The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1884.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4146, 5 November 1884, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1884.

At the meeting of the British Association held in August in Canada, the president of the Economic Science and Statistic Section delivered an admirable'addressdealirig with' :> the statistics of the British Empire. '''The*; total area.directly or" indirectly under the authority of Britain .amounts: to nearly' ten " millions of square miles', a truly eriorriTcius ! ' ? territory of which the mirid ban • form n©- : ' :,- conceptkui. Of .that vast'area, : only on* v fifth of it can be said to be occupied in ? sense of the word. The territory'lt'Kas bee_ !fl calculated is capable of supporting'a' pop'iii-'-' lation equal tb the'tbtalpopulatioriiof the globe at present,.;and in, the futrtre when"? cultivation has made 'further strides,, "it l 'is hard to fix any limits to its; "capabilities in £ the way of supporting; a,population. Of*> course Canada'^aiidAustraliaaie extremely thinly populated at present, but notwithstanding the thinness of the population in those two countries, that territory ' acknowledging Britain /as ; its • head is occupied by 315 .-millions of people. "The total trade of the British ■ Empire could not be exhibited statistically, - but in 1882 £241,000,000 :"of British produce ;was exported from the United Kingdom, with £65,000,000 of-foreign and colonial : produce, arid £4}.3,0'00,000 , were imported, the total' ; value :of the trade being £719,000,000..'-The ocean born trade-of India was £143*000,000,, annually,, while; .-that' of the colonies -,-and ~dependencies amounted to- 56302,000,000, an.astonishing total hv "comparison,,with their'population.'" If the aliquot. r parts. of the trade of the priri-; cipal nations .were ; computed," about .one?, fifth,'or 21' per cejit.,pf thewhole,.belonged to the United Kingdom, and 13 , per eqntt'b the colonies anddepeadencios. cent;, or orie-third of the world's;commerce' pertainedtb tho British Empire.. of sea borne commerce per inhabitant yearly was £20-dn- the United Kingdom, : £3Hri Australia, £9 in -Canada, and, £6 in the United •States.!r'i::The.iiarge,iigures'an the above extract convey nothing to,the -braihary readei-i-.becauße.it is impossible rib grasp them in thefulness-.pf their meaiiingj they are too-,vast'.to comprehend, ■I may say-i something ofrthe sriialler ones. The'first fact which strikes one is the woji- ; dfirf ul trade of the United Kingdom, which when ,wq remember its sinallqeas, only fend • ' to show .us more eriip_atic<il.ly/iha6Jevcr ! whata bee-hiveofmanufacturirig itmust be. • Tho, figures, for tho United States, on the ;' other hand, 'should once more teach'us if the lesson be.aieoessary,that protection fails to build up a' prbsperdns 'community. The States have 'no ' "bxpiprt' commerce, that is, . when : ; ;we l chooso ti remember the size of tlio territory r of which wo speak,* the rate of .wages,- and'the;_igh pressure at which'everything i» carried-on there- Canada; is only' a shade bettor,but when we look at Australasia, the whole l of which may be described, as yet in aninfant ■State", two things' strike us, the people-must be wonderfully active and energetic, and the ' land must be exceedingly rich'andifertile. ' We have never looked upon America as half such a desirable, destination for' British" efini grants as our own hospitable shores,' bntlwe are heavily handicapped ' in. the >--matter, of distance and,cost. 'The preparationnnd.ex-penditure-necessary' to deport a," family;from Euglan d to . America is : ' insignificant- compared with what if is to land the same fahrily on tliese-shores, herice' r as r f _a J .natural result, America. is the great field/for the mten'dirig emigrant. - Just as.Witb> the trade sd-itfifc with the wages, while.the a'yerage eaminga in the loudly extolled States : amourifc-tb £27 4s per head, iv Canada" to _26- ISsyi inr4he United Kingdom the average £35' ■!#, While Australia heads the poll with>£4;3Us as the average return, 'to -each _nit* of- the population. We would' likCu thafc-v/these figures could be circulated'among the'middle classes of England, that they'could"-be- disseminated far and wide, but we known riot how it can be done/the generality of people : refuse to wade through,*to quote themselves, a mass of figures, arid it is difficult-to make lono- columus of hard facts interesting- and palatable to the general England again capital returns 14 per cent, as its .earnings, but; in Australia that jumps to, 22 per cent. We make the 1 following condensed extract"as ■ spati forbids our entering further " into t-details. "The extent of railways in 'proportion^to population"was larger in the United"Kingsdom than in any.other'part, of Europe;* but much smaller, than in ;the.. colonies and ": in the Therei 'were :; s2a : *miles of railway to.-every'million of inhabitants in the United .'Kingdom,' '1,920 in Australia and: I,7.Bo,in,'Canada, but in the United* States there" were "2,106. The average earnings per mile was, however, £3,800 in the United Kingdom, £1,440 in the United States, '£1,330 in India, £1,075 m Australia, and £790 in Canada. It was a remarkable • fact that the telegraphs in Australia—2o,ooo miles—exactly equalled those in the United Kingdom, but there were 31,000,0.00 mesr sages yearly in the old country, and only 5,000,000 in the new. The public debt of the Empire amounted to 1,002 millions, of which 293-' millions belonged to India and the colonies. -The development in the British Empire of friendly societies (including provident, building, and. registered societies) : had • been wonderful. In Australia there were 880 such societies,' with 55,000 members, and' nearly a sterling of funds.. In .Canada there ,were 80,000 members, with more than £5,000,00.0 of funds, tlie average of funds, per member being £6 3, while in. Australia;/ it was £ 13.', and in the United Kingdom £9,- Respecting education, there were 5,250,000 pupils at school in'the 'United;. Kingdom, ,8.60,000 in Canada,- 611,000 in • Australia, ,< and 2,200,000 in India."