INTRODUCTION. 



The purpose of this book may bo very briefly told : As there are 

 stages in the life of the individual when he naturally pauses, or is 

 made to pause, and takes stock, so to say, of his actual position, his 

 profit or loss account to date, his probable or possible prospects 

 for the future, so there maybe in the case of a community. Such a 

 time in the affairs of this community to the projectors of this 

 volume appeared to be the present. We are on the eve, rather, at 

 the starting point of a totally new departure in our political and 

 commercial, and therefore, it may be hoped, in our industrial and 

 social, career ; and in order that due note may be possible here- 

 after of our progress or otherwise, it behoves us to know exactly 

 to-day, in all these respects, where we start from. Hence the 

 engagement of experts in all these departments, and in every 

 branch of them, to set down, in no great detail indeed, which 

 would swell the volume to a library, but with absolute accuracy, 

 precisely where and how we stand at the present moment in regard 

 to each ; and hence, we think may be added, within the covers of 

 this book one of the most marvellous records ever written of any 

 country in the world. 



It is perhaps needless to say that the credit of the inception of 

 this work rests with the same bold, busy brain to which also is 

 due mainly the new departure it is meant to mark. It was the 

 present Premier, the Hon. G. H. Reid, who first suggested the 

 idea of some such publication, which, with his long experience in 

 such matters, was speedily put into form by the publisher, the 

 Government Printer, Mr. Potter, to whom also is due chiefly the 

 excellent choice of writers to deal with the several subjects. Any 

 editor might well be proud of such an array, and the present one 

 may fairly take this opportunity of saying that an easier task than 

 his, so far as any revision or correction of his contributors is con- 

 cerned, probably never fell to editor's lot Doubtless this was due 

 mainly to his contributors' own perfect competence, and something 

 perhaps may be put down to the inspiration, so to say, of the mar- 

 vellous tale which many or most of them had to tell. As he must 

 be a dullard indeed who can read some of the papers in this book 



