AUSTRALASIA. 



41 



f> h to 12 h , made at the Paris Observatory in 

 the \eai> is;;; to INM. Prom these oompariMOi 



tin 1 proper motions of IlfH) .slurs liave been de- 



dttoed. 



Tlii- Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra has 

 been completed and forms Vol. XXVII of the 

 Annals of Harvard College Observatory." This 

 catalogue contains details of the Spectra of 

 K),:!.~>1 stars, deduced from the measurement of 

 js.'Jtiti spectra. 



The second Munich Catalogue of 13,200 stars 

 has been published. The stars whose places 

 an- given are situated within about 25 of the 

 equator both north and south. 



The Pulkowa Catalogue of 5,0:54 stars for the 

 epoch of 1875-0, deduced from observations with 

 the Pulkowa Meridian Circle during the years 

 1874-'80, is now out. 



Prof. Weiss has recently published a work of 

 great value to practical astronomers viz., a new 

 edition of Oeltzen's "Catalogues of Argelander's 

 /ones," extending from 15 to 31 of south decli- 

 nation. The total number of stars whose places 

 arc given is 18,276, reduced to epoch 1850'0. 



I! urn ham's eighteenth catalogue of new double 

 stars was recently made public in Nos. 3113 and 

 8114 of Astronomische A'achrichten. They were 

 found with the 36-inch glass of the Lick Ob- 

 servatory in the year 1891. An interesting but 

 brief description is given of each. It includes 

 also micrometrical measures of 400 double stars 

 previously discovered by himself and others. It 

 is a valuable acquisition to our literature of 

 double stars. 



Mr. F. E. Espin's catalogue of 627 stars with 

 remarkable spectra maybe found in Astronom- 

 ixcln-Xaclu-irliti'ii, Nos. 3023 and 3090. " Wash- 

 ington Observations" for 1888, Appendix I, con- 

 tains Prof. Asaph Hall's measures of 950 double 

 stars made with the 26-inch equatorial during 

 the years ISS()-'!)1, and occupies 184 pages. The 

 list is made up mostly of close and difficult 

 pairs, and is an important addition to our double- 

 star literature. 



Medals. The gold medal of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society of Kiigland was awarded to 

 Prof. (J. II. Darwin for his work on " Tides and 

 their Influence on the Figures and Motions of 

 the Heavenly Bodies." 



The Donohoe bronze comet medal of the As- 

 tronomical Society of the Pacific has been be- 

 stowed on Profs. Swift, Denning, and Barnard, 

 for the discovery of comets (a, b, c, and d) of 

 1892. 



AUSTRALASIA, a division of the globe 

 which includes the continent of Australia and 

 the other colonial possessions of Great Britain 

 in the Pacific. The following table gives tin- 

 area and population of the British Australasian 

 colonies at the census of April 5, 1S91 : 



In the principal colonies the movement of 

 population was us follows in 1890: 



COLONIES. 



New South Wales 



Victoria 



Queensland 



Kimth Australia 



Western Australia. . . 



New Zealand 



rtag. 



9,187 



:<,i:r, 

 2,285 



RM 



8,797 



87,57* 

 15,407 



4.818 



l.-vJ7 



14,217 

 18,012 



540 

 2.118 



:, y.> i 



bent of 



bbtiu. 



24,747 

 19,.'>6 

 9.1U 

 6,441 



2^695 

 12,284 



15.9.'.7 



:.:'4'J 

 '-'.:i7:4 



* 1,782 



* Net emigration. 



The population of Sydney, New South Wales 

 in 1891 was 386,400, 'including suburbs. Mel- 

 bourne, the capital of Victoria, had 494,378 in- 

 habitants, and the total town population of this 

 colony was 684,260, about three fifths of the 

 people in the colony. Adelaide, the capital of 

 South Australia, has a population of about 133.- 

 220. Queensland's capital, Brisbane, had 25,889 

 inhabitants in the north and 22,849 in the south 

 town, and within a radius of five miles 93.657. 

 In Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, there 

 were 33,224 inhabitants at the time of the cen- 

 sus. Perth, the capital of Western Australia, 

 had 9,617. 



Finances. The following table gives the 

 budgets of income and expenditure for each col- 

 ony and the public debt of each for the financial 

 year 1890, which ended on June 30 in Victoria, 

 South Australia, and Queensland ; on Dec. 31 in 

 New Zealand and Fiji ; and in New South Wales, 

 Tasmania, and Western Australia on March 31. 



* For 1891. 



Australian Loans. Since the commercial 

 depression which overtook the Australian colo- 

 nies one after another, their credit in the London 

 money market has greatly declined, and the pe- 

 riod of extravagant borrowing, accompanied by 

 political jobbery, waste, and cormption, has 

 come to a stop, because British investors decline 

 to put more money in the funds of the Austra- 

 lian colonies, of which South Australia alone has 

 been able to raise money at home to carry out 

 improvements. The to'al debt of the seven 

 Australian colonies amounts to nearly 190.000,- 

 000, about 60 per head of population, which is 

 three and a half times the proportion in the 

 United Kingdom and almost 75 per cent, more 

 than in France. The Australian statesmen pro- 

 fessed satisfaction at the close of the period of 

 borrowing, but made anxious attempts neverthe- 

 less to negotiate new loans, and predicted dis- 

 tiv-Miig conseipienccs if the flow of Knglish 

 money ceased suddenly In-fore the railroads that 

 were planned were completed. Money was rai>< d 

 in London with much difficulty in 1891, and in 

 1892 it was refused altogether". The Victorian 

 3i per cents., which a short time before stood at 

 par, were quoted at 93, and the stock of the other 



