466 



Trade of Australasia. 



all the colonies of Australasia, and in Victoria and in New 

 Zealand, and to a smaller extent in New South Wales, the 

 production of butter, and also of cheese in the case of New 

 Zealand, is a well established industry. Butter is exported 

 from these three colonies, and in small quantities from 

 South Australia ; but A^ictoria is responsible for about 75 per 

 cent, of the total exportation, and New Zealand supplies the 

 greater part of the remaining 25 per cent. Cheese is 

 exported mainly from New Zealand. In 1895 there were 155 

 butter and cheese factories in Victoria, of which 1 2 1 were 

 employed in butter making only. The total output from 

 these factories and from dairy farms in the same year was 

 estimated at 35,589,000 lbs. of butter, and 4,153,000 lbs. of 

 cheese. Since 1895 there has been an addition to the number 

 of factories operating in the colony. New Zealand possessed 

 last year 318 dairy factories and creameries, the greater 

 number being situated in the North Island. Many of these 

 establishments in New Zealand are engaged in the manufac- 

 ture of cheese, of which the colony exported in 1896-97 over 

 78,000 cwts., of the value of ;£i5i,ooo. Dairy factories are 

 also springing up in increasing numbers in New South 

 Wales, where 395 of these establishments were in operation 

 in 1894. The quantity of butter produced in the colony in 

 1895 was estimated at 27,359,000 lbs., of which about two- 

 thirds was made in factories. The increasing popularity 

 of dairying in New South Wales is said to be connected witk 

 the introduction of the factory system. South Australia has 

 only a relatively small surplus of butter for exportation,, 

 while Queensland does not produce sufficient quantities of the 

 article for her own consumption. 



Attempts have been made in some of the colonies to open 

 up an export trade in live cattle and sheep with Europe, and 

 it is held in colonial circles that the trial shipments already 

 made have shown that such animals can be placed in fair 

 condition on the European markets, notwithstanding the long 

 sea passage, and that at some seasons of the year the trade 

 may be a remunerative one. But hitherto these shipments 

 have been of an experimental character, and there are few 

 signs of any immediate development under existing con- 



