The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1900. NEW ZEALAND'S PROGRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 299, 17 December 1900, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1900. NEW ZEALAND'S PROGRESS.

For tho caueo that lacks assistance, For the v/rong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the eood that we oan do.

We have before dwelt- at length on the enhanced prosperity which the reliable statistics issuing from the Department of the RegistrarGeneral show that the colony, as a whole, is at present enjoying. The subject is one in which we should all take an earnest and legitimate; interest; and it warrants the careful study of the community in general. There has just been compiled an official statement designed to show the progress of the last decade. It institutes'a comparison between the twelve months ending September 30,1890, and September 30 of the present year. The progress made during the decennial period is concisely shown, and in every direction is most gratifying. A comparison for the twelve months ending with September is in some respects more satisfactory than one based on the calendar year. -For one thing, and this is no inconsiderable advantage, the whole of the previous season's wool clip is accurately given. In this matter, when the calendar year is the basis, you are subject to disadvantages,' because if the wool shipments are late, a great portion of one year's clip is reckoned in the export of the subsequent yield. The table to which we refer leaves no possible doubt as to the immense strides that X'ew Zealand has made in commercial prosperity during the ten years. Without exception, there is a "marked increase in everything that tends to material prosperity. This is the more significant on account of our additional population not being as great as could be desired—in 1890 the figures were 620,545; in 1900, 704,181. The increase of 23.15 per cent, this represents is not large. And yet when we come to glance at the mainstay of our colony—its lands—we find ,!; ; it the number of holdings was, in 1890, 38,178; in 1900- G2,485; and the acres under cultivation 8,039,705 and 12,515,802 respectively. The exported produce of the land is proportionately greater, as the appended comparison shows: —

Associated with this enhanced quantity and value of the exports of natural produce has been an increase in sheep from 16,116.113 to 19,318,506, and of cattle from 831.831 to 1,222,139. Mineral production has similarly not stagnated. The gold export, which, at the beginning of the decade amounted to (£928.798, at its close was of.the value of £1,501,939, while the coal' shipments rose from £318,698 to £487,617. All the figures .we have quoted can in no Avay be ascribed to a boom having its origin in undue borrowing, but are simply indicative, first, of a general prosperity in the world's markets, and, secondly, of the immense latent resources of the colony. In another direction the progress has not been altogether so conspicuous. The construction of 354 miles of railways in ten years in a young country, still in need of arterial and bianch connections, is not much to boast of. More satisfactory is the

in crease of deposits in our savings bunks. From £2,441,870 in 1890, to £5,320;.370 in 1893, an addition of 1.17.88 per cent., is a satisfactory jump. It is an indication of general prosperity, on which the Hon. J. G. Ward often and rightly dwells.

In such statistics as those we have quoted should be found an excellent antidote for the grumblings of those who, through political bias or ingrained perversity, habitually run down the land they call their home. New Zealand has rarely experienced snch general prosperity as we now enjoy, and it is indeed a matter for congratulation that our present national well-being bears every appearance of being solidly founded.

3S90 Sept. 30. 1900 Increase. Export of— Wool ~. j il Quantity lb. Value £ 302,522.1S5 4.206,305 144,829,515 4,936,210 42.307,330 729,851 Centesimal. 41.27 17.35 Frozen meat Quantity cwt. Value £ 852,753 3,045,576 2,065.430 2,327,133 1.212,677 1,281,557 142.21 122.57 Sheepskins and 1 pelts / Quantity No. Value " £ 2,148,502 121, GS6 5,442,962 312,047 3.294,370 190,361 153.33 156.44 Butter _J Quantity cwt. Value £ 38,371 132,576 1G2.262 699,909 123,891 507,333 322. SS 427.93 Cheese * Quantity cwt. Value £ 41,310 8S,047 .103,790 227,093 62,486 151.26 156.18 Total exports (produce of the colon 1 138,440 Value £ 0,759, S4G 13,477,900 3,718,120 38.10