AUCKLAND AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7339, 28 May 1885, Page 6

AUCKLAND AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

Ik the preient issue we publish a tabulated return of the agricultural? statistics of the Auckland provincial district, The data from which the table is compiled were collected in February and March last, and it is only now that the information gathered together then has been presented to the public. No one can accuse the Government Statistical Department with undue haste in this respect. Things are managed quite differently- in the United States of America, in the other Australasian Colonies, and even in the Southern provincial districts of New Zealand. Why the Auckland distriot should always be so long behind the other portions of the colony in this respect it is difficult to understand ; but the same delay is manifested every year. Long after the Southern returns are published, - and the information they contain made available for the farmers there, the Auckland returns begin to come dribbling in. It is true that the Auckland provincial distriot is larger than some of the Southern districts, but that in itself should form no valid excuse for unnecessary delay in this respect. Local governing bodied are now in operation in all -parts of the Auckland district, and, as the present arrangement for collecting the Auckland agricultural statistics is evidently defective, it is the duty of the Government ; to apply a remedy. Instead of having suoh large districts given to one collector, the collection of this . class of information should be done by counties instead of by groups of counties. The information is published in the Gazette by counties, and for the future, we think, the work of collecting the agricultural information in each county should be alloted to the county authorities, by which plan greater expedition could be secured, and no doubt greater pains would be taken to ensure, if not perfect acouraoy, at least a greater degree of that quality than is manifested at present. It can hardly be otherwise in this respect at present by the system adopted. In this portion of the public service the Registrar-General's Department are the reverse of liberal with remuneration. _ The collection of the agricultural statistics of several counties is entrusted to one person, not because he has personal knowledge of the counties entrusted to him, but because it has been the custom hitherto to do so, and he makes arrangements .with other persons to get the work done as cheaply as possible, so that he who is nominally the oolleotor may have as large a profit from his sub-oontracts as possible. This is a system of farming-out Government work—a system, which is essentially vioious. When the Provincial forjp of Government was in existence, it was quite right that some officer of. each Provincial - Government should be responsible for the collection of all statistical information of this .character within the boundaries . of such province, but now that the information is oollected on the basis of counties, and not provinces, it is time that the antiquated customs of the past in agricultural statistical collection should be abolished, and the officers of eaoh county have remitted to them the duty of gathering the information required within tbe sphere of their own jurisdiction. If the collection of. this class of information were remitted to the authorities of the various counties in the colony, large blocks of cultivated land would not disappear suddenly, as haa been the case during recent years ; nor would the number of holdings of one acre in extent and upwards decrease when everyone,, save the statistical collector, was' satisfied the number was steadily increasing. As oases in point, we may state. that the number of freeholds in the Whangarei County appear to be fewer in 1885 than in 1884, although we know that the population and holdings are increasing. In the County of Eden the number of freeholds of one aore and upwards in area appear to have decreased - during the past year from 567 to 543. Tauranga, Raglan, and the Waipa counties appear to be in the same position, if reliance is to be placed upon the published figures. In the County of Hokianga, a county of nearly unbroken forest, 369 acres of ' land, whioh were reported to be in grass in 1884 without the land having been previously ploughed, have mysteriously disappeared. As compared with the previous year, there is a slight iuorease of the area of land in grass, after having been broken np, in the Hokianga County; but what has become of the 300 odd acres accounted for in 1884 and lost to sight in 18S5? In the County of Eden a large area of grassed land has also disappeared during the past year, and the Thames and other counties show np mysteriously in the same direction, while the County of Waipa is made to show a rate of increase which we fear is quite illasionary. Were the collection of the county'# agricultural statistics entrusted to the offioers of the county, the cost would probably be no greater than at present, greater expedition would be manifested, and the authorities of each county would have sufficient pride in the progress of the distriot under their oharge to prevent the number of holdings being so mysteriously decreased' while the population is rapidly increasing; and they would not be likely to allow thousands of acres of grassed land to suddenly disappear without a word of explantion. " At any rate, the system proposed is one likely to produce a beneficial change. The blundering to which we refer is not confined to this year's operations, but has been referred to on several previous occasions in our columns. Taking the figures as they are, they show in many ways substantial progress and considerable increase of wealth. The number of holdings of . all classes is 6518, being 127 more than in 1884. ' Of this number 5197 are freeholds, and the rest rented and some partly rented and partly freehold. It will thus be seen that freehold is the , tenure which the settler likes, though many would try to persuade him that the position of a tenant is better than owning his own farm. The tented - holdings are ohiefly in the

neighbourhood of the city of < Auckland, at the Thames, and in the native districts on the East Coast. Bat, as it is, about fivesixths of the whole settlers own their own vnvmg | and, if the exact proportion of those which are partly rented and partly freehold were known, it would probably .be found that the * proportion iof those owning land was considerably greater than appears from the above figures. And, while the number of individual holdings has been substantially increased, the extent to whioh the subduing of the land has been going on during the past twelve months has been greater than daring the preceding year. In 188£ it was found that gill kinds of cultivation, including lands laid down in grass, had increased by upwards of 26,000 aores, but during the past year the increase in this respect has been upwards of 44,000 aores. The total area returned as in cultivation in February and Maroh last 1b 699,104 acres, as compared with 654,863 acres during the corresponding period the previous year. Of course, the greater portion of this area is in grasses of various kinds, but in a district covered with forest and scrub it is necessary to destroy the natural vegetation and to replace it with artificial grasses before the land can be made to produoe food for our cattle, sheep, &o. Auckland settlers are placed at a disadvantage in this respect as oompared with their more fortunate fellows in the South Island, where the lands were chiefly in a state of natural grass without the labour and ex* penditure of the settler's capital. It will be noticed that substantial progress has been made in all the districts in this province, except where there are evident mistakes by scamping the work of collection, for it is unreasonable to suppose that thousands of acres in grass and other forms of cultivation could suddenly disappear, as they are made to do so wonderfully by some of the subcontract collectors.

