SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 17, 1878

SECULAR NEWS.

-The Marquis of Aylesbury is dead, aged seventy-four years.

-The arrivals of immigrants in New York last year numbered 54,536, a decrease of 16,129 as compared with the previous year.

-During the last ten years the Italian government has confiscated and sold at auction $106,000,000 worth of church property.

-Switzerland has passed a law prohibiting children under the age of fourteen from being employed in manufactories after the first of next May.

-Paris covers an area of thirty square miles, has 530 miles of streets, 63,000 houses, twenty-seven bridges, seventy-five churches, thirteen palaces, thirty-five theatres, eighteen hospitals, eight large libraries, 2000 schools and nearly 2,000,000 inhabitants.

-Another fire occurred, December 29, at St. Johns, N. B., destroying $60,000 worth of property and throwing two hundred men out of employment.

-It is reported that the workingmen of San Francisco will erect a large building for meeting purposes. It will be called Workingmen's Temple.

-There were 208 violent deaths in San Francisco last year, 83 of which were suicides, 26 murders, 71 accidents, 7 manslaughter and 17 doubtful.

-King Victor Emanuel died at Rome on the 9th of January. Prince Humbert was proclaimed king of Italy. He confirmed the present ministers in their posts.

-January 9, the Oakland city council held a brief meeting, and awarded the contract for building the new city hall on the foundation to the lowest bidder for $20,850.

-January 10, a serious railroad accident occurred on the Northwestern road in Tennessee, near Waverly station. The entire train—one sleeper, two coaches, and a smoking car—was thrown off the track and every passenger considerably bruised and otherwise injured, but no one killed.

-One hundred failures and assignments were reported in New York city in December, with aggregate liabilities of nearly eight million dollars. Eighty-nine failures, in which the assets and liabilities have been ascertained, show liabilities at $7,704,391, and assets at $4,118,777. This is the heaviest record for any month of the year, and is an increase of 25 per cent in number, and 300 per cent in amount, over the record for the month of November.

-According to the Federal census of 1850 the population of California in midsummer of that year numbered 92,597. This, however, was not a complete account. Some of the returns were lost or destroyed by fire before they reached Washington, and others were incomplete. For these reasons it was estimated that about 72,500 souls were omitted and that the total population in 1850 was in reality about 165,000. By the State census of 1852 the total population was 255,122; of whom about 210,000 were males, chiefly of the working ages, or, say, between 18 and 45. The Federal census of 1860 gave for the total figure 379,994; of whom 273,588 were males, seven-tenths being of the working ages. In 1866 a census of the State was taken by the United States Bureau of Statistics, then under the direction of Alexander Del Mar. This was done through the Internal Revenue officials, who were directed to make domiciliary visits for the purpose They returned a total population of 476,409, of whom about two-thirds, or 317,606 were males, and 200,000 of these of the working ages. This was the first census attempted to be taken by these means, and the returns were regarded as coming within 3000 or 4000 of completeness; a result so excellent as to encourage a similar effort in the following year.

A census of the same character was taken in 1867, giving 500,039 as the total population, of whom 325,025 were males—of these 195,000 of the working ages. This was the first indication of advancement in the number of males of working ages. The result is attributable to the decease of many of the early pioneers, who by this time had been nearly a score of years on the coast. Others had returned to their native countries. Meanwhile the rising generation had more than replaced the lost members, so that the total number of males showed a continual increase.

In 1870 the total population, according to the Federal census of that year, was 560,247. Of this number 349,479, or almost 62 per cent. were males, and of these 194,935, or about 56 per cent, were of the working ages. The general rate of increment shown between the years 1860 and 1870 was on the average about four per cent, compounded. If this rate be applied to the numbers returned in 1870, the total population of the State in midsummer of the present year will be upwards of three-quarters of a million, or about 766,500, of whom about 59 per cent, or 450,000 are estimated will be males, and one-half of these of about 225,000, males of the working ages.

These various results may be reduced to tabular form, as follows, giving the population of California at various dates:—

Year...	Males 18 to 45.	Total Males.	Total Females	Total Grand	Authority.
1850	119,000	140,000	25,000	165,000	Estimate.
1852	175,000	210,000	45,122	255,122	State Census.
1860	191,500	273,588	106,406	379,994	U. S. Census.
1866	200,000	317,606	158,803	476,409	Bu. Statistics.
1867	195,000	325,025	175,014	500,039	Bu. Statistics.
1870	194,935	349,479	210,768	560,247	U. S. Census.
1873	225,000	450,000	316,500	766,500	Estimate.