THE STATE OF THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 57, 13 October 1855, Page 3

THE STATE OF THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.

SUMMARY FOR ENGLAND.

[From the Wellington Independent, Sept. I.]

The sailing of the 'Nelson' direct for London, on Tuesday, affords us a good opportunity of supplying our friends at home with the most authentic and recent information relative to the social and political state and prospects of the Province of Wellington, which we have gathered chiefly from the Census Returns for the year 1855, now in course of publication in the Provincial Government Gazette.

Population.

The total European population in the several districts of the Province, exclusive of the military and their families, amounted, at the commencement of the present year, to 8,12 1 souls; of whom 4,501 were males, and 3,620 females. In 1845 (five years after the birth of the settlement), the total population was 4,383 ; in the next five years it increased to 5,911 ; so that the population is now nearly double what it was in 1845, and nearly 50 per cent, higher than it was in 1850 ; the last five years having made an addition to the population of 2,213 souls.

Agbiccxtube.

Tho returns for the present year, compared with those for the two years we have already referred to, give still more cheering proofs of the progress of the Province. In 1815, there wa.s' under crop, in the various districts, in tbe Wellington settlement, 1,244 acres ; in 1850, the number had increased to 4,584 i; and, in 1855, to 10,530^ acres. Tin's shows that th? amount of cultivated land in the Province is more than double what \t was in 1850 ; and, as the price of agricultural produce has in that period doubled also, the present market value of the agricultural produce of the Province iB more than four times greater than it was in 1850. The two small-farm settlements, situate in the newly-acquired and fertile valley of the Wairarapa, about 60 miles from Wellington, are progressing favourably, and when the high road is completed to them, the agricultural wealth of those districts will be rapidly augmented. Under the amended Land Regulations which are now in force, ample and suitable reserves for the sites of agricultural and smallfarm settlements are to be made in every district, before the lands in such districts are thrown open to general purchase ; and whonever any reserve has been made for the site of a small-farm settlement, a block of the adjacent land, to the extent of one-third of the reserve, will be annexed to it as common land, upon which, as well as upon all unsold lands within the reserve, every resident occupier will have a right of pasturage for three years certain. When it is borne in mind that the land will continue to be sold at 10s. an acre, and that as small a quantity as 40 acres can be purchased by any applicant— that no land is to be sold in these reserved blocks until it has been accurately surveyed, allotted, and mapped, and that no allotment is to exceed 320 acres iv extent — we think the time will not ba distant before these regulations will ensure to every district adapted for agriculture their beneficial occupancy by bonajtde purchasers and real working settlers. The incomplete state of the Wairarapa road, the backward state of the surveys, and the insufficiency and disorganization of the survey staff, present the greatest obstacles to the rapid settlement and agricultural progress of the eastern half of the Province; and until the Provincial Government has power over the survey department, and the Province is enabled to secure for its own use a fair share of its own revenue, we fear these great obstacles to our agricultural advancement will not be speedily removed.

Lite Stock.

But choering as are the Agricultural Return?, those giving the number of the live Stock in the several districts of the Province are much more so. In 1845, the total number of sheep in the settlement of Wellington was 12,002 j in 1850, it had increased to 42,652; and this year the returns give a total of 193,701 ; although there is reason to believe that this number has been considerably under estimated. In the Province of Nelson, in 1848, there were 2,000 more sheep than in this Province ; and in 1851 tho difference was still g> >ater. This year, tho returns of the two Provinces give 10,380 in favour of Wellington. In 1845, the number of horned cattle in this Province was 2,298; in 1850, they had increased to 8,068; and in 1855, to 18,400. The number of horned cattle in Nelson, in 1848, was 3,545 ; this year they had increased to 10,595; yet there are now nearly 8,000 more cattle in this Province than there are in that of Nelson, though it will be seen that that Province has made rapid progress in this respect. In 1815, Wellington possessed 260 horses ; in 1850, they had increased to 909 ; and in 1855, the European population of tho Province owned 1,608, exclusive of a very large number belonging to Maories. In 1845, the total live stock in this settlement amounted to 15,125 ; in 1850, to 52,828 ; in 1855, the total live stock belonging to Europeans alone amounted to 220,134, or, exclusive of pigs, to 215,987. By far the largest number of sheep are in the Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa districts; there being in the former 80,869, and in the latter 74,373. The Wairarapa and Wanganui districts possess the largest number of horned cattle, and the Hutt and Wanganui the largest number of horses.

