CO885-5 — Page 291

The voting was as follows:-

Ayes.

Victoria.

New Zealand.

Tasmania.

New South Wales.

South Australia.

Western Australia.

156

No.

Queensland.

3. I have now the honour to submit this resolution for further consideration at the pending Conference: also to suggest that Her Majesty's Government may be pleased to present to the respective Governments of Australia copies of the papers presented to the Imperial Parliament on the subject of the Foreign Cattle Bill when that measure was before Parliament.

4. As I recollect. the main question considered at the time was the form of the measures to be taken with regard to the isolation and treatment of imported cattle. In these colonies, although the importation of cattle from the continent of Europe is very exceptional, still the conditions and circumstances which are applicable to the general question aro equal, for the colonies are liable at any time to the introduction of cattle disease, as between the colonies, and I apprehend that the opinions of experts who evidence before the committee would prove of the utmost practical value,

gave having regard to further preventive measures and early legislation.

The Right Hon.

Sir Henry Holland, Bart.. M.P.,

Secretary of State for Colonies, Chairman of Conferenco.

I have, &c.,

(Signed) HENRY T. WRENFORDSLEY,

Delegate to the Inter-Colonial Conference held at Sydney, 1881.

157

tion that the Colonics will not be disposed to co-operate for uniformity of method, which assumption may prove to be without foundation, and partly perhaps upon an over-estimate of the degree of uniformity which it is desired or thought practicable to establish.

Colonial Office, April 1887.

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL FOR IRELAND to EARL GRANVILLE. MY LORD,

Charlemont House, July 20, 1886. I BEG to enclose for your Lordship's information a copy of a memorandum (13 July 1886) on the question of an Imperial Census, which, I believe, will interest your Lordship, especially at the prosent time. I have had the memorandum printod with the view of submitting it to statistical friends and others interested in the ques- tion, and with the intention of formally bringing the matter under the notice of the Government, should it meet with a favourable reception privately. The memorandum is a mere sketch of what might be done in the matter. I believe that with the present rapid methods of communication, the proposal will prove quite feasible to practico.

I have, &c., (Signed) T. W. GRIMSHAW.

The Right Hon. the Earl Granville, K.G.

&c.

&c.

&c.

Enclosure.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885/5

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

No. 53.

CENSUS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

COLONIAL OFFICE MEMORANDUM and CORRESPONDENCE.

IN July 1886 the Registrar-General for Ireland called attention to the want of information regarding Colonial Census statistics, and made proposals for taking a simultaneous Census of the British Empire under the direction of an Imperial Census Commission composed of representatives of the United Kingdom, India, and the Colonies. The Royal Colonial Institute has from time to time represented the desirability of taking the Census of the whole Empire on one and the same day, and, as far as practicable, in the same form, and suggestions to the same effect have been made by the Imperial Federation League. It has always been the desire of Her Majesty's Government that the Census of the Colonies should be taken at the same time and in the same manner as that of the United Kingdom, and with this object the same forms and directions that have been employed in the United Kingdom have been supplied to the various Colonial Governments. The information thus obtained from the Colonies in 1871 was reproduced at considerable length in the Report of the Registrar-General for England of the Census for that year, but although the information obtained from the Colonies in 1881 and furnished to the Registrar-General for England is believed to have been not less extensive, yet the only information regarding the Colonies in the Census Report for that year is a short tabular statement showing the number of persons in each Colony. It has been alleged that the information obtained from the Colonies in 1881 has not been utilised, partly because that furnished in 1871 was of an unsatisfactory character, owing to the different procedure in different Colonies, and partly because the manipulation of it was considered by the English Census office to be outside their province, neither of which views appears to be shared by the Registrar- General for England himself, who urges the inutility if not impossibility of uniformity on certain leading points, and expresses a distinct opinion in favour of adherence to the present system. That opinion, however, appears to rest partly upon the assump-

MEMORANDUM of SUGGESTIONS for the taking of an IMPERIAL CENSUS of the UNITED KINGDOM and DEPENDENCIES of the BRITISH CROWN.

The attention which is at present directed to questions connected with the Governmental relations between the United Kingdom and the dependencies of the British Crown in other parts of the world, seem to make it advisable that every means should be taken of ascertaining as far as possible, and at as early a period as con- venient, the relative statistical facts connected with these various portions of the British Empire, in such a form that they may be easily collated, digested, and compared with one another, and thus form the basis for any arrangement which may be entered into for federation or other new relations between the Home, Indian, and Colonial Governments. In fact it would appear to be essential, before any scheme of federation could be properly discussed, that a complete Census, carried out on uniform principles, should be made of all the dependencies of the British Crown.

At present there is not any official report containing what may be termed the Census Statistics of the British Empire in a convenient and available form. The only arrange- ments of these statistics which exist are contained in the English Census Report, and in the tables issued by the Board of Trade, entitled "Statistical Tables relating to the Colonial and other possessions of the United Kingdom." Neither of these publications fulfil the conditions of complete Census abstracts for the British Empire. The former report contain a very interesting resumé of the population statistics of the dependencies of the United Kingdom; the latter contains many miscellaneous statistics, and is arranged more with the view to its serving as a book of reference concerning each dependency than as a comprehensive review of the whole. It is not, however, possible to compile from either of these reports a series of tables which might be fairly con- sidered as a Census abstract, or upon which a General Census Report of the British Empire could be founded.

It cannot be anticipated that the first attempt to compile a census of the British Empire on an uniform basis will be attended with that degree of success which could be desired, but it is necessary that if any measure of success is to be attained at the approaching Census period of 1891, that the question should be considered at once. so that if an Imperial Census be determined on arrangements for carrying it out could be commenced as soon as possible.

It would seem that the presence of a large number of distinguished Colonists in London in connexion with the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, affords a favourable opportunity for the consideration of this question, and for consulting those best qualified to give opinions on the subject from an Indian and Colonial point of view.

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