On the Rates of Mortality in Australia

Extract

The combination of circumstances, which for generations past has impelled large numbers of our countrymen to establish homes in distant lands, has wrought vast changes on the surface of the globe. The progress and welfare of Englishmen call, from every continent, for our interest and sympathy; and, while there is, probably, no portion of “Great Britain” which usually attracts more lively interest than Australasia, special attention is just now directed to that important member of the British Empire. The richness of its soil, its varying and salubrious climate, embracing those degrees of temperature most conducive to health, and, above all, its immense possibilities for the future, combine to fascinate the mind, and inspire a wish for further knowledge.

A comparison of the population returns of Australia with those of the United Kingdom, presents a contrast as striking as can be found in any department of social science. The area of the continent,—which is estimated to be somewhat under three million square miles,—contained at the end of the year 1882 about 2,296,000 inhabitants. The average number of persons to the square mile in each colony was as follows:—