Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/425

 PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY

373

The amount of the Public Debt on June 30, 1920, was 152,776,032^. (ex- isive of Closer Settlement Debentures, &e. with mean rate of interest 4 "30 r cent. Of this amount about 80 per cent, has been spent on the con- uction of railways, tramways, water supply, sewerage and Harbour Trust, itrolled by Boards. The net return from these services for the year 19-20 was equal to 4 '24 per cent, of the cost of construction ; or 3 '35 per it. of the existing Public Debt.

The expenditure from loans, exclusive of redemptions, up to June 30, 1920, i been : Railways and tramways, 93,036, 6811. ; telegraphs and telephones, luding offices, 1,761,845/. ; conservation of water, etc., 6,592,142/. ; water iply and sewerage, 21,413,565/.; other works and services, 33,771,711/. ; al, 156,575,944/.

The financial statistics of the incorporated boroughs and municipal Jis-
 * ts are as follows for the municipal year 1918 : —

—

Assessed Annual Value

Improved Capital Value

. Expendi- Income ^

Loans Out- standing

City of Sydney. Suburbs

£ 3.691,2-24 7,765,709

£ 82.027,200 106,647,308

£

1,263.170

885,493

£ 1,246,130

£ 7,502,558 931,795

Metropolitan Country

11,4^6.933 4,632,435

16.089,368

IM.674,508 63,368,253

2,148,663 1,098,610

2,108,781 1,000,495

8,434,353 655,431

Total.

252,042,761

3,247,273 3,109,279

9,039,784

The financial statistics of the 136 shires (area, 115,653,120 acres), during 1918, were as follows : —

Unimproved Capital Value, 109,133,215/.; Income, 1,153,741/.; Expenditure, 1,157,5071.

For Defence see under Commonwealth of Australia. A naval estab- lishment, the main works of which are at Garden Island, Sydney, has

] been completed. Sydney is the headquarters of the squadron in Australian waters, and has a dockyard, naval coaling station, and victual- ling and other stores. The cost of the defence of the State is borne by

!the Commonwealth Government.

Production and Industry.

I. Agkicplturr.

In 1917-18 there were 4,462,916 acres under crops (including 2,215 i double cropped). The cultivated land is principally to be found in small holdings of less than 500 acres. The State is divided into three divisions— the Eastern, Central, and Western. The Districts in the Eastern and Central Divisions are, for the purpose of local administration, grouped into 13 Land Board Districts, which are sub-divided into Land Districts. The Western Division is under the control of the "Western Land Board — consisting of three Commissioners— and the head offices of the Lands Department and Western Land Board offices are in Sydney. In the Eastern and Central Divisions there are a number of tenures under which land may be acquired. In the Western Division the land is leased by the State to pastoral tenants,