Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/638

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THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — QUEENSLAND

On December 31, 1897, the estimated population was 484,700.

The census of April 5, 1891, showed that the population then consisted of 223,779 males, 169,939 females. The total numbers included 8,574 Chinese (of whom only 47 were females), principally engaged in the gold mines ; and 9,428 'Polynesians,' 826 of whom were females ; and 1,844 persons of other alien races. No return is made of the aborigines, but police reports estimate their number at about 12,000.

The census population was distributed as follows : — Northern District, 78,077 ; Central District, 46,857 ; Southern District, 268,784.

As to occupation the population was classified as follows : — Professional class, 10,448; domestics, 20,403; commercial, 31,138; industrial, 47,173; agricultural, pastoral, manual, &c., 68,285 ; indefinite, 2,535 ; dependent class (wives, children, scholars, students, dependent relatives, &c. ), 213,736.

Of the total population as ascertained by the census of 1891, 176,971 persons were born in the Colony ; 77,187 in England ; 43,036 in Ireland ; 22,400 in Scotland; 17,023 in N. S. Wales; 7,462 in Victoria; 3,851 in the other Australian Colonies ; 14,910 in Germany.

The following tajjle shows the births, deaths, and marriages for five years : —

Years

Total Births

Illegitimate

Deaths

Marriages

Excess of Births

1893 1894 1895 1896 1897

14,394 13,977 14,874 14,017 14,313

715 632 733 732 862

5,695

5,298 5,152 5,645 5,423

2,524 2,502 2,821 2,823 2,894

8,637 8,679 9,722

8,372 8,890

The immigration and emigration have been as follows : —

Years

Immigration

Emigration

Total

Chinese

Polynesian

Total

Chinese

Polynesian

1893 1894 1895 1896 1897

22,007 25,247 30,066 27,723 29,110

548 429 561 395 455

1,212

1,869

1,312

788

935

19,704 21,070 24,393 24,466 25,479

534 467 505 397 398

1,343 837 773 657 924

Brisbane, the capital of the colony, is divided into two municipalities — Brisbane and South Brisbane, with, respectively, on April 5, 1891, a population of 25,889 and 22,849. At the same date, within a five-mile radius, which embraces both municipalities, there was a population of 93,657, and within a ten-mile radius a population of 101,554, and the num ber atthe close of 1897 within the five-mile radius, was estimated at 105,734. The next largest towns are Rockhampton, 11,629 ; Townsville, 8,564 ; Maryborough, 8,700 ; Gympie, 8,449 ; Ipswich, 7,625.

Religion

There is no State Church. Previous to 1861 valuable grants of land had been made to the piincipal religious denominations, which they still retain. The following are the numbers belonging to the various religious denomina- tions at the census taken in 1891 : — Church of England, 142,555 ; Church of Rome, 92,765; Presbyterians, 45,639; Weslcyan, 20 917; Lutheran,