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The Census The Sydney
Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser 26
September 1829 |
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In our front page will be found a Government Notice presenting an
abstract of the population of New South Wales, as ascertained by the census
of last year. This is a curious and highly interesting document. In the first place
it shews us the fallacy of our contemporary
journals, who are forever talking of this large and populous Colony, which
they will have it contains upwards of 80,000 souls. We now see that it
contains not half the number, only 36,598. In the next place we see how erroneously the Roman Catholics have been
all along said to compose at least a majority of the population. It has
indeed, been maintained by some that they amounted to one-fourth or
one-third; whereas it now turns out that they are barely as one to three, the
grand total being 36,598, and the total of Catholics only 11,236. The emancipist body, including those free by servitude and those who
have been pardoned, amounts to 7,530; the number of actual prisoners of the
Crown 15,668; so that the total of those who compose the class distinguished
from that of emigrant, is 23,198. The number of emigrants is 4,673; and of persons born in the Colony,
8,727; making a total of the class distinguished from emancipist of 13,400:
but as a large proportion of the native-born are the off spring of
emancipists, we cannot fairly reckon the emigrant body, including their
children, at more than 9,000. The two bodies, then, as to numerical strength,
stand thus Emancipist.............................11,930
Prisoners................................15,608
= 27,598 Emigrant.................................
9,000 Majority of Emancipists....... 18,598 This shows how important a part of the body politic are the
emancipists, and con firms our arguments in favour
of the expediency of conceding to them an equality of civil rights. Several other curious statistic calculations are suggested by these
tables, but we must reserve them for another opportunity. |