POPULATION OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1750, 29 September 1879, Page 3

POPULATION OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

[“ Sydney Morning Herald.”]

From the Eegistrar-Qeneral’s half-yearly statement it appears that the gain to the population for the six months ending last June was 18,276, making a total of 712,019. That gives an annual rate of increase equal to 5i per cent., which is larger by l-12th than the average rate during the previous decade. The annual death-rate was 15'42 per 1000—a little in excess of the average ; and the birth-rate was 18.43 per 1000. Although more boys were born than girls, the excess of births over deaths left a gain of 594 girls towards rectifying the inequality of the sexes. But the excessof arrivals over departures bysea reversed this, and left us with a larger surplus male population at the end of last June than at the beginning of the year. To give the exact numbers, we have now 81,231 more males in the colony than females. To put the ease matrimonially, this means that out of every hundred persons fifty-six are men and fsrty-four are women ; and, therefore, one-fifth of the men must either find wives abroad or go without. Our neighbors cannot help us, for they are in the same condition, with the single exception of Tasmania, where the women slightly preponderate. It is to the United Kingdom we must look to supply our deficiency, and at the time of last census there was a surplus of females over males in all the three kingdoms numbering altogether 892,088. What use was made of these facts last year by the managers of our immigration regulations ? According to official returns the total number of immigrants from the United Kingdom at the public expense was 5190, and of these 46£ per cent, were females and 53J were males, so that the public money is being spent to increase instead of reducing the disparity of the sexes. This is a grave mistake, and for many reasons —social, economical, and moral—it ought to bo remedied if possible. Speaking of this matter, in reference to the United States, Mr Hepworth Dixon says : “In the whole mass of whites the disproportion is five in the hundred ; so that one man in every twenty can never expect to have a wife of hia own and referring to New York city, he asks, “What makes the Empire City a cesspool by the side of which European ports seem almost pure ? My answer is, mainly the disparity of the sexes.” In New South Wales the excess of males is HJ per cent of the whole population, more than twice as great as that here indicated for the United States. Is it safe for our public men to ignore facts like these ? There are some other things noted in the immigration statistics worth attention. The arrivals from the United Kingdom at the public expense consisted of 33 per cent, of Roman Catholics, and the rest of various religions, which gives the former body an excess of one-seventh over their proportion at the last census. As the colony has been threatened with a large importation of Roman Catholics from abroad for the purpose of upsetting its system of common school education, this also is a matter worth taking into consideration. In regard to the nationality of immigrants, it appears that the excess of Chinese who arrived over those who departed seaward last year was 925 ; and for the six months ending last June it was 816. This latter is a larger rate than has prevailed for some years, but still far too small to justify any fears of an overwhelming Chinese invasion. On the whole, these returns show that the growth of the population is now a little more rapid than it has been of late, but it is still incommen • surate with the rate of our expenditure, and the rate at which we are selling the Crown lands. Above all it is incommensurate with the need there is for filling up the great gaps between settlements in the interior, for multiplying our industries, and for utilising the raw materials which nature hag stored up in our territories in such marvellous profusion.