The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3079, 10 May 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1881.

The progress of the pastoral interests of Hawke's Bay, as shown iD Mr M. R. Miller's annual report, is a very gratifying evidence of sustained enterprise on tbe part of the large landed proprietors of this provincial district. The statistics that been very carefully collected and compiled by Mr Miller show in a remarkable degree the large amount of capital invested in pastoral and kindred industries that have been established in Hawke'a Bay, and this is, perhaps, best exhibited in the value of the exports. To those acquainted with the business of pastoral pursuits the figures collated in Mr Miller's report speak for themselves, but it is as well that the uninitiated should be occasionally reminded of the vast interests at stake in the prosperity of the one industry of this district. In the first place, out of a total area of three millions of acres comprised within the boundaries of our province, about two millions of acres are occupied. That is to say, that somewhere about two millions of acres have passed from possession of the Crown into the bands of private individuals. As a matter of course not all of this extent of country is occupied as grazing land, but it is sufficient for our purpose to suppose that it is. Now, in what manner has this land been turned to account ? There have been ploughed and laid down in grass 80,000 acres, and there have been surface sowu with grasses 620,000 acres, or onetenth of the whole area occupied, has been permanently improved, and over one million acres have been enclosed. This land supports no less than 2,09P,375 sheep, 36,000 head of cattle, and 9500 horses. The whole of this live stock is estimated by Mr Miller to be of the value of £1,034,140. This estimate may be found fault with by some as above, and by others as below the real valuation, but we are inclined to think it has struck a very fair average value of the stock in the proviuce. Our attention is next directed to tbe returns from this live stock. Wool is necessarily the chief source of revenue. The nett wool exports during the past season amounted to above eleven million pounds weight of the value of £608,935, exhibiting an increase over last year's export of £172,797. The value of the tallow exported was £46,294, and of hides, &c„ £6,567. Thus the total value of the exports from the above sources amounted to £700,582, a

sum which represents the returns from tbe two million acres of land occupied for grazing purposes. But there are some other items to be taken into consideration. The land has provided beef and mutton for a population ot 16,000, not including 3200 natives, ,and 84,500 sheep have beeu exported during the year. We have no returns of the export and consumption of cattle. These items, added to the value of the exports, would probably bring the total average returns from the land to somewhere about 8s 6d per acre. This may appear a very low return, but it must be borne in miud that only one fourth of the total area of the land has been improved. The progres that has been made in the past —in seven years the weight of wool exported having just about doubled—gives every promise of fnturp nmsnerity.

A despatch has been received by His Excellency tbe Governor announcing that the Queen in ''ouncil has assented to the Deceased Wife's Sister Marriage Act, which was passed by the General Assembly last session. Thus this vexed question is at rest. The bill, we believe, had been introduced to the General Assembly some eight or nine limes, had been passed by the House of Representatives once or twice, and had been thrown out by the Legislative Council. Last year a different feeling appeared to animate the Upper House, and tbe third reading of tbe bill was carried by a majority of five. The strange thing about this bill was that, year after year, the Legislative Council affirmed the principle of tbe measure by carrying the second reading, but on the third invariably threw it out by large majorities. This waß equivalent to the assertion that, though there was no fault to be found with the principle involved in marriage I with a deceased wife's sister, it was the respectable thing for the Upper House to put its veto on any measure that would permit of such an action. This was in weak imitation of tbe course adopted by the English House of Lords, where a phalanx of bishops have taken tbe matter in band and decided it on religious grounds. The Hon. Mr Menzies justified his op-" position to the third reading of the bill last session by saying that such a measure was essentially wrong, because he thought it violated the principles laid down in that Book in which Christians found their rule of life. Fuch an argument would have been valid enough, as the Hon. Colonel Brett pointed out, if addressed to Jews. He challenged the production ot any portion of Scripture which forbade marriage with a deceased wife's sister. Tbe que»tion at issue is a very simple one, namely, is there or is there not a difference between affinity and consanguinity P It must be admitted that there is no consanguinity between the deceased wife's sister and her brother-in-law, therefore there should be nothing to prevent marriage between them. The length of time that has elapsed from the paßsingof the bill to the announcement of its assent by tbe Queen led some to hope that the measure would not become law. We think most people will be glad that the oponents of tbe bill will be disappointed, and, that another step has been made in tbe direction of adapting our laws to the existing needs of tbe people of the present day, without reference to wbat was applicable to men of a byegone age, of different race and clime.