Interesting Statements.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3908, 8 July 1881, Page 2

Interesting Statements.

At the conclusion of the Statement on Wednesday night, the Colonial Treasurer said: —It may be desirable to glance briefly at the progress of the colony since 1870, and.to comparp it with that of our great neighbours in these seas. The population of 1870 was 248,400; it is now 489,700 —that is, it has almost doubled in ten years; and what, Sir, neighbours, Victoria and New South have our two powerful and attractive Wales, done during the same period ? In 1870 the population of Victoria was 726,599; of Now South Wales, 502,861. It is now 959,502 and 750,000 respectively, thus showing an increase in Victorian population of 18 per cent., and in that of New South Wales of 40 per cent., while in New Zealand the increase has been 97 per cent. Then, sir, let us look at ihe value of our imports and exports in 1870: they were respejtively, £4,639,005 and £4,922,726; last jea'r, that is for the year 1880, there were — imports, £6,162,011; exports, £6,352,691, showing an increase in imports of £1,552,996, and in exports of £1,429,936 —a not unsatisfactory result," when the I universal commercial depression of 1880 is remembered; and last, let me compare the nett revenue of 1870-71, exclusive of land sales and the revenue appropriated to local bodies with that of 1880-81. In the former year it was £1,057,201; in the latter £3,123,960, a difference, sir, which is ample to cover all the additional interest we have to pay and with a good margin to spare to provide for the increased cost of Government. It may, how* ever, be said this increased income does not arise from natural growth, but from the far heavier taxation under which the country now labours than it did in 1870, but is this so? Are we in truth more heavily taxed than we were in 1870? I venture to think we are not taxed more than in 1870. The taxation per head then was £3 4s 6d, and now it is £3 11s 9d, but education is now paid for by the State —an additional change since 1870. If, therefore, the rate per head of the cost of education, 9s 9d, is deducted from the taxation of 1880-81, we find that it is less now by 2s 6d than it was in 1870.