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Full text of "The British Empire in the nineteenth century, its progress and expansion at home and abroad ; comprising a description and history of the British colonies and denpendencies"

f 




THE BRITISH EMPIRE 



IN THE 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 




WAL. PAGET. 



TRINIDAD COOLIES AT WORK IN A CANE-FIELD. 



Vol. vi. p. 17. 



TRINIDAD COOLIES AT WORK IN A CANE-FIELD. 

The island of Trinidad, situated near the mouths of the Orinoco, passed 
from the possession of Spain into that of Britain in 1 797. Like many other 
portions of the British empire whose industry was mainly carried on by 
means of slave labour, it was profoundly affected by the abolition of slavery 
throughout the British dominions in 1833. The negroes after their emanci- 
pation could no longer be compelled to work, and as a result there arose 
a scarcity of labour in the island, which the planters set themselves to 
correct by importing coolies from Bengal and other places. This importa- 
tion began in 1845, an d has gone on steadily since, so that at the present 
time the coolies constitute about one-third of the population. The im- 
ported labourers keep themselves in the main separate from the white men 
and the negroes, who form the remainder of the inhabitants. They enter 
into a five years' engagement with their employers, and at the end of that 
time they are free to return home if they please; but many prefer to re- 
main, and some even go back in order to bring their families and friends. 
In the illustration the coolies are cutting down the sugar-cane preparatory 
to its being crushed in the mill. 

(42) 



A,/. L , 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 



IN THE 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 



ITS PROGRESS AND EXPANSION AT HOME AND ABROAD 

COMPRISING A DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY OF THE 

BRITISH COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES 



BY 



EDGAR SANDERSON, M.A. (CANTAB.) 

AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE", "OUTLINES OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY* 

ETC. ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS 




LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED 
J. L. NICHOLS & CO, TORONTO, CANADA 

NAPERVILLE, ILL. ATLANTA, GEORGIA 
I. 



CONTENTS. 



VOL. VI. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

TRINIDAD COOLIES AT WORK IN A CANE-FIELD Fronti ^ 

"BLACK THURSDAY", FEBRUARY 6TH, 1851 

KING WATCHING THE LAST MOMENTS OF BURKE - 

ATTACK ON A GOLD ESCORT 

- 90 
CATTLE-MUSTERING IN QUEENSLAND 8 

A MAORI WAR-DANCE - ... 

252 

A SHEEP STATION ON CANTERBURY PLAINS 

- ^74 
A CAMEL-CARAVAN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA - u 

MAP OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND - 

- 45 



BOOK VI. Continued. 

BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA IN THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

CHAPTER XL Continued. WEST INDIES. 

The Windward Islands: Grenada, its Government, Climate, and Industry Grenadines St. 
Vincent, its great Volcanic Eruption St. Lucia, Picturesque Beauty, Coaling Station 
Trinidad, "The Land of the Humming -Bird", Picton's Firm Administration, Coolie 
Immigration, Unsurpassed Scenery, Varied and Increasing Population, Agricultural 
Products Tobago I 

CHAPTER XII. BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 

Extent and population of BERMUDA Physical features Delightful climate of Main Island- 
Trade Naval establishments Hamilton port Administration Education Communi- 
cation Revenue. Boundaries, area, and population of BRITISH HONDURAS Physical 
geography and climate Mahogany, logwood, and other products Belize city Com- 
munication Trade Revenue Administration Education. Early exploration of BRITISH 
GUIANA Settlement by the Dutch Ceded to Britain Agitation among the Slaves 
Case of John Smith the missionary His cruel treatment and death Brutality of the 
governor Intolerance of the slave-owners Boundaries and population of the country 
Geographical features Flora and fauna Rivers Climate Products Gold-mining 
Trade Administration Education Revenue Communication Georgetown city New 
Amsterdam 25 



vi CONTENTS. 



BOOK VII. 

BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN AUSTRALASIA IN THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

CHAPTER I. AUSTRALIA : GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 

Page 

Vast progress of the Australian colonies Area and coast-line Physical features Mountains 
Table-lands and deserts Rivers and lakes Climate Droughts and floods Mineral 
wealth Absence of food-producing plants Changes effected Native vegetation Animal 
life Description of the aborigines 45 

CHAPTER II. EXPLORATION. 

Difficulties of exploration Discoveries of Oxley and Allan Cunningham of Ovens and Currie 
of Hume and Hovell Captain Sturt and Major Mitchell Expeditions of Eyre, M'Millan, 
Leichhardt, and Kennedy John M'D. Stuart, Burke, and Wills John King found among 
the natives Landsborough and M'Kinlay 60 

CHAPTER III. NEW SOUTH WALES: HISTORY FROM 1801 TO 1851. 

Administration of Governor King Progress Governor Bligh deposed Improvements under 
Governor Macquarie Exploration Sir Thomas M. Brisbane and Sir Ralph Darling 
Governor Bourke Agitation for representative institutions A popular Legislative Council 
established Financial depression Improved condition of the colony A new constitution 
Discovery of gold Mr. Edward H. Hargreaves, the pioneer of gold-mining in the colony 
The gold-fever described Rapid rise of towns Measures adopted to preserve law and 
order 76 

CHAPTER IV. NEW SOUTH WALES Continued. HISTORY FROM 1851 TO THE 

PRESENT TIME. 

Condition of the colony in 1861 Political changes A new Land Act passed Bush-ranging 
Daring exploits of the Kelly gang or "iron-clad bush-rangers" Increasing prosperity 
of the colony Sir Hercules Robinson International Exhibition at Sydney Colonial 
troops sent to the Soudan Governorship of Lord Carrington Chinese immigration 
prohibited Proposals for Australasian federation 88 

CHAPTER V. NEW SOUTH WALES Continued. SCENERY, INDUSTRIES, STATISTICS, 

TOWNS. 

Area and population of the colony Climate Coast-line Surface of the land The river 
Darling Port Jackson or Sydney Harbour Political constitution Ecclesiastical affairs 
Educational system Administration of justice Exceptions from the law of England 
Industries The wool trade Squatter life Statistics of pastoral progress Agriculture 
Cultivation of the sugar-cane and vine Minerals Manufactures Internal communications 
Roads and railways Telegraph and postal systems Intercolonial and foreign trade 
Lines of ocean steamers Financial affairs Customs-duties Sydney described Newcastle, 
Maitland, Parramatta, Bathurst, Bourke, Goulbum, and other towns .... 101 

CHAPTER VI. VICTORIA. HISTORY TO 1898: GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, 
STATISTICS, TOWNS. 

Early settlement Self-government granted Separated from New South Wales Discovery of 
Gold Increase of population A new constitution established Political conflicts Con- 
stitutional changes Progress of the colony Political divisions Religion Port Phillip 



CONTENTS. 

V 11 

Themountain.systern-Scenery-Rivers-Climate.-Industries-Irrigationwork-Mildura Pa8e 
town-Mineral wealth-Manufactures-Trade-Internal communication-Telegraph a 
postal services-Ecclesiastical affairs-Education-Courts of justice-Revenue-Custom 
duties-Public debt-Constitution of the Victorian parliament-Melbourne and its suburbs 
described Geelong, Ballarat, and other towns ----.._ 

CHAPTER VII. SOUTH AUSTRALIA: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, 

STATISTICS, TOWNS. 



Early explorations First colonization The South Australian Land and Colonization Company 
Establishment of the colony proclaimed Quarrels of the officials Governor Grey- 
Rapid development Discovery of copper Governorship of Sir Henry Young Respon 
sible government introduced The overland telegraph Financial depression The changes 
of fifty years Boundaries, area, and population of the colony Religion Climate Coast- 
line Mountain ranges and vast plains Adelaide described" Railway engineering. The 
NORTHERN TERRITORY Palmerston town Rivers Climate. Chief industries Trade- 
Railways System of Government Education Administration of justice Revenue 
Customs-duties Public debt j_. 

CHAPTER VIII. QUEENSLAND: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, 
STATISTICS, TOWNS. 

Early history of Moreton Bay Increase of free colonists Queensland constituted Discovery 
of gold, copper, tin, and coal Importation of coolies The Mount Morgan mine Bold 
policy of Sir Thomas M'llwraith Proposed annexation of New Guinea Sir Samuel 
Griffith The disastrous floods of 1893 Area and physical features Rivers Climate- 
Population Aborigines Religious denominations Features of the coast Polit'cal divi- 
sions Industries Value of the forests Live stock Manufactures Exports and imports- 
Mineral wealth Brisbane Ipswich and other towns Means of communication Railways, 
telegraphs, and postal system Lines of steamers Government Education Revenue and 
import duties Public expenditure and debt Assisted immigration The trade in South 
Sea Islanders ---------- ----- 176 

CHAPTER IX. WESTERN AUSTRALIA: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, 
STATISTICS, TOWNS. 

Early navigators on the west coast of Australia First settlement A colony founded at Swan 
River Unsuitable immigrants Characteristics of the colonists Depressed condition of 
the colony in 1846 Convict-labour Improvements under Sir F. A. Weld Explorations 
Agitation for responsible government Career of Sir Frederick N. Broome Becomes 
self-governing Marvellous yield of gold Rapid rise of Coolgardie Boundaries and area of 
the colony Its physical features Climate Population King George's Sound Character 
and products of the soil Valuable timber-trees Growth of cereals and the vine Live 
stock exports and imports Railways The telegraph and telephone Lines of steamers 
and postal-system Government Education Revenue and public debt .... 199 

CHAPTER X. TASMANIA: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, 
STATISTICS, TOWNS. 

The name changed to Tasmania Original settlers Discovery of the island First British 
occupation A penal settlement Growth of Hobart Troubles with bush-rangers and the 
natives Martial law Mr. Robinson's successful efforts to conciliate the natives Progress 
Sir John Franklin governor The convict question Norfolk Island Transportation 
abolished Gold discovery Self-government granted The coast-line and islands Moun- 
tains Rivers Mount Wellington Beautiful scenery Lakes Climate Fauna and flora 
Mineral wealth Population Agriculture Manufactures Roads and railways Tele- 
graph and telephone Lines of steamers Exports and imports Shipping Hobart- 
Launcest on Political divisions Government Education Diminution of the criminal 
element Revenue, expenditure, and public debt 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XL NEW ZEALAND: HISTORY. 

Page 

New Zealand discovered Rediscovered Origin of the Maori race Religion and language 
Their present position Intercourse between New Zealand and New South Wales Ruatara 
visits England Rev. Mr. Marsden's mission Tragedy of the " Boyd massacre " A brave 
Maori chief Abortive attempts at colonization Captain Hobson's proposals Contem- 
plated annexation to New South Wales A legislative and executive council established 
Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand Captain Grey appointed governor lie 
defeats the Maoris Submission of the chiefs Formation of " New Zealand P'encibles"- 
Progress of the colony under Governor Grey Conflicts with the natives Te Kooti 
Bravery of the Maoris Discovery of gold Local government established - - - 247 

CHAPTER XII. NEW ZEALAND Continued. GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, 
TOWNS, STATISTICS, AND DEPENDENCIES. 

Geographical position and extent North Island South Island Climate Fauna Flora 
Mineral wealth Scenery and towns of North Island Auckland city Napier city Gis- 
borne, Palmerston, Wanganui, New Plymouth, and other towns Wellington Towns in 
South Island Its scenery Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, &c. Stewart Island 
Population of New Zealand Political divisions Religious denominations Education 
Justice Manufactures Character of the soil Agriculture Distribution of the land 
Exports and imports Shipping Roads, railways, and telegraphs Government and repre- 
sentation Revenue Customs-duties Expenditure Public debt General prosperity 
Islands attached to the colony 272 

CHAPTER XIII. AUSTRALASIA: MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. 

Introduction of foreign fauna Sparrows and rabbits Value of the camel Exports Dairy- 
farming in New Zealand Australasian literature Poetry The drama Works of fiction, 
&c. History Colenso and Aime Murray The newspaper press Painting and sculpture 
Music Men eminent in science Popular amusements Australasian and Imperial federa- 
tion Colonial defence Naval and military forces 310 

CHAPTER XIV. AUSTRALASIA Concluded. FIJI, NEW GUINEA (BRITISH), 
PACIFIC SPORADES. 

Principal islands of the Fiji group Early visits to the islands Arrival of missionaries Cession 
to Great Britain Services of Sir John Thurston Government Education Industries 
and trade Revenue, expenditure, and debt Means of communication. BRITISH NEW 
GUINEA Position and main features Its various tribes Early voyagers British occupa- 
tion Dutch and German possessions Effects of British rule Trade. NORFOLK ISLAND 
group Inhabitants of Pitcairn Island transferred Head-quarters of the MeLnesian Mission 329 

CHAPTER XV. SOUTH ATLANTIC ISLANDS. CONCLUSION. 

Ascension Island St. Helena Tristan Da Cunha Falkland Islands Concluding review 
Growth of the Empire since the days of Elizabeth Importance of her colonial possessions 
to the mother-country The Royal Colonial and the Imperial Institutes Influence of the 
Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 A statesman's warning Britain's wisest policy - 343 



OUR EMPIRE 
AT HOME AND ABROAD. 



BOOK VI. Continued. 

BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA IN THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



CHAPTER XL 

WEST INDIES. 

The Windward Islands : Grenada, its Government, Climate, and Industry Grenadines 
St. Vincent, its great Volcanic Eruption St. Lucia, Picturesque Beauty, Coaling 
Station Trinidad, " The Land of the Humming-bird", Picton's Firm Administration, 
Coolie Immigration, Unsurpassed Scenery, Varied and Increasing Population, Agri- 
cultural Products Tobago. 

The WINDWARD ISLANDS, in the official sense, as an administra- 
tive group, now consist of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines 
(half under St. Vincent, half under Grenada) and Grenada, lying in 
this order, from north to south-west, between Martinique and 
Trinidad, and in from 12 to 14 north latitude. Geographically, 
Barbados and Tobago belong to the group, but the former, as 
we have seen, became a separate colony in 1885, and Tobago, 
four years later, was politically annexed to Trinidad. The total 
area of the present political group is about 525 sq. miles, with a 
population (1898) of about 154,000, of whom only about one- 
twentieth are whites. The rest are blacks or coloured people, 
except a few Caribs in St. Vincent, and a few thousands of Indian 
coolies in the various chief islands. Ruled by one Governor, the 
islands have their separate institutions, laws, revenue, and tariff, 
but share in the benefits of the Court of Appeal (the chief justices 
of the several islands and of Barbados) and of a common audit- 
system, with occasional combination of funds and efforts for pur- 

L' VOL. VI. HI 



2 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

poses involving a common interest. The language spoken is 
English in St. Vincent and generally among the educated people, 
but in Grenada and St. Lucia the prevailing tongue is a French 
patois. The legal currency is British sterling, with Spanish and 
United States gold coinage. The Colonial Bank, with branches in 
the larger islands, issues five-dollar notes, and there are savings- 
banks (about 1800 depositors and nearly ,14,000 balances in 
1893) at Grenada and St. Lucia. There are no railways nor 
internal telegraphs; the government have a telephone-line con- 
necting the chief towns in Grenada. There is cable-communication 
with Europe and with the other West Indies; a penny internal 
and 2y z d. foreign postage up to the half-ounce, and parcel-post to 
and from the British Isles. The inter-colonial steamers run in 
connection with those from Southampton to Barbados, and there 
are fortnightly boats from Grenada to New York and London, 
and monthly steamers to several other ports. 

Grenada, the most southerly of the group now under review, is 
about 60 miles from the northern coast of South America, and 
runs due north, from the line of 12 degrees north latitude, for 21 
miles, with a maximum breadth of 12 miles. The area is 133 sq. 
miles; the population, over 60,000 in 1898, showing a large increase 
(above 40 per cent) since 1881, is mostly blacks, with more than 
2000 coolie labourers from the East Indies. This picturesque, 
mountainous, volcanic island has ridges of hills covered with brush- 
wood and forest, and a range that runs from north to south, with 
peaks sometimes reaching an altitude of over 3000 feet, and 
having some ancient craters now transformed into lakes. The 
country abounds in streams and mineral springs, and the soil has 
the usual fertility of the West Indies. For the wonders of tropical 
vegetation in the West Indies, especially on the large scale seen in 
Trinidad, we may here refer readers, once for all, to Charles 
Kingsley's excellent and enthusiastic book At Last, which also 
contains much geological matter and references to the fauna of 
the islands. Of the hill-lakes the beautiful Grand Etang, on the 
summit of a mountain-ridge, lies 1740 feet above the sea, sur- 
rounded by bamboos and tree-ferns. The south-eastern coast is 
low-lying and swampy. 

Ruled as a Crown colony, under a constitution set forth in 
Letters Patent of March, 1885, Grenada has a Governor (in charge 



WEST INDIES. 

of all these Windward Isles); a Legislative Council, nominated by 
him, of six official members, and seven unofficial members nomi- 
nated by the Crown; and an Executive Council of five members, 
including the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney- 
General, and the Treasurer. Each little town has an elective 
Board for local affairs, and the island, divided into six parishes, 
possesses an excellent system of roads now kept in thorough 
repair, including about 40 miles of highway, and a network of by- 
ways. In religious affairs, the Anglicans are under the Bishop of 
Barbados; there are numerous Roman Catholics, and some Pres- 
byterians and Wesleyans. Education is in a fairly satisfactory 
condition, with 37 Government and aided elementary schools in 
1896, containing over 7000 pupils; a grammar-school for boys, 
partly supported from public funds, and a school for the secondary 
education of girls. Most of the elementary schools are under the 
local management of the different sects; of the central Board of 
Education, nominated by the Governor, half the members are 
Roman Catholics. 

The climate is, on the whole, of a character highly favourable 
to the health, comfort, and safety of the inhabitants. As in all 
other tropical islands, it is damp and hot during the wet season, 
but the temperature is equable, yellow-fever is almost unknown, 
and the island lies outside the range of hurricanes. The average 
mean temperature is 79 degrees, and the rainfall somewhat exceeds 
80 inches. During the six "winter" months, from November to 
May, the weather is delightful, and the place is then a great health- 
resort for people from Trinidad, who in Grenada enjoy a restora- 
tive air and good sea-bathing. In 1896, the births were 2450 
against 1 184 deaths. The fauna include opossums, iguanas, agoutis, 
and armadilloes, abounding in the woods, and largely used as food 
by the negro population; a large number of turtle, one article of 
export; several kinds of wild pigeons, and migratory birds such as 
wild ducks and plovers. Goats, sheep, pigs, and poultry, reared 
on the island, supply fresh meat. The forests contain valuable 
timber mahogany, the gigantic locust-tree, with tough close- 
grained wood, and the white cedar, with vanilla and some gum- 
yielding trees. 

