1858 - The New Zealand 'Emigrant's Bradshaw' : or, Guide to the 'Britain of the South' - Chapter IX. Exports, Markets, Statistics, Prices, Wages, Tariff, Etc. p 98-112

       
E N Z B       
       Home   |  Browse  |  Search  |  Variant Spellings  |  Links  |  EPUB Downloads
Feedback  |  Conditions of Use      
  1858 - The New Zealand 'Emigrant's Bradshaw' : or, Guide to the 'Britain of the South' - Chapter IX. Exports, Markets, Statistics, Prices, Wages, Tariff, Etc. p 98-112
 
Previous section | Next section      

CHAPTER IX. EXPORTS, MARKETS, STATISTICS, PRICES, WAGES, TARIFF, ETC.

[Image of page 98]

EXPORTS AND MARKETS.

CHAPTER IX.

EXPORTS, MARKETS, STATISTICS, PRICES, WAGES, TARIFF, ETC.

EXPORTS AND MARKETS. --The New Zealand exports for the year 1858, see page 21, may perhaps be estimated at nearly half a million sterling--a large sum to be produced by a few thousand pioneer colonists located in half-a-dozen spots of a great country, but only an earnest of what may he expected as population flows into the young Land, and the magic touch of capital and labour begins to develope its immense natural resources.

PASTORAL EXPORTS. --Wool, we think, bids fair to become the chief export to the mother country; and the value of this year's clip may perhaps be estimated at nearly £250,000. It has been calculated that, owing to the extent and quality of the pasturage and the facilities of converting wild lands into the richest grazing tracts, New Zealand is capable of producing an export of wool, tallow, and hides, to the amount of some millions sterling per annum. Indeed, Sir George Grey, after his long experience both of Australia and New Zealand, is said to have expressed an opinion that the latter country, though of small comparative extent, would be found capable, owing to its superiority in soil and climate, of supporting more stock and producing more meat and wool than the whole of the island-continent of Australia.

Wool, like cotton and silk, one of the great textile staples of the world, is a chief food of British manufactures, and a ready cash market is found in the Colony for any quantity of it. The export commercial houses in each of the six chief Settlements are always eager buyers, and the price, for the finer qualities, may be taken at about 1s. per pound, with a tendency to rise as the washing facilities afforded by the abundant supply of soft running streams are more profited by, and the young New Zealand wool-growers become more accustomed to their business and display more care and skill in "getting up" their wool for market. The wool, after clipping season in November, is packed and pressed in bales containing about 300 lbs., and is then carried either by the flockmaster's bullock-drays ten to fifteen miles to the chief

[Image of page 99]

WOOL.--SHIP PROVISIONS.--AUSTRALIAN MARKETS.

port, or to some of the little coast harbours in the neighbourhood to which coasting steamers, or small craft, are sent by the merchants to collect it.

Cured beef and pork and preserved ship provisions will, we think, eventually appear as large items in New Zealand exports. The Australian and the Indian marine and the whaling fleet would prove large consumers; whilst, thanks to soil and cooler climate, there is perhaps no country south of the equator where butchers' meat is so fat and fine, and none, we think, where prime mess beef and pork for the shipping trade could be produced at a cheaper rate or of finer quality.

AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS. --In the last few years two Australian Colonies, New South Wales and Victoria, have purchased (for the most part at very high prices,) New Zealand farm and dairy produce to the amount of nearly a million sterling. In some published information about Otago, which lately came under our notice, it was rather recklessly asserted that these "high price" Australian markets would be steady permanent markets for the New Zealand farmer. We differ entirely from the writer on this question, and can only wonder that any one desirous of imparting correct information about the Colony of New Zealand should venture on such a statement. When the gold discoveries blazed on the world, when thousands a week of new and hungry comers were choking up the wharfs of Sydney and the streets of Melbourne, there was a sort of "scramble" for food, and every bushel of wheat and sack of potatoes in New Zealand rose in value four hundred per cent. But these "rush to the diggings" prices have long ceased. Victoria has had time to push the plough a little for herself; and Van Diemen's Land and South Australia, with half the sea carriage, of New Zealand, could feed Melbourne and Sydney were each city twice as large.

