The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIII, Issue 768, 17 March 1860, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Saturday, March 17, 1860. STATISTICS OF NEW ZEALAND, 1858. We .resume* the investigation of the Registrar General's tables at the point where we left off, ('Lyttelton Times,' Feb 22), having completed the returns of Immigration and Emigration, Births and Deaths.., We how find ourselves entering upon the. tables furnished from the .Customs department, where perhaps the most interesting statistics of all are to be found. • ■:; •

A return of the number1 and tonnage of vessels entered inwards durjng 1858 at the different ports of New Zealand presents itself first, with which we may deal very shortly. At Auckland the entries were 63 vessels of 16,198 tons; at other ports of that province, 70 vessels of 23,960 tons ; at New Plymouth, 11 vessels,,of 1214 tons; at Wellington 56 vessels, of 13,052 tons; at Nelson, 50 vessels, of 10,275 tons; at: Lyttelton, 34 vessels, of 8,123 tons; at Akaroa, 7 vessels,of 3766 tons; at Otago, 27, vessels, of 10,214 tons: at.the Bluff, 12 vessels, of 2201 tons. These numbers do not include coasting vessels; that is, vessels passing from one port of the colony to another. The outwards clearances, are, of course, so much alike in number and tonnage to the above, that it would be superfluous to detail them..-.

The next return is of move direct interest to us, showing the total value of the imports during 1858 into the various ports of New Zealand. We give the results belonging to the different provinces :—

The gross imports for 1858 shown by these I returns, amounting to £1,141,273, exceed those of 1857 by £150,000, and those of 1856 by £430,000, But it must be remembered that the year. 1856 showed a falling off .of £100,000 as compared with 1855, and the latter year was £80,000 below 1854 —a time of extraordinary activity in commerce. Comparing, then, the first and last years of. this period—lßs4 and 1858—we find an increased import business of almost exactly a quarter of a million in the four years. In 1853, a year of no particular activity, the gross imports were little more" than one half those of 1858 in value.

The table; given above shows that in 1858 the c olony maintained a larger direct trade-with England than with any other country, colonial or otherwise. The from New, South Wales are next in amount, and not far behind; the two together making up more than a million sterling, and leaving only £100,000 for all other countries. The trade with Victoria was inconsiderable as far as regards Auckland and Nelson, but formed nearly one-fourth of the whole business done in Ofcago; it was of less comparative importance in Wellington and Canterbury, but the relations of both these provinces with Melbourne far exceeded those of Auckland. In the direct English trade' Wellington takes the lead of all the provinces, :and it is indeed the only province whose imports from the United Kingdom exceed those from the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. It must be recollected that Wellington merchants have customers for their merchandise not only in their own province but all over the southern part of the colony,-r-a fact creditable to the enterprise-of those gentlemen, and at thesame time beneficial to the community of which they form a, part. In the returns of following years we may be allowed to hope that some of; this credit and benefit will be earned by and set down to the account of Canterbury. In the totals showing the business done by each province, Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Nelson, Ofcago, and Taranaki, follow one another at intervals of almost precisely Seventy Thousand; Pounds between each two. . ... .,. .

We now turn to the table of exports daring 1858, which are given in the Book of Statistics for all the ports of New Zealand, severally;,but which, for the sake of more, definite comparison, we present under the heads of the several provinces .—

The additions of this table and of the former one, though seemingly inaccurate, give really correct results, as the odd shillings and peiace have been omitted for the sake of convenience. . :. . ; ; ;

On inspection we find Wellington again taking the lead in the gross amount of her exports to all quarters, about which much of what we have above remarked about her imports will again apply; Canterbury comes, next, very close; Nelson stands third, Auckland fourth, Otago fifth, and poor Taranaki a bad sixth. As regards the direct trade with the United Kingdom, Canterbury is facileprincess, with Wellington second; Nelson is but one-half and Otago one-fourth of Canterbury. Taking the colony as a whole, very different results are shown by the export trade from what we noticed in that of imports; the respective values of the. various places as markets lor produce differing considerably from those which they "seem to bear for the purchase/ of. general merchandise. Thus the balance of trade is actually in favor of Victoria, the imports from Melbourne having been only £71,042, while New Zealand produce was sent there for sale to the. value of £73,736. .The United. Kingdom drew in value of our exports pretty nearly one-half what it suppplied-to us. But Sydney sent us £505,332 and received only £132,034, leaving a balance of more: than £373,000.' • The remittances in cash to New .South Wales must be. enormous, as it is evident that in that quarter New Zealand finds no fit outlet for her staple productions. We have no doubt that if the same facilities were presented • for a trade with Melbourne which exist with Sydney, the fact now shown would lead to a rapid equalization of the general business done with the two ports! From Otago, £19,000 went to London, £7,000 to Sydney, and £20,000 to.Melbourne; and this ratio will, no doubt,since 185"8, have increased in favour of the last named market. The balance of imports shows most strongly, as might be expected, against Auckland, ; where. { £345,000 of goods were received, aiid only. £91,000

of produce—-or little more than one-quarter -^, returned. New Plymouth shows a balance of about two-thirds of her imports unreciprocated. Of w hat Wellington receives she returns about two-fifths-Ofcago about the same proportion. Canterbury meets her liabilities half-way; and Nelson does rather better still. The balance against the colony as a whole is £683,250, or; ftiree-fifthij of the total imports. Canterbury and Nelson, therefore, are the only two provinces better than the average i this respect. Talcing the comparison over a period of s j years—from 1853 to 1858—we find that the pr gress of New Zealand has been as follows:—

The process, it will be seen, in some instances par. takes of the character of ' progress backward,' but on the whole is of a satisfactory kind. Th activity displayed in the import market in 1854 ancllßss'was too great to last long, and showed too large an advance upon 1853 for the rale to be maintained; while on the other hand, the ver high prices obtained for wheat in 1855 occasioned the exports of that year to be extraordinarily high in point of value, though those of the succeeding years no doubt were larger in amount. '

We proceed to use the same tables for the pm-. pose of comparing the returns of the extreme years of the period referred t0—1853 and 1858—showing the progress of each province during the six years •—. Imports. , Exports. , !; '1853. 1858. 1853. 1858. Auckland .....'..259,918 345,253 155,323 91,749 Taranaki. 30,010 32,504 8,713 11/)23 SSL^} 161 '457 283 '899 100^64 114,690

Nelson 51,448 150,599 34,226 80,583 Canterbury...... 83,920 217,265 3,396 108,7U Otago ............ 11,074 110,225 770 47^344 We may forbear to wound the feelings of our northern friends by making any remark upon this table; we are conscious of wanting politeness already in giving currency to the figures. Of the intervening years we will only say that Auckland rose to its best in .1854, and since then has been steadily going down the hill.- New Plymouth and j;Nelson have been in constant fluctuation; the | former being best in 1855 and worst in 1856; the latter worst in-] 854 and beat in 1858. Wellington diminished in 1854 and 1855, and rose again to 1858. Canterbury and Otago are the ;only instances of a steady increase. So much for the advantages of a wool-growing country. On the. whole, the exports of the colony have not increased fast in value, but they have done so with the exception of the year 1856, when there was a falling off of £50,000; in 1857, however, they more than recovered themselves.

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Imports. 1853........ =£597,828 1854. 89*1,201 1855..... 813,460 1856 710,868 1857 992,994 1858............... 1,141,273 ■Exports. £303,282 320,891365,868 318,433 369,395 458,023