Page:Our New Zealand Cousins.djvu/313

 In fisheries I have suggested boundless potentialities; and indeed nature has been so lavish in her gifts of raw material, that if we could only fairly set moneyed men and men of inventive genius thinking, and induce them to throw in their lot amongst us, we could not fail to benefit by the accession, and they would never have cause to regret their advent.

To farmers with a little capital, who find too circumscribed a sphere for their energies in the old lands, the colonies present an inviting field. Land is yet plentiful and cheap. The returns for faithful tillage are bountiful and certain, and there is no end to the variety of products that may be grown. "Corn, and wine, and oil," is no figure of speech as applied to the products of these colonies, but a plain matter-of-fact statement. As regards New Zealand, for instance, the following statement illustrates the anxiety and determination of the Government to foster agriculture, and it should not be forgotten that roads and railways are constantly being constructed, and new markets being opened up.

"In order to test the sincerity of the outcry for land by professional political agitators, as well as to prevent the chronic appeals of the labouring classes to the Government through alleged lack of employment, the Minister of Lands has devised a new land scheme. The leading features of it are the setting apart of blocks of land as special settlements—in the first instance in Wellington province, but if successful, the scheme will be