MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
proof of a birth, death, or marriage, to those persua- ! 
sions and classes of dissenters which kept no baptismal i 
registers, nor any Tecord of marriages or burials, and 
so to put an end to the constant litigation which the 
absence of such proof occasioned with regard to the 
succession to property. 
If a compulsory measure of this nature was 
deemed necessary for a country possessing such com¬ 
plete parish registers, in order to afford to other de¬ 
nominations similar advantages to those enjoyed by the 
Established Church, how much more necessary must it 
appear in a country like this, where so great a disregard 
is shown to baptism even amongst Churchmen, and 
where, by reason of the dispersion of the people and 
paucity of ministerial visitations, the same facilities 
for registration cannot be afforded. 
It is well known that the Church registers comprise 
only the births and deaths of such persons as receive 
the*rites of baptism and of Christian burial—and how 
many are born into the world and buried out of it 
without receiving these rites? Perhaps not less than 
one-fourth of the births and deaths which have occurred 
in the colony are unrecorded, and in the absence of a 
civil and compulsory registration, would continue to be 
so, owing to the universal apathy which prevails on the 
subject, and to the absence of those facilities which the 
late enactment is designed to supply. 
“ The marriage ceremony, too, has not tmfrequently 
boon performed by magistrates in the country districts 
without law or authority from the Church. I have 
myself frequently been applied to, to celebrate 
marriages, to save the parties a journey of one to two 
hundred miles ; rather than undertake such a journey 
to obtain the sanction of the church, the chances are 
that the ceremony has been dispensed with altogether, 
and would be again under like circumstances, except 
for the facilities afforded by the Marriage Act. 
" Look again at the advertisements which appear in 
the Daily Press of this colony, of which I have counted 
no less* than ten in one’paper, inquiring lor lost 
relatives; to satisfy inquiries ot this kind, there has 
been hitherto no means of ascertaining whether the 
persons sought for are dead or alive. The” something 
to their advantage” which often accompanies these 
inquiries is thus very often lost, for want of that 
knowledge which it is the object of a civil registry to 
collect and record. 
*' There can be no doubt then that the system of 
civil registration which has been introduced will be ot 
great service in securing legal succession to property 
and preventing much litigation. Proof is not wanting 
of the growing appreciation of the measure ; and the 
readiness with which the information is supplied may 
be adduced as the most satisfactory evidence of it. 
Some ridicule has been attempted to be cast upon the 
minuteness of tho information sought; but it will be 
found in working that there is not one single fact 
registered which may not prove of the utmost import¬ 
ance to personal identity; and when the system of 
registration is perfected throughout the colony, we shall 
possess a mass of statistical data relating.to our popu¬ 
lation capable of many obvious and important modes 
of application, which will open a ugw and vast field of 
improvement to the legislator, the actuary, and the 
physician. 
*• But if throughout the whole range of material 
interests that affect the w r eli-being ot a community 
there be any one subject of greater importance than 
another—which more than any other exercises an 
influence over the condition* the progress, and the 
happiness of all classes of society—without doubt that 
subject is tho adequate and permament supply of food 
for tho people. Agricultural statistics have therefore 
commanded the highest consideration in all well- 
governed countries, their systematic collection being 
considered an object of great national interest ; and 
it has been asserted by persons who advocate the cause 
of agriculture that the annual returns of this colony are 
not so full and satisfactory as the advanced state of the 
country requires that they should be. 
“ The character of the productive industry of a 
nation, its industrial processes, its whole theory of 
production, its agricultural and rural economy, the 
occupation of land, the tillage, crops, gardens, vineyards, 
its systems of culture and arnouut of produce; in fact, 
tho accurate knowledge of the provision made for the 
sustenance of the people is surely not less important 
than the knowledge of the number of the people 
themselves, or tho yearly produce of various articles of 
commerce, . 
“ The absence of accurate information on the subject 
i of agriculture is found to be productive of inconvenience 
to all classes, owing to the uncertainty which prvails as 
to the quantity of land under the different descriptions 
of cultivation in each year ; as to the supplies of food 
which exists in the country at any given time, and con¬ 
sequently as to the quantities that may be required 
from abroad to make up the deficiency in home-grown 
produce, thus given rise to extreme fluctuations in 
bread, and encouraging hazardous speculations in corn. 
“ But it is not in these and other practical respects 
alone that the absence of trustworthy agricultural 
statistics is felt; they aro indispensable as the basis on 
i which a correct appreciation of the social and eco¬ 
nomical progress of the population must he founded! 
and it may be expected that when the conjectural and 
uncertain data upon which our calculations are now 
guided are replaced by ascertained and undoubted facts, 
much light will be thrown on many important questions 
and the risk to which we arc exposed will be very 
considerably diminised. 
44 Hitherto the agricultural statistics have been taken 
by means of the police; but it is worthy of consider¬ 
ation whether a better machinery might not be or¬ 
ganised for such an object ; whether a better time 
might not he selected for collecting the returns, and 
whether the inlormation to be collected might not be 
arranged on an improved, system, so that the facts 
might be verified in tho districts to which they belong. 
“Aselect committee of the House of Loids, appointed 
in the vear 1855 to enquire into and report upon the 
best mode of obtaining agricultural statistics from all 
parts of the United Kiugdom, recommended the intro¬ 
duction of a compulsory enactmeut, " to compel the 
occupiers of land to make the necessary returns.” This 
was deemed necessary to overcome the disinclination 
evinced by the farmers generally to give the returns, 
under the impression that tho landlords might make 
use of them to raise the rents. Whatever reason there 
might be in this objection at home, there can be none 
such urged in New South Wales. What is particularly 
wanting here is greater care in the preparation of the 
acreage returns, as upon their basis the estimated pro¬ 
duce of the harvest in each year must be founded, and 
a better system as regards the instrumentality, pe¬ 
riodicity, and method of taking tho statistics, so as to 
ensure as great a degree of accuracy as possible. 
44 Another legitimate subject of statistical inquiry, 
and of not inferior importance, is the state of educa¬ 
tion in connection with the ages, rank, profession or 
calling, religion, and nationality of the people. On 
this most vital subject much interesting information 
will be conveyed to the public when the results of the 
late census aro fairly brought out: it would, therefore, 
only occupy your time unnecessarily to make any 
lengthened observations on this branch ot statistics on 
whe presont occasion. An entirely new loan of tabula¬ 
tion has been adopted, combining age, education, and 
religion, which will enable us to compare the state of 
education amongst the different denominations, and 
elicit a mass of very interesting information, tending 
to show, it is hoped, a growing appreciation of the 
value of education amongst all classes. Doubtless, the 
facts collected will be closely analysed and compared, 
and form the basis for legislative measures ot the 
highest importance to the moral and social progress of 
the people. 
“ The question of expense has prevented a further 
extension of the educational tables, which would 
! perhaps have tended to the solution of some other of our 
social problems. 
