242 ON THE AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF N. S. W., 



doubts may be thrown upon the perfect accuracy of our returns 

 of agriculture. All that I can say in answer to this is, that they 

 have been complied with the greatest care, and that every 

 possible precaution has been taken to ensure accuracy in their 

 collection. To say that errors may be possible is only to say 

 that all human efforts are fallible ; but there are no more 

 reasonable grounds for rejecting the conclusions at which we 

 have arrived in this matter than for rejecting the results of any 

 other inquiry into the social condition of the people, or into the 

 comparative progress of the colony in any other branch of 

 industry. 



Seeing the great importance of the subject, it would be 

 well that means were taken to render the enquiry into our 

 agricultural resources less open to question, and to publish 

 the information obtained in more minute detail and with 

 greater promptitude. 



I must, however, take leave to deprecate the idea that the 

 duty of collecting the returns is performed in a perfunctory 

 manner. It is true with regard to the boundaries of districts, 

 that, taking one year with the other, uniformity has not in all 

 cases been observed ; but in the aggregate it is only proper to 

 say that the most careful scrutiny, from year to year, has disclosed 

 no seriously appreciable error. 



(YEARS 1859 TO 1863, INCLUSIVE.) 



TABLE shewing 1st, the Imports of Wheat and Flour, the 



Estimated Value, and the Quantity and Rate per head of 



the Population. 

 2nd, the Colonial Produce of Wheat in bushels, the Average 



Price per Bushel, and the Number of Bushels, and Rate per 



head of Population. 

 3rd, the Export of Wheat and Flour, the Estimated Value, 



and the Quantity and Rate per head of Population. 



