Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/771

 AREA AND POPULATION.

735

The chief sources of the revenue of Victoria, until the year 1862, were customs duties and sales of public lands, which, with some fluctuations, produced about one-half of the annual income. A new source of revenue was more recently added in the receipts derived from public works, including a great railway system, the manage- ment of which remains in the hands of the Government.

The public debt of Victoria amounted, at the commencement of July, 1869, to a total of 12,534,800/., the whole of which was incurred for the construction of public works, particularly railways, in the colony. The dates, rates of interest, and other particulars of the various loans constituting the debt, are given in the following statement, after official returns : —

Date of Loans Capkal"

Amount repaid

Rate of Interest

Objects of Loans

1855, 1857, 1858 800,000 j 200,000 1856 68,100 300 1853 8,000,000 — 1865 300,000 — 1866, 1867 850.000 1 — 1869 2,107,000 ! — 1869 610.0(1(1 _

Percent. 6 5 6 6 6 5 5

Melbourne water supply Melbourne railway Colonial railways Colonial railways Railways and defences Colonial railway Public works

Total. . 12,735,100, 200,300

The payment of both principal and interest of all the above loans are made primary charges upon the revenues of the colony, by Acts 18, 19, 21, 25, and 29 Victoria. The great railway loan of 1858 is repayable to the amount of 7,000,000/. in London, and to the amount of 1,000,0002. in Melbourne. — (Communication of the Government of Victoria to the Statesman's Year-book.)

Area and Population.

The colony, first settled in 1835, formed for a time a portion of New South Wales, bearing the name of the Port Philip district. It was erected in 1851 — by Imperial Act of Parliament, 13 and 14 Victoria, cap. 59 — into a separate colony, and called Victoria. The colony has an area of 86,831 square miles. Victoria is bounded on the north and north-east by a straight line drawn from Cape Howe to the nearest source of the river [Murray, thence by the course of that river to the eastern boundary of South Australia, or 141° E. long., thence, by that meridian, to the sea; on the south by the sea, a distance of about 600 miles, to Cape Howe, including the islands along the coast.

The growth of the population, as shown by the census of nine successive periods, is exhibited in the following table: —