PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OF CENSUS

FOR THE YEAR 1876,

TAKEN ON THE 1ST DAY OF MAY,

BEING THE FIFTH IN THE COLONY.

PRESENTED TO THE BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT BY COMMAND

BRISBANE :

BY AUTHORITY : JAMES C. BEAL, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, WILLIAM STREET.

CONTENTS.

Table No. I—Population (exclusive of Aborigines) in Census Districts

Table No. II.—Occupations of the People in Census Districts

Table No. III.—Census District arranged in groups, showing Totals of Population according to Census of 1871 and 1876 respectively, and Increase in five years

Table No. IV.—Population in Electoral Districts, also the number of Minors and Adults composing the Male Population

Table No. V.—Population of Electoral Districts in Census Districts

Table No. VI.—Numbers of Chinese, Polynesias, Prisoners, Lunastics, and Inmates of Charitable Instituions in Electoral Districts by Census Districts

Table No. VII.—Population of Municipalities according to Census of 1871, and as returned by Enumerators in 1876, compared, showing Increase or Decrease

CENSUS—1876. (PRELIMINARY STATEMENT).

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command.

Registrar-General's Office, 24th July, 1876.

TO THE HONORABLE THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.

SIR,

I have the honor to submit Preliminary Statement, showing the main results of the Census taken on the night of the first day of May, 1876, in pursuance of the Act 39 Vic. No. 2, entitled" The " Quinquennial Census Act of 1875."

The estimated population as given from year to year in the Vital Statistics, is made up from excess of births over deaths taken from the registers, and of immigration over emigration by sea, taking no account of those coming and going overland ; these have hitherto always been estimated as about balancing each other, and this has been borne out by Census Returns. It would seem that during the quinquennium ending 1875, this equal adjustment may have been somewhat disturbed ; and this may have been partly occasioned by the number of persons attracted to the Stanthorpe tin mines, many of whom it is supposed may have gone away over the border into New South Wales.

The system of fencing in the land in the pastoral districts, has no doubt considerably diminished the number of hands employed on many of the sheep stations, and many of these possibly have left the colony over the border during the last five years.

A balance against us from those coming and going overland, will probably account for an over estimate of population at the end of last year. The estimated number as given in the Preliminary Statement on Vital Statistics to December, 1875, is 181,288. The number of persons in the colony, contained in the Census Schedules as now tabulated, is 173, 180, after adding to this number the usual 2½ per cent. allowed for the proportion certain to be overlooked in a population of less than 200,000, spread over an area of 678,000 square miles, so as to get at actual population, the number is brought to within 3,779 of the estimated population, as shown in Preliminary Statement.

Since the discovery of gold on the Palmer, many deaths have occurred there, and in the contiguous districts, which could not have been registered. Mr. Warden Selheim estimates these as something over five hundred, and this is probably below the number of unregistered deaths in those districts during the last five years. These are not taken into account in the estimated population of 181,288, the number of births and deaths actually registered serving to make up the totals as estimated.

Mr. Selheim thus expresses himself in his report of the collection of the Census in the portion of the colony where he acted as enumerator, the District of the Palmer. "Owing to the breaking out of " the Hodgkinson rush, no more unfavorable time for the taking of the Census could have been selected, "as far as my district was concerned. The whole population, European as well as Chinese, were on the "move, and it has been a matter of extreme difficulty and expense to ensure anything like a correct "return." The enumerator expresses his conviction, that the result shows a near approach to actual numbers in the Palmer District, and though this may be questioned, much credit is due to Mr. Selheim for the great care and energy he displayed in the execution of his most difficult task.

The flooded condition of the country, especially in some of the Southern and Western districts, at the time the returns were being collected, doubtless interfered more or less, with the work in those localities ; but in spite of these difficulties, the enumerators express themselves as being fully satisfied that the collectors have been successful in obtaining a substantially correct result.

After allowing for the somewhat exceptional circumstances above alluded to, it is believed that the whole number, adding the 2½ per cent., viz., 177,509, is a close approximation to the actual population of the colony. The same enumerators as were engaged in the previous Census, were generally employed on this occasion, and their reports, with the diaries of the collectors, afford satisfactory evidence that the work has been performed with care.

The population as given in Census Report of 1871, was 120,104 ; the number returned this year being 173,180 ; the increase since then, is 53,076, or 44.18 per cent. in the five years. The New South Wales Census for 1871, the last received, showed an increase of 43.64 per cent. in the ten years ; so that if our increase be somewhat smaller than was anticipated, we have the satisfaction of knowing, that we have added to our population in Queensland in five years, as many as were added in the neighboring colony in double that period, though we have no means as yet, of a comparison between the two colonies during the five years just terminated.

Some slight modification of the numbers, occupations, &c., will be necessary when the schedules are gone over a second time and the tables compiled, and when these with the report are published. The schedules from the far-off District of Burke not having been yet received, the numbers have been ascertained by wire, in order to complete the totals for this Preliminary Statement.

Sir,

I have the honor to be,

Your most obedient servant,

HENRY JORDAN,

Registrar General,

TABLE I.

Order 1 (Government) includes principal officers, accountants, clerks, messengers, porters, laborers, Police, unspecified, Railway, Telegraph, and Post Office.

Order 2 (Learned Professions)includes Law, Medicine, Divinity, Literature, Arts, Science.

Order 3 (Domestic Duties) includes wives, widows, children at home, children at school.

Order 4 (Personal Offices) includes hotel-keepers, lodging-house keepers, hotel, club, eating-house servants, office keepers, porters, messengers, and others engaged in attendance.

Order 5 (Commercial) includes capitalists, auctioneers, brokers, commission agents, bank officers and clerks, officers of public companies, commercial clerks, commercial travellers, salesmen, shopkeepers, and all other general dealers,

Order 6 (Pastoral) includes squatters, graziers, station managers, overseers or superintendents, their wives, sons, and daughters, or other relatives, stock and station agents, shepherds, bushmen, stock-drivers, shearers, &c., &c.

Order 7 (Agricultural) includes farmers, gardeners, sugar, coffee, or tobacco growers and their families, relatives, &c., farm bailiffs, overseers, farm servants, and all others engaged in tilling the soil.

Order 8 (Carriers) includes carriers of men, animals, goods, and messages, coach, omnibus, cab proprietors, drivers, or conductors, draymen, carriers, carters, livery-stable men, persons engaged on ships and steamers, watermen, boatmen, messengers.

Order 9 (Industrial) includes booksellers, printers, musical instrument makers, opticians, gunsmiths, instrument makers, cutlers, coachmakers, shipwrights, boatbuilders, sailmakers, builders, carpenters, masons, painters, dealers in textile fabrics, food and drink, furniture makers, manufacturing chemists, manufacturers of all kind.

Order 10 (Laborers) includes laborers, mechanics, manufacturers where particular branches not defined.

Order 11 (Public Burdens) includes pensioners, paupers, lunatics, prisoners.

Order 12 (Unspecified) includes all persons whose occupations are not stated.