46 AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



AUSTRIAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM. 



including female servants, numbers 323,000; 

 96,000 who do not work for wages pay no 

 property-tax that is, are not possessed of 

 property to the amount of 500 and 68,445 

 pay property-tax. The incidence of taxation 

 is about 1 per capita for the wage-earning 

 class; 2 13s. for the intermediate class; and 

 6 8s. Qd. for the class which pays the property- 

 tax, but the impending reduction of this tax to 

 one half the present amount will reduce the 

 average burden of this class to 4 10*. The 

 public debt of New Zealand, after deducting 

 2,226,000 of sinking fund, stands at 27,680,- 

 000. It is to be increased 4,000,000 by bor- 

 rowing in London 1,000,000 a year for three 

 years and by a special loan of 1,000,000, in 

 order to complete the trunk lines of railroad 

 and some other public works. 



RAILROADS. The capital already invested 

 by the Government in railroads amounts to 

 about 11,000,000. Of the 1,333 miles con- 

 structed, 875 are in the provinces of Canter- 

 bury and Otago, in the South Island, while in 

 the North Island only 458 miles have been 

 opened. The colonists think of expending a 

 million sterling a year of borrowed capital on 

 the railroad development of the North Island, 

 though the Opposition party expressed alarm 

 at the proposal of the new loan. The running 

 expenses of the railroads are light, averaging 

 47i per cent of the gross receipts. The state 

 will receive benefits from the sales of public 

 land in the North Island, which it could not in 

 the older provinces, where the soil was already 

 monopolized by owners of enormous estates. 

 Here the early squatters or run-holders were 

 permitted to convert their leases, covering 

 blocks of tens of thousands of acres, by pre- 

 emption into titles in fee simple. The agricult- 

 ural lands in the North Island are being rap- 

 idly taken up by immigrants from England, 

 most of whom are possessed of capital. This 

 rush is due to the agricultural depression in 

 Great Britain. There are no markets at pres- 

 ent accessible to the produce of the immigrants. 

 Hopes have been raised by the successful ship- 

 ment of a cargo of 7,000 frozen sheep to Eng- 

 land which were sold in London as first-class 

 meat. 



LAND SYSTEM. Anew feature in the land 

 system is the Government proposal to grant 

 leases at a low rent, with fixity of tenure, and 

 the privilege of renewing the lease from term 

 to term. The tenancy must in no case exceed 

 640 acres, and can not be held along with other 

 land. The Colonial Treasurer, Major Atkin- 

 son, has made a novel legislative proposal, 

 which may not become law, but which illus- 

 trates the proneness of these active colonies to 

 entertain projects of social reform. This is a 

 scheme of compulsory Government insurance, 

 by which about 40 should be collected from 

 every young person in the colony, in weekly 

 payments, between the ages of sixteen or eight- 

 een and twenty-three ; this would afford sick- 

 pay, a superannuation allowance of 10*. a week 



from the age of sixty-five, and a pension to 

 widows of 15*. a week. A system of voluntary 

 Government life-insurance has been in success- 

 ful operation for twelve years. The Govern- 

 ment offices do more business than all the pri- 

 vate companies combined, and derive from it 

 a profit. The Post-Office and Government Sav- 

 ings-Bank assist the laboring classes in the pay- 

 ment of small life-insurance premiums. An- 

 other institution of a similar kind, in which 

 New Zealand leads older countries, is the ad- 

 ministration of marriage settlements, trusts for 

 infants, bequests, and other private trusts, by 

 an official trustee. The aggregate borough and 

 county valuations for land-tax and property- 

 tax in New Zealand are 236,000,000. In 1870 

 the total valuation of real and personal property 

 was 50,000,000. 



The wool exports of New Zealand for the year 

 ending September 30, 1881, amounted to 60,- 

 477 pounds, valued at 3,001,288. Gold, wheat, 

 oats, and barley, kauri-gum, and rabbit-skins, 

 are the other principal exports. Rabbit-skins 

 are being exported also from Victoria, where a 

 premium is paid, as in New Zealand, for the 

 destruction of these pests to the farmer. The 

 exports of 1882 show a marked increase over 

 the preceding year. A line of steamers is to 

 run from New Zealand to England, for which 

 an annual subsidy of 20,000 has been voted 

 by the Assembly at Wellington. 



AUSTRIAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM. Aus- 

 tria really has three parliamentary bodies the 

 Upper and Lower Houses of the Reichsrath and 

 the Delegation to the joint Parliament with 

 Hungary. Its electoral law is one of the most 

 complicated in Europe ; like a strange piece of 

 variegated work, the colors of the present are 

 confounded with those of the past time. Rest- 

 ing at once on representation of orders, a relic 

 of former periods, and upon a direct vote which 

 has been recently won, it bears the character- 

 istic stamp of Austria, by observing the dis- 

 tinction of nationalities. The body of electors 

 is, therefore, composed of four divisions the 

 large proprietors, the cities, the chambers of 

 commerce, and the country communes.* 



Of the three hundred and fifty-three mem- 

 bers which compose the Reichsrath, a word 

 used to designate the whole Parliament and 

 also the Lower House, the first group consists 

 of eighty-five, who are elected by the large 

 land-holders who pay a direct land-tax of not 

 less than two hundred and fifty florins, in Bo- 

 hemia, Moravia, and Silesia; of two hundred 

 florins in Lower Austria; and of a hundred 

 florins in the other countries, except Tyrol, 

 where it is fifty florins: but the elector must 

 be a noble. That dignity is not required else- 

 where ; it is sufficient to possess an ancient 

 estate which is entered in the register of the 

 province. Such an estate can not be divided, 

 but it may be sold, and the purchaser becomes 

 an elector, even if the transfer was made only 

 a few days before the election. Hence arise bad 



* M. A. Keynaert," Revue G6n6rale7 r July, 1881. 



