310
THE BRITISH EMPIRE :-^NEW SOUTH WALES
The amount of the Public Debt on June 30, 1912, was 100,052,635/., with mean rate of interest 3-46 per cent. Of this amount about 85 per 'cent, has been spent on the construction of railways, tramways, water supply, sewerage and Harbour Trust, controlled by Boards. The net return from these services for the year 1911-12 was equal to 4-21 per cent, of the cost of construction ; or 3-36 per cent, of the existing Public Debt, exclusive of Treasury bills in aid of deficiency of revenue.
The expenditure from loans, exclusive of redem j)tions, up to Jane 30, 1912, has been : Railways and tramways, 62,011, 230Z. ; telegraphs and telephones', including offices, 1,761,845/.; water supply and sewerage, 15,853,253/.; other works and services, 19,784,986/.; total, 99,411,314/.
The financial statistics of the incorporated boroughs and municipal dis- tricts are as follows for the municipal year 1910 : —
-
Assessed Annual Value
Estimated
Capital Value of
all Property in
Municipalities
£ 52,142,200 59,175,874
Revenue
Expendi- ture
Loans Out- standing
City of Sydney . Si;burbs
£ 2,346,399- 3,989,766
£ 578,116 453,. 81 8
£
578,985 454,878
1,0.33,863 573,473
£ 3,231,900 809,1.58
Metropolitan Country
6,336,165 3,099,987
9,436,152
111,318,074 45,824,999
1,031,434
579,117
4,041,058 643,950
Total .
157,143,043
1,610,-551
1,007,-336
4,685,008
The financial statistics of the 134 .shires (area, 182,110 .square miles) during 1910, were as follows : —
Unimproved Capital Value, 89,935,912/ ; Revenuo, 794,374/. ; Expenditure, 765,032/. For Defence see under CoimnoniveaUh of Australia. A naval estab- lishment, the main works of which are at Garden Island, Sydney, has been completed. Sydney is the headquarters of the squadron in Australian waters, and has a dockyard, naval coaling station, and victual- ling and other stores. The cost of the defence of the State is borne by the Commonwealth Government.
Production and Industry.
I. Agriculture. In 1911-12 there were 3,629,170 acres under crops. About one-fourth of the total area of the State is under forest. The cultivated land is princi- pally to be found in small holdings of less than 500 acres. The State is divided into three divisions— the Eastern, Central and Western. The Dis- tricts in the Eastern and Central Divisions are, for the purpose of local ad- ministration, grouped into 12 Land Board Districts, which .are sub-divided into 88 Land Districts. The Western Division is under the control of the Western Land Board — consisting of three Commissioners — and the head offices of the Lands Department and Wester Ji Land Board offices are in Sydney. In the Eastern and Central Divisions there are a number of tenures under which land may be acquired, those of most interest to intending settlers being Conditional Purchase (with which is associated Conditional Lease), Homestead Selection, Settlement Lease, Conditional Purchase Lease, and Settlement Purchase. Conditional Purchase and Conditional Lease:— The Statutory price of Crown lands available for residential Conditional Pur- chase is 1/. per acre, but Crown Lands may be specially classified at prices
