net revenue, 4:04 per cent.; borrowed capital, £17,609,207, on which the interest charge is £918,218; gross earnings in 1881, £1,665,209; expenditure, £913,572; profits, £751,637. Two fifths of the receipts were from passenger and three fifths from freight traffic.

The number of miles of telegraph lines completed at the end of 1881 was 3,349; the number of messages, 1,281,749. Since 1870 the rate has been 18 for ten words and 1d. for esch additional word.

The revenue of the colony in 1881 was £5,114,460, the expenditure £5,102,470. The receipts for the year ending June 30, 1882, were £5,770,000, the expenditure £5,690,000. The public debt was £22,944,602 in 1881. In June, 1883, the total liabilities amounted to about £26,000,000. The net revenue from the railways and water-works for which the debt was incurred is stated by Mr. James Service, the Colonial Treasurer and Premier, to be sufficient to pay 4 per cent. on the total amount.

The O'Loghlen Ministry, which had already lost its popularity, was defeated at a general election in February in consequence of an unsuccessful financial operation in London. The ministry attempted to convert £3,800,000 of 6 per cent. bonds, falling due in October, 1883, into a new loan at 4 per cent. The books for a loan of £4,000,000 were accordingly opened in London in January. In insisting upon issning the bonds only at par, the Premier came into collision with the English magnates of finance. A mere fraction of the stock was taken. The credit of Victoria had suffered from the frequent comparisons made between it and the more rapidly growing free-trade colony of New South Wales, and through the unpopularity in England of its protectionist policy. The momentary financial embarrassments of the Government, which had compelled it to obtain advances of £2,000,000, gave a colorable ground for the rejection of the loan. The Victorians were more astonished than discouraged, and attributed the result entirely to the blunders of the Ministry. The Cabinet preferred to make an appeal to the country rather than be voted out of office by the Parliament, which was to meet Feb. 13th. With the consent of the Marquis of Normanby a new election was ordered. It took place in the latter part of February. Only 14 Ministerialists were returned; Sir Bryan O'Loghlen himself lost his seat. The Liberal Constitutionalist party, led by Janes Service, elected 38 members, and the Radical or Democratic party of Graham Berry, 32. A coalition ministry was formed, March 7th, as follows: Hon. James Service, Premier, Colonial Treasurer, and Minister of Public Instruction; Hon. Graham Berry, Chief Secretary; Hon. George Briscoe Kerferd, Attorney-General; Hon. Albert Lee Tacker, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, etc.; Hon. Duncan Gillies, Commissioner of Railways and Roads; Hon. Alfred Deakin, Commissioner of Public Works; Hon. J. F. Levien, VOL. XXIII.-3 A

Minister of Mines; Hon. George D. Langridge, Commissioner of Trade and Customs; Hon. W. Anderson, Minister of Justice; Hon. Mr. Sargood, without portfolio. The financial statement made April 4th charged the former Minister of Railroads with imprudence in entering into contracts for rails and rolling-stock to be manufactured in the colony beyond the amounts sanctioned by Parliament, causing the estimated expenditures to be exceeded. The loan of £4,000,000 was placed by the new Government, by acceding to the demands of the London bankers, at only a slight discount, the Government pledging itself to borrow not more than £2,000,000 additional during that year. The finances of the colony were described by Mr. Service to be in no critical condition, though the sales of public lands had been declining for two or three years; but the maturity of the old debt, which would require £3,000,000 more to be raised in 1884 and £4,000,000 in 1885, puts a stop temporarily to large expenditures on public works. The legislative programme of the new ministry embraced the reform of the civil service by delivering it from political patronage and intrusting official appointments to a permanent board; the creation of a board of commissioners to manage the state railroads; the extension of the system of irrigation and water conservation by local authorities; and the introduction of pastoral leases to apply only to the "mallee scrub" lands of inferior quality which are overrun with rabbits, the leases for twenty years being made conditional on the tenants' exterminating noxious animals.

