ustment in the general aggregates, a matter to
which considerable attention is paid. The very large mass of detail
collected at these inquiries entails an unusually long time spent in
compilation; the statistics of population, accordingly, are available
considerably in advance of those relating to production and industries.

_Australasia_.--As the sphere of the census operations in Canada has
been gradually spreading from the small beginnings on the east coast to
the immense territories of the north-west, so, in the island continent,
colonization, first concentrated in the south-east, has extended along
the coasts and thence into the interior, except in the northern region.
The first act of effective occupation of the country having been the
establishment of a penal settlement, the only population to be dealt
with in the earlier years of British administration was that under
restraint, with its guardians and a few scattered immigrants in the
immediate neighbourhood of Sydney Cove. This was enumerated from 1788
onwards by official "musters," at first weekly, and afterwards at
lengthening intervals. The record was so inaccurate that it had no
statistical value until 1820, when the muster was taken after due
preparation and with greater care, approximating to the system of a
regular census. The first operation, however, called by the latter name,
was the enumeration of 1828, when an act was passed providing for the
enumeration of the whole population, the occupied area and the
live-stock. The details of population included sex, children and adults
respectively, religion and _status_, that is whether free (immigrants or
liberated convicts), on ticket-of-leave, or under restraint. A similar
inquiry was made in 1833 and again in 1836. In 1841 a separate census
was taken of New Zealand and Tasmania respectively. The scope of the
inquiry in New South Wales was somewhat extended and made to include
occupations other than agriculture and stock-breeding. Five years later,
the increase of the population justified the further addition of
particulars regarding birthplace and education. The record of _status_,
too, was made optional, and in 1856 was omitted from the schedule. In
that year, moreover, Victoria, which had become a separate colony, took
its own census. South Australia, too, was enumerated in 1846, ten years
after its foundation as a colony. From 1861 the census has been taken
decennially by all the states except Queensland