DEVELOPMENT RESULTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 217, 13 March 1914, Page 4

DEVELOPMENT RESULTS.

It has been truly said that 110 one, except the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone, could make a Budget statement interesting. No greater tribute could have been made to his marvellous powers of oratory. To the majority of people figures, and especially statistics, are but dry bones in hideous shapes, and the majority of men would soon wrestle with unseen powers than with a mathematical problem. Yet. there is much that is interesting in statistics, and the last Blue Book issued by the Government Statistician proves this contention. It is part of the game of party politics to pretend to be horrified at the continual increase of the national debt, and there are veiled insinuations that the money has gone like the spend- 1 thrift's patrimony, with nothing to show . for its loss except empty coffers. The j

"ovt charitable, as well as the moro in ,j telligent part of the community naturally look around for signs of assets ts j represent the vast sums that pass through the Treasury, and it is not surprising that their perspicacity is rewarded. Then, again, there is the largo annual private expenditure wliiuli goes on with noiseless action in developing and improving the country's greatest asset—the land. Incidentally ther» in the much-discussed unearned increment, while industrial ventures have to be taken into account. It will come as a surprise to the generality of New Zealand's citizens that the increase ill the capital value of land in the North Island since 1878 amounts to over om hundred and seventy-six millions sterling, that for the South Island being over one hundred and ten millions, while the value of improvements effected during' that period is stated as eighty millions for the North and forty-nine and a-half millions for the South, a tot?i I of over one hundred swid twenty-nine millions and a-half for the sixteen years —a record of which any country might well be proud. A glance at the figures relating to the various districts in the Taranaki province and immediately adjoining shows that our own district has done its share of adding to the imm'oved value of the land, as will be seen from the following. Taking the newest settled district, the Ohura, first, it is found that in the area of 527 square miles which comprises the Ohura county, the unimproved value as at March 31, 1913, is set down as £647,004, while the capital value, with improvements, is placed at £1,001,011. In Taranaki county, with an area of 386 square miles, the unimproved value was £1,251,015, and the capital value £2,335,105. Clifton, with 015 square miles, has an unimproved value of £563,079, and a capital value of £1,000,383. For Egmont the figures are: 197 miles, £83G,893, and £1,408,379; for Stratford'(39l miles), £1,218,047 and £2,078,576; for Whang tmomona (378 miles), £284,1U4, the improved value not being stated, as the rating is on the unimproved value, but the value of improvements may be set down at about £400,000; for Hawera (195 mileß), £1,922,300 and £2,540,771; Waimate West (75 miles), £1,121,519 and £1,414,785; Eltham, £1,067,286 and £1,527,544; l'atea (620 miles), £1,542,099 and £2,251,775. The total value of improvements on tho land alone in Taranaki amounts to £5,289,002. It will be seen that this district shows a most creditable advancement, and if the figures gave the original unimproved values the result would be simply astounding.