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 5,172970 



1881 26,308,347 1 1,440,732 



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, 



