we sold them sheep to the value of £66,000; not that they require any fat stock from us, but it has been found that the fleece of a sheep in the warmer climates of Australia becomes less dense, and the wool is inclined to run into hair. Our neighbours consequently buy largely from Tasmania in order to import fresh blood into their flocks. Great attention is paid to breeding merino sheep with fleeces of the finest and densest quality to supply this demand; and as much as the sum of six hundred guineas has been paid for one Tasmanian merino ram. The £66,000 received in 1884 was for the purchase of 2,900 sheep, so that an average of £27 a head was realised. The bark of the wattle tree, an acacia, is almost equal to that of oak for the purposes of tanning leather. This tree grows abundantly, and in some parts of Tasmania, especially on light, poor soil, it is a hard matter to prevent it taking sole possession of the land. £86,000 worth of this bark was exported; but, in addition to that, it was largely used in the tanneries of the Colony, which not only manufactured leather enough to supply the requirements of Tasmania for boots, shoes, harness, &c., but exported £12,000 worth. Our dense forests afford an inexhaustible supply of timber of divers kinds, mainly, however, of eucalyptus. In 1884 seven hundred men were employed at fifty-one saw-mills, many of which had connected with them miles of tram-road, running back into the forest in order to supply the mills with the trunks of trees that were to be sawn into marketable timber. The eucalyptus grows to an immense size. It is found 300 feet high, and on a recent visit to the great tin mine at Mount Bischoff, I saw lying felled by the side of the railway a tree which, at 12 feet from the ground, measured in diameter 20 feet of solid timber. Whilst the eucalyptus forms timber of the largest dimensions, the Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) and the Huon Pine yield timber which can hardly be surpassed in beauty and adaptability for furniture and cabinet work. The export of timber was of the value of rather more than £50,000. It must be remembered when I state to you the value of what we exported, that it in no way represents the total production of any article in any one year; as to the value of the export must be added the value of what is used within the Colony. As might be expected from our climate, the cultivation of fruit forms a staple industry. I cannot demonstrate this more clearly than by telling you that, besides what we consume at home-and we are large fruit consumers-we send away £85,000 worth to the neighbouring Colonies in an unmanufactured state, and we manufacture four and a half million pounds of jam, or more than 2,000 tons, of the value of £86,000, of which we export £72,000 worth. We also export what is called pulp to the value of £13,000. This is fruit of soft kinds that would not stand a voyage, which is boiled down and put into casks and shipped, for the most part, to our neighbour, Victoria, who imposes a heavy duty on our jam, but imposes a comparatively trivial duty upon the pulp, which her jam manufacturers convert into Victorian jam. Our manufactories employ about 300 hands, of whom one-third are women. the valleys on the slopes of Mount Wellington, and in other moist and sheltered spots, the little settler has his raspberry plot and his black currant plot, for these are the most favoured fruits for jammaking. Once planted they need little attention, and the only labour required is in picking and carrying to market. In Hops grow well in favoured spots, and their cultivation employs a large amount of labour. In addition to our home consumptionand this is not inconsiderable-we shipped and sold to other countries 700,000 lbs. weight, worth about £35,000. The price of hops varies so much from year to year that the income derived from them is a very uncertain one. Tasmanian farmers produce about 800,000 bushels of oats a year, and, after supplying all home wants, oats and oatmeal to the value of £21,000 are exported. We, however, purchased wheat to the value of £9,000. We also purchased fat sheep and cattle to the value of £35,000 from our neighbours, but we sold them sheep and cattle to the value of £81,000, leaving thus a balance of £45,000 in favour of the Colony in this trade. Potatoes are largely grown by the small settlers, and, after supplying home requirements, £30,000 worth were exported. There is but one more item I would mention, and that is the export of rabbit skins, worth £14,000. This sum represents a kind of salvage fund from the great loss the Colony sustains by the introduction of this too prolific rodent into Tasmania. I recollect when it was carefully preserved and protected. Assuming that each skin is worth twopence, then this sum of £14,000 represents 1,680,000 rabbits killed. Stringent measures are now being taken to compel landowners, by poisoning or otherwise, to keep this pest within reasonable bounds. To turn to our mineral wealth, gold and tin have been discovered in many parts of the Colony, and a large amount of money has been expended in exploring and opening up the mines and deposits. The yield of gold amounted to £132,000, and that of tin to the sum of £300,000. There were about 3,000 men employed in mining. These men are highly paid and live well, and supplying them and their families with the necessaries of life not only affords employment to shopkeepers and others, but also creates a home market for the consumption of the products and manufactures of Tasmania. On the other hand, however, the high price of labour at the mines attracts the agricultural labourer, and thus, as the farmer cannot give above a certain price for labour, if he is to grow wheat profitably, and so cannot compete with the mines for labour, except under most favourable circumstances, our poorer wheatgrowing land is likely, I fear, to go out of cultivation to a very considerable extent. There can be little, if any, doubt that the mining wealth of Tasmania is yet in its infancy. Those parts of the Colony where the geological formation renders it likely that minerals are to be found, are generally in the west and northerly divisions of the island, and there the forest and undergrowth are so dense as to be almost impenetrable to the explorer. Under such circumstances it is marvellous how even partial success in discovery has been so far already