436 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1881. 
populated country, however suitable otherwise, could 
either tea-farming or sericiculture, conducted separately, 
pay. But, pursued together on the same estate, under 
the same general management by much the same staff 
of employes, the scheme assumes rather an inviting 
complexion. Indeed, if the economy likely to be effect- 
ed by the efforts of a highly-trained staff, using every 
scientific and mechanical aid to produce two or more 
important and valuable commercial articles instead of 
only one, be appreciated ; if we bear in mind the 
moderate price of land generally in New Zealand, and 
Auckland's homogeneous and equable climate, so 
favourable to abundant and varied crops ; if we re- 
collect how trifling must be the expense of inland 
carriage to a shipping port in a country no part of 
which much exceeds 100 miles from the sea, as com- 
pared with the serious outlay incurred for transport 
by the tea and silk of China and India to the coast ; 
if we give due weight to these advantages, and then 
reflect upon the enormous local demand for at least 
one of the products, the belief seems most reasonable 
that the higher outlay for wages will probably be far 
more than counterbalanced by reduced expenditure in 
other directions. 
Several objects actuate the promoters of this enter- 
prise, and their proposals may be thus epitomised : — 
"It is proposed to establish a syndicate with 
adequate capital, under the title, probably, of 
' the New Zealand Tea and Silk Company (Limit- 
ed),' for the judicious employment of capital and 
labour at the Antipodes by the acquisition of an area 
of say 30,000 acres in Auckland, or elsewhere in New 
Zealand, to be used partly for the land settlement of 
special classes of immigrants, and partly for the inau- 
guration and prosecution of sundry important indus- 
tries, particularly those of tea growing and preparation, 
and sericulture, and, with the subsidiary design of 
offering agreeable and remunerative work to deserving 
females of education, who have been deprived through 
misfortune or fraud of their incomes, and of trying to 
improve the habits of the aboriginal population by 
engaging them in congenial employment whenever 
practicable." In explanation, we may say it is ex- 
pected that one of the first results of the successful 
introduction of tea and silk farming as a combined 
industry into New Zealand would probably be a copi- 
ous influx of immigrants more or less connected with 
the industries in question or with allied trades. For 
the accommodation of such, and in order that some 
immediate advantage might accrue to the syndicate, the 
acquisition of a much larger surrounding or adjoining 
acreage than would otherwise be necessary is proposed. 
It is suggested that portions of this reserve land 
should be sold, let, or used in the most profitable 
manner as the state of trade at the time might diet-, 
ate, and on other parts selected farmers of ability 
and some means, with labourers and others of good 
character, should be settled. Food would thus be 
provided for the infant colony, and at the same 
time there would be a battalion of reliable assistants 
upon which to draw during any sudden crisis. In 
short, it is suggested that in addition to the func- 
tions of tea and silk farmers, the syndicate should 
assume those of aland settlement company. 
The purely industrial feature of the scheme con- 
sists in the gradual plantation of an area of 3,000 
acres with tea and mulberry shrubs at the rate of 
100 acres or more of each per annum. Simultane- 
ously with this work, other products, such as 
olives, grapes, oranges, lemons, small fruit, honey, 
sugar, &c, are intended to be reared, all of which, 
being usually considered more remunerative than 
even the most lucrative crops of the ordinary 
farmer, would soon furnish a material item in 
the income of the syndicate. During the 
time occupied by the tea and mulberry bushes in 
arriving at a yielding age — in the one case four years, 
if from seed, and in the other two years, if trans- 
planted at five years old — the necessary buildings 
would be erected, the water services surveyed and 
arranged, water-wheels and other machinery con- 
structed, and the general cultivation and improve- 
ment of the estate attended to and gradually increased. 
In the courso of the second year the first silk harvest 
would probably be gathered, and the net returns, if 
all went well, might amount to £80 per acre for 
the yielding area of mulberries ; a requital which, 
as far as the leaf crop alone is concerned, would prob- 
ably be doubled after the bushes had been five years 
in situ. Until the fourth year there will be no ap- 
preciable income from the acreage under tea, and as 
this shrub has not yet been grown on a commercial 
scale in New Zealand, the promoters very properly 
think it better in the meantime not to hazard any 
opinion as to the probable return. But for the 
reasons already given, united to the circumstance 
that the present large local consumption of 1,500,0001b. 
a year would render any export of the product 
for some years unnecessary, thereby effecting a saving 
if freight, commissions, and dock charges, they look 
nor a very gratifying result from this source also. 
To the philanthropic the intention of employing 
educated female labour in the more delicate mani- 
pulations is an appeal which has only to be known to 
meet with a hearty response. The successful employ- 
ment of Maori workers, where practicable, would also 
be a philanthropic object well worthy a trial. But 
apart from this interesting, although subsidiary, feature 
of the proposed undertaking, we think it may be said 
to contain the elements of success, and it deserves 
the careful consideration of those who are anxious for 
the development of our Colonies. Further information 
may be had of Mr. William Cochran, of Oveidale 
House, Dunblane, Perthshire, N. B., who is at pre- 
sent performing the duties of interim secretary. — 
British Trade Journal. 
JAMAICA. 
Jamaica, one of the oldest of British Colonies, and 
next to Ceylon, the finest and most valuable of the 
tropical islands possessed by England, has for many 
years past suffered under much neglect and undeserv- 
ed depreciation. Although the favourite seat and ■ 
exercise-ground of British philanthropy, it has never 
attracted the attention it deserves as a field of col- 
onisation and of British industry. Its manifold and 
unparalleled resources have remained almost unex- 
plored, and its riches left to nature and the " irre- ■ 
pressible nigger." No Colony has paid so dearly for 
the luxury to which England treated herself some I 
fifty years ago in the abolition of slavery, and none 
has been so slow to recover from the sacrifice which 
the nation then offered to humanity. For many years 
past Jamaica has been the Cinderella of the British 
family — the despised and abused sister, whose case has 
been given over as almost hopeless, and whom Go- 
vernment and the public alike have tacitly agreed to 
hand over to the emancipated Africans as their pecu- 
liar heritage. 9 
From such a destiny, from lapsing into a second 
Hayti, there seems at length to be some small pro- i 
spect of rescuing this beautiful and interesting island; 
a possession more valuable to England, if she knew 
it, than a dozen Cypruaes. The wonder is that a 
Colony like this, with its many singular advantages, 
its wealth of natural products, and its commanding 
geographical position, should have been so long ignored j 
by the restless spirit of British enterprise. As a field I 
for such industries as are suitable to a tropical land, 
it may be safely affirmed that there is no portion of 
the earth which deserves so much attention as Jamaica. I 