The tariff controversy was continued during the year, and the Commission of Inquiry collected evidence from all classes. Invidious comparisons with the rapid growth of New South Wales are not considered just by the Vic torians, as their colony has no unlimited sheep pasturage to iuvite immigration. The flocks of Victoria have scarcely increased since 1873, while those of New South Wales have nearly doubled. Though the population of Victoria increases slowly, the growth in wealth is steady, and the progress is marked in agriculture and cattle-raising. The herds increased from 883,763 head in 1873, to 1,286,267 in 1881. The protected industries do not show the same healthy growth, and the rural community is becoming more and more dissatisfied with the protective policy, which favors the working-classes of the towns at its expense.

New South Wales, the oldest Australian colony, originally a penal settlement, and formerly including the present colonies of South Australia, Victoria, and Queensland, obtained responsible government in 1855. The Legislative Council consists of 21 or more members, nominated by the Crown. The Legislative Assembly consists of 108 members, elected by 72 constituencies by universal suffrage and secret ballot. The Governor is Lord Augustus W. F. S. Loftus, born in 1818, formerly British embassador

to Austria, Germany, and Russia, who entered upon the office Aug. 4, 1879. The ministry is composed as follows: Colonial Secretary and Premier, Hon. Alexander Stuart; Treasurer, Hon. George Dibbs; Minister of Justice, Hon. Henry Cohen; Minister of Public Instruction, Hon. George H. Reed; Attorney-General, Hon. W. Bede Dalley; Minister of Public Works, Hon. Henry Copeland; Postmaster - General, Hon. F. A. Wright, Minister of Mines, Hon. Robert P. Abbott; Secretary for Lands, Hon. James Squire Farnell; Vice-President of the Council, Hon. Sir Patrick Jennings.

The area is 323,437 square miles. The population in 1881 was 751,468, of whom 411,149 were males and 340,319 females. The immigration in the seven years ending with 1880 averaged 10,000. The birth-rate is high. The population of Sydney, the capital, in 1881, was 220,427, having increased 66 25 per cent. in ten

years.

There entered the port of Sydney, in 1881, 2,254 vessels, of the aggregate tonnage 1,456,239 tons. The tonnage of the port of Newcastle was almost as large.

The total exports of New South Wales in 1881 amounted to £16,049,503, the imports to £17,409,326, both larger than in any previous year. Over one third of the trade is with Great Britain; the rest is mainly with the other colonies. The leading export article is wool, of which 87,739,914 pounds, valued at £5,304,576, were shipped to England in 1881. The chief exports next in order are tin, copper, tallow, and preserved meat.

In March, 1882, the colony had 33,062,854 sheep, 2,180,896 cattle, 346,931 horses, and 213,916 swine. The total area under cultiva tion was 645,068 acres, about one half of which was under wheat and maize. New South Wales is richer than the other colonies in coal, of which 1,775,224 tons were raised in 1881. The gold production in 1881 was £550,111, about the average of the last five years, having suddenly fallen off from £2,097,740 in 1875, and £1,589,854 in 1876.

In 1881 there were 995 miles of railroad in operation, and 487 miles under construction. Sydney has 11 miles of steam tramways, a system which is to be extended to some of the neighboring towns. The Colonial Treasurer asserts that though the railroads of New South Wales were laid out and are rapidly extended for the purpose of developing the country, and although the Government fixes the tariff lower than in the other colonies for that object, yet they return a higher rate of profit on the capital invested than any other railroads in the world.

The telegraph lines completed at the end of 1881 were 14,278 miles, constructed at a cost of £492,211.

The public revenue of New South Wales in 1881 amounted to £6,707,963, the expenditure to £5,890,579. The estimated revenue for 1882 was £6,240,000, the expenditure £5,

960,000. The actual revenue was £7,062,873, and showed a surplus of £1,846,000. The revenue for 1883 was estimated at £6,819,200, the expenditure at £6,483,000.

The public debt, increased by an issue of £2,000,000, in 1882, was at the end of that year £18,924,019. In 1882-'83 loans to the amount of £3,000,000 were placed in London. The sums expended by the colony on railroad and telegraph construction amounted at the end of September, 1882, to £17,078,654. The revenue from these public works exceeds the interest on the public debt. The railroad system could be sold out to capitalists, according to the calculation of Mr. Dibbs, for £25,000,000. Besides the railroads and the public lands, the assets of the colony include £12,000,000 owing to it from conditional purchasers of land.

