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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 80a

Hawke's Bay Province

Hawke's Bay Province.

The day was warm, the people grumbling. Thermometer 74. They should try Arizona or the San Joaquin Valley at 110, or Sydney, New-South Wales, where we saw horses struck dead in the streets this time last year, with the glass at 97. The people in New Zealand don't know what their country is, and now for our dart across the island. To Ashhurst, nine miles through bush partly cleared, where we notice a group of school children and an advertisement of Pears' Soap. If the people of England knew as much about New Zealand as we do about Pears' Soap, the one half of them would leave in a body and make room for the other half. Over an embankment looking down on tall fern plumes amidst the bush, then across the Manawatu River and into the Gorge, a fine bold piece of scenery which separates the Tararua from the Ruahine Ranges. These ranges only rise to a height, as a rule, of 2,000 to 3,000 feet—the highest point is only 4,000 feet. They are not mountains. There are some steep places, and a gorge or two, but as far as we can judge, nine-tenths of them are fit for pasture and settlement when the bush is cut down. Then through a tunnel, for the cliffs are too steep here to make a road round them; then the rushing river again, and another tunnel and the river again, swirling in deep places and foaming in shallow ones, with steep wooded hills on each side. We leave the river at a place where the coach road crosses it, on a bridge standing on five tall stone piers; through three or four small tunnels, and then opens out a wide expanse of flat clear land, covered with grass and stumps, where the town of Woodville stands. Woodville was made into a borough in 1885, and contains a population of 1,000. The business part is compactly built, and some of the buildings would do credit to a much larger place. The bush around the township is being rapidly cleared. There is a newspaper, bank, hotels, doctors, and no less than three lawyers. There is a dairy factory, and the erection of others is contemplated.

Still running along the eastern spurs of the Ruahine Ranges, a few miles after leaving Woodville, we strike the bush again, then open grass country with cabbage trees. Bush again at Matahiwi, and so into Dannevirke, in the heart of

page 49
Interior of Napier Cathedral.

Interior of Napier Cathedral.

the Ruahine Ranges, where we stayed all night at one of the many first-class hotels.

From Dannevirke the next morning, still on the spurs of the Ruahine through bush country for twenty miles to Takapau. Then open out fair green hills with clumps of bush, and big flocks of sheep startled by the train run by, for now we are on the finest sheep country in New Zealand, beginning with the Ruataniwha Plains, which is the same as saying in the world.

While New Zealand is good as a whole, and for all sorts of purposes all round, and you can grow oranges and potatoes, and tomatoes and turnips side by side, still in a stretch of country 1,000 miles long there must be parts that have their special adaptability for certain pursuits, and page 50 although sheep do well, and very well, from the extreme south of the South Island to the extreme lip of the North Island, still we would give the palm to the East Coast of the North Island as the place of all places where the sheep fairly revels in all things that are advantageous to his welfare. For cattle, the West Coast of the North Island with its mild warmth and moisture; for the sheep the East Coast with its equal warmth and diminished rainfall. The cow won't grumble if you put her up to the knees in grass if the sod is a little damp—the sheep is more delicate, and likes to keep his coat dry. These conditions exist in perfection on the East Coast. At Napier, on the East Coast, only one half the quantity of rain falls that is shed at Taranaki on the West Coast.

We may say of Hawke's Hay Province as the old Ayrshire farmers used to say of Galloway.

Kyle for a man,
Carrick for a coo,
Cunningham for butter and cheese,
And Galloway for woo'.

Tattooed Maoris mouthing their thick vocables stand on the platform as harmless as children now-a-days. Then parks such as a nobleman might envy, with noble plantations far as the eye can reach, open country as green as an emerald to Waipukarau some five miles further where there is a large freezing works. Then through a wide expanse of rolling downs with a limestone bottom, as the railway cuttings and the outcrop of the hills show, to Te Aute, fifty-two miles from where we started this morning. For ten minutes we saunter on the platform and listen to the song of the lark. The shadows on the hills would tempt a Gainsborough. Still rolling downs richly grassed, and happy cattle browsing in the long grass or resting after the morning meal in happy ignorance and with misplaced confidence in wily man who has invented the freezing process. Through raupo swamps, poplars, and drooping willows to Paki Paki, where we leave the spurs of the ranges and enter the plain lanes some sixteen miles from Napier, our destination

Here we see men at work making hay, and past splerdid roads, good houses, pretty gardens, we run into the rising town of Hastings, which boasts some 2,500 inhabitants, and which we are told pronises to be one of the biggest inland towns in New Zealand.

