122 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



healthy excitement. Australia has vast wealth inde- 

 pendent of her gold. We will turn for a little to other 

 evidences of prosperity not solely of a material kind, 

 although partly the result of it. 



POSTAL STATISTICS. 



The number of letters despatched and received at 

 the post-offices of Australasia for 1884 was 138,103,- 

 105, and the number of newspapers 72,974,632. The 

 rapid growth may be seen if we take the figures for 

 Victoria for illustration : 



Letters. Newspapers. 



1851 504,425 456,741 



1861 6,109,929 4,277,179 



1871 11,716,166 5,172,970 



1881 26,308,347 11,440,732 



1885 36,061,880 16,277,108 



The growth in most of the other colonies is even 

 larger, the number of letters passing through the New 

 South Wales post-offices for 1884 being 42,237,000, 

 and the number of newspapers 25,063,500. 



PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 



In almost every town we visited we found a well- 

 furnished Mechanics' Institute and Public Library. In 

 this respect the Australians do themselves great credit, 

 and set an example worthy of imitation. 



