AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



35 



ennial period was intended to prevent avoid- 

 able dissolutions, and although Sir Henry Rob- 

 ertson was alone responsible for pressing the 

 measure, and the country was with the coali- 

 tion ministry on every other question. The 

 party opposed to the perpetuation of the exist- 

 ing land system proposed to limit the right of 

 free selection on unsurveyed lands and allow a 

 large portion of the colony to remain under 

 pastoral leases, but without giving to squat- 

 ters the power of purchase. In the elections in 

 December, 1882, Mr. Watson, the Treasurer; 

 Dr. Kenwick, the Minister of Mines; and Mr. 

 Foster, the Minister of Justice, lost their seats; 

 Sir Henry Robertson was barely elected, and 

 Sir Henry Parkes was defeated in his own dis- 

 trict, and took the place of a candidate who 

 retired in his favor. A new ministry was 

 formed by Mr. Alexander Stuart. 



A Commission of Inquiry reported in May 

 upon the facts governing the land question. 

 The territory of New South Wales is divisible 

 into three parts. The old settled portion, con- 

 sisting mainly of the land lying between the 

 sea and the Blue Mountains, contains 500,000 

 inhabitants, including 220,000 in Sydney and 

 117,000 in other towns, and has an area of 26,- 

 000,000 acres, of which 9,000,000 have been 

 alienated, consisting of all the best lands. This 

 land was not occupied in pastoral squatting 

 leases, but in the form of freeholds of moder- 

 ate size, with grazing rights over an additional 

 space. The result is stated to be a beneficial 

 division of the land and settlement by fami- 

 lies, with few estates exceeding 5,000 acres. 

 The second division, comprising the nearer in- 

 land districts as far as the Barwon river and the 

 confluence of the Murrumbidgee and the Mur- 

 ray, on the frontier of Victoria, is the largest 

 of the three, and contains the finest lands, 

 such as the rich plains of the Clarence and 

 Macleay rivers, and the valuable grazing dis- 

 tricts of New England, Liverpool Plains, Gwy- 

 dir, Dubbo, Deniliquin, the Upper Murray, Mo- 

 miro, and Twofold Bay. It has a total area 

 of 86,000,000 acres, and a population of 223,- 

 560 souls, of whom 88,178 live in the towns. 

 This region was settled under the land laws of 

 1862. The class-conflicts which arose between 

 the squatters and the free-selectors are said to 

 have wasted the resources of the settlers and 

 embittered social life. The quantity of land 

 which has passed into private ownership is 

 25,156,000 acres.' In the Deniliquin and Wag- 

 ga Wagga districts only one eighth or less of 

 the nominal owners remain on the land, much 

 more than half the farms ostensibly free-se- 

 lected for agricultural purposes having been 

 taken up at the procuration of lessees of pas- 

 toral runs. The third division contains the 

 broad plains, well adapted to pastoral pur- 

 poses, which are traversed by the Darling river. 

 This region contains but few inhabitants as 

 yet. Very few sales have been made to set- 

 tlers, and these are mostly of the same ficti- 

 tious character as in the second division. The 



effect of the land laws, according to the com- 

 mission, has been not only to divide the rural 

 community into two hostile camps, and to waste 

 the lives and fortunes of numbers of persons in 

 litigation, but u the personal virtues of veracity 

 and honorable dealing have been tarnished by 

 the daily habit of intrigue, by the practice of 

 evading the law, and by declarations univer- 

 sally made in defiance of fact : self-interest has 

 created a laxity of conscience in these mat- 

 ters ; the stain attaches to men of all classes 

 and degrees." 



The revision of the land laws inaugurated 

 by the Stuart ministry proceeds on the prin- 

 ciple of restricting the right of free selection 

 to a limited portion of each pastoral leasehold 

 and giving the squatter a more secure tenure 

 of the remainder. Under this system the Gov- 

 ernment expects to exact a considerably higher 

 rent from the squatters. 



South Australia was invested with represent- 

 ative government in 1856. The Legislative 

 Council consists of 24 members elected from 

 four districts, one third of whom retire every 

 three years. The electoral qualifications are the 

 possession of real estate of 50 value or leased 

 premises of 20 annual value. The House of. 

 Assembly, elected by universal suffrage, con- 

 sists of 46 members. The Governor of South 

 Australia is Sir William C. T. Robinson, pre- 

 viously Governor of several minor colonies, ap- 

 pointed in November, 1882. The Executive 

 Council is composed as follows: Chief Secre- 

 tary, Hon. J. Cox Bray; Attorney-General, 

 Hon. John W. Downer; Chief -Justice, Hon. 

 S. J. Way; Treasurer, Hon. Lavington Glyde; 

 Commissioner of Crown Lands, Hon. Alfred 

 Catt; Commissioner of Public Works, Hon. 

 James Garden Ramsey ; Minister of Education, 

 Hon. John Langdon Parsons. 



The estimated area of South Australia is 

 903,425 square miles. The population on April 

 3, 1881, was 279,865, of whom 149,530 were 

 males and 130,335 females, including 2,734 

 Chinese, but exclusive of the aborigines, num- 

 bering 6,346. The population of Adelaide, the 

 capital, was 38,479 without the suburbs. 



South Australia is the leading agricultural 

 colony. The area under cultivation increased 

 from 739,714 acres in 1866 to 1,444,586 in 

 1876, and 2,613,903 in 1882, of which 1,768,- 

 781 acres were sown to wheat. The live-stock 

 census showed 159,678 horses, 314,918 horned 

 cattle, and 6,810,856 sheep. 



The total exports in 1882 amounted to about 

 5,280,000, the imports to 5,890,000. The 

 staple articles of export are wool, wheat, and 

 flour, and copper-ore. The wool exports were 

 valued in 1881 at 2,345,231, The grain ex- 

 ports were of the value of 82,092 in 1876 ; 

 514,176 in 1877; 514,176 in 1878; 464,- 

 049 in 1879; 1,025,077 in 1880; and 496,- 

 741 in 1881. The exports of copper in 1881 

 amounted to 179,731. Besides copper there 

 exist iron-ores of great richness. 



There were 945 miles of railroad in opera- 



