The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 745, 4 June 1853, Page 3

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1853.

8e just ami fear not: Let ail tne ends thou aim’st at, be thy Country’s, Thy Goo’s, ami Truth’s.

We transfer to our columns to-day from the last Government Gazelle three of a series of Returns exhibiting a variety of statistics relating to the several settlements of New Zealand, which have been compiled from the General Census Returns of December, 1851, and are published with the official signature of Mr. Domett, Civil Secretary at Wellington. The whole series, (which we shall complete in another issue), embraces the number and ages of the European population in the several Districts; the number of Live Slock owned by Europeans; the slate of education, specifying the numbers who arc unable to read, able to read only, and able to read and write; the Week Day and Sunday Schools; and the comparative numbers belonging to “ the different Religions Sects,” with the number of those who permit themselves to be recorded as “ Non-Sec-tarians professing to belong to no Sect, or neglecting or refusing to slate their adherence to any.” Generally speaking, these Returns are worth preservation, as embodying an amount of information which may he convenient for future reference, and which, no doubt, may be regarded as a substantial approximation to the truth, although we almost at the first glance, detected inaccuracy in the Return of the Schools in Auckland, two at least of the Religions Bodies reported as having no Sunday Schools having—as is well known to many of our readers—maintained those valuable institutions for periods dating considerably anterior to the dale of the Returns. Still, we say, the amount of information which we presume may be relied on, is valuable ; —at all events, these Returns arc the only sources from which at present we can derive means of approaching to the facts. But we must remind the reader who may not be minutely acquainted with the ratio in which Auckland lias progressed within the last year or two, that, however generally correct the accounts may he as an exhibition of its stale in 1851, they fall far short of the truth 710 it?,—the, —the Auckland -district having made unprecedentedly rapid advances in several most important respects within the eighteen or twenty months which have elapsed since the Census was taken. The Returns do indeed show that, even at that lime, it was far superior to the other Settlements in population, in the quantity of land cultivated, and in other particulars. But the superiority has become greatly more marked and decisive since. -As a companion-view to that presented in the Returns, we lake leave to reproduce here a few paragraphs from the Address recently presented to his Excellency the Governor, by the elective members of the late Provincial Council, setlibg forth the propriety of holding the first meeting of the General Assembly in Auckland. It gives, in a brief compass, a clear and trustworthy representation of the Auckland .District it is : “ That of the population of these Islands — Native and European—estimated to amount to I'>o,ooo, about 80,000, or three-fifths of the reside within the limits of Ihe newly constituted Province of Auckland, —and that of me European population of Ihe Colony upwards °J one-third of the whole number are settled vj ilhin a radius of ten miles of I tie City of Auckland. I hat since Ihe foundation of the Colony, aeaHy n le whole of the proceeds of land sales Dud into the Colonial Treasury, have arisen 10,11 the sale of laud within Hie Province of

Auckland —the proceeds of land sales within other Provinces having been paid to Absentee Companies, and expended by them independently of any control or audit on the part of the Colony. “ That during the last twelve months upwards of 19,000/. have been realized by the sale of Crown Lands in Auckland and its neighbourhood. “ That the shipping frequenting the ports of the Province of Auckland, exceeds the aggregate amount of the shipping of the other five Provinces into which-Ncw Zealand is divided,—and, without taking into account the shipping resorting to the Hay of Islands, Mongonui, Hokianga, and the other harbours in the Northern Province, upwards of 740 vessels—foreign and coast-wise, —entered the single port of Auckland in the course of the past year. u That of the shipping belonging to the various ports of New Zealand, upwards of 100 vessels are registered as belonging to the port of Auckland alone, besides an equal number of licensed small vessels under lons. “ That exports to the value of 78,000/. were shipped from the port of Auckland alone during the last year, ended January, 1832, u That the Revenue arising in this Province is nearly equal to the Revenue collected within (lie whole of the Provinces of Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago,—that of Auckland for the year ended 50lh June, 1832, amounting to 33,518/., and of the five other Provinces to 37,913/. “ That, without reckoning (he very extensive native and oilier cultivations in various parts of the Province, there are within fifteen miles of Auckland, upwards of 20,000 acres of land substantially fenced, and in high cultivation. u That in addition to the variousother valuable Resources of the Province, Gold, in its natural place of deposit, has recently been discovered over an extensive District, within 40 miles of the Capital, on and near the shore of a large, safe, and commodious harbour, and in other Districts in an opposite direction very much nearer to the Town. u Thai the large native population of the Province are rapidly increasing in wealth, —and advancing in the arts, and usages of civilized life ; that they are producers of the greater part of the Wheat grown in the Province, the owners of a large number of mills worked by water power, and of numerous small vessels engaged in (he Coasting Trade, navigated by themselves and employed in carrying native produce. “ That in short—in shipping, commerce, agriculture, revenue, population, and wealth, the single Government Province of Auckland nearly equals iu all respects, and surpasses in many, the aggregate of the numerous Settlements planted in New Zealand, by the New Zealand Company, and the Canterbury Association, both of which bodies have now altogether closed their colonizing operations, if not wholly ceased to exist.” Apropos to the considerations thus suggested, we may ask how it conies to pass that, in the. whole, scries of these Returns, Wellington is placed first in the List, and Auckland only second? It might have been merely worthy of such passing notice as we formerly bestowed on it, that a Wellington newspaper should havecomplacently assumed that the Seat of Government had so unequivocally been transferred to its own good town that the Officers of the General Government were culpable in delaying to migrate to the South; but an official document is a different tiling; and, although the point may seem small to some, we cannot think it an altogether indifferent matter that in formal Gazelle publications this precedence should be assigned to Wellington. Distant readers may reasonably infer that Wellington had some right to he thus placed first, either on account of its being the Capital, or, if not so, on account of its paramount commercial or agricultural importance. Now the truth is wholly the other way. Auckland has been declared the Capital of the Colony, under the sanction of Her most gracious Majesty herself:—and, as the facts just quoted from the carefully prepared statement of the members of the Provincial Council abundantly prove, Auckland is greatly in advance of Wellington, and of all the other Provinces, in the main elements of prosperity and progress. We can only suppose that, as the compilation for the Gazelle appears to have been made at Wellington, the objects nearest to the compiler’s eye appeared to him so large as to prevent his seeing in its true proportions the magnitude of the distant Northern City. That, of course, does not render Auckland any less in reality; but the impression, which one casually looking over the Returns might not improbably receive from this arrangement as to the relative claims of the Settlements to precedence, would be equally unfavourable and unjust to Auckland. The case is the stronger as we presume these to have been the Returns prepared for the Legislative Council, and laid on the Table during its recent Session at Wellington.