The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]
The Future
The Future.
The future of the Auckland province, and especially of the northern portion of it, is frequently discussed as a matter of very grave concern. The two main industries of that part of the province—kauri gum and kauri timber—are necessarily vanishing quantities, and, though the present rapid rate of digging the one and cutting the other may be kept up, and even accelerated for some years, prudent colonists are asking questions and making calculations as to the possible duration of the supplies and the probable effect on the prosperity of the province, when these supplies eventually run short. The two industries are of about equal magnitude; but their conditions are different in a marked degree. Whereas the timber page 32 is but partially exported, and the export is mainly if not wholly confined to Australia, the gum is almost entirely dependent on the English and American markets. In regard to the kauri timber, therefore, it may reasonably be assumed that its price will rise with its scarcity, the competition being mainly between kauri and other timbers, which also are vanishing, though somewhat less rapidly. This will, of course, mean a gradually diminishing output, regulated, on the one hand, by the lessened demand consequent on the increased price, and, on the other, by an increasing reluctance among forest-owners to deal with their standing trees. The prospect of this increase, no matter how gradual it may prove to be, is of course, the reverse of pleasing, but the absence or suddenness is a redeeming feature of great importance to all concerned—the workmen, their employers, and the general public.
That every reasonable effort should be made to prepare for these contingencies is admitted on all sides, and there is a consensus of opinion that the opening up of the country by roads and railways would soon place Auckland beyond dependence on her declining industries. Important as these industries undoubtedly are, and disastrous as their sudden cessation would assuredly be, they are not, after all, the life of the province. Both Auckland and Aucklanders are fitted for something not only more lasting, but also more elevating than sawing timber or digging for either gum or gold, and the truest friends of the province are unanimous in their desire to see a much larger proportion of its population devoted to the nobler branches of husbandry—those branches which admit of the highest standard of ideal family life, and, in that way, make for stability, permanence and irresistible power of progression.
With climatic conditions which the world can hardly beat, with natural wonders all her own, with millions of acres of virgin land, with a sturdy, patriotic population determined to succeed and able to supply all its own real needs, with a history proving its power to turn even misfortunes to good account, and with a host of other advantages many of which even this somewhat extended article has failed to enumerate, the Provincial District of Auckland, exercising reasonable prudence and forethought, may look with confidence to the developments of the future, well assured of a prosperous career, and for the succeeding generations of its people, a goodly inheritance.