EXPOBTS.

It will be necessary to premise that this Province can now boast of three ports of entry, viz., Wellington, Wanganui, and Napier, and that the following returns of exports of New Zealand produce are from the port of Wellington only, the approximate value of which, last year, was £78,491 2s. 6d. The wool exported from Wellington, ia the year 1851, was 622,384 lbs., valued at £38,447 2s. 10d; potatoes, 1,242 tons, valued at £13,645 195. ; sawn timber, 73i,249 feet, valued at £4,734 os. ; flour, 111 tons 9 cwt., valued at £3,617 ; butter, 70,2G21b5., valued at £4,992 Os. 2d. ; oil, 46i tuns, valued at £2,496 ; oats, 6,454 bushels, valued at £2,652 165. ; rope and cordage, 47 tons 16 i cwt., valued at £2,664 155. ; and cheese, 12,521 lbs., valued at £694 2s. Bd. The total estimated value of the exports from the Province of Wellington, in the year 1854, amounted to £83,547 2s. sd. Tbe total shipping entered outwards at the port of Wellington, last year, amounted to 63, of 15,021 tons, and 757 men. The f>r greater portion of our exports have been sent to Sydney or Melbourne— with which latter port a large aud profitable trade has sprung up since the gold discoveries. At present, even in the article of wool, little more than one-third is sent from this port direct to London ; and nearly the whole of our surplus agricultural and dairy produce finds its way | to, and obtains a ready sale in, the Melbourne market. We find that the total estimated value of New Zealand produce exported from the port of Wellington, in the year 1848, was £19,550, or not a fourth of what it amounted to last year; which goes to confirm our previous statemep£ that the total value of our agricultwrOl produce was now four times greater than it -wa9 in 1850.

iEVENtTE.

The Revenues of the province have of course kept pace with its material progress. Tho net receipts, however, from the two great and main sources of revenue—the Land and Customs — instead of being expended upon and within the province (less an equitable contribution towards the cost of the General Government of the colony), first go through a sweating process, under the care of the Land Commissioners and Collectors ; and second, after a considerable reduction has been effected in their weight and bulk, the General Government divides the remainder in two, taking a clear half for itself, and leaving the other to find°its way into the provincial chest. Nevertheless, the estimated cost of the Civil Government of the province (which includes tho cost and charges of the departments of resident magistrate, sheriff, police, harbour, hospital, engineer, audit, immigration, and Provincial Council) does not amount to one-third of its estimated revenue. For we find that the province's portion of its revenue for the present year is estimated at £39,337; and, as the cost of the Civil Government is estimated at less than £12,000, there is left to be expended on public works and undertaiinga more than £27,000. Under proper arrangement, not more than one-fourth of the net customs and territorial revenues would be required to defray the whole of the necessary expenses of the General Government ; the remaining three-fourths would then be payable into the provincial treasury, and be available for the prosecution and

construction of works of public utility. One or two feeble voices, as hollow as malignant, have been raised against what they call the extravagance of the Provincial Government ; whereas, under no practicable) arrangements could the salaries or establishments of the Provincial Government be reduced £500 : while, on the other hand, arrangements might be easily effected with regard to the General Government, which would placo at once, and annually, £10,000 at least to the credit of the province, for the construction of roads.

IMMIGEATION.

Owing to so large a portion of tlio revenues of the province being appropriated by the General Government, the funds at the disposal of the provincial authorities, for the promotion of immigration from the mother country, are, at present, necessarily very limited ; yet upwards of 100 souls have been introduced into the province from England during the present year, chiefly under the loan systems aud above 300 more from Australia, partly under the bounty, and partly under the loan system. Last year 319 immigrants arrived 1^ at- this port alone from Groat Britain; 561 from Australian ports; and 25 from Van Diemen's Land ; making a total of 905. Last year 24 left the province for England, 412 for Australia, 6 for Van. Diemen's Land, and 35 for other ports j making a total of 477, and leaving an excess of immigration over emigration, at the port of Wellington alone, of 428.

