The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-10-03 00:00:00

CAPABILITIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

The minutes of the Lord's Committee on Colonization
furnish the following interesting particulars as to New
Zealand:—

The total population of the island is now 107,000. The
soil varies very much, but the advantage of the country
is in the climate. Plants which in Europe are annuals
become perennials. This has been observed in the case
of barley, beans, &c. The wheat is remarkably good,
and grows exceedingly high, the stalk being so strong that
it has the power of resisting any ordinary wind, and is
never laid. It is alleged also to have produced fifty
bushels to the acre. The natives never grow wheat in
large quantities. The myrtle and the fuschia are large
timber trees. Cabbages grow close to the sea shore, with
a heart 18 inches in diameter, and radishes become larger
than mangold-wurzel, as big, in fact, as a man's leg.
All sorts of European fruits are found to answer, and
oranges are said to grow in the northern parts. The
clearing of the forests in New Zealand is exceedingly diffi-
cult, but generally there is no tap root. -The roots run
along the surface, so that it is not very hard to gPt them
up. The timber of New Zealand is much more profitable
than the ordinary timber of New South Wales. The
Kauri kind, which will grow 90 or 100 feet high without a
branch, is in use by the admiralty for spars. At present
the difficulty in their exportation is the want of facility
for water carriage. The ornamental woods grow in
abundance, but they are destroyed with the others in
clearing, as the expense of transport would be more than
they are worth in England.
As respects the quality of the wool produced in this
colony, the staple is long and fine, and the facility of
washing it is great. Sheep, as well as the wool, thrive,
and there is never occasion to slaughter them on account
of the want of pasturage, or the want of water. The
quantity of land necessary to support sheep is exactly the
reverse of Australia. One acre would support three or
four sheep in New Zealand, and it would take three or
four acres to support one sheep in New South Wales.
Mineral wealth has been found in abundance. Large
lodes of copper have been discovered, the ore of which is
good and easily obtained. Manganese abounds every-
where, and there are also indications of ironstone. A
German doctor who came out discovered a teacup-full of
small rubies fit for a watchmaker, which he found on the
Manawatu river. In the south, at Wanganui, there is
abiindance of coal, all on the coast, and at present quite
on the surface. This coal is strongly impregnated with
sulphur, so that it discolours any laekered furniture there
may be in the housts, but it is admirable for steamers.
It is said, however, to partake of the character of some
of the oriental coals, and to have the property of spon.
taneous combustion. In all directions there is abundance
of "water power. The unoccupied land that might be
profitably cultivated is extremely great. At forty miles
from Wellington there is an immense plain reaching from
Palliser-bay quite into the interior, where the natives
never go, from superstition. They call it the land of
witches.
There is, of course, great want of labour in New Zea-
land, but should it come in large arrivals, it must be ac-
companied by capital. Wages are, at present, about 265.
or 275. a week, reckoning tis. or 'is. ai the value of the
rations. Some time back 50 Parkhurst boys, between the
ages of 18 and 20, were sent out, but here, as in Western
Australia, they turned out so badly in point of morals
that they were injurious to the colony.
The choicest locality in the country, both as regards
harbours and in other respects, is what is called the French
settlement. It consists at present of about "50 misera-
ble object's," and the company are, negotiating with them
for their territory.
The native population are improving, and there is one
tribe who have got a mill for making flour, which they
dispose of to the Europeans at Port Nicholson, but still
they are diminishing with great rapidity—" chiefly from
sickness, arising from the change of their clothes, and
their habits from mixing with the white people, and also
the disposal of their women to the white people."
The social character of the European population is
alleged to be about the"sgune as that of the population of
England, and there is a disposition among many persons
in the higher classes of society to emigrate from England
to New Zealand.