At Tanoana there is another big freezing works, aid now at Farndon, six miles from Napier, tie sea heaves in sight, with the Kidnappers in the blue haze, and we run along the shingle beach into Napier.

Napier is the principal town in the Hawke's Bay Province, which has an area of close on to three million acres—about 4.500 square miles. Of this two million are under occupation of some sort by private owners, and of this area one and a quarter millions have been improved by ploughing and sowing grass, or sowing by merely burning off the fern and scrub and strewing the seed on the surface.

The number of sheep on this area was on the 30th April, 1892, 3,135,657—that is over one sheep to the acre all over the whole province. Of these 465,218 were merinos, 2,670,437 crossbreds. There were also 13,480 horses, 54,263 head of cattle, and of pigs 9,893.

The export of wool and frozen meat, hides and pelts, was £1,167,597, other goods of the value of £162,891 bringing the total exports for the year up to £1,330,654, these having doubled themselves in six years.

The population is of Europeans 28,855, and of Maoris 4,522. In the three principal boroughs of Napier, Hastings, and Woodville, live 11,643 Europeans, elsewhere in the province 17,212, half of whom we will say are women. We will deduct a third, which is below the average in New Zealand, for the proportion of children, which leaves 5,738, and will knock off the 738 for dwellers in smaller centres, and it probably ought to be at least a couple of thousand, and we have some 5,000 men at work producing at the rate of £260 per head, besides keeping themselves and the 23,000 dwellers in the cities. That is what a Man is worth in this country, at least on this 4,500 square miles of open grassy country. On a more beautiful country the sun never shone, and immense sums have been spent on it in roads, bridges, and railroads.

The Merino sheep was the first which was introduced into New Zealand in number. Hardy and active before there was much cultivation done, this sheep was found most suitable for all-round purposes, and still is almost exclusively kept on the spurs and mountain ranges, where the greater bulk of the heavier sheep makes it difficult for them to follow, and this kind of country is still called in New Zealand, "Merino country."

Since the perfecting of the freezing process sheep farming has undergone a radical change. Wool and tallow used to be the chief consideration, but when the carcase became of value heavier varieties were introduced. The Merino ewe furnishes the foundation for all crosses, which consist entirely of Merino ewes and Lincoln, Romney Marsh, Leicester, Shropshire, Hampshire, Southdown and other heavier rams. The weight of the half-bred sheep varies from 55 to 7olbs., and they give about 9lbs. wool, worth on the average about 8d. per lb.

The capacity of New Zealand for producing mutton has far from reached its limit. In 1891 page 51 1,788,619 sheep and lambs were exported frozen to England, and in spite of this the number of sheep in New Zealand rose from 16,753,752 in 1891 to 18,475,000 in 1892. There are 21 freezing works in the colony, with a capacity of 3,665,0 sheep per annum. The exports of the produce of the sheep last year were:—
Wool £4,129,686
Skins 171,292
Mutton 1,076,713
Tallow. 173,257
Preserved Meats 111,133
£5,662,081

The probability is that this return is capable of being doubled at least, if not indefinitely extended. We have just given some figures of our own showing the value of a man's labour in this country, but they pale into insignificance before such figures as these. The census returns of 1891 give the number of persons employed in pastoral pursuits as 9,549, and the export of pastoral produce is over million pounds sterling, or £580 per head employed.

The first experiment of shipping frozen mutton to London was made in 1881, and after the usual number of experiments and some failures, it has developed into a substantial trade. The process of freezing is by compression of air in cylinders by steam power. This compression causes it to give off its heat, and when it is again allowed to expand it becomes intensely cold. This cold air is passed through pipes into chambers where the carcases are hung, and this process is continued until the ship carrying them arrives in London, where the meat meets with a ready sale.

Lord Onslow made the experiment of sending half a dozen New Zealand sheep to some of his friends in England, and asked them for their opinion on the quality of the mutton. These opinions are given in full in the "New Zealand Official Handbook." We copy one given by M. Waddington, the French Ambassador in London:—"The New Zealand mutton was a great success. I had recommended it to my cook and it was carefully roasted. All present pronounced it quite equal to the best English mutton. The freezing of the meat had produced no perceptible difference. "

Freezing companies and merchants buy the farmer's sheep delivered at a convenient railway station, or he can if he likes ship them to England on his own account and obtain an advance against them here. Average price for New Zealand mutton in London for some five or six years past has been about 4½d. per lb., and the expenses of sending and selling it about 2d., leaving the breeder 2½d., so for a sheep weighing 6olbs. he would get about 12s. 6d. in New Zealand besides the wool.

