NEW SOUTH WALES 



471 



and Batlmrst are westward, Albany and Went- 

 worth on the Murray, Bourke and Wiloannia on 

 the Darling ; Wellington is on the Maequarie, 

 Wollongong by Illawarra, Ueniliquiu in Hiverina, 

 Silverton in the Barrier Ranges. 



The colony was established in January 1788, 

 under Governor Phillip, with a party of trans- 

 ported prisoners from England, as the former place 

 of exile, America, was closed by the independence 

 of that country. For years the settlement suffered 

 much from want of food. The introduction of free 

 colonists, to whom grants of land were given, 

 promoted pastoral and agricultural pursuits ; and the 

 change from despotism to responsib.e government 

 was gradually made. The cessation of transporta- 

 tion in 1K40 w;is followed by social and political 

 advance ; and the gold discovery in 1851 gave a great 

 impetus to the se.irch for minerals. Town indus- 

 tries were developed ; and commerce was aided by 

 a line harbour, an excellent mercantile marine, and 

 the extension of railways. 



As regards flora, the eucalyptus-tree prevails in 

 the colony, but acacias also are common, and pines 

 and cedars, as well as palms in the north-east. 

 Fori-st preservation is now receiving official atten- 

 tion. In addition to products of native vegetation, 

 plants of commercial value are lieing introduced, 

 adapted to the warmer, colder, moister, or drier 

 localities. Of 1600 economic plants in the colony, 210 

 are useful for food, 158 forage, 123 drugs, 57 oils, 87 

 tans, 60 gum-resins, 39 kinos, 14 perfumes, 35 dyes, 

 07 (Hires, 630 timlwr. Some of these are available 

 for export. There are more flowering plants than 

 in all Europe. 



The finiiiii, as in the rest of Australia, consists 

 mainly of marsupial animals. In a single year 

 there have been killed, as nuisances, 1,310,900 

 marsupials. Birds are of great variety, many 

 of very beautiful plumage, .and some of pleasant 

 notes. Insect* arc pretty numerous, and not always 

 welcome. Lizards and snakes may run to a good 

 .size, but there are no alligators. Fish, especially 

 in the bays, are plentiful. 



Geology. Silurian ami Devonian formations, with 

 granitic, igneous, and metaiuorpliic rocks, are rich 

 in gold, silver, lead, cop]>er, tin, and other metals. 

 Tim hilly country forms the centre of mining 

 industry, but the older rocks underlie the Tertiary 

 and Post -Ti-rtiary beds of the vast plains to the 

 westward, foal is seen in both Paleozoic ami 

 Mesozoic strata. The Cretaceous beds are con- 

 fined to the north-west corner. Trappean irrup- 

 tions are of various geological epochs ; yet the 

 colony lias fewer recent volcanic, though extinct, 

 craters than its Victorian neighl>our. Marsnpi- 

 alian remains of huge dimensions are observed in 

 the Pleistocene formations. Besides the monsters 

 DiprotodoB ami Nototherium, there are the mar- 

 supial lion Thylacoleo, and the Thylocinus. In 

 the Pliocene and Pleistocene are the alluvial 

 gold workings and tlie diamond ami tin wash- 

 ings. While the more ancient rocks prevail in 

 the ranges, Mesozoic ones are nearly confined 

 to the ra-ti-rn side, north and south of Sydney, 

 as the Sydney sandstone, and in the Clarence 

 basin. 



