Increase of Production.

Now for the growth of production. Are we to-day producing so much more wealth than we were fifteen years ago, as to make it certain that we have done light to go as deeply into debt as we have done? Let us compare the position of affairs in regard to certain primary industries, via.:—(1) agriculture (2) pastoral pursuits, (3) dairying, (4) mines. Official statistics not being made up exactly to the five-year periods we have been comparing, we will use the 1881-90 figures given in Coghlan's "Seven Colonies," Agriculture.—The total area under crops of all kinds in' Australasia in 1881, was 5,551,513 acres. In the year 1890 this had increased to 7,066,398 acres, showing an increase in nine years of 27.3 per cent., an average increase of 8 per cent, per year. Pastoral Pursuits.—Mr. Coghlan estimates that the total stock in Australasia in 1890 was equal to 242 million sheep against 177 million in 1881, an aggregate increase of sixty-five millions—that is, 37 per cent. It is worth while comparing these figures with those for the years 1871-81, it being understood that they are for all Australasia.

	1871-81. per cent.	1881-90. per cent.
Increased acreage under crop	106.6	27.3
Ditto stock	70	37
Ditto population	43.2	34.2

It will be observed that, coming to the years when money was most rapidly borrowed, the agricultural and pastoral industries showed much less expansion than in the preceding years, not page 23 only absolutely, but relatively to the growth of population. We fill pass the separate consideration of dairy and mining, and will come to the question of the value of the productions.

Value of production of the following primary industries in 1681 and 1890, viz,: Agriculture, pastoral pursuits, dairying, mines, forests and fisheries,

	1881.	1890.	Increase.
	£	£	£
New South Wales	20,300,000	26,725,700	6,425,700
Victoria	17,250,000	20,072,100	2,822,000
Qaeensland	9,100,000	12,370,100	3,270,100
South Australia	6,950,000	7,172,900	222,900
Western Australia	800,000	1,391,400	15,900,500
Tasmania	2,920,000	2,778,700	141,300*
New Zealand	13,850,000	15,900,500	2,050,500
Australasia	£71,170,000	£86,411,400	£15,241,400

If the production of 1890 had been sold at the prices ruling in 1881 the total would have been £108,261,628, or an increase of £32,091,623. As it is, though the increase in quantity is 45 per cent., the increase in the value of the production is scarcely 22 per cent, against 84 per cent, increase in the population. Pursuing the subject further we find that in 1881 the production equalled £25 per head of the population, and that in 1800 it only touched £28 per head. This is not a very satisfactory exhibit in view of the increase of indebtedness, which, during the nine years, probably reached £180,000,000, the interest on which sum would approximate close to £2 per head.

It seems, therefore, that £2 per head less is being earned, and £2 per head more expense has to be paid than in 1881; facts which must tell with great effect on the margin of profit. It will be seen by the table that New South Wales is far away the greatest producer among the Australasian colonies. The largest production per head is, however, in Queensland; the smallest production per head is in Victoria.

page 24

Production from another point of view, that of exports, may be looked at with profit:—