Observations on Tasmanian Statistics. 11 



while the deaths were 1452, and the departures 21,917, — 

 making the total 63,445, in the respective proportions of 

 39*2 men, 25"5 women, and 35"2 children, being a deficiency 

 of 6052, or nearly 9 per cent, of the whole, upon the year. 

 During 1853 the births were 2,233, and the arrivals 14,977, 

 while the deaths were 2017, and the departures 12^684, — 

 making the total 65,954, or 4 per cent, increase upon the 

 year preceding, but still a decrease of 5 per cent, as com- 

 pared with 1851 ; the proportion of adult males being 39"3 

 per cent., adult females 24 '7, and of children 36 per cent. 



The disastrous effect upon our labour market in dimi- 

 nishing the adult male population of this colony, thus de- 

 priving it of its thews and sinews, is strikingly apparent from 

 the figures in this table ; for, while there is a steady pro- 

 gressive increase in the per-centage of women and chil- 

 dren, there appears a positive decrease in the number of 

 men of 23 per cent, at the end of 1853 as compared 

 with the census of 1851. The disturbing influence this 

 must have exercised upon the social and domestic con- 

 dition of the Colony, and the check upon its industrial 

 prosperity and advancement, is too jplain to need remark. 

 It is most satisfactory, however, to notice the considerable 

 increase in the number of children, constituting as they do 

 the germ of a future people. 



Of the aggregate population the convicts constituted, in 

 1851, 28'8 per cent. ; in 1852, 30 per cent. ; and in J 853, 

 25 '3 per cent. ; and the proportion of the males to females 

 was, upon the average, as 3 to 1. 



The stain upon the Tasmanian escutcheon of being a 

 penal settlement having, happily, been efi!aced by Her 

 Majesty's Order in Council, the existence of a servile 

 class in the community is fast diminishing, and must, in 



