1859-60. VICTORIA. AGRICULTURAL AND LIVE STOCK STATlSTICS OF VICTORIA, FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31sT MARCH, 1859; WITH PRELIMINARY STATISTICAL NOTES, ILLUSTRATIVE Ole THE PROGRESS OF V:ICTOlUA FROM THE YEAR 1835 TO 1860. ~!2 tbe l!legt~ttat:::@1ienet'a( of lJirtotia. PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY'S COMMAND. tsl? i!utljOtrt»: JOHN :FERRES, GOVERNMENT PRI~TER, MELBOURNE. No, 10. , .,y';- v " ~-". ~ , '. '.\. .~.-... ' V-" 7··"1 '''"1 , " " " " ,;'j. :) tY .. ., ,,' r l' ;, 'I I, f· • ," ) ..., 'i f~·i , . " REPORT. : ' To the Honorable the Cltiif Secretary, g·e., gc., gc. , Registrar-General's Office, SIR, t'h Melbourne, 31st December, 1859.. , In presentino- the AO'ricultural Statistics 'in'detail -for the year 'ending , -:Agricultural Statistics for • 0 • 0 '. .', the year ending lUst 31st March, 1859, (of wIuch a· General ,Summary' was Issued by ,me on the ~ MArch. 1859. 31st May last, and published in'the Government Gazette}, J take ,the oppor­ tunity of making a few preliminary note8 on"the progress of Victoria in relation~ . to the increase of its populationi the settlement, an,dcultivation ofahe' land, andn other matters indicative of the social and material growth of the colony from the date of its' foundation in 1835 to the preserit time. ' " ,:" 2. The numerical results arrived at by 'successive ,enumerations of ,the' Existing numerical results • of permanent value; but eople and other statistical inq'Ulries are 'of permanent· utility' and when further broad points of P • • ' • .' • ' • comparison may prove VICtorIa sha:ll have become a pow'erful natIOn, statesmen, statIsts; and' ~ou~nahsts or general utility. will appeal, as earnestly' at least' as they do now;,:to the valuable data which have resulted from the statistics ralready secured in this country; 'But while there always will,be those, whose duty compels, or whose,inclination leads, them - to study for special·purposes the .heavy columns of figures grouped together ill' our population and other printeu returns;' the public' generally, having little" leisure, and lr.s5 taste, for minute :statistical ·investigation, will invariably prefer·~......,,'" l't·· , and receive with welcome, authentic summaries -of ,those points of comparison which prove sufficient to convey to'them, in regard to the communitY'in ',which they are interested, an accurate idea of the nature and true rate of'its develop­ ment. I therefore purpose to produce; with as few figures as possible, certain broad instructive facts likely to prove of general utility:" ) 3. In the" published ·in 1853 .. the Deflcicncl~s!ncertainotn- Statistical Renister;:J of Victoria", 'cialstatistics" few ye.", back: but tbese for the Public was placed in possession of a large mass of information not pl'C'viousJy most part now supplied, accessible to it; but, as I then· indicated, many important deficiencies still existed in various tables,' owing to' certain official records not being obtainable· in Melbourne. Statistica.J Reports had been, of course, regularly transmitted· by the Superintendent of the District of Port Phillip to the Governor at Sydney, but no copies of them could be found here,·, As I was' entrusted, however, in the month of May last year (1858) with a mission from the Victorian Govern­ ment to that of New South Wales, for the purpose of discovering all legal and other records in. any way relating to Victoria, and as I was', through the courtesy of the Sydney- authorities, successful, not only in securing a large mass ,of law documents, aff~cting' private property in this country, but also in bringing over a great qllanti~y of. the hitherto missing and unpublished, official statistics, T· shall' have the ad vantage of being able t(l' make frequent· use of the latter both.in the present and sueceeding reports. J , , I I , \ POPULATION. POI'IlL,ATlOII'. 4. The two colonies from which this country ·was first' peopled had been Population of Victoria from fuundatiol1 of till: founded upwards of ageneration, when, as is very generally known, in 1835,* Colony (183.) • .. Although the Henty family had made a private settlement .at the extreme west of the, Colony (Portland) the year before; yet. the awakening of the public mind to the advantages of the Port, Phillip, District as a new country appears to have heen mainly due to the adventurous zeal of Batman and Fawkner. in 1835 and of Major Mitchell in 1836. IV their inhabitants learned, with a joyous surprise, of the beauty and fertility of a. new territory opened up to them for settlement and commerce, in the District of Port Phillip. The younger of these,. Van Diemen's Land, now called Tasmania,* was founded in ] 803, and contained in 1836 forty-three thousand eight hundred