AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



advent of an Australian Governor; on the 4th of December His Excellency held his 

 first levee in Melbourne, and established the basis of a popularity which has in no 

 respect diminished during the period he has represented Her Majesty in the colony. 



THE COLONY OF VICTORIA IN 1890. 



It is but little more than half a century since Major Mitchell crossed this colony 

 from the Murray to the sea ; found an infant settlement established in Portland Bay ; 

 and discovered from the summit of Mount Macedon, on his return, something that 

 looked like tents pitched on the site now occupied by the city of South Melbourne. 

 This may be a fitting place, then^ to pause and inquire what has been accomplished 

 since 1836. Over a million persons of European birth or descent inhabit the country of 

 which that explorer has left us such glowing descriptions. 



The metropolis of the colony, with its belt of suburbs, which include three cities 

 and fourteen other municipalities, contains within a ten-mile radius a population of nearly 

 four hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. A Government, based on manhood suffrage, 

 administers an annual revenue of over eight millions sterling ; and the laws of the com- 

 munity are enacted by two Legislative Chambers, both of them elective. The principle 

 of self-government is so widely ramified that the local affairs of upwards of one hundred 

 and twenty shires, and sixty cities, towns and boroughs are managed by bodies chosen 

 for that purpose by the rate-payers, and invested with the authority to levy and collect 

 the funds necessary to be expended on works of public utility. 



Of the fifty-six million two hundred and forty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty 

 acres of land comprehended within the limits of the colony, about fourteen million acres 

 have passed into private ownership, and something like eight million acres are in process 

 of alienation. Another twenty-one million acres are occupied as squatting runs, or under 

 grazing rights. The extent of land under cultivation may be estimated at two million 

 five hundred and sixty-five thousand acres, yielding between nine and ten million bushels 

 of wheat, about three million bushels of oats, two million bushels of barley, one hundred 

 and sixty thousand tons of potatoes, and four hundred thousand tons of hay, besides 

 garden produce, fruit and hops. But, of course, these returns are liable to great fluctua- 

 tions from year to year ; the aggregate value of the whole exceeding a sum not less 

 than six million pounds sterling. Upon farms and stations, upwards of eleven million 

 sheep, one million three hundred and eighty thousand head of cattle, and over three 

 hundred thousand horses are being depastured. The annual "clip" of wool may be taken 

 at seventy million pounds weight ; and the total value of pastoral and dairy produce, 

 one year with another, will be found to average ten million pounds sterling. 



Exclusive of flour-mills, breweries, distilleries, woollen mills, brick-yards, potteries, soap 

 and candle works, tobacco and cigar factories, tanneries, fellmongeries and wool-washing 

 establishments, there are close upon three thousand manufacturing establishments in the 

 colony, employing fifty thousand men, women and children, operating upon raw material 

 of the annual value of eight million pounds, and turning out products exceeding thirteen 

 million pounds in value. Including manufactories of all kinds the total number is three 

 thousand one hundred and fifty-four, employing over fifty-six thousand hands ; and the 

 approximate value of buildings, land, and machinery and plant is close upon fifteen 



