PROGRESS OF THE COLONY.

Hastings Standard, Issue 183, 28 November 1896, Page 2

PROGRESS OF THE COLONY.

In the various addresses given by the Conservative candidates for election to Parliament, one of the trump cards that is always produced is, that the trade of the colony has declined during the past six years, and they invariably imply that this is the fault of the Liberal Adminstration. A return from the Government Printing Office, which we extract from the Christchureh Star, provides a very complete answer to this sweeping assertion. From this we learn that, between 1891 and lHiJG—the period generally referred to —the total area under cultivation in the colony increased from 8,4(52,-195 acres to 10,098.801) acres, and between I*9l and 1h95- the figures for IK{)(> are not yet available—the number of holdings from 38,083 to Hi (>7O. But, perhaps, the most instructive comparison may be drawn between the rate of progress under the Conservative and Liberal Governments respectively. During the last three years of the Conservative Administration from INS.S to IH9o—the population of the colony increased by 12,010 and the number of holdings hy 313r>; during the last three years of the Liberal Adminstration for which complete returns are available from 1893 to 1N95 the population increased by 35,0h9, and the number of holdings by 3908. In other directions there are the same signs of renewed prosperity. Between IHBB and IN9O the value of the output from our goldmines fell from I'NOl ,0(30 to £773,1-58, and between 1*93 and 1895 it rose from £•913,138 to £1,102,101. Between 1891 and 1890 the number of horses in the colony rose from 211,010 to 237,118, the number of cattle from 788,D1G to 1.017,901, and the number of sheep from 17,80;";,423 to 19,820,001. Other returns tell the same story, but we have quoted sufficient to show what little foundation there is for the repeated assertion that the Liberal Government has destroyed the confidence and paralysed the enterprise of the people.