The chief industry is, of course, the tillage of the soil, and the 
recent features in production are the decline in sugar; the vast 



4 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

increase of cocoa (cacao), the quality of which comes next to that 
of Trinidad, among the West India islands; and the larger growth 
of cotton and spices, the latter including cloves and vanilla, pepper 
and cardamoms, and, especially, nutmegs. The export of spices, 
for instance, grew from a value of under 3500 in 1880, to close 
upon ,18,000 in 1896. The fruit-trade is also becoming important 
in the markets of Barbados, Trinidad, and New York, and com- 
prises coco-nuts and mangoes, with tropical fruits of almost every 
kind. Some products, in this line, of temperate climes have been 
introduced with success, including raspberries, strawberries, and 
apples. The plants and roots used for home-food consist of yams, 
sweet-potatoes, pigeon-peas, plantains, Indian corn, manioc, bread- 
fruit, and others. Turning to the chief commercial growths, we 
find that, in 1892, of the 20,418 acres under cultivation, sugar-cane 
was growing on only 911, while 11,115 were devoted to cocoa 
(cacao)-trees, 1812 to cotton, and 1343 acres to spices. In 1890, 
over 8 million pounds weight of cocoa were shipped, with a value 
of nearly ,230,000, against little more than half the amount in 
1880. Other exports comprise Indian corn, cotton and cotton-seed, 
ground-nuts, hides and skins, whale-oil, obtained from " fish" caught 
around the Grenadines, and live stock as above mentioned. Trade 
is carried on with the neighbouring islands and Venezuela, with the 
United States, and, very largely, with the British Isles. Timber, 
in great demand for new houses needed by an increasing popu- 
lation, bread-stuffs, and salt meat, come from the States; manu- 
factured goods, in textiles and hardware, from Great Britain. 
The total exports, in 1896, had a value of 184,000, of which 
about 170,000 are accounted for by the United Kingdom. Of 
imports to the worth of over .154,000, the British Isles sent out 
66,485. The revenue, mainly obtained by import duties, was 
56,275 in 1896, with an expenditure of "60,523, and a public 
debt exceeding ,127,000. St. George, the capital, as seat of govern- 
ment for all these Windward Isles, and also the chief port, lies 
on the south-west side of Grenada, in the middle of a large 
sandy-bottomed bay, safe from storms, with an inner spacious 
landlocked harbour on the eastern side. The little city of 5000 
people is seen scrambling up the hillside with red roofs and church 
spires, among cacao and bread-fruit trees, and with garden-girt 
villas leading the eye up to the large and handsome Government 



WEST INDIES. 

House, behind which one green hill after another rises towards the 
peak of Mount Maitland, 1700 feet in height. The place was 
originally built by the French, with the name of Port Royal, changed 
to St. George on the cession of Grenada in 1763. The five stone- 
built forts on the surrounding hills have been dismantled since 
1854, when the regular forces were removed from the island; the 
chief of these structures, Fort George, is now used as a barrack for 
the police force. 

The Grenadines are a line of islands, about 300 in number, and 
varying in size from 600 to nearly 8000 acres, running for sixty 
miles northward from Grenada to St. Vincent. Bare of wood, and 
edged with cliffs and streaks of red and gray rock, they rise a few 
hundred feet out of very deep sea. The inhabitants are chiefly a 
quiet and prosperous race of small proprietors or yeomen, raising 
and exporting live stock and vegetable products, conveyed to the 
larger islands in coasters of their own building. The southern 
islands of the group are attached politically to Grenada, and of 
these the chief is Carriacou, with an area of nearly 7000 acres and 
a population of about 6000. The chief island connected with St. 
Vincent is Becquia, in the north of the Grenadines; it is somewhat 
larger than Carriacou. 

The beautiful St. Vincent, an irregular oblong in shape, broader 
in the northern than in the southern half, lies about 70 miles 
north-north-east of Grenada, and 100 miles due west of Barbados. 
Eighteen miles long, and eleven in extreme breadth, it has an area 
of 132 sq. miles, with a population (1898) just exceeding 46,000, of 
whom about 2450 were whites, and 31,000 blacks, the residue 
being mainly coloured people and East Indian coolies. The history 
of the island in the nineteenth century involves nothing worthy of 
mention save the great eruption of 1812; the decline of sugar- 
production due to the slave-emancipation of 1838, to the admission 
in British ports of slave-grown sugar, in 1846, at the same tariff as 
the West Indian article, and to a fall of prices in more recent years; 
and the establishment, in 1878, after previous changes in the con- 
stitutional system, of the island's rule as a "Crown colony" instead 
of by representative government. The mention of " eruption" has 
already stated the volcanic origin and character of St. Vincent. 
From north to south runs a chain of densely-wooded mountains 
with peaks from 3000 to 4000 feet in height. The chief crater, 



6 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

styled the Soufriere (sulphur-mine) as in other West Indian islands, 
lies in the north of this range, which sends off spurs on each side, 
dividing the island into a series of beautiful and fertile valleys 
running east and west to the coast. The southern part of the chain 
ends in Mount St. Andrew, 2500 feet in height, overlooking a fine 
bay and the chief town. The many streams are small, except when 
they are swollen by the heavy rains in the season between May 
and February, the average annual fall being 100 inches. At this 
time thunder-storms are of frequent occurrence, and the prevailing 
wind is from the north-east. In spite of humidity and the tropical 
heat, the climate is one of the most healthy in the West Indies. 
The only wild animals are some hogs and agoutis; the little rivers 
abound in a fish called "mountain-mullet", somewhat like the 
grayling in flavour; the sea has abundant and excellent fish, a 
small species of whale, 20 to 30 feet in length, and a race of sharks 
which, it seems, do not care for human flesh, and never attack 
men upset from the island-boats in the many sudden fierce squalls 
rushing down from the hills. 

The pride of St. Vincent, in the way of scenery, is the mag- 
nificent Soufriere, one of the finest and largest craters in the world, 
with its edge at a height of about 3700 feet in the north-west of 
the island. The road thither up the mountain-side is adorned with 
flowers of many species, especially with bignonias and orchids; it 
passes amidst groves of splendid tree-ferns up to a wild and windy, 
cool and rainy, treeless region, clothed with fern and small red- 
blossomed "scrub", and with rich broad-bladed grass, covering a 
surface of cinders that yield to the tourist's tread. Close to the 
top, on one side of the crater-edge, two huge flat oval slabs, about 
200 feet long, and 30 feet high, profusely adorned with ferns, seem 
to stand sentinel over the vast chasm out of which they were 
volcanically blown. One step forward, and the grandeur of the 
Soufriere bursts all at once on the eye. Near a thousand feet 
below, beneath a ring of awful cliff, lies a circular lake three miles 
in circumference, formed by an eruption in 1718 which blew into 
the skies the great ash-cone then rising in a gracefully tapering 
form for many hundreds of feet above the surrounding crater-lips, 
studded with trees and flowers amidst which the songs of countless 
birds made music in one of nature!s noblest gardens. No bottom 
has been reached by soundings in the water that, to the spectator 



WEST INDIES. 

above, gleams in the sunshine with a grass-green hue, while waves 
that are crested with snowy foam are moving across the surface 
dead against the wind, and breaking, noiselessly to the distant ear, 
on the shore below. All sides of the vast abyss are one glorious 
fernery, broken only for about a mile on the south by a forest of 
small, leafless, black, dead trees killed by the " Little Eruption" of 
1814. The new crater formed two* years previously has a smooth 
grassy bottom higher in level than the lake, with a triangular pond 
of transparent water fed by a tiny stream. The sides of this later 
vent are mostly black and charred, and the two craters are separated 
by a knife-edge of rock over 700 feet in height. 

The historic "Great Eruption" of 1812 was a most convincing 
proof of the part played by volcanic action in the sterner work of 
nature's forces. For the two years prior to March, 1812, a great 
internal pressure upon the earth's crust had been seeking some 
outlet, and causing an agitation of sea and land over an area half 
as large as Europe, from the Azores to the West Indies and the 
coast of Venezuela, and from the Cordillera chain of New Grenada 
to the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio. These earth- 
quakings reached their height of violence in the terrible catastrophe 
of March 26th, 1812, the day on which, in that year, Holy Thurs- 
day fell, when the people of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, 
were assembled in the churches, and the troops were drawn up and 
the processions formed to honour the occasion, beneath a serene 
and blazing sky. Then, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, 
came the tragedy described in the pages of Humboldt. The 
troops, in one minute of earthquake, were crushed to death by the 
fall of their barracks; the worshippers were buried in the ruins of 
their churches; the houses fell in and fell out, smiting to death the 
home-stayers and people in the streets. The whole loss of life 
reached from 10,000 to 12,000, the former being Humboldt's esti- 
mate. A month or more had elapsed at mourning Caracas, when 
the survivors were startled, on April 3Oth, by a subterranean noise 
resembling frequent discharges of the largest cannon. No shock 
was felt, but the sound was heard over a space of 4000 square 
leagues, from Martinique and Guadeloupe to the Llanos or grassy 
plains of the Orinoco. Preparations were made to resist a foe 
supposed to be advancing with heavy cannon. The cause of the 
portentous noise was afterwards found to lie five hundred miles 



8 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

away. The citizens of Caracas had really heard the sounds of 
their own deliverance from all further mischief. The long-silent 
Soufriere of St. Vincent had opened again, and relieved the 
interior pressure of imprisoned steam. It was on April 27th, 
1812, that a negro boy herding cattle on the mountain-side saw 
stone after stone falling near him. Believing that other boys were 
pelting him from the cliffs above, he began to return the fire, when 
a thicker shower, with some stones that no human hand could 
wield, made the lad run for his life, leaving the cattle to their fate, 
while a column of black cloud arose from the crater, composed of 
dust and ash and stone. For three days and nights the mountain 
roared. The greater part of the island was covered with ashes 
that buried the crops, broke branches from the trees, and spread 
destruction from which some estates never recovered. At Bar- 
bados, on May ist, when the clock struck six, no light of the 
morning sun could be seen, and the darkness grew thicker as the 
hours sped away, while a slow and silent rain of impalpable dust 
was falling over the whole island. Terror seized the souls of 
blacks and whites, and the churches were filled with trembling, 
sobbing, and praying crowds. A dead silence reigned in nature's 
realm save for the crashing of the branches snapped by the weight 
of clammy dust. The trade- wind had utterly ceased; the roar of 
the surf on the shore was at an end. About an hour after noon 
the veil of darkness was lifted and a lurid sunlight came in from 
the horizon while blackness was dominant overhead. By degrees 
the dust-cloud drifted away, and the Barbadians, beneath the full 
light of the sun, saw their island inches deep in black and, as it 
proved, fertilizing matter. The trade-wind blew again out of the 
east, and the noise of the surf rose again on the beach. The 
arrival of the dust from St. Vincent in Barbados, against a strong 
easterly breeze, across 100 miles of sea, shows the force of ex- 
plosions in the Soufriere which drove the material several miles 
into the air, above the region of the trade-wind, into a higher 
stratum where an opposite current could convey it in an easterly 
direction. 

The one great industry of St. Vincent is the tillage which, still 
producing some sugar-cane (with its extracts, rum and molasses), 
raises cocoa, spices, and excellent arrowroot in the valleys and on 
the fertile slopes of the hills. About 1 3,000 acres, or one-sixth of 



WEST INDIES. 



the whole area, are under cultivation, a large portion being in 
the hands of three firms. The negroes are, in large numbers, 
" squatters " on the unoccupied Crown-lands. Valuable timber is 
obtained from the forests. About 80 miles of highway run round 
the island, but on the leeward (western) side most of the traffic is 
by boat. The exports, in 1896, were worth nearly ,68,000, of 
which the British Isles took produce to the value of about ,21,000. 
The imports, worth about 7 1,500, were obtained from the United 
Kingdom to a value of nearly ,30,000. The revenue, chiefly 
derived from import duties, with export charges on sugar, molasses, 
rum, arrow-root, cacao, and cotton, was ,26,407 in 1896, against 
a somewhat larger expenditure, with a public debt exceeding 
,19,000. The rule of the island is in the hands of an "Adminis- 
trator and Colonial Secretary ", with a Legislative Council of four 
official and four nominated unofficial members. Over 40 elemen- 
tary schools, one supported by Government, with 20 Anglican, 
1 6 Wesleyan, and 4 Roman Catholic schools, have about 5000 
children on the rolls. A grammar-school, for secondary education, 
is aided by an annual grant of ,100. Kingstown, the capital, is 
situated on the shore of an extensive bay at the south-western 
extremity of the island. The usual government buildings and the 
hospital are of good architecture. The population is about 4600, 
and, as a port of registry, the place had, in 1891, 28 vessels of 
693 tons. 

Si. Lucia, lying 21 miles north-north-east of St. Vincent, is the 
largest of the Windward Islands, being about 35 miles long and 15 
in greatest breadth, with an irregular oval circuit of 150 miles, and 
an area of 233 square miles. The population, in 1898, numbered 
47,000, of whom by far the majority were blacks or half-breeds, 
with about 2500 East Indian coolies and less than a thousand 
whites. The white population is, to a large extent, of French 
origin, and most of the inhabitants speak a French patois, but the 
use of English is now extending. The island has unjustly had the 
repute of general unhealthiness, which quality is confined to certain 
small localities between the hills, yearly improving as the woodland 
gives way to tillage. The tropical heat, rarely exceeding 80 from 
December to April, is much tempered by the fine continuous 
breeze of the " trades ". Great regard is paid to the public health 
in the provision of hospitals in all the towns and of dispensaries in 



I0 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

all the larger villages, with gratuitous medical advice and remedies. 
For the twenty years 1869-89 the average death-rate fell below 
25 per 1000, and in 1896, with 1937 births, there were but 1172 

deaths. 

The history of St. Lucia having been already given down to 
the commencement of the nineteenth century, we have only to note 
that the island was long in recovering from the troubles that pre- 
ceded the final British conquest; that there were severe epidemics 
of cholera and small-pox many years ago; and that the system of 
rule according to the law and ordinances of the old French 
monarchy is now superseded by a code of civil law, framed upon 
the principles of the ancient law of the island, modified to suit 
existing circumstances, and established in 1879; by the statute law 
of the colony, consolidated in 1889; and by jury-trial for criminal 
cases in the Superior Court. A judge and three magistrates 
administer the law, and the general government is in charge of an 
Administrator subordinate to the Governor-in-chief of the Wind- 
ward Islands, with an Executive Council and a Legislative Council 
nominated by the Crown. For educational purposes, grants of 
^625 are yearly made to each of two bodies the Roman Catholic 
priests, and the trustees of the Lady Mico charity. In 1896, there 
were 13 Protestant and 24 Roman Catholic schools, with a total of 
4182 pupils, the whole Government grant exceeding ^2600. There 
is a " Canadian mission to Indian immigrants ", maintaining three 
schools for the children of the coolie labourers. 

Among all the West Indian islands, St. Lucia is unsurpassed 
for picturesque beauty. The voyager approaching the south- 
western end sees two cone-shaped mountains, or vast obelisks of 
rock, called The Pitons (the general French name for conical hills 
in the West Indies), rising sheer out of deep sea, a mile apart, to 
the heights of 2680 and 2710 feet. Between them lies a charming 
little bay, and behind them verdant wooded slopes rise toward the 
Soufriere, an ever-active volcanic crater, 2 miles eastward of The 
Pitons, and 1000 feet above the sea. Covering an area of about 
3 acres, this outlet of subterranean forces is crusted over with 
sulphur, alum, cinders, and other volcanic matter, in the midst of 
which are boiling springs, some of clear water, others of black 
liquid rising 2 or 3 feet in the air and emitting thick clouds of most 
offensive sulphurous steam. Viewed from any side, the island 



WEST INDIES. 



presents the beauty and grandeur of mingled mountains, valleys, 
and forests, the latter displaying to those who penetrate their 
recesses all the glories of palms and ferns, orchids, creeping plants, 
and birds of gorgeous hues. The chief mountains, densely covered 
with wood, extend from north to south over the centre of the 
island, which is watered by countless rivers and brooks that, 
after the profuse tropical rains, come down with a rush that 
wrenches up trees and brushwood, and brings masses of rock and 
soil upon the roads and fields below. In the north and the south 
are two beautiful plains, partly covered with swamp overgrown 
with aquatic plants, the haunt of water-fowl and other game. The 
chief valleys run east and west from the central chain of hills, and 
all are composed of very fertile soil that produces tropical corn and 
edible roots and vegetables in great variety, supplies rich pasturage 
for cattle, and is capable of bearing cotton and many kinds of 
fibrous plants, along with tobacco, spices, and coffee. Justice has 
never been done to the rich natural resources of the island, which 
sorely needs capital, enterprise, agricultural skill, and improved 
communications between the interior, where much land lies unre- 
claimed, and the coast-line. Sugar, rum, and molasses, cocoa, and 
logwood are the chief commercial products. There are four large 
central factories, fitted with the best modern machinery, and turn- 
ing out sugar in pure white crystals. The exports, in 1896, were 
worth about ,93,720, of which over .24,000 in value went to 
the British Isles. The imports, including coal for steamships, 
amounted in value to nearly 191,000, goods worth nearly 
102,000 being received from the United Kingdom. The revenue, 
mainly from the import duties, as in our other West Indian isles, 
was 55,330 in 1896, with an expenditure of over 56,000, 
and a public debt, in 1896, of .202,280, mostly incurred through 
improvements in the harbour of the capital and chief port. This 
place, Castries, had its name in 1785 from the French colonial 
minister of the day, and lies on the north-west coast, with a natural 
harbour entered by a passage 600 yards across between two head- 
lands. The port is one of the safest and most spacious in the 
Antilles, and has recently been made of great interest and value by 
the Imperial Government's choice of Castries as the chief coaling- 
station for the West Indian squadron. The port has been dredged 
out to a mean depth of 30 feet, and has excellent quays beside 



12 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

which the largest vessels can anchor. Many foreign steamers and 
men-of-war, as well as British ships, take in coal at the wharves, 
and the harbour is now defended by strong fortifications. The 
town has about 7000 inhabitants. The little town of Soufriere, on 
the coast near the mountain, contains about 2000 people. 

TRINIDAD, called le're by the Indians, or "The Land of the 
Humming-bird", from the number and variety of the tiny charm- 
ing feathered gems there flitting from flower to flower, is a really 
fine colonial possession of the British crown. Most southern of 
the Lesser Antilles, and largest, next to Jamaica, of the British 
West India islands, it lies off the north-east of Venezuela, in 10 3' 
to 10 50' north latitude, and about 61 to 62 west longitude, with 
its southern coast facing some of the mouths of the Orinoco. 
Nearly rectangular in shape, the island sends out a longish horn on 
the north-west, and a much longer one on the south-west, towards 
the coast of Venezuela, thereby inclosing the Gulf of Paria. 
About 50 miles long, and 32 miles in average breadth, Trinidad 
has an area of 1754 sq. miles, with a population, in 1898, just 
exceeding 241,000. At one point, the islands off the north-west 
horn of Trinidad are but 7 miles from the projecting part of 
Venezuela, but the distance across the Gulf of Paria is, in general, 
far greater. 