Education.

There is reason to believe that the returns relative to this important subject are much too favourable, and that certainly not more than 50 per cent, of the total population are able to read and write. The returns give 2,153 as unable to read j 1,176 who can read only ; and 4,795 who can read and write, Thus the total number unable to write is 3,329, from which if we deduct the population under Beven years of age, 1,998, the total number above seven unable to write will be 1,331 ; but this will be bolow the real amount by the number under seven who aro able both to read and write. There is too much reason to fear, unless the Government vigorously takes up the matter, that while the returns will annually exhibit an enormous increase in the resources and material wealth of the province, the education of the population, and the educational establishments of the province, will lag wretchedly behind them.

Fortunately, however, tho Government was early alive to the importance of the subject. A Commission was appointed to enquire into and consider the several systems of education pursued in various countries, and to report upou such a system as they might consider to be expedient to be introduced into the Province, and best adapted to promote the intellectual development of tho rising generation, and to secure its prosperity and progress. Tho result of tins Commission was, Ist., An elaborate, able, and interesting report, drawn up by Mr. Fox, who was well qualified for the task assigned him, and whoso services in the cause of education will be more highly appreciated when the mists conjured up by bigotry, ignorance, aud prejudice in our day have been dispelled by the light of knowledge diffused by our common schools. This brings us to the 2nd result of the Commission, "An Act to promote the establishment of common schools in the Province of Wellington." An Act for which, we predict, the coming generation will bo proud and grateful— proud for the credit it conferred on their Province and their fathers — grateful for the advantages it will have conferred upon them. Under this Act district schools may be proclaimed by the Superintendent, in which every person being a registered elector of the Province, is entitled to a vote j of whom any six may by advortisoment call a meeting of the electors to make provision for the establishment and maintenance of common schools within the district or subdivision, as the case may be. All questions to be decided by a majority of voters present. A general [ meeting of rate-payers of the district to be held annually. At the first, and every yearly meeting, a Committee of not less than six, nor more than twelve persons to be elected the School Committee for the year, who are to have the management of the schools, and the appointment and removal of teachers. At the annual meeting a rate may be assessed, which must be a uniform sum per house, and not exceed one pound for the year : which rate may be recovered by the collector by summary proceeding. All rates to bo expended exclusively in maintaining schools within the district, in the payment of teachers, the purchase of books, apparatus, &c. All schools maintained wholly or in part by rates levied under this Act, are to be open to all children resident in the district on equal terms, and no religious instruction is to be given in them ; nor is any minister of religion to be allowed to teach in, or otherwise directly interfere in the conduct or management of the school, unless aa a member of the School Committee. All schools established under this Act, or receiving contributions in aid from the Provincial Government, to be open at all times for inspection by some person appointed for that purpose by the Superintendent. By the last clause of this truly admirable Act, power is given to the Superintendent to contribute from any educational vote, such sums as he may think fit, in aid of tho schools so established. One common school is now in course of erection at Wanganui, another will shortly be established at Turakina, another at Napier, one or more in tho valley of the Hutt, one probably at Karori, and another at Johnsonville : and in the course of twelve months we fully expect they will be m progress in every district in the Province ; though it is not improbable that most of them at the outset will be supported in part by voluntary contributions, instead of a compulsory rate, and in part by a grant in aid from the Provincial Treasury. No one can doubt for a moment that under a* Free Constitution, like that which has been granted to this colony, the rights, privileges, and liberties it confers, can "only be safely exercised arid preserved by an enlightened and educated community.

The Loan.

