AUSTRALIA. 



61 



occupations, and 11 per cent, as laborers. Of 

 the last category a large percentage are em- 

 ployed in field-labor, while the inhabitants of 

 the" remote districts, concerning whom there 

 are no returns, make the ratio of agricultural 

 producers much larger than appears in the 

 statistics. All the colonies have pre-emption 

 laws to attract agricultural colonists, but most 

 of them have been late in introducing the sys- 

 tem in a practical shape, and slow in improv- 

 ing their first illiberal regulations, owing to 

 the antagonistic interests and influence of the 

 wool- growers. There is an apparent profit to 

 the state in this policy, for while a large in- 

 come is flowing into the exchequer from pas- 

 toral leases, the selling value of the public 

 lands is constantly rising. Public men have 

 recently, however, become impressed with the 

 shortsightedness of a policy that has retarded 

 the growth of the colonies, and with the lib- 

 eralization of the land laws the democratic 

 sentiment grows stronger and the money-pow- 

 er of the lease holders is losing control over 

 the policy of the Government. The graziers 

 are nevertheless able, by fictitious entries and 

 by the actual use of force, to keep settlers out 

 of lands that are by law open to them. Tho 

 laws of Xew South "Wales provide for the 

 selection of farms of 640 acres or less at the 

 price of 20*. an acre, to be paid for by in- 

 stallments of Is. an acre, interest being charged 

 at the rate of 4 per cent. ; also of grazing-farms 

 of 2,560 acres, which, like the agricultural 

 homesteads, must be fenced. Victoria allows 

 deferred payments of Is. an acre per annum on 

 320 acres at the same uniform price, on con- 

 dition that improvements costing 20s. an acre 

 shall be made on the land. South Australia 

 sells to homesteaders a maximum area of 1,000 

 acres at the same price and terms of payment, 

 requiring 10s. worth of improvements. Queens- 

 land grants homesteads of 100 acres for only 

 2s. 6d. an acre, payable at the rate of 6d. an- 

 nually, if Is. 6d. worth of improvements are 

 made, and permits other selections of from 320 

 to 1.280 acres at no fixed rate of payment, but 

 on the condition of improvements of the value 

 of 10s. to the acre. South Australia and West- 

 ern Australia each fix the maximum size of 

 the settler's holding at 1,000 acres, the price 

 being in the former 20., and in the latter 10s , 

 payable in twenty annual installments, each 

 colony requiring improvements of 10*. an acre, 

 while in Western Australia the land must in 

 addition be fenced. In Tasmania settlers can 

 take up 320 acres at 20*., paying Is. a year 

 without further conditions. The privilege of 

 selecting land in this colony was taken away 

 from fresh immigrants, whether they have 

 paid their passages or have been aided by the 

 Government, by an act that went into force 

 in 1888. 



The number of acres that had been sold up 

 to the beginning of 1887. and the area that 

 was not yet alienated in the several colonies, 

 were as follows : 



Of the total area now cultivated in the Aus- 

 tralian colonies 3,697.954 acres are devoted to 

 wheat, yielding 45,541.592 bushels, of which 

 about 9,000,000 bushels were available for ex- 

 port in 1886. Since then the home require- 

 ments have gained on production, leaving a 

 smaller surplus. 



The increase of live stock is shown by the 

 following figures : 



1870. 



1884. 



In 1872 the exports of wool from all these 

 colonies amounted to 181,459,780 pounds, and 

 in 1885 to 404,088,149 pounds. In 1886, how- 

 ever, owing to the damage by rabbits, the 

 total production was only 3S8,541,828 pounds, 

 the average per sheep being 4'62 pounds, and 

 the total value, 16,218,846. The average 

 value was 9|<7. a pound, and the total repre- 

 sented 4 16s. 4<Z. a head of the population. 



The Rabbit Pest. About twenty years ago 

 the colonists of Australia and Xew Zealand, 

 having grown prosperous during the period 

 when the civil war had stopped the production 

 of wool in the United States and caused the 

 price to rise, began to found societies of accli- 

 matization for the introduction and breeding 

 of hares and rabbits, in order to enjoy the 

 sports to which they had been accustomed in 

 England. Every land-owner became anxious 

 to secure ground -game on his own estate. 

 Their satisfaction at finding the soil and cli- 

 mate adapted for the animals was of short du- 

 ration ; for at the rate of ten litters a year, in- 

 stead of four and six, as in England, with no 

 natural enemies to keep down their numbers, 

 the rabbits, which grew to enormous size, in a 

 few years began to affect seriously the sheep- 

 industry and check agricultural operations. 

 They consumed the herbage up to the doors 

 of the farm-houses, destroyed orchards and 

 vegetable gardens, caused the abandonment 

 of land that had produced thirty bushels of 

 wheat and sixty of barley to the acre, and ate 

 the grass down to the roots, turning to desert 

 immense tracts of pasture, and driving both 

 sheep and farmers from entire sections of the 

 country. Wealthy proprietors, after spend- 

 ing large sums in the effort to exterminate 

 the vermin, ended by abandoning their es- 

 tates. Shooting, trapping, hunting with fer- 



