New Capital Arrived, with Corrections as stated.

The aggregate of these figures is again nine-two millions; but the corrected distribution reduces the Victorian total from sixty-five to fifty-two millions, increases the New South Wales total from twenty-seven to thirty-three millions, and creates a Queensland total of seven millions. It matters little how these figures are looked at; any way and every way they are remarkable. The figures in regard to Victoria are of exceptional interest; indeed, they are probably without parallel in the whole history of finance. Never before have a single million of people had thirty-seven millions sterling thrown into their midst in the brief period of five years. The "leaps and bounds" shown by the advance from one-and-a-half millions to twelve-and-a-half millions are great enough for special comment, but the advance from twelve-and-a-half millions to thirty-seven-and-a-half millions is simply bewildering. The figures for New South Wales are in another way almost equally remarkable, the rise from five millions to twenty-three millions, followed by a drop to four millions, shows a most notable fluctuation. As for Queensland, page 15 the changes have really been of a more violent nature than in either of the other two colonies.^*

In the case of New Zealand, which has been dealt with at knight, it was clearly shown that the years of exuberant prosperity—the years when everything was "booming"—were the Tears when new capital was pouring freely into the colony. The same state of things is most vividly illustrated in the figures we are now dealing with. Take Victoria, it is well-known that the first five-year period was not a brilliant time. It is also well-known that during the second period there was a substantial improvement, which became more and more marked, until in the third period this improvement culminated in an outburst of prosperity such as the world seldom sees. In the case of New South Wales the first period was a generally brighter one than in Victoria, and it will probably be admitted that the time when prosperity reached its "booming" period in this colony corresponds with the five-year period 1882 to 1886. Passing along to Queensland we find, as already stated, violent fluctuations. Daring the first period Queensland was forging ahead slowly, the second period was one of very great expansion, the third period has been, as Queenslanders know to their sorrow, one of painful depression, Referring to the table, it will be seen that in every instance the period of supreme prosperity was also the period when capital was flowing most freely into the colony.

We get a still clearer view of the facts we are putting forward by finding and comparing the arrivals of new capital fat each 1000 of the population.