148 Statistics [1838— 
the management and movement of our convict popula¬ 
tion. 
The increase of population in the 18 years ending 1842 
has been at the rate of 354 per cent., or 19 per cent, per 
annum. That of New South Wales for the 20 years 
ending with 1841 was at the rate of 339 per cent., or 17 
per cent, per annum. The great accession which our 
population received in 1842 is to be attributed to the 
much greater number of convicts transported hither in 
that year, and to the Island having again been opened 
up as a field for emigrants. 
The proportion of males to females gradually dimi¬ 
nished from 100 : 30 in 1824 to 100 : 45 last year, when it 
again increased from the reason I have stated above, of 
so many male convicts having been transported that 
year. The proportion of males to females in New South 
Wales is 100 : 50. 
The male population since 1824 has increased at the 
rate of 308 per cent. The female at the rate of 504 per 
cent., or 200 per cent, above that of the male population. 
In New South Wales, the male population during the 
last 20 years has increased at the rate of 302 per cent., 
the female at the rate of 438 per cent.; in each case, but 
especially in the latter, below our own rate of increase for 
eighteen years only. 
The free population has increased 515 per cent., while 
the convict population has advanced only 242 per cent. 
By the census of 1841, there were 268 single to every 
100 married individuals. In the next year this dispro¬ 
portion had been diminished to 258. In New South 
W ales there are 254 single to 100 married. 
In the census for 1841, 5836 males were returned as 
having been born in the Colony, and 5915 females; that 
is, 100 males to 101 and a fraction females. In 1842, 
the numbers were 6299 males, and 6425 females, or 100 
