Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/623

 AHEA AT«JD POPULATION

276

road districts, which are very numerous, there are town districts and river and harbour boards.

The ratepayers in the road districts of a county are qualified as electors fof the purposes of the county council, and the inembers of each road board are elected by the ratepayers of the district.

Area and Population.

There ai'e two principal islands, known as the North and Middle Islands, besides the South or Stewart Island, and small outlying islands. The group is nearly 1,000 miles long, and 200 miles aci*oss at the broadest part. Its coast line extends ovet 3,000 miles. New Zealand is situated 1,200 miles to the east of the Australian continent. It was fir'st visited by Tasman in 1642, afterwards by Captain Cook in 1769.

The area of New Zealand is estimated at 104,471 square miles. The North Island is estimated to embrace an area of 44,468 square miles, the Middle Island 58,525, while Stewart's Island has an area of 665 square miles. New Zealand was officially established as a colony in 1840. The total acreage of the colony is 66,710,320, and up to the end of March 1898, 21,908,264 acres had been alienated from the Crown. The following table gives the population of New Zealand, exclusive of aborigines, at Various dates, according to census returns : —

Years

Males

Females 65,578

Total

i Increase pel- cent. 1 per annum

1864

106,580

172,158

19

1871

1,^0.267

105,993

256,260

6-3

1878

230,998

183,414

414,412

8

1881

269,605

220,328

489,933

6

1886

312,221

266,261

578,482

3-6

1891

332,877

293,781

626,658

1-7

1896

371,415

331,945

703,360

2-3

The population of each provincial district and its area, with the popu- lation per square mile, is shown in the succeeding table as at last census (1896) :—

Provincial District

Auckland

Taranaki

Wellington

Hawke's Bay

Marlborough

Nelson.

Westland

Canterbury

Otaffo

Square Miles

25,746 3,308

11,003 4,410 4,753

10,269 4,641

14,040

25,487

Population

Persons to a square mile

153,564 31,175

121,854 34,038 12,483 35,734 14,469

135,858

163,944

5 9 11 7 2 3 3 9 6

•96 •42 •08 •72 •63 •48 •12 •68 •43

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