We take up, first, the history of Trinidad after the final cession 
to Great Britain in 1802. Picton's firm and able administration 
from 1797 till 1803 so greatly benefited the island that the popula- 
tion, under his rule, grew from under 18,000 to nearly 30,000, and 
the annual exports of sugar rose from 75,000 cwts. to about double 
that amount. For the next ten years, the colony was ruled by 
military men. It was then seen that a progressive civil adminis- 
tration was needed, and in June, 1813, Sir Ralph Woodford, Bart., 
took over the government from General Munroe. The new ruler, 
then only in his twenty-ninth year, was a most active, excellent, 
and energetic man, searching with his own eyes into everything in 
Trinidad, and learning the wants, views, and feelings of all classes 
of the community. The social and moral state of the island was 
transformed under the influence of Woodford's admirable life, 
character, precept, and counsel. We have a very unusual display 
of character and view of duty in a colonial governor when we find 
him, in November, 1823, issuing a proclamation to the people, 



WEST INDIES. j, 

3 

expressed in the most dignified and solemn words, wherein he 
exhorts all the king's subjects to a punctual observance of the 
Sabbath, and a regular and devout attendance at the places of 
worship, and "requires and commands all Persons in place of 
authority, to give good example, by a virtuous life, to the end that 
all ill habits and practices may be reformed, and that Religion, 
Piety, and Morality may flourish and increase, to the Honour of 
God, and the prosperity of the Land ". The schools were brought 
under state supervision, and an excellent code of " Rules for 
Schools " was issued. Tillage and trade were encouraged, and the 
internal and external methods of communication were improved. 
To the care and good taste of Sir Ralph Woodford Port-of-Spain 
owed her wide and regular streets, and the two beautiful squares, 
and it was he who formed the famous Botanic Gardens at St. 
Ann's. In 1817, the "Trinidad Steam-Boat Company" was 
formed under his auspices, and conducted to success, the steamer 
Woodford, which began to run between Port-of-Spain and San 
Fernando in December, 1818, being the first that ever plied in 
West Indian waters, and that only six years after the Comet began 
to run on the Clyde. This model of a colonial ruler, quitting the 
island on sick-leave in April, 1828, died at sea in the middle of 
May. 

After complete slave-emancipation in 1838, Trinidad had her 
full share of the mischief wrought by that measure, and already 
explained in reference to other islands. Brought to the verge of 
ruin in 1844, she was saved by the vigorous promotion of coolie 
immigration from the East Indies. This provision of labour for 
the sugar-plantations, rendered needful by the idleness of the 
negroes, was largely due to the energy of the Governor, Lord 
Harris, who arrived in May, 1846, and of Mr. Warner, C.B., 
attorney - general. The system has been continued, with great 
benefit, down to the present day. The governorship of Lord 
Harris, continuing for seven years, was also made notable by his 
institution of a system of primary education, and by the intro- 
duction of municipal rule. He had confidence in the great natural 
resources and wonderful capabilities of the colony, and, with a deep 
interest in the material and moral welfare of the people, he ruled 
with marked ability and success. Sir Arthur Gordon, who was 
Governor from 1867 to 1870, was of great service through his bold 



14 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

and enlightened policy in creating by legal measures a body of 
small proprietors who had previously been mere squatters. The 
cultivation of cocoa, and other industries, were thus promoted, and 
Trinidad, under the influence of low prices for sugar, has been 
saved from the disastrous effects of reliance upon a single staple. 
Sir William Robinson, Governor from 1885 to 1891, zealously 
furthered the development of the agricultural resources of the 
colony, establishing District Boards, with a Central Board, sitting 
in- Port-of-Spain, and instituting exhibitions with prizes as a 
stimulus to the cultivation of a greater variety of products. His 
administration is specially remarkable for the impetus given to the 
fruit-trade between Trinidad and the United States. A direct 
line of steamers for that purpose, with an annual subsidy from the 
government, was established. The annual revenue of the Crown 
property increased, under Sir W. Robinson's rule, from about 
;i6oo to nearly ,32,000, and in 1892 the total amount exceeded 
.37,000, nearly meeting the entire charge of the public debt. 
He also introduced a fortnightly service of steamers round the 
island. Sir Frederick Napier Broome became Governor in 
August, 1891, and showed an active interest in the prosperity of 
Trinidad by encouraging the occupation of Crown-lands, and by 
applying to the Colonial Secretary, in 1893, f r his sanction to a 
loan of half a million sterling " for opening up the island by rail- 
ways". The present ruler is Sir H. Jerningham, K.C.M.G. 

The natural beauty of Trinidad gives her a high rank, in this 
respect, among the islands, not only of the West Indies, but of the 
world. The northern coast is rocky throughout, and the eastern 
side, partly edged by hills, and at one place, by some miles of swamp, 
is ever beaten by a dangerous surf; the southern coast is generally 
steep, and only on the western side is there any good natural harbour. 
On that coast, however, between Trinidad and the mainland of 
South America, the landlocked Gulf of Paria affords abundance of 
secure anchorage. Groves of palm-trees and luxuriant forests are 
seen sweeping down to the sea-side, and the precipitous part of the 
coast, at many places, clothed to the top with foliage, shows not 
merely shrubs, but forest-trees, with grand spreading branches, huge 
trunks, and leaves of brilliant hue, growing out from among the rocks 
with little apparent soil for their mechanical support or their nour- 
ishment. With much level or undulating ground, the island is 



WEST INDIES. 



crossed, from east to west, roughly speaking, by three ranges of 
hills, varying from 600 to 3100 feet in height, forest-clad, and deeply 
cut by countless ravines. The most northerly range of mountains, 
with a peak called Tucuche exceeding 300x3 feet, fringes the coast! 
and throws out many spurs to the south. The central chain, not 
quite continuous, runs south-west; from Manzanilla Point, on the 
east coast, to near San Fernando, on the Gulf of Paria. The 
southern range traverses nearly all the country near to the sea. 
The plains are watered by numerous rivers, all running east or 
west, none large or navigable. In spite of a near approach to the 
equator, with a mean temperature of 78 in the cool season, and of 
86 in the hot time, and an average rainfall of about 66 inches, 
chiefly in July, August, and September, the climate is healthy for 
abstemious and prudent Europeans. The mornings have a peculiar 
charm in the rapid transition from darkness to light, preluded by 
the cries of birds and croaking of frogs. At half-past five comes 
the first glimmer of light; in fifteen minutes, full daylight seems to 
have arrived; in a few minutes more, the sun's rim appears, and 
the dew on the leaves is radiant as gems; the golden light shoots 
far into the woods; the small birds chirp and flutter, the parrots 
scream, the monkeys chatter, the bees are humming, and butterflies 
of expansive wings and most gorgeous colours flutter through the 
air or rest on the flowers. The coolness of the night has refreshed 
all living creatures of the vegetable and animal worlds, and the 
agreeable chill of dawn is succeeded by warmth and sunshine that 
give almost magical rapidity of growth to the glorious vegetation 
of a tropical isle. 

The scenery is unsurpassed for variety and beauty of foliage and 
flowers, the landscapes being adorned with a rich and rare profusion 
of form and colour that defy description, and compel us, for lack of 
space, to refer readers to the pages of Charles Kingsley (At Last] 
and Anthony Trollope ( The West Indies and the Spanish Main]. 
The slopes, covered to the summit with luxuriant forest-growth, 
form a wavy sea of woodland, displaying in the brilliant sunlight and 
clear air an ever-changing diversity of shades from the lightest 
green to the richest russet brown, lit up here and there by dense 
clusters of bright yellow or blazing crimson tree-flowers. The 
valleys abound in crystal streams, rising high up in the hills, rush- 
ing now through a narrow gorge, then twisting and turning, and 



16 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

widening out into gentle shallow rivulets, rippling in music over 
pebbly beds. The Diego Martin valley, about nine miles from 
Port of Spain, in the north-west, has a most picturesque waterfall, 
the stream of which, after several descents higher up, falls down 
into what is called the "Blue Basin". The apparent tint of the 
water is probably due to extreme clearness caused by filtration 
through mica slate, lime, and other earthy matter in upper regions 
of the mountain-side. The Maraccas Valley, below Tucuche, the 
culminating peak of the island, has the finest of all West Indian 
cascades in the Chorro or Waterfall, 340 feet in sheer descent. 
Amidst virgin forest, with flowering shrubs and plants of richest 
blooms, from a perpendicular wall of solid rock the stream comes 
down, splitting in the air and producing a constant shower that 
spreads delicious coolness around. Nearly the whole surface of the 
natural wall is covered with plants, including ferns and mosses, the 
red flowers of the Pitcairnia, various nettles, and scattered Begonias. 
Among the other sights of the island is the Cocal, with its long 
stretch of fourteen miles of coco palms, and the Atlantic surge from 
the east ever roaring on the shore. 

The famous Pitch Lake lies near La Brea Point, on the south- 
west coast, and gives a name to the village there from the Spanish 
"la brea", or "pitch". This unique natural phenomenon is a great 
surprise to those who have imagined a liquid expanse like coal- 
black soup. It is really like an area of asphalt paving, over 100 
acres in extent, intersected by ruts, narrow chasms or channels, 
filled with water. The surface is firm enough, in almost every part, 
to bear the weight of the horses and carts loaded by the diggers. 
For nearly four miles in this district the shore is formed of pitch, 
and large black masses appearing like rocks are in reality bodies of 
asphalt. The whole soil rests on immense strata of this substance, 
which bursts up, in the gardens of the village and elsewhere, either 
in detached pieces or in extended sheets or layers of several tons in 
weight, in many cases, by a very gradual process, causing the build- 
ings to decline from the perpendicular. The ground slopes upward 
from the sea to the lake, which lies at about 140 feet above the 
Gulf of Paria. Pine-apples of matchless quality grow in the bitu- 
minous soil. The surface of the lake displays pools of fresh water, 
with trees and bushes at intervals, and a constant movement, caused 
by the generation of gases, is observed. Beautiful birds and insects 



WEST INDIES. 



flit about the clumps of vegetation half floating in this Stygian 
expanse, near the borders of the lake; the central part, over 50 
acres in extent, contains what is called "the place of supply", the 
part where the asphalt is still oozing up. For full particulars we 
may refer our readers to an interesting paper in Chambers 's Journal 
for January, 1895. It is since 1875 that the asphalt furnished by 
this wonderful and, as it seems, inexhaustible reservoir of pitch, has 
attained a considerable value in the markets of the world. The 
void made by removal is quickly filled, and whereas in 1888 about 
45,000 tons were exported three-fifths to the United States and 
the rest to Europe in 1896 this amount had risen to 96,385 tons, 
worth .102,000, and affording to the colony, in "royalty" and 
export-duty, a revenue of 33,000 a year. 

There are people from many nations in Trinidad. The popu- 
lation (241,000) of 1898 showed an increase of 40,000, or about 
20 per cent since the 1891 census. The natural increase gave only 
a small percentage of this, the rest being due to immigration. Of 
these immigrants above half were coolies from the East Indies, 
and about the same number came mainly from the neighbouring 
British West Indies, a sure sign of rapidly-growing prosperity. Of 
the whole population, about one-half were native-born, and about 
one-half were of foreign birth. Of the former, nearly one-quarter 
were of almost pure East Indian descent, the children and grand- 
children of coolies ; the other portion being chiefly of mixed African 
descent, with a small minority of persons of pure European or 
American blood, and a still smaller number of mixed Indian or 
Chinese race. Of the foreign-born inhabitants, over 50,000 were 
natives of the East Indies; 40,000 of the British West Indies; about 
I 1300 of the foreign West Indies; over 2300 were Europeans; and 

} the rest were natives of the United States, Canada, Venezuela, 

Africa, and China. The coolie or East Indian element is thus very 
large, numbering 80,000, or nearly one-third of the whole population. 
The first " coolie-ship " arrived from India in 1845, and the system 
is now thoroughly organized on a basis which affords a free passage 
to Trinidad, under an agreement providing for five years' industrial 
service at the current rate of wages, with a free passage back to 
India, if it be desired, after five years' further residence on the island. 
A minimum rate of wages is guaranteed, with gratuitous medical 
attendance, hospital-room, and many other minor advantages. 



This 

112 



VOL. vi. 



1 8 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

immigration has been very beneficial both to the colony and to the 
coolies. In 1896, over 40,000 acres of land were owned by East 
Indian labourers or their descendants, and of the total of ,158,000 
deposited in the Government Savings-banks, nearly ,67,000 was 
coolie property, in addition to savings, amounting to 124,000, 
carried back to India by the people who returned thither during 
the previous ten years, as well as nearly "20,000 sent home to 
their friends in the East. The 40,000 foreign-born natives of the 
British West Indies, mentioned above, are nearly all black and 
coloured immigrants, chiefly mechanics, domestic servants, and 
labourers, from Grenada, St. Vincent, and Barbados. The negroes, 
or African section of the people, are fast dying out, having 
decreased from 8000 in 1851 to less than 2000 in 1896, more than 
half of these being over 60 years of age. Amidst the mixture of 
tongues in such an island, including a general use of English, the 
French lower classes speak the patois peculiar to the West Indies. 

The chief products of the very fertile soil are indicated by the 
figures concerning the areas under different growths. Of the whole 
surface, estimated at 1,120,000 acres, there were, in 1896, about 
183,000 acres under cultivation. Of these, 58,500 acres were given 
to sugar-cane ; 98,000 to cacao (cocoa) and coffee ; 1 3,500 to ground 
provisions; and 14,000 to coco-nut palms; 10,000 acres consist of 
pasture. The chief commercial vegetable products may be given 
as sugar, molasses, rum, cacao, fruit, coco-nuts, and coco-fibre, sugar 
and cacao having a large predominance. For home use, arrow- 
root, tobacco, coffee, ginger, bitters, and spices are also produced. 
The exported fruit consists mainly of oranges, bananas, pine-apples, 
and limes. 

The revival of the sugar-industry, due to the importation of 
coolie labour as above indicated, was at first such that exports, 
from 11,000 tons in 1840, reached over 53,000 tons in 1896, with 
nearly two million gallons of molasses. The appearance of a field 
of sugar-canes, during the " arrowing" or flowering time, is very 
beautiful. On jointed stems from 6 to 14 feet in height, and from 
i to \y 2 inches thick, rises the "arrow" or unjointed flowering- 
stalk, eading in a tuft of soft silky flowers. The pith of the 
jointed stem, of open cellular structure, is the part containing the 
sugary juice, which is squeezed out in powerful mills with three 
rollers having a combined slow rolling and sliding motion, acting 



WEST INDIES. Ig 

on the canes placed lengthwise between them. The juice is then 
highly heated, clarified with lime and chemicals, run through 
filters, and finally concentrated and crystallized in the process 
called " pan-boiling ". The average yield of an acre of sugar-canes 
is from 2500 to 3000 Ibs. of sugar. The "usine" (French for 
factory, mill, or works) of the Colonial Company at St. Madeleine, 
near the west coast, is one of the largest in the world, and unsur- 
passed in the West Indies. Fitted with the best modern machinery 
and supplied with the electric light, the place is connected by rail 
and tramways with the Company's estates, and with the sea at San 
Fernando. 

The second staple of Trinidad is cocoa, or, more properly, 
cacao, named by Linnaeus " Theobroma ", or " food of the gods ". 
The tree is an evergreen growing to the height of 15 to 25 feet, 
with drooping bright green leaves of oblong shape, from 8 to 20 
inches in length. The flowers, in tufts or clusters, are very small, 
with five yellow petals on a rose-hued cup, and they grow off the 
trunk and thicker parts of the boughs, with stalks only an inch 
long. The fruit resembles a vegetable marrow in shape, but is 
more pointed and elongated at the end, and is from 7 to 9 inches 
long, and 3 to 4 inches wide, with colour varying from bright 
yellow to red and purple, according to season. Each fruit-pod 
contains from 20 to 40 seeds, embedded in a soft pinky-white acid 
pulp, and it is from these seeds or cocoa-beans that the cocoa-nibs 
of commerce are produced by shelling and bruising. The appear- 
ance of a cacao plantation is very beautiful, with the shady trees 
themselves overshadowed by the Bois immortel, called in South 
America La Madre del Cacao or Cacao- Mother, from its service in 
protecting the trees from the fiercest heat of the sun, and with a 
vista of the yellow flowers, or of the ruddy fruit hanging in thou- 
sands beneath the canopy of green. Cacao has been a product of 
Trinidad since the middle of the seventeenth century. In 1725, 
the people were reduced to the greatest misery by the total destruc- 
tion of the trees through some disease. The restoration of the 
culture was followed, after British occupation, by such an increase 
in production that the exports of cacao rose from 29,000 cwts. in 
1840 to a value exceeding ^452,000 in 1896. The money-value 
of the export of sugar, in the same year, exceeded ,700,000, and 
of molasses, .36,480. 



20 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Among othercommodities, above 42,000 gallonsof fine Angostura 
bitters, worth ,42,000, are annually made in the large factory at 
Port-of-Spain. The coco-palms, growing luxuriantly all along the 
sandy shore of the southern and eastern coasts, supplied for export, 
in 1896, nearly fifteen millions of nuts, to the value of over 
,36,000. The chief town and seat of government is Port-of- 
Spain, with a population of about 34,000. This place was one of 
the finest towns in the West Indies until early in March, 1895, 
when the principal business quarter was destroyed by fire, with 
loss estimated at four millions of dollars. The place was almost 
utterly ruined by the like cause in 1808. The preservation, in 
the recent instance, of the rest of the town was mainly due to the 
efforts of blue-jackets from Her Majesty's sloop Buzzard, and 
of the crews of three United States war-ships then in harbour. 
The town is pleasantly situated on a semicircular plain of gentle 
slope near the north-east corner of the Gulf of Paria. Two chief 
open spaces are Marine Square and Brunswick Square, the former 
being really a beautiful avenue about 100 feet wide, planted on 
each side with noble forest-trees, and running across the whole 
breadth of the southern part of the town. On the north, the 
Savana, or Queen's Park, contains over 200 acres of almost level 
grass, belted by great umbrageous trees, and is described by 
Kingsley as " a public park and race-ground such as neither 
London nor Paris can boast". The Governor's residence, erected 
in 1875, of dressed native limestone, is a palatial building that 
cost between "40,000 and "50,000. The Anglican and Roman 
Catholic cathedrals are fine buildings, as also are the Colonial 
Hospital and the Police Barracks. The city and suburbs have seven 
other Roman Catholic and three Anglican churches, three Wesleyan 
chapels, and two Presbyterian kirks, with a Baptist and a Moravian 
place of worship. The Roman Catholics are under a "Monsignor", 
Archbishop of Port-of-Spain; the Anglicans under the Bishop of 
Trinidad. The Public Library, founded in 1851, has 20,000 
volumes; the Victoria Institute and Museum, opened in 1892, 
commemorates the Queen's jubilee. The city is supplied with 
4 miles of tramway and a complete telephone-system. As a " port 
of registry", the place had in 1891 329 ships and small craft, with 
a total of 7760 tons. The local government is in the hands of a 
mayor and elective municipal council, the chief revenue being 



WEST INDIES. 2I 



derived from rates. There is a volunteer force of about 750 men 
infantry, cavalry, and field-artillery and the peace of the island 
is preserved by a police force of about 480 men. San Fernando, 
founded by the Spanish governor Chacon in 1786, and named 
after Ferdinand, eldest son of Carlos IV. of Spain, lies about 
30 miles south of the capital, at the foot of a hill on the eastern 
side of the Gulf of Paria. It is connected with Port-of- Spain 
by road and rail, and is the commercial outlet of the chief sugar- 
district of Trinidad. The present town dates only from 1818, 
when the original place was completely destroyed by fire, and the 
commercial part of the restored town perished in the same way in 
1883. The rebuilding brought great improvements, and the pre- 
sent borough population, in charge of a mayor and council, is about 
7000. Arima, the only other municipal town, 16 miles east of 
Port-of-Spain, is the centre of one of the chief cacao-districts, and 
is a well-built spacious place of 4000 inhabitants, at the foot of the 
northern range of hills. There is a railway thence to the capital, 
communicating with the line to San Fernando. 

