AREA AND POPULATION.
713
<The white population of New Zealand, composed, as will be seen from the above table, to nearly one-half, of natives of the United Kingdom, is scattered in small communities over the colony. The wide intervals between these settlements are occupied by the aboriginal Maories, who are well armed, skilful in the use of their rifles, and addicted to war. They mostly avail themselves of the natural fastnesses afforded by the country, and large armed bodies of them pass rapidly from place to place, subsisting where European troops cannot live. Won by the teaching of English missionaries, the natives' have almost all embraced Christianity, and a great proportion of them are able to read and write. The Maories not openly hostile to European settlers are represented as being fond of agriculture, and the Govern- ment has encouraged them in this taste, while they have been induced also to construct mills, to acquire vessels, and to attend to the breeding of cattle and horses, for which they have a great partiality.
The immigration into New Zealand in the year 18G8 amounted to 8,723 persons, while 7,863 individuals emigrated from the colony. By epitomising the net excess of immigration over emigra- tion in the provinces, taken separately, it is found that the excess was — in Otago, 1,432 ; in Wellington, 348 ; in Hawke's Bay, 22 ; in Nelson, 162; in Marlborough, 1; in Canterbury, 716; in Auck- land, 287 ; and in Southland, 171. In the province of Taranaki and in the County of Westland the balance was on the other side, the emigration ' having exceeded the immigration by 2,279 persons. Of the immigrants arriving in 1868, there came 3,022 from the United Kingdom, 5,079 from the Australian colonies, 60 from other British ports, and 562 from foreign states.
Trade and Industry.
The commerce of New Zealand increased more than twenty-fold in the sixteen years from 1852 to 1868. The imports, which were of the value of 359,444/. in 1852, amounted to 4,985,748/. in 1868 ; and the exports, valued at 145,972/. in 1852, amounted to 4,429,198/. in 1868.
The following table exhibits the value of the total imports and exports of the colony in each of the five years 1864 to 1868 : — ■
Tears
Total Imports
Total Exports
1866
1867
£
7,000,655 5,594,977 5,894,863 5,344,607 4,985,748
A
3,401,667 3,713,218 4,520,074 4,644,678 4,429,198
The quantities and value of the imports in each of the two years 1867 and 1868 were as follows : —
