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toria cast the only dissentient vote. This colony may appoint delegates to the tariff commission, but will not be disposed to abandon easily a tariff system under which powerful interests have grown up.

The commercial rivalry between the two older colonies has entered a sharper stage since the completion, in the early part of 1881, of the railroad from Sydney to the Murray River, where it meets the railroad from Melbourne. The New South Wales ministry have fixed the freight rates at a low figure, in order to attract the trade of the extensive Riverina district away from Melbourne to Sydney. This is a reversal of free-trade principles which provokes the sarcasm of the Victorian statesmen; but against its economic effects they can have no remedy except to conform their tariff to that of the sister colony.

The only actual result of the conference, besides the majority vote in favor of a tariff commission, and the only unanimously approved proposition, was the decision in favor of the establishment of an Australian Court of Appeal. A project was drawn up and adopted for a law to be brought before each of the colonial Parliaments, and then submitted for ratification to the Imperial Government. Fugitives from arrest on criminal charges, or men who have abandoned wife or child, may be apprehended, according to one of the provisions of the proposed legal convention, upon warrants taken out in any one of the colonies, or upon telegraphic notification that the warrants have been issued.

The intercolonial conference in discussing plans looking to confederation did not commit themselves to the conjugate principle of selfmaintenance, for, on adopting a resolution recommending the increase of the naval squadron, they rejected a proposal that the colonies should bear half the cost. With reference to outrages committed by islanders in the South Seas, the conference proposed that the High Commissioner who has jurisdiction in such cases should be granted extended powers, but that in felony cases appeal should lie to the Supreme Court of one of the colonies against his decisions. The murders of Bishop Patterson and Commodore Goodenough, and more recent outrages committed by the natives of the Solomon, New Hebrides, Santa Cruz, and New Ireland groups, were probably reprisals provoked by the atrocities of the cruisers for laborers to supply the sugar-plantations of Queensland and other demands for “Karnackies." The practice of kidnapping, and other cruelties of this form of slave-traffic, have continued to the most recent years, if they do not still take place.*

remains under the control of the British Parliament and is governed from Downing Street. For the three classes of British colonies see "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1879, under GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

*During the year 1881 natives of the Pacific islands have taken reprisals on one British labor-ship and on a French vessel which was probably mistaken for a labor-cruiser. The

In regard to Chinese immigration the harmonious action of the colonies is difficult. The Government of West Australia issued an order encouraging this immigration at the public expense-a step which was condemned by the representatives of all the other colonies. Queensland and South Australia, which also possess territory within the torrid zone, favor limited immigration, while in New South Wales and Victoria intense hostility to the Chinese prevails. The conference embodied their objections to the importation of these laborers by the Government into the crown colony of West Australia in a memorial addressed to Lord Kimberly, British Secretary for the Colonies.

The New South Wales Parliament gave their principal attention, upon convening in the summer, to an act restricting Chinese immigration. A poll-tax of ten pounds is levied on every Chinaman upon landing, and ship-masters are forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to bring more than one to every one hundred tons of ship's burden. The Government is also empowered to quarantine, indefinitely, any vessel carrying Chinese passengers-a provision intended as a menace to deter the importation of these unwelcome producers.

By the returns of the late census it appears that the area of wheat cultivation in Australia has doubled in ten years. South Australia leads in this product. The Australian crop is only one third as great as that of the British Islands, although the area sown is nearly the same. Only about one half of the crop is available for export, and the prices must be high enough to amply remunerate the British wheat-grower before the Australians can export wheat to Europe with a protit. The prospects of gold-mining in all of the colonies are better than they have been for years. New fields have been opened on the northern coast of Australia. In New South Wales new diggings of remarkable richness have been discovered. The opening of gold and tin mines in Tasmania has given that colony a commercial impulse, and produced an influx of capital and immigration such as never were known before.

The revenues of New South Wales continue to increase beyond current wants from the sales of land. The revenue for the year ending March 1, 1881, exceeded that of the preceding year by £1,080,000. The revenue for the fiscal year 1880 was £4,912,000. The Treasurer's estimate for 1881 was £5,440,000, which was considerably exceeded in the receipts for the first half of the year, and promised to reach £6,000,000.

outrages committed by the crews of labor-vessels, notably the brig Carl, were made the subject of a Parliamentary investigation eight years ago, and measures were taken by the British Government to suppress the evil. The employers of Polynesian coolies in Queensland are obliged, under a law of the colony, to return them, on the expiration of their term of service, to their native islands. The familiar term for the South Sea coolies among Australians, Karnackie, is a corruption of Kanaka, the native name for the Sandwich Island

ers.

