a masterpiece of rhu-pine joinq manufactured at the Ken- Pl-mouth Sash and Door Factoq; it formed part of this factory's exhibit at the recent Taranaki Industrial Exhibition. The colours in which the court was hished were in fine harmony, and palms and potplants were set on a whiteemmeUed str;p of flooring. Visiton to the court were preaentecl with an attractive illustrated booklet entitled " Taran&, the Garden of New ZeaIanv con- a short hiat~ry and general description of the province+ by Bbr. S. Percy Smith, F.R.G.S., with a little tourist-gnide to Taranaki as an appendix, by Mr. W. J. Penn. Leaflets were also distributed seting forth the physical advantages, climatic and other, which Taranaki possesses. Amougst the facts set out in this it was mentioned that Tmmaki's chief industries were dairy, cattle, sheep, and general farming ; butter and cheese mandadme., meat-freezingy taming, wool-scouring, bric-, and timber-working. Taranaki's annual exports total ElY000Q00, of which butter yields 2650,000 ; the province contains over 120,000 dairy cows and nearly half a million sheep ; its grain-crops give the following yields per acre-wheat 36 bush&, oats 48 bushels, bade? 66 bushels, and maize 50 bushels. The province has total area of 2*430,000 scres, of which onl~ a little more than half is at present occupied ; there is an area of something over a &on acres of good land still waiting for settlement. In 1906 there were in the province eightynine butter-factories and eleven cheese-factories, with eightyone skimming-stations, nearly all of them owned and run on co-operative lines br the farmers who supply the m;k The output for the 1- season was 7.250 tons of butter and 413 tons of cheese ; the butter-output was about one-third that of the \\-hole colo11~. At h'ew Plymouth, Patea. and Waitara there *re freeing-n-orb and cold-storage for dai~ producers. Side by side with dairyin& a large bacon iudustr?- is carried om The Haa-ke's Ba?- proviacial exhibit co~lsisted very largely of an escelle~it display of the great fruit-growing aid wine-producing capabilities of t b \\.ell-favoured district ; but, while much prominence was given to these two important branches of industry, the ,pat wool-growing business that is the mai~lsta? of Hawkeys Bay was also well represented. No part of Sew Zealand is so well fitted by nature for hun~an mupation as this large province, with its wide open plains free of all bush, its rich soil. and its gentle slope ton& the sun. n'o part of We\r Zealand is better suited for daii-fa- and fruit-growing, and its rich flats uear the sea and hill^ countq- as one travels westward give unequalled pasture for sheep and cattle. The total area of the province is about three lllillion acres, extendi~q fro111 the east coast back to the nlountains of the Ruahiue and Kallnauawa Ib~iym. There are something over three million sheep in the province. In the construction of this court no elaborate decorative scheme \\-as followed, but the exhibit won man>- praises for ity sWul and eye-pleasing arrangwment. The wine-and-fmit section occupiecl a loi~g frontage ; a pat deal of this was devoted to a display of fruits of all ];in& produced in the celebrated Frinde~ Orchards, near Hastings, which amoq other fruit-areas contains 150 acres of peach-trees alone. There were canned frnits of evev bid arraqed in tiers, and the general attractiveness of the displa~ and the well-horn escellent qualities of the contents of the tins made one wonder wh? Sew-Zedandem ever buy imported American canned fruits. Various kinds of pure fruit-jams were shorn besides fruit-pulps, tomto-sauce, canned tomatoes and green peas, all from Frknlq. The wines from the vinepards of this land of sunshine made s pretty display in the western end of the northern frontage and on the southern side. These wines came from the vinepards at Greenmeadom, Te Mats (near Havelock), and the Meeanee Mission Station. Pure ,gape-wines of various hds were
OFFICIAL RECORD