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
T 2
