New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, August 14, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 525, 14 August 1850, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, August 14, 1850.

From the Australian papers recentl} received we have extracted abstracts of the official returns of the exports of Port Phillip and South Australia. Both, these Provinces were~ founded about the same time, some three or four years before the settlement of Port Nicholson was formed by the New Zealand Company. Both Provinces have experienced the usual vicissitudes of fortune, those alternations of good and ill luck which seem to be incidental to the career of a new colony, and both have triumphantly surmounted the obstacles which threatened to impede their progress. The pecuniary difficulties of South Australia, in particular, occasioned by the profuse expenditure of Colonel Gawler obtained a wide spread celebrity, the more noticeable by a New Zealand colonist, since out of the confusion and commercial distress arising from his predecessor's mismanagement were evolved, by Sir George Grey's wise and prudent administration, those germs of prosperity which have burst forth into so vigorous a growth as by their luxuriance to have attracted general observation. The total value of the exports from Port Phillip for the last year was £978,741. The value of the last quarter's published exports of South Australia was £243,220, shewing for the year a nearly similar result. The principal exports from Port Phillip are wool, tallow, hides, &c, shewing that the pastoral pursuits of the settlers furnish the staple exports of the Province. From South Australia the chief articles of exports are ores, grain, flour, and wool. If we were to institute a comparison between the exports from New Zealand and those of either of the Provinces referred ttf we shall find they do not amount to one tithe part the value of either of the latter. However humbling such comparisons may be to our pride they are not without their use ; it is important to ascertain our progress relatively as well as positively, it is not enough to know that we have done better than the year before, and rest content with this knowledge ; we should endeavour by a comparison with neighbouring colonies to discover whether our relative progress, ceteris paribus, has been equal to theirs, and if not to ascertain the cause. That both the climate and natural capabilities of New Zealand are greatly superior to those of either of the Provinces above named, is readily ad- j mitted by all whose practical experience renders them competent to pronounce an opinion on the subject. On the genial climate of New Zealand, so peculiarly adapted to an English constitution, so free from the scorching summer heats and long droughts which afflict the Australian continent it is not our intention to expatiate ; its qualities are too well known to require any encomium from us. Neither shall we dwell at length on the natural capabilites of the country, but content ourselves with remarking that all the information obtained on this head shows that either in agriculture, in pastoral pursuits, in ores or any other export common to the Australian colonies New Zealand is well calculated from its natural advantages, not only to maintain its place, but eventually perhaps to take the lead among its neighbours, — inter priores primus. At the Hutt, at Nelson, at Taranaki, — that garden of New Zealand, — wherever agricultural operations have been carried on, the return has been more than commensurate with the labour and capital expended. The grazing districts of this settlement, the Wairarapa, stretching on to Hawke's Bay and connected by other vallies which lead to the Manawatu and Rangitikei districts, and from thence to Wanganui and to Taranaki all afford ample evidence of the adaptation of this part of the Northern Island for sheep and cattle stations; while the recent journey of Capt. Mitchell shews that a succession of plains extends throughout the Southern Island, containing millions of acres, waiting to be occupied by the flocks and herds of future colonists. And here the superiority of climate comes hi aid of the New Zealand colonists : while in Australia owing to the heat of the climate the owners of stations are obliged to boil down their surplus

stock, in New Zealand the stock owner would salt down his cattle, and those who will calculate the difference in value between a bullock salted down and boiled dovn, will determine the advantage of the New Zealand, over the Australian stock owner, of the superiority of the future provision trade of New Zealand over the tallow trade of Australia. The Southern Island is known to be rich in minerals of all kinds, and mines aie already worked in the Northern Province. But besides these articles common to all the Australian' colonies, New Zealand possesses the Phormium tenax, indigenous to the country, an export of peculiar value, the demand for which is unlimited. In some interesting tables recently published in the Sydney Herald, the total number of bales of wool exported from the Australian colonies is stated to be 125,000, and there is a considerable progressive increase in each yearly amount. If the necessary exertionswere, made a monopoly might be secured for wool- lashing and woolpacksmade of New ' Zealand flax in these colonies. In these remarks we think we have shewn that the cause of our slow progress is not in the country since, in point of climate and natural advantages, New Zealand may claim a superiority over the adjoining colonies. Neither does the fault rest with the form of Government since nearly the same form of Government obtains in the three Provinces, whatever difference exists is in favour of New Zealand. The constitution of the Legislative Council of this Province is more liberal, in the preponderance of non-official members, than that of South Australia, while Port Phillip has no Council but is governed by a Superintendent uniler the control of the Governor of New South Wales, the population in either of those Provinces being between 55,000 and 60,000. Nor is the fault attributable to the colonists who have manfully struggled with and overcome the greater part of the difficulties that have beset their course. To what our comparatively slow progress is ascribable, we shall endeavour to shew in our next number, or at all events to indicate one main impediment which has hitherto existed to the prosperity of the Southern Province,

His Excellency Governor Enderby arrired yesterday in a small decked boat of ten tons from the Auckland Islands, after a passage of twelve days. We understand his Excellency's principal object in visiting Wellington is to obtain some additional supplies of flour, and a few other necessaries for his rising Settlement, which we are glad to learn is, under his auspices, in a thriving condition. We hope, in our next number, to publish a meteorological table for June and July, kept at the Auckland Islands, together with other interesting information connected with that Settlement.

A general meeting of the Members of the Wellington Athenaeum was held yesterday evening, pursuant to advertisement, when Mr. Ncrgrove was unanimously elected Librarian, in the place of Mr. Bushell resigned ; and Messrs. Woodward and 'Roberts members of the Committee, in the place of Mr. Norgrove now Librarian, and Mr. Smith resigned.