WEST CHESTER 



6247 



WESTERN AUSTRALIA 



Among his portraits is a well-known bust 

 painting of Washington; one of the best of his 

 mythological subjects is Hector Parting with 

 Andromache; Christ Healing the Sick ranks 

 among the finest of his religious paintings, and 

 among his great historical paintings, The Death 

 of General Wolfe, Penn's Treaty with the In- 

 dians, The Black Prince at Poitiers and The 

 lint tie of La Hogue won him greatest fame. 

 Though West was greatly admired in his day, 

 later critics regard his works as deficient in 

 spirit and in imaginative power. His Death of 

 General Wolfe was epoch-making in that the 

 t broke away from the old tradition of 

 having the characters garbed in Greek and 

 Roman costumes. 



WEST CHESTER, PA., a borough and the 

 county seat of Chester County, situated in the 

 me southeastern part of the state, twenty- 

 n miles west of Philadelphia, with which 

 it is connected by an interurban line. It is on 

 the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia, Balti- 

 more <fe Washington railroads. The population 

 in 1910 was 11,767; in 1916, 13,176 (Federal es- 

 timate)*. Educational institutions of the city 

 include a normal school, Saint Anthony's Boys' 

 College and the Darlington Seminary, for young 

 ladies. Features of interest are Everhart Park 

 and Marshall Square, the latter containing bo- 

 tanical gardens; a Federal building, erected in 

 1907 at a cost of 180,000, a county courthouse 

 and a county jail. Here are located extensive 

 nurseries, wheel and engine works, a tag fac- 

 tory and large plants for the manufacture of 

 dairy implements. West Chester was settled 

 in 1784, and four years later was incorporated 

 as a town. In 1799 it was chartered as a bor- 

 ough. Two miles distant is the historic Bran- 

 dywine River, and in the vicinity are the bat- 

 tle grounds of Brandy wine, Chadd's Ford and 

 Valley Forge. FJ.W. 



WESTERN AUSTRALIA, awstra'lia, the 

 -t and mo-t, tli inly-populated state of the 

 Australian Commonwealth, occupies the west- 

 ern third of the continent. In this vast terri- 

 \\ith an area of 975,920 square miles, there 

 are only 319359 inhabitants (estimate of 1915) ; 

 density of population is thus about one 

 person to three square mile*. There are large 

 sections in the int. nr quite unpopulated, and 

 the chief towns are in the coast regions. They 

 mrliidr IVrtli. the capital; Fremantle, its port 

 on the Indian Ocean; Boulder, Kalgoorhe and 

 Albany. 



Physical Features. The coast line, which has 

 a total extent of about 5,200 miles, has very 



few indentations, or natural harbors. The most 

 important mountain range, the Darling, which 

 has an elevation of 1,500 feet, skirts the south- 

 western coast. This range, however, does not 

 contain the highest summit in the state; that 

 distinction belongs to Stirling Range, forty 

 miles inland, whose loftiest elevation, Bluff 

 Knolls, is 3,640 feet above the sea. The inte- 

 rior is a plateau 

 varying in alti- 

 tude from 700 to 

 1,000 feet, and 

 the greater por- 

 tion of it, with 

 the exception of 

 small areas, is 

 practically sterile, 

 being a part of 

 the great sandy 

 desert which oc- 



LOCATION MAP 

 The state occupies nearly a 



cupies the middle third of the Australian con- 

 of the Australian tlnent ' 



continent. Western Australia has few rivers of 

 importance. The largest, the Murchison, Gas- 

 coyne, Ashburton and Fitzroy, are in the west. 



Natural Resources. Western Australia has a 

 very hot and very dry climate. Regular and 

 abundant rainfall occurs only in the southwest- 

 ern regions of the state, where the fall averages 

 thirty inches a year; in other regions barely 

 ten inches a year are registered. In these 

 southwestern regions large quantities of wheat, 

 barley, corn, oats, potatoes and hay are raised. 

 Extensive tracts of good grazing land for cat- 

 tle and sheep are also found here, and the 

 number of cattle and sheep raised has increased 

 greatly during recent years. The wool clip 

 amounts to over 25,000,000 pounds a year. 



Extensive forests constitute one of the prin- 

 cipal sources of wealth. There are many varie- 

 ties of eucalyptus, or gum trees, some of which 

 are of gigantic proportions. Of still greater im- 

 portance is the inmnal \\ealth of the state, es- 

 pecially gold. The value of the yearly output 

 of this metal is about $25.000,000, and is des- 

 tined to increase. The HIM -f gold fields are in 

 the Coolgardie and Kalnoorlie district.*, other 

 minerals mined are copper, tin and coal. 



Government and History. Western Australia 

 is governed by a eh:- e, appointed by 



the British Crown, and by a Parliament con- 

 sisting of a legislative assembly and a legisla- 

 tive council. The former consists of tiny mem- 

 ben elected for three yean, and the latter of 

 thirty members elected for six years. 

 women and men have suffrage rights. The 



