"A colony which, with a population no bigger than that of Liverpool, exports £10,000,000 in a year cannot be in a very bad way. It offers an enormous field for investment of capital by small men."

The above words were spoken by a British peer to a Sydney newspaper reporter on the 1st March, 1892. After occupying the position of a Governor of New Zealand for some three years, Lord Onslow returned to England, and on passing through Sydney gave expression to the above-quoted remark in response to enquiries made there by a representative of the Sydney "Daily Telegraph," in the issue of which paper of the 2nd March, 1892, they are to be found.

They may fairly be considered to be the sum and substance of the impressions formed by Lord Onslow during a lengthy residence in New Zealand, and whilst he occupied a position that gave him the amplest opportunity of obtaining the fullest information from the most reliable sources. Of his disinterestedness of any thought but a desire to give expression to the inmost conviction of his mind there cannot be the smallest doubt.

No other governor that ever occupied the viceregal chair in New Zealand took more pains to make himself acquainted with the resources of the colony over whose affairs he presided, for not contenting himself with the reading of statistics and reports issued from official sources, he laid his vice-regal dignity aside, and like a hearty English gentleman, jumped into the saddle, rode round amongst the farmers, talked with them, saw with his own eyes, and did not in the least mind a little roughness of accommodation when occasion required.

We propose to point out shortly in what respect New Zealand offers an enormous field for investment of capital by small men—to use Lord Onslow's words: and to use our own—a good field for investment of capital by large men, for there is room for all.

We will assume that the reader knows no more about New Zealand than he does about Madagascar, and beginning at the foundation point out that the colony of New Zealand consists of two islands in the South Pacific Ocean, called the North and South Islands of New Zealand. There is a third island called Stewart Island, but it is small and unsettled. This one we will not more than name, and say it has fine timber and grass, but there are no roads or railroads on it, so it is not yet fit for agricultural occupation.