THE GROWTH OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue VIII, 14 August 1897, Page 228

THE GROWTH OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Mr J. Holt Schooling is responsible for an article ot remarkable interest, in which the enormously rapid growth of the Queen’s realm is strikingly exemplified by means of picturesque diagrams. Mr Schooling states that: Of every 100 square miles of land in Europe our share is 3 square miles, in Asia 10, Africa 19, America 24, Australasia 60, and the world 21. * These facts are certainly remarkable. There are many great nations on the earth besides ours. There are five great Powers in Europe, to say nothing abont those nations who, from being great in the past, have become small in the present—such as Spain and Holland, whose interest is now, for the most part, historical or romantic,

rather than of practical effect in the conduct of the world’s affairs. There are in Asia, huge China, Persia, small Japan, Japan the England of the East, the United States in North America, and hosts of minor nations on this earth. We have named ten only (including the United Kingdom, and excluding Spain and Holland), and yet the British Empire takes as its share of land more than one-fourth part of all the land there is to take. An extraordinary thing to be the result, primarily, of activities that have come out of two small islands of insignificant size which many years ago formed a tiny part of the great Plain of Europe, but which have since those early days found themselves placed between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Raise the bed of the North Sea only a paltry 100

yards above its present level, and Great Britain would again form part of the continent of Bnrope. But those too yards of salt water have meant to us the existence of our vast Empire. Then there is a diagram showing the comparative sizes of the colonies belonging to the various great empires:—l. Brom the United kingdom is hungin colonies, etc., 92 6 times its own area. 2. Brom Brance is hung in colonies, etc., 12'3 times its own area. 3. Brom Germany is hungin colonies, etc., 4 9 times its own area. 4. Brom Russia is hung in colonies, etc., 3'6times its own area. 5. Brom Italy ishungin colonies, etc., 2*5 times its own area. 6. Brom Austria-Hungary is hung in colonies, etc., o'l times its own area. The United Kingdom has added to the British Empire, during these 60 years only, an area of square miles of the land of the earth equal to 31 times its own area! This means that, on the average, in every two years of the Queen’s reign the British Empire has increased to the extent of the area of another United Kingdom. Half-a-United-Kingdom added per annum is not bad work. Again, in every hour of the day or night of the Queen’s long reign more than seven square miles of land have been added to the British Empire, ».e., one square mile has been added every eight minutes or so. If we take the weight in tons of the land added to British territory during the Queen’s reign we find that its weight is about exactly equal to one and a-half times the weight of the moon !