The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1873

Evening Star, Issue 3117, 14 February 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1873

Statistics up.vo.r lank vnnv in.vit.incrRows of figures carry with them a very dry appearance. Few men care to pore over them; for although they are the exponents of our social position, they point to facts that do not lie on the surface. Men are only beginning to understand the use of statistics. Their value as indicators of the results of certain political measures was first brought out popularly by the late James Wilson, of the Economist, and the leading members of the Anti-Com Law League. Before their time, such men as Deacon Hume, Joseph Hume, and Mr Huskisson had known their uses, but few eared to follow in their track. Members of Parliament were portent to grope, and imagine rather than to analyse and examine; it is so much the easier process to dream than to think. If, however, we are to realize all the blessings that knowledge can supply its with, we must learn to apply every aid tending to throw light upon ways and means, whether those be financial, political or social. Perhaps not many of our readers have taken the trouble to do more than glance at the statistics of the population of Otago we published on the 12th instant. At that glance, however, thay would see that it now amounts to 69,491. It looks large compared with former years, and really is so, although it is a mere trifle compared with the number that could find comfortable homes and profitable occupation in the Province. The next thought after seeing the numbers is, how do all these people live ? Out of that aggregate of 69,491 are 41,709 women, and children under fifteen years of age. So that the number who are winning bread for the people of Otago is somewhfere about 27,500. Going a little further into the matter,.and examining the second table of employments, it will be seen that those actually engaged in primary occupations, that is, in producing the raw material, which is the source of wealth of all our other employments, is pjaly 14,228, of whom 6,862 are engaged in farming, sheep and cattle rearing, and ,7,366 in mining. Upon the efforts of those fifteen thousand rests mainly the prosperity of the Province. Their jlabor renders the capital invested in their pursuits profitable, and thus provides for the payment of taxes, and the comfortable support of all the rest. We must not run away with the idea that no additional value is given to their produce by the efforts of , others. That is a mistake that has led to many erroneous theories which wo need not discuss. Their produce would be of little value without a market for it. The miners could not eat and drink their gold, and the multiplication of flocks and herds would be as worthless as the numbers running wild on the American prairies or in the interior of Australia, were there no means of transporting produce to where it can be utilised. So we find that the distributors number 3,432: that is, for every four engaged in producing, one has to be employed ,m distributing,. This is a very large proportion, but we jdp not think it represents the actual numbers. The inevitable inference is, however, that in order to increase our profits there must be economy in distribution. It points to the fact that our appliances arc not of the best; that wo need railroads instead of common roads, and by every means that applied science can, suggest, we should seek to set .as much labor as possible at liberty for production, and save as much as possible in distribution. In order to provide economically and efficiently for the comfort of #U classes, including their own, we have 4,136 mechanics ,aud artificers, about 1 to 35 of the producers. Their occupation is to provide houses to live in, building ior housing and storing produce, vehicles for distribution, wrobovm shops, tmd

fittings-up. But this is only a small proportion of the numbers actually required, since many who live at Home and in America are working for us, in return for a portion of our raw material, ihero arc others attending to a variety of duties that set the producers at liberty to. follow their own pursuits without interruption. Of the 13,000 women in Otago, 1 m every 6is a domestic servant. And the unskilled laborers amongst men are fewer than mechanics and artizans- there being 4 skilled to 3 unskilled workmen. It is easy to see that the adoption of a large scheme of public works, without the introduction of fresh labor, would therefore completely disarrange the whole of our social fabric. Anyone who has attempted even the extension of an existing form- of industry lias been met by this difficulty: suitable help is hardly obtainable. There are other employments that may be looked upon as occupying the same position in society as the pendulum to a clock —they are regulators of our movements. Thus | there are 83 parsons, about 1 to 500 of 1 our adult population: 361 teachers, about 1 to every 90 children and youth under 15 years of age. We do not know whether lawyers can be classed as regulators or deraugers of social machinery; at any rate they are good discorners of its faulty working. We may term them scrutinisers. Of these we have to sustain about 1 for every 800 adult men. We seem rather too fond of law, at that rate. Other conclusions might be arrived at by careful consideration of our statistics, which, under really enlightened administration, may be useful guides to progress. We are afraid, however, the subject is beyond the grasp of most of the members of our Provincial Council.