The internal and external means of communication include 
steamers plying three times a week from Port-of-Spain to San 
Fernando, and to Cedros, at the south-western point of the island; 
about 50 post-offices, with penny inland postage; telegraph cables 
to British Guiana and Grenada, and to Europe via the United 
States; 57 miles of internal railway and 166 of telegraph, all in the 
hands of the Government; and 35 steamers every month to and 
from New York, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Southampton, 
Havre, Marseilles, Amsterdam, London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. 
A local firm, with a Government subsidy of 5000 a year, recently 
started a fortnightly service to New York in connection with the 
fruit-trade, passing round the island and then touching at Tobago. 
The exports for 1896 amounted in value to "2,166,000, of which 
the worth of ,944,000 went to the United Kingdom. The 
imports consisted mainly of textile goods, dried and pickled fish, 
flour, hardware and machinery, leather, lumber (pitch-pine and 
white pine), pickled and salted meat, and rice, with a total value of 
,2,463,525, of which goods worth 97 8 >5 6 5 came fr m the British 
Isles. About one-fourth of all the trade is carried on with the 
United States. The revenue, amounting to over 576,000 in 
1896, is derived from import duties, and from export duties on 



22 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

sugar and molasses, coffee and rum, cocoa and asphalt. The 
expenditure, in the same year, was a little more than ,558,000, 
including the charges of a public debt of ^,6jo. British silver 
and bronze form the coinage in general use, with United States 
and Spanish gold. The Colonial Bank has a branch at Port-of 
Spain, and the Government Savings-banks, in 1897, held about 
,230,000 from 10,768 depositors. 

The colony is ruled by a Governor, with an Executive Council 
of seven members, and a Legislative Council (the Governor being 
president) of nine official and eleven unofficial members, all nomi- 
nated by the Crown. Elementary education is conducted in about 
190 schools, of which 65 are secular, supported by the government 
and by the payment of a small fee, the rest being denominational 
schools, aided by the public funds. About 22,500 pupils were 
on the books in 1896. From the government schools there are 
annually open to competition three free admissions, tenable for 
three years, to the Queen's Royal College, a secular institution, 
which shares with the affiliated Roman Catholic college in four 
exhibitions or scholarships each of ,150 yearly value, tenable for 
three years at some university or other scientific educational 
institution in the British Empire. There are also "Model Schools", 
training-colleges for male and female teachers, many private schools, 
and 15 estate-schools, with about 500 pupils, under the Presby- 
terian Coolie Mission. 

Tobago, annexed to Trinidad since January ist, 1889, lies 
near 20 miles to the north-east. With a length of 28 miles, and 
a maximum breadth of 7^, the island has an area of 114 square 
miles, or about 73,000 acres, of which nearly one-seventh is under 
tillage. The population, in 1898, was 21,000, of whom only about 
100 are Europeans, the vast majority being of negro or mixed 
race. The physical aspect is irregular and picturesque, as the 
land rises steeply from the sea in the north-east and gradually 
slopes to the south-west, with conical hills and spurs connected 
by an interior ridge that attains a height of 1900 feet above sea- 
level. Deep and narrow ravines lead from the higher ground to 
small plains of alluvial soil, the whole island being well watered 
by streams rising in the hills. Fordable in the hot season, and 
swollen by the rains to the size of rivers, these waters nowhere 
admit even a boat for navigation. The tropical heat, with a mean 



WEST INDIES. 23 

of 81 at sea-level, is tempered by the sea-breezes, and the island 
lies out of the hurricane range. The climate is healthy, the island 
having only few and small miasmatic lagoons or swamps, and 
serious epidemics are unknown. Above half the surface of Tobago 
is covered with forest, much of which contains valuable timber 
that has been wholly neglected as* an article of trade, chiefly from 
the lack of roads for conveyance, and of depth of water in the 
streams to bring down cut wood as we have seen it in the Canadian 
lumber districts. The domestic animals include horses, horned 
cattle, and small sheep giving well-flavoured meat. Poultry and 
fish abound, and the rich variety of saurian reptiles, from small 
lizards up to alligators, includes the iguana, eagerly eaten by the 
negroes and regarded as a delicacy by many whites. Deer, 
peccaries, agoutis, raccoons, squirrels, rats, and various birds are 
found. 

The chief articles of production and export are sugar, rum, 
molasses, coco-nuts, and live stock, with a value, in 1896, of about 
,10,765, the imports being worth nearly ,14,000, of which goods 
to the value of above two-thirds of the amount came from the 
British Isles. The revenue, in 1896, chiefly from import duties, 
was ,9321, with an expenditure just exceeding .9200 and a 
public debt of ,9500. Scarborough, the chief town, lies at the 
base of a hill, 425 feet in height, on the south-west coast, and has 
a population of 1400. Plymouth, a village of 800 people, is on 
the north-west coast, five miles from Scarborough, having good 
anchorage in Courland Bay. The island is ruled by a commissioner 
appointed by the Governor of Trinidad, and assisted by a financial 
board of five members, two nominated and three elected by the 
people. Anglican, Moravian and Wesleyan religious bodies main- 
tain 20 government-aided schools with about 2300 pupils. 

In 1896, the condition of the sugar-industry in the West Indies 
had become so serious that a "West India Royal Commission" 
was appointed to examine and report thereon. The Report, issued 
in October, 1897, stated that in some of the islands the complete 
extinction of the industry was threatened by foreign competition of 
beet-sugar, and in a special degree through competition aided by 
the foreign system, prevailing in Germany, France, Austria, 
Holland and Belgium, of affording "bounties", in a certain form, 
to sugar-producers. It was declared by the Commissioners that 



24 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

" the depression is not due in any considerable degree to bad 
management, but that even estates which have introduced the best 
machinery suffer from the low prices". In some islands, as 
Jamaica, Trinidad, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and, to some extent, in 
Montserrat and Nevis, the sugar-industry may in time be replaced 
by other productions, and the statement applies also to British 
Guiana. The matter was, in the session of 1898, under the con- 
sideration of the Colonial Office. 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 25 

CHAPTER XII. 
BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 

Extent and population of BERMUDA or The Bermudas Physical features of the islands 
Delightful climate of Main I sland-rTrade Important naval establishments 
Hamilton port Administration Education Communication Revenue. Boun- 
daries, area, and population of BRITISH HONDURAS or Belize Physical geography 
and climate Mahogany, logwood, and other products Belize city Communica- 
tion Trade Revenue Administration Education. Early exploration of BRITISH 
GUIANA or Demerara Its settlement by the Dutch Ceded to Britain in 1814 
Agitation among the slaves Case of John Smith the missionary His cruel treat- 
ment and death Brutality of the Governor, General Murray Its effect in forward- 
ing the anti-slavery cause Intolerance of the slave-owners Boundaries and 
population of the country Geographical features Flora and fauna Rivers 
Climate Products Gold-mining Trade Administration Education Revenue 
Communication Georgetown city New Amsterdam or Berbice. 

The colony called BERMUDA or THE BERMUDAS lies in about 32 
north latitude, and 65 west longitude, at a distance of 580 miles 
east of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina; 730 miles from Halifax, 
Nova Scotia; 680 from New York, 800 from the nearest West 
Indies, and nearly 3000 miles from Liverpool. This lonely, low- 
lying archipelago of about 300 islets, above two-thirds of which 
are mere rocks and reefs, with less than 20 inhabited islands, has 
a total area of 19 square miles, or 11,360 acres, with a population, 
in 1898, of about 16,000, of whom over one-third were whites and 
the rest negroes and coloured people. In religion, about two- 
thirds of both races belong to the Anglican Church, underthe spiritual 
rule of the " Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda ", while the rest 
are chiefly Roman Catholics, Wesleyans and Presbyterians. The 
history of the islands, during the nineteenth century, is comprised 
in the facts that in July, 1813, a third of the houses were destroyed, 
and the shipping driven ashore, by a hurricane; that the repeal 
of the Navigation Laws, the introduction of steam, and the 
substitution of steel and iron for wood in ship-building, made an 
end of the profitable ship-construction and carrying-trade mentioned 
in an early part of this work; that, after being an important con- 
vict-depot for some years, the colony ceased to be so in 1862; and 
that, in the later decades of the Victorian age, Bermuda has 
become a very valuable naval station and fortress, holding a 
position of commanding strength between Canada and our West 
Indian possessions. 



2 6 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

The islands are geographically and geologically interesting as 
the most northerly of the coral constructions known as Atolls, 
which consist of a more or less continuous ring of coral rock 
surrounding a central lagoon. In the Bermudas we have an atoll 
of modified form. Over a space about 16 miles in length by 5 in 
breadth, the islands run, from north-east to south-west, in an irregular 
oval ring that is incomplete on the north-western side. Countless 
sunken reefs and submarine sand-hills at once afford protection 
against attack from external foes, and give intricacy and peril to 
internal navigation. The largest piece of land, called " Main 
Island", is about 14 miles long by a mile in average width, and 
contains 9000 acres of surface, or three-fourths of the whole area 
of the group. The highest point is but 240 feet above sea-level, 
and much of the surface consists of stony ground partly covered 
with scanty herbage and a scattered growth of stunted cedars, or 
of wide brackish marshes overgrown with coarse grass, rushes, 
and mangrove-jungle. About 1000 acres have a fertile soil which, 
as we shall see, is turned by the people to excellent account. The 
climate, most agreeable and healthy for all except consumptive 
persons, may be described as a continuous succession of spring 
and summer, always moist and ever mild, with an annual rainfall 
of 60 inches, evenly spread over the year, and a temperature that 
never falls below 40 Fahrenheit, and rarely exceeds 85, while 
the summer heat is moderated by the Atlantic breezes. The trees 
are never devoid of green; the birds are singing throughout the 
year; no venomous reptiles are found in any part; and the region 
enjoys nearly all the advantages, marred by none of the ills, of 
both the tropical and the temperate zones. Harvests of maize 
are reaped in June and December; oranges, lemons, bananas, and 
many European fruits are grown. The other chief islands are 
St. George's, St. David's, Coopers Island, Smith's Island, and 
Nonsuch, at the north-east, and Somerset, Watford, Ireland, Boaz, 
Elizabeth and Tucker's Islands in the south-west, the two latter 
being in the spacious landlocked harbour called Great Sound, 
formed by the southern turn of the oval ring. Among the other 
numerous beautiful bays and creeks of considerable size and depth 
of water are Harrington Sound, at the north of Main Island, and 
Castle Harbour, south of St. George's and St. David's Islands. 
Communication is largely carried on by water, but, with a single 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 2/ 

break between Somerset and Watford Islands, there is a continuous 
line of road, bridge, and causeway, along the whole chain of the 
larger inhabited islands, for a distance of about 22 miles. A 
country-drive along the excellent roads will show the visitor stately 
palm-trees with their beauteous plumes, noble tamarinds, pink 
clouds of oleander, the red blaze of pomegranate blossoms, bamboos 
40 feet high, flag-lances 10 feet in height growing thickly in the 
marshes, and forests containing palmetto, cedar, and a tree called 
"red-wood", peculiar to these islands. The Bermudas have now 
become a favourite winter resort for people from the United States 
and Canada, for whom large hotels and shops have been provided 
at the two chief towns. 

The trade of Bermuda depends wholly, as regards exports, on 
the early production, favoured by the entire absence of frosts, of 
vegetables for the New York market, where the crops of potatoes, 
onions, tomatoes, beet-root, and other growths command prices 
that enable the tillers of Bermuda to take matters easily during 
the summer months. The ground lies fallow until preparation 
is needed for the produce that is to be shipped off between the 
following March and June. Arrowroot is also much cultivated, 
but little attempt is made to grow the food that can be imported 
more cheaply from the States than it could be raised in occupying 
the precious soil that is a market-garden for the wealthy New 
Yorkers. Corn, flour, meat, and nearly all the vegetables that 
are consumed in the islands come from the United States, while 
horses, cattle, clothing, furniture, and every kind of necessary 
goods are imported thence, or from the Canadian Dominion, or 
the British Isles. In 1892, the value of exported onions reached 
nearly ,46,000; the lily-bulbs were worth ,15,280; the potatoes, 
over ,26,700. The whole exports, in 1896, exceeded ,108,600 
in value, of which but ,2853, mostly arrowroot, went to the 
British Isles. Of the imports, worth ,305,000 in the same year, 
articles worth .90,000, exclusive of government stores, came from 
the United Kingdom. 

The maritime and naval importance of Bermuda have been 
already indicated. In the north, the harbour of St. George, 
formerly the capital, is a haven possessing a good depth of water 
and safe anchorage for many large sailing ships and steamers 
seeking shelter, in stormy weather, from the western Atlantic. 



28 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

The chief channel through the outer line of reefs is that called 
"The Narrows", passing round the eastern and northern sides 
of St. George's Island, at about half a mile from the shore. Two 
miles long, and very tortuous and narrow, it is commanded through- 
out, with its approaches at each end, by many batteries of very 
heavy guns behind casemated iron shields. The dockyard and 
other naval establishments are on Ireland Island; Boaz and Wat- 
ford Islands, between that and Somerset Island, are given up 
to military depots and the garrison of Imperial troops, numbering 
1500 officers and men, and including two batteries of artillery; one 
company of fortress, and another of submarine mining engineers; 
and one battalion of infantry. The admiralty establishment has 
about 1 200 men, and is remarkable for the famous floating dock, 
constructed at North Woolwich, on the Thames, and towed out 
to its destination in 1869. This great piece of naval engineering, 
having 8000 tons of iron in its length of 381 feet, breadth of 124, 
and depth of 53, can lift an ironclad of over 10,000 tons. Bermuda 
is now, in fact, a naval stronghold and arsenal of the first class, 
rivalling Halifax in importance as a station for our fleet in North 
American waters, and of great value for our ships of war in the 
West Indies. 

The seat of government and chief commercial port is Hamilton, 
at about the north centre of Main Island, situated on a safe and 
convenient harbour approached, from the Great Sound, by an inlet 
nearly three miles long. With a population of 1300, the little town 
is governed, like St. George's, by a mayor and a corporation of 
three aldermen and five councillors, and possesses a very good 
public library. There, as elsewhere throughout the islands, the 
visitor's eye is struck by the whiteness of the buildings and the 
roads, all composed of the coral, coarse and porous in grain, like 
white sugar, which forms the substance of Bermuda, with a thin 
crust of soil atop. Everywhere from amongst the foliage and 
flowers, and in charming contrast with the greens and browns and 
blues of the sea, the neatest and whitest of cottages shine forth, 
made of blocks of coral hewn out of the hillsides, and covered with 
a hard coat of thick whitewash that leaves no sign of crack or seam 
from the base-stones to the top of the chimneys, often made in 
graceful and picturesque shapes. The roads are formed by cutting 
down for a few inches into the solid white coral, or for many feet! 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 29 

where a hill intervenes, and they wind in and out, away from the 
towns, with an endless variety of picturesque scenes on a small 
scale. The colony is ruled by a Governor, assisted by an Executive 
Council of six members, four official, two unofficial, nominated by 
the Crown; by a nominated Legislative Council of nine members, 
three of whom are officials; and* by a Legislative Assembly of 
thirty-six members, chosen by about 1160 electors, with a freehold- 
property qualification, from the nine parishes into which the islands 
are divided. Education is controlled by a Board, consisting of the 
governor and eight other members of his nomination, with local 
managing bodies. The peculiarity of the system is that the 
elementary schools are private institutions, charging fees, but aided 
by the public funds, with compulsory attendance in the twenty-two 
schools, containing about 1200 pupils. There are other schools 
receiving no help from the government. There are two banks at 
Hamilton, and the Government Savings-banks have in charge over 
,19,000 from about 930 depositors. British currency, weights and 
measures are in use. The telegraphs for internal use comprise 15 
miles of cable and 36 miles of land-line, and a private telephone 
company has about 200 subscribers. A cable to Halifax, laid in 
July, 1890, gives speedy communication with the rest of the world, 
and there are fortnightly steamers between the islands and New 
York; monthly mails to Halifax, Turks Island, and Jamaica; and 
monthly steamers between St. John, New Brunswick, and the 
West Indies, touch both on outward and homeward trips at Ber- 
muda. The revenue, mostly from customs- duties, was about 
.34,250 in 1896, with an expenditure of ,34,717; and a public 
debt of ,46,600. 

