AUSTRALASIA. 



65 



ages of eighteen and thirty ; in the second, the 

 same classes of men from thirty to forty-five 

 years of age; in the third, married men and 

 widowers with children, between eighteen and 

 forty-five years of age; in the fourth, all men 

 between forty-five and sixty. Jn times of 

 peace the active force is constituted by volun- 

 tary enlistment for three years, the privates 

 receiving 6s. a day. The volunteer force more 

 than doubled within a year from the enact- 

 ment of the new law. A military school for 

 the instruction of officers has. been established 

 at Brisbane. 



Gold Discoveries. A gold-field near the head 

 of the Etheridge river has been worked for 

 two years, and new discoveries are being con- 

 stantly made in that region. The field has an 

 estimated area of 9,760 square miles. Many of 

 the reefs yield from 1 to 6 ounces, some from 

 10 to 16, and one from 10 to 25 ounces, to the 

 ton of quartz. The average yield in 1885 was 

 2 oz. 10 dwts. The average yield of the 

 Queensland is higher than that of any other 

 country. The Etheridge field has not been 

 developed to the same extent as the Charters 

 Towers, Gympie, and Ravenswood, on account 

 of the lack of railroad communication. 



Western Australia. The administration is vest- 

 ed in a Governor, assisted by an Executive 

 Council, consisting of the Colonial Secretary, 

 the Attorney-General, the Colonial Treasurer, 

 the Surveyor- General, and the Director of 

 Public Works. The present Governor is Sir 

 Frederick Napier Broome, who was appointed 

 in December, 1882. 



The revenue for 1884 was 290,319, and the 

 expenditure 291,306. The revenue for 1885 

 was estimated at 295,666, and the expendi- 

 ture at 295,391. The total public debt of the 

 colony at the end of 1885 was 765,000. 



The total estimated area of the colony is 

 975,920 square miles. The results of the cen- 

 sus of 1881 gave a total population of 29,708 

 17,062 males and 12,646 females. In 1884 

 there were 1.094 births and 717 deaths; 2,434 

 immigrants and 1,563 emigrants. 



The total value of imports in 1884 was 

 521,167; exports, 405,693. At the end of 

 1884 there were 79 miles of railway open for 

 traffic, and 48 miles under construction. There 

 were 1,885 miles of telegraph line in the colony 

 in 1884; there is also a line 450 miles in length 

 in course of construction from Geraldton to 

 Port Cossack, which will probably be united 

 by submarine cable with the telegraph system 

 of the world. 



The Kimberley Gold-Field. A remarkably rich 

 gold-field has been discovered in the Kimber- 

 ley district, situate in the northern part of 

 Western Australia. The diggers who went to 

 the new field in the spring of 1886, brought 

 back nuggets weighing from 2 to 19^ ounces. 

 Some of them obtained as much as 30 ounces 

 in a single day. The gold is as pure as the 

 best products of tlie Ballarat or Sandhurst 

 fields. Steamers from Sydney, Melbourne, and 

 VOL. xxvi. 5 A 



New Zealand were engaged by July in convey- 

 ing gold-diggers to the harbor nearest to the 

 diggings, Cambridge Gulf, where a new town 

 had sprung up. The climate is tropical, and so 

 dry,that miners must take pack-horses to bring 

 water. The adventurers who first sought the 

 new mines were all provided with a very ex- 

 pensive outfit, but all were rewarded by ob- 

 taining a satisfactory amount of metal in the 

 lew weeks that their supplies lasted. Old 

 miners predict that the field will prove the 

 richest, and much the most extensive, in Aus- 

 tralia. The region is adapted 10 sheep-raising, 

 but not without water conservation. 



New Zealand. The present Governor, Lieut. - 

 Gen. SirW.F. Druinmond Jervois, was ap- 

 pointed in November, 1882. The list of min- 

 isters is as follows: Colonial Treasurer, Post- 

 master-General, Commissioner of Telegraphs, 

 and Commissioner of Stamp Duties; Sir Julius 

 Vogel ; Premier, Attorney-General, and Minis- 

 ter of Education, Robert Stout; Minister of 

 Public Works, Edward Richardson ; Native 

 Minister, Minister of Defense, and Minister of 

 Lands, John Ballance ; Minister of Justice, Jo- 

 seph Augustus Tole; Colonial Secretary, Pat- 

 rick A. Buckley; Minister of Mines and of Ma- 

 rine Department, William J. M. Larnach. 



The legislative power is vested in the Legis- 

 lative Council, composed of fifty-tour members 

 nominated by the Crown for life, and the 

 House of Representatives, with ninety -five 

 members, elected by the people for three years. 

 Four are aborigines, elected by the natives. 



The colonial troops consist of a voluntary 

 force of 8,177 men of all ranks, besides a per- 

 manent armed constabulary force of 450 officers 

 and men. The approaches to the principal 

 ports of the colony are defended by batteries 

 of heavy ordnance, supplemented by torpedo- 

 boats and submarine mines. 



In New Zealand there were, in 1884, 1,334 

 schools of all kinds, employing 3,188 teachers, 

 and having an average attendance of 113,481 

 scholars. The amount expended on education 

 in 1884-'85 was 416,127. Education is ob- 

 ligatory, and in the public primary schools free 

 and secular. 



The area of New Zealand is estimated at 

 66,779,092 acres. Up to the end of 1884 17,- 

 692,511 acres had been alienated. The popu- 

 lation on June 30, 1885, was, including Maoris, 

 616,229. The number of marriages in 1884- 

 was 3,800; births, 19,846; and deaths, 5,740. 

 The net immigration in 1884 was 9,821. The 

 population of New Zealand is increasing more 

 rapidly than that of any other of the Australa- 

 sian colonies. 



The chief source of the ordinary revenue is 

 from customs, 1,411, 102 in 1884-'85 ; receipts 

 from railways, 1,050,742 ; stamps, 510,018; 

 property-tax, 145,379; telegraphs, 95,787; 

 and excise on beer, 55,714. The territorial 

 revenue includes receipts from sales of crown 

 lands, from depasturing licenses and assess- 

 ments, and also from miring licenses, and the 



