THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY MAY 2, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11642, 2 May 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY MAY 2, 1901.

The opinion is gaining ground that however satisfactory our colonial census returns may be in occasional districts, the general results will not be as good as was anticipated. We therefore await with concern the completion and tabulation of the enumeration, for increase of population is one of the fundamental tests of social health, good governance, and industrial prosperity. The present Administration takes and makes every opportunity of publishing abroad the great things which it has done for the colony and the wonderful benefits which have followed. Considering our peculiarly attractive climate, our fertile soil and our unique geographical situation, our thin'.y populated colony should, undii ordinary circumstances, advance with remarkable celerity. Sim e our natural advantages are beyond all question, it is hardly possible to escape the conclusion that any retardation in our growth and increase is due to artificial impediments of which those imposed by indifferent and negligent Governments are necessarily the chief. A remarkable instance of the difference in population-increase under good and bad Governments is shown by the recent Indian census, the main figures of which aie now available. In spite of plague and famine the population of the British territory, where British administration sleeplessly studies the commonweal, j increased in the past decade from 221 millions to 231 millions, nearly J 4.1 per cent. In the native States, ; en the other hand, where British suzerainty falls short in practice of complete control, the population has declined from 6G millions to 63 millions, also nearly 4$ per cent., but on the wrong side. Such native States as Baroda and Rajputana have declined 13 and 19 per cent, respectively, the latter losing over two millions; while the heaviest loss under British Administration was slightly over 12 per cent, in the petty districts of Ajmere and Marwar, which together lost under 70,000, largely accounted for by migration. When we leave the great Indian peninsula and see what British Administration has done in regions which previous bad government kept from progressing, we find that Burma, including Shanlancl, has leaped upwards to 10,500,000, an increase of over 30 per cent, during the decade. In India itself many crowded districts show increases ranging up to 12 per cent, for the period, giving us a faint vision of the possibilities of our Indian Empire, which, in the face of two great 'famines and five years of plague, so steadily increases under British rule. In 1891, when the Indian census was unaffected by famine, there was an average increase in British and native States of close upon 11 per cent, —actually 10.94—f0r the decade then covered as compared to 2.42 for 1891-1901. And we may apparently expect, when the Indian Government finally formulates the plan of that great industrial campaign which it is preparing to direct against Famine that the increase of crowded India will be persistently higher than the rate shown in 1891. By sheer force of her swarming millions, India is becoming an important commercial factor in the world. She threatens to absorb the cotton trade of Lancashire, and witn increasing wealth might easily become one of the greatest customers for our New Zealand produce ; it is: merely a question of her purchasing power. When we see such capacity for increase in such a densely populated and industrially non-developed country, what should we expect of New I Zealand 1 i

If we turn from population to commerce, from the Indian Empire to the Canadian Dominion, we see again that our New Zealand growth and development does not necessarily result from the fostering care of an ideal Administration. In 1897, the Laurier fiscal amendments were put into force, including reduced duties and preferential tariff for British goods. At that time the yearly export to the United Kingdom totalled £15,000,000. For last year, these exports had risen to £21,500,000. British imports had similarly risen from under £0,000,000 to nearly £9,000,000. But lest ' we should imagine that a preferential tariff alone was the cause, and that the able and energetic Laurier is a commercial necromancer, we must keep in mind that the yearly export trade across the border to the United States had inci-cased by nearly £4,000,000, and the import trade from the States by . over £9,500,000. Canada's trade with France and Germany also increased very considerably. In short, it is evident that the remarkable trade improvement of the .Dominion, which has relatively been greater than that of New Zealand, is largely associated with the great revival in industrialism which has pervaded the whole civilised world. Wise and intelligent Governments, by removing impediments and restrictions upon trade activity, as upon population increase, may enable the full flow of the tide of prosperity to be felt.

Unwise and soiolistic Governments may have the reverse effect, but may still be able to point to some degree of prosperity and progress and claim it as their work. Every unit in our population growth, every pound of our trade increase, has been practically claimed as due wholly and solely to the energy, foresight and devotion of the Seddon Administration. But is it 1