A loan Act was passed in the first Session of the Provincial Council, authorizing the Government to raise by the sale, from time to time, of Debentures the sum of £50,000, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum. This interest, by an Act passed in the second session, was raised to eight per cent., payable half-yearly, either at the Provincial Treasury, or any other place the Superintendent may determine. By arrangements subsequently made with the Union Bank of Australia here, the interest on the Debentures may be received half-yearly in January and July at the Union Bank hi London. The payment of interest and principal is made a first charge upon the Provincial Revenues, more than one half of which is now devoted to public works calculated to develop the resources and increase the Revenues of the Province. The whole of the proposed loan, of which some £3,000 have been taken up by settlers in sums varying from £50 to £500, will be expended either in the construction of roads, &c, or the promotion of immigration. With respect to the payment of the principal, the Government mil be bound to pay it off whenever it finds itself in a position Co borrow at a lower rate of interest, but only after one year's notice has been given of its intention in the Provincial Gazette. When we observe that vast districts of the Province now lie waste and unproductive for the want of the necessary funds to make them available by means of roads, bridges, ferries, and steam communication on our coasts, and bear in mind how greatly the territorial revenue of the Province would be augmented, and its material riches multiplied, if the interior of the country were once opened up ; we rejoice to find that arrangements have been made for paying the interest on the Debentures in London, as it appears to us they have removed the only obstacle to the Loan being successfully negociated in the mother country. For as to the security offered, this is as good as it can well be, and even in the opinion of the Manager of the Union Bank of Australia, "for parties wishing to obtain interest upon trust moneys, or upon moneys not likely to be wanted at call," he considers the Provincial Debentures a safe investment.

The Genebal Government.

"But perhaps there would be no immediate necessity for raising the proposed loan, if the debt of £6,798 due to the Province from the General Government, since the 30tti June, 1554, vrcre paid j if tbs accounts between the General and Provincial Governments, for the last two years, were adjusted and settled in accordance with the Constitution Act ; and if, in future, the cost of the Central Government was confined within certain fixed limits, and its powers at the same time restricted to such subjects as are, by the Constitu-

tion Act, specially excluded from the juris liction of the Provincial Councils. We fully anticipate that, at the forthcoming general election for the House of Representatives, the candidates will divide themselves into two parties — the Centralists and Provincialists ; the former advocating that costly, arbitrary, and, in this colony, totally impracticable 6ystem of Government in vogue amongst the Romanic nations; the other one more in harmony with the genius and institutions of the Teutonic and Scandinavian races which existed in a form more or less perfect during the last thousand years in our fatherland, and which has since been fully organized and developed in the United States of America. There can be no doubt that the Provincialists will triumph, and that the future functions of the Central Legislature and Executive will be confined, purely and exclusively, to those federal subjects in which the whole colony is interested, and which could not be appropriately dealt with by the Provincial Governments and Legislatures. At the present moment the General Assembly is sitting at the remote end of the colony. To the "Legislative Council, the whole five Southern Provinces furnish one member, and Auckland five ! To the House of Representatives, the three Provinces of the Middle Island have managed to send three members — Wellington two, New Plymouth one, and Auckland twelve. Otago is totally unrepresented. The business is properly, indeed necessarily, limited to the passing of the Estimates ; though the old Executive had at one time hopes, under pretence of expediting the establishment of Responsible Government, of securing then- pensions.

Thb -Native Dibtubbances.

To the care of the General Government exclusively, were confined the interests of the native population ; and £7,000 per annum was placed on the Civil List for their special benefit. They have been treated in every respect as a privileged class, are recognized by the law as the lords of tho soil, are allowed to do pretty much as they like, and have been, in truth, viewed practically as the territorial aristocracy of the country, and would really be so if their mental qualifications were at all in proportion to the extent of the privileges which have been awarded to them and to the rights and powers they have hitherto so arrogantly assumed and exercised. Under the fostering care of the General Government, they have become fat, ragged, and saucy; and, in open defiance of its authority, they are now, in order to keep their hands in, fighting amongst themselves, and shooting down friendly natives in tho Province of New Plymouth. Though they have been engaged in this diversion for some time past, it was only the other day, after the safety of the British population had been long threatened, that the General Government took the matter up. Two hundred men of the 58th Regiment have now been sent from Auckland, and about an equal number of the 65th leave this city to-day en route for New Plymouth. Whether it will bo better, as the Acting Governor proposed, to let the natives fight it out amongst themselves, employing the troops only to compel them to respect the neutrality of the settlers, or act offensively in the matter, it is difficult to determine. The disturbances being at present confined to the Province of New Plymouth, the subject is one foreign to our present object — that of giving the English reader authentic information relative to the Province of Wellington alone — but we could not refrain from thus cursorily alluding to it, nor can we refrain from expressing an opinion which is very current throughout tho colony, that the native disturbances at Taranaki might have been ut first readily put down, if the General Government had exhibited that decision so neccssury in dealing with a semi-barbarous race, and had insisted on the British laws and British power being respected by savages, who literally owe to the Crown their lands, their freedom, and their very lives.

