The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 984, 12 October 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. • * * * + Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence* and unbribed by gain.

The census tables compiled from the returns collected early m the year are now before us, and contain much useful and interesting matter. The total population of the colony, including Uhinese and Half-castes, numbers 414,412 souls. The disproportion between ihe sexes atill remains to a very great extent, for we fiud that of males there are' 230,998 as against 183,414 females. This population m the manner of its distribution shows also another fact, which is to be regretted, that the town population is far too great m proportion to that of the country districts, for there live m boroughs 163,328 persons, and m the counties 247,618.' As new tracts of land, are acquired, railways are extended, and other facilities of road communication afforded, the proportion of country settlers, the real producers of the colony, will doubtless increase ; and till this is so, wealthy though the colony may be, it will not grasp the full measure of its prosperity. Again, looking to the distribution of population as regards the two island we find that there is m the North Island a population of 158,208, m the Middle Island of 255,757, le.iving a population of 447 souls for Stewart Island and the Cbathams. And here, again, if we analyse separately the populations of North and Middle Islands we find that the objectionable disproportion be. tween the sexes does not apply so strongly to the former as to the latter, being fully a third le3s. The Chinese population, m both islands, numbers 4,433, of whom 9 only are females, the half-caste population 1,947, the females being eleven m excess of nuiles. Of electoral districts, Collingwood is the smallest, having not as many males of all ages as Waipa has ejectors, but returning its member. Its total male population, children find non-

electors included, numbers 8/51). the largest, electoral district is that of the City' of Christchurch, with its population of 24,979, and the next lam-oat, Duuedin City, with 22,325. Then follows Wellington Oity, with a population of 18,953. The population of Auckland City, Eist »ml West electoral districts, is 13,758, but ad-J Newton to it, which gives another 6,845, and we have a gross number of 20,000 souls. We shall take an early opportunity of referring to these tables, as beariug upon the population of the several ridings of the Four Counties. . —# — , .

After considerable delay m coming to an arrangement with the settlers, — the Department wishing for an unlimited guarantee which the settlers were unwilling to give, though quite willing to guarantee the amount at first proposed — the Government ha to done ths proper thing, and the telegraph line is to be extended to Ohaupo on the sole responsibility of the Department. As settlement spreads and when it reaches acenai,, point, short perhaps of that which would make either telegraph or postal service a paying undertaking, it is the interest, as well, indeed, as the duty of the Government of a young colony to bear with a slight loss m affording such conveniences to the public, for these very facilities to settlement and trade the sooner increase population, and develo . the resources of the district and make the service self-supporting and ultimately a profitable source of revenue. Nor indeed, apart from this, is the population of such a district without claim for attention. Minorities, however small, are entitled to some consideration, and wo hold it to be a sound principle of administration m these matters,that, for the sake of affording the widest possible assistance to the public m postal and telegraph requirements, the question should be not that this or thvt particular service should pay, but that the profit on the one set of services should cover any loss upon others, the largest possible amount of convenience to the public being thus afforded. We are not surprised to hear that the settlers of another important district, m this part of the country have of late been moving m the matter of telegraph communication. Settlement is being pushed steadily ahead m the Pinko district and the large tracts of valuable land brought yearly into cultivation have naturally created an amount of trade and business, which makes the want of quick communication with the centres of population greatly felt. The settlers m this case are willing to give the Government a certain guarantee towards making up any deficiency between income and expenditure that might be incurred m working the extension. The Piako is just one of those outlying districts which have a special claim upon the Government. The settlers havo had to reclaim a waste of land and water without Government railways to assist them either m the facilities of traffic communication thus afforded or the outlay of money locally expended m their construction. Yet there is no part of this district, as the agricultural statistics show, which has made such rapid progress m settlement as the, County of Piako