TOPICS OF THE MONTH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4884, 16 November 1876, Page 2

TOPICS OF THE MONTH.

The total Customs revenue in the colony for the quarter ended September 30th, 1876, was £303,430 as against £312,472 for the corresponding quarter of. last year. The sums collected in the four principal ports were as follows-Auckland, £54,734, as against £63,5569 last year ; Wellington, £44,951, as against £42,505 last year; Lyttelton, £49,111, as against £43,962 ; Dunedin, £84,006, as against £85,364.

During the past quarter the number of vessels entered inwards at the principal ports of the colony was follows;—Auckland, 49 vessels, representing 23,192 tons ; Wellington, 30 vessels, 17,251 ton ; Lyttelton, 30 vessels, 13,755 tons ; Dunedin, 29 vessels, 14,156 tons. Number of vessels cleared outwards:—Auckland, 53 vessels, 25,577 tons; Wellington, 26 vessels, 16,486 tons; Lyttelton, 34 vessels, 14,113 tons; Dunedin, 25 vessels, 14,723 tons.

The value of the exports from the principal ports of the colony . during ; the past quarter is set down as follows ; Auckland, £110,571 ; Wellington, £2332 ; Lyttelton, £215,002 ; Dunedin, £117,479. Total exports for the quarter, £531,997, as against £767,891 for the corresponding period of last year. The imports are as follows : Auckland, £371,752 ; Wellington, £358,982 ; Lyttelton, £322,084 ; Dunedin, £436,437. Total' imports for the quarter, £1,767,207, as against £2,041,237 for the corresponding period of last year.

At the meeting of : the Wharf Committee of the City Council on Nov. 14, a step in the direction most required for this port was made. It was resolved to recommend the abolition of all transhipping charges. This will give the utmost satisfaction to all who wish to see the already- extensive trade of Wellington freed as much as possible from restriction. W e may remark in this connection that the action of the Wharf Committee is in direct accordance with what the Chamber of Commerce have requested, and that showing this practical desire to meet the wishes of traders and practical men will do" much to reconcile those who would have preferred » harbor board for the management of the Queen’s Wharf to the same being, for a time at least, in the hands of the City Council.

The railway traffic returns for the four weeks ending October 21 are published in last Friday’s Gazette. The total amounts received on the railways outside the Wellington province are as follows :—Kaipafa to Eiverhead railway, £219 ss. sd. ; Auckland to Mercer railway, £1458 10s. 10d.; Waitara to New Plymouth railway, £223 11s. Bd. ; Napier to Waipukurau railway, £1641 14s. 7d.; Nelson to Foxhill railway, £392 18s. Id. ; Picton to Blenheim railway, £415 os. 9d. ; Brunner to Greymouth railway, £389 3s. 4d.; and Westport to Mount Eochfort railway, £56 12s. 9d. The returns for the railways in the Wellington province are as follows: —Foxton to Manawatu railway—Passengers: 1064, £206 17s. 3d.; parcels, &c., £ll 125.; season tickets, £2 55.; freight, 180 tons, £367 18s. lid. Total, £SBB 3s. 2d. Wellington to Masterton railway—Passengers, 9,003, £SBB ss. 4d.; parcels, &c., £3O 11s. 7d.; season tickets, £l4 ss. 10d.; freight, 1156 tons 2 cwt.; timber, 103,138 ft.; carriage, 1; calf, 1 ; sheep, 20 ; bales of wool, 60. Total, £875 18s. 9d.

Yert curious “information” is often to be found in Gazetteers and Encyclopedias. If the descriptions and statistics ever had relation to the state of things in the countries or towns described, or to the arts or sciences meant to be expounded, they are generally so old as to be useless, even though the book containing them bears a recent date. That any tendency to errors in the descriptions of countries and in their statistics should be exaggerated when one of the Australasian colonies is the subject, is but natural; for, as these colonies are rapidly growing, they and their circumstances change with a rapidity unknown in European States. The “Popular Encyclopedia," published by Blaikie and Son, is (says a correspondent) well printed, cheap, and apparently quite up to the average in accuracy and receutnees of information. But what must New Zealanders think of its description of the climate of the colony? There is, let it he said, in one part of the article, the sentence, “ The climate of New Zealand is warm and healthful;” but, as a set off, there also appears what follows:—“The prevailing winds are from the’north-east and the south-west, and are accompanied by frequent hurricanes, particularly in Cook Strait, through which the tempest rages almost without intermission, and at all seasons. From Cook Strait southward along the east coast of the South Island, the climate becomes less agreeable. The wind increases both in quantity and violence, and the winter cold is much aggravated by icy blasts and southern sleet.” Surely this is delicious—especially, the “ less agreeable,” the “ agreeable ” being a state of incessantly raging tempests 1 And this is not in a book dated before Akaroa was known or Oamaru heard of, for the date of this Encyclopedia is 1871. It would be well if the publishers could be led to “ make a note ” with a view to getting this particular part of the article “ New Zealand " corrected before the issue of the next edition.