Foreign competition may somewhat reduce this price, but for a lasting thing the farmer in New Zealand should be able to hold his own against any other country. All the advantages are on his side, and we have yet to learn the name of the country whose products do not come into competition with those of any other country. With a fair field and no favour New Zealand should win the day, although there will doubtless be fluctuations of prices as of weather. He is the farmer who looks all these things straight in the face and strikes his average.

The Hawke's Bay Province is bounded on the east by the sea, on the north by the Auckland, on the south by the Wellington Provinces, and on the west by the Ruahine Ranges.

With the exception of the bush at the foot of the ranges, which is an extension of the Forty-mile Bush, and sundry other patches of not very large extent, it is all open grass country and well watered—such a country as Lot must have chosen when he and Abraham parted company, "and Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan that it was well watered everywhere even as the garden of the Lord." Those old patriarchs knew what country was—they would have made good land valuers.

It has well metalled roads, which spread out from Napier in every direction, and all the streams are bridged where necessary.

The open country is mostly held in large blocks, varying from 1,000 to 30,000 acres. Round the chief centres as Napier, Hastings, Waipawa, Waipukarau, and other inland towns, and in the bush districts small farms are numerous, in areas of 50 to 500 acres, the whole of which are in a thriving condition, largely owing to the dairy industry, which has made rapid strides of late years, factories having been established chiefly in the bush districts, as at Woodville, Norsewood, and other centres. Other factories are in course of being established throughout the province, and this industry promises to become the next important industry to the export of wool and frozen meat—which is the principal one so far—as the district is eminently adapted for dairying.

The following is the list of Dairy Factories now in operation in the Hawke's Bay Province:
Name. Owner, Manager, or Secretary. Address.
Ballance Creamery H. Chester N.Z.L. Sc M. Bdgs., Wellington.
Bushmere Dairy Factory Barron Brothers Gisborne.
Maharahara Co-operative Dairy Company G. W. Grainger Maharahara.
Makakahi Creamery H. Chester N.Z.I,. & M. Bdgs Wellington.
Matawhera Dairy Factory Townley & Scales Gisborne.
Ormond Dairy Factory Gisborne.
Palliatila Dairy Factory H. Chester N.Z.I,. & M. Bdgs., Wellington.
Woodville Dairy Factory Monteith & Co. Woodville.
page 52

The bulk of the land in the Hawke's Bay Province is in private hands. Bush land of good quality with standing bush is worth 20s. to £3, according to locality. Of the open country, sheep country is worth, according to quality and extent of improvements, from £2 to £7 10s.

There is some light pumice country that will not carry over a sheep to the acre, and again other that is said to carry as many as seven big cross-bred sheep to the acre, with the assistance of turnips and other winter feed. Land of this latter description is worth £20 to £30 per acre fenced, subdivided, and with substantial improvements. Holders of large properties are willing enough to subdivide and sell at reasonable rates, and give reasonable terms as soon as a demand for land occurs.

Wheat of excellent quality is grown for local use, and a very fine quality of barley is produced, but sheep have of late years done so well, and the return from them has been so certain, that other matters have not received much attention. Artesian water is got all over the plains. Maize grows well on the low lands and yields large returns. Potatoes will yield up to 20 tons per acre, while enormous yields of mangolds are reported, 80 tons to the acre, it is said, but we should like to see the produce weighed and the land measured before we pinned our faith to that. Vines flourish in the open air, and very good wine has been made from their produce. We visited the vineyard of the Catholic Mission, which is a beautiful sight. The lea lands of the holy fathers yield bountiful crops of hay. Lucerne can be cut four or five times in a year. Limes, lemons, and oranges all do well, and there is a good and growing local market for all these things at present, and one which it will take many years to over supply, if it is ever done.

We visited Mr. Kittow's dairy farm, where he is milking 100 cows, has his own separator and churn, and is quite independent of any dairy factory for the disposal of his produce, and his whole outfit of engine, boiler, separator, churn, shafting, and fitting, cost £200.

There is a good harbour at Napier, with a breakwater enclosing the largest area of water of any artificial harbour in New Zealand, and there are two freezing works, the largest one being that of Messrs. Nelson Bros., some twelve miles out of Napier.

