Victorian Year Book 1874
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VICTORIAN YEAR-BOOK FOR THE YEAR 18"74. (SECOND YEAR OF ISSUE.) BY HENRY HEYLYN HAYTER, GOVERNMENT STATIST OF VICTORIA. HONORARY MEMBER OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON AND OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF TASMANIA. AUTHOR OF NOTES OF A TOUR LN NEW ZEALAND, ETC., ETC. BY AUTHORITY. MELBOURNE: PRINTED AND PUBLI8HED BY GEORGE SKINNER, ACTING GOVERNMENT PRINTER. LONDON: TRUBNER AND CO. , 57 AND 59 LUDGATE HILL. M DCCC LXXV. This is a blank page PREFACE. Having been asked by the Victorian Commissioners for the International Exhibition to be held in Philadelphia in 1876 to prepare an account of the colony for distribution in the United States of America in connection with the catalogue of exhibits sent by Victoria, I received permission of the Government to embody in the present issue of the Year-Book, in addition to the usual digest of the statistics of the preceding year, such further information respecting the colony as might serve the purpose of giving American readers some knowledge of its position, climate, history, progress, and present condition. It is owing to. this circumstance that the introductory chapters appear in the present work. The facts embraced in the chapter relating to the discovery and early history of the colony I have obtained whenever possible first hand, either from original voyages and travels, from the newspapers of the period, or from official documents. Compila- tions I have only resorted to where direct information was not procurable. In preparing the chapter on the geography of Victoria I soon found that little assistance could be derived from the existing so-called Australian geographies. I was therefore obliged to get the required information direct from maps, from returns furnished by the Survey Department, or from the results of the census. It was with some hesitation that I decided on introducing a chapter on meteorology and climate, _and it was not until I discovered that the Exhibition Commissioners had. not made iv PREFACE. arrangements for a special essay to be contributed on those. subjects that I ventured to undertake the task of dealing with them. Having the published results of the very excellent ob- servations which had for years past been taken at our National Observatory to form a groundwork for my labors, I felt I could not go very far wrong if I adhered closely to my authorities. This I have endeavored to do, and I believe that this chapter will be found to be not the least valuable portion of the volume. In connection with this subject a carefully-written description of the Observatory and the instruments it contains has been pre- pared expressly for the present work by Mr. E. J. White, the Acting Government Astronomer. It will be found in an Appendix at the end of the book. Much of the chapter headed "Census Results " is a repro- duction in a greatly condensed form of the report I issued when the census returns were published. Without such an addition, any work professing to give a full statistical account of the colony would be incomplete. The digest of the Statistics of 1874 embodied in this work will be found to be more full and comprehensive than that of the Statistics of 1873 contained in the last Year-Book, and informa- tion is in some instances brought on to various periods in 1875. If it should appear to any of my readers that I have referred to or commented upon points which may seem to them so well known as not to be worth mentioning, I must ask them to bear in mind that a portion of the issue is to be sent a long distance, and the work may possibly circulate amongst those to whom, at the pre- sent time, even the name of the colony is unknown. Near the end of the volume is a table in which will be found, arranged in chronological order, a list of such occurrences during the past year as have seemed to me sufficiently important to merit being permanently recorded. I purpose making a similar table a feature in each future issue of the Year-Book. An alphabetical index, which will afford means for readily finding every subject of which mention is made in the work, is PREFACE. V given at the end. The figures in this index refer to the numbers of the paragraphs, not to those of the pages. The Statistical Summary printed on a folding sheet, which was placed at the commencement of the former Year-Book, will be found in the same place in this one,. the figures for 1874 being added to those previously given. It contains figures under all the principal heads in connection with which statistical informa- tion is usually required for as many years back as it has been possible to trace particulars, and is often referred to in the body of the work. The map at the end has been specially prepared for the work by the Survey Department.. As it is the most recent, so I am given to understand, it is also, for its size, the best map of