46 



AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



These numbers are exclusive of 11,885 Chinese 

 and 770 aborigines. Melbourne, the capital, 

 has a population of 65,675. The cities or towns 

 in the colony with a population of over 20,000 

 are the following: Ballarat, 22,425; Colling- 

 wood, 23,797; Emerald Hill, 25,178; Fitzroy, 

 22,979; Prahran, 20,306; Richmond, 23,294; 

 and Sandhurst, 28,128. In 1836 the popula- 

 tion of the whole colony was 224 ; in 1838, 

 8,511; in 1841, 11,788; in 1846, 32,879; in 

 1851, 77,345; in 1861, 540,322; in 1871, 731,- 

 528 ; in 1881, 858,582. 



The gold-mining industry of Victoria has 

 within a year or two begun to show slightly 

 increased activity and profits. The quantity 

 of gold produced in 1880 was 829,121 ounces, 

 529,195 from quartz-mines and 299,196 from 

 alluvial mines, being 70,173 ounces more than 

 the total of 1879. The number of miners em- 

 ployed was 38,568, an increase of 1,000. The 

 number of Chinese employed has diminished 

 of late years ; in 1880 there were 8,486 624 

 less than in 1879. The engines used in quartz 

 mining give 16,438 horse-power in the aggre- 

 gate, and those employed in alluvial mining 

 6,041 horse-power. In the mines at Stawell the 

 shafts have reached from 1,220 to 2,410 feet 

 below the surface. The principal improve- 

 ment in the returns of 1880 was in the quality 

 as well as the quantity of the quartz crushed. 

 There are 3,630 auriferous reefs known. Al- 

 luvial deposits, which are covered over by erup- 

 tive rocks, are located by boring through the 

 thick overlying basalts with the diamond drill. 

 The considerable increase in the product is said 

 to be due to the use of this tool, which was 

 first tried in 1880. 16,894 was paid into the 

 colonial Treasury for mining privileges in 1880. 

 The aggregate production of gold in Victoria 

 since the first discovery of the gold-fields lias 

 been more than $1,000,000,000. 



The ministry of South Australia handed in 

 their resignations March 19th, and a new Cabi- 

 net was formed by William Morgan, in which 

 J. H.Symon was Attorney-General; G.S. Swan, 

 Treasurer; and ThomasPlayford, Commissioner 

 of Lands and Immigration. This ministry re- 

 signed in June, and were succeeded by John 

 Cox Bray, Chief Secretary and Premier ; John 

 W. Downer, Attorney - General ; Lavington 

 Glyde, Treasurer; Alfred Catt, Commissioner 

 of Crown Lands and Immigration ; and John 

 Langdon Parsons, Minister of Education. The 

 finances, as in all the Australian colonies, are 

 in a prosperous condition. The revenue for 

 the year ending June 25th exceeded that of the 

 preceding year by 165,000. 



Queensland has abandoned the policy pur- 

 sued by the other colonies, of building rail- 

 roads with state means, and adopted the 

 American plan of subsidizing private corpo- 

 rations with belts of land along the route of 

 lines constructed by them. On such condi- 

 tions an English company has undertaken to 

 build a railway across Queensland to the Gulf 

 of Carpentaria. 



Tasmania is growing in population, but its 

 imports from the United Kingdom in 1879 de- 

 creased by 36,416 as compared with 1878. 

 They also decreased from the Australian colo- 

 nies. The wool-clip had gained 16 per cent 

 as compared with the weight in 1874. Gold- 

 mining was never so productive as in 1879. 

 The average number of persons employed in 

 it was nearly twice the number in 1878 ; the 

 quartz yielded the highest average of the last 

 ten years ; and the value of the gold produced, 

 230,895, was more than double the value of 

 the previous year. The exports of other prod- 

 ucts were less than in the two preceding years. 

 Tasmania has still twelve and a half million 

 acres of arable public land unsold to distribute 

 among agricultural immigrants ; the average of 

 land under cultivation in 1879-'80 was consid- 

 erably less than half a million acres. 



The question of the monopoly of the land 

 by large sheep-raisers is one of exciting mo- 

 ment in some of the Australian colonies, par- 

 ticularly New Zealand. Of a total area in 

 both islands of 64,000,000 acres, there are 

 about 44,000,000 acres adapted for tillage or 

 pasture, of which 16,000,000 belong to the 

 Maoris and their assignees, 14,000,000 have 

 been sold to Europeans, and 14,000,000 re- 

 main the property of the Government. Near- 

 ly the whole of the Government land is farmed 

 out on terminable leases to about nine hun- 

 dred sheep-farmers, who pay for their licenses 

 an annual sum to the Government of about 

 110,000. The terms on which the crown 

 lands are open to purchase are not similar in 

 different land districts, but discouraging in all. 

 In some sections the lands are offered at pub- 

 lic auction, with the limitation of an upset 

 price of 1 ; in others at private sale, but at 

 the minimum price of 2. A popular feeling 

 has naturally arisen against the large sheep- 

 runs whose owners seem to be favored by the 

 laws, which is taking political shape in a de- 

 mand that the public lands should be offered 

 to settlers on inviting terms. The expectation 

 that this would result in a great extension of 

 agriculture and dependent industries is not 

 likely to be realized. "Wool is destined to re- 

 main for some time the only profitable product, 

 the prices of meat and grain being exceedingly 

 low and wages high. There are in the whole 

 colony not above 800,000 acres sown to crops 

 of all kinds. There are about 13,000,000 

 sheep in New Zealand, chiefly merinos, with a 

 mixture in the plains of the standard British 

 breeds. The exports of wool, for the year 

 ending March 1st, amounted to over 3,500,- 

 000. Among the exports for the same year 

 figure six million or more rabbit-skins, valued 

 at some 57,000. These animals have so mul- 

 tiplied in certain districts as to become a source 

 of danger to the sheep-growing industry, and 

 the Government has consequently co-operated 

 with the local authorities in a plan for exter- 

 minating them by poison. A special official 

 employs men to scatter in their way grain 



