A REPLY.

Southland Times, Issue 1155, 27 October 1869, Page 5

A REPLY.

(to thb editob of thb times.) Sib, — In opposition to re-unionists, who are constantly laboring to depreciate the resources of Southland, I stated on the hustings last week that even Otago was subject to great fluctuations in her sources of revenue, and instanced her gold export as reduced from over two millions in 1864, to £652,356 value in 1867. Mr Wood then referred me to the population returns of Otago as more satisfactory. I replied that even in population Otago had been a great loser within the last four or five years, as shown by government returns to the extent, I believed, of several thousands. Mr Wood again challenged my statement. Not having the returns in my possession at the moment, the matter there rested till the close of the poll on Wednesday, when I, in self-justification, gave the figures which I had on my mind when I made the statement above. I gather from a letter from Mr Wood in your contemporary of this morning that that gentleman has the hardihood still to question the figures I gave, which he does in a rather disingenuous mode, by quoting figures bearing on dates as far back as the years '58 and '61, and omitting 1863, the year when the population of Otago was the greatest within the period which I referred to. Thiß array of figures is therefore quite deceptive, and offers no contradiction to my statement, as the sequel will show. I will now give the returns ofpopulationinlß63 down to 1867, the last census returns for both provinces. These returns, with the exception of the last one, are quoted from Chapman's New Zealand Almanac and Directory for 1867, underheading " Statistics of New Zealand from official .Records," and commencing page 107. Population of Ofcago.— lß63, 67,420; 1864, 49,019 ; 1865, 46,559 ; 1866, returns not at hand ; 1867, 48,577. Diminution since 1863, 18,843. Population of 50uth1and.— 1863, 9,545 ; 1864, 8,085; 1865, 7,046; 1867, 7,943. Diminution since 1863, 1,602. Ifc will be seen from the above figures that the falling off in population in both provinces reached its maximum in 1865, and that since then that item of national wealth has rallied itself again ; moreover, the returns of immigration over emigration for last year in both provinces is on the right side of the account, and that, altogether, considering our want of goldfield attractions, little Southland keeps her ground pretty well. — Yours, &c, Geo. Lttmsden.