THE POPULATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 95, 30 September 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE POPULATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

CURIOUS STATISTICS. (From the Glasgow Sentinel.) Dividing the European population according to their occupations, we find 3283 persons engaged in commerce, 7461) in agriculture, 5783 as skilled mechanics, 11,1SS as miners, 196 eleraymen, 9-1 lawyers, 178 medical men, 390 teachers, 19-1---surveyors, and 392 belonging- to v other educated professions " {but of what kind does not appear). The laborers were 5607, the domestic servants 2808, and 4245 are given as " miscellaneous.'* Besides the above, there were about 60,000 souls •' of no occupation," principally, of course, women and children. The religious denominations stand as follow, in round numbers —Church of England, 44,000 ; Scotch Presbyterians, &c, 21,000 ; Roman Catholics, 10,500 ; Wesleyan Methodists, 7500 ; Independents, Baptists, Primitive Methodists, and Lutherans, together, 5000 ; " Hebrews," 325 ; " Friends," 70 ; Protestants, not otherwise described, 4000 ; and nearly 5000 "nondescripts" (includiixg Mahomedans, Buddhists, Freethinkers, &c.) In point of educatiou we find that 21,000 and upwards were returned as unable to read, nearly 9000 as abie to read but not to write, and that above 65,000 can read and write as well ; and as a general result it may stated that whereas in 1858 only 63 persons per cent, could read-and write, in 1861 the number had risen to 66. The pupils in day and Sunday schools were about 9000 males and nearly 0000 females. Passing on to anotheysuhjecf, we find that the excess of im-migpratiqn over emmigratiou in 1861 was no leW flian 16,222 ; and the excess of births over deaths was 2332. Our lady readers my feel especially interested at learning that the number of marriages annually solemnised in NewZealand has steadily increased from 408 in 1855 to 878 in 1861, and that of these xi little more than a fourth were celebrated by clergymen ofthe Church of England. The vessels entered inwards in 1861 were 596, with a tonnage of 197.986 ions, and crews consisting of 10,317 hands. The vessels cleared outwards were 546, with 205,350 tons and 94-27 hands. The total value of the imports of the colony was <£2,493,511, and that of the exports £1,370,247, showing an increase in the former of about 60 per cent, over the year 1860, and in the latter of more than cent, per cent. The vessels belonging to New Zealand were 252, with avegistered tonnage of 9144 tons and employing nearly 800 hands. The gold exported was 191,234 oz. amounting in value to The comparative tables of revrooe show an increasefrom £463,739 in l£ffl to £691 ,464 in 1801. The total of acres of waste land sold in the colony was 1,782,890, realising little short of £I*oo,ooo. The total acreage under crops in the hands of Europeansettlers was 226,621 ; and the live stock showed In round numbers 20,000 horses, 193.000 head of horned cattle, 2,760,000 sheep, 12,000 goats, 43,000 pigs, and 235,000 poultry. The letters which arrived in New Zealand in 1861 were no less than 1,236,768 ; and the letters sent out were 257,000, and 187,000 in the previous year. The total of committa Is for offences against the person which came before the Supreme Court was 127» and of these 92 were convicted. The meteorological observations with which these statistics conclude show that the climate is \cry like England ; the rain fell on 176 out of the 365 days of the year ; that the maximum temperature at Auckland was 108 deg,, and the minimum -84 deg., though it generally ranged between 41 deg-. and 82 deg.; and that the greatest quantity of rain that fell in one day was 3.92 inches.