EXPENDITURE OF INCOME. 289 it amounted to £53,445,100. The distribution of this expenditure, Cost of living together with the rates per inhabitant, is shown below: New South Australasia. The conditions of life and the standard of living are much the Cost of living, same in all the Colonies, but it would undoubtedly be incorrect to assume that the average expenditure throughout Australasia is equal to that of New South Wales. Making an arbitrary reduction on the New South Wales rates of 10 per cent. for the other Colonies the expenditure for Australasia would be as follows: 290 COST OF LIVING. Daily expendi sure The expenditure in New South Wales for the year given amounted to £45 4s. 51d. per head, or at the rate of 2s. 5 d. per day. The daily expenditure may be thus distributed : other countries. Expenditure in According to Mulhall the expenditure per inhabitant in the leading countries of Europe and in the United States is :— Cost of living, and earnings. The table just given affords but a partial view of the question of the cost of living; for if the total earnings of the countries above enumerated be considered as an element of comparison, it will be found that few countries approach New South Wales in the small proportion of income absorbed in providing food for the people. The following table, given on the same authority as the preceding, shows that, while the actual cost of food and drink is £18 7s. 11d. in this Colony, and £17 2s. 3d. in Australasia, as against £14 4s. 9d. in Great Britain, the earnings required to pay for this food are not larger proportionately than EXPENDITURE ON FOOD. 291 in the countries which show most favourably in the table. The Cost of food compared with number of working days in the year is assumed to be 300, earnings. allowing for thirteen days' sickness and fifty-two Sundays: Classification of workers formerly. impossible. Division of workers. Description of classes. EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTION. To O obtain a fair approximation of the number of persons engaged in the various walks of life in Australasia was hitherto impossible, 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. Parr, was unsatisfactory, as it completely failed to distinguish between producers 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. Under this classification population is divided into two great sections-breadwinners and dependents-and the breadwinners are arranged in their natural classes of producers and distributors, with their various orders and sub-orders. The classes may be shortly defined as follows: Section A.-Breadwinners. Class I. Professional. Class II. Domestic. Class III. Commercial. Class IV. Industrial. Class V. Agricultural, Pastoral, Mineral, and other Class VI. Indefinite. Section B.-Dependents: Non-Breadwinners. Class VII. Dependents. The description of the various classes and orders, together with the number of males and females, exclusive of aborigines, belonging to each order are given in the following pages for all the PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT. 293 Australasian Colonies with the exception of South Australia, whence returns are not yet available. Defence. Class I embraces all persons not otherwise classed, mainly Government and engaged in the government and defence of the country, and in satisfying the intellectual, moral, and social wants of its inhabitants. This class is divided into two orders : Order 1. Persons engaged in government, defence, law, and Order 2. Persons ministering to religion charity, health, Order 1 in its four sub-orders :- 1. General Government. 2. Local Government. 3. Defence; and 4. Law and Order, contains the following number of per Order 2 is divided into ten sub-orders as follows: 1. Religion. 2. Charity, exclusive of hospitals. 3. Health. 4. Literature. 5. Science. 6. Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, and Surveying. 7. Education. 8. Fine Arts. 9. Music. 10. Amusements. Persons ministering to religion, &c. |