how farmers can 

 work. " We don'c come here to make slaves of our- 

 selves," was the answer I got from several when I 

 spoke of the easy-going way of things. Nevertheless, 

 il the work be less severe than usually obtains among 

 the farming class, they are alwa3's at it, a dull con- 

 stant round, husband aud wife alike with their noses 

 at the grindstone. Aud the worst of it is that in time 

 they don't see any further than their noses. Speak- 

 ing one day to a well-to-do farmer of the possibility 

 of one's feeling the want of congenial society in the 

 rural districts, I got for an answer : " What has a 

 farmer or his wife to do with society ? lie has his farm 

 to attend to ; she has her house, her bakmg, 

 cooking, washing and d iry — there is no time for 

 society." Put in this plain way, it was startling 

 and came like "a bolt from the blue." Good land for 

 farming, that at least which is near to railways, is as 

 a rule in private hands, and can be bought unimproved 

 at from £1 10s to £2 10s an acre. Government laud 

 of any value has been taken up long ago, except 

 such as lies far away from means of transport. I 

 am Sending you by this V">st a copy of tlie Crown 

 Lands Guide, which contains much information in re- 

 gard to Government lands, and the terms ou whioli 



