374 Average amounts assured. AVERAGE AMOUNTS ASSURED. With regard to the average amount assured per policy the following information has been compiled, based on the latest available returns : Bonus additions, Prevalence of Assurance. The average amount of assurance per head of population was in Australasia £19, Canada £11, United Kingdom £13, and the United States £13, while the average number of policies per thousand of population was in Australasia 65, Canada 35, United Kingdom 31, and the United States 22. The average policy is scarcely a fair measure of thrift. In these colonies mutual assurance is the rule, and members of the various societies have acquired large bonus additions, and during 1891 the average existing policy and bonus of four of the leading assurance companies doing business in Australasia, was £342, as compared with the £296 shown in the comparative table. For the other countries named this information is not obtainable. It would seem that the practice of assuring life is much more prevalent in Australasia than in any of the other countries, named; and although the average sum assured by each policy is less than elsewhere, the number of policies is so much greater as compared with population that the amount assured, per inhabitant is considerably higher than in the other countries mentioned. MONEY ORDER SYSTEM. 375 MONEY ORDERS, &c. business. The business transacted in the various Postal Departments Money Order under the system of money orders has grown to very large dimensions. This increase is due mainly to the greater facilities now afforded for the transmission of money by this method, though it is also to some extent attributable to the more general appreciation of the system by the working classes. The following is a statement of the business transacted during 1891 :— Orders issued. Orders paid. of orders. The average amount of each money order issued was £3 2s. 3d., Average value and the business done by New South Wales greatly exceeded that of any other member of the group. The average value of money orders issued in the United Kingdom during 1891 was £2 14s. 9d. Besides the money orders mentioned above, a system of postal Postal notes. notes is in force in all the colonies, New South Wales having adopted the system in July, 1893. These notes are issued at These figures show an increase on those of the previous year of 133,708 in the number, and £46,383 in the value of Postal notes. Number of bankruptcies. BANKRUPTCIES. During 1891 the number of bankruptcies was largest in New South Wales, the total number for the whole of Australasia being 3,176. This number includes 75 private arrangements under the Insolvency Act of South Australia, for which neither liabilities nor assets are shown, and 26 insolvencies in Western Australia, for which the amount of liabilities only is returned as £18,679. The cases for which complete returns are available numbered therefore only 3,075, and were distributed as follows: LIABILITIES OF BANKRUPTS. estimates unreliable. Little, if any, reliance can be placed upon the statements made Bankrupts' by bankrupts as to the state of their affairs, the assets being invariably exaggerated. Taking the figures given above for what they are worth, it would appear that the average amount of liabilities per bankrupt was £1,190; of assets, £778, showing a deficiency of £412. In the following table the average figures for the ten years ending 1891 are given; the assets, however, have been omitted, as the statements, as far as some of the colonies are concerned, are palpably worthless : 377 Australasian wealth. TH PRIVATE WEALTH. HE first century of Australasian history closed on the 26th January, 1888. It is impossible to trace step by step the progress made during that period, as the data for the purpose are for the most part wanting. Sufficient material is, however, available, from which a comparative statement of the wealth of the colonies at different periods may be deduced. In the following figures the private wealth of the people has alone been considered, the value of the unsold lands of the State, as well as the value of public works, having been omitted. The subjoined table shows the private wealth of the whole of Australasia and the increase thereof at intervals of twenty-five years from the date when this territory was first colonized : Marvellous increase. 1,169,000,000 * Increase for 27 years. The progress exhibited in this table is marvellous, and as regards ratio quite unprecedented. Though Australasia has but the population of a province of one of the great European powers, in the wealth and earnings of its people it stands before most of the secondary States, and as regards wealth and income per head of population far before any other country. The following figures are designed to illustrate this truth. Those relating to the United |