Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/319

AUSTRALIA. which, under the new Constitution, has exclusive control of the systems of defense.

The different State governments of Australia have ventured farther into the industrial field than any of the older governments of the world, in consequence of which their annual revenues and expenditures attain a disproportionately large figure. For a number of years the per capita expenditure has exceeded $35. Some of these Government enterprises, notably the railroads, have not yet on the whole proved self-supporting, and in proportion to their deficit the burden of taxation has been increased. The expenditure incurred in the ordinary administration of government is the largest single item, constituting about one-third of all. Next to this is the interest on the public debt, about one-fourth of the total. In 1900 the revenue raised by taxation amounted to over $50,000,000, or about $13 per inhabitant. A little less than one-third of this was collected by direct taxation, which included stamp duties (probate, etc.), land tax, and income or dividend taxes. The indirect taxes were import and excise duties. Prior to the establishment of the Commonwealth, the different States levied import duties on interstate as well as foreign imports. New South Wales alone was inclined to a free-trade policy. The formation of the union brought about the abolition of interstate tariffs and has made it all the more necessary to raise a part of the revenue by duties on foreign imports — a policy for which there seems to be no alternative, however distasteful to the mother colony (New South Wales).

The public debt of Australia continues to increase, and considering that she has been in no wars, it reaches a remarkable if not an alarming amount. Prior to 1871 the States were indebted to British capitalists to the extent of £26,500,000 ($130,000,000). By 1899 the debt was increased by £152,900,000 ($764,500,000). This was equivalent to about $240 per inhabitant, or nearly three-fourths of the net debt of the United States. The foreign indebtedness of the Commonwealth appears still relatively greater when the fact is considered that British capital has been put in private undertakings within the States to the extent of £85,000.000 (about $425,000,000). It is estimated that the foreign capital invested in the country is more than 14 per cent. of the total wealth. This, however, occasions little alarm among the people of the country, who point to their rapidly increasing trade, the certainty of internal development, the high rate of wages, the large proportion of property holders in the population, and the great material benefits secured to the mass of the people by the permanent improvements effected by the Government with the aid of borrowed capital.

The population of Australia represents the development of the first century of her history, and compares favorably with the corresponding period in other new countries, e.g. the United States or Argentina. In 1801 the white inhabitants were but 6,500, which number increased during the first half century to about 400,000, the majority of whom were located within the present limits of New South Wales. The growth from 1861 to 1901 is indicated in the following table:

State 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 New South Wales 350,860 540,322 30,059 126.830 15,691 90,211 603,981 731.528 120,104 185,620 25,353 101,785 751,468 862,346 213,525 279,865 29,708 115,705 1,132,234 1,140,405 393,718 320,431 49,782 146,667 1,362,232 Victoria 1,199,692 Queensland 502,892 354.001 Western Australia 182,553 • 172,000 1,163,973 1,668,377 2,252.617 3,183,237 3,773,370

The population of Australia has shown a rather premature and excessive tendency to settle in the large cities. This has not been for the best interests of the States, since the industrial system does not call for such a fact. This centralization has not been at the expense of the rural districts, however. It is rather due to the character of the immigrant population. The following table shows the increase in the principal city of each State; the impulse toward centralization seems to have spent itself:

City 1871 1891 1901 Sydney

137,776 206,780 15,029 42,744 5,244 19,092

383,283 490,896 98,657 133,252 8,447 33,450 488 968 Melbourne 494,100 Brisbane Adelaide 162,261 Perth Hobart 41,412

But three other places have a population exceeding 40,000, viz.: Newcastle, in New South Wales, 55,000; Ballarat and Bendigo, in Victoria, with 46,000 and 43,000 respectively.

The discovery of gold has done more than any other factor to attract immigration from abroad and from one State to another. An illustration of this is the remarkable development of Victoria in the decade following 1850, and of Western Australia from 1891 to 1901. During the early part of the Nineteenth Century the convicts brought from Great Britain constituted a considerable part of the population. The assistance rendered to immigrants by the State Governments has been of importance, the States having borne the expenses in whole or in part of over 600,000 immigrants. The conditions for acquiring land have been most favorable (see the paragraph on Agriculture in this article). Foreign immigration greatly decreased, however, during the last decade of the century. Queensland contains the largest percentage of foreign born, who constitute a third of the total population of the Commonwealth. The large majority of the foreign born come from the United Kingdom. Less than 4 per cent, of the population were born in lands not belonging to Great Britain. Of these, the Germans and Chinese are the