NEW ZEALAND AND NEW SOUTH WALES —A COMPARISON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 402, 13 August 1866, Page 3

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 if 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 h id a much longer existence as a colony than New Zealand—ninety-two as against twentysix years, or about three-aud-a-half 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 laud 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 hut 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 le from the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald ’ referred to, which we have no doubt will be read with interest:— Tlie Annual Blue Book for New Zealand contains, in ad* dition to tlic usual statistics, the results of the census taken in 186 i. The publication lias boon 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 the military, the number of whom lias latterly been reduced, and the Maoris whose numbers arc uncertain, the population of the colony in December, js64—that is eighteen months agi—was 1< 2,155. Judging of the importance of a colony by its population, this result places Now Zealand third in the list oi Australasian colonies; for the census for South Australia taken in March, IS6B, shows the population of that colony to be about l&l.OOO. The forward movement of New Zealand has been very rapid of late years. From ISOI to ISUi, the population "increased front y9,(KW to 173,000. Thi s 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 maiui-md from which there has been a rush of diggers. The Maori population is at present toolaacccssiklo to lie numbered, and no estimate <.f their numbers is even offered. In 1861 their number was calculated 50,01H>; since tiiCu some have laiteu in war, and other causes t .o well known in the instory of colonisation are decimating their ranks. It is probable that 4;>,00y would now be a full estimate At that rate the Euruj ean population outnumbers t'.iGui by lour io one. With such a preponderating superiority in numbers, and with the advantage in arms and organuation, the colony ought not to need the presence of any expensive body of Imperial troops for Us protection. The agricnltnral return shows that the land under crop was 332,055 acres, so that the area cf Ullage exceeded that oi this colony in the same year, for wii h more than double the population, we had only 331,526 acres under cultivation. Fencing, however, lias somewhat more advanced with Us than with the New Zealanders, for, wht e they have 1,072,333 acres enclosed, we hud 1,743,123. The older pastoral development cas 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 oply a quarter of million of sheep in the colony. In 181)4

there were nearly five millions. The number has doubled in four years. We have only a Uttle over eight million*, and our rate of increase is not equal to that of New Zealand. The value of the wool exported from New Ze;iland is a Uttle over a million sterling, hut our wodl export in the same year was valued ut £1,600,000. The other great export is gold, wliich in 1861 was valued at £1,857,817, 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, lor the census returns give 12,572 persons as engaged in mining, and only about 12,000 fur agriculture and squatting put together. There ought not to he a short supply of many commodities in the warehouses of New Zealand, for the imports in XSCt were worth no less than se-en millions sterling, wlale 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 wind that immigrants bring a considerable amount of property with them. A here has been a large amount of importation for war piumoscs, and various public works, the cost of which has been paid for, not by exports, but by borrowed monoy. The real export which pays for this kind of expenditure, is the money annually scut 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 ho redeemed by a sinking fund; the annual contribution to which varies from ono to seven per cent. The total amount of sinking funds accrued in 1861 was a little under ninety thousand pounds. The Customs Revenue for 1864 was £600,000, or mora 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 lias been absolutely necessary, in order to meet the cost of the war, but it certainly makes our burden seem light iu comparison. They also get more proportionately from their postal receipts than we do, as they gained£4o,ooo from that source against our £63,000. In land revenue they leave us altogether iu 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 land, while the heuighted 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 £600,005). If our land revenue had borne the same proportion to the population, instead of £300,000 for the year, we should have Imd £ 1,200,000—a revenue that would have sent our deficit back to limbo. But then the New Zealand Government gets cash for its laud and declines to imitate our financial operation of over-drawing half-a-mil-liou sterling from a bank at ton 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 alicnaied under different conditions; come as free grants, some for retired officers. And since the Provinces have had the land legislation iu their own hands, the upset price has varied 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 iromsix siiiilings an acre up to two pounds. But where the price has been highest, the sales have been good.