STATISTICAL REYIEW — NEW SOUTH WALES. 119 



that is, an import and export trade exceeding £4,000,000 sterling 

 in value ! Now, if this trade is added to the imports and exports 

 seaward in 1871, we arrive at the following results, namely : — 



Imports : 



Seaward £8,981,219 



Overland from Victoria and South Australia 626,730 



Ditto Queensland ... ... ... ... 1,559 



Total £9,609,508 



Exports : 



Seaward £7,784,766 



Overland to Victoria and South Australia. . . 3,452,446 



Ditto Queensland 7,820 



Total £11,245,032 



These figures exhibit an import trade at the rate of £19 Is. 3d., 

 and an export trade at the rate of £22 6s. 2d. per head of the 

 population — that is, more than double the import trade, and 

 nearer treble the export trade of Grreat Britain per head of the 

 population, according to the values respectively given in the 

 Customs returns of the two Countries. 



Before passing on to the last subject of our inq^uiry, I should 

 like to draw a comparison between the decade we have been 

 reviewing and that which preceded it, for they must present to 

 the minds of colonists of a quarter of a century's standing 

 features diifering very widely in their outlines. In the earlier 

 decade we embrace that period of intense excitement, great 

 speculation, and remarkable development which followed the 

 discovery of gold. In the second decade we trace in the first 

 half of it symptoms of depression naturally following a period 

 of over-trading and general extravagance in which confidence in 

 the permanent stability and elasticity of our resources was well 

 nigh destroyed. In the second half of the latter decade we may 

 discover clear evidence of recovery, through the exercise of vigilant 

 economy, as exemplifiedinreduced imports, andthrough the vigorous 

 efforts made by the producingintereststolessen the cost, to improve 

 the quality and to increase the quantity of our marketable produc- 

 tions, as in the face of almost overwhelming discouragements is 

 exemplified in the increased exports to the Mother Country. 

 Depression follows excitement as naturally in the body social as 

 in the body physical, and it is somewhat remarkable that they 

 seem to occupy pretty equal periods in the history of this Country. 