The general balance-sheet of the public account for the quarter ending 30th September, was issued from the Treasury on the 16th ult., and published in Thursday’s Qazette. The statement shows a credit balance to the Consolidated Fund of £121,234135. 2d. on the 30th June. The receipts for the quarter amounted to £544,675 10s. Bd., and the disbursements to £518,092 18s. 7d., leaving a credit balance of £147,817 ss. 3d., an-increase of £26,582 12s. Id. compared with the last quarter. The amount is disposed of as follows : —£38,614 os. 2d. cash in the public account, and on account of advances £53,763 3s. lOd. colonial, and £55,440 Is. 3d. foreign. On the account “ special funds” the balances on the 30th June and 30th September compare as follows ; Consolidated Loan Act,'lß67, credits £13,946 10s. 3d. and £6550 19s. 9d., a decrease of £7395 10s. 6d. ; Defence and other Purposes Loan Act, 1870, debit £125,918 10s. 2d,, increased still on the debtor side to £178,554 15s. 6d., as against this amount, and £361 13s. 2d. to be accounted for.. As advances there is a credit amount of £178,916 Bs. 7d. cash in the Treasury. Public works account; credit £136,605 .65.--.9d.,-increased to £384,151 19s. 4d. Wellington Declaimed Land Act, 1871, credit £8606 la. lid., increased to £9643 7s. 5d.; Wellington Debts Act, 1872, redemption account, credit £16,719 9s. 2d., increased to £17,774 Bs. ; North Otago District Public Works Loan Act, 1872, credit £2Ol 14s. 7d., increased to £434 13s, - 9d.;;. Westlaiid Loan Act, 1873; redemption account, credit £294 55., increased to £368 19s. 6d. ; and State Forests account, credit £14,800, reduced tp£14,167115.; 6d. ■ The land fund shows an increase of the credit balance of £4083 : 2s. 10d., the balances being £25,049 18s. 6d. for 30th June, and .£29,133. Is. 4d. for 30th September. £287,126 16a..3d. has been disbursed bn ; this f account during the quarter, and. £291,209 19s. Id. is ..the amount; of the receipts. : The trust fuild account showSj adeorease in the credit balance of £14,198 11% 2d., that for the 30th June being7£l6s,l3fl 10s./as -against £150,937 ,18s.’ lOd,' for the; 30th September, 1 Oh the account bills payable; there is an increase of £250,000, and the item: receipts in • suspense ' ‘ alatr increases, the) amotinta' being £BIB ss. lld/for 30th‘June/ ;ahd'£2o2B Is. 6d. ,: for 80th u September. The j total‘expenditure during-’the quarter amounts; to £1,569,212 108;/- and ; the receipts to £2,052,528 4s. Bd., the credit balance being thus .raised from £552,494 46. Id, to 1 £1,035,804 13s, 9d. The amount is thus dis-

tributed—£38,278 -3s. 9d. K cash- in the public account ; £17,144 14s. 4d., -special funds invested;'and for advances to bexaccounted for, £126,344 ills, Bd.'colpnial, an<i % £854,037 4s. foreign. Altogether’the ’accounts ..are of a most satisfactory riaturd;

The report of the Registrar-General on the .vital - statistics of .the'boroughs of Auckland, Thames, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Hokitika for the. month of October, 1876, is of an interesting nature, particularly as it’ shows that Wellington has by far the heaviest death rate of the towns mentioned, and that the cause, above all others, is zymotic disease, distinctly traceable to the defective drainage of the city. The following is a summary of the report :