and ninety-five inhabitants (43,895). On the 31st March,' 1857, its population . f had increased to eighty-one thousand four hundred and ninety-two (81,49"2). l'~u;:!:mT~!:;""So= In like manner, New South Wales, older than Van Diemen's Land by fifteen Vlctorla, In 1836 and ( b' .r d d" ).r . h 1851. years emg loun e m 1788 , was lOund to possess m t e year 1836 seventy- seven thousand and ninety-six (77,096) inhabit:mts, and on the 31st March, 1857, not less than two hundred and ninf'ty-five thousand (295,000). But Victoria,' during the. same interval of less than one and twenty years (1836-1857), had distanced them both. The number of two hundred and, twenty-four souls existing in this country in November 1836 had, by the 3]st March, 1857, multiplied more than eighteen hundred fold-there being enumerated at that date four hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and sixty-six (410,766) persons; or one hundred and fifteen thousand seven hundred and sixty-six (115,766) more than the number estimat~d to be living on the same day in New South Wales; and three hundred and twenty'-nine thousand two hundred and seventy-four (329,274) in excess, at the same date, of the number of people res~dent in Tasmania.t T~lC~~~~ C:::~~~~ 5. According to MS. notes, made by Captain Lonsdale (afterwards the TO 1857. first Colonial Secretary of Victoria) the first enumeration of the people of this country was made within a year after ·the arrival of Batman, (29th May~ 1835,) by an officer from Sydney, George Stewart, Esq., who came in the revenue cutter Prince George, with orders from His Excellency Sir Richard Bourke to report upon the state of things in the new colony, and he then ~1~~~enBllll. 25th May. found, (25th May, 1836;) that the band of first arrivals consisted of 142 males and 35 females, or in all one hundred and seventv-seven residents of European origin. This then was the first official census of Port Phillip. The Second CensllB, 8th Nov" 1836, second was made on the 8th November of the same Jvear, 1836, by order of Captain Lonsdale, who, on the 29th of the previous September, arrived in H.M,S. Rattlesnake, Captain Hobson, which anehored 'in that part of the port now caned Hobson'::, Bay.. Captain Lonsdale had been appointed Police Magistrate, with instructions to take general charge.of the district. On the 5th of the next month (October) the Stirlingshire, brig, arrived with the remainder of the government establishm.ent, consisting of a detachment of Captain Lonsdale's' regiment (the 4th), a principal officer of customs, three surveyors, an officer in charge of commissariat stores, a small number of crown prisoners for public service, and three constables. Notwithstanding these additions to the popula­ tion, the census of the following month showed an increase of 47 persons only (44 males and 3 females), making on the 8th November, 1836, one hundred and eighty-six (186) males and thirty~eight (38) females. Total 2:!4. The T~~?ellSU., mh Sept., third census was taken nearly two ·years after (12th September,. 1838), when it was ascertained the inhabitants had increased to three thousand and eighty (3080) males and >four hundred and thirty-one (431) females. Total, * Van Diemcn's Land hltd been to a extent colonised in 1803, but Governor Collins did not reach there till the 19th l"ebruary, 1804, when he landed in Sullivan's Cove, The ship Ocean, in which he arrived, had, as it appears from the date of'his last garrison order, sailed from Port Phillip on the 27th January pre­ ceding (or three weeks previous). The following is an offieial record of the imminent risk Victoria once ran of being made a convict settlement. lfr. Hall, in his Stat, Notes of Tasmania, from 1804 to 11123, published by authority in 1856, a garrison order, dated Port l'hillip, 31st December: 1803, Colonel Collins, in ordering the loading ship Ocean to be continned by all hands on the Sunday, stated, 'That it has never been his wish to make the Sabbath any other than a day of devotion and rest, but circumstances compel him to employ it in labor. In this the whole are concerned, since the sooner we are enabled to leave this .unpromising and unproductive couutry, the'sooner shall we be able to reap the advantages and enjoy the comforts of a more fertile spot!'" And so the Goyernor and his conyicts shook the dust from their feet, and with happy haste sped away from our shores, . t The popUlation of New South Wales is estimated to have increased from 197,l6~ at the end of 1851 to 342,062 at the end of 1858. During the same period Tasmania increased her inhabitants from 69,497 to 84,420: and South Australia (founded in 1836) is stated to have increased her population, from 63,iOO on l,st January,, 1851, to 118,340 on 1st January, 1859.