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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 171, 22 July 1870, Page 2

A report by the Registrar- G-euerai, relative to the Agricultural Statistics of New Zealand, has been published in the Government Gazette, and from it we leara that the total number of acres uader crop in 1870 was 900,504, against 687,015 in 1866 — being an increase of 213,489 acres. Of this number Nelson furnishes 45,333 acres. The numbers of livestock in the colony, which have not been supplied to auy later date than December, 1867, are — Horses, 65,715 ; cattle, 312,835; sheep, 8,418,579 ; and pigs, 115,104. In addition to these there are 323 mules' or asses, 11,964 goats, and 676,065 poultry. There were also in the ; coiony in 1867, 579 threshing machines, viz., 92 steam, 17 water, and 470 horse ; 736 reaping machines, 12 steam ploughs, and 28 steam harrows. The production .of butter in 1867 amounted to 3,834,252 lbs.,, and of cheese to 1,300,082 lbs. The Imperial Policy.— The following extract from the hon. Mr. Gisborne's eloquent speech on the conduct of the Imperial Government will, we are sure, be perused "with much interest : — I believe that the policy of her Majesty's Ministers has created throughout the colony a spirit — I will not say of enmity, for I believe that the colonists know that the great heart of England sympathises with them, and will sooner or later revolt from the short-sighted policy, of her rulers — a spirit of , deep resentment which, if the policy is persisted in, it will take many years to overcome. I fear that the ultimate consequence of that course will be separation — not only the separation of this colony, but the separation of other colouies. It is lamentable to see the brightest jewels of the Crown thus wantonly thrown away. England. shoru of her possessions is Sampson shorn of his strength ; a mere spott for the Philistines ; a wretched parody of her former greatness ; she will be, with respect to foreign nations — to use a happy simile of Edward Gibbon Wakefield — "Hke the W. r< i which has been wounded, and which, therefore, the others -peck to death/' An honorable gentleman has referred to the fact, and I believe it ia correct, that a new school has sprung up which knows not the colonies ; it is called ,the Manchester school ; it bears "a banner with a strange device," but certainly that device is not "Excelsior;" the motto which it desires to inscribe on the banner of England is rather an inversion of those celebrated Hues of Shakspeare ; those lines would read :- —

He who filches from me my good name, steals j trash, . • i J Tis something — nothing — 'twas mine — 'tis his, And has been slave to thousands. But he who steals my purse, Robs me of that which both enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. Sir, I ask are pounds, shillings and pence the -Alpha and Omega of all national life? Is no account to be had of such qualities as religion, loyalty, heroic feeling, and patriotism ? Are they to be reduced into gross materialism, and to be treated merely as articles of merchandise to be bought and sold in the market place ? Is the sanctuary of the human heart to be profaned by the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sell doves ? I know that sentiment is often ridiculed, but I say that sentiment in its highest sense is the very soul of the nation, and all the rest is the perishable clay in which the soul is enshrined. I accept the address moved by the hon. member as an earnest and emphatic protest on the part of the Council against the treatment which it has received from the Imperial Government, because I believe that treatment to be harsh and unnatural ; to be repugnant to the first principles of the British Constitution, and to the solemn engagements of the Treaty of Waitaugi ; because I believe that treatment to be on the highest grounds impolitic, inasmuch as it is the introduction of the thin end of that wedge ■which a few more blows will shortly cause j to rive asunder and to split into fragments, never again to be united, the magnificent fabric of the British Empire.