CONJUGAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.

From the returns of those Colonies where the people born at sea have been distinguished into those born of British and of foreign parentage respectively, it appears that the great bulk of them were of British parentage.

unspecified.

The column headed " unspecified" comprises, in addition to Birth-places those given as unspecified in the tabulations of the different Colonies, the natives of such foreign countries as were not specified in the table previously given. The proportions shown for Queensland and Western Australia are considerably larger than those of the other Colonies, owing to the fact that in Queensland the large number of Polynesians mentioned in a previous paragraph, is included; while in Western Australia, people engaged in the pearl fisheries, who were returned as natives of Malaysia, have been reckoned. The small number of persons who in some of the Colonies were returned as natives of "Australasia" (Colony unspecified), is also enumerated under this head.

169

CONJUGAL CONDITION.

At the Hobart Census Conference it had been decided to tabulate the conjugal condition of the people under the heads of "Never married," "Married," "Widowed," and "Divorced." This decision was, however, only adhered to by New South Wales and Tasmania, while the reports of the other Colonies do not distinguish the divorced, who are, no doubt, included under the heading of unmarried. For the sake of comparison a similar classification has, therefore, been made in the tabulation of New South Wales and Tasmania. The people who returned themselves as "divorced" on the census schedules of New South Wales, numbered 178 males and 126 females-total, 304 ; and in Tasmania 25 males and 6 females-total, 31. Considering that during the five years preceding the taking of the Census, 171 decrees for the dissolution of marriage had been granted in New South Wales, it is reasonable to assume that the figures quoted understate the truth, no doubt owing to the reluctance on the part of many

Divorced not enumerated.

170

NUMBERS MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.

people living in a state of divorce to return themselves as "divorced" in the census schedules.

The following table shows the number of unmarried, married, and widowed people in each Colony, those whose conjugal condition was unspecified on the schedules having been proportionately distributed :

Excess of unmarried males.

Total

1,123,954 1,139,840 393,718 320,431 49,782 146,667 626,658 3,801,050

From the foregoing figures it will be seen that unmarried males are largely in excess of unmarried females in each Colony. The numbers for each Colony and the percentages of unmarried females to unmarried males in each Colony are shown in the following table :—

PROPORTION OF MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.

The percentage is particularly low in those Colonies which have attracted much population from the other Colonies, as New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia; while it is near the average in Victoria and New Zealand, which have neither gained nor lost population to any great extent; and it is considerably above the average in South Australia and Tasmania, whence a great amount of emigration to the other Colonies has taken place. This fact favours the supposition that the emigrants have chiefly been young unmarried males attracted to the other Colonies by the hope of bettering their condition.

The numbers of married males and females are fairly equal in all the Colonies, the males preponderating everywhere, except in Victoria and New Zealand; there must, therefore, have been an emigration of married males from those two provinces.

number

171

Amongst the widowed females largely outnumber males, as was Widows outto be expected from the higher death-rate and the proportionately widowers. larger number of males re-married. Western Australia, however, shows a slight excess of widowers over widows. The following table shows for each Colony the proportion of unmarried, married, and widowed males to total males, of unmarried, married, and widowed females to total females, and of unmarried, married, and widowed persons to total population :

172

NUMBER OF SICK AND INFIRM.

Returns in some cases unsatis

factory.

SICKNESS AND INFIRMITY.

Inquiries were made in the census schedules respecting the number of persons suffering from sickness and infirmity, but there is reason to believe that in at least some of the Colonies the way in which the column was filled in was unsatisfactory. The figures for New South Wales and Victoria may be compared throughout, as the classification adopted was practically the same, and to a certain extent this holds also good of the Western Australian and Tasmanian figures. The returns for Queensland are made in a somewhat indefinite way, and in New Zealand half the number of persons returned as sick and infirm includes all ages, while the other half only includes the population of 15 years and over. Returns from South Australia have not yet been received. The following table shows the results of the tabulation for the other six colonies:

*Included under more general heading.

Of this figure, 4,130 persons refer to

the population over 15 years only, while 274 persons refer to the whole population. Population over 15 years only.

NUMBER AND MATERIALS OF DWELLINGS.

HABITATIONS.

the people.

173

At the Census of 1891, inquiry was made on the householders' Dwellings of schedules respecting the dwellings of the population. The questions to be answered were whether a building was occupied, unoccupied, or in course of construction, the material of which it was built, and the number of rooms it contained. The tabulation has not been made with the same degree of completeness in all the Colonies; but as far as comparative figures can be given they are shown below. The number of occupied and unoccupied houses, &c., was as follows:

in construction

The materials of which the dwellings were constructed in each Materials used Colony is shown in the following table, as far as the particulars