COMMONWEALTH STATISTICS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 February 1925, Page 5

COMMONWEALTH STATISTICS.

PERCENTAGE OF ILLITERACY. SYDNEY’S POPULATION. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT (Received Feb. 3, 10.5 a.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 3. The Commonwealth Statistician, in a statement relating to education of the people in the Commonwealth, points out that throughout the whole of Australia 6.2 in every 1000 children between the ages of 10 and 15 years cannot read. Of children of the same ages in the metropolitan areas there are 4.2 in every 1000 illiterate. In Hobart the illiterates in this group are represented by nine per 1000, and in the State of Tasmania 11.4’. In the States other than Tasmania the prevalence of illiteracy showed a relation to, density of population, which points to a large sparsely settled area as the cause. The Government Statistician has issued. a report showing that the population of Sydney and suburbs reached 1,000,000 towards the close of last year. The estimated population on December 31 was 1,000,500. The area considered covers 185 square miles. In 1862 the population was 100,000. The progress of the metropolis has been accompanied by a steady increase in the total proportion of metropolitan to total population of the State. Whereas the proportion was 27.68 per cent in 1862, • it reached 44.9 in 1924.

The output from manufacturers and works in New South Wales during the year 1923-24 was valued at £145,704,037, and production, being value added to raw materials, is estimated at £55,522,649. Wages paid totalled £29,665,465. The factories numbered 7316 and the persons employed 159,401. All figures represent a large increase as compared with the previous year.