ot Observations upon the Census. 
circumstances connected with Van Diemen’s Land which 
render the periodical Census an object of the deepest interest 
and curiosity. 
The present Census of the Population was taken March Ist, 
1851, and the date of the previous Census was January Ist, 
1848, being an interval of 3¢ years between the two returns. 
An important error in the Census of 1848, by which the 
aggregate population had been returned at 70,164 instead of 
67,351, has been now corrected. The explanation is, that 
2818 convicts had been included twice in the Census of 1848 
—first, in the Richmond district, and then in a separate 
return from the Convict Department of the number employed 
in public works irrespective of locality. The actual number 
thus employed should have been stated to be, not 3739, but 
926, as shown in a note appended to a Council Paper illus- 
trative of the present Census. 
Having given this needful explanation of the error in the 
population returns of 1848, we turn to the examination of 
the Census taken on Ist March, 1851. 
It appears, then, that the grand total of the population 
was 70,130, beg an increase of 2779 souls or 4°12 per 
cent. since the return of 1848. Of this aggregate 62°85 per 
cent. were males, and 37:14 per cent. were females. But, 
taking both sexes together, the free comprise 75°6 per cent., 
and the dond 24°3 per cent., or in the proportion of 8 to 1 ; 
showing an increase to the former, since the Census of 1848, 
of 15°34 per cent., and a decrease in the number of the latter 
of 20 per cent. 
Of the males, independently of the Military, and the Con- 
victs on public works, 71: per cent. were free, and 28°97 per 
cent. were bond; and of the females, 84°15 per cent. were 
free, and 15°84 per cent. were bond. 
By further analysis, we obtain the following generic divi- 
