572 



PRESIDENTS ADDHESS. SECTION G^I. 



increase at anything like the rate of New South Wales. Tasmania's 

 prog-ress in cultivation is at a slower rate than that of Victoria, and 

 the South Australian area is practically stationary. 



But what I am more concerned with in this paper are the capa- 

 bilities of extension and improvement — the future outlook. And, 

 without taking into account any probable improvement in the direc- 

 tion of higher resiilts from better methods, it will be at once 

 apparent from the following table that we have only touched the 

 fringe of cultivation. In order to make it an Australasian matter, I 

 have included New Zealand — 



Taking the whole area of the Commonwealth, the proportion 

 cultivated is only 1 acre out of every 202 acres. Out of an alienated 

 area of 126,511,312 acres only 9,340,032 acres are cultivated — 

 that is to say, 1 out of every 13. In New South AVales only one- 

 twentieth of the alienated area is cultivated, or one seventy-seventh of 

 the total area of the State. In Victoria one-eighth of the alien- 

 ated area, or one-seventeenth of the total area. Of the 

 Queensland alienated area only 1 acre out of every 37 is 

 cultivated ; and of the total area of the State only 1 out of every 

 504. In South Australia the alienated area is small, and one-fourth 



