AUSTRALASIA. 



55 



Denning for the discovery of comet a 1894, but 

 he refused to accept it on the ground that its in- 

 trinsic value was inadequate compensation for 

 the labor of comet seeking. 



A medal of this sort was cast for the discovery 

 of comet b (Rordame), but, owing to a dispute as 

 to Mr. Rordame's claims, the committee of award 

 determined to withhold it altogether, and to de- 

 posit it in the archives of Lick Observatory. 



Change of Observatory. The instruments 

 and equipments of Warner Observatory, Roches- 

 tter, N. Y., have been removed to Echo moun- 

 tain, southern California, a spur of the Sierra 

 Madre range, and are now ensconced in the 

 Lowe Observatory, just completed. This station 

 is in Los Angeles County, 15 miles north of the 

 city of that name, and 'is 8,700 feet above the 

 level of the sea. Dr. Lewis Swift, director, and 

 Mr. Edward D. T. Swift, assistant, constitute the 

 working force of the institution. 



Transit of Mercury. It is too early to trans- 

 mit general observations of this phenomenon, as 

 it occurred so recently, but it was well observed 

 at the Lowe Observatory, both with the 16-inch 

 refractor and with the 4j-inch comet seeker, and 

 was the first astronomical episode of the newly 

 transplanted observatory. The times of contact 

 were noted by Mrs. A. L. Miller for the observ- 

 ers, and were as follow : Ingress, first contact, 

 7 h 57 m 10 s A. M. ; ingress, second contact, 7 h 58 m 

 36" A. M. Egress, first contact, l h ll m 26" P. M. ; 

 egress, second contact, l h 13 m 10 s P. M. 



AUSTRALASIA, one of the grand divisions 

 of the globe, composed mainly of British colonies. 

 The five colonies of the continent of Australia, 

 the adjacent colony of Tasmania, and New Zea- 

 land are self-governing, having elective parlia- 

 ments consisting of two houses, and responsible 

 ministers. The home Government has a right 

 of veto, which it exercises, through the Gov- 

 ernor, only in case a measure is deemed prejudi- 

 cial to imperial rights or interests. 



Postal and Telegraph Projects. A con- 

 ference arranged toward the end of 1893 between 

 the governments of the Australasian colonies met 

 in Wellington, New Zealand, March 5, 1894, to 

 consider the Pacific cable question, intercolonial 

 postal notes, parcel-post service with the United 

 States, postal communication with Cape Colony, 

 and penny postage between Great Britain and 

 Australasia. 



The conference approved the laying of a cable 

 between Bundaberg. Queensland, and Vancouver, 

 touching at Noumea, in New Caledonia. Fiji, 

 Apia, in Samoa, Fanning island, and Honolulu. 

 The Australian colonies expected to share with 

 the British and Canadian governments a guar- 

 antee of 4 per cent, for fourteen years on 1,800,- 

 000, and hoped to obtain the capital in Great 

 Britain, Canada, the United States, Germany, 

 and France. The tariff should be restricted to 

 8s. per word between Australian stations and 

 Great Britain, and Is. 6d. for press dispatches. 

 Another proposed route was from Ahaipara Bay, 

 New Zealand, to Vancouver, with extension from 

 New Zealand to Brisbane, rejecting the section 

 that was laid in 1893 between Noumea and 

 Bundaberg by a French company with Govern- 

 ment aid. The British Government, for political 

 and strategic reasons, objected to having any 

 tending on other than British soil, and when the 



question was discussed at the Intercolonial Con- 

 ference that met in Ottawa, Canada, in June, 

 that was the understanding. At this conference 

 a preliminary survey, to cost not over 25,000, 

 was authorized, of the expense of which Canada, 

 Australasia, and Great Britain will each bear 

 one third. Siemens, the German electrician, 

 offered to lay the cable for 2,000,000. The 

 mail service between Great Britain and Australia 

 via the Canadian Pacific Railroad by means of a 

 fleet of steamers running between British Colum- 

 bia and Australian ports was inaugurated by pri- 

 vate enterprise. The Canadians purpose to make 

 it a purely British route, by placing a line of fast 

 packets on the Atlantic, and their Government 

 offers a subsidy of 150,000 a year to the new 

 service, while the British Government is expected 

 to pay 75,000, the same subsidy that the Penin- 

 sular* and Oriental and Orient lines receive. 



The Postal Conference condemned the imme- 

 diate reduction of letter postage between Great 

 Britain and the colonies to Id., as the reduction 

 in 1891 to 2%d. had entailed an annual loss of 

 40,000 to the colonies, and the necessary reduc- 

 tion of the intercolonial rate from 2d. to \d. 

 would involve an additional loss of 250,000. 



New South Wales. The oldest of the Aus- 

 tralasian colonies has had responsible govern- 

 ment since 1855. The Legislative Council has 

 73 members, who are appointed for life by the 

 Government. The Assembly, under the act 

 that abolished the property qualification and 

 plural votes, approved June 13, 1893, is com- 

 posed of 125 members, elected for three years, in 

 separate districts, by all male citizens over 

 twenty-one years of age who have resided three 

 months in the district. All elections are held 

 on the same day. A residence of one year in the 

 colony gains the franchise for a British subject. 

 Members are paid 300 per annum. Sir Robert 

 W. Duff began his functions as Governor on 

 May 29, 1893. The Cabinet in the beginning of 

 1894 was composed as follows: Premier and Co- 

 lonial Secretary, Sir George R. Dibbs ; Colonial 

 Treasurer, John See ; Attorney-General, Charles 

 G. Heydon ; Secretary for Lands, Henry Cope- 

 land ; 'Secretary for Public Works, William J. 

 Lyne ; Minister of Public Instruction, Francis 

 B. Suttor ; Postmaster-General, John Kidd ; 

 Minister of Justice and Secretary for Mines and 

 Agriculture. T. M. Slattery; Vice-President of 

 the Executive Council and Representative of 

 the Government in the Legislative Council, Dr. 

 Maclaurin. 



The colony has an area of about 310,700 square 

 miles, and an estimated population, on Dec. 31, 

 1892, of 1,197,650646,540 of the male and 551,- 

 110 of the female sex. In the census of 1891 

 464,937 persons were returned as actual workers, 

 of whom 140,941 were in industrial, 136,375 in ag- 

 ricultural, pastoral, and mining, 87,967 in com- 

 mercial, 58,393 in domestic, 30,879 in professional, 

 and 10,382 in undefined occupations. The de- 

 pendent persons numbered 655,964, including 

 12,478 supported by piiblic or private charity. 

 The only large city 'is Sydney, the capital, which 

 contained an estimated population of 411,710 at 

 the end of 1892. The net immigration in 1892 

 was 9,510, against 17,846 in 1891. The influx of 

 Chinese has been stopped by the poll tax of 100, 

 which has been collected since 1888 in all the col- 