The population was found by the census to exceed 750,000, showing an increase of 250,000 in the ten years. Owing to its vast area of attractive land, it has gained upon the much smaller but still more populous colony of Victoria, the difference between their populations having fallen in the ten years from 250,000 to 100,000. The debt of New South Wales amounts to about £15,000,000; but of this at least £12,000,000 is invested in railroads.

The enormous railroad construction which has been carried out by the Government in New South Wales received its first impetus from the circumstance that the Government found coming into its hands large sums of surplus revenue derived from the sales of public lands which the prosperous sheep-graziers, who had rented them of the Government at d. an acre, commenced to buy in vast blocks at the upset price of £1 per acre. The railroad system, well started with these means, has been extended by loans raised in London. At the beginning of the year, 679 miles of new road were under construction, and surveys for further extensions had been made.

The railroad earnings in 1880 were £1,594,000, being £89,000 more than the Treasurer's estimate, and yielding 44 per cent on the capital invested. A still larger profit was expected in 1881.

Victoria has for the last four years been passing through a constitutional crisis. Conflicts between the two Houses of the Legislature mark the advances in popular self-government made in the British colonies. In the transition from crown administration to autonomy, the Council, composed of appointees of the crown, is the vehicle through which the Government refuses the popular demands emanating from the representative hall. Under responsible government the Legislative Council is balanced against the popular Assembly as the representatives of the property-holding class, the conservators of the interests of wealth, and the only repository of the veto-power and check upon immature and democratic legislation. This branch thus represents an entirely different constituency from that of the Assembly, which body is elected on the broad basis of universal suffrage. Party majorities in the Upper House for this reason, and because the Councilors hold their seats much longer than delegates in the Assembly, do not change with the transfer of power in the Lower House and the consequent change of ministers. Frequent "dead-locks" are the unavoidable result. The whole political machinery is clogged, useful legislation is rendered impossible, and political passions are excited simply through this defect in the Constitution. This unwholesome condition of affairs has become chronic of late years in the prosperous and democratic colony of Victoria. Mr. Berry, the Premier and Liberal leader, has brought in various bills for the popularization of the Legislative Council. An active Reform League has kept the question before the pub

lic, and pressed it in the Legislature. The Liberal party made it their sole issue, and were supported by a great popular majority. The Legislative Council and their electors were naturally loath to abandon the only conservative safeguard-the right of those who hold a stake in the country to control the will of the absolute numerical majority.

For four years the ministry were supported by the people in demanding a reform, until all grew tired of the fruitless agitation. An appeal had even been made to the Imperial Government. In March Mr. Berry introduced into the Assembly a final compromise measure, reducing the tenure of seats in the Council, one third of which should be refilled every three years, from ten to six years, and lowering the limitations of the franchise. The bill passed the Legislative Assembly but was rejected by the Council, March 25th, on the ground that a bill affecting the powers and composition of that House should originate there. The Council had itself passed a reform bill of its own. The subject was next discussed in a joint committee, but without result. The Berry bill was finally, considerably altered by the amendments, passed by the Council in the middle of May. The measure reduces the property qualification for Councilors to £100, and fixes the qualification for freehold electors at £10, and for occupiers at £25 annual rental. The qualifications for electors and candidates under the old law were respectively a freehold of £50 and one of £250 annual value. The number of electors is increased by this sweeping reform from 32,000 to 108,000, and the number of members from thirty to forty-two. There are supposed to be only about 80,000 citizens, who vote for members of the Lower House, that are not possessed of sufficient property to qualify them as electors of members of the Council.

The reform act which was the final outcome of the long struggle was not satisfactory to the people. The Legislative Council had given up the limited franchise to the extent of reconstituting itself on nearly as broad a basis of popular representation as the Lower Chamber. It had abandoned the controlling voice of property; but it had not sacrificed any part of its coequal legislative authority. The public looked upon the reform act as an extension rather than a curtailment of the powers of the Council. It was supposed to contain no remedy for the "dead-locks," which were the actual ground and reason for reform. As a result of the popular disappointment in the measure, the Legislative Assembly in the beginning of July passed a vote of want of confidence in the ministry. The Governor refused to dissolve Parliament, and, upon the resignation of Berry and his colleagues, called upon Sir Bryan O'Loghlen to form a Cabinet, in which, after some difficulty and delay, he succeeded.

The returns of the decennial census place the population of Victoria at 845,977, composed of 438,186 males and 407,791 females.

