NEW ZEALAND and NEW SOUTH WALES —A COMPARISON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 401, 9 August 1866, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND and NEW SOUTH WALES —A COMPARISON.

The volume of the Statistics of New Zealand for 1864, which our readers will remember received a brief notice at our hands only a short time since, has reached the neighbouring colonies, and we find that the press make their own comments upon the same, one of which, from the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald/ 20th July, we now proceed to place before our readers. It is by comparisons such as these that the true rate of progress made by the Colony is best to be understood, as it is evident that our comparative progress is not of less importance than our absolute progress. The article we quote renders plain some striking facts, which we think would not have been suspected. New South Wales has had a much longer existence as a colony than New Zealand —ninety-two as against twentysix years, or about three-and-ahalf times as long. It has had extensive public works performed, magnificent buildings erected, and roads and bridges made by convict labor -its earlier years was fostered by a paternal Home Government, in a way far different from that in which New Zealand has been treated; —its climate is more tropical than ours, and its natural productions were much earlier developed;— yet we find that ■it is not so much in advance of us as we should expect. Its population more than doubles ours, while its revenue was actually less than ours, and its land revenue less than half of it. We have also a greater acreage of land under crop than that colony has, and our wool export and the number of our sheep respectively amount to fully two-thirds of that exported and possessed by N. S. Wales. These are the principal items shown by the comparison instituted, which would be all the more satisfactory but for the drawback of our debt, which, however, is over-stated in the extract, as only some two-thirds of the authorised amount has as yet been raised, or slightly above four and a quarter millions out of about six and a quarter. The following is the arti.de from the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald ’ referred to, which we have no doubt will be read with interest:— The Annual Blue Book for New Zealand contains, in addition to the usual statistics, the results or the census taken In 186 k The publication has been considerably delayed in Order to include this information. In a colony the affairs of which fluctuate considerably, this delay is inconvenient but it is perhaps unavoidable where fulness and accuracy are required. The result of the census is to show that exclusive of tho military, the number of whom has latterly been reduced, and the Maoris whose numbers are uncertain, the population of the colony in December, lS6i—that is eighteen months ago —was 172,158. Judging of the importance of a colony by it* population, this result place* New Zealand

third in the list of Australasian colonies; for the census for South Australia taken in March, 1866, shows the population of that colony to he about 165,000, The forward movement of New Zealand has been very rapid of late years. From 1861 to 1864, the population increased from 89,000 to 172,000. This increase of course has been due to the discovery of gold-fields, and has therefore been very largely at the expense of the colonies on the mainland, from which there has been a rush of diggers. The Maori population is at present too inaccessible to be numbered, and no estimate of their numbers is even offered. In 1861 their number was calculated 55,000; since then some have fallen in war, and other causes too well known in the history of colonisation are decimating their ranks. It is probable that 40,000 would now be a full estimat. At that rate the European population outnumbers them by four to one. With such a preponderating superiority in numbers, and with the advantage in arms arid organization, the colony ought not to need the presence of any expensive body of Imperial troops for its protection. The agricultural return shows that the land under crop was 382,655 acres, so that the area of tillage exceeded that of this colony in the same year, for with more than double the population, we had only 321,526 acres under cultivation. Fencing, however, has somewhat more advanced with us than with the New Zealanders, for, while they have 1,072,383 acres enclosed, we had 1,742,128. The chief pastoral development has been in the production of wool, and in this respect the colony is making rapid strides towards an equality with New South Wales. In 1851 there were only a quarter of million of sheep in the colony. In 1864 there were nearly five millions. The number has doubled in four years. We have only a little over eight millions, and our rate of increase is not equal to that of New Zealand. The value of the wool exported from New Zealand is a little over a million sterling, hut our wool export in the same year was valued at £1,600,000. The other great export is gold, which In 1864 was valued at £1,857,847, and this was half a million less than the previous year. The West Coast, however, had not then begun to yield its contribution, so that the next statistical return will probably show an improved state. As a matter of export, therefore, the gold is more valuable than wool; and its production also employs more men, for the census returns give 12,572 persons as engaged in mining, and only about 12,000 for agriculture and squatting put together. There ought not to be a short supply of many commodities in the warehouses of New Zealand, for the imports in 1861 were worth no less than seven millions sterling, while the exports were valued at less than three millions and a half. In calculating the balance of trade from such figures, however, it must always he borne in mind that immigrants bring a considerable amount of property with them. There has been a large amount of importation for war purposes, and various public works, the cost of which has been paid for, not by exports, but bj' borrowed money. The real export which pays for this kind of expenditure, is the money annually sent out of the country to pay the interest on the foreign debt. The indebtedness of the colony is now somewhat serious. Its authorised debt is more than six millions and a quarter, that is to say that with less than half our population its debt is nearly equal to ours. Nearly half the indebtedness of New Zealand, however, is on provincial account. The Interest on these Provincial loans varies from six up to ten per cent., and their term of currency varies from twelve months up to fifty years. Most of them are to be redeemed by a sinking fund; the annual contribution to which varies from one to seven per cent. The total amount of sinking funds accrued in 1864 was a little under ninety thousand pounds. The Customs Revenue for 1864 was £600,000, or more than three pounds per head. Our own Customs Revenue for the same year was less than that, so that the New Zealanders were taxed more than twice our amount through the Custom-house. This taxation has been absolutely necessary, in order to meet the cost of the war, but it certainly makes our burden seem light in comparison. They also get more proportionately from their postal receipts than we do, as they gained £40,000 from that source against our £68,000. In land revenue they leave us altogether in the rear, for we, with the most blessed law that the human intellect ever contrived in 1864 received less than £300,000 for the sale and rent of laud, while the benighted New Zealanders, who did not enjoy the unspeakable blessing of that masterpiece of legislation, drew in the same year, from less than half our population, a land revenue of more than £600,000. If our laud revenue had borne the same proportion to the population, instead of £300,000 for the year, we should have had £1,200,000 —a revenue that would have sent our deficit back to limbo. But then the New Zealand Government gets cash for its land and declines to imitate our financial operation of over-drawing half-a-mil-llon sterling from a bank at ten per cent., and lending it at five per cent. The total quantity of land alienated from the Crown in New Zealand is nearly four millions of acres. It has been alienaied under different conditions; some as free grants, some for retired officers. And since the Provinces have had the land legislation in their own hands, the upset price has vari&d in the different provinces from time to time. Various theories have been carried out, and various theorisers have had the opportunity of developing their own ideas. The price has ranged from six shillings an acre up to two pounds. But where the price has been highest, the sales have been good.