EMPIRE STATISTICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23691, 24 December 1938, Page 21

EMPIRE STATISTICS

POPULATION AND TRADE FIGURES FOR TEN YEARS FEWER IMMIGRANTS (From Our Own Correspondent) tßy Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 24. An Empire population of nearly 500,000,000 on the latest figures, revealing an 80,000,000 increase since the census of 1911, is shown in a "Statistical Abstract for the British Empire." published by the Board of Trade. Areas in which the populations have doubled in that period include the Gold Coast. 3,746,000, the Bechuanaland Protectorate. 265,000. and Hongkong, 1,006,000. , ■ , Those which have nearly doubleu include South Africa, 9,887,000, an:l British Malaya, including the Straits Settlements, 5,102,000. Only Eire, 2,944,000, the Channel Islands, 94,800, and Sarawak, 442,000, show small declines of population in the same period. Since 1911 the population of Canada has risen from 7,206,000 to 11,120,000; that of Australia • from 4,445,000 to 6,866.000, and, to the latest available census of 1931, that of India from 302,995,000 to 336,119,000. . Fewer Immigrants Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, all shove a big drop in the number of immigrants in the past ten years, but most of the Dominions showed slightly better figures for 1937 over those of 1936. The highest rates of wages were to be obtained, in 1937, in the United Kingdom, but the cost of living in th:s country was the highest, with the exception of Eire. Apart from the United Kingdom, with a public revenue of £948,700,000, Australia is the wealthiest part of the Empire, with a revenue of £191,900,000, followed by Canada, £104,900,000. and New Zealand, £36,100,000. The savings banks of nearly every part of the Empire showed that mora people are putting money on deposit. A significant conclusion from the shipping figures is that there has been a steady increase in the past 10 years in the tonnage of foreign vessels cleared in Empire ports. Total inter-impenal trade rose last year to a value of £831,000,000, but was still lower than the 1928 total of £857,000.000. The grand total of the trade of the Empire last year was £2.643.000,000, the best for eight years. Trade witi foreign countries fell 6 per cent.