The enquiries made by British working farmers for infor-mation regarding the Colony of New Zealand have led to the compilation of the following hand-book: the figures quoted and most of the matter being taken from official statistics published by the Government of New Zealand.

Opinions may vary as to whether the prevailing agricultural depression in England is permanent or transient; but it must be conceded that the improvements made during recent years in the ocean carriage of produce, have brought the producer at the Antipodes into direct competition with the English farmer. When New Zealand is considered, this competition is accentuated by the accident of the seasons being reversed, and the favourable conditions for production. For example, in the case of dairy produce, the English farmer places his butter on the English market during the summer and autumn seasons, when the market is full of Danish, Brittany and other foreign butters, and the prices are low; while New Zealand butter arrives during the English winter when British and foreign supplies are short, and the prices, as a consequence, higher. The same conditions exist in the case of fruit, and also, though in a less degree, in the case of meat. It will be seen that the farming industries in the Colony have made, and are making, great progress, and there is ample room for still greater expansion. New Zealand, with an area as large as the British Isles, has only three-quarters of a million of people, and a soil and climate marvellously adapted for agricultural and pastoral pursuits. The immunity from droughts enjoyed by New Zealand compared with the neighbouring continent of Australia, the facility for the local transport of produce afforded by the natural configuration of the country, added to the suitability of the soil for the growth of English grasses, cereals, and root crops, are factors to be considered in determining whether farming can be more profitably carried on in New Zealand than in Great Britain. The reflection is assuring that the Colonies are part of the Empire, and if farming can be carried on there more profitably than in England, the Empire, as a whole, will be none the worse off. It is not intended to draw comparisons between the profits of English and Colonial fanning, but merely to give information regarding New Zealand page 4 farming; but as the attention of the public has recently been drawn to the high Railway rates and the amount of taxation levied on the land in this country, it may be mentioned in passing, that in New Zealand the railways are owned by the State; which is the surest guarantee that they will not be used as taxing machines, and the incidence of the land tax is fixed with the express object of affording relief to the small farmer, and encouraging industry, with the result that the small farmer pays leas than any other class of the community, and very much less in the pound than his British competitor. With regard to wages, it is true that the Colonial Agricultural labourer demands and receives higher wages than the English labourer; but less labour is required in the Colony, machinery and labour-saving appliances are more general, and the superior climate enables the Colonial labourer to do more work in the course of the year than his British counterpart.

The low passage rates to the United States, and the efforts that country has made to increase her population, have attracted the people of this country in the past to settle there rather than in our own Colonies, much to the detriment of British trade, a citizen of the United States consuming considerably less than one-tenth of the amount of British manufactures which a British Colonist consumes; but it seems as if the United States is likely to discourage rather than to encourage immigration from henceforth, and that for the future our surplus population will have to seek a home in our own colonies rather than in North and South America. During the year 1892 more than 210,000 Emigrants of British origin left our shores, of whom more than 150,000 went to the United States of America, and less than 40,000 to British North America and Australasia; nevertheless these 40,000 who went to British Colonies will consume very much more British manufactures than will the 150,000 who went to the United States. The class of persons to whom the Colony of New Zealand offers attractions, are persons with a practical knowledge of farming and some little capital to farm with. For the indigent and incompetent workman there is no opening at all, and even for the artizan the demand is limited. In the consideration of any scheme of emigration it cannot be stated too often that the Colonies only want the people suitable for their requirements, and that as long as English people regard emigration as a means of relieving this country of every class of destitute and incompetent people, without reference to their suitability for Colonial life, so long will difficulties insuperable be raised in the Colonies to any general colonisation scheme.

