THE Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, JAN. 10, 1880. THE STATISTICS OF THE COLONY.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 106, 10 January 1880, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

SATURDAY, JAN. 10, 1880. THE STATISTICS OF THE COLONY.

"Words are things, and n ilrop at iak i i!i-i- Ukr dew upon a thought, produced tliut wiiiun uikK«s

The Report of tho Registrar-Ge-neral on the statistics of" New Zealand for the year 1878 hos just come to hand, and as usual is full of iiiformatiou, of an interesting and instructiye character. Its advent must be viewer^ by thn set-tier who takes aa niLoroi-t m ilia pi'o^russ of the colony m something of: the. same mansior tliaL the merchant or. trader receives tho ' resij'lfc of his annual stock-taking, showing as ifc doos by comparison with its predecessor, the growth of- the community aud the march of settlement", trade and progress. Unfortunately, ho\yever, on appoint of fhe lar^e number of courts and local bodies to which applications have to be made, the delay m receiving, the returns, and the vast amount of time c.o.n s^,"iod m the priuti :iGf, the statistics, are always one year behind. This is a very important fact to be borne m mind, as no matter how reliable the figures may be up to the period which they represent, they m.usfe not betaken, as a statement; of our progress to the close, of 1879. The "Registrar- j Qreneral's vohi:ne is divided into six parts, the first of which comprises a very valuable, se.t of tables of the most desirable information, and embraces a list, of the Cxorernors since the foundation oi: tho Colony m 1310, the different Parliaments, witli the Ministers who have hold .office since, the establishment of "R2sponsihlo Government ; a list of the members of both f louses during the year IS7S ; m addition. t° ty list of foreign consuls accredited m New Zealand. Part 11. treats of the Population and Vif-il -RtTf-fstJcs, and shows that i the tqtal white population on £he ■3 1st of Pecom'i'vi', 197^, was 412,519, against 417,622 m the. preceding year, thus showing ail increase, of 11,897. The return?, however, with regard to the Maori iiace bear out tV* assart-inn, that the hnnd oftime i.s dealing heavy with them, anr! be the hour near or afar off, their, total extinction, is just as sure as has been the. fate of the Australian, Red Tndian, and other aboriginal tribes. In. • 1577 the Maorio/* of New Zealand numbered 45,470, eoinposed of 24,^3. ni.ile..;, and 20,335 females, 'while, m t/ie. last year for which we have any return th,ey had dwindled down to 42,5r9, the greater decrease being amongst the females. The increase m the. White pppula- ; tion is accounted for by the excess of births over, deaths, aud also of I immigration ov-er emigration, and it is most satisfactory to. know th:ifc while there was a.n- iuo.re.ase. during the year of close upon fifteen thousand of Coionial-born population, the deaths woro just cieven thousand short of that number. In examining the tables to glean m what portions of the colony iht* increased population has been distributojl, we learn with some surprise and consiflorable. satisfaction that while a Tinmbor of the Provincial Districts have been retrogradfug m that= respect, aud others remaining stationary, "W"elliagton has been .far.

alicad of the oL'aei' districts, while of the iner^se of population m the iVnrth Island she claims four-fifths, and the remainder of the Provincial -Districts put together raako up the oilier ilah. For instance, Auckhvij, between the years 1877 and 1.^78, only increased IG3 ; Taranaki. TOfiS; Hawkes' Bay, R2I ; Marlhoroucr}j went 800 io the bad ; Nelson had wakened up, and now boasts of five more inhabitants than m the preceding year ; Westland had retrograded to the extent ot 531 ; Canterouiy had increased 6830 ; while Ola^o — the jjroat flonrishinj^ Otnjjo — had actually fallen away 423 ; Wellington he iding- tho list with an increase for the year of 7700. The siatislics contained m the return are so comprehensive that it would bo impossible to bang out the inter-et-iing facts with which it teems without; devoting an article to each of the six parts of which they are composed, an<l consequently we purpose taking that course, and m suc-ce-'flimi; issues tlilat'o at some length upon the comparative statements for the' two years, with regard to imports and exports, production, education, finance, and the various other headings under which Mr. Bbowx has classified his data.