AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



37 



penditure, 457,242. The public debt, raised 

 for the construction of public works, was on 

 Dec. 31, 1881, 2,003,000, bearing interest at 

 6 per cent. 



The area is estimated at 26,215 square miles, 

 or 16,778,000 acres, including the adjacent isl- 

 ands. The population in 1881 was 115,705, of 

 whom 61,162 were males and 54,543 females. 

 The increase in eleven years was but 16,377. 

 The aborigines are entirely extinct. The ex- 

 ports in 1881 amounted to 1,555,576, the im- 

 ports to 1,438,524. The chief articles of ex- 

 port are wool and tin, and more recently gold. 

 The valuable deposits of tin and iron and the 

 discovery of gold have given a slight impetus 

 to enterprise and immigration, but in agricul- 

 ture the colony has receded ; barley, the quality 

 of which is superior, is the only crop except 

 potatoes that has increased. 



New Zealand was organized in six provinces 

 in 1852, and united under a Governor and Gen- 

 eral Assembly in 1875. The members of the 

 Legislative Council are appointed by the Crown 

 for life. The House of Representatives con- 

 sists of 95 members elected by household suf- 

 frage. The Maoris are represented by four 

 members elected by themselves. 



The Governor is Maj.-Gen. Sir William Fran- 

 cis Drummond Jervois, transferred from South 

 Australia in November, 1882. 



The Premier, Mr. Whittaker, resigned the 

 office in 1883 not, however, for political rea- 

 sons. He was succeeded by Maj. Atkinson, the 

 Colonial Treasurer. 



The area of New Zealand is estimated at 

 105,342 square miles. Two thirds of the total 

 surface is good agricultural or grazing land. 

 The census of 1881 gave the total population 

 as 534,032, including the Maoris, who num- 

 bered 44,099, divided into 24,370 males and 

 19,729 females; of the rest, 269,605 were males 

 and 220,328 females. The Chinese numbered 

 5,004. The towns with more than 10,000 in- 

 habitants were Dunedin (24,372 with suburbs, 

 48,802), Auckland (16,664 with suburbs, 39,- 

 966), Wellington (20,563), and Christchurch 

 (15,213 with suburbs, 30,719). The popula- 

 tion of New Zealand is increasing faster than 

 that of any of the Australian colonies, both by 

 immigration and by a high birth-rate. 



The total imports in 1881 amounted to 7,- 

 457,045, the exports to 6,060,866. The quan- 

 tity of wool exported was 59,368,832 pounds; 

 value, 3,477,993. Grain and flour were 

 shipped to Great Britain in 1881 to the value of 

 913,581. Gum and preserved meat are, ex- 

 cept gold, the next most considerable articles 

 of export. There were in April 1881, in the 

 colony 161,736 horses, 698,637 cattle, 12,985,- 

 085 sheep, and large numbers of hogs and 

 poultry. The New Zealand gold-fields, discov- 

 ered in 1857, and yielding at the height of their 

 production in 1877, 1,496,080, produced in 

 1881, 996,867. 



The railway system of New Zealand was 

 begun in 1872. In 1882 there were 875 miles 



completed on the South Island and 458 on 

 the North Island. When completed, the sys- 

 tem is to have 2,075 miles of line, and will 

 cost 1 6,OOU,000. The capital already expend- 

 ed in 1883 was about 11,500,000. The rail- 

 roads in the South Island already return 3 per 

 cent, on the outlay, those in the North Island 

 If per cent. There were 3,824 miles of tele- 

 graph open to traffic in March, 1882. 



The revenues of the Government are derived 

 partly from customs receipts, etc., and partly 

 from sales of public lands, depasturing licenses, 

 export duties on gold, and mining licenses. 

 The latter category, called the territorial rev- 

 enue, was, down to 1879, nearly as productive 

 as the ordinary sources of revenue. In 1882 

 the ordinary revenue amounted to 3,488,170, 

 the territorial revenue to 317,063 ; total 

 revenue, 3,805,233. The total expenditure 

 was 3,590,233. The estimated revenue for 

 the year ending March 31, 1883, is 3,393,- 

 500 ; expenditure. 3,478,639. The public debt 

 amounted in 1882 to 29,946,711. At the end 

 of March, 1883, it was 30,357,000, not de- 

 ducting the sinking fund, amounting to 2,571,- 

 000. Notwithstanding the magnitude of its 

 liabilities, the colony obtained a loan of 1,- 

 000,000 in London in 1883 at 4 per cent, at a 

 very slight discount. This state of the credit 

 allows the considerable floating debt to be con- 

 verted at a reduced interest. 



The Government has introduced proposals 

 in the Legislature to change the constitution of 

 the Legislative Council, making it an elective 

 body, as in the older colonies, instead of the 

 members being appointed for life by the Gov- 

 ernor. 



The difficulties with the Maoris in the west- 

 ern part of the North Island have ceased. 

 The natives have abandoned their attitude of 

 exclusion and isolation, and given pledges of 

 peaceful submission to the laws. The pressure 

 of public opinion in England has put some re- 

 straint upon the oppressive and confiscatory 

 instincts of the colonists. Improvements are 

 being introduced in the Maori country, and in- 

 tercourse between the natives and the white 

 settlers who have penetrated there has a bene- 

 ficial influence on both races. The harbor of 

 Kawhia, after being closed for twenty years, 

 was opened again without opposition from the 

 natives. A government township was laid out 

 at that place. Surveys for roads and railways 

 have extended into parts of the country where 

 formerly no European was suffered to travel. 



AESTRIA-HUNGARY, an empire constituted 

 since 1867 as a dual monarchy. The Cisleithan 

 Kingdom, or Austria, and the Transleithan, or 

 Hungary, are connected by a common army, 

 navy, and diplomacy, and in the person of the 

 hereditary sovereign. The house of Hapsburg 

 has reigned over Austria for six hundred years, 

 and has possessed the Hungarian crown for 

 more than half that period. Franz Josef I., 

 reigning Emperor of Austria and King of 

 Hungary, was born Aug. 18, 1830, and sue- 



