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New Zealand's Burning — The Settlers' World in the Mid 1880s

Appendices

page 285

Appendices

1 The Interprovincial Timber Trade, 1885

The lack of coastal cargo statistics makes it very difficult to get a firm picture of interprovincial trade in any commodity. For timber however there is an unusual confluence of statistics both of production and interprovincial movement for the 1884–85 period. Figure 11.3 collates these statistics and various other relevant information to create an approximate overview of the 1885 interprovincial trade. This appendix summarises the sources of these statistics and the assumptions underlying this figure. The most valuable statistics are those of the March 1886 census for 1885 sawmill output. They have been collated with overseas export figures, population statistics and other material to create Table A. All figures for timber have been translated into tons, using the contemporary convention of 500 superficial feet to the ton.

Table A: Interprovincial Timber Trade, 1885
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Province Timber for colonial use (tons) Excess/Deficit to consumption at NZ average (tons) Migration gain/loss 1881–86 (persons) Estimated interprovincial trade balance (tons)
Auckland 134,203 +53,594 +17,958 +32,000
Taranaki 10,225 -853 +359 -800
Hawke's Bay 37,278 +22,156 +4,318 +10,000
Wellington 54,825 +7,101 +6,754 -
Marlborough 17,004 +10,164 +285 +10,000
Nelson 18,587 -1,721 +1,343 -2,000
Westland 8,499 -1,306 -442 -1,000
Canterbury 14,660 -60,184 -6,830 -32,000
Otago 61,935 -29,873 -2,524 -16,200

In Table A column (1) gives provincial production less overseas exports, and page 286 column (2) gives the excess or deficit (related to 1886 census population) if the province was consuming timber at the average rate for the colony. However, consumption will have been related to building activity, which will have borne some relationship to population migrations. Column (3) gives estimated gains/losses on migration between the 1881 and 1886 censuses (calculated using the figures for excess of births over deaths for the years 1881–85). Column (4) gives the suggested balances between interprovincial exports and imports. All provinces will have had some imports of Auckland kauri; Auckland itself, despite its massive kauri exports, was importing totara.

In Table 11.3 the firm figures for Canterbury's 1885 timber imports are from the report on the ‘East and West Coast and Nelson (Midland) Railway’ (AJHR 1886, D-1A, p. 21). The firm figure of 3,300 tons for Southland coastal exports is from Thomas Kirk's 1886 report, but some of this may well have been for Dunedin, and therefore not interprovincial exports. The ?40,000 tons for Auckland's interprovincial kauri exports makes allowance for the fact that Auckland was experiencing a building boom at the time of the 1886 census. With less than a quarter of the colony's population, Auckland had 463 of the 834 houses being built in March 1886 (1886 Census Report, p. 12). Table A allows for an excess of timber use above the figure derived from the colonial average of 13,594 tons of kauri and 8,000 tons of imported totara. We have made what is probably an over-generous allowance for Auckland consumption because of our use of kauri timber exports in the coastal shipping argument of Chapter 14. The remaining interprovincial trade figures in Figure 11.3 and Table A are estimates based on the information in Kirk's report, collated with railway goods traffic, population growth and 1886 census ‘houses building’ figures.

