THE WEAKER SEX.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2137, 30 December 1880, Page 3

THE WEAKER SEX.

A peculiar custom in Oorea is thus described by a' recent traveller ”In cities and small townships, it is considered a great offence against modesty and custom, whenever a woman is met in the public streets in the daytime, and they quit their apartments hardly over during the day. To indemnify them for this strictly kept up seclusion, the following remarkable arrangement has been made. At 9 o’clock in the evening during summer, and at an early hour in winter time, the city gateo of Saoul and other towns are closed at a given signal. As soon as this has taken place all. men are bound to leave the streets, and these are abandoned to the women tor the purpose of recreation and promenading. Any male finding himself by accident belated and behind the appointed time in the streets is sure to hurry to his house as fast as possible without looking up or regarding anything about him, and severe punishment would fall upon any person daring in the face pf the stringent prohibition to molest women in the least. Good breeding demands from any man, and this is always done, to cover his face with a fan, as soon as he encounters ladies walking during these hours, so that ho may not be recognised, and to walk over to the other side of the street so as not to disturb or terrify them.” THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD. r» Argus.’’] A well-known German statistical work entitled “ The Population of this Earth ” reached Victoria by a recent mail. Its compilers, Dr. Behm and Professor Wagner, are geographers of great eminence, and their work is generally recognised as the most authoritative on the subject to which it relates. Next year there is to be a numbering of the people in the Australasian Colonies, in Groat Britain and Ireland, in the United States of America, in Austria, in Germany, and in some other countries, and the result is anxiously looked forward te by many. Messrs Behm and Wagner’s account of the population of the world, according to the most recent data, is as follows : Europe... ... ... 315,929,000 Asia 834,707,000 Africa ... ... I ... 205,679,000 America ... ... 95,495,500 Australia and Polynesia 4,031,000 Polar Region 32,000

The World 1,455,923,500 Now if the period of nineteen months, intervening between the date of Messrs Behm and Wagner’s former and present publication, gives an increase of 16,778,200, which is at the rate of 883,063 per month, or of 29,435 a day, and if the population goes on increasing at that rate, what is the world to come to ? Supposing that rate of increase to be kept up, the population of the world would have doubled itself, or vary nearly so, before the end of the next century, and, with its present potentialities, who would undertake to say th*t that will not be the case ? Great Britain, Franco, Norway and Sweden, Denmark, Greece, and the United States of America were the only countries in the world that once held a regular and official cenana of their population until 1853, and we have therefore only a very limited data for estimating the rate of increase. The populations of the principal countries of Europe are thus given : Germany, 43,943,834; Austria, 22,176,745 ; Hungary, 15,506,715; Switzerland, 2,793,264; Belgium, 5,476 668 ; Netherlands, 3,981,887 ; Denmark, 2,070.400; Sweden, 4,531,863 ; Norway, 1,818,853 ; Great Britain, 34,517,000; France, 36,905,783; Spain, 16,625.860; Portugal, 4,745,124 ; Italy, 28,209,620; Turkey in Europe and Asia (subject to changes, 25,180,000; Russia in Europe and Asia, 87,959,000 of which Russia in Europe contains 65,864,910. Greece is set down at 1,702,356, which does not include the territory in Thessaly and Epirus, which is claimed by her. The populations of the countries in the Balkan peninsula have been affected by the Berlin Treaty, and it is very difficult, therefore, to arrive at exact figures. Calculating from the estimates of Native statisticians and the figures of the Austrian staff maps, Messrs Behm and Wagner place Eoumania at 5.376,000, Sorvia at 1,353,890, and Montenegro at 280,000,

The Turcomans of Central Asia arc estimated at 1,100,000. Other countries are given as follows : Bokhara, 2,130,000 ; Arabia, 5,000,000 ; Persia, 7,000,000 ; Afghanistan, 4,000,000 ; Beloochistan, 350,000 ; China, 434,626,500 ; Japan, 34,338,504 ; Ceylon, 2,755,557 ; India (English, French and Portuguese possessions), 241,023,868 ; the Indo-Chinese peninsula, 36,983,000 ; East India Islands, 3 1 813 000. The leading populations in Africa are: Egypt, 17.420.000 ; Oen al Soudan, 31,770,000 ; West Soudan and

Upper Guinea, 43,600,000 ; north equatorial regions, 27,000,000; south equatorial regions, 20,000.000 ; Independent South Africa, 13,286,350.

British North America has but 3,839,470 inhabitants, whilst Mexico reaches 9,485,000. Tho United States has 49,000,000; Central American States, 2,759,000; West Indies, 4,412,700. The South American States show the following figures ;—Guiana, 345,800 ; Venezuela, 1,784197 ; United States of Columbia, 3,000,000 ; Ecuador, 1,146,000 ; Peru, 3,050,000; Chili, 2,400,000 ; Argentine Republic, 3,051,706; Uruguay, 440,000; Paraguay, 293,844 ; Brazil, 11,108,591. The polar regions are largely a matter of conjecture, as they are not favorite districts for census takers. Tho only regions where a census would be practicable are Greenland, with 10,000 people, and Iceland with 72,000, but the entire region about the arotio circle ia sot down at 3,859,400.