These numbers are exclusive of 11,835 Chinese and 770 aborigines. Melbourne, the capital, has a population of 65,675. The cities or towns in the colony with a population of over 20,000 are the following: Ballarat, 22,425; Collingwood, 23,797; Emerald Hill, 25,178; Fitzroy, 22,979; Prahran, 20,306; Richmond, 23,294; and Sandhurst, 28,128. In 1836 the population of the whole colony was 224; in 1838, 3,511; in 1841, 11,738; in 1846, 32,879; in 1851, 77,345; in 1861, 540,322; in 1871, 731,528; in 1881, 858,582.

Tasmania is growing in population, but its imports from the United Kingdom in 1879 decreased by £36,416 as compared with 1878. They also decreased from the Australian colonies. The wool-clip had gained 16 per cent as compared with the weight in 1874. Goldmining was never so productive as in 1879. The average number of persons employed in it was nearly twice the number in 1878; the quartz yielded the highest average of the last ten years; and the value of the gold produced, £230,895, was more than double the value of the previous year. The exports of other products were less than in the two preceding years. Tasmania has still twelve and a half million acres of arable public land unsold to distribute among agricultural immigrants; the average of land under cultivation in 1879-'80 was considerably less than half a million acres.

The gold-mining industry of Victoria has within a year or two begun to show slightly increased activity and profits. The quantity of gold produced in 1880 was 829,121 ounces, 529,195 from quartz-mines and 299,196 from alluvial mines, being 70,173 ounces more than the total of 1879. The number of miners employed was 38,568, an increase of 1,000. The The question of the monopoly of the land number of Chinese employed has diminished by large sheep-raisers is one of exciting moof late years; in 1880 there were 8,486-624 ment in some of the Australian colonies, parless than in 1879. The engines used in quartz ticularly New Zealand. Of a total area in mining give 16,438 horse-power in the aggre- both islands of 64,000,000 acres, there are gate, and those employed in alluvial mining about 44,000,000 acres adapted for tillage or 6,041 horse-power. In the mines at Stawell the pasture, of which 16,000,000 belong to the shafts have reached from 1,220 to 2,410 feet Maoris and their assignees, 14,000,000 have below the surface. The principal improve- been sold to Europeans, and 14,000,000 rement in the returns of 1880 was in the quality main the property of the Government. Nearas well as the quantity of the quartz crushed. ly the whole of the Government land is farmed There are 3,630 auriferous reefs known. Al- out on terminable leases to about nine huniuvial deposits, which are covered over by erup- dred sheep-farmers, who pay for their licenses tive rocks, are located by boring through the an annual sum to the Government of about thick overlying basalts with the diamond drill. £110,000. The terms on which the crown The considerable increase in the product is said lands are open to purchase are not similar in to be due to the use of this tool, which was different land districts, but discouraging in all. first tried in 1880. £16,894 was paid into the In some sections the lands are offered at pubcolonial Treasury for mining privileges in 1880. lic auction, with the limitation of an upset The aggregate production of gold in Victoria price of £1; in others at private sale, but at since the first discovery of the gold-fields has the minimum price of £2. A popular feeling been more than $1,000,000,000. has naturally arisen against the large sheepruns whose owners seem to be favored by the laws, which is taking political shape in a demand that the public lands should be offered to settlers on inviting terms. The expectation that this would result in a great extension of agriculture and dependent industries is not likely to be realized. Wool is destined to remain for some time the only profitable product, the prices of meat and grain being exceedingly low and wages high. There are in the whole colony not above 800,000 acres sown to crops of all kinds. There are about 13,000,000 sheep in New Zealand, chiefly merinos, with a mixture in the plains of the standard British breeds. The exports of wool, for the year ending March 1st, amounted to over £3,500,000. Among the exports for the same year figure six million or more rabbit-skins, valued at some £57,000. These animals have so multiplied in certain districts as to become a source of danger to the sheep-growing industry, and the Government has consequently co-operated with the local authorities in a plan for exterminating them by poison. A special official employs men to scatter in their way grain

The ministry of South Australia handed in their resignations March 19th, and a new Cabinet was formed by William Morgan, in which J. H.Symon was Attorney-General; G.S. Swan, Treasurer; and Thomas Playford, Commissioner of Lands and Immigration. This ministry resigned in June, and were succeeded by John Cox Bray, Chief Secretary and Premier; John W. Downer, Attorney-General; Lavington Glyde, Treasurer; Alfred Catt, Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration; and John Langdon Parsons, Minister of Education. The finances, as in all the Australian colonies, are in a prosperous condition. The revenue for the year ending June 25th exceeded that of the preceding year by £165,000.