The financial policy of the new Cabinet, which came into office in January, 1883, is to restrict sales of land as much as possible pending the new land legislation, thus reducing the surplus revenue. A revision of the tariff is in prospect after the land question is settled.

The Parliament of New South Wales was suddenly and unexpectedly dissolved in November, 1882. The Government had placed before Parliament a land bill, which was, with slight amendments, a consolidation of the various land laws embodying the system first introduced by Sir John Robertson in 1861. The Robertson policy was hailed at the time it was adopted as a triumph of democratic principles. It allows the free selection of lands by actual settlers anywhere upon the tracts occupied on pastoral leases as sheep-runs by "squatters," or Government leaseholders. This provision has not prevented the building up of huge pastoral estates in accordance with the natural and economical conditions which prevail in Australia, nor promoted to any extent the immigration of settlers and the agricultural development of the country. But it depreciated the value of the public lands and prevented the Government from obtaining the best value on leases or sales. It has also brought about economical conditions which are regarded with grave apprehensions by the younger statesmen. The squatters have been impelled by reason of the insecurity of their tenure to strain their credit in order to obtain the freehold of their runs. The portions which they can not borrow the means to buy at auction they endeavor to keep out of the hands of actual settlers by inducing dependents and dummies to free-select the desirable sections. Illegal and violent means are often resorted to for the purpose of fighting away interloping settlers. The consequence of this state of things is, the creation of a class of large landholders more rapidly than if the Robertson law did not exist, and of landholders whose property is deeply mortgaged at heavy interest to absentee capitalists. Sir Henry Parkes, the Premier, agreed to a dissolution, although the Parliament had but one year to run, and the adoption of the tri

ennial period was intended to prevent avoidable dissolutions, and although Sir Henry Robertson was alone responsible for pressing the measure, and the country was with the coalition ministry on every other question. The party opposed to the perpetuation of the existing land system proposed to limit the right of free selection on unsurveyed lands and allow a large portion of the colony to remain under pastoral leases, but without giving to squat ters the power of purchase. In the elections in December, 1882, Mr. Watson, the Treasurer; Dr. Kenwick, the Minister of Mines; and Mr. Foster, the Minister of Justice, lost their seats; Sir Henry Robertson was barely elected, and Sir Henry Parkes was defeated in his own district, and took the place of a candidate who retired in his favor. A new ministry was formed by Mr. Alexander Stuart.

A Commission of Inquiry reported in May upon the facts governing the land question. The territory of New South Wales is divisible into three parts. The old settled portion, consisting mainly of the land lying between the sea and the Blue Mountains, contains 500,000 inhabitants, including 220,000 in Sydney and 117,000 in other towns, and has an area of 26,000,000 acres, of which 9,000,000 have been alienated, consisting of all the best lands. This land was not occupied in pastoral squatting leases, but in the form of freeholds of moderate size, with grazing rights over an additional space. The result is stated to be a beneficial division of the land and settlement by families, with few estates exceeding 5,000 acres. The second division, comprising the nearer inland districts as far as the Barwon river and the confluence of the Murrumbidgee and the Murray, on the frontier of Victoria, is the largest of the three, and contains the finest lands, such as the rich plains of the Clarence and Macleay rivers, and the valuable grazing districts of New England, Liverpool Plains, Gwydir, Dubbo, Deniliquin, the Upper Murray, Monaro, and Twofold Bay. It has a total area of 86,000,000 acres, and a population of 223,560 souls, of whom 88,178 live in the towns. This region was settled under the land laws of 1862. The class-conflicts which arose between the squatters and the free-selectors are said to have wasted the resources of the settlers and embittered social life. The quantity of land which has passed into private ownership is 25,156,000 acres. In the Deniliquin and Wagga Wagga districts only one eighth or less of the nominal owners remain on the land, much more than half the farms ostensibly free-selected for agricultural purposes having been taken up at the procuration of lessees of pastoral runs. The third division contains the broad plains, well adapted to pastoral purposes, which are traversed by the Darling river. This region contains but few inhabitants as yet. Very few sales have been made to settlers, and these are mostly of the same fictitious character as in the second division. The

effect of the land laws, according to the commission, has been not only to divide the rural community into two hostile camps, and to waste the lives and fortunes of numbers of persons in litigation, but "the personal virtues of veracity and honorable dealing have been tarnished by the daily habit of intrigue, by the practice of evading the law, and by declarations universally made in defiance of fact: self-interest has created a laxity of conscience in these matters; the stain attaches to men of all classes and degrees."

