AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



them belonging to the group of periodic com- 

 ets having their aphelia in the vicinity of Ju- 

 piter's orbit. The prize offered by H. H. War- 

 ner, Esq., of Rochester, N. Y., for the best 

 essay on cornets, their composition, purpose, 

 and effect upon the earth, was awarded to 

 Professor Lewis Boss, Director of the Dudley 

 Observatory, Albany, N. Y. 



AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. The 

 Australasian colonies resemble each other 

 greatly in their public policy and their economic 

 conditions, which are not seriously affected by 

 the rivalry between high and low tariff carried 

 on by the two leading colonies. Their policies 

 differ only in degree, and have a prospect of 

 becoming assimilated. The proposal of an 

 Australian Federation has been revived in the 

 Victorian Legislature. In spite of the bound- 

 ing prosperity of Australia and the high rates 

 of wages now prevailing, the bone and sinew 

 of British immigration is drawn toward the 

 more liberal institutions of the United States, 

 while farmers with large capital are naturally 

 attracted by the splendid opportunities of these 

 colonies. 



REVENUES. The financial budgets of all the 

 colonies for 1882 show revenues greatly ex- 

 ceeding the estimates. The revenue of New 

 South Wales for the year ending June 30th 

 was 7,213,000, an increase of a million over 

 that of the previous year. That of Victoria 

 was 5,750,000, being 316,000 above the es- 

 timate. The revenue of South Australia was 

 2,225,000, an increase of 175,000. That of 

 Queensland was 2,100,000, showing an in- 

 crease of 331,000, and leaving a surplus of 

 .245,000. The redundant revenues which 

 place these progressive young commonwealths 

 in a financial position altogether exceptional 

 are due to the supplementary income from sales 

 of public lands. Yet the present augmenta- 

 tions in the public income are not attributable 

 to forcing the land-sales, but to the increased 

 consumption of articles paying custom and 

 excise duties, and to increased traffic on the 

 Government railroads. Severe droughts af- 

 fected nearly the whole surface of the Austra- 

 lian Continent in the beginning of the year. 

 The wool-crop in consequence showed very 

 little, if any, increase over the preceding year. 

 But, notwithstanding the losses from this cause, 

 and the partial failure of the wheat-crop in 

 South Australia in 1881, the general tide of 

 prosperity has continued to rise. When the 

 surface of Western Australia, which is rapidly 

 filling with squatters, is as completely occu- 

 pied as the Eastern colonies now are, the limit 

 will be reached of Australian wool production 

 under present conditions and at present prices. 

 New South Wales and New Zealand have added 

 to their large public debts by contracting new 

 loans; which they have obtained on favorable 

 terms in London. The agreement of the col- 

 onies to exercise common federal action can 

 not be consummated while Victoria and New 

 South Wales maintain their rival commercial 



policies. But the abandonment of the restrict- 

 ive tariff of Victoria seems only a matter of 

 time, since a respectable number of the manu- 

 facturers have joined with the merchants and 

 farmers in condemning the tariff. The pro- 

 tective policy vehemently championed by Gra- 

 ham Berry, the former Prime Minister, and 

 leader of the Democratic party, still finds 

 strong support among the laboring classes. 

 The primacy among the colonies would be re- 

 gained by New South Wales without the ad- 

 vantage of freer commercial intercourse with 

 other countries, because that colony possesses 

 a vast area of agricultural land, a central geo- 

 graphical position, and coal and the useful 

 metals as well as gold. 



RAILROADS. The progress of Australia de- 

 pends upon the extension of railroad commu- 

 nications, so that politics and finance center in 

 the railroad policy of the colonies. In con- 

 structing state lines with capital mostly raised 

 by public loans, the colonies do not have to 

 look to remote returns in the increase of the 

 taxable capacity of the country. The railroads 

 thus far constructed pay a fair interest on the 

 investment, and add greatly to the assets of 

 the Government by rendering the public lands 

 immediately valuable. The eighteen millions 

 thus invested in Victoria yield 4 per cent net 

 per annum. That province has authorized the 

 construction of 850 miles more. New South 

 Wales has built over a thousand miles of rail- 

 roads, and receives from them an income of 4 

 per cent on the expenditure. Queensland and 

 Soutli Australia have each laid out about 700 

 miles of railroads and several thousand miles 

 of telegraphs. The railroad debts of the colo- 

 nies are lightly borne; the railroads themselves 

 usually yield the interest. New South Wales 

 pays the interest of 766,000 on the public 

 debt with the eighth part of its revenue. This 

 colony has authorized 15,500,000 of new 

 loans since 1879, which nearly double its debt. 

 The Earl of Denbigh's projected railroad 

 through fertile, well-watered, and rich mineral 

 regions in the interior of Queensland to con- 

 nect Sydney with Brisbane, was opposed by the 

 Governor, who objects to signing away the 

 valuable land-grants demanded, and is still in 

 abeyance. South Australia is more favorably 

 disposed to land subventions, and has enter- 

 tained the project of a company to construct a 

 line 1,900 miles long, following the line of the 

 Government telegraph put up in 1881, directly 

 across the continent from Adelaide to Port 

 Darwin. It is a question whether this bold 

 project shall not be carried out by the Govern- 

 ment instead of the company. It has 400 

 miles of the proposed line, from Adelaide to 

 the new town of Farina in the 30th degree of 

 latitude, already built. The railroads which 

 are now being constructed by New South 

 Wales westward to the Darling River, south- 

 westward to meet the railroads of Victoria, 

 and northward in the direction of Brisbane, 

 and the road which South Australia is pushing 