Victoria in existence. It will not surprise those who know the large amount of extra work which the department of the Government Statist has been called upon to perform during the currency of the present year, in addition to ordinary duties at all times sufficiently heavy and often calling for the closest personal attention on the part of the departmental head, that the preparation of this work has not been effected without the writer having been obliged to devote to it a large portion of his private time. This, however, is a consideration of but small moment in view of the benefit which may possibly accrue to the colony from the publication of such a large amount of valuable information as the book contains. It is gratifying to know that portion of it, at any rate, is to be more extensively utilised than was at first contemplated, the Government having decided that a large number of copies of the first two chapters shall be printed as a separate work for use in theState schools. Every part of the work has been carefully examined and checked by officers in this department. With such a mass of facts and figures, however, as its pages contain, it is almost too much to hope that some errors and inaccuracies may not have escaped observation. If any such should be found, I shall Vi PREFACE. esteem it a favor if the discoverer will notify the fact to me, in which case I shall take an early opportunity of publicly acknow- ledging the source from which the correction has emanated. HENRY HEYLYN HAYTER, Government Statist. Office of the Government Statist, Melbourne, 5th October 1875. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTORY .- DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY ... ... ... 1 GEOGRAPHY ... ... ... ... ... 18 METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATE ... ... ... 47 CENSUS RESULTS ... ... ... ... 62 'STATISTICS : PART I-BLUE BOOK ... ... ... ... ... 91 ,f II.-FINANCE ... ... ... ... 95 III.-POPULATION ... ... ... ... 102 f ff IV: L AW, CRIME , ETC. ... ... ... 112 n u V: INTERCHANGE ... ... ... ... 127 VI.-PRODUCTION ... ... ... ... 144 n ff VII -ACCUMULATION ... ... ... ... 174 VIII.-VITAL STATISTICS ... ... ... 180 ff IX.-RELIGIOUS , MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 207 TABLE OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN 1874 ... ... ... ... 223 APPIS4SDI x.-Ti MELROBR2iE 4 BaER `i ATORY ... ... ... 2 31 INDEX ... ... ... ... ... ... 235 This is a blank page VICTORIAN YEAR- BOOK,18 74, INTRODIJCTORY. DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY. IT is believed that the first Europeans who ever sighted any portion Firstdis- of the land now embraced within the limits of the Colony of Victoria vietoia4 were Captain James Cook, of the Royal Navy, and the crew of His Majesty's ship Endeavour. This vessel had been sent to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus over the sun's disc, and Captain Cook, who was in command, having accomplished that object, and having also made a survey of New Zealand, continued his course westward in order to explore the eastern coast of "Terra Australis Incognita." He made the land on the 19th April 1770, and estimated a prominent point-which he named after the first discoverer, Lieutenant Hicks, one of the officers of his vessel-to be in latitude 38° south, longitude 211° 7' west (148° 53' east). Captain Cook, however, did not attempt to land, or even to approach near the shore, but passed on to other discoveries. It may be observed that Point Hicks appears to be identical with the present Cape Everard, in Gippsland, situated about midway between Cape Howe and the mouth of the Snowy River.* 2. On the 18th January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, R.N., landed in Firstsettle- Botany Bay, whither he had been despatched from E and in charge of a 6u tmlia. squadron of eleven vessels, in order to found a penal colony in Australia. Finding Botany Bay unsuitable for settlement, in consequence, as he says, of 11the openness of the bay and the dampness of the soil, by which the people would probably be rendered unhealthy," he sailed northward to * The latitude of Cape Everard according to the latest computation is 37 ° 49' S., and the longitude 149° 17' E. A point between Point Hicks and Cape Howe, Cook named Ram IIead , from its supposed resemblance to the point at the entrance of Plymouth - Sound. This name it still bears. See " Cook 's Voyages ," vol. iii ., p. 483 ; London, 1773. A 4 Victorian Year-Book, 1874. Decres," had been previously minutely, examined by Flinders, who, falling in with Le Geographe at sea, communicated his discoveries to Baudin and allowed him to examine his charts.* First 6. The first attempt to colonize the territory of Port Phillip was made PortcoidrizetO by an expedition, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel David 803.Philhp,Collins, a marine officer, who had previously held the post of Judge- Advocate in Sydney.