TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 221 



ing to the principal religious denominations in the years 1851 and 1857 respectively, 

 in Victoria : — 



1851. 

 Persons. Churches. 



Church of England . . . 37,433 8 



Presbyterians 11,628 8 



Wesleyan Methodists . . 4,988 5 



Other Protestants . . . 4,313 2 



Roman Catholics . . . 18,014 5 



Jews 363 1 



Mahomedans 201 



Residue 424 



In the head " other Protestants," are included 10,858 Independents, 6484 Bap- 

 tists, 6574 Lutherans, and 1480 Unitarians, besides 2125 belonging to minor sects. 



The following Table exhibits the number of post-offices, the number of letters 

 and newspapers which passed through the General Post-office, the revenue and 

 expenditure of the department for seven years, from 1851 to 1857 inclusive : — 



In the year 1857 the number of letters delivered inland was 2,415,933, and 

 despatched to other countries 1,484,048 ; the newspapers delivered inland were 

 1,333,439, and despatched to other countries 1,648,531. 



The gold exported since 1851 has been 19,451,964 oz., of which the following 

 are the details :— In 1851, 145,146 oz. ; 1852, 1,974,975 oz. ; 1853, 4,497,723 oz. ; 

 1854, 2,144,699 oz. ; 1855, 2,576,745 oz. ; 1856, 3,003,811 oz. ; 1857, 2,729,655 oz. ; 

 1858, 2,536,983 oz. ; 1859, 842,222 oz. ; part of the year only. This makes a fair 

 allowance for the amount carried by private hands, which is known to have been 

 considerable previous to the legislative enactments imposing an export duty. The 

 following are the amounts passed through the Customs : — 1851, 145,137 oz. ; 1853, 

 1,988,527 oz. ; 1854, 2,144,699 oz. ; 1855, 2,751,536 oz. ; 1857, 762,460 oz. Ac- 

 cording to the returns, the annual value of the gold produced during the last few 

 years has been £11,000,000 ; the value of wool, £1,500,000; of agricultural crops, 

 £2,500,000 ; stock fisheries products and manufactures, £5,000,000 ; making a gross 

 production of £20,000,000 per annum. 



The following statistics of the lands of Victoria are taken from the books in the 

 Crown Land-office, Melbourne : — 



Area of land in the colony 55,644,160 acres. 



Number of holders of purchased land 13,163 



Acres of purchased land in occupation 2,113,134 



Acres in crop 237,729 



Occupied acres of purchased land not cultivated .... 1,875,405 

 Quantity of land sold by the crown during the last ten 



years 2,541,913 



Quantity of unsold land 52,882,544 



Amount realized for land during the last ten years . . £6,636,555 



Average price per acre £2 12 6 



Average price per acre in 1857 £2 2 6 



There had been sold in 1851, 99,769 acres to 77,345 persons, or about an acre 

 and a quarter to each ; at the end of 1857 there had been alienated 2,748,415 acres 

 to 450,000 persons at the rate of six acres to each. In the year ending the 31st of 

 March, 1857, the number of holders of purchased land was 7523. The extent of 