The revision of the land laws inaugurated by the Stuart ministry proceeds on the principle of restricting the right of free selection to a limited portion of each pastoral leasehold and giving the squatter a more secure tenure of the remainder. Under this system the Government expects to exact a considerably higher rent from the squatters.

South Australia was invested with representative government in 1856. The Legislative Council consists of 24 members elected from four districts, one third of whom retire every three years. The electoral qualifications are the possession of real estate of £50 value or leased premises of £20 annual value. The House of Assembly, elected by universal suffrage, consists of 46 members. The Governor of South Australia is Sir William C. T. Robinson, previously Governor of several minor colonies, appointed in November, 1882. The Executive Council is composed as follows: Chief Secretary, Hon. J. Cox Bray; Attorney-General, Hon. John W. Downer; Chief-Justice, Hon. S. J. Way; Treasurer, Hon. Lavington Glyde; Commissioner of Crown Lands, Hon. Alfred Catt; Commissioner of Public Works, Hon. James Garden Ramsey; Minister of Education, Hon. John Langdon Parsons.

The estimated area of South Australia is 903,425 square miles. The population on April 3, 1881, was 279,865, of whom 149,530 were males and 130,335 females, including 2,784 Chinese, but exclusive of the aborigines, numbering 6,346. The population of Adelaide, the capital, was 38,479 without the suburbs.

South Australia is the leading agricultural colony. The area under cultivation increased from 739,714 acres in 1866 to 1,444,586 in 1876, and 2,613,903 in 1882, of which 1,768,781 acres were sown to wheat. The live-stock census showed 159,678 horses, 314,918 horned cattle, and 6,810,856 sheep.

The total exports in 1882 amounted to about £5,280,000, the imports to £5,890,000. The staple articles of export are wool, wheat, and flour, and copper-ore. The wool exports were valued in 1881 at £2,345,231. The grain exports were of the value of £82,092 in 1876; £514,176 in 1877; £514,176 in 1878: £464,049 in 1879; £1,025,077 in 1880; and £496,741 in 1881. The exports of copper in 1881 amounted to £179,731. Besides copper there exist iron-ores of great richness.

There were 945 miles of railroad in opera

tion in July, 1882, and 174 miles in the course of construction. The length of telegraph lines completed at the end of 1881 was 4,946 miles. An intercolonial railroad is projected which will connect Adelaide with Melbourne. The Murray Bridge or Callington route, chosen by the Government, is criticised by many. The large falling off in the grain exports has had a depressing effect on the colony, and has affected the revenue. A proposed property tax of a penny in the pound is strongly opposed. The land law has been amended so as to allow purchasers on deferred payments to surrender their holdings, with remission of the remaining installments.

Queensland was separated from New South Wales and endowed with responsible government in 1859. The Legislative Council consists of 30 life-members nominated by the Crown, the Legislative Assembly of 55 members elected for five years. Every tax-payer has a vote, and every property-owner or leaseholder one in the district in which the property is situated as well as in the district in which he resides.

The Governor of Queensland is Sir Anthony Musgrove, formerly Governor of Jamaica, who was appointed in 1883. The late Governor, Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy, who held the office six years, died after his recall, on the voyage to England. The Ministry is composed as follows: Colonial Secretary and Premier, Hon. Sir Thomas McIlwraith; Colonial Treasurer, Hon. A. Archer; Secretary for Public Works, Hon. John M. McCrossan; Secretary for Public Lands, Hon. Patrick Perkins; Postmaster-General, Hon. Boyd Dunlop Morehead. The area of Queensland is 668,224 square miles. The coast-line measures 2,250 miles. The population in 1881 was 213,525, divided into 125,325 males and 88,200 females, including 11,229 Chinese engaged in the gold-mines and 6,348 Polynesians, but not including the aborigines, estimated at 20,585. The capital, Brisbane, had 31,109 inhabitants. The immigration from the United Kingdom declined after the introduction of Chinese and Polynesian laborers.