In the report the deaths of persons not residents of the boroughs, occurring at hospitals, have been excluded in all cases, and the population has been estimated by adding the excess of births over deaths since March 1, 1874, to the then census population. The births were 48 more than in September, and the death's were 10 more in number than the deaths in September. Of ■ the deaths,, males contributed 60; females, 43 ; 35 of the deaths were of children under 5 years of age, being 33'98 per cent, of the whole number; 15 of these were of children under one year. There were 8 deaths of persons of 65 years of age and over; 4of these persons were males and 4 females.; of these, 2 males aged 70 and 75 respectively, and 1 female aged 67, died at Aucklaid ; 1 female aged 65 at Wellington ; 1 male aged 74, and 2 females aged 69 and 72, at Nelson ; and 1 male aged 70 at Christchurch. The total number of deaths (103) iu October were 10 more than in September. _ There has been a large increase in zymotic and constitutional diseases, and a decrease in developmental diseases. , The deaths from zymotic diseases increased from 16 in September to 31 in October. Of these the deaths from scarlatina increased from 7 to 11, of which 5 occurred in Wellington, and 6 in Dunedin. Among the constitutional diseases, there were 6 from cancer; none in September. Diseases of the respiratory organs were much less numerous (the deaths having been 11 in October, against 20 in September), owing no doubt to the warm dry weather recently , experienced. The average temperature in the shade was from two to four degrees higher than for the same mouth in previous years, and the rainfall far less. In Wellington, the rainfall was less than the average on the same month in former years by 3'3 inches; in Christchurch, by I'4 inch ; in Hokitika, by 5.0 inches; in Dunedin, T 8 inch. The reduction was but little more than half an inch on the similar average in Auckland and Nelson. There were 7 violent deaths, of which 1 was that of an adult accidentally* poisoned by an overdose of chloral, and 1 female from sunstroke at Christchurch. The deaths in October, 1875, were by 23 more numerous than during last month. Zymotic diseases were slightly more numerous last month ; the deaths having been 25 in October,, 1875, and 31 in October, 1876. There was only 1 case of scarlatina in the former month, against 11 last month ; on the other hand, typhoid fever caused 8 deaths in October, 1875, against 1 in October, 1876. The deaths from constitutional and local diseases were more numerous iu October, 1875. Of the' local diseases, the diseases of the respiratory organa caused 22 deaths in October, 1875, against 11 in October, 1876.

The Melbourne Argus of October the 7th publishes some interesting comparative vital statistics of the different Australasian colonies, from which it appears that. New Zealand compares most favorably with the neighboring colonies. Our contemporary says :—“ The most interesting column in a newspaper to many persons is that which records the births, the deaths, and the marriages of a community. To this portion of the journal it is that the feminine mind is invariably attracted. And as extremes meet, nothing affords the sage and the statesman better food for reflection than, precisely the same information collated, classified, and arranged. Very much of the welfare of a nation is involved in marriage, birth, and death rates, and we are indebted to the Sydney Morning Herald for embodying some suggestive information on these subjects in a comparative statement. The following figures are given to show the ratios in question for each one thousand of the persons living in the various colonies :

On the whole, New Zealand shows to the most advantage, the marriage and the birth-rate being of the highest proportions, and the death-rate. lower than any in the group. Indeed, it would be difficult te name any place in the world where the mortality is so small, and certainly it would be impossible to point to any European country that would bear comparison. The hero of Lookaley Hall breathes an intention to—- . . take some savage woman; she shall rear my dusky race. It would be much better for any gentleman in his position to turn his thoughts to the sister isles. of, the Pacific, where apparently he can rear as large and as healthy a family as he pleases. For every person who leaves the world in New Zealand, three are born into it, and such a fact speaks volumes to the student of vital statistics. In Melbourne last year, according to returns published by Mr. Girdlestone, the city health officer, the proportion was three deaths to four births, and the difference is startling. In semi-tropical Queensland, marriages are as numerous,and children are as plentiful as in New Zealand, but then the death-rate is the highest in the group, Western Australia alone excepted. New South Wales and South Australia preserve the happy medium in all things, and as for Victoria, it must be written with mingled feelings, that the colony has ceased to be a good marrying country, the matrimonial unions being the lowest in proportion on the list, -Fewer children are bom here also than in any other colony except Tasmania, and on the continent itself Victoria has the smallest average. The marriage rate is universally regarded as, a test of prosperity, and the fact we place on record of our rapid declension in this matter is afflicting to the ladies and a warping to politicians.

Borough. Total Births. Total Deaths. Proportion of Deaths to the 1000 of Population. Auckland 43 18 1-35 Thames 26 4 *47 Wellington 78 24 2’07 Nelson 22 9 1'51 Christchurch ., 60 16 1*46 Dunedin 99 20 1-45 Hokitika 10 3 *85 Total .. 338103

1874. Persons Married per 1000. Births per 1000 Deaths per 1000. New South Wales ., Victoria Queensland South Australia 'Western Australia . • 16*2 122 17‘2 16‘0 14*0.. 38-9 360 41-1 38‘2 337 15 -2 16-3 18-0 17'0 18-7 Mean of Australia 14*9 37-1 16*8 Tasmania. .. New Zealand .. 13*6 17*7 29*7 40*3 16*2 130 Mean of Australasia 15*4 357 15-3