EXTRACTS. THE CENSUS OF GREAT BRITAIN IN 1851. [From the Watchman, June 18.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 586, 26 November 1851, Page 3

EXTRACTS. THE CENSUS OF GREAT BRITAIN IN 1851. [From the Watchman, June 18.]

Wl arp enabled to furnish an epitome of the grand totals obtained from tbe census of Gieat Britain, taken on the night of the 30th of March last. The lumber of enumerators employed in this work on the 3 1st March was 40,000 in England and Wales, Scotland, and the Islands m the British Spas, and on board the vessels in the poits of Great Britain; and the schedules with which the weie fui rfished called for saveial important paiticulars not required in any previous census, and otVn placing them in the position of persons engaged jii the " pursuit of knowledge under difficulties." This information, as soon as it was obtained by the rpo-istrars, and had undergone their careful revision, was passed on to the superintendent registrar, from whom it was, according to the statute, to he received at the central office by the 31st of May. It is now fourteen days, exclusive of Sundays, since all the requisite information was received at the chief office ; information sjnead over about 6,000,000 printed forms, and those forms weighing nearly 40 tons of paper, and the important contents of tbe whole in their grand resultsl ts are published throughout the country. The fact ought also to be chronicled that such was the extraordinary celerity manifested by the various officers under the Census Commission, that the approximate returns in a manner sufficient for the purposes of Government but not for general publication, were known a week ago by the Sccietary of State. The exce lence of the arrangements by which these early results have been secured will perhaps be the bettor appreciated when it is observed that the United States census of last year has but just now arrived at "the point which our Government has been enabled to reach in ten weeks. It should be noticed also that in France, where the census has been taken every five years, a year has generally elapsed befoie the public have been able to learn the results. It is interesting to observe, that the rt-sults which have been obtained of this census m ten -weeks are against fouT months in the last census ; and we believe it was above a year befoie we could learn the results of the enumeration in 183] . The expedition with which the work has been conducted would, however, be of little value if it had been secured at the expense of accuracy. From the tests which we have applied to the abstract before us, wu believe that the lesults will be found perfectly to accord with the expectations which might have been anticipated.

The decennial amount and rate of incrpase will be understood by the following table, in reference to which it Should be obseived that, owing to the early period of •the year at which the census was taken, there has been a loss of 68 days, which ought to have gone into the interval between the last and present census : —•

Had there been no disturbing causes in operation, the increase of the population would probably have proceeded in geometncal progression to an amount, from which the numbers now presented materially differ. A deficiency to this extent might, however, have been anticipated' irom the causes which have been in opeiation •during the last ten years, and which have been sufficient to account for the diminished rate of increase which is obvious in the present leturn. The causes to which we refer— emigration and the visitation of cholera and diarrhoea — would necessarily modify the law of increase in the population, so as to assimilate it to that of the increase of money at compound interest, the rate of interest being diminished every year. We have, tlierefoie, to expect that the census, if correctly taken, would give us a regular increase of the population at a gradually lessening rate; and this is the result actually exhibited by the returns which are now made. We xvish to direct particular attention to this point, as it will at once account for the somewhat startling fact that the rate of increase should have been greater between the years '11 — ''21, and '21 — '31, than during the last .ten years. It will be observed also, that in Great Britain the ■decennial per centage of increase is considerably in favour of females — a fact which.it will be remembered, is not in accordance with the law regulating thepropoiftion of males to females in a given number of births. This apparent anonuly is accounted for by the great disproportion of male to female emigrants, by the absence of a large number of men from Great Britain in the army and navy, to which some addition must be made from those males who, dunng the last ten years Jj.jve " left their country for their country's good," in p-reatcr numbers than the female convicts, and by the well-established law of the greater longevity of females. Theie is another point of comparison between the fio-urea in the retuins and a popular fact of a painful nature, which has lately engaged much public attention. We refer to the proportion of occupants in dwellinghouses, which it will be seen has increased since the j last census, the proportion in 184.1 being 7.42, and j Which has now, according to the enumerators, increased

to 7.65, shewing the piohabili y that they liave not lost sight of any of the population, and at the same time confirming the details which have recently appeared respecting the crowded state of the dwellings of the poor. It will be ohserved that Ireland is not included in that poition of the census, the results of which aiv now published. The-c is great reason to apprehend tli.U the lesults of famine, pestilence, and emigration, will present, in leference to that country, an awful deficiency between the actual amount of the population and the numbers that would have been returned had the oulinmy rate of increase been uninterrupted. Those returns we await with much interest, as well as the enumeration of our countrymen sojourning or tiavellmg in foreign countries, and the numerous British subjects in our East Indian and Colonial possessions.

Gie.it Britain f Pei sons 2,212,892 ) Tlie decen- r Person. 12.1(1 with Clvii- < Males.. 1,002,213 [ ni.il prcent -J M.ile«. . II.SM Jiel Islands I Females l/iOOfiTi) ) ageofuici is ( Fema)esl2 2' C Persons 1,01C,38t ) ( Pei^ons 12. It England < Males . 03A,:i45 J. Ditto < Males.. 12 3C { Females 1,012,043 ) ( Feinaksl2.()£ C Pel sons 215,23?-) f Persons 9..1S Scotland -| Males.. 110, -SOI I Ditto 1 Males.. o.r>7 t Fcnidles 125,080 ) {. Females 9.55 , . . .. f Pci sons 18,8(0 ■) r Penonnls.s3 Islands in the 1 M , cs>> 8 „ I 1) 1U0 ...... \ Ma1e5.. 1585 Biiluh Seas ( Fcm>|lM D)!)il | ( Fcm.ilcßls.»J f Pei sons 40G,1G1-i f Peisous 21,J3 London -< Males.. 164,900 J- Ditto ■< Males.. 20,70 ( Female) 222,0bl ) t Feniale»2l,BB