The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-25 00:00:00

8 0 CIA STA MTh-4 OF ATLRTAALIA,

In a country peopled by immigration it is to be
expected that the males will greatly outnumber the
females ; the immigration of 18 years, 1842-1859,
into Victoria (deducting the emigration thence)
brought 235,770 males and only 130,759 females.
At the census last April, taken on the same day as
in this country—at, least, within the 24 hours—
there were only 64 females to every 100 males. lh
Western Australia not two years ago there were
only 56, and 72 per cent. of the male adults were
either unmarried or had no wife in the colony. Per-
haps it is not surprising to find among the convic-
tions at the quarter sessions of the year one for
" selling a wife." In New South Wales the " blue
book" for 1859 shows no less than one person in
every 18 taken into custody in tho course of that
year (counting repeated arrests of the same person)
an enormous proportion to come under penal re-
straint; but half were cases of drunkenness. In a
population of 320,000 to 350,000 there were no less
than 9,419 instances of persons being taken into
cuotody by the police for drunkenness. In that
•colony the children attending school were about a
tenth of the population ; the Government grant was
£1 9s. 4d. per head in the denominational schools,
and £2 9s. 4d. in the national—the whole grant
amounting to £40,834, and the voluntary contribu-
tions to £22,172. South Australia, with a popula-
tion of 122,000, had no less than 2,123 Sunday
school teachers, and eight times that number of
scholars. In Tasmania there were 29 colonial chap-
lains and 13 incumbents of parishes, the income of
the 42 amounting to £18,243, an average of £434 ;
their congregations numbered 6,600 persons, of
whom as many as 1,725 were communicants, and the
offertories produced £2,936 in the year, but the pew
rents were only £1,491. More than half the men

in Western Australia arrived there as convicts.
Victoria itself had rather a narrow escape of being
a penal settlement. In a garrison order dated Port
Philip, December 31, 1803, Colonel Collins, in order-
ing the loading of the ship Ocean to be continued
by all hands on the Sunday, states " that it has
never been his wish to make the Sabbath any other
than a day of devotion and rest, but circumstances
compel him to employ it in labour. In this the whole
are concerned, since the sooner we are enabled to
leave this unpromising and unproductive country,
the sooner shall we be able to reap the advantages
and enjoy the comforts of a more fertile spot." So
the Governor and his convicts shook the dust of
Port Philip from their feet, and sped away to found
a settlement in Van Diemen's Land. A generation
passed, and in 1836 the first census of Port Philip
was taken, and it was found to contain 177 residents
of European origin. In less than a quarter of a
century more the population exceeded half a million.
Of course, only the young are native born ; two in
every three persons come from the United Kingdom.
Notwithstanding the attraction of the goldfields for
the labourer, Victoria produces about half the wheat
it consumes.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

MANCHESTER-0ur.:24.

English wheat was in slow demand, at no advanee on
former rates ; American held for a decline of 2d to 3d per
1001bs. English and foreign flour a limited business, and
prices as of late. Other articles unaltered.