Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/645

 AREA AND POPULATION

297

3 extensive pastoral districts — the western, northern, and north-eastern. There are 33 municipalities and 141 district councils. The Northern Territory is presided over by a Resident, assisted by a small staft'.

Area and Population.

The original boundaries of the province, according to the statute of 4 & 5 Will. IV. cap. 95, were fixed between 132° and 141° E. long, for the eastern and western boundaries, the 26° of S. lat. for the northern limit, and for the South the Southern Ocean. The boundaries were subsequently extended, under the statute of 24 and 25 Victoria, cap. 44. By Royal Letters Patent, dated July 6, 1863, all the territory lying northward of 26° S. latitude and between the 129th and 13Sth degrees of East longitude, and now known as the Northern Territory, was added. The total area of the colony is calculated to amount to 903,690 English square miles.

South Australia was lirst colonised in 1836 by emigrants sent out by the South Australian Colonisation Association. The conditions were that the land should not be sold at less than II. per acre ; that the revenue arising from the sale of such lands should be appropriated to the immigration of agricultural labourers, and the construction of roads, bridges, and other public works (which provisions have been strictly observed) ; that the control of the colony's affairs should be vested in a body of commissioners approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the Governor be nominated by the Crown. The population at various censuses has been : —

—

Population

Yearly Increase per cent.

—

Population

Yearly Increase per cent.

1844 1855 1866

17,366

85,821

163,452

22-5 7-0

1871

1881

1 1891

185,626 279,865 320,431

2-7 4-4 1-4

Of the total population in 1891, 4,895 belonged to the northern territory, principally Chinese coolies.

There were December 31, 1897, 183,920 males, 174,304 females. There is only one person to about 3 square miles. The population of Adelaide, the capital of the colony, and suburbs is about 146,125 ; of the Northern Terri- tory, 4,820, of whom 402 are females.

The enumerations here given, except the three last, did not include the aboriginal population. The number of aborigines living in settled districts was found to be 3,369, namely, 1,833 males and 1,536 females, at the census of March 26, 1876. In 1891 the number of aborigines was stated to be 3,134 ; 1,661 males and 1,473 females. Of the population in 1891, 3,848 were Chinese (adult males).

The following arc the statistics of births, deaths, and marriages for five years :

Excess of Births

—

Births

Marriages

Deaths

1893

1894 1 895 1896 1897

10,683

10,476

10,537

10,012

9,535

2,110

2,094 2,048 2,183 1,949

4,520

4,001 3,921 4,038 3,973

6,163

6,475 6,616 5,974 5,562