Though, however, New South Wales and Victoria are no longer dependent on New Zealand for food, we must recollect that the whole of Australia is subject both to "drought years" and to devastating storms and floods, when a portion of the crops is sometimes virtually lost, and when of course New Zealand farm produce would find a sure and high-price market. Looking at this, and at the facilities afforded of shipping New Zealand produce to these markets as back freight, we consider that, at intervals, New Zealand corn and root crops, and especially dairy produce, may find a good demand in Australia. And keeping in view this occasional Australian demand, looking at the average price of wheat in Sydney and Melbourne for the last ten years, remember-

[Image of page 100]

AGRICULTURAL PRICES.--WHALE FISHERY.

ing the increasing demand for food and seed corn and breeding stock, occasioned by the monthly arrival of new comers in New Zealand, and glancing at the European demand for wool, tallow and hides, it has been carefully estimated by one of the first New Zealand authorities, that the New Zealand farmer and grazier may calculate on finding, within a few miles of his fields, cash markets for produce giving an average of about the following prices--an average which--seeing that the soil is easy of cultivation and fruitful of crop, that he is free from rent, tax, and tithe, and that the only thing "per contra," is the higher price of hand labour--is one which unquestionably ought to pay him good interest on the landed investment of his capital:--

£ s. d.

Pine Wool... per lb.,

0 1 0

Choice Breeding ewes. . . " head

1 0 0

Pat wethers... . . " "

0 15 0

Fat beef.... . . " stone

0 2 6

Good Working steers. . . . " pair

20 0 0

Good farm mares.. . . . each £30 to

40 0 0

Dairy heifers... . . " £5 to

8 0 0

Butter, cheese, bacon. per lb. 6d. to

0 0 9

Wheat... . . per bushel 5s. to

0 6 0

Barley and fine oats. " 4s. to

0 5 0

Potatoes per ton, best sorted. £2 to

3 0 0

Pasture grass seeds high and in good demand. Pressed hay for Australia, high, and in occasional demand. Horse feed (oats, hay, &c.) generally rules proportionately higher in the markets of Australia than wheat and potatoes: hay, for instance, is occasionally quoted there at £20 per ton.

OIL, FLAX, TIMBER, KAURI GUM, AND MINERAL ORES.

These articles, after wool, tallow, hides, and some agricultural and dairy produce, appear at present likely to become the chief exports of New Zealand. Both the black and the sperm whale are abundant about the coasts and in the home seas; and whilst hundreds of American vessels from New Bedford, Nantucket, &c., are found coming 12,000 miles to fish in the waters of New Zealand, it is, we think, clear that the young Colony might ply the harpoon at her own doors with a very strong probability of commercial success. 1

[Image of page 101]

FLAX.--EGG OF THE MOA.--TIMBER TRADE.

Perhaps by a combination of the processes of Mr. Cox and the Baron de Thierry, the difficulties of freeing the fibre of the Phormium Tenax from its resinous gum, the chief difficulty or defect which as yet has prevented the New Zealand flax from competing with the Russian hemp, may be overcome; and the importance of the discovery, should it prove a commercially workable one, may he judged of when we remember that almost any quantity of the fibre may be produced in New Zealand, and that in year 1853 we paid Russia for hemp upwards of £3,000,000 sterling. 2

Kauri spars and sawn stuff, 3 and Kauri gum are becoming considerable back-freight exports to Australia and

[Image of page 102]

LATENT AND FUTURE EXPORTS.--GOLD.

elsewhere, and the mineral resources of the country have been touched on at page 16.

