CO 



AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. 



side is the Darling river region, which pastures 

 numerous flocks and herds with the help of 

 dams and wells to supply water. Several lodes 

 of rich galena-ore were discovered. One trial 

 invoice, reduced in England, yielded 695 ounces 

 of silver, 20 per cent, of lead, and 6 per cent. 

 of copper per ton. Several others averaged 

 40 ounces of silver and 67 per cent, of lead. 

 Claims were entered and capitalized for vast 

 amounts before a shaft was sunk. For one 

 claim, an acre in extent, 50,000 was paid. In 

 a few weeks the mining camp of Silverton 

 sprang up from the wilderness into a town of 

 2,000 inhabitants. In the Thackaringa dis- 

 trict, on the South Australian side of the 

 boundary, thick seams were discovered which 

 assayed 9 to 30 per ton. The ore-beds ex- 

 tend over an area sixty miles long and from 

 twenty to thirty miles broad. Rich as are 

 some of the galena-ores, it is the black silver 

 or sulphate ores that constitute the peculiar 

 wealth of this region. Black rock, which was 

 at first cast aside as worthless, assayed as high 

 as one third of its weight of pure silver. In 

 the Apollyon mine is a mass of mineral eighty 

 feet long and fifty feet deep, the poorest of 

 which contains 7,000 ounces of silver to the ton, 

 and the best 22,000 ounces. 



Queensland. The Governor of the colony is 

 Sir Alexander Musgrave ; the Premier, T. T. 

 Mcllwraith. The Queensland Government has 

 taken up in earnest the question of identured 

 black labor, by which wealth has been rapidly 

 produced, but the settlement of the country 

 retarded. Arrangements have been made for 

 bringing laborers from Great Britain and the 

 Continent. Legislation is in progress for the 

 settlement of the public lands in a manner to 

 encourage immigration and the development 

 of the natural resources of the country, and to 

 yield an adequate return to the state. Rail- 

 roads are being extended to the limits of the 

 settled districts, and a new line is projected 

 from Cloncurry to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

 The labor trade of the Pacific is to be sub- 

 jected to stringent regulations. Recruiting 

 labor in New Guinea and New Britain is pro- 

 hibited. 



South Australia. The Governor is Sir W. 0. 

 F. Robinson. A new ministry was formed in 

 June, composed of the following members: 

 John Colton, Premier and Chief Secretary; 

 W. B. Rounsevell, Treasurer; C. C. Kingston, 

 Attorney-General ; J. Coles, Commissioner of 

 Lands; T. Playford, Commissioner of Public 

 Works; R. C. Baker, Minister of Education. 



Western Australia. The Governor is Sir Fred- 

 erick N. Broome. This Crown colony is the 

 largest in extent, but the least progressive, of 

 the Australasian commonwealths. The soil is 

 too poor for agriculture, except in a few locali- 

 ties, and the rainfall is deficient. Even sheep- 

 farming, which is the largest industry, is but 

 very moderately successful, owing to these 

 causes and to the presence of poisonous herbs 

 in the pastures. Notwithstanding the hqtness 



of the climate, the sheep grow heavy fleeces. 

 Nine tenths of the country is covered with 

 timber. The gigantic and valuable jarrah-tree 

 is abundant in the south. The colony produces 

 good wine ; also an excellent grade of horses, 

 for which there is sometimes a demand in In- 

 dia. There are lead-mines, which were profita- 

 ble until the price of the metal declined. The 

 export timber-trade has not met with success. 

 Wealth has increased faster than population. 

 The export and import trade has increased 150 

 per cent, in twelve years ; the number of sheep 

 from 680,290 to 1,259.797; the public revenue 

 from 105,300 to 250,372. 



Tasmania. The Colonial Governor is Sir G. 

 C. Strahan ; the Prime Minister, W. R. Giblin. 

 Tasmania is the most salubrious and attract- 

 ive of the Australasian colonies, with an abun- 

 dance of natural resources. The monopoly of 

 the land by a few large sheep-farmers counter- 

 vails these natural advantages and has hitherto 

 checked all development. Annexation to Vic- 

 toria has lately been agitated as a means of es- 

 caping from the rule of these monopolists, who, 

 in order to keep their vast sheep-runs out of 

 the hands of settlers, secured the defeat of a 

 Government scheme of railroad construction 

 in 1883. In 1884 the measure was successfully 

 carried through Parliament. Under the domi- 

 nation of this plutocracy, sheep-farming has 

 displaced agriculture, causing the wheat prod- 

 uct to decline 665,896 bushels between 1860 

 and 1880. Their supremacy is perpetuated by 

 a very limited franchise, which allows only two 

 per cent, of the population to vote for mem- 

 bers of the Legislative Council, and disqualifies 

 half the adult males from voting for the popu- 

 lar representatives. 



The productiveness of the Mount Bishop tin- 

 mine excited a mining fever. Of the mines 

 opened but few proved at all successful. After 

 being sustained for some time by calls on share- 

 holders, many companies stopped in 1884. 



New Zealand.The Governor is Sir W. F. D. 

 Jervois. The ministry, which was reconsti- 

 tuted in 1883 under H. A. Atkinson, resigned 

 in the beginning of September, 1884, in con- 

 sequence of a vote of want of confidence passed 

 by the House of Representatives. The new min- 

 istry is composed as follows : R. Stout, Premier 

 and Attorney-General; Sir Julius Vogel, Colo- 

 nial Treasurer and Postmaster-General ; E. 

 Richardson, Minister of Public Works ; J. Bal- 

 lance, Secretary for Crown Lands and Native 

 Affairs ; J. A. Tole, Minister of Justice ; W. H. 

 Reynolds, Minister without a portfolio. 



The new Treasurer proposes a conversion of 

 the debt at reduced interest. The revenue for 

 1884-'85 is estimated at 3,830,000, and the 

 expenditure at 3,770,000. Annual increases 

 in the revenue are expected, sufficient to per- 

 mit of reductions in taxation, which the new 

 ministry have inaugurated by lowering the 

 property-tax one half. 



The Maoris. After vainly appealing for years 

 to the New Zealand Government to redress 



