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te carried on, provided that it embodies these essentials in all such 

 cases, viz., that it must be calculated to improve the status of the 

 vine-growers, to lead to an extension of the area under vines, to 

 increase the capacity of its district for the employment of labour, 

 and in so doing to benefit the colony at large. If these require- 

 ments are complied -with, a little latitude in the choice of the 

 means to be employed may vrell be permitted. 



We are now in the Rutherglen district endeavouring to estab- 

 lish a company for the making, maturing, and export of wine, 

 but primarily for the production of high-class grape brandy. To 

 the latter feature we look for the speediest and best returns, since 

 brandy can be sold and exported within twelve months or less 

 from the time of the vintage, and since the market for good 

 (brandy in almost every civilized country in the world is practi- 

 jfially inexhaustible. In Victoria alone {vide Hayter's Year-Book 

 for 1892) the excess of imports of brandy and spirits of wine 

 over the exports amounted to 211,809 gallons, and this takes no 

 account of the quantity of Victorian brandy consumed in the 

 colony, which would probably bring the total consumption up to 

 250,000 gallons at least, especially if account be taken of the 

 quantity of wine spirit included under the headings " cordials 

 and bitters," " spirits perfumed," and " other spirits undescribed." 



Mr. Bosisto recently stated that no other spirits can be com- 

 pared to that of wine for the preservation of delicate scents, and 

 another member of the Tariff incidentally mentioned at Ruther- 

 glen that pure wine brandy of a high class costs £1 per bottle 

 in France. The coarser spirit extracted from the grape skins at 

 vintage time will also be a source of profit, being largely used in 

 various processes in the arts, and so will the cream of tartar and 

 other minor products. At present the wholesale but unavoidable 

 waste of the spirit in the skins means a heavy annual loss to the 

 country, a Californian estimate of the loss so sustained being no 

 less than 12 gallons of brandy to every ton of pressed pomace or 

 skins. As regards the tartar, it may be of interest to mention 

 that the quantity annually thrown away by our vignerons, based 

 on an actual analysis and on wholesale prices in Melbourne, would 

 realize, at the very lowest estimate, £1,200, and this is one of the 

 many leakages by which growers' profits are reduced, and which, 

 by the establishment of local distilling companies, will no longer 

 he allowed to exist. It is, therefore, all-important that in our 

 district brandy distillation should take precedence of everything 

 else, and we have no doubt that others amongst the older vine- 

 growing districts in the colony will find it necessary to follow on 

 the same lines. 



As we are first in the field, however, and have the largest area 

 of vines to work upon, and as our success will contribute largely 