Recollecting, however, that as yet, we have set foot on but some half-dozen spots of New Zealand, it would be a rash assumption were we now to assume that pastoral and agricultural produce, with oils, ores, flax, and timber (sufficient as such exports would be to make her rich), will be her only exports, or even her chief exports. The history of commerce shows that the spread of population in the new country ultimately reveals many rich articles of export which its pioneer settlers had overlooked. Years elapsed ere America discovered wealth in cotton, South Australia in copper, New South Wales in wool, Victoria in gold. And the spread of population in New Zealand, the magic touch of capital and labour, may reveal gums, barks, dyes, fibres, oils, ores, twenty articles of export as yet undreamt of, or unseen.

GOLD. --The value of the Gold raised and exported from the Nelson Gold Fields, up to November last, has been estimated at £50,000. It is, of course, impossible to say what dimensions this new export may reach if any great "finds" attracting a large digging population should lead to thorough explorations of the Aorere and other likely spots 4 and such "explorations" be attended with success. So far, although there have been some cases of "great finds," nothing has been discovered on a large scale equal to the Melbourne fields. But it must not be forgotten that the pioneer searchers who have obtained these 12,000 or 14,000 ounces at Nelson have been chiefly a mere handful of tyroes; that no great number of experienced practical diggers has yet reached the spot; and that, as we observed at page 18, it would be opposed both to inferential facts and to the laws of probability to assert now that the Province of Nelson may not eventually display its Bendigoes and Ballarats.

The effect of the discovery of rich Gold Fields in Nelson would, we think, be decidedly advantageous (eventually) to the whole Colony. Unquestionbly there would be a "flocking to Nelson," and a derangement in the labour market. Agriculturists, estate-creators, squatters, stockowners, and flock masters, would find their operations more crippled by the greater scarcity of hands, and would certainly have to submit to higher wages. But there would be more than an equivalent advance in the prices of all agricultural and pastoral produce; and experience shows that the farmers

[Image of page 103]

and graziers and food-producers of Australia were never so prosperous as they have been since the rise of the Australian Diggings. Some thousands of people, too, flocking to Nelson or New Zealand through the "Auri sacra fames," might unquestionably introduce certain rude and boisterous elements into the community; but here we must remember that the sixty thousand colonists of New Zealand, socially considered, are a very "high caste" little community: genuine proof spirits, capable of bearing considerable adulteration by a baser element without becoming radically bad. Again, these New Zealand fields are far more accessible than the Australian, nearer the port-town, nearer the coast; the climate is better for the Digger's health, more suitable for his operations; and, in New Zealand, he would not suffer from that inability to purchase land, or to find any industrial investment for his savings, which has so lowered his "morale" and dissipated his wealth in Australia.

Looking at these facts, recollecting that New Zealand's "want of wants" is population, and that the discovery of rich gold fields might enable her by the year 1860 to boast a population of 200,000 colonists, with exports to the possible value of some £5,000,000 sterling, we think that such discovery would be attended with a large balance of profit and advantage; and though with her vast agricultural and pastoral resources no country is better able to dispense with the precious metals than New Zealand, we certainly hope that she may send gold as well as the Golden Fleece to our markets, and become not only the granary, but the "El Dorado" of the Pacific.

The following letter from a gentleman in Nelson, addressed to his friends in Sydney, taken from the Nelson Examiner of September 19, will give the reader a glimpse of the early character and condition of the Aorere Gold Fields:--

"Some incredulity has hitherto been manifested by the neighbouring Provinces of New Zealand, and also by Australia, with regard to the existence, in the Nelson Province, of a workable gold field; but it is now beyond the possibility of dispute that at the Aorere, about fifty miles from the town of Nelson, not only does a workable gold field exist, but that it yields a better average return than the boasted gold fields of Australia, being more easily obtained, more generally diffused, and obtained with much less expense. There are now about two thousand persons at the diggings, including cooks, storekeepers, bullock-drivers, visitors, &c. The majority of the diggers are working in and near the bed of the Slate River,

[Image of page 104]

