In response to increasing demand to access historical statistics on the Web, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has recently digitised an important compendium of Australian and New Zealand colonial data, A Statistical account of the seven colonies of Australasia.
A Statistical account of the seven colonies of Australasia (and its later title, Statistical account of Australia and New Zealand) was compiled between 1890 and 1904 by the New South Wales Statistician, Timothy A. Coghlan. The eleven volumes bring together statistics for each of the colonies of Australia and New Zealand and are complemented by analysis and commentary. The publication also includes chapters on political divisions, areas and boundaries, climate, parliaments and defence much like in the current Year Book Australia.
Coghlan’s expressed aim, as stated in the Preface to the first volume, was to ‘exhibit at a glance the position held by each Colony individually, and by the country as a whole, with regard to all matters connected with its moral and material welfare’.
The scanning process allows full-text searching capability once downloaded.
This title adds to a range of historical data which ABS has been progressively adding to its Website, including Demography bulletin which includes detailed population and vital statistics data for the period 1900 – 1971 and Labour reports, covering the period 1911 – 1997. See the full list of titles already available, as well as those which will be available later in the year.
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