The Feilding Star. Published Daily. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1894.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 231, 5 February 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Published Daily. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1894.

STATISTICS. - --♦• The Australasian statistical tables have been published, in which is shown the progress the colonies have made since the year 1830. For general information we publish a few of the principal deductions made from the figures. We find that while the population of the group has increased during the decade at the annual rate of 3-1 9 per cent, the revenue has improved 3 - l0 per cent, and the national debt, which is set down roundly at two hundred millions, has been added to at the rate of 7-56 per cent. The total revenue of the colonies for 1892 is set down at £20,944,000, and the expenditure at £21,857,000, leaving a deficiency for the group of £913,722. Of the whole. New Zealand is the only colony which shows a surplus, the largest deficit being that of Victoria, which is £753,000 ; but on a basis of population that of Tasmania, which amounts to 17s 3d per head, is greater than that of Victoria, which averages 13s, the mean for the seven colonies being 4s Bd. The amount raised by taxation in the group was £\ 1,923,000, or an average of £3 0s 8d per head of the population ; Western Australia, £5 7s lOd ; and New Zealand, £3 15s Id, the only two colonies which are above the average, while South Australia, £2 8s Id, is the lowest, the figures for Tasmania being £2 17s 4d. Of the public expenditure 48 per cent, is the average amount spent by the group on public works and services, such as railways, post and telegraph services, mines, roads, bridges, etc., New South Wales being the highest with 59 per cent., and Neve Zealand the lowest with 33 per cent., Tasmania coming second lowest with 37 percent. On general administration the average amount spent in the 7 colonies is 5 -2 1 per cent, of the total expenditure, but Western Australia trebles this with 15 90 per cent , and Tasmania expends within a fraction of 9 per cent, in this direction ; but in the amount apportioned for hospitals and charitable institutions Tasmania stands far above the rest, the general average being 3 per cent., while Tasmania devotes twice that amount to charities. In terest on the public debt swallows up 25 per cent, of the total expenditure of the colonies, but New Zealand has to devote nearly 40 per cent, of her money to that purpose, Queensland 34 per cent., and Tasmania and Western Australia 33 per cent. The annual sum payable in the way of interest by all the colonies is £7, 867,000 — a heavy drain on the industry of lees than four millions of people.