revenue of dominions. 224. By this table it will be noticed that, out of the 183 millions Aggregate sterling which represent the aggregate annual revenue of the British British dominions, 91 per cent. is raised in the United Kingdom, India, and Australasia, the proportion contributed by each respectively being about one-half, one-third, and one-eleventh. Of the total amount, 46 per cent. is raised in Europe, 36 per cent. in Asia, 4 per cent. in Africa, 3 per cent. in America, and 9 per cent. in Australasia. head in United 225. Besides the Australasian colonies and the comparatively insig- Revenue per nificant possession of the Falkland Islands—in which the revenue from colonies and all sources, amounting to less than £10,000 per annum, bears an Kingdom. exceptionally high proportion to the population, which numbers only 1,400-the only colonies which raise a larger amount of revenue per head than the United Kingdom are the Cape of Good Hope, Trinidad, and Gibraltar. For populations on which these calculations have been based, see table following paragraph 110 ante. H Land revenue in Australasian colonies. 226. The very large amount of revenue in proportion to population raised in every one of the Australasian colonies, as compared with other British possessions, will be at once noticed.* It will, however, be remembered that these colonies possess an immense territory, scantily peopled, and that a considerable revenue is derived from the usufruct of the unsold lands, which is not generally the case elsewhere; also that the revenues are swelled by the large sums which are received annually from the alienation of Crown lands in fee-simple. This will be more readily observed by reference to the following table, which shows the receipts from those sources and their proportion to the total revenue in each of the Australasian colonies during 1880 :LAND REVENUE IN AUSTRALASIAN COLONIES. Prospective diminution of land revenue in colonies. Decrease of land re venue in Australasia. 227. It will be noticed that over a sixth of the aggregate revenues of the Australasian colonies in 1880 was derived from Crown lands; and that the proportion reached a maximum of about a third in New South Wales and South Australia; approximates to a fifth in Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia; whilst in Tasmania it falls to less than an eighth, and in New Zealand to less than a ninth. When, moreover, it is considered that in several of the colonies nearly all the land revenue is received for alienation in fee-simple, it is evident that in the course of a few years the rapid diminution of the public estate will necessitate a resort either to other modes of sustaining the revenue or to a considerable reduction in the expenditure. 228. The total land revenue of the Australasian colonies amounted in 1878 to £5,814,388, but in 1879 to only £3,565,349, and in 1880 to £3,802,143; in the first named year the proportion to the total revenue * See table following paragraph 213 ante. + In Victoria, in 1880-1, the land revenue was:-Alienation in fee-simple, £701,276; temporary occupation, £133,913; total, £835,189. The proportion to the total revenue was 16.10. was 33 per cent., in the second 223 per cent., and in the last only 17 per cent. The large decrease in 1879 as compared with 1878 is almost entirely confined to New South Wales and New Zealand, in which colonies the falling-off amounted to £1,000,437 and £1,190,520 respectively. of land various 229. In countries out of Australasia, calculations respecting the land Proportion revenue (revenue from domains and forests) appear to be generally revenue in made in connection with the total expenditure instead of the total countries. revenue; but as these totals in most countries vary but little from each other, the result would probably be about the same as if the calculations were made according to the principle adopted for the Australian colonies, as shown in the last table. In the following statement, taken from l'Almanach de Gotha,* the proportion of the revenue from domains and forests to the total expenditure is given for some of the principal States of the world: LAND REVENUE IN PROPORTION TO TOTAL EXPENDITURE OF tion of land revenue in most countries. 