The climate is superb. Norfolk Island pines and other exotics flourish, and some of the gardens are scenes of surpassing loveliness. Ice forms once in a while in winter to the thickness of a penny. The town is well lit with gas and well supplied with water. A fine esplanade fronts the sea for a mile or so, which being planted with trees forms a grand promenade for citizens. The cathedral in the centre of the city is a very creditable piece of architecture.

As an instance of what this soil and climate will produce by pasturage alone we will mention the following:—

1,500 acres grass laud at Chesterhope, eight miles out of Napier, carried last winter, 6,618 sheep. 120 acres of the grass was allowed to run to seed and the thrashed hay was used for winter feed. The grass seed from this 120 acres was sold for £666. One hundred bags were not sold, but retained for use. Cost of mowing, thrashing, and stacking was £260, the whole of the labour being done by contract.

The total proceeds from the 1,500 acres were £3,396, and the total expenses £700; the net yield being £2,696, or at the rate of 35s. per acre. This is, of course, choice property, although 300 acres of it were comparatively poor. It was just sold for some £23,000, or a trifle over £15 per acre, and gave a return therefore of about 11½ per cent, on that sum. We are informed that it is the intention of the present owners to cut it up and offer it in dairy farms of small areas.

The more minute the subdivision of the laud into paddocks, and the greater the attention the better is the return. In the Chesterhope property three flocks were kept, which were shifted from paddock to paddock, seldom being more than a week in any one. By this means the most is made of the grass, and the less there is of it wasted. The sheep are shifted from place to place to eat it as it grows and not take it or leave it as it suits their pleasure.

Most of the flat and bush country in the Hawke's Bay Province is adapted for dairying. Perhaps sheep may pay better on some of the hill country, but where a combination of hill and plain country can be obtained, a combination of sheep rearing and dairy farming would be the most profitable way of utilising the land in the way of pasture.

From Napier to Auckland there is no railroad. We took the steamer "Southern Cross" and dodged up the coast. We pass Poverty Bay, but do not go in. Captain Cook would not call it Poverty Bay if he called there now. Near the town is a large area of very valuable level land, which carries a heavy stock of beasts to the acre, and where the hills have been cleared of bush and fern there is splendid pasture. Dairying has commenced in the district, and bids fair to become a prominent industry.

From there to Auckland the country is bull poorly supplied with roads and the settlers rely upon the sea as their highway. There are many nooks and crannies along the coast where the steamer calls in, sends a boat ashore and collects the settler's produce. The country can hardly page 53 be called settled at all, only a few rich flats have been picked out for cultivation, especially at Whakatahane and Opotiki, where heavy crops of maize are grown.

All the fruits of a sub-tropical climate grow well here, oranges and lemons especially do well. All that has been done with this country worth speaking about is to burn off the bush and fern, and run sheep and cattle on the land.

Climate, soil, harbours and fish are here, but few men. It seemed almost, when we went into these quiet bays—so still were they, not a sound but the call of a bird and the plash of the wave on the beach—as if when

The fair breeze blew,
And the white foam flew,
And the furrow followed free;
We were the first
That ever burst
Into that silent sea.

Shall these places always be

Antres vast and deserts idle?

We hope not. We sometimes think the British race will die right out of sheer inaction and want of work, sitting idle in their island and importing half their food. In olden times men were not extra nice, and chained one another up like dogs, and worked the fields with gangs of men in chains like bullocks, but they were men. They prized their lands and held them by the title of the sword and no other, and they were as proud of their achievements in agriculture as in warfare. When the Germans wanted Gaul they took it, and would have kept it had not Julius Caesar taught them a lesson by killing a quarter of a million of them. Driven by hunger the Goths, the Visigoths, and Attila, the Scourge of God, came down on Rome and wiped it out. To cross the globe is safer and easier now than it was to cross the Channel when William the Norman took 60,000 men over in open boats.

What do we see all over the earth just now but idle men, idle ships, idle guns, vacant lands. Shade of Alaric! Such a combination never was since this earth was made. How these old heroes must laugh in Hades until the very rafters ring.