BRITISH HONDURAS, or Belize, lies in Central America, on the 
western coast of the Caribbean Sea, 660 miles from Jamaica, 
between 16 and 18^ degrees north latitude, and 87 50' and 89 
10' west longitude. Bounded on the east by the Bay of Honduras, 
on the north by Mexico, and on the south and west by Guatemala, 
it is about the size of Wales, having an area of 7562 square miles, 
including Turneffe, St. George's, English, and other Cays or islands 
to the east. The history of the territory down to 1801 having 
been already given, we have only to note the occurrence of certain 
troubles, now settled, with Indians on the borders; the establish- 
ment of the colony, as a dependency of Jamaica, in 1862, and its 



30 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

separation therefrom, as an independent colony, in 1884. Prior to 
1862, the country had been merely a British settlement on what 
was once Spanish territory, and had no definite status as a colonial 
possession. The population, in 1898, numbered about 34,000, 
composed of about 450 whites, and of coloured people including 
aboriginal Indians, Caribs, negroes, East Indians and Chinese. 
The Bishop of Jamaica is in charge of members of the Anglican 
Church; the Roman Catholics are under their Bishop of Honduras. 
The land rises by degrees from the usual low and swampy coast of 
Central America, with many lagoons surrounded by a dense growth 
of mangrove and other tropical trees. In the north there is a plain 
about 1000 square miles in area; in the west and south-west are 
successive hills and valleys, at some distance inland, with the 
Cockscomb Range, running east and west, attaining a height of 
nearly 4000 feet. In the south is prairie covered with pines, scrub, 
and wiry grass. Near the western frontier, in a country not 
explored by its British possessors until 1879, lies an open undu- 
lating grassy district of splendid pasturage, with ancient Indian 
ruins of large stone buildings. There are small streams in the 
south, running into the Caribbean Sea; in the centre is the Sibun 
or Jabon, of considerable size; to the north of this comes Belize or 
Old River, flowing north-east for 100 miles, with some large 
cascades; then New River, running almost due north, with large 
lakes on the course of the main stream and tributaries; and, north- 
wards again, the Hondo, a large river forming the boundary 
between the colony and the Yucatan district or province of Mexico. 
The river, at one point, divides into branches that meet again, 
inclosing Albion Island, 26 square miles in area. The three 
last are navigable for some distance by vessels of light draught. 
The climate is hot and damp, with an average temperature of 78, 
and an annual rainfall, chiefly between May and November, of 
about 85 inches at Belize. There are endemic fevers of no great 
severity or danger, and epidemic disease is rare. A sea-breeze 
tempers the force of the tropical sun, and the country cannot be 
called unhealthy for that region of the world 

The colony is still only in its infancy, as regards development 
by cultivation of a fertile soil that will produce anything to which 
a tropical climate is suited. Bananas and plantains, mostly raised 
by small growers holding lands on lease from the Crown, are being 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 31 

shipped at a profit to New Orleans. Cocoa (cacao) plantations are 
being formed; the cane-fields producing sugar cover about 1500 
acres, and coffee-shrubs, in some places, give enormous crops. 
The whole area under tillage does not exceed 100 square miles, 
and a staple product of British Honduras is now, as of old, the 
mahogany of the forests on the banks of the larger rivers, a great 
tract still untouched by the axe lying to the north of the river 
Belize. The noble tree producing this valuable timber grows from 
80 to 100 feet in height and attains a great size in the trunk, with 
wood usually sound throughout. Its worth for cabinet-work, in 
hardness and beauty of grain, was first shown in the British Isles, 
about the end of the seventeenth century, by a maker named 
Wollaston, who received some of the timber brought from the 
West Indies as ballast. The growth of the tree is very slow, three 
centuries being needed to make it fit for commercial purposes. A 
log 17 feet long has been known to measure 5^2 feet each way at 
the squared end, weighing 17 tons in its 514 cubical feet of wood, 
and such a mass as this has fetched ^1000 to cut up thin for 
veneering. The large branches have a closer grain, and veins of 
richer hue and variety than the trunk. In British Honduras the 
cutters are chiefly negroes descended from the former slaves 
in the colony, and, living in camps near the rivers, they take the 
logs down to the water, in the coolness of the night, with pictur- 
esque torchlight processions of timber-wains drawn by long teams 
of oxen, amid wild forest scenery resounding with the clang of the 
team-chains, the crack of the whips, and the guttural cries of the 
men. The rivers, swollen by the periodical rains, float the logs 
down for many miles, with gangs of the lumberers following in flat- 
bottomed canoes, in order to free the timber from the branches of 
overhanging trees or from other obstacles. Near the river-mouth, 
the floating matter is stopped by a boom, and then each gang, 
selecting its own cuttings by the marks on the log-ends, forms 
them into large rafts for conveyance to the shipping- wharves of the 
owners. Among other valuable trees in the woods are cedar, rose- 
wood, fustic, lignum-vitae, ironwood, red and white pine, india-rubber 
and gutta-percha trees, with sarsaparilla, cochineal-cactus, indigo, 
and many other useful plants and shrubs. The other chief com- 
mercial timber, now surpassing mahogany in export-value, is log- 
wood, which is the dark, red, hard close-grained heart- wood of a tree 



32 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

which grows from 20 to 50 feet in height, and, being fit for cutting 
at ten years of age, occurs in inexhaustible abundance in the low 
swampy lands of the north and east. Its value for dyeing purposes, 
especially in giving a black hue to textile fabrics and to ink, is well 
known. The needs of British Honduras for a prosperous develop- 
ment of her great resources are capital, labour, and easy means of 
communication between the interior and the coast-line. At present, 
the traffic is mainly conducted by water, on the rivers and along 
the coast. 

Corosal, a postal station on the north coast, near the mouth 
of New River, has a population of about 1600; some distance up 
the river are the postal station San Estevan, and the town of 
Orange Walk, with nearly 2000 inhabitants. On the east coast, 
from the centre to the south, are the little towns (postal stations) of 
Stann Creek (1645 people), All Pines, Monkey River, and Punta 
Gorda. The capital, Belize, containing about 7000 people, lies on 
the coast at the mouth of the Belize or Old River, being the chief 
port of the colony, and a general depot for British goods supplied 
to Central America. There are no railways or telegraphs; ex- 
ternal communication is afforded by weekly mail-steamers to New 
Orleans ; steamers every three weeks to New York and Costa 
Rica; about every five weeks, to the West Indies and thence to 
London; and monthly to Colon (or, Aspinwall), on the Isthmus of 
Panama, and to Liverpool. The distance from London is nearly 
5000 miles, the time of passage being 25 days, or 16 days by way 
of the United States. The best method of telegraphic despatch to 
Europe and the world at large is by New Orleans, 900 miles from 
Belize, though the town of Livingston, in Guatemala, one day's 
run by steamer from Belize, is the nearest point in wire-connection 
with Europe. The exports, chiefly in mahogany (5^ million cubic 
feet in 1890), logwood (nearly 22,000 tons in same year), fruit, 
sugar, coco-nuts, and india-rubber, had a total value, in 1896, of 
283,663, of which produce worth 156,486 was sent to Great 
Britain. The imports, in 1896, in cotton goods and hardware, 
malt liquors, spirits, tea, tobacco, and wines, were worth over 
300,000, of which 107,656 was due to the British Isles. Nearly- 
all the other trade is done with the United States. The United 
States gold dollar is the standard, the British sov. being reckoned 
at 4 dols. 86 cents. Silver half-dollars and smaller coins, with 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 33 

British half-crowns and shillings, and Mexican dollars, are circulated. 
The revenue, mainly from import duties, licenses, land-tax, excise, 
and the Crown-lands let or sold, amounted in 1896 to ,62,281, 
with an expenditure of ,55,530 and a public debt of ,34,736, and 
of ,9000 for improvements in the town and harbour of Belize. 
A Government Savings - bank, with branches at Corosal and 
Orange Walk, has about 24,000 gold dollars on deposit at 3 per 
cent. The government consists of a Governor, with an Executive 
Council of seven official and non-official members nominated by 
the Crown, and a Legislative Council of three official and five 
unofficial members, also nominated. English Common Law, 
modified by colonial ordinances, is in force. The schools, of which 
46 existed in 1896, with over 3000 children in average attendance, 
are denominational institutions, duly inspected, and assisted by a 
public grant of 13,368 dollars in the year mentioned. 

In BRITISH GUIANA (or DEMERARA), we have a colony which 
has not yet appeared in our pages. The name " Guiana " carries 
us back to the fascinating times of Elizabethan and early Stuart 
exploration and adventure, when the typical hero of that age, Sir 
Walter Raleigh, went forth thither to search, in a fabled " El 
Dorado ", for the golden city of Manoa, and, sailing up the Orinoco 
in 1595, saw the splendours of tropical vegetation, and found some 
of the auriferous quartz which, in the Victorian age, is returning, 
as we shall see, a good reward for labour. Early in 1596, his 
Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana was a 
noble specimen of English prose- writing. The Spanish navigators 
Alonzo de Ojeda, in 1499, and Vicente Pinzon, in 1500, seem to 
have first explored the coasts, but it was not until the earlier part 
of the seventeenth century that any attempt at European settlement 
was made, when the Dutch, after one or two failures, established 
themselves on an island at the confluence of two chief tributaries of 
the Essequibo River. In 1626, the Dutch West India Company, 
with a charter granting a monopoly of trade in that region, made a 
settlement at Berbice, and gradually extended their hold upon the 
country. By 1652, some English adventurers had founded a 
settlement on the Surinam river, and built the town of Paramaribo, 
now the capital of Dutch Guiana. About twenty years before this, 
the French were at Cayenne, and their settlement, along with the 
Dutch possessions, was at times occupied by the English during 

VOL. vi. 113 



34 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

war among the three nations in Europe. In 1667, the Paramaribo 
colony was given up to Holland by the Treaty of Breda, and the 
territory which now forms British Guiana, along with distinct 
colonies which the Hollanders made on the Essequibo, Demerara, 
and Berbice rivers, remained in their hands without interruption 
until 1781, when they were occupied in turns by British and 
French forces, to be restored to Holland, by the Treaty of Ver- 
sailles, in 1783. Again taken by our forces in 1796, and restored 
in 1802, at the Peace of Amiens, they were retaken by the British 
in 1803, and the portion forming British Guiana was finally ceded 
to our possession in 1814. We may here note that Berbice, at 
first administered as a separate colony, was incorporated with the 
rest of British Guiana in 1831. 

The period of Dutch occupation is not of any great interest, 
and only concerns us for the forms of government then prevailing, 
which have left their mark upon the existing constitution. It is of 
more importance to observe that, in Dutch times, cotton was the 
principal crop, only one estate, out of about one hundred on the 
coast between the Demerara and Berbice rivers, being planted 
with sugar-cane. Sugar took the place of cotton on the great 
development of the latter product in the United States, and in 
1816 the colony, with Berbice, contained above 100,000 negro 
slaves, with about 8000 free persons, coloured and white. The 
mention of slavery brings us to one of the most disgraceful episodes 
in all our colonial history. When Mr. Canning, in 1823, being 
then Foreign Secretary, carried in the House of Commons his 
resolutions concerning negro slavery, which were followed by the 
circular enjoining a milder treatment of the slaves in the West 
Indies and in British Guiana, a great stir of feeling was caused, as 
we have seen, among the slave-holders in those territories of the 
Crown. In Demerara, the circular was received with outward 
deference by the members of the government, and the " Court of 
Policy", a body transmitted from the Dutch constitution, and 
having both executive and legislative functions, passed regulations 
in accordance with the instructions received from the authorities in 
England. Pains were taken to conceal the whole matter from the 
negroes, and a suspicion arose that emancipation, granted in Eng- 
land, was being wrongfully withheld by their masters. The feeling 
was such that it is almost certain that a general rising and massacre 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 35 

of whites would have taken place but for the strong influence won 
by an Independent missionary, John Smith, who, during seven 
years of devoted work in the colony, had been training his negro 
converts to habits of order, industry, submission, and peace. 
Religious work had been otherwise greatly neglected, and there 
was only one Episcopalian clergyman. The Governor, General 
Murray, had been recently talking largely about "making head 
against the sectaries ", among whom he included the Dutch 
Lutherans and the Scottish Presbyterians, the Methodist and the 
Independent missionaries all, in fact, except the one Episcopalian 
body. In pursuance of this bigoted policy, he had issued a 
monstrous proclamation or decree, forbidding the negroes to attend 
public worship, except under sanction of a pass from their owners, 
who were under no obligation to grant the same. Then the slaves 
rose in just wrath, and, shedding no drop of blood, imprisoned 
many whites and put some of them in the stocks. This insurrec- 
tion began on August i8th, 1823; on the igih, martial law was 
proclaimed; on the 2Oth, the movement was ended, without loss of 
life to any of the whites, while above 200 negroes were killed and 
wounded by the troops in the first instance, 47 were executed, and 
many more were subjected to barbarous flogging, often exceeding 
1000 lashes. 

The Governor kept the colony under martial law for five 
months, and Mr. Smith, the missionary, was brought to trial. The 
Episcopalian clergyman, to his honour, would give no aid to 
tyranny, but plainly declared his conviction that nothing but the 
influence exerted by the prisoner, in proclaiming and fixing the 
principles of the gospel of peace, had " prevented a dreadful 
effusion of blood, and saved the lives of those very persons who 
are now, I shudder to write it, seeking his ". The mode and con- 
duct of Mr. Smith's trial were full of illegalities, and he was con- 
victed on the evidence of three negroes who afterwards confessed 
that they had been induced to allege what was wholly false. He 
was charged with having incited the slaves to revolt, and with 
minor offences, and was sentenced to death, subject to the final 
decision of the home government. Mr. (afterwards Lord) 
Brougham declared in the House of Commons that the trial of the 
missionary " was intended to bring on an issue between the system 
of the slave-law and the instruction of the negroes ". This was, in 



56 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

truth, the cause in question, and John Smith was its martyr. The 
British government rescinded the court-martial's sentence of death, 
but decreed the prisoner's banishment from the colony. When 
this decision arrived at Demerara, the victim had escaped from his 
tormentors. He died on February 6th, 1824, having been an 
invalid at the time of his arrest, and then brought to his grave by 
the hardships which he endured, for two months before trial, in 
apartments of which one was under the roof, exposed to burning 
heat, and the other on the ground, fetid from the stagnant water 
visible under the boards of the floor. The conduct of the Gover- 
nor, General Murray, was consistent throughout in its brutal 
violation of common humanity and decency. During Mr. Smith's 
detention before trial, his medical attendants had in vain declared 
that nothing could save his life but removal to better quarters. 
He was not allowed to have a change of linen, nor the attendance 
of a friend to relieve the cares of his worn and wearied wife. The 
funeral was ordered to take place at dead of night, that no negroes 
might attend, and the widow and her friend, Mrs. Elliot, were 
prevented by threats of imprisonment from following the coffin. 
They were forced to precede it to the grave, and there receive it, 
borne by two negroes with a single lantern, and attended only by 
the clergyman, Mr. Austin, whose testimony in the dead man's 
favour has been given. Two negro members of his congregation, 
a carpenter and a bricklayer, wished to mark the spot where their 
pastor lay, but by official orders the brickwork was broken up, the 
rails were torn down, and the place was left without visible 
memorial. The missionary-martyr, judicially murdered by British 
" officers and gentlemen " of Christian profession, did not die, as no 
real martyr does, in vain. The proceedings at Demerara became 
an object-lesson on slavery, studied in the United Kingdom from 
the Shetlands to the Scilly Isles, full of eloquent denunciation of 
wrong, and from that day the cause of slavery in the British Em- 
pire was doomed. The spirit engendered by the vile institution 
was clearly revealed within a few days of Mr. Smith's death. That 
event, as we have seen, occurred on February 6th, 1824, and on 
the 24th a public meeting of Demerara slave-owners passed resolu- 
tions for petitioning the Court of Policy " to expel all missionaries 
from the colony, and to pass a law prohibiting their admission for 
the future ". The government paper, in the same month, blamed 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 37 

the planters for not having "spoken out in time, and warned the 
first advocates of missions and education that they would not be 
suffered to enlighten the slaves, who were by law the property of 
the land-owners, until they could demonstrate that when they (the 
slaves) were made religious and knowing, they would still continue 
to be slaves ". The same enlightened writer also protested against 
the practice, perpetrated by poor Smith in his chapel, of "addressing 
a promiscuous audience of black or coloured people, bond and free, 
by the endearing appellation of ' My brethren and sisters' ". When 
slave-owning was thus presented to British minds and hearts; 
when those whom Christianity recognized as brethren and sisters 
were deliberately denied their birthright of knowledge and reli- 
gious fellowship, the end of slavery in the British Empire drew 
near. 

It is a relief to turn from the doings of man to the works of 
God in British Guiana, and give some account of the country's 
physical features. This sole British possession on the continent of 
South America, lying between i and 9 north latitude, and about 
57 to 62 west longitude, according to British claims disputed by 
Venezuela, is bounded on the north and north-east by the Atlantic 
Ocean; on the east by Dutch Guiana, from which it is separated 
by the river Corentyn; on the south by Brazil, and on the west by 
Brazil and Venezuela. According to what is held as boundary on 
the side of Venezuela and Brazil, the area is variously given as 
76,000 and as 109,000 square miles. The population, which has 
much increased since 1871, when the census showed 193,500, now 
exceeds 285,000, including about 10,000 aboriginal Indians of 
various tribes. In 1891, the census showed 2533 persons born in 
Europe; nearly 100,000 negroes; 12,160 Portuguese, chiefly from 
Madeira and the Azores in origin; 105,500 East Indians, mostly 
coolies; and about 3700 Chinese. The remainder were Creoles 
(natives of European blood), and people of mixed race. The Portu- 
guese are descended from immigrants who, between 1835 and 1845, 
replaced slave-labour on the plantations after the emancipation 
of the negroes. Portuguese labour was afterwards supplanted by 
that of coolies, and the Portuguese Creoles are now chiefly employed 
in retail trade. In the year 1896, nearly 127,000 persons were 
engaged in tillage, and of these over 90,000 lived on sugar- 
estates. The immigration of coolies from the East Indies is con- 



38 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

ducted, in their interest, on the same regulations as those which we 
have seen in Trinidad, and they form an industrious and thriving 
class of the community. The Indians are mostly engaged in 
fishing, hunting, and raising crops of cassava and yams which, with 
the fish and game, furnish their food. 