THE NELSON GOLD FIELDS.

which rises in the quartz ranges, a chain of mountains reaching far into the interior of the island. This river has been traced sixteen miles by some old Californian diggers, who are of opinion that it is workable for the whole of that distance. It has numerous tributaries, which promise equally well. There is, therefore, an extent of country capable of accommodating ten times the number at present on the diggings. The richest gold has hitherto been found in the valleys, or gullies as they are termed. But while speaking of the diggings, I must observe that there is little or no digging, the gold being found in shingly beds and in the shelves of the rocks, so that it is only necessary to remove the loose stones and shingle. Where they have to dig, from one to two feet is found sufficient; and although some few have taken to deep-sinking, I am not aware of any having met with any better return than from surface digging. On account of this, the claims are larger than I believe they allow on the Aus tralian diggings, being thirty feet square for new claims and sixty feet for old diggings. I may here observe that some of the old deserted claims are found to pay very well by those who do not care to go further, and find it difficult to get a new claim without doing so. There is a party at present turning the Slate River out of its bed; this, they estimate will cost £600. Of course they would not incur this expense without making pretty certain of an ample return. They have been induced to do this from one of their party having seen the gold shining among the stones at the bottom of the river. The earnings of some of the most fortunate diggers are almost incredible; it is true none have made a fortune, but some have laid a good foundation, having, in the short space of three weeks, saved £300. A party of four men got out of the Slate River sixteen pounds' weight and some ounces in one week, making each man's earnings for the week £175. This is not an isolated case; I could mention others equally successful, some so much more so as to be hardly credible, but the above I can vouch for, a gentleman of my acquaintance having seen it weighed. The earnings vary from £10 to £200 per week, although it must be admitted some do not make wages, but these are generally found to be men either unable to endure the unavoidable inconvenience and hardships, or who like to hang too much about the grog tent. Clothing and provisions are nearly as cheap here as in the town, there being many facilities for the transit of goods. Our little steamer goes there twice a week with a full cargo, and a squadron of small craft are continually to be seen coming and going."

[Image of page 105]

THE NELSON GOLD FIELDS.

We take the following commercial report from a late Nelson Examiner: --"Gold has been brought to market in large quantities, and the William Alfred and the Louisa and the Miriam took to Sydney, on the part of the Union Bank of Australia, more than 2400 ounces; whilst every vessel from the neighbouring Settlements brings a number of men bent on and fully determined to search for and gain all that this El Dorado of the New Zealand Isles will yield them. This, however, is no guide to the amount of gold obtained, as much passes away among the small craft trading between the various ports, and some is kept back by others waiting for direct opportunities of shipment. We shall not be wrong in stating the yield of the Aorere gold fields, notwithstanding the wet and inclement weather up to the present date, at much less than from 12,000 to 14,000 ounces."



"A" referred to in Note, page 43.

The Wellington Independent of Nov. 28, 1857, says, "We stop the press to announce that the Imperial Government and Mr. Sewell (a member of the New Zealand Ministry lately in England on public business) have completed an arrangement with the "New Zealand and Australian Mail Steam Company" for the establishment of inter-provincial Steam communication. Two 800 ton ships of 200 horse power are to run between Australia and New Zealand, and two 500 ton boats of 100 horse power are to branch from Wellington north and south. The cost of the Service is £20,000 per annum--£12,000 being paid by the Imperial Government and the remainder by the Colony."

[Image of page 106]

STATISTICS.

STATISTICS.

ROUGH ESTIMATE OF POPULATION, CULTIVATIONS, AND STOCK, calculated up to May 1, 1858.

Province.

Colonists. 1

Natives.

58th & 65th Regiments Soldiers.

Lands fenced in.

Sheep.

Cattle.

Horses.

Pigs.

Auckland.

17,000

32,000

800

100,000

50,000

30,000

3,000

13,000

Wellington.

14,000

10,000

600

60,000

300,000

30,000

3,000

13,000

New Plymouth.