230. According to these figures, the Empire of Germany, and some small propor of the States it embraces within its dominions, are the only communities mentioned which derive more than 5 per cent. of their revenue (expenditure) from the public estate, and of these only Bavaria obtains as high a proportion as even New Zealand, which of all the Australian colonies is the one in which the land revenue bears the smallest proportion to the total revenue. Many of the countries named, and amongst them Great Britain, and-strange to say-the United States and Russia, do not obtain even 1 per cent. of their revenue from their lands. See l'Almanach de Gotha, 1880, page 1041. Gotha, Justus Perthes. Revenues of foreign countries. 231. The following table shows the actual or estimated revenues of the principal foreign countries at recent dates, according to the best information obtainable. In most cases sums raised by means of loans and other extraordinary receipts have been eliminated. The calculations in the last column have been made in the office of the Government Statist, Melbourne : REVENUES OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES. *The populations of foreign countries on which these calculations are based are generally those + This amount is made up of £40,000,000, revenue of Austria; £23,635,000, revenue of Hungary. This amount is made up of the revenue of the Empire, 1879-80, £22,521,257 (exclusive of contributions by the States), and of the revenues of the following States, according to their budget estimates, for the dates named, viz. :-Alsace-Lorraine, £1,986,758 in 1878-9; Anhalt, £451,150 in 1879; Baden, £1,709,921 in 1879; Bavaria, £11,243,609 in 1878-9; Bremen, £505,385 in 1879; Brunswick, £375,300 in 1879; Hamburg, £1,384,630 in 1879; Hesse, £1,011,762 in 1879; Lippe, £46,023 in 1878; Lübeck, £129,981 in 1879; Oldenburg, £347,790 in 1881; Prussia, £35,575,037 in 1879-80; Reuss-Greiz, £27,177 in 1878; Reuss-Schleiz, £36,480 in 1878; Saxe-Altenburg, £113,722 in 1879; Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, £292,833 in 1879; Saxe-Meiningen, £211,182 in 1879; Saxe-Weimar, £338,340 in 1879; Saxony, £3,071,571 in 1878-9; Schaumburg-Lippe, £25,236 in 1879; Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, £88,613 in 1879; Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, £108,237 in 1879; and Würtemburg, £2,416,239 in 1877-8. || This amount is made up of £4,166,000 revenue of Sweden, and £2,043,000, revenue of Norway. raising revenue. 232. According to this table and that following paragraph 223 ante, Countries the country which raises the largest revenue of any in the world is largest France, next Russia, next the United Kingdom, and next Germany. After the revenues of these countries, the largest amounts are raised in British India, Austro-Hungary, the United States, Italy, and Spain. These are the only countries whose revenues exceed the united revenues of the Australasian colonies. The revenue of Victoria is larger than that of Denmark, Greece, Roumania, Switzerland, Tunis, The Argentine Confederation, or Mexico, and is nearly as large as that of Portugal. raising largest amounts per head. 233. France and Holland are the only European countries named in Countries the last table which raise more per head than the United Kingdom; not one of the countries raises so much per head as any of the Australasian colonies, and in only two countries (viz., France and Peru) does the amount per head approximate even to that raised in Tasmania. In Victoria, more than half as much again is raised per head as in either of those two countries, and more than twice as much as in Holland or the United Kingdom. 234. The amounts of which revenue is made up are of two classes, Taxation, viz., those raised by taxation and those raised otherwise. In Victoria, the former class consisted in 1880-1 of Customs and Excise duties, wharfage rates, port and harbor dues, business licenses, duties on bank notes, duties on estates of deceased persons, a land tax, and stamp duties.* The latter class comprised amounts derived from the sale or occupation of Crown lands, from railways, water supply, and other public works, from post and telegraph offices, from fees, fines, and forfeitures, from the labor of prisoners, from the interest on the public account, &c. The following figures show the result of a division of the Victorian revenue upon this principle : head. 235. The amount raised by taxation divided by the estimated mean Taxation per population of the financial year, already stated to have been 860,067, gives an average of £2 6s. 7d. to each individual. The following table contains a statement of the gross amount of taxation, the average amount per head, and the proportion of taxation to the total revenue, during each year since 1852: *For amount under each of these heads during the last six years, see table following paragraph 280 post. |