fishing communities in connection with fish-curing works. It was thought that in time these villages would become important centres of population and large contributors to the general wealth of the colony.
Experts were imported to make experiments in connection with the culture of the silk-worm, which it was believed would thrive well in some districts of the colony. Large bonuses were offered to men who started industries that were likely to be of a permanent character. A special Act was passed to encourage the production of sugar from beet-root, and a bonus was provided of one halfpenny a pound for the first 1000 tons of sugar placed on the market. A committee appointed to inquire into the best means of encouraging trade between the colony and the South Sea Islands drew up a scheme for the creation of the New Zealand International South Sea Trade Company, to which, however, Parliament refused to grant a charter.
An attempt was made by the Government to find outside markets for articles the colony produced. The Agent-General in London was instructed to place himself in communication with the Army and Navy and Civil Service Stores and Whiteley’s to ascertain if the British public could be induced to become one of the colony’s regular customers. Many private people, seeing that the Government was honest in its promises and earnest in its efforts, came forward with advice. An influential citizen of Christchurch recommended that sample consignments of ghee, a kind of rancid butter, should be sent to India, “to be used externally and internally by the millions of natives there.” Companies were formed to manufacture pig and bar-iron in the North Island, and throughout the colony there was a more hopeful spirit and a healthier public tone.
By reductions in the railway freights, which made the phalanx of Canterbury members stand by the Government more steadily than ever, agriculturists were given a bonus of £75,000 a year.
Reductions in the property tax from ¾d. in the pound to 11/16ths of a penny in the pound relieved the small farmer, and an exemption of agricultural improvements up to £3000 placed the homes of small farmers beyond the reach of the tax. Small
