TARANAKI. [From our Correspondent.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 276, 22 March 1848, Page 2

TARANAKI. [From our Correspondent.]

I now send you a copy, for which I am under' obligations to the Inspector of Police, of the census of this settlement, taken last December. A yearly return of the native population, their cultivations, and live stock in this district, distinguishing the tribes, would be useful and interesting, as exhibiting their strength, the extent of land actually cultivated by them in comparison with what they are at present allowed to claim to our retardation, and their stake, and consequent inducement to peace in the district, that is within the limits of the settlement as given in Mr. Spain's award, adding of course the land purchased outside. It would at once shew the necessity for a change, and the absurdity of allowing the native claimants to retain an amount of land which by no possibility can ever be cultivated by them, and the want of which to us, still continues to lessen our population. The purchase of the land which Paora and his people agreed to sell to Mr. Bell, immediately after he had received authority from Captain Grey to treat with the natives, seems to be beyond doubt. They are anxious to have it surveyed, and Katatori has even made it his business to seek information on this point at the Survey office. And now that a commencement has been made, further land can be got in the same direction.

P. the correspondent of the Wellington Independent, under date New Plymouth, 17th February, has been' pleased to notice, in very facetious terms, a communication from me inserted in No. 259 of the Spectator. He says of me * t'other gentleman, " Our own Correspondent," is not so pointed, or in his turning, so clearly comprehensible ;' yet I infer the exact reverse from P's letter. Then after " hopping over what he does not understand," which I presume to be, although not stated, the Ralph BernaVs anchor, P. "more than guesses I am entirely out in my agriculture ;" and terminates the paragraph with the " Medes and Persian interdict." The parallel does not occur to me ; it may have something to do with myself, or the article of barley on which P. has chosen to write so curiously. 1 refer to the above letter, in this place very unwillingly, and will only in addition observe that P. has exceeded the limits in which I conceive his pen may realize banefits to his fellow-settlers. And I suggest to P. in perfect good humour, to avoid misquoting me for the future, or attempting to elicit any opinion from the farmers of the Hutt on a question in controversy, incorrectly put. I see no reason why P. and I, until he or some other friend will undertake my share, should not each contribute our mite of news for the general good of this settlement, without indulging in triumph over an error, real or imaginary, not maliciously stated ; or misquoting what is written and is in print — or keeping back the half of a paragraph by which its meaning ia affected and altered. 14th March, 1848.

Males. females. Adulfs 310 256 566 U ofage 4 .! e " S .} 302 269 m Total 1137 Births 36 34 70 Deaths 8 3 11 Marriages 3 Education. 6 day schools 104 81 185 4 Sunday 98 85 183 Total 368 Land in Cultivation and under Fallow. Acres. Wheat 766J Barley 128 Oats 108| Potatoes 167| Turnips 79 Grass 267 Rye 5 Hops 1 Maize 1£ Gardens 45 Under Fallow 85 Total Acres 1653| Live Stock. Horned Cattle 568^ Sheep 828 Horses 21 Pigs 585 Goats 177 Comparison with census of the previous YEAR. Increase of Population 49 Increase of Cultivation 138| acres Increase of Stock 483 head.

European population of the settlement at Taranaki, their cultivations, and Ijve stock, for the year ending Slst December, 1847 :