their import does not appear in the returns of the states where such gocds were ultimately consumed. The following tables show the revenue received from Customs and Excise, the cost of collecting the duties, and the proportion which such cost bears to the total revenue received in each of the Commonwealth *1900 +1901 1901-2 1902-3 867,520 427,963 7,272,981 933,717 448,120 7,633,404 500,845 490,916 4,258,354 491,371 +221,328 4,150,589 939,336 1,202,191 787,695 337,371 1,019,008 1,356,099 710,830 351,953 2,812,731 2,376,525 1,297,662 698,647 1,335,614 ||373,140 8,894,319 3,478,742 2,499,014 1,261,066 689,727 1,395,997 ||360,607 9,685,153 * Half year ended 31st December, except Tasmania. ended 31st December previous. + Half year ended 30th June. + Year Year ended 30th June. In the following statement will be found the cost of collecting the Customs and Excise duties during each year of the period, together with the proportion which such cost bears to the total receipts in each state and in the Commonwealth. It will be seen that under federal administration in the Commonwealth as a whole and in the various states, with the exception of Queensland and Tasmania, the cost of collection of the duties has greatly declined. The greatest proportional decrease has taken place in New South Wales, the percentage falling from 3.3 in 1898-9 to 2.1 in 1902-3. EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTION. To obtain a fair approximation of the number of persons engaged in the various walks of life in Australasia was impossible before the census of 1891 was taken, for although at the Census enumerations of 1881 and previous years the occupations of the people were made a feature of the inquiry, the classification, which followed closely that originally devised by the late Dr. Farr for the English Census, was unsatisfactory, as it completely failed to distinguish between makers and modifiers, and distributors. To avoid a repetition of this defect the Census Conference, held at Hobart in March, 1890, abandoned the English system and adopted a scheme of classification more in accordance with sound principles. This classification was reviewed at the conference of Statisticians held in Sydney in February, 1900, and was adopted, with very slight modification, for use at the decennial Census of 1901. Under this classification the population is divided into two broad sections-bread-winners and dependents-and the bread-winners are arranged in their natural classes of primary producers, makers and distributors, with their various orders and sub-orders. The classes may be briefly defined as follows: Section B.-Dependents: Non-Breadwinners. The information relating to the various classes and orders in each state has been arranged and presented in as concise a manner as practicable, as it is impossible to enter minutely into details in a work such as this, and those who desire to pursue the subject further are referred to the Census Reports of the various states. BREAD-WINNERS AND DEPENDENTS. Of the total population of Australasia whose occupations were ascertained at the Census of 1901, the bread-winners numbered 1,979,484, and comprised 43.67 per cent., and the dependents 2,553,819, or 56:33 per cent. The number in each state and their proportion to the total population are shown below:: Males Females Persons 451,403 889,381 | 182,146 | 120,328 85,382 57,585 1,286,225 | 272,077 1,558,302 421,182 1,979,484 Males Females 256,634 210,980 94,084 64,094 27,229 32,039 685,060 131,164 816,224 The largest proportion of bread-winners is found in Western Australia, where this class comprises more than three-fourths of the male and nearly one-fifth of the female population. The striking feature of the table is the large number of bread-winners in the female population of Victoria, the proportion in that state being 24.27 per cent., while the corresponding figure for the Commonwealth is only 19.88 per cent. The number and proportion per cent. of bread-winners and dependents in each state at the Census of 1891 were as follows: Males 382,385 387,684 146,611 99,109 | 21,375 48,833 205,956 1,291,953 89,502 114,270 31,651 24,253 3,092 12,578 43,589 318,935 Males NUMBER OF DEPENDENTS. 223,711 204,922 76,064 61,870 8,351 28,727 125,633 729,278 56,529 249,772 1,440,641 An examination of the figures for the two census periods will show that the proportions have undergone no great change, nevertheless there has been a general tendency in each state and in Australasia as a whole towards an increase in the proportion of bread-winners, both male and female. In all the states, with the single exception of Queensland, there is evidence of the increased employment of females. The number of bread-winners, male and female, in each of the various classes at the Census of 1901 was as follows:: |