A Blue-book was issued last night dealing with the census of the British Empire taken in 1901. The results of the census are summarised in a long report by the Registrar General╒s Department and the President of the Local Government Board. From this it appears that at the time of the census of 1861 the Empire compromised in round numbers eight and a half millions of square miles. In the next two decennia no important territorial additions took place, but between 1881 and 1891 the extensions in the East Indies and in our Indian dependency and the great annexations of territory in West, South, East, and Central Africa added about two millions of square miles. Since 1891 further expansions have occurred, principally in Africa and in Asia, raising the total as nearly as can be ascertained to 11,908,378 square miles. Thus, in the short space of forty years, the aggregate area of the British colonies, dependencies, and protectorates has increased by about 40 per cent, and now amounts to more than one-fifth of the land surface of the globe. Of this huge territory somewhat more than four millions of square miles are situation in North, Central, and South America, three millions in Australiasia, two and a half millions in Africa, and nearly two millions in the Indian Empire and other parts of Asia, while the portion that lies in Europe constitutes a very inconsiderable fraction of the whole, amounting to only 125,095 square miles, of which 121,039 constitute the area of the United Kingdom.
