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In the year 1822 all the settlements on the mainland were comprised in the designation of New South Wales, and as late as 1859 Queensland formed part of that State. Thus an exact distribution of shipping amongst the States comprising the Commonwealth and New Zealand can be made only for the period subsequent to the year last named. Such a division of the total tonnage entered and cleared is made in the following table for the five census years commencing with 1861

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The tonnage of 1891 exceeded that of any preceding year. result was not altogether due to the actual requirements of the trade of that year, as, in consequence of the maritime strike, a large quantity of goods remained unshipped at the close of 1890, and helped to swell the returns for the succeeding twelve months. It was not until 1895 that the tonnage of 1891 was again reached; but since 1895 there has been a great expansion of shipping, and 1901 showed not only the largest total tonnage recorded but the greatest for each individual State.

Below will be found the proportion of the tonnage of each State to the total shipping of the Commonwealth of Australia in the five years quoted above

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It cannot be claimed that these figures have much meaning, and they would not have been repeated in this work, except for the purpose of showing how easy it is to make fallacious comparisons from reasonably correct data. Queensland appears almost last amongst the States in point of tonnage, yet, unquestionably, that State ranks third as regards the importance of its trade. The explanation of the discrepancy between the real and apparent trade lies in the fact which will hereafter be reverted to, that the same vessels are again and again included as distinct tonnage in the returns of the southern States. A mail-steamer which calls at Fremantle, in Western Australia, continues its voyage to Sydney by way of Adelaide and Melbourne, sometimes calling at Hobart, and figures as a separate vessel at each port. This is not the case to so large an extent in regard to Queensland, so that the figures quoted are only of value as indicating the comparative progress of the trade of each separate State, and not the progress of one State as compared with another.

INTERSTATE SHIPPING.

The total shipping of the Commonwealth of Australia, dealt with in the preceding section, excluded the trade between the various States, but in the following table will be found the number and tonnage of vessels entered at the ports of each State from the other States. As a rule, the expansion of the trade of a State with its neighbours has kept pace with the growth of its commerce with outside countries. It should be remembered that the trade between New Zealand and Australia does not appear in tables showing interstate shipping.

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The peculiar feature of the foregoing table is the large increase in the tonnage of Western Australia and South Australia, due in both

cases to the influx of population and expansion of trade resultant on the great gold discoveries in the former State.

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A comparison of the figures given above with those in the preceding table shows that in the case of Victoria and South Australia the tonnage cleared is largely in excess of that entered. This partly arises from the necessity of many vessels clearing at the southern ports in ballast and proceeding for outward cargo to New South Wales ports, principally Newcastle, where on their outward voyage such vessels are, of course, reckoned amongst the external shipping.

The combined tonnage of inter-state shipping entered and cleared during 1881, 1891, and 1901, with the percentage for each state to the total inter-state shipping of the Commonwealth, will be found below:

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EXTERNAL SHIPPING.

It has been explained that in any comparison between the shipping of the Commonwealth of Australia and that of other countries the interstate trade would have to be excluded; but even then the tonnage would be too high, because of the inclusion of mail-steamers and other vessels on the same voyage in the returns of several of the states. However, it is scarcely possible to amend the returns so as to secure the rejection of the tonnage which is reckoned more than once; and in considering the following statement, showing the shipping trade of the Commonwealth with countries beyond Australia, this point should be borne in mind :

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The external shipping of the Commonwealth of Australia during 1901 was fully 78 per cent. more than the tonnage entered and cleared in 1891, when trade was inflated by the shipment of goods left over from the previous year on account of the maritime strike. A distribution of the traffic amongst the leading divisions of the British Empire and

the principal foreign countries with which the states of the Commonwealth have commercial relations will be found below:

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As the following table shows, the largest share of the external tonnage of Australia falls to New South Wales, which takes more than one-third of the total; Victoria comes next with a little over one-fifth, followed by Western Australia with almost one-sixth. The figures in the chapter on Commerce, however, give a better idea of the relative importance of the states in external trade, as the tonnage of the mail-steamers entered

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