The country is divisible, for geographical description, into three 
zones. Nearest the sea is a belt of alluvial soil, in many places 
lying below high-water mark, with the plantations protected by 
dykes or dams both from the waters of the ocean and from rain- 
floods on the plains in the rear. There are canals both for drainage 
and for the transport of canes to the mills, and thence of the 
finished sugar and other extracts to the sea. This alluvial fringe, 
with sand-banks and mangrove-swamp skirting the Atlantic, varies 
in width from 10 to 40 miles, and includes the only territory yet 
under tillage. Then, as the traveller goes inland, he comes to an 
undulating savannah region, with the average height of 150 feet 
above sea-level; after this is the upland or plateau of mountain and 
forest, with chains from 3000 to 3500 feet high, and a rich variety 
of splendid and valuable trees, in a region hitherto little explored. 
Wood most suitable for house and ship construction abounds, with 
timber of exquisite grain for cabinet-work. The luxuriant vegeta- 
tion includes trees, shrubs, and plants furnishing many kinds of 
valuable gums, balsams, oils, and drugs; numerous tropical food- 
plants; a wonderful variety of creepers, ferns, tree-ferns, and 
flowers, especially orchids that often form a canopy stretching far 
along the tops of the forest-trees, and the noble Victoria regia lily. 
The fauna includes agoutis, monkeys, ant-bears, squirrels, opos- 
sums, deer, pumas, and jaguars, with a rich variety of birds eagles 
and vultures, owls and nightjars, humming-birds and orioles, toucans 
and trogons, kingfishers, parrots, curassows, sandpipers, bitterns, 
herons, divers and ducks. Insects and reptiles swarm, and the sea 
and inland waters abound in fish. Among the physical features 
must be named the mountain Roraima, on the mid-western border, 
first ascended in 1884. This table-topped, isolated, sandstone 
elevation of about 8600 feet first slopes gradually upwards, starting 
from 2500 feet above sea-level, the height of the plateau on which 
it stands, and then at about 6000 feet it shoots up for over 2000 
feet more in a stupendous perpendicular cliff, over which many 
cascades descend. British Guiana is well provided with rivers, the 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 39 

chief of which, lying from east to west and north-west, are the 
Corentyn (half belonging to Dutch Guiana), the Berbice, the 
Demerara, and the Essequibo, with its tributaries, joining it near 
the mouth, the Mazaruni and Cuyuni. The Corentyn has an 
estuary 25 miles wide, and is navigable for about 150 miles by 
boats only, the mouth, like that of the other rivers, being partly 
choked by the mud-banks of deposit brought down from the upper 
country, while rapids and cascades obstruct navigation at some 
distance up their courses. The Essequibo, about 620 miles in 
length, rises in mountains only 46 miles north of the equator, and 
has an estuary 15 miles wide, with many fertile islands therein. 
Navigable for but 35 miles from the sea, the river passes through 
grand forest scenery, and has many cataracts, while one of its 
affluents, the Potaro, can show the magnificent Kaieteur Fall, 
discovered in 1870, with a sheer descent of nearly 750 feet. The 
hot and moist, but not unhealthy climate, varying according to 
height above sea-level, has near the coast, in the only settled 
districts, a range from 70 to 95, but the average is from 80 to 
84, a heat usually much tempered by sea-breezes. The annual 
rainfall, occurring from December to February and from April to 
August, ranges from 75 to 100 inches. 

The commercial products of Guiana, of any considerable value, 
are easily stated sugar and gold. The great predominance of 
the sugar-cane, as an article of tillage, is marked by the fact that, 
out of 79,280 acres under cultivation in 1891, sugar-estates occupied 
nearly 70,000 acres, distributed over seventy-four properties, lying 
on the banks of the great rivers and their tributaries, and on the 
alluvial islands in their channels. Above half of the whole area 
devoted to sugar lies in the county or district called Demerara, 
whence the name of " Demerara crystals " for the beautiful brown 
sugar produced in British Guiana by the use of the most modern 
machinery and the best processes. The country is now the greatest 
British cane-growing possession, as is easily proved by the figures 
for the year ending March 3ist, 1893, during which time British 
Guiana exported over 2^ million cwts. of sugar, worth ,1,570,000, 
against 1,832,000 cwts. from Mauritius, 1,020,000 from Barbados, 
and 987,000 from Trinidad. In addition to this amount of sugar, 
the country also sent out above ,202,000 value in rum, and 
.30,600 in molasses. With regard to gold, it is remarkable that 



40 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

only in the most recent times has the wealth of Guiana, above 
three centuries ago extolled in this respect by Indian tradition, 
been demonstrated by actual discovery. The Dutch settlers seem 
not to have searched for gold, and, in the palmy days of the sugar- 
trade, the British conquerors of the land were satisfied with the 
golden profits derived from the canes. Not until 1884 did a few 
men go into the interior, and procure precious metal to an export- 
amount of 250 ounces. Two years later, this had grown to over 
6500 ounces; in 1888, to 14,570; in 1890, to 62,600; and in the 
year ending March 3ist, 1896, to nearly 1 24,000 ounces, worth about 
,470,000. In the ten years from 1886 to 1896 inclusive, the 
colony shipped to England gold worth about ,2,796,000, a record 
far beyond that of South Africa, where seventeen years passed 
away before the fields had produced gold worth one-ninth of the 
above. About 10,000 labourers are employed in the hilly gold 
region, far away from the swamps of the coast, and the importance 
of the industry is likely to cause the construction of a railway, at 
an early date, between the Demerara and the Essequibo Rivers, so 
as to avoid the rapids on the latter, and give easy access to the 
country along its upper reaches. The advantages enjoyed by the 
gold-mining interest of British Guiana are unsurpassed in any 
country producing the metal in paying quantities. The water- 
carriage enables goods to be delivered at the mine-landings on the 
Demerara River at a cost of .3 per ton from London, against 
charges, in gold-producing countries having only land-conveyance, 
varying from "25 to ,160 per ton. The supply of pure water in 
the Guiana gold districts is beyond all requirements, and in some 
cases affords power for working the stamp-batteries, sawing timber, 
and furnishing electric light. All the wood needed for mining 
grows on the spot, and is of the best quality, saving cost and 
carriage to the gold-workers. The South African average yield 
per ton is about 1 2 dwt. ; a recent assay of Guiana quartz has given 
over five times that return. In the year ending March 3ist, 1896, 
the total exports of the colony were worth about ; 1,900,000, of 
which the value of ,964,248 went to the United Kingdom. 
The imports for the same year, chiefly in flour (.104,000), linen, 
cotton and woollen goods ("153,000), machinery ("60,000), 
manures (,74,800), lumber (,32,500), dried fish (,53,650), coals 
(,38,000), malt liquor (,23,000), pork (.26,700), rice ("131,460), 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 41 

and oils (,29,477), reached a total of 1,341,710 pounds sterling, 
of which ,783,697 in value went from the British Isles. A third 
of the trade is done with the United States, and most of the residue 
with India, Canada, and the West Indies. 

The colony is divided into three counties or districts, Essequibo, 
Demerara, and Berbice, following- the coast-line from north to 
south, with eighteen parishes under the spiritual charge of clergy 
of the Anglican Church or of the Church of Scotland. The form 
of government, as before hinted, bears traces of its Dutch origin. 
The Governor is assisted by a "Court of Policy", and a "Com- 
bined Court". The functions of an Executive and of a Legis- 
lative Council and House of Assembly were vested in the Governor 
and the Court of Policy until 1892, the Court being, up to that 
date, composed of five official and five non-official members, the 
latter being elected for three years by a "College of Electors" or 
" Kiezers", composed of seven members returned by voters in the 
five electoral districts Demerara, City of Georgetown, Essequibo, 
New Amsterdam, and Berbice. These electoral divisions also 
chose six financial representatives, elected for two years, and the 
Combined Court, consisting of the Court of Policy and the above 
six financial representatives, had control of all laws and ordinances 
concerning taxation and finance. An Act of 1892 made consider- 
able changes in this cumbrous system. Administrative functions 
are now exercised by the Governor and an Executive Council. 
The Court of Policy consists of the Governor, seven official, and 
eight elected members. The College of Electors has ceased to 
exist, and the elective members of the Court of Policy are chosen 
by the direct vote of the people, under a moderate ownership, 
tenancy, annual income, or direct taxation franchise now qualifying 
about 2400 registered electors. The Combined Court is still com- 
posed of the Court of Policy and of the six elected financial re- 
presentatives, and retains its powers of imposing the colonial taxes 
and auditing the public accounts, and of freely discussing the 
annual estimates prepared by the Court of Policy, which has now 
become a purely legislative body. In civil cases, the Roman- 
Dutch law, modified by Orders in Council and by local enactments, 
is in force; the criminal law is British, except for the absence of 
a grand jury. Municipal government is found in the mayor and 
town-council of Georgetown, and in a " board of superintendence" 



4 2 



OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 



at New Amsterdam, and local rule is also administered in about 
a score of "incorporated" villages. Anglican Church members 
of the population are supervised by the Bishop of British Guiana, 
who is "Primate of the Province of the West Indies"; the Portu- 
guese and other Roman Catholics are under the spiritual control 
of the " Vicar Apostolic of Demerara". Elementary education is 
afforded in about 209 "aided" schools, chiefly denominational, 
with about 28,260 pupils and total grants of nearly ,21,000, in 
1896. An Inspector of Schools has central control, and there are 
local managers, usually the religious ministers. Higher education 
is conducted in a Government college at Georgetown, with a 
scholarship annually awarded, .200 in yearly value, tenable for 
three years at an English university. 

Accounts are kept in dollars and cents; the currency includes 
British sterling and United States gold coins, with Spanish and 
Mexican gold, and some surviving small circulation of guilders 
(is. ^d. each), half-guilders, and one-eighths or "bits". The 
" Colonial" and the " British Guiana" banks have their chief offices 
at Georgetown, with branches at New Amsterdam; at those towns 
and some smaller places there are Government savings-banks, and 
Post-office banks are open at nine money-order offices, the deposi- 
tors at all these institutions numbering, at the close of 1896, about 
20,000, with .264,870 to the credit of the thrifty. The revenue 
for the year 1896, chiefly derived from customs and licences, 
was .555,775, against an expenditure of ,590,616, of which nearly 
one-tenth was due to public works. The public debt, at the same 
time, exceeded ,902,500, including a large sum for debts of public 
bodies guaranteed by the colony. The system of internal com- 
munications, in addition to the waterways provided by the rivers 
in their lower course, includes good roads, some small canals 
connected with the Demerara River, and a railway 21 miles long, 
from Georgetown to Mahaica, on the coast to the south-east. 
There are some hundreds of miles of postal telegraph, telephone, 
and short cables, the latter in connection with a cable to Trinidad, 
giving communication with Europe and the United States. The 
inland postal system is well organized and cheap, with a two-cent 
or id. postage for i-oz. letters within the colony, and a parcels 
post to the United Kingdom and the West Indies. Local steamers 
ply between Georgetown, New Amsterdam, and some places on 



BERMUDA, BRITISH HONDURAS, BRITISH GUIANA. 43 

the rivers. The country has steam-traffic to and from foreign 
ports by the fortnightly mail-boats of the Royal Mail Steam Packet 
line from Southampton; the monthly Compagnie Generale Trans- 
atlantique between France and the West Indies; a monthly Dutch 
line from Holland and Havre; Scrutton's " Direct Line" boats 
from London (3900 miles) and the 'Clyde, every three weeks and 
monthly; and the Atlantic and West India Line boats from New 
York every six weeks. 

The commercial capital and seat of government, Georgetown^ 
was founded by the Dutch in 1774, under the name of " Stabrock", 
and lies on the right bank, near the mouth, of Demerara River. 
The city, having a population (1891) of 53,000, is handsomely 
built, with clean wide streets, intersecting each other at right 
angles, some having wide canals in the centre, bordered by avenues 
of palms. The houses have a picturesque appearance, in brightly 
painted wood, with roof of slate or galvanized iron, and verandahs 
around for shelter from the sun. Generally raised on piles a few 
feet above the soil, they lie detached in gardens, bright with 
flowers, and are embosomed in tropical foliage, amongst which 
that of the cabbage-palm and coco-nut is conspicuous. The public 
buildings include the Governor's residence and the official and 
parliamentary edifices; the cathedral, Queen's College, a museum 
and library. The place has two markets, an ice-house, several 
hospitals, and botanical gardens, with a supply of drinking-water 
from artesian wells. The sea-wall of stone forms a pleasant 
promenade; at the entrance of the good harbour are a lighthouse 
an octagonal tower, 100 feet high and some defensive works. 
A large police-force keeps internal order in the colony; there is 
no Imperial garrison, and the only trained men to be mustered 
against foreign assailants are the members of small volunteer- 
corps. New Amsterdam, or Berbice, on the east bank of the 
Berbice River, had in 1891 a population of about 9000, and is 
a Dutch-built town, intersected by canals, with houses mostly of 
wood or bamboo, each surrounded, with its garden, by a ditch 
filling and emptying with the tide that thus performs scavenger's 
work of great utility in such a climate. 

Early in 1896, at a time when the British public were agitated 
by the occurrence of the " Jameson Raid ", strong feeling was 
aroused by the tone of President Cleveland's " Message to Con- 



44 



OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 



"ress ", in reference to a boundary-dispute which had arisen 
between the British Government and the worthless and con- 
temptible organization known as the Government of Venezuela, a 
country which has been for many years in a chaotic and anarchical 
condition from a constant succession of revolutionary movements. 
There was a severe and startling fall in all United States securities, 
but a quieter feeling soon arose under the influence of the best 
public opinion of both countries, the President's message being 
strongly reprobated by a large class of his countrymen. The 
dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela as to the western 
boundary-line between British and Venezuelan Guiana had been, 
in fact, going on for more than half a century. In 1887, it had 
become so acute that the British minister received his passports, 
and diplomatic relations were thus broken off. Our Government 
had always asserted and maintained their right to the territory 
within what is called " the Schomburgk line ", a boundary laid 
down by the eminent Prussian explorer and scientist, Sir Robert 
Hermann Schomburgk, who was leader of an exploring expedition 
in Guiana in 1835. On January ist, 1837, while he was ascending 
the Berbice River, he discovered the magnificent aquatic plant, 
the Victoria Regia lily, named by him from the young lady who 
soon afterwards became Queen of Great Britain. In 1840, Schom- 
burgk surveyed the colony for the British Government, and was 
knighted in recognition of his valuable services. The boundary- 
dispute assumed an acute form and acquired an international 
importance in 1896 owing to the existence, in the disputed area, 
of large tracts of auriferous territory of unknown, but assuredly of 
very considerable value. The minatory language of President 
Cleveland brought a crisis, and a wise moderation soon caused a 
reference to arbitrators. A treaty between Great Britain and 
Venezuela was signed at Washington on February 2nd, 1897, 
whereby four arbitrators, two for each side, were appointed, with 
the requirement that the four should choose a fifth as president 
within three months, or submit to the choice of a fifth by the most 
accomplished of European sovereigns, Oscar II. of Sweden and 
Norway, who has often acted as an efficient arbitrator on inter- 
national questions. Up to April, 1898, the progress made was 
limited to the exchange, at Washington, of cases prepared by 
counsel, " as a basis for the counter-cases exchangeable later". 




BLACKTE A: SOT. 



//.'./ 




W 8c EDINBURGH. 



BOOK VII. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



CHAPTER I. 

AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 

Vast progress of the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century Recent works on 
their history Area and coast-line of the island-continent The Great Barrier Reef 
Physical features of the land Mountains The Great Dividing Range Table-lands 
and deserts Rivers and lakes Geological formation Climate Uncertainty of the 
rainfall Damage by droughts and floods Mineral wealth Absence of food-pro- 
ducing plants Changes effected by the colonists Unique native vegetation 
Brushes, woodlands, and scrubs Animal life Prevalence of marsupial mammals 
Birds The emu and lyre-bird Parrot tribe Reptiles Fishes The dugong 
Insects Description of the aborigines Their gradual extermination. 

In an early section of this work we left New South Wales, at 
the beginning of the nineteenth century, as our sole colonial 
possession in Australasian waters. In 1801 the country, with a 
history ranging over but twelve years of chequered fortunes, 
contained only about seven thousand Europeans, mostly convicts 
of the male sex, with a few hundreds of free emigrants devoted 
to tillage and sheep-farming, and aided in their toils by convict- 
labour. Ninety years and more pass away, and in the sixth 
decade of the Victorian age we find Australia alone, apart from 
Tasmania and New Zealand, containing five separate colonies, 
with a total population reaching 3^ millions. The chief towns 
of the greater of these colonies have become stately cities, rivalling 
or surpassing the minor European capitals in size and splendour, 
and equalling the greatest cities of the world in the essentials of 
material development and civilization. The science and art, the 
religion and culture, the sports and amusements, the manufactures, 
trades, and commerce of the British Isles re-appear on the other 
side of the globe, with our institutions of every kind parliamentary, 
municipal, educational, financial, and philanthropic. Under new 
conditions of climate and other physical surroundings, a new type 
of character is being evolved in the Australian descendants of 



4 6 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

British and Irish forefathers who crossed the seas to found new 
homes beneath the Southern Cross in the earlier decades of the 
nineteenth century. No detailed account can here be given of the 
successive steps by which this great result of energy and enter- 
prise in creating an Australasian Britain has been attained. The 
names of some leading men will appear in the course of our 
narrative; for the work and career of the pioneers of progress, and 
of the able and energetic men who, in every department of political 
and social life, have done good work for their Australasian fellow- 
countrymen, we refer readers to special recent works on Australian 
history, and to those excellent and valuable books, Hutchinsoris 
Australasian Encyclopaedia, by Mr. G. C. Levey, C.M.G., and the 
Dictionary of Australasian Biography (Hutchinson & Co.) by Mr. 
Philip Mennell, F.R.G.S. It may be remarked that Tasmania 
and New Zealand, as well as Australia proper, are included in the 
scope of these works, which deal with every place, person, and 
event of note in the Australasian colonies from the time of first 
settlement to the year 1892. We now proceed to a brief physical 
description of Australia, followed by some account of the explora- 
tion which, in the course of years, made the vast region known to 
others than the aborigines, and prepared the way for colonization. 

Australia, washed on the north-west, west, and south by the 
Indian Ocean, and on the east by the South Pacific, is by far the 
largest island in the world, and, being in area only one-fourth less 
than Europe, and about twenty-five times as large as the British 
Isles, may be fairly described as a continent. With a total land- 
surface of nearly three millions of square miles, or nearly 1,900 
millions of statute acres, this enormous territory has an extreme 
length, north to south, between 10 degrees 40 min. and 39 degrees 
S. lat, of 1970 miles, from Cape York to Wilson's Promontory, in 
Victoria. The breadth, west to east, between 113 degrees and 
153 E. long., covers about 2400 miles from Steep Point, opposite 
Dirk Hartog's Island, in Western Australia, to Point Cartwright, 
in Queensland. No continent, save Africa, has a coast-line so 
little broken by gulfs and bays, the whole seaboard extending 
only for about 7750 miles. The most remarkable geographical 
feature in Australian waters is an astonishing example of the work 
done by the polypes, jelly-like in structure, popularly called " coral 
insects". The Great Barrier Reef, really a series of coral-reefs, 



AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 47 

extends southwards, along the east of the great island, for over 
1250 miles, from its origin in Torres Straits, close to New Guinea, 
to its termination opposite the coast of Queensland, in 24 degrees 
S. latitude. First made known to mariners in 1770, when, as we 
saw in an early section of this work, Captain Cook's ship, the 
Endeavour, was almost lost by striking on some sharp coral rocks, 
the Barrier Reef runs roughly parallel to the coast of Queensland, 
at a distance varying from 20 to 90 miles. The sides of this vast 
series of submarine structures are precipitous, and within a few 
yards of the rocks soundings show nearly 300 fathoms. Only few 
safe openings for ships are found throughout the whole length, 
and the reefs thus furnish a natural breakwater against the mighty 
surges of the Pacific. The "inner route", an ocean-area estimated to 
cover 80,000 geographical square miles, is a tranquil inland sea, 
traversed by the largest steamers for most of the year with open 
portholes and on an even keel. The surface of the reef is usually 
submerged at high water, but at low tide is nearly level with the 
sea, strewn with masses of black coral rock, to which Flinders 
gave the name of "negro-heads". Here and there the rocks are 
covered by banks of drifted sand upon which a few stunted, 
wind-beaten bushes maintain a bare existence. The Barrier Reefs, 
awful in one view, and beautiful in another, present at once, in the 
outer and inner waters, the spectacle of a cemetery and a pleasure- 
lake. Upon the outer rampart the Pacific swell crashes with terrible 
force and thunderous din, filling the air with spray and vapour, 
and at some points, on the ocean side, the skeletons of ships lie 
fixed on the rocks in whose lower crevices of coral the bones of 
wrecked mariners repose. On the inner side, residents of the 
Queensland coast-towns make boat-excursions to the reefs and 
gaze on the beauties and the wonders of a vast aquarium. Striped 
and frilled fishes glide in shoals amidst branching coral and waving- 
sea-weed. The beche-de-mer (trepang, or sea-slugs, or sea-cucum- 
bers), like soft leathery bags of various shapes and sizes, are seen 
creeping on the submerged knolls. Many-tinted shells strew the 
patches of sand, and sharks, fiercely eyeing the bold intruders on 
their domain, cruise in the deeper rifts of the coral. 

