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Temuka Leader, Issue 163, 19 July 1879, Page 3

In an article showing the relative position of the Maori and European races in iNew Zealand, the ' Taranaki Herald ' says : —" For the information _ of those who are not able to get at statistical records, we may slate that the European male population over twenty-one years of age in New Zealand at the Inst census was 116,000, and of those 45,302 are in the North Island. The Maori male population 10,023 ; hut v.-h"?i the natives north of Auckland, the Ai-awa*, and fhoso in the South \:\:r.id ar- drdnft'-d, the numbers ar • n-i'inei"! r.o 'nearly lm■ J'. The hue-wing j',; the numher of Maori nudes over iifteen

] years of age-living in the centre, and on the E.'.st and West Coasts of the North Island : Upper Wnikatos, 2070 (this include.-, al ages) ; Raglan, Ivawhia, and Ant.-a, -:4S ; M.ikau to Waitotara (Taranaki district;, .1335 ;. Wangariui River. 705 : Thames, G 77 : Tauranga, 438 ;' Maketu, 787 ; Gpotiki, 959 ;

East Coast (Cook Onntv), 1799 ; Wairoa, 918; Hawke's Bay,- 610 ; Taupo, 264 ; making a total of 11,000 When the natives who are friendly and others not disposed to fight are deducted from this total we do not suppose the mrmber would nearly reach 5000. In Taranaki 1335 is the number of natives how arc over the age of fifteen ; and deducting the odd figures for friendly natives, we leave, say, a thousand ablebodied men ; whilst of Europeans of the same age the statistics show three thousand. What chance would the natives have against such odds ? It .wonld really be a friendly act on the

part of those who have communication with the natives if they pointed out the above incontrovertible facts to them."

A correspondent of the Melbourne Argus,' under the heading " Signs of the Times," writes as follows :—" It is a singular sign of the times that even showmen find it to their interest to point out the grave political errors that are paralysing trade, driving' away capital, and swelling the ranks of the unemployed in Victoria. Having been present at an exhibition of a panormana named Zealandia, at St. George's Hal! last night, I found the lecturer, amidst the applause and approbation of the audience, contrasting the progress and prosperity of New Zealand with that of Victoria, and whilst professing to have no desire to say a word against the latter, yet adducing such hard facts as left but one conclusion, namely that we were misgoverned. Of course, we cannot blame New Zealand for blowing their own trumpet as it were, but is it not rather hard, sir, that by the folly and violence of our rules they should be able to do it with advantage in our very midst ?" A return has recently been furnished to the South Australian Parliament showing the area of land sold or selected and the acreage under cultivation in each of the Australian Co'onies. The South Australian Register remarks: — " Between 1877 and 1878 the area of the land sold or selected in South Australia amounted to 3,718,013 acres, while no less than 1,828,115 acres were under cultivation. Turning to Victoria, w r e find that in the same period 4,471,822 acres wore sold, while the acreage under cultivation at the close of 1877 was little more than a fourth of that area—--1,420,502 acres. The disproportion between the land disposed of in the same time in New South Wales and j the area under cultivation is far greater. The number of acres sold or selected was 7,036,421, while only 546,550 acrts j were under cultivation at the end of j 1877. These figures should; afford j food for serious reflection to the capitalists who set so high a value upon the bonds of New South Wales. The amount of land annually alienated from the Crown in that Colony has increased with rapid- strides, but the cause of agriculture has progressed slowly. Thus, while in 1868 only 151,822 acres were disposed of, 2,230,883 acres were sold or selected in 1877. And whereas in the former year Jthere Were 434,759 acres under cultivation, there were but 546,556 in the latter year. I n this respect the Victorian statistics are more favourable, the acreage under cultivation having advanced from 712,865 acres in 1868 to 1, 420,505 in 1877.;