STATISTICAL REYIEW — NEW SOUTH WALES. 117 



It has already been shown that the exports of Great Britain 

 for the same period were at the rate of £5 16s. per head of the 

 population ; relativel}^, therefore, the wealth of this community 

 has been increasing in a ratio more than double that of the 

 Mother Country. There may, perhaps, be two reasons assigned for 

 this. The one refers to the great national resources of the 

 Coujitry, which yield their riches with comparatively small assis- 

 tance from man ; the other refers to what I conceive to be the 

 more effective condition of our population. If the productive 

 class bears a larger proportion to the unproductive in one Country 

 than in another, the power of creating wealth will be by so much 

 increased. I have reason to believe that when the " Census " of 

 Grreat Britain in 1871 is comjmred with that of New South Wales, 

 it will be found that the population ineifective by reason of age 

 bears a higher ratio to the aggregate numbers in Great Britain 

 than it does in New South "Wales. I have not the statistics before 

 me to enable me to verify this opinion at the present time, but I 

 remember making a comparison (in preparing my Report on the 

 Census of 1856), and I there found that, by the Census of 1851, 

 the population of Great Britain between the ages of 10 and 70 — 

 extreme limits — showed no less than 57 per cent, outside those 

 limits ; that is to say, that 57 percent, were dependent for food, 

 education and support, upon the remaining 43 per cent. ; whilst, 

 in New South Wales, betAveen the ages of 10 and 60, * there were 

 69 per cent, effective to 31 per cent, ineffective. 



By the Census of 1856, 1 find that, taking the boys and girls 

 under fourteen years, and the people above sixty years, the pro- 

 portions were: — Between fourteen and sixty, 59'67 per cent., 

 leaving 40"33 per cent, unproductive = 100. 



The late Census, I believe, exhibits a proportion of 58 per cent, 

 between the ages of fourteen and sixty-five, which perhaps fairly 

 represents the present working population, leaving 42 per cent, 

 unproductive. 



I merely, in passing, throw out these suggestions for your 

 consideration as they occur to me, in some measure to account 

 for the larger producing power of the Australian Colonies as com- 

 pared with England. 



We will now proceed to analyze a little more closely the 

 Customs returns, and compare the two quinqennial periods 

 embraced in the decennary under review. And first as to 

 " Imports." It appears that between 1862 and 1866, we imported 

 articles to the value of £46,285,929, yielding an annual average 

 of £9,257,185 ; whilst between 1867 and 1871 we imported to the 

 value of only £38,546,434, yielding an annual average of 

 £7,709,286, showing a decrease oioyQv a million and ahalf jevcAj, 

 and it appears that this decrease was not in the intercolonial 



* The classification did not distinguish the ages over 60. 



