Hawke's Bay Herald TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1904. FIFTY YEARS’ PROGRESS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12729, 12 April 1904, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1904. FIFTY YEARS’ PROGRESS.

The Registrar-General has issued a very interesting little pamphlet containing the record of the colony's progress during the last fifty years. It is, we need hardly say, a very remarkable record. In 1854 the country had just been entrusted with responsible government. It had got over the difficulties and trials of the early days of settlement, and was fairly started on its career. That career has been in one respect a- chequered one. Few of the British colonies have been subjected to the stress which this colony was subjected to in the stormy days of the Maori War. But in the main the career has been one of remarkable progress. Nowadays we are perhaps tempted to undervalue tho work of the pioneers. The rough places have been made plain, and the crooked places straight for us, and wo do not often think how much wo owe to those who had none of the conveniences which we enjoy, but who, with patient labour, built up the fabric of colonial prosperity in the face of obstacles which may have well have seemed at the time almost insuperable.' The record contains in broad outlines the commercial history of the colony. Most histories confine themselves to the story of wars and politics, the coming and going of rulers, and Ministries. Few throw much light on the slow development of trade. And yet this is the side of a nation’s history which has the closest and most vital relation to tho well being of its people. The history of English trade has, of course, often been written, and has proved itself almost as interesting as the history ol the struggle for freedom with which

tho name of England is MisseWbly connected. We ate, of course, a young country, but wen in the fifty years 'Over which the record before us extends there have been vicissitudes which Would make an interesting story if properly told. Our trade is, of course, largely concerned with the products of ■the soil, Cad consequently is not liable to such rapid fluctuations as the infinitely more complicated commerce of older countries. But even New Zealand depends for her prosperity on the conditions of countries at the other end of the world, Oft the advance of applied science, and on a number of circumstances over which she has absolutely no control.

The table dealing with the pastoral industries is peculiariiy instructive in this respect. In 1858, the first year for which the figures are available, we had about 150,000 acres under grass or cultivation, and we had, roughly. Mis cattle beast and tea sheep to each of these acres. Our cultivated area has increased a hundred-fold, while our flocks have increased ten-fold. It is, however, not the mere 'totals which tell the full tale of progress. For the first twenty-five years—-halt the period under review—wool and grain were our chief exports. Then came the development of the frozen meat industry, and suddenly an enormous impetus Wits given to the business of the producers. The same influences Were also felt in the dairying trade. There has always been an export trade in butter, but since the invention of cold storage it has rapidly increased until now ’t is not much less than a half in value of the trade in frozen meat. Nothing shows more dearly how much We have to gain from a proper recognition of the work of the man of science in connection with modern industrial processes The same story is revealed by the gold-mining industry. From thirty to forty years ago this was a largo factor in the export trade of the country. Then the richer reefs gave out, and for ten or fifteen years there was a steady decline in the output of the metal. It was again the work of the man of science, the discovery of new and more economic methods that made the industry once more important. Last year the output was greater than it has been for thirty years, and our methods and processes are being adopted with sue-

csss in many far-distant parts of the world.

The record gives an interesting summary of the accumulation and savings of the people of the colony during the period it covers. For example, the bank deposits have grown from about a third of a million to nearly twenty millions. The savings bank started about 1857 has now a quarter of a million depositors with eight millions of deposits. The report does not give the total amount of insurances held in this colony by the various life societies, but the Government department alone covers eleven millions sterling, including bonuses, so that the total amount must be very considerable indeed. It seems to us that this little pamphlet may serve more than one useful purpose. For example, it seems to show that, although at one time or another some of our great industries may have been temporarily depressed, there has generally been a corresponding lisa in some other direction. And, on the whole, tin. progress in every line of industry has throughout the half contury been remarkably steady. There are, we sup pose, not many now with us who can remember the whole of the period of which the report speaks, who watched the humble beginnings of the different industries and saw them increase and develop with the years. To those who can remember the progress of tho colony must on looking back appear plmost incredible. The days when sailing ships afforded the only communication with the Old Country appear to us lost in tho mist of the Middle Ages. The steam engine, the telegraph, the freezing machine, mark the different stages of our industrial advance. What the ijext stage may be we cannot tell. But we may he sure that we have not yet witnessed the last great revolution of industrial methods. That we shall be drawn more and more closely to the Old World each day is teaching ns, just as each day seems to show that there is no end to the process of getting two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before.