Gold, known in 1823, was first worked in 1851, 

 near Bathurst. It is found over an area of 70,000 

 sq. m., in granite, porphyry, diorite, quartz, 

 breccias, and alluvial deposits. Dry blowing is 

 employed by miners where water is scarce. Gold 

 is often mixed with silver, copper, or tin ; and the 

 ore is worth, according to purity, from 70 to 82 

 shillings an ounce. The output to the liegin- 

 ning of 1X!M) was nearly 38,000,000, though only 

 434,070 in 1889. Silver, found at Boorook, Sunny 

 Corner, &r. , abounds in the Barrier Ranges near 

 South Australia, at Silverton, Thackaringa, &c., 



where there are over 4000 miners. Discovered in 

 1883, in an almost rainless region, the silver area 

 is 100 miles by 12. One company paid in dividends 

 1,676,000 up to 1890, having raised 161,500 tons of 

 ore, yielding 6,230,000 ounces of silver and 25,170 

 tons of lead. The district up to 1890 produced 

 4,168,397; the Broken Hill Company has raised 

 20,000,000 ounces ; and in 1889 the product of silver 

 for the colony was 1,971,198. Copper, first 

 wrought in 1858, yielded 122,444 in 1889; its ore 

 being known to extend over 8000 sq. m. Tin, worked 

 since 1872, from streams and lodes in granite, has 

 fields of equal area, with a yield for 1889 of 207,070. 

 Lead is chiefly got from silver-mines. Antimony, 

 manganese, bismuth, &c. are mined. Iron is 

 abundant, but not profitable to work owing to the 

 cost of labour. Precious stones, as the diamond, 

 emerald, zircon, sapphire, topaz, &c. , occur in 

 granite localities. Asliestos, zinc, mercury, cobalt, 

 and alum are exported. Graphite, kaolin, and 

 building-stone enrich the colonists. Coal is the 

 most valuable mineral of New South Wales. It 

 extends over 24,000 sq. m. ; 22,000,000 worth was 

 raised during 1860-89 ; and the export of 28 million 

 tons brought in 16,000,000. In 1894 the gold pro- 

 duced was worth 1,150,717; the silver, 94,150; 

 copper, 63,617 ; and coal, 1,155,573. Kerosene is 

 also produced in considerable quantity from the 

 shale of the Blue Mountains. 



The jmstnnil resources in 1895 include as many as 

 56,977,270sheep ( in spite of recent losses of 8,000,000 

 from drought) ; cattle, 2,465,411 ; horses, 518,181 ; 

 swine, 2,733,591. Most of these animals are upon 

 stations or runs, on land leased from government, 

 sometimes at less than a ]>enny an acre rental in 

 the dry west. The leases are for twenty-one years 

 in western divisions, ten in central, and five only 

 in eastern, at a higher rent. The lessees are the 

 squatters. In the early years of the colony only 

 salt meat from England was in use, as there were 

 no native sheep, cattle, or horses. The sheep im- 

 ported from Bengal and the Cape were hairy, but 

 the wool was improved by the introduction of 

 Spanish mcrinoes ; the cattle also were improved 

 by good English stock. Pigs, goats, and poultry 

 have been introduced. Wool exported in the year 

 exceeds two hundred million pounds' weight. 



Agrinilliirr occupies far less land than piistur- 

 age. While 140,000,000 acres produce a rental of 

 917,190, being devoted to flocks and herds, there 

 are but a million acres, or one acre to one 

 inhabitant, devoted to culture, and nearly one- 

 fourth of that is laid down in artificial grasses. 

 But fanning ground, especially near towns, is MTV 

 valuable. Some of this is "freehold, bought at 

 government auction sales, though formerly be- 

 stowed in grants at a nominal quit rent. Much 

 is leasehold, held at various rentals on terms of 

 years from the state, till the full purchase is there- 

 by effected. Of 46,197 holdings, 580 were over 

 10,000 acres each, and 0889 were under 15 acres. 

 The land laws of New South Wales are liberal ana 

 easy to settlers. The country, however, is more 

 pastoral than agricultural, growing less produce 

 proportionately to its size than Victoria and South 

 Australia. In March 1890 the area under crop 

 was 1147,072 acres, but 47,620 holdings contained 

 41,042,629 acres. In 1890 there were 419,758 acres 

 in wheat, averaging 15 bushels to the acre; 173.S36 

 in maize, averaging 30J ; 5440 in barley ; and 7SS07 

 in vines ; hay, of various kinds, 222,262 ; sugar- 

 cane, 18,730; oranges, 9804; tobacco, 3239; orchards, 

 10.867; market-gardens, 5409 ; potatoes, 17,551. Yet, 

 while the colony exported 1,076,350 of agricul- 

 tural produce in 1889, it imported 5,548,915. The 

 sugar-plantations in the north-east are not so 

 productive as in Queensland ; nor are the apple- 

 orchards and potato-furrows equal to those of 



