TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 227 



The water is pumped into the town from the river Dee, the bed of which for several 

 miles above the water-works is granite, — a circumstance favourable to the quality 

 of the water for the purposes of the town. 



Economic, tyc. statistics. — In the N. S. Savings' Bank the amount deposited in the 

 year ending 31st Dec. 1849, was £29,740; in i858, the amount was £55,307. The 

 number of operative accounts at the former date was 6183 ; at 31st Dec. 1858, 9000. 

 The total amount at the depositors' credit rose, in the same period, from £95,400 

 to £191,731. In 1858 there were deposited in the seven principal Penny Banks of 

 the town, by 1853 depositors, the sum of £1155 17s. 6d. — being about the average 

 for two or three previous years. In 1858 the published accounts of Yearly Deposit 

 and Friendly Societies in the town and neighbourhood exhibit a membership of 

 10,279 — nearly one-half, or 4753, being females. During the above year these 

 Societies expended £832 9s. 4d. in sick and funeral money to members, and funeral 

 money to wives and children of members. The amount deposited and withdrawn 

 is not stated. 



The number of paupers in Aberdeen and suburbs has decreased from 2457 in 1849 

 to 1919 in 1858. The amount of heritable property (rental) within the Parliamentary 

 boundary in the books of the Valuation Assessor is within a small fraction of 

 £200,000. In 1853, when the writer took up an educational census of the town 

 (Parliamentary boundary), the following results appeared : viz. 147 schools, with 

 10,488 pupils on the roll, being about 1 in 7-5 of the popidation. As an index to 

 the educational state of the community, it appears that, during the three years 

 185G-7-8, of the persons who reported" 13,846 births, deaths, and marriages at the 

 Registrars' offices, 1957 signed their names by marks, being unable to write. _ The 

 number of commitments to the Aberdeen prison in 1849 was 1011 ; in 1854 it fell 

 to 756 ; in 1858 it was 885. The number who emigrated from Aberdeen direct to 

 British North America (chiefly) was, in 1849, 293 ;' it rose in 1854 to 1598, and has 

 since gradually declined to 234 during the present year (1859). The number of 

 letters which passed through the Aberdeen post-office in 1858 was 2,454,920, as 

 compared with 1,550,640 in 1854. The number of money-orders issued and paid 

 together in 1858 was 40,779, involving a total sum of £78,721, as compared with 

 35,036, involving £67,585, in 1854. A Table was also exhibited showing the above 

 particulars at one view for each year from 1849 to 1858 inclusive, together with the 

 liars' price of oatmeal for each year. 



On the British Trade ivith India. By R. Valpy. 



The author stated that in the year 1858 the exports of British produce from England 

 to India amounted to £16,782,515, and exceeded those to the United States, which 

 were not more than £14,510,616, a low amount, it is true, for the United States. 

 In the first six months of 1859, the value of British produce exported has been 

 £11,783,796 to the United States, and £10,109,563 to India. In 1815, the first 

 year after the opening of the Indian trade to British merchants, the total value of 

 the imports and exports of this country from and to India, amounted to £10,701,000 ; 

 in 1858 the amount was £31,754,000. In 1858, therefore, the value of the British 

 trade with India was three times more than it was in 1815. The computed real 

 value of the total imports from India in each year since 1854, when the real value 

 of imports was first ascertained at the Custom House, was — 



1854 £10,672,000 



1855 12,688,000 



1856 17,262 000 



1857 18 650,000 



1858 14,972,000 



This increase is not so striking as that of the exports of British produce to India, 

 on a comparison of similar periods, viz. from 1855 to 1858 over 1815 to 1819 — 

 the totals for the respective periods being about £11,600,000 against £2,800,000. 

 In 1850 there was a large increase in the imports of Indian cotton, the quantity 

 being 118,872,742 lbs., which have since steadily augmented. The paper noticed 

 the various articles of imports and exports, showing that India is the best customer 

 we have for the most important of our industrial productions. For example, in 



15* 



