Statistics of the Colony of new Zealand

To September 30, 1880.

Compiled from the Official Blue Books kindly furnished by the Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

A general census of the population, &c., of New Zealand will be taken during the present (1881) year. The following general summary, collated from the last census papers of March 3,1878, will be found useful for comparison, as the results of the fresh enumeration are published:—Population: males, 240,627; females, 191,892: total, 432,519. Able to I read and write, 282,975; Maoris, 42,819. Births registered in 1878, 17,770; deaths, 4,645; marriages, 3,377; excess of immigration over emigration, 10,502; inhabited houses, 79,657; waste lands sold in 1878, 692,552 acres; cash realised, £1,307,267; free grants, 54,861 acres; land in cultivation, 3,523,277 acres; horses, 137,768; cattle, 578,430; sheep, 13,069,338; Pigs, 207,337; letters received and despatched, 15,524,761; newspapers received and despatched, 9,410,366; postal revenue, £158,998; number of money orders issued, 101,017; amount of money orders issued, £368,255. Number of vessels inwards, 926: tonnage, 456,490; number of vessels outwards, 886: tonnage, 428,493. Gold: The produce of New Zealand, exported, 310,486ozs.; value, £1,240,079. Wool: The produce of New Zealand, exported, 50,270,256lbs.; value, £3,292,807. Flax(phormium), 622 tons; value, £10,666. Gum (kauri), 3,445 tons; value, £132,975 Wheat, Provisions, Tallow, Timber, &c., value, £1,103,981. Exports: The produce of New Zealand, total value, £5,780,508. Imports: total value, £8,755,663. Revenue, ordinary, £2.658,708; territorial, £1,509,181; total revenue for the year 1878, £4,167,889. Electric Telegraph: 3,434 miles of line; 1,260,324 messages of cash, and cash value, £92,433. Railway: 1,089 miles opened, and 142 under construction. Savings Bank depositors, 39,926; balance to credit on December 31. 1878, £1,043,204. Friendly Societies: 88, with average members, 8,828. Convictions in Superior Courts after commitment, 292.

The census tables of 1878 give population—North Island, 158,208; Middle Island, 255,757; Stewart's Island, 225; Chatham Islands, 196. page 96 number of insignificant stations in the Southern settlements the cost of maintenance very considerably exceeds the revenue derived from these places.

The total length of line is now 3,638 miles and of wire 9,333 miles. The Commissioner in the report congratulates the world that Wellington stands first as having issued the largest number of messages, then Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch. The Honourable Commissioner should have also mentioned that during the period included in the report, two Sessions of the New Zealand Parliament were held at Wellington at which over £50,000 were spent in honorariums and contingencies, and that out of the newspaper press of New Zealand twenty of these newspapers received nearly £16,000 in 1879. This accounts for the extra number of telegraph messages from Wellington.