September of that year an Act was passed making seven years the period of tenure of a seat, though members may be re-appointed. Two members of the Council are aboriginal native chiefs. The House of Representatives consists of eighty members, of whom four are representatives of native constituencies. All the electoral districts for European representation, which number sixty-eight, return one member each, with the exception of the cities of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, each of which returns three members. Representatives are remunerated for their services at the rate of £240 per annum, but £2 per day for every sitting day exceeding five is deducted on account of absence during the session not due to illness or other unavoidable cause. To be qualified for membership of the House of Representatives a person must be of the male sex, duly registered on the electoral roll, and free from the disabilities mentioned in Section 8 of the Electoral Act of 1893. All contractors to the public service of New Zealand to whom any public money above the sum of £50 is payable, directly or indirectly, in any one financial year, as well as civil servants of the colony, are incapable of being elected, or of sitting and voting as members. Every man or woman of the full age of 21 years, who is either a natural-born or naturalised British subject, and resident in the colony one year, and three months in one electoral district, is qualified to be registered as an elector and vote at elections of members for the House of Representatives. In the Maori districts, adult Maoris are entitled to vote without registration. Under the provisions of the Electoral Act of 1893, the franchise is extended to women of both races in accordance with the qualifications specified above, but women may not be elected as members of the House of Representatives. No person may be represented on more than one electoral roll. The Act also provides that the name of every qualified elector who fails to record his vote shall be removed from the roll after the election. Since the passing of the Constitution Act conferring representative institutions upon the colony of New Zealand there have been fourteen complete Parliaments. The first Parliament was opened on the 27th May, 1854, and dissolved on the 15th September, 1855, and the fourteenth opened on the 22nd June, 1900, and dissolved on the 4th October, 1902. At the general election for the first Parliament, which took place in 1853, the population of the colony numbered 30,000, and the electors on the roll 5,934. At the last general election for the House of Representatives, in November, 1902, the electors on the roll numbered 415,789 of whom 185,944 were females. The male and female electors numbered respectively 229,845 and 185,944, and the male voters numbered 175,320, or 76.3 per cent. of the enrolment, while 138,565, or 74.5 per cent. of the females recorded their votes. 165 POPULATION. N the 26th January, 1788, Captain Phillip arrived in Sydney people all told. Settlement soon spread from the parent colony, first to Tasmania in 1803, and afterwards to other parts of the continent and to New Zealand. At the census of 1901 the population of Australasia, exclusive of aborigines and Maoris, was 4,545,967, distributed as follows: The figures are inclusive of half-caste aborigines living in a civilised condition, and if there be added an estimated population of 148,000 Australian aborigines in an uncivilised state and of 43,000 Maoris in New Zealand, the total population of Australasia at the date of the census would be about 4,737,000. The growth of the population of Australasia from the date of the first settlement is shown in the following table. An official enumeration of the people was made in most of the years quoted :-- The high rate prior to 1831 arose from the small numbers on which the increase was calculated; while between 1831 and 1841, it was due to the policy of state-aided immigration which was then in vogue. The discovery of gold, which proved a strong incentive towards emigration to Australia, accounted for the high rate during the period from 1851 to 1861. The rate of increase since 1861 has shown a regular decline during each decennial period, and from 1891 to 1901 the annual increase was only 1.78 per cent., which is but slightly in excess of the natural increase due to the excess of births over deaths. The chief factor determining the increase of population in Australia prior to 1860 was immigration, and until recent years the states of Queensland and Western Australia gained more largely from this source than from births; but taking the whole period of forty-two years from 1861 to 1902 embraced in the following table, the two elements of increase compare as follows: Arrivals from abroad in excess of departures..... 779,345 1,965,093 The population of each state (exclusive of aborigines of full blood and nomadic half-castes) at the last five census periods, and at the 30th June, 1903, is shown below: Commonwealth 1,153,973 1,668,377 2,252,617 3,183,237 3,773,248 3,900,560 New Zealand.... 99,021 256,393 489,933 626,658 772,719 Australasia 818,830 1,252,994 1,924,770 2,742,550 3,809,895 4,545,967 4,719,390 In order to show the great differences in the growth of the population of the individual states during the last ten years, the appended table has been prepared, giving the population at the end of each year since 1893, and at the middle of 1903. In this table aborigines are included :— : The average annual rates of increase in the various states during each period of ten years from the beginning of 1861 to the end of 1900, and for the years 1901-2 were as follow: : The total populations, at the end of each of the last ten years, of the six states which form the Australian Commonwealth are given The following table gives the total increase in each state during the forty-two years, 1861-1902, distinguishing the natural increase arising from the excess of births over deaths from the increase due to the excess of arrivals over departures: The information conveyed by the above figures is important, as illustrating, not only the movement of population, but also the effect upon immigration, of local influences, such as the attraction of liberal land laws, the fertility of the soil, the permanence of employment, and the policy of assisted immigration. But a bare statement of the gross increase to each state from immigration is apt to be misleading, since the original density of population must be deemed a factor affecting the current of immigration. The following figures show the density of population per square mile in each state at the time of taking the census on the last five occasions and also at the close of 1902 : At the close of the year 1902 the population of Australasia, including the native races, only reached a density of 1.59 persons per square mile-a rate which is far below that of any other civilised country; and excluding Australian aborigines and Maoris, the density was only 1.52 per square mile. But a comparison of the density of population in Australasia with that in older countries of the world is of little practical use, beyond affording some indication of the future of these states when their population shall have reached the proportions to be found in the old world. The latest authoritative statements give the density of the populations of the great divisions of the world as follows:: From the earliest years of settlement there was a steady if not powerful stream of immigration into these states; but in 1851, memorable for the finding of gold, the current was swollen by thousands |