president’s address — SECTION E. 
5 
be an active contributor to trade and commerce. Where the autoch- 
thone roamed he will see towns spring quickly even from the desert, 
where he encountered preeariousness of mere existence. 
Do we realise that the territorial extent of Western Australia 
actually comprises a ninth of the British Empire ? and yet the whole 
population of European descent at present scattered over it equals as 
yet only that of York, of Southampton, or Greenock in the home 
countries, or Quebec in Canada, while the number of the aboriginal 
inhabitants is also proportiouately insignificant. Not to speak of 
Australia, it has been shown also elsewhere how cities of first rank 
can arise with marvellous quickness. Such events, the present 
generation here is destined to witness at our own time, and nothing 
can speed this so much as the discovery of goldfields, because that 
most precious of all metals, whenever gained, is at once almost quite 
as much available in business transactions as coin, without appreciable 
deductions of the middleman, without tlie loss through proti'acted 
business transactions, and without other mediators of trade. 
No wonder, therefore, when a Coolgardie almost suddenly emerges 
from an unknown solitude. May we not hope that soon still more 
will be done to facilitate the finding and also the working of 
auriferous deposits in Western Australia, where the gold-yielding 
area seems to stretch through considerably over 1,000 miles from 
south to north, with a width as yet not even approximately calculable, 
because blank stretches still exist on our geographic map comparable 
to the extent of some prominent European kingdoms. 
Passing now from our own lauds on to eouutries in other parts 
of the globe, more especially with respect to mercantile relations, we 
must find that commercial contact with eastern tropical African lands, 
now gradually and widely becoming disclosed to trade, is to us of 
paramount significance. 
In our earliest explorations the difficulties of penetrating new 
regions seem sometimes almost insurmountable, but, after the first 
track is cut and the earliest road opened, the forbiddingtiess vanishes, 
and the change in the aspect of the landscape becomes both striking 
and rapid. Thus, when Stanley’s seemingly infinite primeval forest, 
which separates the Congo sources from the Lake Tanganyika region, 
probably teeming with novel products, shall have become dissected by 
paths of communication to bring the produce of even the western 
tracts of Central Africa within reach of eastern traffic, a trade should 
there also spring up with the Australian colonies. The millions and 
millions of negroes, when settling into better homes, must assuredly 
soon become more extensive consumers of our commodities. Wheat- 
Hour, incomparably above all other substances for vegetable 
aliments, must come largely into requisition; so potatoes from 
our fields. Beef and mutton, especially in preserved forms, can 
doubtless be supplied from our coastal regions much more readily 
than from mountains on existing roads in Eastern Africa. Bricks, 
hewn building stones, flooring stones, sawn timber of kinds 
resisting the inroads of termites would also be needed; so _ our 
wine and along with all this an endless multitude of other articles, 
such 'as soap, saddlery, many kinds of implements, strong furniture of 
Australian manufacture to be supplied from here, kitchen vegetables, 
