New Zealand Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4201, 7 September 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1874.

A person may very reasonably be excused should he smile at the way in which some • things are managed in the Colony of Victoria. Very recently, the Chief Secretary raised a veritable tempest in a teapot because the Governor of this Colony drew the attention of Sir George Bowen to an illegal proclamation that his Ministers had placed before him for signature. This was not very creditable to a Colony the people of which arc never tired of claiming that it is, and must bo, the premier one in the Australian group. An official document that wo recently received, is still less so. It contains the analysis by the Government statist of the Census that was taken in 1871; and ho explains at the conclusion that tho bulk of his report was written during 1873, but “owing to tho pressure of work on tho Government Printing Office, and exhaustion of the funds available for printing tho census returns, ita publication had not taken place at an earlier date.” This, as ho

meekly remarked, was to be regretted. What the Victorians may think of the publication of a Census report four years after it was taken, we are not able to say; but we feel certain that if such an utterly unwarrantable delay occurred in a Government office in New Zealand, some one would be heard complaining that an alteration was required. If ever a report did appear as ‘ 1 one born out of due time,” it is the one we have before us. And, now it has appeared, it is unsatisfactory in several important respects. The census prior to the one of 1871 was taken in 1861, and during the ten years the population had increased from 540,322 to 731,528, or 35 per cent. Taking the fact into consideration that ten years in the history of a young country forms a very considerable, period, the increase does not seem to be a very striking one. Doubtless, as it is shown, there was a very considerable social improvement effected, the size and capacity of the houses being very different, but the people had not increased in tho proportion we should expect in a flourishing young Colony containing fifty-six million acres of land. When analysed, this feature in tho return becomes very much more unsatisfactory. Tho male population had increased by 75,000, but they were not of the age at which persons are usually active and wealth producing members of the community. Indeed, of those there was a startling decline. The males between twenty and thirty-five years of age had actually decreased by nearly 49,000. Let the fact be accounted for bow it may, and probably it would be by there having been a very disproportionate number of persons of tho age alluded in the Colony in 1801,' the conclusion is unavoidable that Victoria is not in such a healthy condition as regards tho ablebodied portion of the community as it was ten years ago. And this was the case, notwithstanding that there had been a largo amount of immigration of young men during the period alluded to. This was proved-by a comparative statement of the number of young men, aged between 10 and 25 years, in 1861, who would, after deducting a certain per-ceutago for deaths, befoundinlß7l. This computation showed that about 24,000 must have arrived. But still tho fact is a very unsatisfactory, one, and the more so when it is followed to its just conclusion. What may be called the supporting period of life is between the ages of 15 and 65. As compared with either New South Wales or South Australia, Victoria showed up favorably. But it will not bear comparison with Queensland, which Colony, as it is well known, has been largely augmenting its population by means of immigration. The calculation in England has been that the population, under 10 years of age and over 70, is sustained by the exertions of the people between 20 and 60 years of ago, whilst, as a rule, those between 10 and 20, and between 60 and 70, may be held to maintain themselves although not contributing to the maintenance of others. By a calculation based upon this supposition it was found that in England when the census of 1861 was taken, the persons at the supporting -period of life were charged with the sustenance of a class amounting to 59 per cent of their own numbers. In Victoria, in 1861, the aged and the young amounted te 50 per cent. ; and in 1871, to 66 per cent. ; thus showing that the sustaining portion was weighted with a proportionately larger number of dependents than the same class in England. Again, in England the males between 20 and 40 years of age, were as 310 per 1000 of the population, whilst in Victoria they are but 291. The females in Victoria between 20 and 40 years of age are 298 per 1000 as compared with 307 per 1000 in England. These statistics are not in favor of tho premier Colony. It must take a lesson from the New Zealand book if it intends to flourish. Other statistics in the census return are rather curious than valuable. For instance, in 1861 three boys under the age of 15 were returned as husbands, seven girls of the same ago were returned as wives, and one as a widow. In 1871 no boys under this age were returned as husbands or widowers, and no girls as widows, but three girls aged between 14 and 15 appeared as wives. In 1861 there were 69 husbands aged between 15 and 20 years, and in 1871 there were 63. In the former year there were 2077 wives of that age, and in 1871 there were 1810. The number of females engaged as domestic servants rose from 18,796 to 22,705, and those employed in shops, factories, and saloons from 5494 to 14,371. The number of men engaged in gold-mining fell from 81,747 to 52,447, in pastoral pursuits from 9080 to 6883. On the other hand the artisans and mechanics increased from 33,089 to 40,807, and tho agriculturists from 34,738 to 60,789. Laborers increased from 10,221 to 18,220. During tho year 1857 there were 179,983 acres of land under cultivation, and in 1871 there were 804,508 acres—about half what there are iu New Zealand. Again, tho live stock is. estimated at 11,463,728, against 12,407,156 in this Colony. Iho above figures, although they cannot be considered as describing the progress of tho Colony of Victoria iu the most favorable light, give a tolerably clear idea of what this has been.