3,000

6,000

200

10,000

20,000

5,000

500

3,000

Nelson.

13,000

1,000

--

35,000

350,000

20,000

2,500

12,000

Canterbury.

8,000

500

--

30,000

350,000

20,000

1,700

8,000

Otago.

5,000

500

--

15,000

200,000

20,000

1,600

800

Total.

60,000

50,000

1,600

250,000

1,270,000

125,000

12,300

49,800

1   Taking the past year's increase of population at about 20 per cent., we may assume that, at the above date, the European, population of New Zealand would be nearly 60,000, some four-sevenths being males and three-sevenths females. Owing to the operation of the Nelson gold fields more of this population at that date may be in the Nelson province and less in the other Provinces than appears in the table--but the diggers and adventurers attracted to Nelson from other parts of New Zealand are not so much Nelson residents as speculative visitors who will eventually return to the homes or families they have left. Of course, however, if these Nelson gold fields should prove rich and permanent diggings, Nelson, through immigration both from Europe and Australia, will increase in population more rapidly than any other Province.

The estimated amount of stock and cultivations would give about 4 fenced in or cultivated acres and 30 head of stock to every European inhabitant. The annual ratio of increase of stock and cultivations for the whole Colony appears to have been lately about 0 per cent.

[Image of page 107]

STATISTICS.

STATISTICS.

ROUGH ESTIMATE of the REVENUE, EXPORTS, SHIPPING, and Number of HOUSES of each PROVINCE

Province.

Assumed Public Revenue of each Province for the Year 1858. (see pp. 20 & 21.)

Estimated value of the exports of each Province for the Year 1858. (see page 21.)

Assumed amount of tonnage of Shipping entering the Ports of each Province in the Year 1857.

Estimated amount of Shipping owned in the Year 1857, in each Province, (chiefly small coasters.)

Estimated No. of Houses in each Province in the Year 1857.

£

£

Tons.

No. of Vessels.

Gross Tonnage.

Auckland.

100,000

100,000

60,000

350

10,000

3, 700

Wellington.

60,000

100,000

40,000

100

3,000

3,000

New Plymouth.

10,000

30,000

5,000

2

100

600

Nelson.

50,000

150,000

20,000

50

1,000

2,000

Canterbury.

40,000

80,000

10,000

10

300

1,400

Otago. 2

20,000

40,000

10,000

10

300

900

Total.

£280,000

£500,000

145,000 tons

520 ships

say 15,000 tons.

11,600

2   It is reported that the Provincial Authorities at Otago have been induced to part with a block of land of 100,000 acres to some Australian speculator at the price of 10s. per acre. If so, of course the Land Sales item of the public revenue of the financial year in which the proceeds of such monster and exceptional sale may appear, will exhibit a great increase.

[Image of page 108]

STATISTICS.

STATISTICS.

Roughly-estimated proportions of the races and religious sects of the 60,000 New Zealand colonists:

RACE. 3

SECT.

Foreigners.

1

Catholics.

1

Irish

20

Scotch Church.

1

Scotch.

20

Wesleyans and other Dissenters

2

English.

60

Episcopalians.

4

3   These proportions would not, however, hold good for Otago; there, assuming the present population to he nearly 5000, the proportion would we think, be about 3000 Scotch, to 2000 of Irish, English, and foreigners.

RETAIL SHOP PRICES. --It should be remarked that this list applies chiefly to town dwellers; country settlers on land generally produce all they require except their groceries, and buy these more by wholesale, i. e., two or three families join and buy half-a-dozen bags of sugar or a chest of tea at some auction sale--groceries and imported merchandise of all sorts are frequently sold by auction in the Colonies, and the auctioneer is far more closely allied with the merchant and trader in Australia and New Zealand than he is in England. Some of these articles are always a little dearer, some a little cheaper, in one Settlement than in another; but taken as a whole these prices fairly represent the present average prices of the chief articles of domestic consumption for the Colony generally--though of course it will not be forgotten, that if New Zealand should turn out to be as rich a gold country as Australia, "shop prices," and indeed all prices, will, for a time at least, be somewhat higher.

s.

d.

s.

d.

