PREFACE. v 



The Editor's special acknowledgments are due to those gentlemen who so kindly 

 responded to his request for literary assistance. It is proper to say that Mr. JAMKS 

 SMITH, of Melbourne, kindly undertook the responsibility for the whole of the Vic- 

 torian section, and also for that of Tasmania ; the Rev. H. T. BURGESS, for South 

 Australia ; Mr. W. H. TRAILL, for Queensland ; Sir T. COCKBURN-CAMPBELL, Bart, for 

 Western Australia ; Mr. H. BRETT, for New Zealand ; and Mr. FRANK J. DONOHUE, for 

 the Administrative and the social and political sections. The names of the several 

 contributors are acknowledged in the Table of Contents, and the Editor feels under 

 special obligations to those missionaries and ex-missionaries who have written on the 

 Islands, and who have furnished information which few but themselves could supply. It 

 has been a matter of great regret that the Editor has been unable to avail himself of 

 all the valuable matter put before him ; but in a publication of this kind, where the 

 number of parts is limited from the outset, where the occasional use of smaller type is 

 not available, and where each article has to be fitted with Procrustean rigour to the 

 exact space allotted to it, compression and omission have been unavoidable. 



In addition to the regular contributors, the Editor has been under great obligations 

 for information, suggestion, correction and revision, to many gentlemen who have kindly 

 given their assistance, amongst whom he may specially mention Messrs. JOHN RAE, late 

 Under Secretary for Public Works and Commissioner for Railways, New South Wales ; 

 P. F. ADAMS, Surveyor-General ; HARRIE WOOD, Under Secretary for Mines, Sydney ; 

 S. H. LAMBTON, Secretary to the General Post Office, Sydney; T. A. COGHLAN, 

 A.M.I.C.E., Government Statistician, New South Wales; C. S. WILKINSON, F.G.S., 

 Government Geologist, New South Wales ; R. L. J. ELLERY, Government Astronomer, 

 Victoria ; CLEMENT L. WRAGGE, Government Astronomer, Queensland ; CHARLES TODD, 

 C.M.G., F.R.A.S., P.M.G., South Australia; CHARLES MOORE, Director of the Botanical 

 Gardens, Sydney ; W. R. GUILFOYLE, Curator of the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne ; 

 J. G. ANDERSON, Under Secretary for Education, Queensland ; W. GRAY, Secretary 

 General Post Office, Wellington, New Zealand; Captain J. SHORTT, R.N., Tasmania; 

 Sir MALCOLM A. C. FRASER, K.C.M.G., Western Australia; Rev. Dr. WOOLLS, Ph.D., 

 F.L.S. ; His Honor Judge MC-FARLAND ; His Honor Judge DOWLING ; Rev. T. S. 

 FORSAITH ; W. H. HARGRAVES ; ROBERT G. D. FIT/GERALD, Deputy Surveyor-General; 

 Sir HENRY AYRES, President of the Legislative Council of South Australia; His Eminence 

 Cardinal MORAN ; Hon. G. H. Cox; Hon. P. G. King; Lieutenant FIELD, R.N. ; 

 NICHOLAS LOCKYEK ; J. J. ATKINSON; E. J. WELCH; H. W. HOWITT ; HENRY STUART 

 RUSSELL, Author of "Genesis of Queensland"; W. WILKINS, late Under Secretary to 

 the Council of Education of New South Wales; Dr. SHORTLANU; J. W. HACKETT, 

 Editor of the Perth Examiner; EDWARD DOWLING, late Secretary to the Board of 

 Technical Education in New South* Wales ; to Mr. HENRY KING, Sydney, and Messrs. 

 FOSTER and MARTIN, Melbourne ; and last, not least, to the Assistant Editor, .Mr. FRED. 

 J. BROOMFIELD, to whose constant, patient and minute attention the work is greatly indebted. 



ANDREW GARRAN. 



