COLONIAL EXPANSION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2429, 18 February 1909, Page 6

COLONIAL EXPANSION.

FIFTEEN YEARS’ GROWTH

L RTII-RATE IN AUSTRALIA AND NEAV ZEALAND. Some interesting figures illustrative of the development during the last 15 years of the King’s oversea dominions are contained in the Statistical Abstract for the British Colonies, just issued by the Board of Trade (says the London correspondent of the “New Zealand Herald”). According to the latest- returns the total a!rea of the Empire, exclusive of the United Kingdom, is 11.211,000 square miles, and the population, which in 1891 numbered 307,483,000, had risen by 1901 to 343,748,000. Appended are the figures for the principal colonies, the last column representing the estimated population on December 31. 1907: 1891. 1907. Canada and Newfoundland ... 5,035,279 0,387,952 Commonwealth of Australia ... 3,183,237 4,221,713 Cane Colony and Natal ..: ... 2,071,137 3.071,785 New Zealand ... 026,658 941,824

No figures relating to 1891 are available for*the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. -At the end of 1907 the'population of the two was estimated at- 1,009,473. and this, added, to the figures for the Cape and Natal, o-ives a total for the four colonies of 5,341,258. Vital statistics for Australia show that since 1871 the annual average birth-rate in the six States has declined from -3S to 27 per 1000 of the population. The marriage-rate, op the ether hand, has risen from 7 to S per 1000. In New Zealand the decline in births has been even greater. AY hi join 1871 the rate was 40 per 1000, in 1907 it was 27. notwithstanding that during the intervening period the annual marriage rate had increased from 7 to 9 per 1000 of the inhabitants. _ The following table, shows the striking growth which has taken place in the public revenue of our great dependencies during the last 15 years: 1893. 1907. £ • £ India ... 54.710,483 7.1,177,500 Australia ... 23,951,209 33.058,834 Canada ... 7,860,385 13,971,473 New Zealand 4,407.964 9.154,290 Cape Colonv. 4,5T5.561 v,701.192 Natal ... "... 1,069,078 3,471.932 It has, however, to he noted that in the ease of Cape Colony and Natal, and to -a loss extent as regards India, the figures for 1907 by no means represent the high-water maik. Cape Colony’s revenue in 1903 reached a total of £11.701,150, and in the following year it was £9,913,855; while in the same period that of Natal amounted to £4,334,175 and £4,160,145. Similarly. India’s revenue in 1905 attained the record figure of £84,997,685. One of the. most remarkable examples of progress is furnished by the West African colonies and protectorates, whose total revenue has risen almost continuously from £015.374 in 1893 to £2.758.207 in 1907.