Beef, mutton, pork, per lb.

0

4 to

0

6

Fowls, per pair.

3

0 "

5

0

Eggs, per dozen.

1

6 "

2

0

Milk, per quart.

0

3 "

0

4

Fresh butter, per lb.

1

0 "

1

6

Colonial cheese, bacon and hams, per lb.

1

0 "

1

6

Bread, per lb.

0

3 "

0

4

Flour, per lb.

0

2 1/2 "

0

3

Best potatoes, per cwt.

6

0 "

8

0

Large cabbages, each.

0

1 "

0

2

Rice, per lb.

0

3 "

0

4

Salt.

0

O 3/4 "

0

1

Soap.

0

4 "

0

6

Sugar, per lb.

0

4 "

0

6

Tea, per lb.

2

0 "

3

0

[Image of page 109]

PRICES.--WAGES.--EXPENSE OF LIVING.

s.

d.

s.

d.

Coffee, per lb.

1

0

to 1

6

Tobacco.

2

6

3

6

Candles, per lb.

1

0

1

3

Firewood, month's supply for a family

10

0

20

0

The retail prices of clothing, hardware, and the common articles of British manufacture sold in the shops, are about £100 per cent, higher than in England.

The price of wines and spirits is about the same as in England. Hotel and boarding-house charges, house-rent, and hire of apartments are, perhaps, about £50 per cent, higher than in England.

MISCELLANEOUS PRICES.

Sawn board and scantling per 100 feet

12s. to 21s.

Shingles (the wooden) slate per 1000

13s. " 18s.

Bricks.... per 1000

60s. " 80s.

Lime.... per Bushel

3s. " 4s.

Split garden palings... per 100

10s. " 15s.

Substantial verandah cottage (wood) say for a family of six

£150 to £200

Small Raupo rustic, ditto.

£25 to £50

Post and 4-rail field fencing, per chain

15s. to 20s.

Hire of horse and cart for a day.

15s. to 25s.

" riding horse, ditto.

10s. to 20s.

A family of half-dozen members, having their own cottage and ten to twenty acres of land under cultivation, as a little dairy and garden farm, might, we think, now live comfortably in New Zealand on an income of about £100 a-year.

RATES OF LABOUR AND DOMESTIC SERVICE.

Agricultural and general unskilled labourers, per day of eight to nine hours

6s. to 8s.

Skilled labourers, such as carpenters, wheelrights, shipwrights,
smiths, masons, &c., per day of eight to nine hours.

10s. to 15s.

Good general man servant, living in the house, per year.

£50 to £60

Good female servant, ditto.

£20 to £25

If the various Provinces continue to devote a portion of their revenues to the introducing of labour under the "Assisted Passage" system, these high rates will unquestionably be lowered; and without New Zealand should prove a great gold country, we incline to think that wages, during the next five years, will not exhibit a higher average than one of 5s. or 6s. a-day for unskilled labour.

[Image of page 110]

VALUE OF IMPROVED LANDS.--THE TARIFF.

VALUE OF IMPROVED PROPERTY. --Small suburban farms, lying within one to four miles of any of the six provincial capitals, would now, we think, generally realize from £10 to £20 per acre. Good shops and warehouse sites in Auckland and Wellington have fetched from £10 to £20 per frontage foot, and the small acre and half-acre town lots put up by auction by the Provincial Governments, where new townships are to be laid out will sometimes realize from £50 to nearly £200 per acre.

The Tariff. -Customs' duties, producing even in these infant days about £150,000 a year, form the sole public tax paid by the New Zealand community. 5

ARTICLES DUTY FREE.

