DISTURBANCE OF POPULATIO?^ ESTIMATES. 539 



and are consequently, as a rule, omitted from the records 

 of emigration : indeed, tli3 oftener they repeat the process 

 of journeying- from colony to colony the less necessity they 

 seem to find for notifying their intention of taking a passage. 

 The effect of this will be understood by the following 

 illustration : — 



A Melbourne man, having business in New South Wales, 

 gets on board a steamer about to start for Sydney ; and, not 

 having taken his passage beforehand, is not included in the 

 passenger list furnished to the Melbourne authorities, and is 

 consequently still considered to form a unit of the Victorian 

 population. His name is taken down between Melbourne 

 and Sydney, is duly entered in the list furnished at that port, 

 and he is set down as an addition to the population of New 

 South Wales. His business in Sydney having been com- 

 pleted after a stay which may be long or short, as the case 

 may be, he goes on board a steamer for Melbourne, again 

 without taking his passage : he is therefore not included in 

 the passenger list, and is still considered to be in New South 

 Wales ; but, being entered in the inward list furnished on 

 the vessel's arrival at Melbourne, he is added to the Victorian 

 record, and contributes one to the next quarterly estimate 

 of population made and i)ublished. Thus, every time he 

 makes the round trip by sea lie adds a fictitious unit to the 

 estimate of the population of each of the two colonies between 

 which he travels, or two such units to the estimate of the 

 population of the whole of Australia. 



It will be observed that the errors thus arising do not 

 cancel one another, as errors sometimes do, but are always in 

 the direction of causing the departures to appear fewer, and, 

 consequently, the inhabitants of the colony to appear more 

 numerous than they really are. 



As more men than women travel by sea between the 

 colonies, and as, moreover, provision for comfort when 

 travelling is more often attended to in the case of the latter 

 than the former, a larger proportion of the passages of 

 women than of men are generally taken beforehand ; and 

 the lists of females are the more complete in consequence, 

 with the result that the disturbance to the population estimates 

 is invariably less in the case of the female than in that of the 

 male sex ; and thus it was found on the last census day that, 

 whilst the apparent increase of the male population of the 

 four colonies under notice was greater by 173,124 than its 

 actual increase, the apparent increase of the female population 



