New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1872. THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 52, 20 January 1872, Page 11

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1872. THE WEEK.

If the doubts which have been freely expressed to the ultimate recovery of the Prince of Wales should turn out to be as there is every reason to anticipate, well-founded, and if, consequently, the next mail should bring us the sad tidings of his untimely death, there will be nothing in the circumstance to justify the fears that have been entertained and freely expressed regarding the future safety and stability of the monarchical institutions of England. If Her Most Gracious Majesty were twenty years older or ten years younger than she is—if she had attained the age of three score years and ten, instead of not having as yet reached her fifty-third year—there might be some grounds for such forebodings. Seeing, however, that she has passed that period of life when fears for the attainment of a ripe old age by those of her sex might be reasonably entertained, and seeing also that none of her illustrous predecessors have ever been cut off in the prime of life, but have rather on the whole been remarkable for their longevity, there does not appear to us any good reasons for supposing that the heir apparent will be any younger or less fitted to ascend the throne, on the demise of its present occupant, than the Queen herself was when she was first called upon to perform its high and onerous duties. Like her, he will hare all the advan-

tages of youth, popularity, and an unspotted reputation on his side, as was the case also with her grandfather George the Third ; and judging from these two remarkable, and, in many respects, analogous cases, we have a perfect right to assume that such a circumstance would tend, rather than otherwise, to increase the security of the throne and to endear its occupant in the hearts of the English people. Wo wonder whether Mr Trollope will visit New Zealand before he returns home. There is every probability that he will, and that at no distant period. If so, we shall possibly have the pleasure of hearing the lecture which he recently delivered at Melbourne, and which has excited so much comment and criticism on the part of the Melbourne press. He lectured upon a subject which he understood, and when this is the case with a lecturer he must always be worth listening to. In his opinion novel reading is a pursuit to whioh earnest men, desiring to do good, might devote their lives ; yet, according to him, the novel is the love story and the love story the novel. It appears to us that the teaching of young people how to go courting is not one of the most important branches of education; that the lesson does not require teaching ; and that if it did the novelist is not the most fitted for the task. Novels are beneficial in affording agreeable means of relaxation, and of innocent enjoyment ; but novel reading, like dram drinking, may create an unhealthy craving for artificial excitement which will “ grow by what it feeds on and for this reason we doubt whether the habit is not productive of more harm than good.

Many ingenious calculations have been made with regard to the amount which has been realised by the wool-grower owing to the advance which has taken place in the price of this staple; but it has perhaps never been noticed that the addition to the income of the colony, owing to the increase in the quantity of wool produced, has been even greater than that which has been obtained by this rise in price. The quantity of wool exported from New Zealand in 1870 amounted, in round numbers, to 37,000,000 lbs ; and it may be safely estimated that the quantity which will be exported this season will reach 50,000,000 lbs. Even an advance of 3d per lb on the whole of this quantity would only realise £925,000; but if the price of wool had not advanced at all, and remained the same now as it did in 1870, the value of this increased quantity at Is per pound would amount to no les3 than £650,000. This large increase of production, when added to the large increase in price, must have a most beneficial influence on the prosperity of the country. The production of wool will go on increasing year by year ; but it is probable that the rise in its price has already reached its limits; though this is by no means certain. A tolerably accurate idea can be formed as to the price which will be obtained for next year’s cotton crop, but there are at present no means of forming an opinion as to the price which will be obtained for wool; Need this always continue the case ?

From a return which Mr Gillies moved for last session, and which has just been issued from the Government Dress, we find that the total quantity of land confiscated by, ceded to, or otherwise acquired in the several districts of the North Island, amounted, in round numbers, to four million acres, and that out of this quantity about a million and a half acres have either been returned to, or reserved for, the natives, leaving about two and a-half million acres at the disposal of the Government. This land lies chiefly in the provinces of Auckland and Taranaki. The quantity of land allocated to military settlers or immigrants amounts to 289,468 acres ; and the quantity sold for cash or scrip to 159,171 acres ; thus leaving in the hands of the Government, and available for sale, upwards of one and a-half million acres, of which, however, only some 33,000 acres are in the province of Wellington. From this return it appears that the Government has returned to the natives about three-eighths of the land it confiscated, and has only succeeded in disposing of some 450,000 acres, out of the remainder, to military settlex*s, immigrants, and the public. If such an estate had been in the hands of colonising companies, or if blocks had been set aside for the use and benefit of Small Fai’m Associations, we venture to think that such a coui’se would have proved more advantageous to the revenue, to the countx’y, and to the natives themselves, than that which has been adopted.