CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION. 543 



and passengers was made so cheap, so easy, and so rapid, 

 that important small towns were no lono-er a necessity. 

 They still continue to exist, as do many other institutions 

 which are out of date ; but their growrh, if grow they do, is 

 ' generally extremely slow, and many are even dechning in 

 population. 



In new countries inland towns spring up and flourish until 

 railways are constructed ; but afterwards the tendency is all 

 towards the metropolis. It is not probable that such cities as 

 Ballarat and Bendigo, in Victoria, would have reached their 

 present importance if railways had been made earlier. It 

 could not under any circumstances be expected that they 

 would now maintain as large a population as they did when 

 gold-mining was at the height of its prosperity ; but there has 

 been little change in the prospects of this industry during the 

 past ten years ; and, if the towns referred to continued to 

 supply a want, there is no reason why they should not 

 increase in population at the same rate as the rest of the 

 Colony. Instead of this, whilst the population of Victoria 

 increased between 1881 and 1891 in the proportion of 

 32 per cent., the population of Ballarat increased only 

 10 per cent., and that of Bendigo less than 2 per cent. In 

 the same ten years the population of Melbourne increased by 

 as much as 74 per cent. 



Melbourne now contains 43 per cent, of the population of 

 Victoria ; Adelaide, 42 per cent, of that of South Australia. ; 

 Sydney, 34 per cent, of that of New South Wales ; and 

 Brisbane, 23 per cent, of that of Queensland. The contrast 

 between the proportion that the population of these and that 

 of the old world cities bears to the total population of the 

 countries in which they are respectively situated is very 

 marked, especially when it is remembered that the old world 

 cities, as has been already stated, have largely increased in 

 population of late years. Thus London, the most wonderful 

 city in point of size the world has ever known, only contains 

 19 per cent, of the population of England, and less than 

 15 per cent, of that of the United Kingdom ; Paris contains 

 less than 6 per cent, of the population of France ; Berlin 

 contains only 5| per cent, of the population of Prussia, and 

 only 3 per cent, of that of the whole of Germany ; Vienna 

 contains less than 5 per cent, of the population of Austria, 

 and less than 3 per cent, of that of the whole of Austria- 

 Hungary. 



Each census, as compared with the previous one, shows an 