We called at Tolago Bay and then at a place called Waipiro, where a Mr. Williams is shearing 100,000 sheep. Then a few miles further on at Sir George Whitmore's place, Tuparoa, where he has some 30,000 sheep. Then at Awanui, where we landed a ton or two of cargo, and last at Oreti Point, where Mr. Seccombe milks 150 cows and makes the product into cheese. We took in a few tons of cheese, some bales of wool, and a few head of poultry, and then shaped our course right across the Bay of Plenty, some 150 miles past Tauranga, for Auckland homeward, from where we started now some couple of months ago. The wind was dead ahead, and the steamer of small power. At sundown such a breeze as you would take in a couple of reefs in your topsails for, ship flying light lifts to the rollers and comes down slap on the other side making the spray and the dishes fly.

In the morning, still in the Bay of Plenty, we have crawled up in the night to get to windward under the lee of the land, past White Island, an active island volcano in clouds of steam, and then in the early morning got the canvas on her, and the day breaks fine, but breezy—sea to windward indigo and white, to leeward ultramarine and snow.

Past Mayor Island, then in due course past the Aldermen, then the Shoe, then the Slipper, and then the Hole-in-the-Wall.

On from island unto island,
At the gateway of the day.

Where

Never (well, hardly ever), comes the trader;
Never (well, hardly ever), floats the European flag;
Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland,
Swings the trailer from the crag.
Droops No heavy blossomed bower,
Hangs No heavy fruited tree on these
Summer isles of Eden lying in
Dark purple spheres of sea.

* * * * *

Forgive blest shade the tributary tear,
That mourns thine exit from a world like this.

And further for the cause forgive the impertinence that thus travesties your sacred numbers.

Past Mercury Bay, past Cuvier Island, past Cape Colville, and a score more islands. Quick good ship, as if wife and boy had hold of the tow rope. Farewell, brave skipper, you watched while we slept. We clambered up the wharf before the gangway was ashore, while your men were fumbling at the ropes and did not say good-bye! We say so now.

We have quoted what some peers of the realm said about this country. A princely merchant, Sir Roderick Cameron, has lately visited these shores. This is what the press says:—"Auckland, November 8. There is at present on a visit to Auckland Sir Roderick Cameron, founder of the great shipping firm of R. and W. Cameron, of London and New York, and resident commissioner for New South Wales in America in connection with the World's Fair at Chicago. Sir Roderick is now on a visit to the colonies, and it is his intention, after running through New Zealand, to visit Victoria, New South Wales, and some of the other colonies before returning to his American home. He was interviewed by a newspaper representative and said: 'This country is undoubtedly the key of the whole Pacific, and for advantages of commercial position and climate it stands unrivalled. During my last visit twelve or thirteen years ago I made page 54 an extended tour of New Zealand, and from what I then observed I became convinced, and have always said, that this is a country whose race will improve instead of degenerating as in other countries, and that the people who live here must eventually control the Pacific.'"

And a lady fair, the Countess of Galloway, to whom we make our most courteous bow, has set her dainty foot on our islands. She writes to the "Nineteenth Centry," and says: "Live salmon, trout, deer, and different kinds of game have been imported into New Zealand with success, and the rabbits have not yet become the veritable plague they are in parts of Australia. The coast abounds in fine natural harbours, and much money has been spent upon them. Shipping brings trade and wealth, and with the sea as a means of transport it is perhaps not surprising that the railway system is still incomplete. A favourable climate, fertile land, and valuable coal may also be mentioned among the many resources of these small islands, which under a careful judicious Government, promise a vast and prosperous future to the energy and perseverance of the inhabitants, as well as much pleasure and profit to the globe-trotter."

The chief of the Stock Department in Queensland, Mr. P. R. Gordon, has paid us a visit, and in his report to his Government says,—" On the question of the grazing capabilities of the cultivated grass lands of New Zealand it would hardly be possible to speak without being open to a charge of exaggeration. It is estimated that, over all, the land will carry four sheep to the acre all the year round—that is, with the assistance of turnips or chaff in the winter. At Hastings valley, near Napier, we actually saw nine and ten sheep to the acre, and in the Gisborne district—which we did not visit—we were assured by-owners of land that (one of the richest districts in New Zealand) nine sheep to the acre is not uncommon, but frequently during some of the summer months they are packed on the pasture at the rate of fourteen sheep to the acre."

A word may be said about the rabbits which the Countess of Galloway mentions. Since we undertook this task we have travelled by land some 1,500 miles up and down and across these islands, in trains, on and behind horses, and on foot.

