Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/455

 RELIGION 403

There were enumerated in 1911, 6,369 pore and 1,475 half-caste aborigines (the former nor included in the table) in the settled districts and virtually in the employment of the settlers.* The number of wild natives is not known, but the total number of aborigines has been roughlv estimated at about 30,000.

As in all countries where the white man has settled among races that cannot in a lar^e measure adapt themselves to his forms of civilisation, the natives, in so far as they existed in the present centres of settlement, are fast dying out, a natural consequence of the loss of their original hunting- grounds. They are of quick intelligence, but disinclined for the civilised modes of life. The Government has taken the best measures available for their protection.

Of the total population in 1911, 104,208 were returned as born in Western Australia. The number of married persons was 96,482 (50,702 males and 45,780 females) ; widowers, 4,180 ; widows, 5,785 ; divorced, 187 males and 103 females ; unmarried, 106,060 males and 68,807 females. The number of males under 21 was 58,838, and of females 56,203. Of the males over 21, 47,323 had never been married, and of the females over 21, 13,609. The estimated population on September 30, 1914 (excluding full-blooded aboriginals) was: males, 182,682; females, 148,522; total, 326,204; on January 31, 1917, the figures were: males, 158,598; femdes, 148,608: total, 307,206. The decrease since 1914 was due to enlistments for the war. The total enlistments during the war numbered 14,151) of whom 20, 768 had returned on September 30, 1919. The population on September 30, 1920, was estimated to be : males, 179,393 ; females, 156,665 ; total, 336,068.

Perth, the capital, at the time of the 1911 census, hail a population, within the 10-mile radius area of the Metropolitan district, of 106,792. The estimate a* on December 31, 1919, was 142,000. This, however, includes the chief port of the State, Fremantle, with its suburbs, the population of which, at the census, was 20,847. The other principal municipalities, with census popu- lation of 1911, are :—

Towns

Towns 1911

Kalgoorlie. . . 8,781 Bunbury

Boulder. . . 10,824 Geraldton. 3,47S

Albany. . . 3,586 Xortham. 3,361

The movement of population for the State in

5 years is given

as follows : —

Years

Marriages

Births Deaths

Immigrants

Emigrants

1914 1916 1917 1918 1919

2,660 2,365 1,621 1,612 2,194

9,204 3,043 8,563 3,085 7,882 2,769 7,106 2,833 6,937 3,590

270 19,322 17,823 24.262 32,561

31,097 34,010 22,318 24,511 17,695

In 1914 there were 388, in 1916, 321. in 1917, 327, in 1918, 287, and in 1919, 292 illegitimate births.

Religion.

The religious division of the population was as follows at the census of 1911 :— Church of England, 109,435 ; Methodists, 34,348; Presbvterians