68 2 AUSTRALIA 



compared with 48.1 in Russia, 25.6 in England and Wales and 19.6 in France). But 

 with a somewhat low birth rate (for a new country) Australia has a very low death rate, 

 the lowest in the world except for New Zealand. The Australian death rate of 10.4 

 compares with 14.5 for England and Wales, 30.0 for Russia and 19.3 for France. 

 . In regard to immigration, Australian public opinion has undergone a marked 

 change within the last few years, a change due in the main to a fuller appreciation of 

 the danger of leaving the lonely outpost of the Empire in the South Pacific so bare of 

 population. There was for many years a desire on the part of the exceedingly pros- 

 perous working people of Australia to keep out immigrants as much as possible, lest 

 a rush of population should cause a reduction in the wage rate or a hardening of the 

 conditions of life. That desire survives in some quarters, and is still a force to be 

 reckoned with in a country where the Labour voters have the controlling power in 

 politics. But it is' being recognised, by Labour leaders as well as by others, that a 

 great access of population is necessary to the safety of the country and need not affect 

 the general prosperity of a continent which has a population of under 5,000,0x30, and 

 which has room, at a low estimate, for 100,000,000 people. In the beginning of Aus- 

 tralian colonisation state-aided immigration brought a great influx of people to Aus- 

 tralia who otherwise would never have been able to afford the expenses of the long 

 journey from Europe. Since 1906 the policy of state-aided immigration has been 

 re-established in Australia by several of the States. 



The effects of a better natural increase and a better increase from immigration 

 are shown in the following figures since 1901. 



Year. Natural increase. Migration. Total gain. 



1901-1905 284,431 dec. 16,793 ' 267,638 



1906-1910 334,828 inc. 57,278 386,106 



On April 3, 1911 the decennial census was taken in Australia, and the population 

 ascertained to be 4,455,005, showing a rate of increase for the Federal decennium of 

 18.05% as against a rate of increase of 18.88 for the previous decennium. But whilst 

 the annual rate of increase from 1901-1906 was only 1.39% the annual rate of increase 

 1906-1911 was 2.03. The year 1911 showed a total increase of 143,624, to which 

 natural increase contributed 74,324 and immigration 69,300, exceeding in one year 

 by over 50% the total immigration gains of the previous ten years. 



It is clear that Australia has " turned the corner " in regard to immigration. For 

 1912 it was officially computed that the total immigration would be 100.000 persons 

 from the United Kingdom alone; as emigration from the Commonwealth has almost 

 ceased, this will represent a clear gain. The difficulty experienced in 1912 was not 

 in persuading people in Great Britain that there were better chances of prosperity 

 in Australia, nor in overcoming any Australian objection to new-comers, but in securing 

 accommodation on ships to take British emigrants to Australia. 



Social Conditions. The Australian people are almost wholly British in character; a full 96 % 

 of the total are of British origin, 2 % come from foreign European countries and 2 % from 

 foreign non-European countries. The standard of average education is high and illiteracy 

 almost unknown. The wage rate is generally high and has shown lately a marked tendency 

 to increase. Thus the average wage of females in the clothing trade (taking the lowest- 

 paid class of labour) in Victoria was los lod per week in 1897, but in 1910 the average wage 

 was 2 is 9d per week. From a West Australian Labour return endorsed by the Trade Union 

 officials the following current average rates of wages in that state are taken: bakers 3 per 

 week, blacksmiths xos to I2s 6d a day, bricklayers I2s to 145 a day, carpenters los 6d to 

 I2s a day, domestic servants 8s to 255 per week, engine drivers 2.8.0 to 3.7.6 per week, 

 navvies 8s to 8s 6d per day, shoemakers 2.14.0 to 3 a week, waitresses from I2s6d to 253 

 per week. These figures are fairly representative of Australia. 



The cost of living in Australia is affected favourably on the one hand by the low price of 

 food items which are local products, unfavourably on the other hand by the high wage rate 

 ruling in the building trade and the local manufacturing industries. On the whole, it com- 

 pares well with the cost in most civilised countries. In 1911 the statistician to the Com- 

 monwealth Government, Mr. G. H. Knibbs, instituted an inquiry into the cost of living, 

 from which some valuable facts were gleaned. Taking four sets of family budgets, (a) of 

 families with 200 a year and over, divided into families of four members and under four 



