Numb. 37.

323

THE
NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
Published by Authority.

WELLINGTON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1870.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 13th July, 1870.

THE following Report by the Registrar-General, and the accompanying Tables relative to the Agricultural
Statistics of New Zealand in February, 1870, are published for general information.

W. GISBORNE.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF NEW ZEALAND,
FEBRUARY, 1870.

Registrar-General's Office, Wellington, 7th July, 1870.

SIR,—In the series of Tables which I have the honour to present herewith, will be found the detailed and
revised Results of the "Account of Land in Cultivation and of the Agricultural Produce thereof," in New
Zealand, in February, 1870, (being the second year of the Collection of the Agricultural Statistics of the
Colony under the provisions of "The Census Acts Amendment Act, 1867"). Comparative Tables are
added, showing the principal Results for 1869 as compared with 1870, both for the Provinces and for
the Electoral Districts returning Members to the General Assembly.

The Results for 1870, so far as they were likely to be required immediately for practical purposes, have
already been published, although not in so complete a form as that in which they are now presented.
When the "Account" was about to be taken, I wrote to the several Superintendent Collectors as follows:—

"As the value of these Statistics depends very much on their being made known to the public at the
earliest possible date, you will see the importance of having the work completed with the utmost speed
compatible with a due regard to accuracy." To facilitate this object, the Superintendent Collectors were
authorized to frank and receive Letters or Packets through the Post Office, and also to have the use of the
Telegraph free, on the business of the Agricultural Statistics. When the Return for any Province reached
this Office, I lost no time in transmitting it for the New Zealand Gazette, in which, as well as in the Gazette
of the Province to which it relates, the Act requires every such "Account" to be published. The actual
dates of the Numbers of the New Zealand Gazette in which the Returns for the respective Divisions of the
Colony appeared were,—Province of Taranaki, 12th of March; Province of Canterbury, 23rd of March;
County of Westland, 23rd of March; Province of Otago, 1st of April; Province of Wellington, 9th of
April; Province of Marlborough, 9th of April; Province of Southland, 23rd of April; Province of Hawke's
Bay, 4th of May; Province of Nelson (excepting the Electoral District of Westland North, the Returns for
which had not yet been obtained), 12th of May; and Province of Auckland (slightly defective, as wanting
the Return for the Sub-District of Poverty Bay), on the 17th of May.

The information which had thus been issued in detached portions was brought together, and published
as a Summary for the Colony, (with corrections which had been found necessary in some of the figures
originally supplied by Superintendent Collectors), in a Gazette, No. 30, of the 11th of last month, and
presented to both Houses of the General Assembly on the first day of the Session. As the only Return
wanting when that Summary was prepared was that for Westland North (which was not likely very