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New Zealand Mail, Issue 357, 14 December 1878, Page 15

We called attention some days since to the change which had taken place in the purpose of the Government with regard to the site of the Wellington railway station. One of the reasons, if not the principal reason, which induced the late G-overnment to take the responsibility of carrying on the. reclamation works was the necessity of providing for a wharf and railway station as near to the business quarters of the City as it was possible to get." Now it is understood that because of the great value of the reclaimed land, the Government desire to convert it into money, and to make a cheaper reclamation from the shallow water at Pipitea. We are glad to find that the Chamber of Commerce is taking up this very important question, and passing resolutions condemnatory of the action of the Government. We trust that the body of the citizens in public meeting will support the Chamber of Commerce. We pointed out that there was local experience available as to the individual inconvenience and public loss resulting from having a railway station at a distance from the business centre of a city, and that Auckland, Christchurch, and even Dunedin were suffering on this account, and complaining with _ more or less vigor and persistency. Wellington, we think, would have greater cause to complain than any of these places, if what we understand to be the present plan of the Minister of Public Works were to be carried out. Even from the financial point of view the policy appears short-sighted. If the land be sold, the line must at no distant time be brought into the heart of the City, and the cost of the necessary work for that purpose may greatly exceed the amount that will be realised from the sale of the portion of the reclaimed land upon which it was intended to place the station ; on the other hand, as was suggested in the Chamber, if the station be fixed where it ought to be, the increased value for business purposes which would thus he given to the allotments immediately adjoining it, might in great part, if not completely, cover the possible deficiency in the receipts from the sale. The public convenience may fairly be put in the scale against the certain loss of even a few thousand pounds just now, and if the present opportunity be not seized the mischief may be irreparable, the quantity of land available in the City being so very small.

BEFOBE the grave has closed over the late Speaker of the Legislative Council, the Honorable Sir John L. C. Richardson, speculation is rife as to his successor in office. Some misapprehension exists apparently as to the mode of appointment to the Speakership of the Legislative Council. In the House of Kepresentotives the Speaker is elected by the members, and their choice, being confirmed by the Governor, is valid and effectual. The Speaker of the Legislative Council is not elected by the members ; he is appointed by the Crown, and the place is in the patronage of the Government. Clause 38 of the Constitution Act runs as follows:— " The Governor shall have power and authority from time to time to appoint one member of the said Legislative Council to be Speaker of such Council, and to remove him and appoint another in his stead." We do not venture to speculate as to the manner in which his Excellency the Governor may be advised to use his power in the present instance. We have been warned that the Premier proposes to fight the Council next year, and there are mysterious whispers of changes to be effected in the constitution of that Chamber by the transfusion of party spirit in order to take from it the character for moderation and impartiality which it has always been the desire of its members to maintain. Our contemporary, the Timaru Herald, usually well informed as to the purposes of the present Government, announced, a day or two

ago, in discussing the chances of probable vacancies in the House of Representatives —that Mr. Dignan, member for Auckland City West, and Mr. Wood, member for Mataura, are to be elevated to the Upper House. Our contemporary is aevere upon "Infinite Wisdom," a pet name, we believe, for the representative of the electors of Mataura, and concludes a long and pungent article with these words : "We recognise that, in speculating thus upon the contemplated appointments to the Legislative Council, we are somewhat forestalling events. It is quite possible that Colonel Whitmore will feel it his duty to draw the line at * Infinite Wisdom,' and will at length pluck up courage to protest against the Chamber to which he belongs being made a laughing - stock Appointments that have already been made must have been gall and wormwood to the Colonial Secretary ; and we should not be at all surprised if he were now to put his foot down firmly, and give the Premier his choice between swamping the Legislative Council with imbeciles, and keeping his Cabinet together." We fear that the patronage will be used either to purchase party support in the future, or to reward services already rendered for party purposes, and that consideration for the Council may be subordinated to the political need of the hour.

