Otago Institute. 441 
The materials are abundant, the subjects various, in its organic and inorganic 
productions. On the nature of these you are constituted a court of enquiry, 
and to that enquiry our Institute places no limits. Then enter on their study 
and investigation in as far as your time and opportunity may permit. 
As I have now been connected with this Province for 18 years, and in 
the first term of that period, when it was in a state of wilderness, I had 
special opportunities given me for estimating its probable resources and 
productions, I may, without incurring much risk of the charge of egotism, refer 
to my opinions at that time, given as the result of observations obtained 
when exploring the physical geography of the country. There were, no doubt, 
others as fully alive to the prospects of the colony as myself, but I am not 
aware that they made any record of their observations for the benefit of the 
public in general. 
Turning to a lecture delivered by me in Dunedin during the month of 
July, 1858, at which time the population numbered less than 7,000 souls, I 
find that, after showing the audience what extent of forest, pasture, swamps, 
lakes, and barren mountains we had, I made the following remarks :—“ The 
value of our forests is less apparent at present than it would be in future 
times, but the great extent of natural pasture is a fund of wealth whose 
development will be rapid. The total area of natural pasture extends over 
15,000 square miles, or 9,600,000 acres. This, when fully stocked, may be 
assumed to carry 2,400,000 sheep, whose fleeces alone will afford an annual 
export valued at £360,000 sterling—that is allowing four acres to carry one 
sheep, and the average welght of a fleece to be 3ibs. Nor need we anticipate 
that our export of wool will stop at this limit, for with the increase of 
population and capital our finest lands will be improved and laid under 
artificial grass, thereby increasing their productive powers five or ten-fold. 
« More tardy in development, but not less important to the permanent 
welfare of the Province, is the agricultural interest. The progress of this 
branch of industry will so much depend on contingencies, as connected with 
immigration from the mother country that it would be useless to speculate on 
the rate of its extension. That our agricultural capabilities are great there 
can be no doubt, for corn is sown and reaped in all parts of the Province, 
stretching from the Waitaki to Foveaux Strait. On the banks of the Ohau 
Lake, 1,500 feet above the sea level, I have seen the potato growing in 
perfection ; and, as I believe fully half the area of this Province is below that 
level, it will be a safe estimate to put down a fourth, or 4,250,000 acres, as 
capable of producing corn or vegetables. 
« Whatever may be the ultimate population seeking support from the above 
area, in the meantime it is evident— possessing, as we do, a fertile soil and 
a climate analogous to Great Britain—that our pastoral and agricultural 
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