Some short particulars of the manufactures and mining of New Zealand are collected with the object of enabling readers to understand that although manufactures and mining are growing, and are of great importance to the prosperity of the Colony, the output is at the present too small to absorb any large influx of skilled labour. It must also be borne in mind that the easy means of communication between the Australian Colonies affords facilities for the distribution of labour. This is being exemplified at the present time. In the year 1887, the Colony of New Zealand determined to decrease the expenditure of borrowed money, and to abstain from borrowing for a period. No New Zealand loan for Public Works has been since authorised, and although the immediate result of the curtailment of public works was that many workmen left the Colony for the Continent of Australia to seek for work, the return of prosperity in New Zealand, chiefly caused by the people being forced to fall back upon their own resources and go upon the land, and the scarcity of work in Australia, are now causing population to to flow into the Colony. Flattering references appear almost daily in the English papers concerning New Zealand. The following extract from the Morning Post of the 11th Feb., 1892, is a fair sample. "The prospects of New Zealand are looking very bright, and the Colony seems now on a fair way to prosperity. The past season is said to have been a magnificent one for growing purposes, and everywhere the crops look splendid. The pasturage is luxuriant, and the yields of wheat, oats, potatoes, and other crops give every promise of being abnormally abundant. A rapidly increasing export trade and a steady increase in population, coupled with good harvest prospects, make the outlook for the Colony better than it has been for years."

It may be said, without fear of contradiction, that there is no part of the British dominions where agriculture, in its most extended sense, can be carried on with so much certainty, and with such good results, as in New Zealand. The range of latitude, extending as it does from 84° to 47° south, secures for the colony a diversity of climate which renders it suitable for all the products of subtropical and temperate zones, while the insular position secures it from the continuous and parching droughts which periodically inflict such terrible losses on the agriculturist and pastoralist of Australia and South America.

Again, the climate, although somewhat variable, never reaches the extremes of heat or cold. So genial, indeed, is it that most animals and plants, when first introduced to the colony, assume a vigour unknown to them before.

North Island.

All the best forage-plants and grasses thrive most admirably, continuing to grow throughout the year with little intermission. Stock of all kinds thrive and fatten rapidly on the pastures, coming to maturity at an early age, without the aid of roots or condimental foods. All kinds of cereals flourish equally well, more especially Indian corn, which produces from 50 to 80 bushels per acre.

So full is the soil of plant-food that several continuous crops of potatoes and cereals may be taken with little apparent exhaustion. Wheat, oats, and barley thrive where the soil is not too rich; otherwise they produce enormous crops of straw, without a corresponding yield of corn. The tobacco-plant thrives well, as also hops and sorghum, broom-corn, peanut, hemp, ramee or rheea (China grass), together with a large variety of economic plants, the growth of which will one day afford employment for a large population. In addition to these, oranges, lemons, limes, olives, and vines, with all the British, Chinese, and Japanese fruits, flourish, requiring but ordinary care. Potatoes are grown to a considerable extent, and yield heavy crops.

Much of the country along the south-west and west coast is being rapidly taken up, and the primeval forest is fast disappearing before the settler's axe. For the most part, the soil is fertile, and the growth of grass and clover is extremely rapid and vigorous when sown on the surface, after the felled timber has been destroyed by fire.

To the British husbandman it will seem almost incredible that the best pasture-grasses grow and thrive as they do with no other preparation than the ashes resulting from the burnt tim-ber—no ploughing and no previous loosening of the soil, this, of course, being impossible amongst the forest of stumps; and yet, in less than a year from the date of scattering the seed, this same land will fatten from three to six sheep per acre.

So rapidly are these fertile forest-lands being cleared and con-verted into pastures that the demand for stock (principally dairy) has greatly increased, and this demand must continue for a series of years before it is fully met.

Before the introduction of the factory system stock were so unsaleable, especially in the North Island, that little or no attention was paid to this branch of rural economy; and the supply fell to the lowest ebb. The demand which has now set in is chiefly due to the settlement of the bush-lands with small selectors and the development of the dairy industry.

Those who in the past have watched the progress of New Zealand, especially of the North Island, have always maintained that as soon as the Maori difficulties should be ended, and other impediments to settlement overcome, the prosperity of the country would advance at a very rapid rate. The time has now come, and all that is now required to enhance and expedite the coming prosperity is wise legislation with respect to settlement, so that the unoccupied lands may be taken up by a thrifty class of small settlers.

There are millions of acres yet unoccupied, a great portion of which is of good quality, and only waiting the hand of man to make it carry, with very little cost, large herds of dairy stock, with flocks of long-wool and crossbred sheep. The west coast of the island is essentially a cattle-country. The midland districts are also adapted to long-wool sheep, as is the country along the east coast. The bulk of the country may be described as good sheep-land, a large portion of which is quite capable of carrying two sheep to the acre, and some of it as many as three or four.