Exclusive of Maoris, the population of New Zealand on the 3rd of March, 1878, was 414,400. On the Ist of January of the same year the estimated population of "Victoria was 860,700, no allowance being made for aboriginal natives. For all practical purposes of comparison our population here may therefore be regarded as being equal to half of that of our Victorian neighbors. It is easy to extract information in a form that may prove to be of practical service from a study of the published statistics of both colonies. In an article from the Argus, recently published in our columns, it was said that the rate of increase in the population of New Zealand had been far greater during the past five years than in Victoria, the respective rate of increase being in the latter case 9 per cent., against 42 per cent, within this colony. No doubt, as stated in the abovenamed paper, this superior rate of increase is largely due to the Vogel policy of immigration and public works, but we believe not alone to this cause. The birth-rate in Victoria has been steadily decreasing daring the past five years, the table published in the Victorian Year-book showing the following results :

If this disparity is maintained during the next decade, our natural increase of population would be_ at a much faster rate than that of Victoria, if not checked by a higher average of deaths. The death-rate per 1000 can also be readily ascertained by a reference to the same volume of New Zealand Statistics, which sets forth that the death-rate in New Zealand had fallen from 1592 in 1875 to 12'66 in 1876. The number of deaths in 1877, as published in the "Victorian Year-book," were only 4635, as against 4904 In 1876, which after making due allowance for the increase of population, will probably give us one of the lowest death-rates during the past year that have yet been noted. The mean death-rate of the Australasian colonies during the ten years from 1866 to 1776 is set forth in the "Victorian Year-book" for 1879 as follow :—Victoria, 15-92 per 1000 ; New South Wales, 15-64 ; Queensland, 18'01 ; South Australia, 15'44 ; Western Australia, 16-21 ; Tasmania, 14-95; New Zealand, 12-41. The mean deathrate in the United Kingdom from 1871 to 1875 was 21-6, so that even the lowest of the colonies stands higher in the list than the mother country. But it is not by any means certain that this pre-eminence will be long maintained in some colonies. A colony is constantly receiving fresh supplies of young and healthy immigrants, and the number of old or sick persons in the colonies is therefore relatively small. Many years must elapse, and immigration cease, before any comparison can be fairly instituted between a colony and the United Kingdom. The rate of infantile mortality is generally regarded as a more reliable indication of the natural healthiness of a people, which may be due to climate or to the nature of the pursuits of the inhabitants, and this test when applied to New Zealand gives an equally satisfactory result. The mean death-rate per 100 of children under one year old in the various colonies during the past ten years is as follows:—Tasmania, 10-01; New Zealand, 10-25; New South Wales,lo-52; Victoria, 12"50; Queensland, 12-69 ; South Australia, 15"61 ; the death-rate of infants in England being 15*4. In the case of Victoria it is necessary to bear in mind that the infant mortality in large towns is always great; and Melbourne alone, with an average death-rate of about 17 per cent, under the above table, lowers the position of Victoria in the scale in relation to the sister colonies very considerably ; outside of Melbourne and the suburbs the infant mortality being only at the rate of 10*20 per 100, or about the same as in New Zealand. The most obvious lesson to be learnt from the above series of tables and figures is that the healthiness of New Zealand as a whole is decidedly superior to that of most, if not all, of her neighbors. With the highest birth-rate of any of the colonies during the past five years and a remarkably low death-rate, the increase of population in New Zealand is likely to be very rapid, independently of any immigration. The knowledge of this healthiness, as shown by the statistics of the colony, when it once becomes established and generally recognised as a fact, will tend to increase the number of immigrants t 9 our shores. The claims of New Zealand as a sanitorium for invalids from India or the neigh-

boring colonies will probably grow daily more and more apparent. It is scarcely necessary to add that at present there is hardly a single town in the colony which can boast of a satisfactory system of drainage, and when the sanitary reform of our towns is complete, we may reasonably hope for a still lower rate of mor* tality than we can now record.

"Victoria. New Zealand. y-g <g Birth-rate per 1000. 1873 .. .. 36 01 1874 .. .. 33-56 1875 .. .. 32-78 1876 .. .. 32-23 1877 .. .. 30-60 Birth-rato per 1000. ~ tsj " H 1874 .. .. 40 05 '"S^.S 1875 .. .. 40-23 -Is 1876 .. .. 41-73 §*■§ 1877 .. about 40-59./ £ 35