32 



AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



colony, which has already five square miles of 

 land to every male inhabitant, by a proclama- 

 tion issued without consulting the home au- 

 thorities, contains 812,000 square miles, and a 

 population of several millions. The suspicion 

 was generally entertained, and was intimated 

 in Lord Derby's sharp reply, that the colonists 

 wished to obtain an unlimited supply of black 

 labor, without the restraint which the imperial 

 authorities put upon the cruelties incident to 

 that traffic. The main business of the British 

 squadron on the Australian station is to police 

 the seas, so as to keep in check this slaving 

 trade. The island of Papua has never been ex- 

 plored, except along the coast, although D'Al- 

 bertis, Miklucho-Maklay, and Lawes have pene- 

 trated a short distance inland. Powell, who 

 lived eight years on the coast, considers it the 

 richest island in the world in natural resources. 

 Products which are obtainable in large quan- 

 tities, and some of which are already objects 

 of commerce, are tortoise-shells, pearl-shells, 

 ivory-nuts, gums, sandal- wood, camphor, sago, 

 arrowroot, ginger, sugar-cane, ebony, and bird- 

 of-paradise plumes. Tobacco is produced in 

 large quantities. Copper, tin, and gold have 

 been found, but of the mineral resources of 

 the island but little is known. 



The British Colonial Office, after disposing 

 of the presumptuous act of the Governor of 

 Queensland, had a wider scheme of colonial 

 extension presented to its attention by agents 

 of all the colonies. They proposed the an- 

 nexation of Papua, the New Hebrides, the Solo- 

 mon Islands, and the islands in the neighbor- 

 hood of Papua, and of the little-known islands 

 to the north and northeast of Papua, compris- 

 ing all together an area of over 300,000 square 

 miles. The hope which Lord Derby held out 

 to the colonies was that they should unite 

 in a confederation and help to carry out their 

 annexation schemes with their own powers. 

 The conference of delegates from the legisla- 

 tures of the different colonies which was held 

 at Sydney in November to consider the ques- 

 tion of confederation turned its attention to 

 that of annexing the South Sea islands. The 

 conference resolved that it would be highly 

 injurious to the interests of Australia and the 

 mpiro to have any foreign power acquire 

 dominions in the southern Pacific, and there- 

 fore called upon England to take the initiative 

 in taking possession of that part of Papua not 

 H.-iiriird by Holland, and the neighboring isl- 

 ands, and to make arrangements with France 

 to preclude that power from making conquests 

 in these regions, and to induce it to relinquish 

 the New Hebrides to British possession. The 

 conference promised that Australia would bear 

 its fair share in the cost of these enterprises. 



Victoria wos constituted a self-governing col- 

 ony in 1854. The Legislative Council, of 86 

 members, is elective by a limited franchise, 

 fixed by the law of 1881 at 10 annual rata- 

 ble value of freehold property or the occu- 

 pancy of rented or leased property rated at 



25 annual value for all except professional 

 men. The term of the members, who must 

 have property yielding 100 income, is nine 

 years, one third retiring every three years. 

 The members of the Legislative Assembly are 

 elected for three years by universal suffrage, 

 The bill of 1881 increased the electorate for 

 the Legislative Council from 33,105 to 110,000. 

 The electors for the Assembly number 176,022. 



The Governor, who was appointed Dec. 10, 

 1878, and assumed office Feb. 27, 1879, is the 

 Hon. George Augustus C. Phipps, second Mar- 

 quis of Normanby, who has filled similar posts 

 in Nova Scotia, Queensland, and New Zealand. 



The area of Victoria is 87,884 square miles. 

 The population on the 3d of April, 1881, was 

 862,346452,083 males and 410,263 females- 

 including 12,128 Chinese and 780 aborigines. 

 The Chinese and natives have decreased greatly 

 in the past ten years. About half of the total 

 population live in towns. Those containing 

 over 10,000 inhabitants in 1881 were as fol- 

 low : Melbourne, 65,859 (including suburbs, 

 282,981); Sandhurst, 28,513; Emerald Hill, 

 25,374; Collingwood, 23,829; Richmond, 23,- 

 405; Fitzroy, 23,118; Ballarat, 22,411 ; Prah- 

 ran, 21,168; Hotham, 17,839; Wahalla, 16,- 

 147; Ballarat East, 14,849; St. Kilda, 11,654. 

 The population of Victoria formerly increased 

 rapidly by immigration, but owing to the with- 

 drawal of the system of assisted immigration 

 and other causes the influx has moderated 

 greatly. 



The total imports in 1881 amounted to 16,- 

 718,521, the exports to 16,252,103. The 

 chief imports are woolen manufactures, live- 

 stock, sugar, cotton, clothing, and tea. More 

 or less grain is imported each year. The two 

 staple articles, wool and gold, make the prin- 

 cipal part of the exports. There were ex- 

 ported in 1881, 98,467,369 pounds of wool, 

 valued at 5,450,029, and gold bullion of the 

 value of 8,674,104. The quantity of gold 

 produced, which averaged 2,000,000 ounces 

 per annum in the first ten years after the dis- 

 covery of the mines in 1851, and fell to 1,500,- 

 000 ounces in 1867, and below 1,000,000 in 

 1876, slightly increased with the application 

 of the diamond - drill after 1878, while the 

 number of miners employed has decreased in 

 recent years. The number at the beginning 

 of 1882 was 38,136, including 7,941 Chinamen. 

 The value of the total quantity of gold pro- 

 duced since 1851 is estimated at 201,674,118. 



The number of acres under cultivation in 

 1882 was 1,997,943. There were 4,919 acres 

 of vineyards. In March, 1881, the census of 

 live-stock gave 275,516 horses, 1,286,267 

 horned cattle, 10,360,285 sheep, and 241,936 

 pigs. 



The mileage of railroads open to traffic at 

 the close of 1881 was 1,214 miles, all belong- 

 ing to the state. There were under construc- 

 tion 450 miles more. The system has been 

 built in great part since 1875. The total cost 

 was 18,603,830, the cost per mile 15,324; 



