The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-26 00:00:00

AUSTRALIAN- ST/ITISTICS.

The Melbourne Herald publishes a comprehen-
sive analysis of the statistics of Victoria. In less
than a quarter of a century the population has
risen from 170 to 530,000 souls, of whom 335,000
are males and 195,000 females. The Govern-
ment has sold 3,000,000 of acres of land, at an
average price of £2 lOs per acre, and has realised
by that sale between £7,000,000 and £8,000,000
sterling, the whole of which large sum has been
laid out in endeavours to improve the colony.
On the 2,000,000 acres of town and suburban
land we have fixed property to the value
of between £60,000,000 and £70,000,000 sterling,
and of the 2,800,000 acres of country land we have
about 1,500,000 acres enclosed, and 300,000 acres
under tillage. Our yield of grain last year was, in
round numbers, 4,000,000 of bushels, which, at ss.
per bushel, would be equal to £1,000,000 sterling,
and our other agricultural and horticultural pro-
duce would raise up that to £2,500,000 sterling.
Over our unsold lands roam 6,000,000 of sheep,
700,000 head of horned cattle, 70,000 horses, and
sundry other stock, from which the pastoral
tenants of the crown, besides enriching themselves,
furnish us with exportable and consumable pro-
duce—with wool, tallow, hides, and skins, for
export, and with sheep, cattle, and pigs for
slaughter—to the value of between £3,500,000 and
£4,000,000 sterling. These are facts patent to all,
and not to be controverted or gainsaid by any.
They look like fiction, we must confess, but they
are, nevertheless, truth, and truth un adorned.
And truth, like beauty, we all know, " when un-
adorned, is then adorned the most." We leave the
foregoing, then, to speak for itself, and proceed to
another series of facts, deducible from the same
official source. In less than ten years, with a
bona fide gold mining population, never exceeding
60,000 to 80,000 souls, and now believed to
be much less, owing to the withdrawal of
the people to other pursuits, without a correspond.
ing increase by immigration—•we have raised
22,000,000 and 23,000,000 ounces of gold, valued at
between £99,000,000 and £95,000,000 sterling,
which has stimulated every branch of trade and
industry in the colony, and otherwise tended to
enrich it. IVe began with a gold export of less
than £600,000 in 1851, and raised it to more than
£10,000,000 in 1852. We dropped it to between
£9,000,000 and £10,000,000 in 1854, and raised it
to £11,000,000 and upwards in 1855, and continued
at that rate until 1858. We then came down to
£9,000,000, or thereabouts, in 1859, and this year
it will in all probability not be much less.

The Belgian Moniteur of yesterday contains a
royal decree promulgating the budget of 1861. In the
budget the ordinary receipts are put down at 148,629,190 fr.,
and the special receipts from the sale of public domains,
authorised by a) law of the 3d Feb., 1843, at 400,000 fr.
The land tax is estimated at 15,911,527 fr., and for the
dividends on the public debt 40,616,721 fr. are awarded.

•
SUDDEN DEATH AT lIOXTON. Yesterday Mr.
E. Waller, the summoning officer of Sho oditch, received
information relative to the deala of Mr. John Gilman, aged
45 years, who was found dead at his residence at No. 7,
Dorset-terrace, New North-road, Ifoxton. The deceased
had carried on business as a German clock maker, and was
residing alone, his wife being in Germany. A friend called
to see him, and not receiving an answer, the front door was
forced open, when deceased was found lying on the back-
yard door-step in a pool of blood. Dr. Amsden, of the
East-road, was called in, and it is supposed that the de-
ceased died from the rupture of a vessel of the heart. An
inquest will be held on the body to-day. There was a great
deal of property in the house, which the police have
charge of.