STATISTICAL REVIEW — NEW SOUTH WALES, 107 



labour lie has bestowed upon it, we Have mucb. to do in the way 

 of wooing a population to assist in the development of the bound- 

 less resources of this young Covmtry. 



"WTien we consider the area comprised within its limits, and 

 know that for each man, woman and child in it — were it parcelled 

 out amongst them — over 400 acres of land would fall to the lot 

 of each, — and when we reflect on this further fact, that without 

 exceeding the density of the population as it exists in the county 

 of Cumberland — exclusive of Sydney — we have room for a popu- 

 lation exceeding twenty millions of souls, or forty times the 

 number of its present inhabitants, — we cannot but hail with 

 pleasure the prospect which is opening to us of a considerable 

 accession to the population, not only by reason of the attraction 

 of our mineral wealth, but by means of an assisted immigration, 

 the funds for which have made their appearance on the Estimates 

 for 1873, for the first time for many years. The statistics of this 

 Colony, as well as those of Victoria, amply prove the fact that 

 wages have declined with the stoppage of immigration, and have 

 never ruled so high as they have reached in those years when 

 immigration was at its full swing. 



Of all causes which create national wealth the power of popu- 

 lation is the most influential ; hence the interest which attaches 

 to comprehensive and systematic returns designed to illustrate 

 the social progress of a nation, amongst which a Census of the 

 people must ever be regarded as the truest index to its wealth ; 

 and instead of the repulsive dryness which thoughtless custom 

 has ascribed to statistics of this nature, they ought to have all 

 the attractiveness of pictures of a people's condition. For this 

 reason, the tables that are now in process of compilation from the 

 facts elicited at the late Census will, when published, be replete 

 with interest, and form the basis for administrative and econo- 

 mical measures of the highest consequence to the well-being of 

 the community. 



A good deal of impatience has manifested itself at what appears 

 to unreflecting persons the dilatoriness of the compilers ; but any 

 one who has had experience of the labour involved in reducing 

 into shape and order the mass of information contained in the 

 returns, will readily acknowledge the truth of the old proverb — 

 "more haste, worse speed," and that it applies with peculiar 

 force to the elaborate details of a Census. 



2.- — Pbodijctiof. 



"We must still under this head give precedence to our Pastoral 

 industry, for the time has not yet arrived, although it may not 

 be far off, when our Mineral resources may take the first rank 

 amongst the producing interests of the Country. 



