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.