The total imports in 1881 amounted to £3,601,906, the exports to £3,289,253. The leading article of export is wool, which is shipped to England to the value of over £800,000 a year. Preserved meat and tallow are also exported. The cultivation of cotton and sugar-cane, recently introduced, is growing rapidly. The total area under cultivation in the beginning of 1883 was 128,875 acres, of which 28,026 acres were planted to sugar-cane. The live-stock at the beginning of 1882 numbered 194,217 horses, 3,618,513 cattle, 8,292,883 sheep, and 56,438 hogs. There are several coal-mines worked in the colony. The value of the gold product declined from £1,306,431 in 1877, ten years after the discovery of gold, to £925,012 in 1881.

At the beginning of 1882 there were 800

miles of railroad in operation, and 200 miles in process of construction. A trans-Australian line from Bisbane to Port Darwin was begun in 1882. The telegraph mileage was 6,279.

In Queensland, besides the appropriation of the land by monopolists, there exists the form of slavery known as "indentured labor," an evil now found in no other Australian colony. The culture of sugar in the sub-tropical portion of the colony is so profitable that free white settlers who penetrate beyond the occupied districts to raise the cane and evaporate the juice are better repaid than in any other occupation now open in Australia. Yet the laws allowing bound labor are kept on the statute-book by the influence of the large planters, on the plea that the product can only be cultivated by colored labor, and that colored labor can only be made effective by special sanctions. Until recently, veritable slavers supplied the labor market by enticing away or capturing in violent raids the natives of the Polynesian islands. But an outcry was made in England which led to a parliamentary inquiry. The revelations of these piratical raids and of the cruelties and frauds practiced upon the Kanakas in Queensland, which resulted in the appointment of a commission, consisting of Sir A. Gordon and the two naval commanders on the station, to consider means of punishing crimes committed on the Pacific islands by British subjects, discouraged further importations of Pacific-islanders. The planters then turned to Ceylon and Southern India. Cingalese and Bengalee coolies are brought by speculators, to whom they have, or are supposed to have, contracted their labor for a term of years, and are by them transferred to the sugarplanters. The employment of colored labor is restricted by statute to the sugar-estates on the northern coast. The term of service is limited to three years, after which they have to be sent back at the expense of their employers. The white laborers, who through a low franchise exert great political power, and to please whom a tax of £10 a head is imposed on Chinese immigrants, are in favor of restricting colored labor. The laborers are subjected to official inspection. Nevertheless, as the native races are not permitted to testify in the courts, they are not protected against any form of cruelty or injustice. According to a statistical statement cited by Lord Lamington, there were imported into Queensland, within a comparatively few years, the large number of 17,329 black laborers.

Tasmania, constituted a self-governing colony in 1871, has two Houses of Parliament, elected by suffrage limited by property qualifications of different degrees. The Govornor is Maj.Gen. Sir G. Cumine Strahan, transferred from the governorship of the Windward Islands in August, 1880. The head of the responsible ministry is Hon. William R. Giblin. The revenue in 1881 was £502,417; expenditure, £466,313; estimated revenue in 1883, £530,000; ex

penditure, £457,242. The public debt, raised for the construction of public works, was on Dec. 31, 1881, £2,003,000, bearing interest at 6 per cent.

The area is estimated at 26,215 square miles, or 16,778,000 acres, including the adjacent isl ands. The population in 1881 was 115,705, of whom 61,162 were males and 54,543 females. The increase in eleven years was but 16,377. The aborigines are entirely extinct. The exports in 1881 amounted to £1,555,576, the imports to £1,438,524. The chief articles of export are wool and tin, and more recently gold. The valuable deposits of tin and iron and the discovery of gold have given a slight impetus to enterprise and immigration, but in agriculture the colony has receded; barley, the quality of which is superior, is the only crop except potatoes that has increased.

