"That the shipping frequenting the ports of the Province of Auckland exceeds the aggregate amount of the shipping of the other five provinces into which New Zealand is divided; and, without taking into consideration the shipping resorting to the Bay of Islands, Mongonui, Hokianga, and the other harbours of the northern province, upwards of 740 vessels, foreign and coastwise, entered the single port of Auckland in the course of the past year. "That of the shipping belonging to the various ports of New Zealand, upwards of 100 vessels are registered as belonging to the port of Auckland alone, besides an equal number of licensed smaller vessels under fifteen tons. "That exports of the value of upwards of £78,000 were shipped from the port of Auckland alone during the last year ended January, 1852. "That the revenue arising within this province is nearly equal to the revenue collected within the whole of the provinces of Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury and Otago; that of Auckland for the year ending June 30, 1852, amounting to £35,318, and of the five other provinces to £37,915. "That, without reckoning the very extensive native and other cultivations in various parts of the province, there are, within fifteen miles of Auckland, upwards of 20,000 acres of land, substantially fenced, in high cultivation. "That, in addition to the various other valuable resources of the province, gold in its natural state of deposit has recently been discovered over an extensive district within forty miles of the capital, on and near the shores of a large, safe and commodious harbour,[24] and in other districts in an opposite direction, even much nearer to the town. "That the large native population of the province are rapidly increasing in wealth, and advancing in the arts and usages of civilised life; that they are producers of the greater part of the wheat grown in the province; the owners of a large number of mills, worked by water power, and of numerous small vessels engaged in the coasting trade, navigated by themselves, and employed in carrying native produce. "That, in short, in shipping, commerce, agriculture, revenue, population and wealth, the single Government Province of Auckland nearly equals in all respects, and surpasses in most, the aggregate of the numerous settlements planted in New Zealand by the New Zealand Company and the Canterbury Association, both of which bodies have now altogether ceased their colonising operations, if not wholly ceased to exist."