AUSTRALASIA. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Minister of Public Works, and Minister of Native 

 Affairs and Defense. K. J. Seddon : Attorney-Gen- 

 eral and Colonial Secretary, Sir P. A. Buckley ; 

 Minister of Lands and Immigration, Minister of 

 Agriculture, and Commissioner of Forests, J. Mae- 

 Kenzie : Colonial Treasurer, Postmaster-General, 

 Electric Telegraph Commissioner, Commissioner of 

 Customs, and Minister of Marine and Industries 

 and Commerce, J. G. Ward ; member of the Ex- 

 ecutive Council representing the native race, J. 

 Carroll; Minister of Railways and of Mines, A. .1. 

 Cadman ; member of the Executive Council without 

 portfolio, W. Montgomery. The post of Minister 

 of Justice, of Education, and of Labor and Com- 

 missioner of Stamp Duties was then vacant. Sir 

 P. A. Buckley resigned his office to take a judge- 

 ship. In February the Premier assumed the port- 

 folio of Labor, W. Hall-Jones was appointed Min- 

 ister of Justice, and J. Carroll became Commissioner 

 of Customs. W. C. Walker joined the ministry 

 without a portfolio. In March Mr. Ward resigned 

 at the request of his party, because of his relations 

 as debtor to one of the embarrassed banks. Mr. 

 Seddon then assumed the functions of Colonial 

 Treasurer. 



The Liberal party, then led by Sir George Grey, 

 formed a fusion with the Labor party and unex- 

 pectedly came into power in 1891. This coalition, 

 by which the Labor party exercises great legislative 

 and administrative influence, still continues. The 

 state was already a large landowner, besides owning 

 all the telegraphs and nearly all the railroads. The 

 work of education was almost entirely carried on by 

 the state. The present Government has avowedly 

 aimed to use the collective forces of the community 

 to better the lot of the masses of the people. Un- 

 doubted good has been done by what is known as the 

 public-trustee department. The land tenure under 

 the new law is known as the eternal lease, the state 

 leasing it to tenants for nine hundred and ninety- 

 nine years at rents calculated at 4 per cent, of the 

 prairie value. An attempt has been made to cut 

 up the large estates, some of which are enormous. 

 The factory act of 1894 covers nearly every kind of 

 workshop. The legal hours of labor are forty-eight 

 a week, and overtime must be paid for at a mini- 

 mum of Qd. an hour for any worker, man, woman, 

 or child. The conspiracy law amendment act puts 

 trade unions on exactly 'the same footing with re- 

 gard to the laws of conspiracy as any other organi- 

 zation of members of the community. One of the 

 important labor laws is the conciliation and arbi- 

 tration act, the object of which is to do away en- 

 tirely with strikes and lockouts, and substitute for 

 them decisions of conciliation boards or, these fail- 

 ing, arbitrament of the state Arbitration Court. In 

 the session of 1896, opened on June 11, the Premier 

 introduced a bill to pension every person who is 

 over sixty-five years of age and has resided twenty 

 years in New Zealand, the maximum amount to be 

 10s. and the minimum 5s. a week. Legislation for 

 the preservation of the purity of race, excluding 

 lower types and types of lower morality, is contem- 

 plated. A measure for exclusion of consumptive 

 persons on the same lines as that dealing with small- 

 pox was prepared, making masters of ships liable. 

 The Government has proposed a system of state fire 

 insurance. The Legislature gave special attention 

 to colonial defense. Extensive fortifications have 

 been begun in the seacoast towns. Recent legis- 

 lation affecting native land and courts has not dis- 

 turbed the satisfactory relations between the two 

 races. Though none of the colonies was more 

 eager in professions of loyalty to the mother coun- 

 try at the time of the war scare regarding the 

 Transvaal, a quarrel arose between the Premier 

 and the Governor over the appointment of addi- 



tional members to the upper house, which the Earl 

 of Glasgow decided to limit to four. Mr. Seddon 

 angrily accused him of supporting the upper against 

 the lower house, and warned him that if he re- 

 mained obdurate the ties between the colony and 

 England would be weakened. 



When the governor of the Bank of New Zealand 

 refused to give evidence before a committee of the 

 house he was summoned to the bar and fined for 

 breach of privilege, but still refused to reveal the 

 accounts of the bank's customers. The Legislative 

 Council came into conflict with the Premier over 

 the banking investigation and various other ques- 

 tinns. It, rejected a universal eight-hours bill. A 

 bill to exclude all Asiatic immigrants was passed 

 by both houses. 



New Guinea. The British territory in Xew 

 Guinea, including the D'Entrecasteaux and Lousi- 

 ade groups and other islands, has an area of 88,460 

 square miles, with 350,000 inhabitants. The Euro- 

 peans number 250. Land is offered to settlers for 

 2s. 6(7. an acre, and cocoanut groves are being 

 planted and trade with Europeans extended. The 

 imports in 1895 amounted to 28,367 and exports 

 to 16,215, not counting over 8,000 worth of 

 pearls. The other exports are copra, trepan g, 

 mother-of-pearl, and gold. Sandalwood is also ex- 

 ported, and there are other forest products avail- 

 able, as ebony, gums, sago, and rattan. About 60 

 whites and many natives are engaged in digging 

 gold in the Lousiade Islands and on the mainland 

 and Woodlark island. The imports consist of food 

 stuffs, cloths, tobacco, and metal utensils. The 

 revenue collected in 1895, chiefly from customs, 

 was 5,109. Queensland, Victoria, and New South 

 Wales contribute each 5,000 a year to the cost of 

 administration. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, a dual monarchy in 

 central Europe, composed, under the fundamental 

 law of Dec. 21, 1867, of the Empire of Austria and 

 the Kingdom of Hungary, two inseparable consti- 

 tutional monarchies, declared to be hereditary in 

 the male line of the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine, 

 and, in case of its extinction, in the female line. 

 The legislative power in regard to affairs common 

 to both monarchies, which are limited to diplomatic 

 relations, the army, common finances, and the ad- 

 ministration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is exercised 

 by the Delegations, committees of the legislative 

 bodies of the two halves of the empire. The Dele- 

 gations,which meet alternately at Vienna and Buda- 

 Pesth, are composed of 20 members of the upper 

 and 40 of the lower chamber of the Austrian Reichs- 

 rath and the Hungarian Parliament. Each Dele- 

 gation deliberates and acts alone, and when they 

 reach different decisions on any matter they come 

 together and decide it by a joint ballot. 



The Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary is 

 Franz Josef I, born Aug. 18, 1830, and proclaimed 

 Emperor on Dec. 2, 1848, upon the abdication of his 

 uncle, Ferdinand I. Upon the restoration of the 

 Hungarian Constitution he assumed the crown of 

 St. Stephen on June 8, 1867. The heir presumptive 

 is Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of the Em- 

 peror and son of the late Archduke Karl Ludwig. 



The common ministers, heads of the three execu- 

 tive departments for common affairs, are individ- 

 ually responsible to the Delegations and to the Em- 

 peror. The ministers in office in 1896 were: Min- 

 ister of War and of the Imperial House for the 

 Whole Monarchy, Count Agenor Maria Adam Sulo- 

 chowski : Minister of War for the Whole Monarchy, 

 Gen. Edmund Edler von Krieghammer ; Minister 

 of Finance for the Monarchy, Benjamin de Kallay. 



The Common Budget. The budget for com- 

 mon affairs for the year 1896 makes the total ex- 

 penditure 156,291,463 florins. The Ausgleich, or 