New Zealand was organized in six provinces in 1852, and united under a Governor and General Assembly in 1875. The members of the Legislative Council are appointed by the Crown for life. The House of Representatives consists of 95 members elected by household suffrage. The Maoris are represented by four members elected by themselves.

The Governor is Maj.-Gen. Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, transferred from South Australia in November, 1882.

The Premier, Mr. Whittaker, resigned the office in 1883-not, however, for political reasons. He was succeeded by Maj. Atkinson, the Colonial Treasurer.

The area of New Zealand is estimated at 105,342 square miles. Two thirds of the total surface is good agricultural or grazing land. The census of 1881 gave the total population as 534,032, including the Maoris, who numbered 44,099, divided into 24,370 males and 19,729 females; of the rest, 269,605 were males and 220,328 females. The Chinese numbered 5,004. The towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants were Dunedin (24,372-with suburbs, 48,802), Auckland (16,664 with suburbs, 39,966), Wellington (20,563), and Christchurch (15,213-with suburbs, 30,719). The population of New Zealand is increasing faster than that of any of the Australian colonies, both by immigration and by a high birth-rate.

The total imports in 1881 amounted to £7,457,045, the exports to £6,060,866. The quantity of wool exported was 59,368,832 pounds; value, £3,477,993. Grain and flour were shipped to Great Britain in 1881 to the value of £913,581. Gum and preserved meat are, except gold, the next most considerable articles of export. There were in April, 1881, in the colony 161,736 horses, 698,637 cattle, 12,985,035 sheep, and large numbers of hogs and poultry. The New Zealand gold-fields, discovered in 1857, and yielding at the height of their production in 1877, £1,496,080, produced in 1881, £996,867.

The railway system of New Zealand was begun in 1872. In 1882 there were 875 miles

completed on the South Island and 458 on the North Island. When completed, the system is to have 2,075 miles of line, and will cost £16,000,000. The capital already expended in 1883 was about £11,500,000. The railroads in the South Island already return 3 per cent. on the outlay, those in the North Island 14 per cent. There were 3,824 miles of telegraph open to traffic in March, 1882.

The revenues of the Government are derived partly from customs receipts, etc., and partly from sales of public lands, depasturing licenses, export duties on gold, and mining licenses. The latter category, called the territorial revenue, was, down to 1879, nearly as productive as the ordinary sources of revenue. In 1882 the ordinary revenue amounted to £3,488,170, the territorial revenue to £317,063; total revenue, £3,805,233. The total expenditure was £3,590,233. The estimated revenue for the year ending March 31, 1883, is £3,393,500; expenditure. £3,478,639. The public debt amounted in 1882 to £29,946,711. At the end of March, 1883, it was £30,357,000, not deducting the sinking fund, amounting to £2,571,000. Notwithstanding the magnitude of its liabilities, the colony obtained a loan of £1,000,000 in London in 1883 at 4 per cent. at a very slight discount. This state of the credit allows the considerable floating debt to be converted at a reduced interest.

The Government has introduced proposals in the Legislature to change the constitution of the Legislative Council, making it an elective body, as in the older colonies, instead of the members being appointed for life by the Gov

ernor.

The difficulties with the Maoris in the western part of the North Island have ceased. The natives have abandoned their attitude of exclusion and isolation, and given pledges of peaceful submission to the laws. The pressure of public opinion in England has put some restraint upon the oppressive and confiscatory instincts of the colonists. Improvements are being introduced in the Maori country, and intercourse between the natives and the white settlers who have penetrated there has a beneficial influence on both races. The harbor of Kawhia, after being closed for twenty years, was opened again without opposition from the natives. A government township was laid out at that place. Surveys for roads and railways have extended into parts of the country where formerly no European was suffered to travel.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, an empire constituted since 1867 as a dual monarchy. The Cisleithan Kingdom, or Austria, and the Transleithan, or Hungary, are connected by a common army, navy, and diplomacy, and in the person of the hereditary sovereign. The house of Hapsburg has reigned over Austria for six hundred years, and has possessed the Hungarian crown for more than half that period. Franz Josef I., reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, was born Aug. 18, 1830, and suc