AUSTRALASIAN STATISTICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1742, 17 January 1888, Page 2

AUSTRALASIAN STATISTICS.

MrH.H. Hay tor, Government Statist of Victor! h, has issued a brief snmmary of the statistics of Australasia for 1886. he states that the figures are compiled from 'official returns," and though hill; information is rather moie than a yeai old, it is still interesting. The total population at thafc date is set down at 3,426,562, the colooies of Victoria and New South Wa'ea being each slightly above a million. For long there has been a hard^ce between these two colonies as to which of them should first contain a million inhabitants. The boast of being , the most populous colony m the group has ' now forever passed away from Victoria ; for while New South Wales has a vast extent of country to fill up, the area of Victoria is comparatively restricted* New/ ■ Zealand, some sis or seven years heaoe, '• : will doubtless be the next m the group which will, have a million or upward! settled wthio her borders. The disproportion- at - » h» i«wi. otill HPonsiderablej^ for at the close of 1886 it has been | ascertained that tbere were 118 81 mates to every 100 females m the noun. The total Hrths m the group m 1886 were 116,259, and the deaths 48 265. The exoass of births over deaths varies greatly m etch of the colonies. New Zealand being at the top of the tree In this respect, with 13,164 excess of births over deaths m that year, against Viotorla 15,872 from nearly twice the total of population. The total length of railways open at that date waa 8881 miles, with 1992 miles m course of construction. The length of eleotrio telegraph In opera* tion was 38,688 miles, with 70,311 miles of wire m nse for telegraph and about 5000 miles for telephone purposes. The total area under tillage was 8,307,437 , acres, equal to 2*42 sores per bead of population. Wheat and hay were tbs two orops to whloh the largest areas of land were devoted, being 3,652,045 •ores and 1 ,147,254 acres respectively. An are* of 22,906 sores wan devoted to vineyard purposes. The returns of stock assumed large figures. Horses numbered 1,372.756; oattle, 8,264,778; sheep, 86,352,020; and pigs, 1,143 966,— making a grand total of farm stock of 97,133.620. The wool production m 1886 was 398,54l > 8261 b, of a total value of £16,218,846, equal to an average of £4 16s 4d pet head of the population.