CENSUS OF NEW ZEALAND,

DECEMBER, 1864.

Registrar-General’s Office,
Auckland, March 30th, 1865.

SIR—

I have the honor to forward a series of Tables exhibiting certain principal results of the Census of New Zealand taken on the night of the first of December last. These tables include the whole of the information contained in returns in anticipation of the detailed results of the Census, which the enumerators for the several Provinces were instructed to make up and transmit to me at the earliest practicable date after the household forms had been collected by the sub-enumerators. Some of the returns so transmitted, however, require explanations or amendments which involve delay, and I have not been able until now to present a compilation of them in a sufficiently complete and correct state. As the figures appear, they may, I believe, be relied on for all practical purposes. It is probable, indeed, that when the full returns from all the Provinces shall have been received, and the whole shall have undergone a final revision, some corrections may be necessary in order to statistical accuracy; but it is very unlikely that any alteration so required will be such as to affect any political, financial, or social question which may be influenced by the results of the Census.

I subjoin a list of the general contents of the tables now presented, with a few explanatory or illustrative remarks.

No. I. is a Summary, showing in a condensed form the totals of the European population in the several Provinces, with the Cultivations and Crops, and the Live Stock in the possession of such population. The Military Settlers and the Colonial Defence Force are included in these totals. These now and somewhat peculiar additions to the population of the Colony were enumerated under a special arrangement, intended to insure fullness and accuracy of information, an Officer (generally the Commanding Officer) of each regiment or corps having been appointed enumerator, and members of the regiment or corps, selected by him, as sub-enumerators. The best mode of dealing with this branch of the Census seemed to me to be the inclusion of the results with those of the Provinces in the first instance; and then the exhibition of them separately in a distinct table, as has been done in No. II., which shows the particulars relating to the Military Settlers, &c., in the several Provinces, in a form similar to that in the General Summary No. I.

No. III. shows the population of each Electoral District Returning Members to the General Assembly. In this the Military Settlers are not included, nor are the Persons returned as on board the shipping in the several Harbors. In order to make the totals given in this table agree with the totals in No. I., it would therefore be necessary (as explained in a note to the table), to add the numbers for these classes.

Nos. IV. and V. are comparative tables of Population. The former shows the numerical and centesimal increase in each Province in the three years since the Census of 1861 was taken. The latter extends the comparison to the previous Census of 1858, showing at a single view, the particulars for 1858, 1861, and 1864. In this, however, as in other tables referring to 1858, it has been necessary to include recently established Provinces with the Provinces of which they formed part up to that date, consequently Marlborough is included with Nelson, and Southland with Otago. Stewart’s Island has also been included in Southland, to which it now belongs.

Nos. VI. and VII. relate to Cultivation and Crops, showing, respectively, for each Province and for each Electoral District, the Quantity of Land Fenced, and the Number of Acres under each of the principal Crops, in the possession of Europeans in December, 1864. In No. VIII. these particulars are compared with the statistics of cultivation and crops in 1858 and 1861.

Nos. IX., X., and XI. contain information arranged in the same way, with respect to the Live Stock belonging to Europeans in the Colony.

It will be seen, on reference to the Population Tables, that in December, 1864, the European population of New Zealand, exclusive of the Military and their families, amounted to 171,031 souls, being an increase of 72,960, or 73.71 per cent. on the population of 1861—which was an increase on that shown by the previous Census (1858) of 39,643 persons, or 60.82 per cent. on the population. The Census of 1858 showed an increase as compared with 1851 of 32,517, or 121.86 per cent., the whole population of the Colony in 1851 having numbered only 26,707.

Of the population of 1864, the Northern Island—comprising the Provinces of Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, and Hawke’s Bay—contained 39,361 males and 25,902 females, making a total of 65,263 or 37.96 per cent.; and the Middle Island—comprising Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and Southland—67,118 males and 39,650 females, making a total of 106,668, or 62.04 per cent.

The numbers of the Military and their families in New Zealand at the date of the Census have, as before, been courteously supplied by the Military Authorities. They amounted to—Officers and men, 9,136; male children, 933; women, 1,024; female children, 880; total, 11,973. These numbers added to the numbers ascertained by the Census, make a general total of population amounting to 183,904 persons.

It would have been interesting at any time, but especially so just now, to have had a Census of the Aboriginal Native Population taken simultaneously with that of the European; but it is scarcely necessary to say that the attempt, which would have been attended with difficulty under the most favorable conditions, would, in existing circumstances, have been nearly or wholly impracticable. After the European Census of 1861, I prepared an estimate of the Native population, based upon the Maori Census of 1857-58, which showed the total number of Maoris in the Colony as 55,336—viz., 31,329 males, and 23,928 females, with 79 whose sex was not stated. Of these, the Northern Island was estimated to contain 53,056, leaving only 2,280 for the Middle Island. There cannot, I apprehend, be any doubt that the numbers, at least in the Northern Island, which has been the scene of war in addition to the other influences believed to be working a diminution, more or less rapid, in the Native population, if they could now be made up correctly, would be found to show a great decrease.

Returning to the European Census of 1864, it will be seen that the total quantity of Land Fenced—which in 1851 was 30,470 acres; in 1858, 235,561 acres; and in 1861, 409,473 acres—had increased in 1864 to 1,070,203 acres; and that the total quantity under crop—which in 1851 was 29,140 acres; in 1858, 111,007 acres; and in 1861, 226,509 acres—had increased in 1864 to 381,026 acres. Also, that the aggregate numbers of Live Stock of all kinds, excepting Poultry, which in 1851 were 299,115; in 1858, 1,727,997; and in 1861, 3,036,972, had increased in 1864 to 5,317,145. Taking Sheep separately, the total number in the Colony—which in 1851 was 333,043; in 1858, 1,526,324; and in 1861, 2,760,183—had increased in 1864 to 4,945,473. The proportions in which these figures apply to the several Provinces will be found in the following Tables, No. VIII. and No. XI. respectively.

I have in contemplation the speedy preparation of additional Tables designed to present other results of the late Census, which the Government will probably desire to have published before the details relating to Religious Denominations, Places of Birth, Occupations, &c., can be compiled with sufficient care. But the tables referred to can be prepared only in part until all the enumerators shall have forwarded to me their complete and final returns.

I have, &c.,

JOHN B. BENNET,
Registrar-General.

The Hon. F. A. Weld,
Colonial Secretary, Wellington.