Although the price of wheat has not been high dnring several years past, still it is surprising that so little attention is given to this crop, whioh appears to give a very high average yield. During the past year there were 6749 acres cultivated with this crop in the Auckland province, as against 9122 in the previous year, * showing a decrease of 2373 acres. The wheat crop in 1884 also showed a considerable shrinkage as oompared with that for 1883, for in that year 10,837 acres were in wheat. It will thus be seen that in the present season, there were upwards of 4000 acres less wheat reaped in the Auckland province than in 1883. This is not as it should be. for, though the town millers may do what they can to depress the price givfjn for wheat, the . farmers should do as is done in America and other countries—combine to have local grist mills established in suitable localities where water power could be obtained. This would tend to equalise prices more than is the esse at present. I The estimated . yield this season was put ('own at 157,460 bushels, showing 75,575 bushels less than in the previous year. The percentage of yield was 23.33 bushels per acre for 1885 ; for 1884, 25.54 bushels; and for 1883, 22.48 bushels. These are average returns which would make glad the hearts of Australian and American wheat-growers, for the average for the three years is upwards of 23.78 bushels per aero. To provide food for the ■ European and Maori population amongst as, and seed for the following year's crop, we would need to produoe seven or eight times as much wheat as is oow grown in the Auokland province. The hay crop shewed about one and a quarter tons to the acre. The land broken up,, but not in cultivation, amounted to 15,955 acres, an increase of 1767 acres as compared with the area in the same condition in 1884. This shows that steadily the wilderness around our settlers' homes is being enoroached upon, and that every year findß more land made subjeot to the wants and control of man.

Potatoes are a more abundant crop this season than they have been for years past. There are 4621 acres devoted to this crop, and, the yield being estimated at 24,548 tons, gives an average of 5 31 tons per acre, as against 4.65 tons in 1884, and 3.35 tons in 1883. This is so far satisfactory, and it is to be regretted that a sufficiency is not grown to meet the" demands of the local market. It is not creditable to our enterprise that the

balk of the potatoes used on Auckland tables have to be brought from Canterbury. The farmers there labour under difficulties both in culture and getting their crops to market as well as the Auckland farmers, but they straggle on, while ours are indined to give up the ' contest. r The middle* mm ig there as well as here with his depressing prices; but we suspect that thqre are ways and means here of obtaining an easier living than exist in Canterbury or Otago, and henoe the difference in the application shown by the farmers in the two places.■ : ■ ' Several alterations are made this year in the form of collecting the information. A section is devoted to the quantity of land set apart for the production of grass-seed. Under this heading a column is devoted to the area set apart for producing seed from oocksfoot and another for rye-gra»s seed. The area so occupied is smaller than we had anticipated, but it is an item of useful information. For several years the area devoted to garden or orchard has been obtained, but, like many more items of rueful information collected every year,. it has not seen the light of day, bat been carefully pigeon-holea at Wellington, under charge of those who were ignorant and careless of the information under their charge. We have repeated!]' urged that all the information collected annually relating to the agricultural and horticultural operations carried on in the colony should be published as soon as the information reaohes Wellington, as, without being made public, it can be of no value whatever. This season the area devoted to garden or orohard is made known, and the result shows the importance of making such information public. We all knew that the extent of land devoted to these purposes in Morth .New Zealand was considerable, bat few would have imagined that the area was no less than 6836 acres, an area larger than that devoted to wheat. It is an area sufficient to give more than one acre to all the holdings returned in the Auckland province. This is a form of utilising the land which is likely to assume larger proportions every year until all the portions of our district best suited for orchard purposes are devoted to the production of rich and lusoious fruits. It is only in. a few instances that we have the opportunity of Oimpariog this year's returns with last year's so far as the extent of land devoted to garden or orchard purposes is concerned. . But in all those instances there is a very marked increase except in two. < In these two cases w here the general rule is departed from, we believe the explanation will be found in careless collection of the information arising from causes already stated. In the Thames County it would appear that the land devoted to garden and orchard purposes had decreased from 346 acres to 295 acres, a decrease of 51 acres. We believe the Thames people will discredit the statement that the gardens and orohards in that county have shrank daring the last year by nearly fifteen per cent. But the Piako County is represented in even a worse light. The shrinkage there is made to appear as no less than 567 acres in 188 to 214 acres this season. This is a deorease of 353 acres, a statement which is utterly ridiculous by its magnitude. We believe the truth is that either last year's returns were largely overstated, or that this year's are understated. In either case the principle of inaccuracy is so largely developed as to throw general discredit over the whole work, and to call loudly for a radical change in the manner of collecting such information in the future.

la the production of root crops for cattle feed, there is a very large increase. Last year the extent of land returned as under turnips or rape was 7911 acres, while this season no fewer than 11,774 acres are no devoted, an increase of 3863 acres. There is no doubt that the greater portion of this land is devoted to tnrnip-growing for winter feed to stock, and it is well that such a course is being pursued. The raising of large acres of root crops was one of the principal agencies in the improvemeet of agriculture in Scotland, and a similar policy adopted here will no doubt be followed by corresponding results.

Subjoined is the tabular statement by counties contrasted with the corresponding figures for the previous year •

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