Ohservations on Tasmanian Statistics. 15 



an extraordinary activity to its trade, and stimulus to its 

 agriculture, which, notwithstanding the great drain upon its 

 labour market, has contributed largely to the general pros- 

 perity of Tasmania. 



In 1851 the value of the imports was £641,609 ; in 

 1852 it was £860,488, or an increase of 34*1 per cent. ; 

 and in 1853 it reached the enormous amount of £2,273,397, 

 being 164 per cent, increase upon the preceding year. The 

 ratio of imports to population was, respectively, £9 4,s. 7^d. 

 per head in 1851 ; £13 lis. Qd. in 1852; and £34 9s. A^d. 

 in 1853, — exceeding, perhaps, that of any other British colony, 

 Victoria alone excepted. 



The corresponding exports for the three years cited were 

 £665,790 in 1851; £1,509,883 in 1852; and £1,756,316 

 in 1853 ; the ratio of exports to population being respectively 

 £9 105. per head in 1851, £23 15^. 10^. per head in 1852, 

 and £26 IQs. Sd. per head in 1853. 



Taking the average of the imports for the last three years, 

 and doing the same with the exports, and dividing by the 

 average population for the same period, it gives £18 19^. 9d. 

 per head as the imports, and £l 9 1 5^. 4^. per head as the 

 exports, of the entire population, during the three years that 

 the gold-fields have been in operation. The balance of 

 trade, upon the calculation of the same period of three years, 

 was £156,505 in favour of the colony, — clearly denoting, 

 under the feverish and exciting circumstances of the times, 

 the particularly healthy state of our commercial relations. 



Table 9 is a return of the shipping employed in the 

 whale fisheries for the same decennial period ; and, as might 

 be predicated, apart from the uncertainty ever attending this 

 precarious branch of commerce, fully exemplifies the inju- 

 rious effects of the gold mania upon the ordinary pursuits of 

 industrv. In 1850 there were 40 colonial and 9 foreign 



