ge number of destitute persons relieved at
the public expense in the three months ending the 27th of September was
756. The extent of crown lands sold, from the 1st of January to the 13th
of October was 113,731 acres, which realized L150,616--an amount
and acreage below the average of former years. The earnings of the
government railways--from Adelaide to Port Adelaide, and from Adelaide
to Gawler Town--amounted to L37,205 in the first 41 weeks of the
present year, being an increase of L1,340 as compared with the
corresponding period of 1858. There are 254 permanent ecclesiastical
buildings in the colony, besides 104 dwelling-houses and places
temporarily used for religious worship; sittings are thus provided for
51,831 persons, and the average congregations are estimated at 41,000.
The Wesleyan Methodists provided 16,261 sittings; the Church of
England, 6,335 sittings; the Roman Catholics, 4,790 sittings; and the
Congregationalists, 6,051 sittings. The remainder were supplied by other
denominations too numerous to particularize; but it may be added
that the German Lutherans figure in the return to the extent of 5,164
sittings. The total number of children in the various schools in the
colony maintained at the public expense was in 1858, 8,237: viz. 4,395
boys, and 3,842 girls. The total number of schools was 182, and the
amount of government aid given was L11,329. These figures exhibit an
astonishing advance as compared with 1849, when there were only 27
schools, with 848 scholars, and government aid to the extent of L707.
There were besides 11,982 scholars in Sunday schools in 1858, and 210
of those institutions were in existence, as compared with 45 schools and
2,563 scholars in 1848."

_Victoria_.--The progress of this colony was more rapid and extensive
than that of any other in the Australian group. The balance-sheet of the
colony for 1858 revealed the following startling facts. The receipts for
that year amount in round numbers to L3,000,000, the import duties alone
amounting to L1,318,000, the export duty on gold to L316,000, the sales
of public lands to L628,000, the rent of public lands and licences of
different trades to L331,000, and the postage to L89,000. The surplus
revenue was expended by the assembly of representatives in the following
manner:--L114,000 for education, L24,000 for scientific purposes,
L25,000 for sanitary improvements, L769,000 for useful public works,
L25,000 towards the relief of suffe