Middle Island.

If the North Island has a magnificent inheritance in her forests, the Middle island can boast of her magnificent plain-lands, rolling downs, and vast mountain-ranges, all of which, to a greater or less degree, have already been made to contribute to the wealth of the colony.

The middle portion of the Middle Island presented to the first-comers a vast plain, covered with little more than waving tussock-grass, offering little or no obstruction to the plough.

Travelling south, the country assumes a different character: easy undulating downs, well watered, here and there interspersed with fertile plains, the greater portion admirably adapted for agriculture, and all of it for pastoral purposes.

The climate of the Middle Island is not so warm in summer nor so mild in winter as that experienced in the North Island. However, as has already been stated, there are no extremes of heat or cold. Much more might be said in praise of the colony, which is rapidly gaining for itself the right to be called the "Britain of the South." Without dwelling further upon such topics, it is deemed necessary to say so much as a prelude to the more solid matter-of-fact statements, in order that readers may better comprehend the comparative ease with which agricultural and pastoral pursuits are carried on in New Zealand as compared with other countries less favourably situated.

Crown Lands.

The Crown Lands Department publishes periodically, under the authority of the Minister of Lands, a "Crown Lands Guide," The object of the publication, which can be obtained price 1/- at the New Zealand Government Information Bureau, 18, Victoria Street, London, S.W., is to afford such general information as to the character and localities of Crown lands, with the terms and conditions on which they may be obtained, as will enable persons in quest of land to set about its selection without much trouble.

The unoccupied Crown lands suitable for settlement which the colony has to deal with at the present day, as a rule, are covered with forest, which has to be cleared before any return can be secured from them. The occupied pastoral lands are generally well grassed, but are mainly suitable for mixed agriculture and pasture. The cost of clearing forest land varies: in the North Island where most of the clearing is done, it ranges from £1 5s. to £2 per acre.

The characteristic future of the Land laws of the colony is the option of tenure provided. Crown lands may be acquired for cash on a freehold tenure, or on lease with a right of purchase, or on perpetual lease. In the case of leased land the rental is an page 9 amount equivalent to 4 per cent. on a low capital value. The liberal terms offered by the Government during recent years for leasehold land have been the means of inducing settlers to a large extent to select land on a leasehold tenure in preference to free-hold. The advantages of a leasehold over a freehold in the case of the man of small means is obvious, his capital remaining intact for improving and working the farm. Special efforts have been made to enable men of small means to settle on the land, and provision has been made for co-operative settlements. It must be noted that there are no longer free grants of land, and although occasional blocks of land are reserved and opened up for settlements, the conditions of which are so liberal as to be open to the poorest, it is only a limited amount of land which can be so dealt with. The intending settler must therefore recognise that before he will be in a position to secure land, he must save the small amount of money necessary to enable him to take up land in the ordinary way. The impetus given to farming in New Zealand by the improving market in the United Kingdom for colonial produce has created an active demand in the colony for Crown land, and at the present time the demand is so keen, that the Government have a difficulty in opening up land sufficiently fast to satisfy applicants. This fact shows that a high opinion of the good prospects of New Zealand farming has been formed in the colony. There is no machinery for enabling crown land in the colony to be taken up in England by persons intending to go out. Although at first sight this might appear desirable, there are many difficulties, and it is better for a settler to see the colony and the land before he buys. Those desiring to become more acquainted with details of the land laws may consult the crown lands guide before mentioned. In the case of farmers going to the colony with capital, a question for consideration is whether it is not better to acquire improved land from private owners rather than take up unimproved crown land, which is necessarily somewhat remote from centres, and incapable of being immediately re-productive. Owing to the large amount of land which has passed into the hands of private companies and owners, there is little difficulty in acquiring land in this way. Large areas of land are always in the market for sale and lease, and some of the land companies are taking advantage of the improved prospects in the colony to offer land on liberal terms.

The information which follows is grouped under the headings Pastoral, Agricultural and Industrial; and at the end a decennial table of the exports from the Colony is given.