Observations on Tasmanian Statistics. 27 



received from 157,6] 1 to 189,847, or 24-5 percent.; the 

 newspapers forwarded from 189,961 to 222,940, or 12 per 

 cent; and the newspapers received from 68,121 to 102,497, 

 or 50 per cent, increase. 



As respects the working of the two-penny post, or rather 

 penny post in 1853, the increase of letters has heen con- 

 siderable. Independently of the franked letters, the numbers 

 passing through the post offices in 1851 were 12,125; in 

 1852 they numhered 15,815, or 30 per cent, increase ; 

 while in 1853, by the penny post, they amounted to 26,293, 

 or 60 per cent, increase upon the preceding year. 



The receipts in 1852 were ^08303, and the expenditure 

 £7361, or a deficiency of ITS per cent.; in 1853 the 

 receipts were ^9880, and the expenditure £11,091, or 

 a deficiency only of 12"2 per cent., — notwithstanding the 

 sacrifice of revenue from the abolition of postage on all the 

 inland letters, and the great additional cost of conveying the 

 mails. At the same time, it may be questioned whether 

 some portion of this improvement may not be due to the 

 general expansion of trade rather than to the modification 

 of the postal arrangements. 



Tables 29 and 30 are returns by the Eegistrar of the 

 Supreme Court of the number of civil cases tried and dis- 

 posed of, and of convictions under its criminal jurisdiction, 

 for the ten years 1844 to 1853 ; and it must afford unalloyed 

 satisfaction to perceive a reduction to the extent of about 

 one-half in both branches of the business of the Court 

 for the last five years as compared with the former 

 similar period. From 1844 to 1848 the number of actions 

 tried and assessed was 188 : from 1849 to 1853 the number 

 was only 86. The number of convictions for felonies and 

 misdemeanors for the first of these terms was 1087 : for the 

 last, 559. Something of this, of course, is due to the 



