118 The Conjugal Condition 



portion of husbands are absentees from their homes, a 

 circumstance, be it noted, of great moment in relation to 

 divorce, reducing the proportion of the adult male population 

 who are living in the married state to about 28 in 100, or 

 less than half the proportion of Great Britain. 



As regards the unmarried of the male population, aged 

 twenty and upwards, we find that the proportion on the gold- 

 fields amounts to 61 in every 100, while the proportion 

 among the seaport towns' population is but 39 in 100. In 

 Great Britain only 31 in 100 are bachelors. Supposing the 

 ability to marry, so far as affected by the wages of labor, to 

 be the same throughout the colony, and assuming the inclina- 

 tion towards the formation of domestic ties to be the same 

 on the gold-field as in the seaport town, Ave cannot fail to 

 see much privation in the great disparity between the figures 

 61 and 39, which represent the relative circumstances of 

 these two sections of our population in this most important 

 respect. 



Passing to the comparative position of the females on the 

 gold fields, we find that, of women aged twenty and upwards 

 there is a difference of 16 per cent, between the proportions 

 of the married there and in the seaport towns ; the propor- 

 tion in the former rising to the high degree of 87 in every 

 100, or 9 higher than the average of the colony* ; and being 

 in the latter 71 in every 100, or 7 lower than the average of 

 the colony. The relative numbers of women living in the 

 married state on the gold-fields of Victoria and in Great 

 Britaint, therefore, present the enormous disparity of 30 in 

 every 100. 



Eeferring to the proportions of the unmarried females, it 

 appears that of every 100 women of the age of twenty and 

 upwards, on the gold-fields, but 9 are spinsters. This propor- 

 tion is to the average of ^the colony as 9 to 16 j to the average 

 of the seaport towns as 9 to 21 ; and to the average of Great 

 Britain as 9 to 29$. 



The insufficiency, in a conjugal point of view, of the num- 

 ber of adult females on the gold-fields, is manifested by the 

 early marriage of those residing there. Of 2,823 women 

 belonging to the age-period fifteen to twenty, no less than 



* Namely, 78 in 100. 



•\' The pi'oportion in GrCcat Britain is 57 in 100. 



X The iH-oportions are — m the colony, IG in 100 ; in seaport towns, 21 in 

 100 ; in Great Britain, 29 in 100. 