Political.

On this subject we shall touch but briefly. This Province was the first to recognize the principle of Ministerial Responsibility, and at present it appears to be the only one in wliich it can be practically carried out. How the case would stand rf there were a powerful organized opposition, within and without the walls of the Provincial Legislature, we shall not attempt to determine. It is certain that the Constitution Act itself confors Responsible Government on the Provinces, by making the offico of tho chief magistrate elective," and rendering him liable to be removed by a vote of the Council. By making the heads of the chief departments members of the Executive Council, who must be also members of the Provincial Legislature, several desirable objects are secured. It is alike convenient to tho head of the Executive and the members of tho Legislature to have a recognized organ of Government within tho house ; but the system, in our view, carried out to the letter, would diminish the power of the Superintendent, fetter, to some extent at least, his free action, without lessening his responsibility. That there is no organized opposition either within or without the walls of the Legislative Chamber is universally admitted, and the only reason why there is not, must be because the policy of the Government is generally approved, and the members thereof enjoy the confidence of the electors. Of the Superintendent himself — of his devotion to the interests of the Province, of the talents, industry, and knowledge lie displays in the discharge of his onerous and responsible duties — it would be difficult to spoak in too high terms of praise. We were going to say that it was a disgrace to the Provincial Council that the salary attached to his office should continue to be so inadequate, and left to be voted annually,' instead of being secured by permanent act.

Genekai,.

The whole of the necessaries of life continue to be very high in price, most of them being double what they were a few years ago ; and though wages have risen in proportion, and the agricultural population have been immense gainers, the high prices of the prime necessaries of life, including rent and fuel, press very heavily on men having fixed incomes and large families. Mechanics get from Bs. to 10s. per day (of eight hours), and general labourers from 6s. to 75. ; domestic servants from £20 to £40 per annum ; farm labourers and shepherds get from £30 to £60 per annum, with rations ; and a man and his wife, witli or without family, at a station, are readily engaged at rates varying from £80 to £100 per year. Notwithstanding the high price of living, thousands of the industrious population of England would find reason to rejoice if the opportunity presented itself to emigrate to this fine Province. There is no place in the world which offers greater advantages to the small capitalist and tenant-fanner desirous of emigrating, for there ia no country in which the man of small means could so profitably invest his money. The healthiness of this colony, in comparison to aU others, is proverbial ; and the moral condition of the population continues as heretofore to be in the highest degree satisfactory. Of the future prospects of thia Province it is unnecessary to speak — the reader will be best able to judge of these by the facts which we have been enabled to place before him.

Chinese Benevolence. — A correspondent of the Bendigo Advertiser says — "An act of benevolence, performed by the Chinese towards an Englishman, having come uutler my immediate notice, and such tilings in reality not being uncommon among that much-despiaed race, I deem it my duty publicly to acknowledge this fact. An Englishman on Bendigo, whose name I can give, being in a penniless, and, I may say, destitute condition, having lost his wife three weeks after her confinement, thus leaving him with a tender infant and two other young children, they, the Clunese in the district, on healing of the poor man's state, immediately commenced a subscription solely among themselves for his relief, and in less than' three hours placed in his hands the sum of twenty pounds." " I know," says a writer in the Household Words, " a manj a barrister in great practice, who will probably be Lord Chancellor. He is making, perhaps, £20,000 a year by his profession, and he never dines at all. A biscuit and a glass of sherry, bolted mechanically, and placed near him by his clerk, who has a sort of life-intei'est in him; a mutton chop got through nobody knows how, and peppered with the dust of briefs — such is his nourishment !"

EEWAEDS FOB Ingenuity. A Liverpool clerk has had a gratviity of £200, for devising a floating re-ceiving-house, to admit of letters for America being posted up to the last moment of the sailing of the packet ; and £500 has been given to a post-office official for inventing improvements in the apparatus for dropping and taking up letter-bags, -without stopping the trains.