Pheasants we have seen, lots of them; wild ducks and black swans in plenty, and the blue swamp turkey has twitched his white tail feathers as he carefully picked his way across a swamp, disdaining to quicken his pace for so mean a thing as a passing train. Snakes never, nor harmful beast of any kind. One rabbit we did see—but only one. The fact is, the rabbit fears the plough. Up in the mountain ranges where the plough does not go, the battle goes on. We poison, trap, shoot, and kill him with dogs and ferrets, by tens of thousands, but from the plough that turns his burrow inside out he keep a respectful distance. To the agriculturist in the low lands he is not much trouble.

North of Auckland lies a large area of country, perhaps some 200 miles in length by an average breadth of 40—part forest, part bush, part open grassy country, part poor soil, part first-class, but all with a most genial climate and plenty of harbours, and which is capable of immense development—but, as we said, we do not undertake to describe the whole of New Zealand, only bits of it.

Our task is ended. We undertook to show that New Zealand offered an enormous field for investment by small men and a good field for large ones. We think we may fairly say quod erat demonstrandum.

There is an ancient record which tells how one man—a poor shepherd—an unsuccessful man, who lost his position of affluence at court because he could not brook an injury, not to himself, but to one of his race, and up and slew the offender and hid him in the sand; a man of no oratorical power, who without any armed force took a nation of bond slaves crouching under the lash of the taskmaster from the clutch of a mighty king, without commissariat, his treasury such as could be filched from their masters, marched some two or three million of them through a desert where no water was, laid down the laws by which they should become prosperous, trained them in battle with its wild tribes, conquered a territory for them, Triumphantly Solved the Problem of Poverty that the whole tribe of political economists have been dreaming about ever since Adam Smith wrote his "Wealth of Nations," and Settled Them in a land of brooks and green pastures where they became a wealthy nation, and a nation of warriors, statesmen, historians, philosophers, and poets, whose literature in spite of their destruction as a nation cannot perish, so highly have their bitterest enemies prized it. Myth, says the sneerer, like Romulus and Remus, Lycurgus, William Tell, and Horatius who kept the bridge so well. May be aye, may be no. The literature is not a myth, anyhow, for it is there, and the people are amongst us, and there is a strange veri-similitude about some of its touches, the truth of which seems to prove itself by mere utterance, such as no Shakespeare or Byron could or would have invented, they must have been observed.

Moses undertakes to settle the disputes amongst his people himself. Like most strong practical minds, apparently unconscious that in practice, not in theory, lies the highest genius, so simple does page 55 it seem to them to do things, must needs trouble himself with adjusting the wiles of sophistry, and undertakes the interpretation and construction of the statutes he has laid down for the guidance of the people, when along comes Jethro, his old father-in-law (no mediaeval knight rescuing oppressed damsel ever won his bride in more gallant fight than did Jethro's son-in-law), sees the people standing in crowds before the court of justice waiting for their turn as they do now, and the benighted old heathen, the priest of the Midianites, the worshipper of wooden idols, says to the Seer of Sinai, the Mouthpiece of the Most High, "The thing that thou doest is not good tells him to leave the construction of the statutes to inferior minds and for his part "to show the people the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do." The meekest of men, he sees his error, for "he hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said."

No scientific critic that ever tickled the ears of a highly intellectual audience in a lecture room will make us believe that story was invented. And so we will stand by the old book yet, even if a little myth has crept into the record, and learn from it that the highest office a man can fill on this earth is "to show the people the way wherein they must walk and the work they must do."

People in England are looking for investment. They look in the wrong place. Not on the Stock Exchange of London will they find it. In the fertile lands of New Zealand will they find an investment that will give them a reward for their own capital and labour, and for the intelligent superintendence of that of others.

"To this English people in world's history there have been, shall I prophesy, "says England's seer, with lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, "two grand tasks assigned. Huge, looming through the dim tumult of the always incommensurable present time, outlines of two tasks disclose themselves. The grand industrial task of conquering some half or more of this terraqueous planet for the use of man; then secondly, the grand constitutional task of sharing in some pacific endurable manner the fruit of said conquest, and showing all people how it might be done. "

The writer has to thank Mr. Hume, Mr. McCaw, and Mr. Day, of Waikato; Mr. C. B. Hoadley, of Napier; Mr. F. A. Krull, of Wanganui; Mr. W. D. Meares, of Christchurch; Mr. Donald Reid, of Dunedin; and the Hon. J. G. Ward and Mr. Carswell, of Invercargill, for their valuable aid in furnishing information for his guidance in the compilation of this pamphlet.

Princes Street, Dunedin.

Princes Street, Dunedin.