The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]
Industrial
Industrial.
As an industrial province, Auckland probably already stands first in the Colony, and there are indications that it must in time decidedly outstrip all the others. Its delightful climate and many other advantages which the workers are not slow to recognise, keep men in Auckland at wages, which by travelling as far as Wellington, they might increase by from ten to fifty per cent. This statement may seem incredible, but those who doubt it are referred to the Government Year Book for 1898, where the average wages paid in each provincial district during the preceding year are given in about sixty branches of industry. Bricklayers, masons and plasterers are all given as earning eight shillings per day in Auckland and twelve shillings per day in Wellington. Others show lower percentages of variation, but it is quite safe to say that nowhere in New Zealand are the wages so low as in Auckland, and that they average from ten to twenty per cent. less than in any of the other large provinces. This lowness of wages reacts, of course, on the cost of living, so that a working man with a family dependent upon him is generally better off in Auckland than he would be in other parts of the Colony, even from the pounds-shillings-and-pence point of view, while he has, at the same time, the pleasure of living under more enjoyable conditions in other respects. Thus Auckland is in a better position than any other district in the Colony to compete with the outside industrial world, and this is already being made manifest.
But while Auckland stands so well in comparison with the other provinces in industrial matters, it is plain that her activity in this sphere does not account for her being so far behind in agricultural and pastoral affairs. For this, there must be other causes, and, in fact, they are not difficult to find, for goldmining and gum-digging are the most prominent.