Chinese. In the following table will be found the average rates of wages paid to the various employees in this class : THE COMMERCE. HE external trade of Australia is larger than that of any British possession, India alone excepted, and if the transit and re-export trade be excluded, compares very favourably as regards proportion to population with that of any other country. The growth of Australian trade is shown in the following table : Large as these totals are, they would be still larger had a proper record been kept of the imports and exports. Until September, 1903, it was the practice of the various customs offices to ignore transhipments, so that goods which arrived from a country outside Australia at any Australian port, and were thence transhipped to another Australian state, were recorded in the state at which they ultimately arrived as an import from the state where they were transhipped, and not as they ought to have been, as an oversea import. On the other hand, as regards goods of Australian produce sent from one state to another and thence transhipped oversea, the only record of the movement was in the returns of the original state, where they were treated as exports to the transhipping state, no record being kept of the movement oversea. It is estimated that if these movements-inwards and outwards-had been recorded properly as they have been since 1st September, 1903, the imports for the year 1901 would be over two millions greater than is shown, and for 1902 more than one and a half millions; while for the first eight months of 1903 the difference would be a little over a million. For 1901 and 1902 the amount to be added to the exports is between three and four millions. During the last four months of 1903 the transhipments from New South Wales and Victoria, the only states affected by the outward movement, amounted to £1,108,546. The additions to be made to the imports and exports on this account will, however, be more accurately known later when the matter has been more fully investigated. The imports recorded during 1903 from countries outside Australia into the states comprised in the Commonwealth were as follows :— The values of the external exports for 1903 were as shown below: The total extra-Australian trade for the year 1903 was therefore as follows: As the table shows, the total value of the external trade of the Commonwealth in 1903 was £85,981,635, equal to £21 18s. 11d. per head of population. These figures indicate an improvement on the returns for 1902, when the trade was valued at £84,593,461, or £21 17s. 10d. per head of population. Turning to individual states, it will be found that in proportion to population, the trade of Western Australia is far in excess of that of any of the other Commonwealth states. This of course is only to be expected in a rich gold-producing state with a comparatively small population. New South Wales comes next with £23 1s. 2d., followed by Victoria with £19 8s. 9d., Tasmania occupying the lowest position with £11 14s. Od. per inhabitant. Comparisons of this description are, however, apt to mislead, since states like Queensland and Tasmania, possessing but a small direct trade, appear at a disadvantage. The foregoing represent the figures as returned by the statistical branches of the various Customs departments. As regards imports, the value represents the amount on which duty is payable or would be payable if the duty were ad valorem. The value of goods subject to duty is taken to be the fair market value in the country of origin, with an addition of 10 per cent. to such value. The value of goods exported is the value in the principal markets of the Commonwealth in the ordinary commercial acceptation of the term. The trade of the last three years represents an average of £22 13s. 5d. per inhabitant, including a very small re-export trade. Similar information for some of the more important countries of the world is as follows: The trade of Australia, per inhabitant, exceeds that of any of the countries included in the foregoing list with the exception of Belgium. It would appear that the trade of the Netherlands and Switzerland, compared with population, is greater than that of Australia; but it is impossible to arrive at comparative figures for either of these states, so great is their transit and re-export business. |