ESTATES WORH £780,000,000.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 83, 8 December 1913, Page 6

ESTATES WORH £780,000,000.

|,; "■"■'■ ';''j|jli I An ingenious nietliod of calculating the wealth of the people of'Australia was explaned by Mr Archibald (S.A.) in the Victorian House of Representatives. He said that estates changed hands every 30 years, so that 30 times the vallie of the estates of deceased persons, as sworn for probate purposes, paid each year, represented the value of the property of the people living. He added an extra £4,000,000 to make up for plate, pictures, and other valuables, on which probate was avoided. In 1907 the. value of the estates of deceased persons in the Commonwealth was £20,000,000, in 1908 £20,000,000, in 1909 £22,000,000, in 1910 £22,000,000, and in 1911 £28,000,000. Including the extra £4,000,000 each year, the average of these five years was.£26,000,000, and multiplying that result by 30, the value of the estates of living persons in the Commonwealth was shown to be £780,000,000.

Similarly, \ Mr Archibald calculated tlie belongings of people for the previous five years to be worth on the average £630,000,000. His crowningpoint was that the people of Australia were on the latest figures worth £150,000,000 in private property more than in the years from. 1902 to 1906.