AUSTRALIA PRIOR TO 1893 83
made by Coghlan, and indicates very clearly the slower rate
of the second period. Comparing the decades 1871-81 and
1881-91, the acreage under crop in Australia increased by
107 per cent. in the first, but by only 27 per cent. in the second ;
flocks and herds grew by 70 per cent. in the first period, but the
rate declined to 37 per cent. in the second ; population rose by
43 per cent. in the first decade, but the rate had fallen away to
34 per cent. for the second, despite the fact that capital was
being spread ever more thickly on the land.
As a justification of expanding debt, however, the real test
lies not so much in acres occupied, nor in stock and people
supported thereon, as in the increasing value of production.
The following table, therefore, reviews the production of the
continent from the standpoint of value available for export.
The figures are corrected for the movements of interstate trade;
and the most remarkable feature is the poor showing made by
Victoria during the period of greatest capital importation.
TapLe XII
Exports from Australian Colonies
New South Wales
Victoria . .
Queensland
S. Australia .
W. Australia
Tasmania
ToTALS
1879.
£m.
9-97
7-28
3-04
3-81
0-4¢&
A ow
Dl
i
1890.
£m.
16-96
7-91
8-41
4-49
0-66
1-40
20.86 |
Increase.
£
6-99
0-63
5-37
0-68
0-21
1-22
Per cent.
70
9
176
i8
46
1
55
It must be noted that this is scarcely a fair representation of
the volume of production. The fall in prices! of Australian pro-
ducts between 1880 and 1890 meant a loss of £32 millions for
the year 1890 alone, since the volume of production had in-
creased by nearly 50 per cent. during the ten years. On the
basis of production, therefore, the year 1881 yielded £25 per
head, whilst 1890 gave £23 per head during a period when
interest indebtedness increased by £2 per head. In other words,
I On the fall in prices as it affected Australia’s finances see the paper by David
Murray before the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce, 1893, The Appreciation of Gold;
and also the Commonwealth Labour Report, No. 1, p. 51.