ON OFFICIAL STATISTICS. 421 



In three of the colonies, much care was properly taken to dis- 

 tinguish the natives of every independent country, large or small, 

 living within their limits. When the census was taken, also the 

 numbers born in every British colony, even to the smallest West 

 India Island, the only remarkable exception being that natives of 

 the respective Australasian colonies outside the boundaries of the 

 three colonies referred to were not distinguished as to the colony 

 of their birth, but were grouped all together in one total so that 

 it has never been possible to ascertain with correctness the number 

 of natives of the individual colonies of our own group resident in 

 Australasia. As it is interesting to the inhabitants of each 

 colony, to know the number of their fellow colonists by birth, 

 living outside as well as within its borders, it is to be hoped that 

 all the colonies will on future occasions exercise the same precision 

 in regard to their neighbours as they have hitherto done in refer- 

 ence to natives of more distant countries. 



Under the head of ages, several of the colonies have only given 

 the numbers of the population living at and between the various 

 quinquennial and decennial periods of age, but have made no 

 attempt to show the numbers at each year of aye, the latter being 

 absolutely necessary for many actuarial computations connected 

 with life assui'ance, for testimony assurance, also for estimating 

 correctly the ages of the people between the censuses. Many 

 interesting enquiries are also rendered impossible in consequence 

 of this omission, such as the precise ages of centenarians and 

 other old people, the exact age at which very young people marry, 

 the state of education at eveiy year of childhood, &C. 



W^hilst on the subject of education, I may mention that the age 

 prescribed by law at which children are kept at school varies in 

 the diflerent colonies. In Victoria it is f I'om ten to tifteen years ; 

 in New South Wales, from six to fourteen years ; in Queensland, 

 from six to twelve years : in South Australia and New Zealand 

 from seven to thirteen years, and in Tasmania from seven to 

 fourteen years. In view of the extent to which the mind of the 

 community has been occupied with the subject of Public Instruc- 

 tion, it will perhaps be hardly believed that, from the way the 

 census returns wei-e compiled, it was possible in scarcely one of 

 the seven colonies of the group to ascertain what proportion of 

 children at the school age could read or write, or wei'e uneducated. 

 Such an omission on the part of the colonies, shows a striking 

 want of appi-eciation on their pai-t of the importance of rendering 

 the information obtained at the census, applicable to the require- 

 ments of every day life. 



In regard to the occupations of the people, it is most important 

 that a uniform system of grouping should be adopted throughout 

 the Australasian colonies, and that this system should as far as 

 possible accord with that in use in the United Kingdom. At 



