TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 813 



Section F.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 



President of the Section — Sir R. Temple, Bart., G.C.S.I., CLE.. D.C.L., 



LL.D., F.R.G.S. 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 28. 

 The President delivered the following Address :— 



The General Statistics of the British Empire. 



The subject chosen for this address is that of the General Statistics of the 

 British Empire. It will, I hope, be deemed appropriate for the meeting which is 

 beld in one of the fairest colonies which this empire contains. Though statistics 

 are fallible, yet the collation and presentation of them must be regarded as 

 essential to political and economic knowledge. Indeed they are, figuratively, the 

 backbone of information, and without them our knowledge would be invertebrate. 

 Owing to the variety of sources from which the facts have to be drawn for an 

 empire that is spread over the world, and owing to the magnitude of the figures 

 which have to be produced, it will frequently be necessary to state the totals 

 approximately and in round numbers. Again, owing to the largeness of the 

 subject and the limitation of space, it will be impossible to do more than state the 

 principal facts in the form of an abstract. 



Our statistics then will be grouped under the following headings : — 



I. The area consisting of widely extended regions. 

 II. The inhabitants of these many lands. 



III. The works of man as they are displayed in this vast theatre of action. 



First, then, the area of the British Empire may be set down at 8,650,000, or 

 more than 8A millions, of square miles. This area includes the countries which are 

 directly recognised as the component parts of the empire in Europe, in the East 

 and West Indies, in Australia, in North America, in South Africa, and the 

 possessions scattered among nearly all the regions in the world. Out of this total 

 there are only 120,000 square miles in the United Kingdom. Then there are 

 U million of square miles in India, and the remainder, or 7 millions, belong to 

 the Colonies, and to the scattered possessions. 



But there are other regions which, though not belonging to the empire, have 

 yet fallen, or are falling under its political control more or less, such as Egypt, 

 some districts in Southern Arabia, a part of Borneo, Zululand, the Transvaal, 

 Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and a part of New Guinea. The area of these 

 additional regions may be set down approximatively at 1,103,000, or about one 

 million of square miles, and this figure is probably somewhat below the reality. 

 Thus the total area, directly or indirectly under the authority of the British 

 Crown, may be taken at nearly 10 millions of square miles, or about one-fifth 

 of the 50 millions of square miles composing the habitable globe. 



The dimensions of this imperial area have been ascertained by professional 

 surveys ; of which the progress has kept pace with the expansion of the empire. 

 Out of the grand total not less than 2£ millions of square miles have been 

 topographically surveyed, and of this nearly all has been surveyed minutely field 

 by field. This cadastral survey, presenting the details of every field for a vast 

 area, is to be reckoned among the largest operations ever known in the annals ot 