attained. Having thus summed up what Tasmania produces and sends away from her shores, beyond what she consumes at home, I may tell you that the total value of these exports is £1,475,000, or rather more than £11 10s. a head. But when we send our products away we expect to get something more in return, or else we should make a very bad bargain. We receive in return imports to the value of £1,656,000, or to the value of £13 per head, and so make a profit of £180,000 on the transaction. Having told you what we export, you must not, as I have stated, accept that as in any way representing the total results of the labours of our population. We have woollen factories which manufacture tweeds, blankets, &c., for home use, also eleven breweries, which, mainly from the barley and hops of the Colony, manufacture 1,250,000 gallons, and provide the community with the bulk of the ale and beer which is consumed. More than sixty flour mills are employed in grinding the 650,000 bushels of wheat which our farmers produce, and the £9,000 worth of wheat that we import. There are brick-works, potteries, soap-works, smelting works for tin, iron foundries, engineering works, ship yards, a manufactory of confectionery on a large scale, and other trades and manufactures which are found in every community where houses are being built, land cultivated, and the requirements of civilised life are being supplied. Coal has for many years been worked on a small scale in the Colony, the output being in 1884 only 9,000 tons, but as a rule the seams worked have been thin, or the coal has been of an inferior quality. There exist, however, large deposits of coal in the inland district of Fingal. One seam there is of the thickness of 12 ft., and another of 14 ft. The coal from both these seams has been tested, and has been favourably reported upon, and now a branch line of railway is being constructed, extending from the main line railway to Fingal. This branch line will tap these mines, and ensure a rapid and cheap means of transit for the coal produced to the port of Launceston, and also to many of the inland towns. We may expect to see these mines within a very short period affording employment to a considerable number of men, and adding a material item to the wealth of the colony. About twenty-six miles from Launceston the Bangor slate mine has been opened in a systematic manner and on a large scale, and an expenditure of nearly £40,000 has already been made. The slate is of a superior description, and commands a ready sale in the Melbourne market. A large number of workmen are employed, many of them being immigrants imported direct from Wales, and there is quite a village springing up at the quarry. There are quarries of sandstone of the highest quality for building purposes in many parts of the Colony. Marble is also found, and there is an abundance of good clay suitable for brick and pottery works. There are lodes of iron ore of great size and thick. ness, and copper, silver, lead, bismuth, and some other metals have been discovered. Tasmania thus enjoys a fair share of mineral wealth, which I believe requires but time and capital to develop. As to our means of locomotion, 257 miles of railway have been constructed, and 117 miles more are very nearly completed. The main line connects Hobart and Launceston, the two chief towns, covering a distance of 140 miles; the gauge is 3 ft. 6 in., and the speed about twenty-three miles an hour, including stoppages. Steamers run three or four times a week to Melbourne, others run about once every ten days to Sydney and also to New Zealand, whilst two lines direct from England touch at Hobart on their way to New Zealand. There is a network of telegraphic wires all over the inhabited portions of the Colony, whilst a duplicated submarine cable has been laid across Bass' Straits from Tasmania to Victoria, and thus the Colony is placed in connection with the telegraphic system of the rest of the world. What we are doing here to-night will probably be telegraphed to Australia, and will, with the other news of the day, appear at breakfast time to-morrow morning in the daily press of Tasmania. Whilst developing our natural resources, we have not neglected the education of our rising generation. Private enterprise has done much in this direction. In both Hobart and Launceston, and at Ross in the midland districts, grammar schools have been founded, at which boys are educated up to about the same standard as that required for the matriculation examination of the University of London. For the higher-class education of girls, besides good private schools, we have a ladies' college established in Hobart, much upon the same lines as the girls' high schools of England, and at Launceston a similar institution, but on a larger scale, is being founded by the Methodist body. The Roman Catholics also have a large convent school at Hobart. In its system of State education the Colony has for many years taken a leading position. Tasmania was the first part of the British dominions that recognised, and enforced by legislative sanction, the principle that it is the duty of the parent to educate the child. I had the honour of introducing that measure into the House of Assembly in the year 1867. Education is now compulsory from the age of seven to thirteen, but exemption is granted after eleven to children who have attained the required standard. This is highly important, in order to prevent the system becoming oppressive and obnoxious in a country where labour of all kinds is comparatively costly. All children within two miles of a school must attend at least three days a week. In case of poverty a parent can obtain the free admission of his children to school on a certificate from a minister of religion or from a member of the District School Board. Wherever twenty children can be gathered together within a radius of two miles, a school is established, and even when a smaller number only can be collected a half-time school is often provided. There are 191 State schools, with 302 teachers and 7,300 children attending them. The Colony in its efforts to educate the rising generation does not stop here. Twelve exhibitions of £16 each, and tenable for four years, are annually awarded by competitive examination to six boys and six girls, between ten and twelve years of age, who have attended the public schools for six months. These exhibitions enable the |