The Westport Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1873.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1064, 18 April 1873, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1873.

From a return of agricultural statistics taken in February last, the quantity of land in cultivation in this Province, and the agricultural produce thereof appears to be as follows: —Number of holdings exceediug one acre, 1222 ; land broken up but not under crop, 4580 acres ; sown for wheat, 3575; estimated to produce 46081 bushels ; for green food or hay, 3225 acres ; for oats, 1905 acres, estimated to produce 32,476 bushels ; for barley, 820 acres, yielding 9326 bushels; sown grass, 1887 acres, gross produce, 2002 tons ; permanent grass, 38,735 ; potatoes, 1137 acres, producing 5946 tons; other crops, 767 acres ; giving a gross total of 50,167 acres under cultivation.

The total population of the Province when the laßt census was taken, in February, 1871, was 22,501 souls, and assuming that the proportion of births and arrivals since then have about balanced the number of deaths and departures from the Province, the acreage of cultivated ground bears a proportion of something less than two and a quarter acres for each individual. But the percentage of grain <crops to the total average of cultivated land is only about 12 per cent. The exact per centage in this respect, as shown by the Statistics of the Registrar-Gene-ral, for the preceding four years, was in 1869, 11-24; in 1870, 12'84:; in 1871,13 99; and in 1872, 11-72. Of the crops grown in the Province the centisimal proportion of the total produce of the crops of the colony was in 18720n1y 450 per cent. _Nelson thus stands low in comparison with the other provinces of New Zealand, and the actual decrease of .population in many of the older settled districts, proves beyond all doubt that agriculture has ceased to be a source of prosperity. Immigration has almost ceased, and in many places along the coast line much of the land available for cultivation is yielding but scanty reward for the industry of the few pioneer settlers who have attempted to build up homes in the wilderness, by reason of their isolated location and the want of easy access to a remunerative market. In other and too many instances where agriculture might, under favoring circumstances, become a flourishing pursuit, absurdly restrictive regulations and vexatious delays in the granting of areas for cultivation prevent all attempts at anything like a systematic or extended settlement of agricultural population. In point of fact agriculture in Nelson Province has been as yet a means of passing wealth to a favored few only, who, profiting largely thereby for "a time, have wrested from the land they hold all that it would yield; and only now, when they find their profits dwindling away and their trade usurped by outside competitors, have they bestirred themselves to take any interest in the expansion of the long neglected resources of the Province. One of the main arguments in favor of the projected line of communication from Nelson City to the interior is ""the complete occupation of nearly all the land available for cultivation and settlement in the immediate neighbor hood of Nelson and the coast line of the Province;" and it is sought to be shown that a railway through the unoccupied land of the interior will conduce to the speedy sale of such land at good prices, and ensure the after prosperity of the purchasers; by reason of affording them a cheap nnd rapid means of conveying their produce to a market. Good and pleasant to contemplate beyond doubt as a theory, but still the doubt arises will the purposed action of the Inland Communication Committee eventuate in aught but theory. Will, for instance, future agricultural statistics prove numerically the steady increase of prosperity, and will all other languishing industries expand by reason of a huge slice of the Provincial territory being handed over to the control of a mere mercantile association. Capitalists may be tempted by the lure of 900,000 acres of land, with all on and below the surface ; but the question is, supposing the consent of the New Zealand Parliament is obtained to the granting of such concession, will traffic be ensured and settlement provided by the proposal to partly pay for the labor of construction of such railway by small sub-grants of land along its course, unless the nominal value of such land is first fixed by law, at a rate that will prevent the struggling working man from becoming the prey of legalisedusurers.