AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES. 391 



the New South Wales coal-fields yield in importance only to those of West Europe, 

 the United States, and Russia. The coal-mines increase in value according as those 

 of gold fall off, and to them, combined with sheep-farming, New South Wales is 

 indebted for the first place which it now holds amongst the Australian colonies. 

 The silver-mines have but slight economic importance, whilst the salt lakes are 

 scarcely utilised at all, as they yield only an inferior article full of impurities. 



The Australian manufacturing industry differs in no respect from that of Great 

 Britain, so far as regards the raw materials and mechanical processes ; but it is 

 not yet sufficiently developed to give rise to any considerable export trade to the 

 surrounding oceanic world. The country offers little beyond agricultural and 

 mining produce in exchange for the manufactured wares imported almost exclu- 

 sivel}' from England, and for the teas received from China. But the total 

 value of this commercial movement is prodigious, regard being had to the 

 relatively slight population of the continent. Amongst trading lands Australia 

 takes a first rank for the value of its exchanges compared with the number of its 

 inhabitants. In this respect, however, the inter-colonial traffic is reckoned as so 

 much foreign trade, because the custom-house tariffs differ in the different states, 

 and are even regulated with a view to protecting special industries against the 

 competition of neighbouring provinces. 



This local and foreign commerce employs thousands of vessels, constantly 

 plying along the seaboard and on the highways of navigation converging from all 

 quarters on the periphery of the continent. The main lines of oceanic steamships 

 subsidised by the British Government maintain the communications between the 

 great seaports of the British Isles and the Austral regions ; foreign steamers, also, 

 such as those of the French Messageries and the German Company, touch at the 

 more important Australian ports. Thanks to the combined service of steam 

 navigation and railways, letters have been received in Adelaide from London within 

 twenty -seven days. The colonies have also developed a considerable local ship- 

 ping, and the mercantile marine registered in the various seaports already equals 

 that of several European trading countries, such as Austria- Hungary and 

 Greece. 



In the interior of the continent railways have been constructed between all the 

 large towns of East Australia, and the completion of the viaduct across the Hawkes- 

 bury river now places Adelaide in uninterrupted communication with Brisbane 

 by a trunk line over 1,700 miles long or as far as from Paris to Moscow. West 

 Australia at the south-west corner of the continent also possesses a few short lines 

 and has just begun the vast undertaking of a coast railway to connect King George 

 Sound with the South Australian system. The government of the latter colony 

 on its part is pushing forward the construction of a trans-continental line between 

 Adelaide in the south and Palmerston on the north coast. Tasmania also is 

 adding a few branches to its main line between Launceston and Hobart. With the 

 exception of a few mineral and other industrial lines all the Australian railways 

 belong to the several colonies whose territory they traverse. 



The telegraphs, which are also maintained by the national budget, connect all 



