Total 487,918 100.00 



Large as this scream appears, its equiva- 

 lent relative to our present population 

 would only represent an addition of 1132 

 immigrants yearly. The ability to absorb 

 even this number without congestion of 

 the local labor market would entirely de- 

 pend upon the class of immigrant intro- 

 duced. I agree with Mr Green in thinking 

 that unless they were mainly drawn from 

 the agricultural class, the fresh introduc- 

 tion of this number of immigrants yearly 

 to Tasmania would result in congestion of 

 the local labor market. It is a common 

 mistake, also, to imagine that a large 

 population would necessarily improve the 

 condition of the existing breadwinners of 

 Tasmania. It is too commonly overlooked 

 that the individual breadwinner ef a 

 country at the second, or agricultural 

 stage of development, enjoys a much 

 better standard of living than his brother 

 workman in a densely-populated country 

 with its fiercer struggle for existence. 

 Density of population, also involvmg 

 crowded cities and unhealthy occupations, 

 would banish, too, the high standard 

 of health which the people in 

 these thinly-populated lands now enjoy. 

 The greatness of either the aggregate 

 wealth of a country, or the greatness of 

 the aggregate population affords no infor- 

 mation as to the individual wealth or 

 material well-being of its people ; and 

 although in these young colonies of 

 Australasia the rapidity with which they 

 have increased their respective populations 

 may be fairly taken as a good index of a 

 corresponding improvement in the social 

 and material well-being of the people 

 generally, it does not follow that the 

 greatness of a country's aggregate popula- 

 tion aftords the slightest indication as to 

 the standard ol living or the material well- 



being of the individuals of which the ag- 

 gregate is composed. The best index of 

 the relative prosperity of the people of 

 different countries, no matter what the 

 aggregate number of the population may 

 be, is the individual purchasing power as 

 indicated by the average "cost of living" 

 and the " ratio of cost of food to earn- 

 ings," as in the following table, according 

 to the eminent statistician Mulhall. The 

 figures for Aust>'alasia have been deter- 

 mined by my distinguished friend, Mr 

 Coghlan. 



COST OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE IN RELATION 

 TO EARNINGS AND EFFORT AS INDICATED 

 BY THE AVERAGE DAYS EARNINGS. 



The above table Bhows that the condi- 

 tion of the colonies of Australasia com- 

 pares very favorably with most of the 

 countries for which particulars are given. 

 It also shows that while the cost of food 

 and drink is £15 15s 7d per head in Aus- 

 tralasia against £14 4s 9d in the United 

 Kingdom, the proportion of earnings re- 

 quired to pay for this food and the equiva 

 lent in days' earnings are much less ; 

 that is the purchasing power of the average 

 person in Australasia is greater. This 

 favorable position it also maintains as 

 compared witn ail countries, with the 

 exception of the United Stated; and 