It is not only for her size, eleven times greater than that of 
Borneo, and fifteen times as large as that of Madagascar, that 
Australia is entitled to be called a "continent" rather than an 



48 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD 

"island". The conformation of surface, with the high elevations 
lying around the coasts and not central ; the varieties of climate, 
and of plants and animals, are rather continental than insular. As 
regards its surface, Australia resembles a dish of irregular shape, 
being depressed towards the centre and raised along the edges. 
Mountains and table-lands are more pronounced features of the 
east side of the continent than of the west side, so far as that 
region is yet known. From Cape York on the north to Wilson's 
Promontory on the south, the Great Dividing Range, with scarcely 
any important break in its entire length, runs at an average dis- 
tance of 30 miles, varying at some points to 60 miles, from the 
sea on the east. This range forms the watershed between the 
rivers flowing into the Pacific and those which, with a westerly 
course, join the great system of inland drainage sending the waters 
of the eastern half of the continent either northwards into the 
great Gulf of Carpentaria, or, in far larger amount, to the sea on 
the south-eastern coast. The average height of the mountains in 
this chain may be 3000 feet, with many elevations, in Queensland, 
exceeding 4000 feet, and, in the same colony, with one peak of 
5400. In New South Wales, branches of the main chain, vari- 
ously called the New England, the Liverpool, the Blue Mountain 
Ranges, and by other names, have many heights of between 4000 
and 5000 feet, and Mount Kosciusko, probably the highest point 
of the Australian continent, attains an elevation of 7308 feet, about 
700 feet below the line of perpetual snow in that latitude. Many 
peaks in the great mountain-knot lying between the 36th and 37th 
parallels of south latitude exceed 6000 feet in height. In the 
south-east of Australia, the colony of Victoria is traversed by a 
range running from east to west, at a distance from 60 to 70 miles 
from the sea, and known, in the eastern portion, as the Australian 
Alps, having many elevations from 4000 to over 6000 feet. 
South Australia has three ranges with mountains varying from 
2000 to over 3000 feet, and the three distinct parallel ranges of 
Western Australia attain about the same heights. 

The table-lands on the eastern side of the Great Dividing 
Range, with an average height of 2500 feet, descend rapidly and, 
in many places, very steeply to the coast. On the west side, a 
gradual decline brings the land gently down to the interior level. 
The descent to the coast presents many scenes of grandeur or of 



AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 49 

picturesque beauty in mountain and valley, ravine and waterfall. 
Westwards from the table-land, for many hundreds of miles, vast 
level plains extend, largely consisting of rich deep black soil, covered 
in wet seasons with luxuriant vegetation. These plains form the 
main geographical feature of eastern Australia in their occupation 
of many hundreds of thousands of "square miles in the colonies of 
Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia. The 
western half of the continent, so far as it has yet been revealed by 
explorers, largely consists of deserts and "scrubs". In both these 
classes of country, water is either absent or very scarce. The 
deserts are either devoid of vegetation or clothed only with a 
coarse spiny grass that cuts like knives, and affords no sustenance 
to cattle or horses. The scrubs are composed of a dense growth 
of shrubs and low trees, only to be penetrated, at many points, by 
the vigorous use of the axe. 

The drainage-system, in general, may be said to consist of but 
two slopes, one towards the sea, the other towards the interior. 
The rivers on the east coast have generally short courses, owing 
to the proximity of their sources, in the mountain-chain, to the 
sea. Some of these streams, however, as the Fitzroy, the Clarence, 
the Hunter, and the Hawkesbury, become far longer and more 
important from the fact of their upper courses being parallel to the 
Dividing Range and to the coast. Some other rivers entering the 
sea on the north, south, and west will be hereafter noticed, but the 
only rivers in Australia that attain continental size are the Murray 
and the Darling. Both of these belong to the system of inland 
drainage, and together they have a basin of nearly half a million 
square miles. From its rise in the Australian Alps to its termina- 
tion in Lake Alexandrina on the south coast, whence its waters 
reach the sea, the Murray has a length of 1300 miles. Of its 
chief tributaries, the Darling, flowing from the north-east, through 
the whole of New South Wales, has a length of over 2500 miles. 
The Lachlan flows south-west for over 700 miles before it joins 
the Murrumbidgee, of at least equal length, at a point 40 miles 
above the place where their united waters flow into the Murray. 
Most of the internal rivers are small and intermittent in their 
supply of water, rising in some elevated tract and ending, after a 
brief course, either in some lake, or disappearing in swamps or in 
desolate sandy wastes. We may here note that such rivers are 

VOL. VI. 114 



jO OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

often styled " creeks ", by transfer of a term usually applied to a 
small tidal inlet of the sea. Heavy rains cause their shallow beds 
to overflow with water passing beyond the ill-defined banks, and 
submerging the low-lying land along their courses. Apart from 
lagoons lying along the coast, Australia has many lakes in various 
parts of her vast area. A few contain fresh water, but the majority 
are salt, of which the largest are Lakes Gairdner, Torrens, Eyre, 
and Amadeus, in South Australia. The largest fresh-water lake 
yet discovered is Lake George, in New South Wales, with an 
area of about 40 square miles, lying at an elevation of over 2000 
feet above sea-level. Without any attempt to enter on the geo- 
logical formation of Australia, mainly Palaeozoic and Tertiary, with 
Mesozoic or Secondary structure in large areas of Queensland, we 
may note the existence of numerous extinct volcanoes, with craters 
now presenting beautiful lakes. This is especially the case in the 
south-east of South Australia, and in Victoria, where a large part 
of the soil is vplcanic, scores of extinct volcanoes may be seen 
near Ballarat. 

The climate of Australia, varying as regards temperature with the 
latitude and elevation above sea-level, is warm, dry, healthy, and 
rich in amount of sunshine. It is generally cooler in summer and 
warmer in winter than that of countries situated at like distances 
from the equator in the northern hemisphere. Intense heat is 
sometimes brought by winds, and the thermometer has been known 
to reach 131 degrees in the shade. In the higher districts ice and 
snow are common in the winter, from May to October, but only 
on two occasions has snow fallen in Sydney or Melbourne. A 
memorable day of great heat throughout Australia, known as 
"Black Thursday", came on February 6th, 1851, when the ther- 
mometer rose to 1 1 7 degrees in the shade, and terrible bush-fires 
occurred near Port Phillip. The ashes from a conflagration in the 
forests near Mount Macedon fell in the streets of Melbourne, 40 
miles away, and even out at sea. A large area of country was laid 
waste, with great loss of human life and destruction of horned 
cattle, sheep, and farm buildings. The rainy season, within the 
tropics, is in summer, from November to April; outside the tropics, 
rain falls almost wholly in winter. The eastern side of the * con- 
tinent, having the chief mountains, both for extent and height, has 
the heaviest rainfall, through the moisture brought by the winds 



BLACK THURSDAY. 

The climate of Australia is hot and dry, and, as a rule, pleasant and 
healthy; but some parts, especially in the south, are at times visited by 
scorching winds from the interior. These winds are usually preceded by 
very fine weather with a falling barometer, and during their continuance 
the temperature becomes so high as to be oppressive and injurious not only 
to man, but also to cattle, sheep, and crops. They are most severe in 
Victoria, where they commonly last a whole day, and are followed by cold 
and very violent south winds. The extreme dryness of the hot winds tends 
to lessen their ill effects on human beings, for most people can stand a 
higher temperature when the air is dry than when it is moist. Neverthe- 
less they have resulted in loss of life and destruction of crops at various 
times, notably on the sixth of February, 1851. On that day, known as 
Black Thursday, a temperature of 1 1 7 degrees in the shade was registered, 
and the intense heat produced bush-fires near Port Phillip. Enormous 
damage was done to live stock, farm-buildings, and crops, and a large 
number of persons lost their lives. The ashes from a conflagration in the 
forests near Mount Macedon fell in the streets of Melbourne, nearly 40 
miles away, and even out at sea. The illustration shows colonists fleeing 
before an advancing bush-fire. 

( 43 ) 





STANLEY. L. WOOD. 



"BLACK THURSDAY", FEBRUARY 6th, 1851. 



Vol. vi. p. 50 



AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 51 

from the Pacific. The rainfall decreases, as a rule, in proportion 
to the distance from the eastern coast. Thus, Sydney has an 
average amount of 50 inches per year; Bathurst, about 100 miles 
from the sea, has only 23 inches; and Wentworth, nearly 500 miles 
inland, has only 14 inches in the year. Melbourne and Adelaide 
have respectively 25 and 20 inches'of annual rainfall, and on the 
Queensland coast the annual amount varies from 40 to 80 inches. 
Taking the colonies separately, we find that the average rainfall 
is, in New South Wales, 25 inches; Victoria, 32 inches; South 
Australia, 20 inches; Queensland, 27 inches, and Western Australia, 
23 inches. The far interior, with a probable average of 10 inches, 
viewed in connection with the relative areas of the colonies, gives 
a mean rainfall for the whole of Australia of 2 1 inches, the average, 
for the whole of Europe, being 15^ inches. 

The worst feature in the Australian climate is the uncertainty 
and inequality of the rainfall, causing mischievous and distressing 
alternations of drought and flood. These visitations are, happily, 
of somewhat rare occurrence, and seldom affect very large areas 
at once. The ordinary scarcity of rain inland renders most of the 
rivers, with the notable exception of the Murray, intermittent. 
For months together they shrink into straggling water-holes, with 
or without a connecting thread of stream. The Murray itself is 
navigable only at certain seasons of the year. On the other hand, 
most parts of the continent are liable to rains so abundant as to 
occasion floods from the inability of the ordinary channels, with 
their very slight slope, to carry off the water so swiftly deposited. 
As remedies for droughts, irrigation-works, storage of water within 
dams, and the sinking of wells, are being yearly more extensively 
employed. We may note that, on the interior plains, the limited 
rainfall is largely absorbed by a very porous soil, and this fact has 
much to do with the shrinkage of the rivers. The water, however, 
which thus fails to be carried off to the sea, is stored by nature 
in her underground reservoirs, only needing to be tapped for the 
yield of abundant supplies. Dealing first with droughts, we find 
that the total absence of water, and the withering of vegetation, 
have in some years destroyed vast numbers of sheep and cattle, 
the most recent instances being in 1884 and 1888, in which latter 
year the whole continent suffered from one of the worst droughts 
ever known. In South Australia the amount of rainfall was less 



52 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

than in any year since the foundation of the colony, and some 
places had less than an inch of rain. At two stations only a 
quarter of an inch fell between January ist and December loth, 
and the drought only fairly broke up on the last day of the year. 
New South Wales, the northern districts of Victoria, and Queens- 
land suffered very much, but less severely than the sister-colony. 
At such times, with the ground like iron and the sky like brass, 
the hapless Australian farmer, as tiller of the soil or stock-keeper, 
can do no work in garden or field, and must either sit in idleness 
at home or go forth and watch the grass withering and the water 
drying up, and the sheep and cattle dying by inches in dumb 
despair. The plains, for hundreds of miles, become bare, dusty, 
red-brown wastes, with no leaf nor grass, nor rush nor reed to 
relieve the traveller's wearied eye. Of disastrous floods we may 
note those which have occurred in the valleys of the Hawkesbury, 
Hunter, and Murrumbidgee. At Gundagai, a small mining and 
agricultural town on the last river, in June, 1852, only 7 buildings 
remained out of 78, and 89 persons were drowned out of a popu- 
lation of 250. 

The mineral wealth of Australia, to be dealt with under the 
separate colonies, includes gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, lead, 
quicksilver, antimony, coal, granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, 
and many kinds of precious stones, among which are found the 
garnet, topaz, sapphire, ruby, and diamond, as rare specimens of 
little commercial value. As regards the vegetable kingdom, the 
history of colonization presents us with no more striking contrast 
than the Australia of the past and of the present day, in respect to 
products capable of sustaining human life. For long ages, in the 
words of one of her sweetest poets, Australia lay an " unsown 
garden fenced by sea-crags sterile ", a vast region ranged over by 
scanty tribes of dusky aborigines all but destitute of mind and 
soul. And then! the hour of destiny struck, and the fair sunlit 
soil began to send forth growths that Australia had never known, 
and, as the years rolled on to fill up the first century of her new 
existence, ever more vivid and more valuable was the change 
effected by European enterprise and energy and capital and skill. 
In the former state of the continent, nothing is so surprising as the 
almost total absence of food-producing plants from so vast an area 
of the earth's surface. Besides the nardoo, a plant allied to the 



AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 53 

ferns, the spore-cases of which supply a poorly nutritious food; the 
roots of certain plants of the orchid tribe, now locally called " yams "; 
and the seeds of a species of pine-tree, there was hardly a vegetable 
growth on the continent yielding suitable sustenance, in any 
quantity, for human beings. There was no indigenous root like 
the potato; no grain equal to the poorest of the cereals; no fruit 
to be compared even to the gooseberry in nutritive power. The 
Australia of the close of the nineteenth century bears, in temperate 
regions, every kind of cereals and of edible plants and roots known 
to Europe or America, and the chief European grasses used as 
fodder. All the fruits of Europe thrive, while the northern dis- 
tricts produce every fruit found in the tropics save the cocoa-nut. 
Cotton and sugar, as we shall see, are among the products of 
Queensland, and most of the colonies have home-grown tobacco of 
fair quality. 

The native vegetation of Australia is almost unique. In the 
north may be found plants belonging to classes which abound in 
the tropical regions of India and the Malay islands, and in the 
south certain natural orders are common which are also abundant 
in South Africa. With these exceptions, the plants of Australia 
are different from those of every other quarter of the globe, and 
the vegetation of West Australia widely differs from that of the 
eastern part of the continent. The species of vegetation, far more 
numerous than those of Europe, include above nine thousand 
flowering plants, of which the grandest are the Warratah of New 
South Wales with its large crimson flower, and a gigantic lily, 
rising to a height of 10 or 12 feet, and bearing at the top a 
very large dark-red bloom. Some of the orchids are remarkable 
for beauty or singularity of shape. The ferns are famous for their 
abundance and beauty, the grand tree-ferns being now often visible 
in our conservatories. Dealing with the vegetation on a large scale, 
we may refer in turns to "brushes", "woodlands", and "scrubs". 
Brushes, or masses of dense and luxuriant vegetation resembling 
the "jungle" of tropical countries, are found in Australia on the 
seaward side of the Dividing Range, or on the alluvial soil of river- 

o o * 

banks, or on the rich soil of mountain-valleys and ravines. The 
plants and trees are almost wholly evergreens, with foliage varied 
in tint and arrangement, and thus free from the monotony found in 
much of the Australian tree-vegetation, with its uniform sombre 



54 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

olive tint on both the upper and under surface of the leaves, and 
with an usually vertical direction of growth in the foliage, allowing 
a freer entrance to the blazing summer sun. Various kinds of the 
eucalyptus, known as blue, red, and white gum-trees, with stems of 
great girth, and rising to heights varying from 150 to over 400 
feet, tower above the general level. They are usually destitute of 
branches until near the top, and the foliage is there thin and scanty 
in proportion to the size of the trees. Rivalling the gums in height 
and thickness are large-leaved figs, having crowns that spread 
wide in thick and abundant leafage. Below these appear the palms 
and the " nettles", the latter being trees that often rise 50 feet from 
the ground, with large light-green leaves noxious to touch. The 
tree-ferns, from 10 to 30 feet in height, come next below, and 
all are bound together with the pliable stems of creepers. The 
stringy-bark, iron bark, and messmate are other eucalypts of the 
hundred or more species of trees that are found in the brush, 
among which the noble cedar, with wood closely resembling 
mahogany, is conspicuous. The brilliancy of colouring in the 
flowers of tree and shrub is very remarkable. Among over 300 
species of acacias or " wattles " that are indigenous to Australia, 
many have lovely yellow blossoms, generally fragrant. The 
" flame-tree", with its clusters of red flowers, can be seen miles out 
at sea as it grows in masses on the Illawarra Mountains, 50 miles 
south of Sydney. The " fire-tree " of West Australia blazes with 
blossoms of orange hue, and one of the Queensland trees shows 
a mass, 50 feet in height, of orange-tipped crimson stamens. 

" Woodlands " are open tracts of land, usually clothed with grass, 
and having large trees with little undergrowth. It is here that the 
various kinds of eucalyptus most abound, affording the monotonous 
aspect that has caused some to describe Australia as " the land of 
the dreary eucalyptus". In moist or swampy ground, the place of 
the eucalyptus is taken by various kinds of trees known to the 
colonists as" tea-trees", furnishing a hard timber, almost imperishable 
in the ground for fence-posts and piles. They are of the same 
natural order as the " gum-trees", and next to them, as characteristic 
of Australia, come the casuarinas, called " oaks " in the colonies, but 
often really dark green, pine-looking trees belonging to an almost 
extinct class, abounding in the forests of former ages, as proved by 
the remains frequently found in coal. " Scrubs " is the term applied 



AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 55 

to tracts of land thickly covered with bushes, and shrubs. In some 
places, scrubs are composed almost entirely of plants belonging to 
one family. Of this kind are the mallee scrubs, in which the plant 
is a dwarf kind of eucalyptus, covering an area larger than Wales 
on the lower course of the Murray; and the detested mulga scrubs, 
deriving their name and character from a dense growth of thorny 
acacias. Usually, however, the vegetation of the scrubs comprises 
a large number of shrubby plants of different orders, with occasional 
gums and tea-trees. The most beautiful of the indigenous wild 
flowers are often displayed on these thorny and prickly growths, 
impenetrable save by the use of the axe or of fire after long 
drought. The "grass-tree" is another Australian production, 
having a thick round stem, from the top of which springs a tuft 
of long, pointed, and sharp-edged leaves. Out of this tuft shoots 
up a long, straight, round stalk, from 3 to 5 feet in length, and 
having about a foot of the upper portion densely covered with 
small white star-like flowers. 