2 Stratford Fire Losses

(1) Rural Losses, £30+
Name & Road House Shed(s) Fencing Log Fence Seed Grass Pasture Garden Orchard Crop Poultry Cows Diary &c Pig(s) Sty Cattle Horse Sheep Total Value
Belcher, Jas. Cardiff LF SG,P £50
Belcher, Joseph Waingongoro LA SG G H £40page 287
Brannigan, Jno Pembroke S,LF P P P £43
Burrell, Chas. Cardiff F SG,P £57
Gilshnan, Edwd Waingongoro S,F SG,P £33
Hall, Mary Pembroke F P S £45
Harre, Wm Pembroke S SG,P,Hay S C £60
Ireland, Wm Pembroke F,LF P C £36
Johnson, Wm Cardiff P £80
Jones, Joseph Pembroke S,F,LF P C,S harness £110
Kennedy, Thos Brookes F P C £77
Kenny, Mrs Pembroke H G £30
Keppel [Cardiff area] F,LF SG,P £96
Kirkpatrick,Jno Pembroke S,F C D C £45
Lehmann, A. Brookes H,LF SG C,D P £70+
McMillan Brookes Whare SG,P £40
Malone, Bros Opunake F P O,C C £130
Manson [Cardiff area] LF SG,P G £43
Marchant, G.A. Cardiff F P C £110+
Montgomerie, J. Monmouth SG,P C D £60
Moore, J. &. W. Pembroke H,F P C C,D P £240
Moore, Mat. Pembroke H P D S C £180
Penn Bros [Cardiff area] Whare F,LF P £49page 288
Pioch, Carl Opunake LF SG £40
Ralfe,Pilcher Waingongoro S,F SG,P G £70+
Richardson,J. Opunake SG,P G,O £54
Saunders,Clem. Waingongoro H,S SG,P G £93
Saville, Steph. [Cardiff area] Whare ***
Stanford, Richd Climie H,S,F SG,P C S £100
Walters, W. Waingongoro S,F SG,P C £96
Watkin, John Waingongoro S,F SG,P G £104+
Weir S,F P, Hay £35
Woodruffe, L. Pembroke H P D P H £130
Summary, F-6 SG-4 G-1 C-1 S-1 C-1 £196
losses under £30 (16 settlers) LF-3 P-5 C-4
(2) Township Losses
Name Occupation, Family &c House Shed(s) Fencing Log Fence Seed Grass Pasture Garden Orchard Crop Poultry Cows Dairy &c Pig(s) Sty &c Cattle Horse Sheep Total Value
Baird S,F C P,S 6 hives bees £15
Beavans (single) [Box of clothes]
Bicknell & 3 companions (cutting grass seed) [Their swags]
Boorman Platelayer, (married) H D £80page 289
Capper, Geo., Rd Contractor H,S C £60
Collins, Murty Labourer, (bachelor) F [clothes, bedding] Hay C £60
Cooley S,F SG,P C £70
Curtis Bros Storekeepers S £100
Hassell (wife, 3 chn) F P £5
Hayes S fowl-house S £15
Howell (labourer) [swag, saddle & bridle] H (borrowed) £13
Hunter (wife, 2 chn) H,F G £85
Jenkinson F, [house contents] saddle, bridle £20
McDevitt [house contents] £35
Mehaffy (hotelkeeper) S,F SG £180
Moloney H £30
Northcott H,F £100
Pitt (wife, 4 chn) H C
Sharrock (wife & ch) whare D £40
Smith, R. H,S P £70
Stanley, Robt (wife, 4 chn) H,S,F G £250
Taylor, F. H hay £84
Weir S,F P, hay £35

3 Ton Mileage, Minor Railway Sections, Year to 31 March 1886

On four of the six minor sections the calculation is simple as all goods were carried between the two terminuses. The Nelson and Whangarei sections involve more complicated calculations.

Nelson Section. Inspection of outward and inward figures shows that almost all goods received by the five country stations had come from Nelson page 290 station, and almost all goods dispatched had been consigned to Nelson station. The main exception to this generalisation is that 17.8 per cent of traffic was in or out of ‘Port and Wharf’, which involved a journey of about .75 miles beyond Nelson station. All traffic from country stations was first calculated as if it was solely between country and Nelson station. Then to this total was added the ‘Port and Wharf’ traffic, which was calculated for the .75-mile Nelson/Port journey.

Whangarei Section. Inspection of the statistics for this 7-mile section showed that there was no easy way of establishing the flow of traffic between its three stations—Kamo (with its coal mines), Whangarei, and Wharf. However it was noted that the mix of commodities was very similar to that on the 8-mile Kawakawa section; both carrying mainly ‘Minerals’ (i.e. coal) (Kawakawa 93.60%, Whangarei 89.49%) and ‘Merchandise’ (Kawakawa 3.57%, Whangarei 9.97%). On the Kawakawa section each ton-mile of goods traffic brought in 4.4385 pence in revenue. Applying the same earning rate to the Whangarei goods revenue of £3,826 13s 7d gives a ton-mileage figure of 206,917. These various calculations give the following results:

Section Ton-mileage
Kawakawa 252,080
Whangarei 206,917
Nelson 195,236
Picton 245,034
Greymouth 1,085,952
Westport 1,961,229
TOTAL 3,946,448