Queensland has abandoned the policy pursued by the other colonies, of building railroads with state means, and adopted the American plan of subsidizing private corporations with belts of land along the route of lines constructed by them. On such conditions an English company has undertaken to build a railway across Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

steeped in phosphorus. The only other risk the sheep-grazer has to encounter is the occasional occurrence of inundations. Of the "squatters" who raise sheep on the public land some possess flocks numbering 200,000 or 300,000, one as many as 500,000, and a considerable number owning from 50,000 to 100,000 sheep.

In the autumn an outbreak of the Maori population was threatened. The cause of the trouble was the survey of territory occupied by natives, preliminary to opening it to white settlement. It was a district in the province of Taranaki which was declared confiscated by the Government after the Waikato war. In the confiscated territory, Te Whiti, a chief who has been converted to Christianity and passes for a prophet among the natives, fixed his residence and gathered the discontented natives around him. The same man championed the cause of natives who were expelled from their lands two years before, and nearly brought about a collision between them and the Government. The danger of an outbreak was still more imminent this time, but was averted by the prompt capture and arrest of the instigator.

The British possessions in the Pacific have been increased by the annexation of the Island of Rotunah, which has been placed under the direction of the Governor of the Feejee Islands. The new dependency has an area of about twenty-four square miles, and contained in 1871 2,680 inhabitants. A massacre was perpetrated by the Christian natives of Tapitawa, one of the Equator Islands, under the leadership of a convert named Kabu. The victims were the inhabitants of the southern portion of the island, who had renounced Christianity, and refused to submit to the rule of Kabu.

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY, an empire in Central Europe. Emperor, Francis Joseph I, born August 18, 1830; succeeded his uncle, the Emperor Ferdinand I, December 2, 1848. Heir-apparent to the throne, Archduke Rudolphus, born August 21, 1858; married on May 10, 1881, to Stéphanie Clotilde, second daughter of the King of Belgium, born May 21, 1864.

The Ministry for the Common Affairs of the Empire consisted, toward the close of the year 1881, of Count Kalnoky, Minister of Foreign Affairs and of the Imperial House (appointed 1881); Joseph von Szlavy, Minister of the Finances of the Empire (appointed April 8, 1880); and Count Arthur Bylandt - Rheidt, Minister of War (appointed 1876).

The Ministry of Cisleithan Austria, at the close of 1880, was composed of Count Eduard Taaffe, President (appointed August 14, 1879); Baron Pino, Justice (1881); Baron Sigmund Conrad von Eybesfeldt, Public Worship and Instruction (1880); Count Zeno von Welsersheimb, Defense of the Country (1880); Count Julius von Falkenhayn (August 14, 1879), Agriculture; Dr. Alois Prazak, Commerce (1881);

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In accordance with the political constitution of the Austrian Empire, there are three distinct budgets: the first, that of the delega tions for the whole empire; the second, that of the Reichsrath for Austria proper; and the third, that of the Hungarian Diet, for the kingdom of Hungary. By an agreement, or socalled "compromise," entered into in February, 1868, between the Governments and Legislatures of Austria and Hungary, the former has to pay seventy and the latter thirty per cent toward the common expenditures of the empire, not including the interest on the national debt. The common budget of the empire for 1880 was as follows:

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The army in 1880 consisted, on a peace ing, of 16,635 officers and 275,571 men; and on a war footing, of 29,653 officers and 1,013,953

men.

The naval force at the end of the year 1879 was 58 vessels, of 16,086 horse-power, and 320 guns. The total length of railways in operation on January 1, 1880, was: in Austria proper, 11,352 kilometres; in Hungary, 7,029; total, 18,381. The length of the telegraph wires and lines, and the number of stations, and the messages sent, were in 1878 as follows:

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and the ministry, which had assumed so large The breach between the Constitutional party proportions in 1880, continued during the year than in 1880 to look for support from the Right. 1881, and Count Taaffe was forced still more The first result of this policy was the resignation of Baron Streit, the Minister of Justice, and Ritter von Kremer, Minister of Commerce, who were succeeded, the former by Baron Pino, and the latter by Dr. Prazak. Count Taaffe met an unexpected obstacle in his desire to depend upon the Right, in the Herrenhaus, or House of Lords. To overcome this he created twelve new life-members, of whom four were Poles, two Czechs, and six Clericals or Conservatives, all factions of the Right being represented.

A new feature in the struggles of the German and Slavic nationalities was the proposition to transform the old German University of

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