1. All articles for the supply of Her Majesty's land and sea forces.

2. Animals living.

3. Bricks, slates, and stones for building purposes, and mill stones.

4. Boats.

5. Books printed, not being account-books.

6. Bottles full of an article subject to duty.

7. Bullion and coin.

8. Casks, empty.

9. Coal.

10. Corn, grain, meal, flour, bread, and biscuit.

11. Gunpowder, fit only for blasting purposes.

12. Iron, pig.

13. Machinery, viz., brick and tile making, draining, flax, hay, and wool pressing, straw and turnip cutting, reaping, threshing and winnowing machines, steam engines and apparatus for ditto, and machinery for mills, including hand flour mills.

14. Manure.

15. Oil blubber and bone, the produce of fish or marine animals.

16. Plants, bulbs, trees, and seeds.

17. Passengers' personal baggage.

18. Ploughs and harrows.

19. Specimens illustrative of natural history.

20. Tobacco for sheep-wash, subject to its being rendered unfit for human consumption, and to such regulations as the Governor shall from time to time prescribe in that behalf.

[Image of page 111]

THE TARIFF.

ARTICLES PAYING DUTY.

£-s.- d.

1. Ale, beer, cider, and perry, in wood, the gallon........0-0-6

Ale, beer, cider, and perry, in bottle, the gallon........0-1-0

2. Spirits and strong waters of every kind, sweetened or otherwise, of any strength not exceeding the strength of proof by Sykes' hydrometer, and so on in proportion for any greater or less strength than the strength of proof, the gallon.........0-8-0

8. Wine, in wood and bottles, containing less than 25 per cent. of alcohol of a specific gravity of 825 at temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit's thermometer, the gallon........0-3-0

4. Cigars and snuff, the lb...........0-3-0

5. Tobacco, the lb.........0-1-3

6. Coffee, chicory, and chocolate, the lb........0-0-2

7. Iron-rod, bar, bolt, hoop, and sheet not otherwise manufactured, per cwt.........0-1-0

8. Salt, the cwt........0-1-0

9. Sugar, raw and refined, of all kinds, and treacle and molasses, the lb.........0-0-0-1/2

10. Tea, the lb........0-0-3

11. Wood, of all kinds, not manufactured into furniture, the cubic foot........0-0-2

12. Boots and shoes, hats, apparel of all kinds and all material for making apparel, jewellery, cutlery, clocks, watches, and plated ware, and all silk, woollen, cotton, and linen manufactures (except corn and gunny bags and woolpacks), sperm, stearine, and wax candles (measuring outside the packages), the cubic foot........0-3-0

13. All other goods, wares, and merchandise (measuring outside the packages), the cubic foot........0-1-0
Or at the option of the principal officer of customs at the port entry at which the same shall be imported, the cwt.........0-2-0

[Image of page 112]

BOOKS ON NEW ZEALAND.--GOVERNMENT OFFICERS.

List of standard, or recent, works on New Zealand--procurable at Stanford's, Colonial Publisher, 6, Charing Cross, London:--

£ s. d.

Hursthouse's New Zealand, "The Britain of the South," 2 vols.; with 2 maps, and 7 coloured views........1-1-0

Captain Cooper's Settler's Guide.......0-2-6

Forsyth's Emigrants' Handbook (by post).......0-0-4

Hodgkinson's Canterbury (by post)........0-0-5

Weld's New Zealand Sheep Farming (by post)......0-0-4

The New Zealand Pilot; an admirable ship's guide to every harbour, and to every mile of the New Zealand coast, published by order of the Admiralty.......0-3-6

Te Ika a Maui; by the Rev. R. Taylor, a standard work on the native race, and on the geology and natural history of the country.......0-16-0

THE CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT.

Salary

Governor.

Salary

His Excellency Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, C. B. £3500

Ministry.

Colonial Treasurer C. W. Richmond, Esq. . £700

Colonial Secretary E. W. Stafford, Esq.. .£700

Attorney-General. F. J. Whitaker, Esq.. . £700

Without Office. Henry Sewell, Esq.

