The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 235, 4 October 1871, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1871.

Scientific .Association. — The monthly meeting of this Society will be held at the Government Buldings on Wednesday next the 11th inst. Postage Stamps. — As an erroneous impression is likely to be created by a notice that appeared in this morning's Examiner relative to the change of color in the postage stamps, we are requested to state that the old stamps will still be available for use. New Church at Richmond. — The laying of the foundation stone of this chnrch is, in consequence of the unfavorable state of the weather, postponed until Monday afternoon next, at 4 o'clock. The public meeting will take place on the same evening. Aetizans* Dinnee. — A dinner, to which about 40 sat down, was given by the members of the Artizans' Association last night at M'Gee's Hotel to Mr. H. Gra ham, prior to his leaving the province. On the cloth being removed, toasts, both loyal and social, were proposed and responded to, some capital soDgs were sung, and altogether a most pleasant evening was spent. Statistics. — From a Parliamentary paper recently published entitled *' Return of the Acreage of Provincial Waste Lands," we learn that on the 31st December, 1870, there were in Nelson : unsurveyed, 164 town, 800 suburban, and 6,015,000 rural acres; and, of "Land surveyed and ready for sale or settlement," 473 town, 2,533 suburban, and 5,000 rural acres. From this it appears that there is yet a vast extent of country undisposed of in this Province, a great portion of which is, no doubt, utterly worthless, but including a considerable number of acres which, when opened up by roads into the interior, will support a large addition to our present population. The unsurveyed acreage does not include any of the public reserves, nor the large Buller coalfield reserve. Census Returns. — Farmers and others resident in the country may be interested to learn the results of the census with regard to the number of live stock, annual amount of dairy produce, &c, in the Province of Nelson. From the returns just published we find that there were in February last 4518 horses, 66 mules and asses, 20,602 head of cattle, including 6351 breeding cows, and 523,558 sheep. The annual production of butter was 414,049 lbs, and of cheese 70,165 lbs. In these latter items Canterbury takes a strong lead of all the other provinces; the amount of her produce being 1,247,570 lbs of butter, and 1,646,340 lbs of cheese. Auckland comes next with 1,153,775 lbs of batter, and 396,598 of cheese, then Otago, and then Wellington, while all of these provinces far exceed Nelson in the number of live stock they possess. In the matter of agricultural machinery Nelson does not make any great show, the number of threshing machines being 30, reaping machines 35, and steam plough, 1. In Canterbury there were 236 threshing machines, 807 reaping machines, and ten steam ploughs, while in Otago the numbers were 264; 694, and 5 respectively. In order to show how rapid has been the development of the agricultural aud pastoral interests since 1858 we copy the following comparative statement of live stock in the whole colony at that time and in the year 1871. In 1858 the returns showed 14,912 horses; 122 mules and asses;

137,204 bead of cattle; and 1,523,324 sheep. la 1871 we find that they have increased as follows : — horses, 81,023; mules and asses, 397; cattle, 436,592; and sbeep, 9,700,629. When we consider that in the North Island there are yet vast tracts of country lying idle, but which, when the native difficulty, that now so iniuriously affects the progress of colonisation, is put an end to, or dies out of itself, must inevitably be turned to account, there seems little reason to fear that anything but a prosperous future is in store for a colony, which but for the Maori element, would long since have taken a far more prominent position than she has yet done in the Australasian group.