AUSTRALASIA. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



than enough to secure a reform in the licensing 

 system. 



The new Parliament was convened June 21, 



1894. The Government introduced a bill to ex- 

 clude undesirable immigration, to double the 

 poll tax on Chinese and impose a similar tax on 

 other colored aliens, and to exclude all contract 

 laborers. Shipowners bringing paupers or de- 

 mented persons are subjected to penalties. The 

 loose management of companies was made the 

 subject of restrictive legislation. On June 30 a 

 bill was passed as a measure of urgency guaran- 

 teeing 2,000,000 of additional shares to be issued 

 by the Bank of New Zealand. They have pref- 

 erence over other shares, and must be canceled 

 in ten years, during which a 4-per-cent. dividend 

 is guaranteed by the Consolidated fund. The 

 president of the board of directors is appointed 

 by the Government, as are also auditors in New 

 Zealand and London. This succor averted a 

 financial panic. A special bill forbade the trans- 

 fer of shares without the approval of the colonial 

 Treasurer, and another extends till September, 



1895. the authority to issue bank notes conferred 

 in 1893. In the financial statement, delivered in 

 the House of Representatives on July 24, Mr. 

 Ward unfolded a scheme for borrowing 1,500,- 

 000 in London at 3 per cent, for the purpose of 

 loaning money to settlers on freehold security at 

 5 per cent. He also proposed to create colonial 

 consols to the amount of 1,000,000, one half to 

 be issued in 1894 and the rest in the following 

 year, which should be inscribed at the post offices 

 and pay not above 4 per cent, interest. It was 

 proposed to merge all private savings banks in 

 the post office savings bank. Foreign insurance 

 companies are to be required to make large de- 

 posits with the public trustee. The Government 

 offers a bounty for the production of the sugar 

 beet, and one of 2s. per ton on the export of coal. 

 The granting of a bonus for whaling, especially 

 for the establishment of a station on the Kerma- 

 dec Islands, northwest of New Zealand, is under 

 consideration. Railroad fare to cities was made 

 uniform for all distances. The Land act of 1892 

 enables any man over seventeen years of age, or 

 any single woman, to become a selector of Crown 

 lands on a lease of nine hundred and ninety-nine 

 ^ears, subject to conditions of residence and im- 

 provements and the payment of a rent of 4 per 

 cent, on the capital value of the land. The mini- 

 mum valuation placed on the land subject to 

 selection is 1 an acre for first-class or agricul- 

 tural land, find 5*. for second-class land suitable 

 for pastoral purposes. Some village settlements 

 have been in operation for six years in which the 

 rent is 5 per cent, on the capital value of the 

 land, which starts at 1 an acre. In these the 

 number of settlers is about 900. No allotment 

 is allowed to exceed 50 acres, and the average is 

 about 25 acres. To these settlers the state has 

 advanced an average of 1 Is. 2d an acre, and 

 the settlers have made improvements valued at 

 two and a half times the amount they borrowed. 

 The loans proposed by the Government, amount- 

 ing to 3,250,000, including a colonial loan of 

 750,000 for surveying, purchasing, and building 

 roads and bridges in native lands, are to be ap- 

 plied chiefly in facilitating settlement, under the 

 new land act. The natives in the Waikato river 

 district were seriously opposed to the surveys 



that were made for the settlement of the lands, 

 and in the neighborhood of Lake Taupo the police 

 had to protect the officials of the land depart- 

 ment and arrest many natives. In the King and 

 Urewera districts the Maoris were also disaf- 

 fected. The Premier made a journey through 

 the King country, which was long forbidden 

 ground to the whites, and the principal chief of 

 Urewera gave up to him his scepter, saying that 

 they looked to the Government for protection 

 and would give no more trouble. Tawhiao, the 

 Maori king, sent similar assurances. The Gov- 

 ernment has lately discouraged private purchases 

 of Maori lands. 



Fiji. The natives of the Fijian Islands are 

 governed by 12 superior and 160 lesser chiefs, 

 supervised by three European commissioners. 

 The dependency of Rotumah has also a European 

 commissioner. ' The Governor of Fiji, who is also 

 High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, is 

 Sir John Bates Thurston. 



The estimated population at the end of 1892 

 was 125.442, composed as follows : Native Fijians, 

 107,745; Rotumans, 2,207; Europeans, 2,281; 

 half castes, 1.102; Polynesians, 2,452; Indians, 

 9,103 ; others', 552. 



The revenue for 1893 was estimated at 72,406, 

 and expenditure at 70,447. The public debt 

 amounts to 243,235, including 114.235 ad- 

 vanced by the imperial Exchequer. The prin- 

 cipal commercial products are sugar, copra and 

 desiccated cocoanut, tea, bananas, peanuts, and 

 cotton. The value of the imports in 1892 was 

 253,586 ; exports, 434,791. 



The native taxes are paid in produce, which 

 they prepare and which is sold by the Govern- 

 ment in their behalf by annual contract. The 

 revenue obtained from this source in 1892 was 

 18,256. This method of taxation causes much 

 disaffection among the natives, because the offi- 

 cials often seize produce that they require for 

 their own sustenance. In the summer of 1894 

 an outbreak occurred on this account, which 

 was suppressed by the Governor with a loss of 

 7 lives. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, a dual monarchy in 

 central Europe, composed of the Empire of Aus- 

 tria and the Kingdom of Hungary, two insepara- 

 ble monarchies, hereditary in the dynasty of 

 Hapsburg : Lorraine to the male posterity in order 

 of primogeniture. Legislative powers in regard 

 to affairs common to the two halves of the em- 

 pire namely, foreign affairs, the army, common 

 finances, and the administration of Bosnia and 

 Herzegovina are exercised by the Delegations, 

 which are committees of the Legislatures of the 

 two monarchies, each composed of 40 members 

 of the Lower House and 20 of the Second Chamber, 

 elected anew for each session. The Delegations 

 are convoked annually alternately in the two 

 capitals, and sit separately, but hold a joint ses- 

 sion when there is a disagreement. 



The Emperor is Franz Josef, born Aug. 18. 1830. 

 The heir presumptive is the Archduke Franz 

 Ferdinand, nephew of the Emperor, born Dec. 18, 

 1863. The common ministers, responsible to the 

 Delegations, are the following : President of the 

 Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minis- 

 ter of the Imperial Household, Count G. Kalnoky, 

 appointed on the retirement of Count Andrassy ; 

 Minister of Finance, Benjamin de Kallay ; Min- 



