COLONIAL CONJUGAL STATISTICS.
Husbands and wives (writes the Melbourne Telegraph) find their appointed place in the conjugal statistics of the Colony ■which, it will be seen, do not conclude with matrimony, like a lad.’s novel. There were 111; 182 husbands in the Colony when the |aken, and 1 111,316 wives, but the rcV state of afaips is satwfaqfdr^ as this balance of figures' would indicate. In no country, probably, are so many heads of families dwelling apsrt as ip Victoria. Np less than 11,314 homes are destitute of the husband; no less than 11,417 lack the presence of the wife. Putting widows aud widowers out of the question, in one house out of five the one parent or the other is wanting; and the home to that extent is incomplete and shorn of guiding power. We hit here upon a great social blot, and we strike at once at one of the great sources of “larrikinism.” When the living mother is absent, or when the living father is away, the offspring suffer in one direction or another; and in their after years the children are once again punished for the sins of the parent. It is to be noticed also that the number of widows is largely and sadly on the increase. The population during the ten years between the census of 1861 and 1871 advanced at the rate of 50 per cent.; but the widows and the fatherless more than doubled. There were 6,650 mourners at the one period ; there are 13,040 women bereft of husbands now. And a glance at the detailed tables shows us one fruitful qaugb of a fact that 'throws a gloom oycr’tfie subjeqf; As 1 a 'rulo, tfifi fiplplege females grovvd info fhe suburbs' of' 'cjtj.cs, Richmond, P rah ran, &c., having a large ppr= oontage of the olasg ; but while in the agri» cultural districts the widowers often exceed the widows, when we come to the goldfields the excess of the husbandless is as more than two to one, and it becomes obvious that some abnormal cause is in operation. Rotten rpnes and careless mining are silently leaving their marks qn our qensus returns, and are spanieling so’pietjy with pud misery, “ ’ ’*
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Evening Star, Issue 3180, 30 April 1873, Page 2
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368COLONIAL CONJUGAL STATISTICS. Evening Star, Issue 3180, 30 April 1873, Page 2
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