Commander of the Forces.

Lieut.-Col. Wynyard, 58th Regiment, Auckland.

Judges.

Chief Justice Arney, Auckland.... £1000

Mr. Justice Stephens, Wellington.... £800

Speaker of the House of Representatives (House of Commons).

Charles Clifford, Esq. 6......£400

Superintendents (Lieut.-Governors) of the six Provinces.

Auckland.. His Honor J. Williamson, Esq.. £600

New Plymouth.. His Honor G. Cutfield, Esq. . £300

Wellington.. . His Honor Dr. Featherstone. . £600

Nelson.. . His Honor J. P. Robinson, Esq. . £500

Canterbury.. . His Honor W. Moorhouse, Esq. . £500

Otago.. . His Honor Capt. Cargill. ... £400

1   Captain Kennedy reports whales to he very numerous on the coast, having seen a large number of them during his trip. Fyfe's Shore whaling party at the Kaikoras, consisting of two seven-oared boats, was doing remarkably well. They had caught about sixteen tuns of oil, were in chase after whales nearly every day, and expected to make a good season. Mr. Fyfe had found a Moa's egg at the Kaikoras, while digging the foundation for his store. It is a foot long, about 9 inches in diameter, and 27 inches in circumference. The shell is the sixteenth part of an inch in thickness. A hole is drilled in the end of it, and the egg must evidently have been considered of great value by the natives, as it was found deposited at the head of a skeleton with a number of very large poanamu axes. Mr. Fyfe, we understand, is going to send it home to the British Museum. -- Wellington Independent, July 25.
2   One of the articles to which we have endeavoured to draw attention has been flax--a plant of which there is an almost inexhaustible supply in this Province. Our arguments have had this much effect--that the General Government have offered premiums for the best specimens of exportable flax, and that nearly £1500 has been promised towards the establishment of a flax company. The value of the flax gum, however, is as yet disregarded. Beyond private use for sealing letters or mending broken china, its almost unrivalled adhesive and mastic properties are utterly wasted.

Since the above remarks were in type, we have had a proof placed before us that the flax question, at all events, is not to be suffered to fall through. Yesterday afternoon a numerous party assembled at Mr. Cox's, Freeman's Bay, to witness the first formal trial of his machine for preparing flax for manufacture and exportation. The machine itself is very simple, yet ingenious --being based mainly, as it struck us, on the principle of the carding machine. The wood-work has been constructed almost entirely by Mr. Cox--the iron-work by Mr. Dove and Mr. Tizard. We do not here attempt to describe the machine; but we may say that the spectators--of whom a large party were shareholders in the projected flax company--were so well satisfied with the usefulness of the invention, that they at once started a subscription to cover the expense of preparing five tons of flax for shipment to England by the first vessel direct from Auckland. We may add, that several gentlemen present expressed their desire for a similar public experimental trial of the Baron De Thierry's model of preparing flax, and to subscribe towards the expenses of such. A large number of Maories were present at the trial at Mr. Cox's, and wanted to buy the machine of him on the spot. On this occasion the motive-power was supplied by hand labour; but even this showed a result of three hundred-weight per frame or machine per day, --and with steam-power there would be nothing to prevent a hundred frames or machines being set at work under one roof. -- Late Auckland Paper.
3   The brig Gertrude is a full ship for Sydney, and will sail in the course of this afternoon. Her cargo consists of 30,000 feet of sawn timber, tongued and grooved, quite a new article of export, 100 tons of kauri gum, 25 tons of potatoes, and 400 bushels of wheat. --Late Auckland Paper.
4   From the description given in the Admiralty Book, the "New Zealand Pilot," of Pelorus Sound, we should imagine it to be a very likely district for gold.
5   Some slight alterations have been proposed in this amended Tariff of 1856-but we believe they have not yet been effected.
6   Cousin, we believe, of the English Peer, Lord Clifford.

Previous section | Next section