290
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — QUEENSLAND
On December 31, 1897, the estimated population was 484,700.
The census of April 5, 1891, showed that the population then consisted of 223,779 males, 169,939 females. The total numbers included 8,574 Chinese (of whom only 47 were females), principally engaged in the gold mines ; and 9,428 'Polynesians,' 826 of whom were females ; and 1,844 persons of other alien races. No return is made of the aborigines, but police reports estimate their number at about 12,000.
The census population was distributed as follows : — Northern District, 78,077 ; Central District, 46,857 ; Southern District, 268,784.
As to occupation the population was classified as follows : — Professional class, 10,448; domestics, 20,403; commercial, 31,138; industrial, 47,173; agricultural, pastoral, manual, &c., 68,285 ; indefinite, 2,535 ; dependent class (wives, children, scholars, students, dependent relatives, &c. ), 213,736.
Of the total population as ascertained by the census of 1891, 176,971 persons were born in the Colony ; 77,187 in England ; 43,036 in Ireland ; 22,400 in Scotland; 17,023 in N. S. Wales; 7,462 in Victoria; 3,851 in the other Australian Colonies ; 14,910 in Germany.
The following tajjle shows the births, deaths, and marriages for five years : —
Years
Total Births
Illegitimate
Deaths
Marriages
Excess of Births
1893 1894 1895 1896 1897
14,394 13,977 14,874 14,017 14,313
715 632 733 732 862
5,695
5,298 5,152 5,645 5,423
2,524 2,502 2,821 2,823 2,894
8,637 8,679 9,722
8,372 8,890
The immigration and emigration have been as follows : —
Years
Immigration
Emigration
Total
Chinese
Polynesian
Total
Chinese
Polynesian
1893 1894 1895 1896 1897
22,007 25,247 30,066 27,723 29,110
548 429 561 395 455
1,212
1,869
1,312
788
935
19,704 21,070 24,393 24,466 25,479
534 467 505 397 398
1,343 837 773 657 924
Brisbane, the capital of the colony, is divided into two municipalities — Brisbane and South Brisbane, with, respectively, on April 5, 1891, a population of 25,889 and 22,849. At the same date, within a five-mile radius, which embraces both municipalities, there was a population of 93,657, and within a ten-mile radius a population of 101,554, and the num ber atthe close of 1897 within the five-mile radius, was estimated at 105,734. The next largest towns are Rockhampton, 11,629 ; Townsville, 8,564 ; Maryborough, 8,700 ; Gympie, 8,449 ; Ipswich, 7,625.
Religion
There is no State Church. Previous to 1861 valuable grants of land had been made to the piincipal religious denominations, which they still retain. The following are the numbers belonging to the various religious denomina- tions at the census taken in 1891 : — Church of England, 142,555 ; Church of Rome, 92,765; Presbyterians, 45,639; Weslcyan, 20 917; Lutheran,
