30 IMPORTATION OF CAPITAL INTO 
The unusual character of these statistics calls for some further 
comment. In the case of Victoria we have a progressive increase 
from £1:59 millions to £51:724 millions. Until 1891 no serious 
check to borrowing had occurred, and we are able to see up 
to this point the uninterrupted play of British investment. 
Although the halt was called earlier in New South Wales, the 
check had not yet become at all pronounced. In Queensland, 
on the other hand, the more varied nature of production in that 
colony enabled, under heavy pressure it is true, not merely a 
cessation of borrowing but also repayment of principal to the 
extent of nearly five millions in one year alone. Even more 
remarkable in its bearing upon the differences in the weight 
of the debt between different states is the rate of the per capita 
increase, the variations during the successive phases of the 
period, and the differences as among the various colonies. In 
Victoria the rate of borrowing had grown from nearly £2 per 
head in the first phase to nearly £38 in the last, in New South 
Wales it increased from £7 5s. per head to nearly £26 and then 
dropped back to less than £4, in Queensland it rose from £4-75 
per head to £34-65 and then changed abruptly to a repayment 
of nearly £14-5 per head, or a difference in the ‘living fund’ 
representing nearly £250 for every family of five in the colony! 
But the mere volume of capital introduced, or even the rate 
of new debt per head, constitutes no adequate criterion by which 
to judge the economic advantage of such importation. The real 
test must lie in a comparison of new capital with the growth 
of population, on the one hand, and with the increase in pro- 
ductivity on the other. Comparing the capital imports with the 
population in each of the eastern colonies the following analysis 
is obtained. 
Tare XI 
New Capital and Increase of Population 
Period. 
1877-81 . | 
1882-86 .  . 
1887-91 
VICTORIA. 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
QUEENSLAND. 
New cap. 
per 1,000. 
Pop. inc. 
per cent. 
New cap. ' Pop. inc. 
ner 1.000. per cent. 
New cap. 
ner 1,000. 
Pop. inc. 
per cent. 
L 
1,883 
13,220 
24.165 
FS x 
93 n523 | 27 4,745 
14 25,958 | 27% 34,657 
153 3.982 173 le12.497 
19 
51 
10 
+ Net loss.