The fauna, or zoology, or animal life of Australia is even more 
remarkable than the vegetation. Scarcely any of the Australian 
animals are found in other countries, and none of the animals 
common in other countries lying at no great distance find represen- 
tatives in Australia. The mammalia consist almost wholly of 
marsupials, the pouch-bearing creatures carrying their young before 
them in a pendent pouch or purse. This order of animals is 
indigenous, in other regions of the world, only in North America, 
and there is found only in one family. One marsupial, indeed, 
occurs in the Malay Archipelago, and New Guinea has several 
closely allied to those of Australia. It is notable, also, that the 
fossil remains of quadrupeds which have been discovered in 
Australia are almost all marsupials, some being equal in bulk to the 
hippopotamus and the rhinoceros. It seems as if, for countless 
ages, this wonderful continent had been so isolated from the rest of 
the world that no interchange of plants or animals could take place. 
The only native mammals that are not marsupials are some bats 
and flying-foxes, some species of rats and mice, and the dingo or 
native dog, almost the sole representative, in Australia, of the 
carnivorous animals. It is impossible here even to mention all the 
names of the marsupial creatures that occupy the position taken, in 
other regions of the world, by the Ungulata or hoofed quadrupeds, 



tQ OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

the rodents or gnawers, the carnivora, the ant-eaters, the insect- 
eating animals, and the monkeys and lemurs. The hoofed rumi- 
nants of other parts of the world may be said to be represented in 
Australia by kangaroos and allied creatures; the beavers and other 
gnawing animals by wombats ; the true cats and other carnivora by 
native cats, with habits like those of the English stoat; the jackals 
and wolves by the thylacine or marsupial wolf; the insectivora by 
the small insect-eating marsupials; and the arboreal monkeys and 
lemurs by the phalangers or Australian opossums and the koalas or 
native bears. We must refer our readers to special zoological or 
Australian works for those strange mammals of the lowest order 
not represented either by living or by known fossil forms in any 
other quarter of the world the duck-bill platypus or ornitho- 
rhynchus, and the echidna or porcupine ant-eater. 

The birds of Australia, peculiar in both the presence and in the 
total absence of certain species, surpass those of all other temperate 
and sub-tropical climates for fineness of shape and beautiful 
plumage. The species, as known, exceed six hundred, including 
many varieties of the splendid cockatoos, parrots, and parroquets. 
As a rule, the same orders of birds as are indigenous there may also 
be found in other parts of the world, but there are certain kinds 
which may be deemed peculiarly Australian, owing to some remark- 
able feature of structure, habits, or colour. The emu, now rare, 
attains from 6 to 8 feet in height; has merely rudimentary wings, 
with three-toed feet adapted for running; and is a timid, harmless 
creature, living chiefly on vegetable food. The lyre-bird, with its 
two outer tail-feathers curved so as to resemble an ancient lyre, is 
an imitative song-bird, known as the " native " or " brush " pheasant. 
The " brush-turkeys " deposit their eggs, to be hatched by the heat 
of fermentation, in large mounds of dead leaves and decaying vege- 
tation. There are many doves and pigeons; above sixty species of 
the parrot tribe, from the great Black Cockatoo to the diminutive 
Grass Parakeet; and several kinds of Kingfishers, of which one 
large species is known, from its loud, continuous, laughing, and 
braying note as the Laughing Jackass, and also as " the settler's 
clock", from the regularity of its call at dawn and dusk. The 
rapacious birds include an eagle, working havoc on lambs, and 
many hawks and owls. The black swan, pelican, and wild ducks 
are common, and the smaller birds include finches, robins, swallows, 



AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 57 

and wrens, some of them having a pretty song, and the robin being 
marked by its ruddy breast. On the coasts there are hosts of sea- 
birds, as the albatross, various kinds of gulls, divers, and penguins. 

The reptiles of Australia number about 250 species, from the 
crocodile, 30 feet long, to tiny frogs, differing in their qualities from 
the edible turtle to venomous snakes, of which five, including the 
brown-banded snake and the broad-scaled snake, are dangerous 
to man. Diamond and carpet snakes belong to the family of 
pythons or rock snakes, killing their prey by constriction. There 
are also countless lizards and frogs. The Australian seas are 
richer in fish than the fresh waters, the finest of whose produce is 
a species of perch, oddly styled the " Murray cod " by the colonists; 
of this valuable fish specimens weighing 80 pounds have been 
taken. Among the multitudes of salt-water fishes those chiefly 
used for food are the schnapper, whiting, bream, mullet, and gar- 
fish. Twenty species of sharks, some attaining a length of 12 
feet, infest the seas. Among the marine animals are whales and 
seals, and the peculiar dugong, a warm-blooded mammal, from 10 
to 20 feet long, known also as the sea-cow, taken off Queensland 
for the sake of its flesh, which resembles beef, and for the valuable 
oil extracted therefrom. It feeds on sea- weed, is gregarious, and 
very fond of its young; it is pursued in boats and killed by spear- 
ing. Cray-fish and oysters, shrimps and prawns abound, and are 
much used as food. In the sea to the north the pearl-oyster and 
trepang are plentiful. The numerous insects include a spider called 
tarantula, a huge hairy creature with a venomous bite; the centi- 
pede, scorpion, many species of beetles, grasshoppers, cicadas 
(wrongly called " locusts " by the colonists), bees, ants (including 
the so-called " white ant ", so destructive to wood), and most 
obnoxious swarms of mosquitoes and other flies in the warmer 
districts. 

Turning now to the aborigines, or Australian natives, we find 
the whole continent inhabited by one isolated, peculiar race, widely 
removed from Papuans, Malays, and negroes. When the country 
was first discovered, the natives, dark coffee-brown in hue, were a 
finer race than their descendants, being at least equal in stature to 
Europeans, active and robust, with deep chests, thin lower limbs, 
an upright carriage, and easy, graceful gait. They were possessed 
of very keen sight, rendering them unsurpassed as trackers of 



58 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

animals and men. Excellent in all matters requiring the exercise 
of the senses, they were in other respects savages of a low type, 
very deficient in all that concerns thought or abstract ideas, with- 
out architecture, pottery, weaving, or religion, and destitute of 
words to express such notions as " God ", " right ", " love ", and 
" five ". Their morality is chiefly concerned with the notion of 
property, their wives or " gins " being included in the chattels for 
the stealing of which a definite punishment is awarded. The 
" black -fellows" are, however, capable of loyal affection and 
gratitude, and the hospitality, to be hereafter mentioned, which 
the wretched tribes of Cooper's Creek showed to the last survivor 
of Burke's expedition should always be remembered. Old men 
and old women are abandoned to death by starvation. Male 
children are regarded with parental affection; women are treated 
with a general brutality. Thrift is a thing unknown, and a life 
spent in wandering is supported by food derived from animals, 
reptiles, insects, roots, seeds, and leaves. The only dwellings, 
and those of a temporary character, are "gunyahs" composed of 
branches and boughs, or of sheets of bark stripped from the trees. 
The skins of opossums and other animals form the only clothing 
during the winter of colder districts. Spears, and clubs of solid 
heavy timber, were the usual weapons for hunting and war, with 
the famous and very ingenious boomerang, a missile of hard wood, 
bent in a curve, flat on one side, convex on the other, with a sharp 
edge along the convexity of the curve. Flung with the convex 
edge forward and the flat side down, by a strong quick jerk, and 
with a backward movement of the hand, the missile rises slowly in 
the air, whirling round and round, and describing a curved line of 
progress until it reaches a height of 50 or 60 yards, when it begins 
to return, and finally alights near the thrower's feet or at some 
yards in his rear. It is said that this surprising motion, unknown 
in any other projectile, is produced by the action of the air on the 
convex side, lifting the instrument by means similar to the wind's 
action on the oblique bars in the sails of a mill. The sweep of the 
boomerang can be varied at will, and no two paths of flight exactly 
agree. 

The number of the natives in the great island-continent was 
always small, a fact mainly due to the aridity of the climate on all 
but the eastern coast, and the consequent lack of food for people 






AUSTRALIA: GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 59 

who knew not how to cultivate the soil. The estimates concerning 
the number of those who were existing rather more than a century 
ago, when the first European settlement arose, have varied between 
one million and about a sixth of that number. It is supposed that 
there may be about 200,000 at the present day, but it is certain 
that they are rapidly diminishing and that the race will at no 
distant time become extinct. Their history provides one of the 
best and fullest illustrations of the principle embodied in the phrase 
"survival of the fittest". The Australian aborigines, in contact 
with British convicts, men steeped in every crime, and turned loose 
in the land, became the victims, in the first place, of imported 
cruelty and vice. When honest settlers arrived, and land was 
occupied for tillage and sheep-farming, the natives, resenting the 
seizure of soil which they regarded as their own, became cattle- 
stealers, and thus incurred, in some places, partial or utter exter- 
mination. Boomerang, waddy or club, and spear were no match 
for firearms. When the animals on which they depended for food 
were displaced by sheep and cattle, the blacks, in many cases, 
became the creatures of the whites, the recipients of their charity, 
hangers-on about townships and " stations ", eking out existence 
by begging and doing odd jobs. The governments of the different 
colonies have for many years shown a kindly spirit to the descend- 
ants of the original possessors of the soil, making annual distributions 
of blankets and other necessaries. Missionaries have, with little 
success, striven to raise and enlighten outlying native tribes amidst 
difficulties due to their low type of intellect, their wandering habits, 
their traditional instincts, and the evil example too often set them 
by the rougher settlers. The fondness for rum has had much to 
do with degradation and diminution of the black-fellows and their 
"gins", loafing about hotels, clad in wonderful assortments of the 
cast-off clothing of whites, and begging "bacca" and sixpences 
from all comers. There are some who do good work as cattle- 
men, shepherds, and general helps about the stations, and as 
mounted troopers and trackers in the police-force many do splendid 
service in hunting down criminals who have escaped to the bush. 
The day is fast coming when, save for the presence of half-breeds, 
the memory of the Australian natives will linger only in the liquid 
music of the native names which everywhere dot the map of the 
sunny southern land. 



5o OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

CHAPTER II. 

EXPLORATION. 

Difficulties of Australian exploration Discoveries of Oxley and Allan Cunningham 
of Ovens and Currie of Hume and Hovell Expeditions under Captain Sturt and 
Major Mitchell A solitary dwelling Sufferings of an exploring party Expeditions 
of Eyre, M'Millan, Leichhardt, and Kennedy John M'D. Stuart crosses the con- 
tinent from south to north Tragical enterprise of Burke and Wills Relief party 
sent under Alfred W. Howitt John King found among the natives Posthumous 
honours accorded to Burke and Wills Expeditions under Landsborough and 
M'Kinlay. 

The history of Australian exploration is a record of man's 
enterprise, suffering, and general success in conflict with the natural 
obstacles presented by vast regions scantily furnished with food 
and water, and only to be traversed by arduous exertion in tugging 
at the oar, or by toilsome marches over sandy or thorny or 
" scrubby " deserts, under a burning sun, while horses and camels, 
the only means of transport, perished from hunger and thirst, and 
the hardy pioneers themselves sometimes encountered the same 
terrible doom. The African explorer has found his chief enemies 
in pestilential air, savage men, and ferocious beasts; the Australian 
traveller, with some demands upon active courage in conflict with 
human foes, has been usually called to simple, stern, endurance 
under conditions of the most trying character. Leaving aside, 
until we come to the history of New South Wales, the passage of 
settlement beyond the Blue Mountains, we first note the discoveries 
made by Oxley, Cunningham, Hume, and Hovell, between 1817 
and 1828. John Oxley, a naval lieutenant who became Surveyor- 
General of New South Wales in 1812, set out from Sydney in 
April 1817, and in the course of a four months' journey traced the 
course of the river Lachlan for about 500 miles, in a westerly 
direction, until it was lost in a marshy region. Among the small 
party of Oxley's comrades was the distinguished botanist Allan 
Cunningham, to whom the world owes its first knowledge of Aus- 
tralian flora. Born at Wimbledon, in Surrey, in 1791, and trained 
at Kevv Gardens for his scientific work, Cunningham, after a 
botanical trip to South America, arrived at Sydney in 1814, and 
died there a quarter of a century later, his health broken by the 
hardships endured in his journeys of exploration. The walk of 



EXPLORATION. gj 

many weeks along and around the course of the Lachlan included 
a passage from hilly regions of woodland and rich meadow into a 
more level country where tall mountain-trees gave place to stunted 
shrubs, until the travellers came out on a great plain, filled with 
dreary swamps, where the eye could see naught but a dismal sea 
of waving reeds. The explorers ' changed their course only after 
forcing their way for miles through the reeds and over oozy mud 
into which they sank almost to the knees at every step. After 
passing round the great swamp and again striking the course of 
the river, a second marshy region compelled a return to the settled 
country. In 1818 Oxley went over much of the course of the 
Macquarie river, and discovered the river Hastings. In 1823, 
the same explorer found the river which he named the Brisbane, 
and Major Ovens and Captain Currie discovered the Murrum- 
bidgee. In 1823 and 1827 Cunningham made his way to the 
famous pastoral and tillage regions known as the Liverpool Plains 
and the Darling Downs, thus opening up extensive and valuable 
territory for the uses of the sheep-farmer and the agriculturist of 
rising New South Wales. 

Hamilton Hume and Captain Hovell were the first to explore 
the noble country in the interior of what became the colony of 
Victoria. Hume, described by an Australian historian as "a 
splendid bushman ", was born at Parramatta in 1797, and, having 
a passion for exploration, and an intrepid, energetic, and determined 
nature, he started as a traveller at seventeen years of age, ex- 
ploring the Berrima district, and making, between 1816 and 1824, 
many journeys inland, whereby he opened up the Yass and Goul- 
burn Plains districts, with much other territory, and earned as his 
reward a valuable grant of land. Hovell, born at Great Yarmouth 
in 1786, and bred to the sea, was a bold and resolute man who 
became a captain in the mercantile marine, and arrived at Sydney 
in 1813, trading for some years on the coast and with New Zealand. 
After some experience as an explorer in New South Wales, he 
joined Hume, in October, 1824, as co-leader of a party of six 
convict servants, with provisions carried in two carts drawn by 
oxen. Setting out from Lake George, the travellers came to the 
banks of the Murrumbidgee, then greatly swollen by recent rains. 
A boat for transit was lacking, but Hume and one of the convicts 
named Boyd swam the river, carrying a rope between their teeth. 



5 2 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

The carts, loaded with the goods, were covered with tarpaulin and 
then towed across; the other men and oxen, lastly, reached the 
further bank by swimming. A region too rugged for the carts 
compelled the adventurers to abandon them and load the oxen 
with their provisions. The snow-capped peaks of the range after- 
wards called the Australian Alps were seen as they travelled on 
through hilly country, beneath the shade of wide-spread forests. 
On November ryth, the river Murray was crossed at the site of 
Albury by means of boats constructed, on the spot, of wickerwork 
and covered with tarpaulin. The rivers Ovens and Goulburn 
were next discovered and crossed, and after many weary days the 
party came out at Port Phillip, on the south-east coast, at the 
point where now stands the town of Geelong. Hume's careful 
and sagacious observations of the route by which they had come 
enabled him to lead the party rapidly and safely back to Sydney, 
which was reached after an absence of sixteen weeks. The dis- 
coveries made by Oxley, Cunningham, Hume, and Hovell had 
greatly increased the knowledge of the interior, and subsequent 
journeys were, for a time, divested of the keen interest with which 
the settlers, eager to enlarge their pasture-grounds, regarded the 
early efforts to find good land beyond the Great Dividing Range. 

In the history of Australian exploration, a very high place 
must be assigned to Captain Charles Sturt, who went out to 
Sydney with his regiment, the 39th Foot, and was selected by 
Governor Darling to head an expedition for further research in 
the interior of New South Wales. There was a theory afloat 
concerning the existence of a great central lake receiving the 
waters of the Macquarie, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, and other large 
rivers, and it was desired to settle this question. With Hume as 
second in command, two soldiers and six convicts, Sturt set forth 
from Sydney in November, 1828, and made his way to the Mac- 
quarie. A two-years' drought was found to have made its waters 
too shallow for the portable boats, and the travellers trudged along 
the banks of the stream until they reached the place where Oxley 
had been stopped by the swampy region. A marsh, however, no 
longer existed there. The heat had baked the clay hard, and 
the far-stretching reeds were withered under the glare of the sun. 
No exertion enabled the explorers to make much progress through 
the reeds, where the hot and pestilent air was almost suffocating 



EXPLORATION. 63 

and the only sound heard was the bittern's distant boom. Striking 
thence to the west, they came upon a plain and discovered, in 
February, 1829, a river named by Sturt the Darling, in the 
Governor's honour. After following its course for about 100 
miles, the expedition returned to Sydney, with information that 
dispelled all belief in a great inland sea. In 1830, Sturt, with a 
party of eight convicts, and accompanied by Mr. (afterwards Sir 
George) Macleay, embarked on the Murrumbidgee in a whale-boat, 
and passing down to its junction with the Lachlan and then with 
the Murray, was borne along the great river, discovering on the 
way the mouth of the Darling. Rowing by day and encamping 
by night on the river-banks, the party were exposed to some risk 
from suspicious natives, who often gathered in crowds several 
hundreds strong. Sturt, however, a man as kindly as he was 
courageous, enterprising, and shrewd, one who, in his latest days, 
could justly declare that he had never caused the death of a " black- 
fellow ", kept the peace by his pleasant demeanour and tact. 
When the twilight found the little encampment surrounded by 
dark figures, the captain joined in their sports, and Macleay won 
high favour by his comic songs, accompanied by gestures and 
grimaces which raised roars of laughter from the dusky crowd. 
The explorers, on the thirty-third day of their historic voyage, 
reached a sheet of water 30 miles long and 15 wide, which Sturt 
called Lake Alexandrina, after the princess who became Queen 
Victoria. The passage to the ocean, at the southern end, was 
blocked up by a great bar of sand, and the voyagers were forced 
to turn their boat round and face the current of the Murray for a 
return-journey of a thousand miles. Hard work with the oars, at 
which Sturt took his full share of toil, was needed, and food was 
failing as they entered the Murrumbidgee. The utmost hardship 
was endured through labour, with scanty food, beneath the heat 
of a midsummer sun, and they only reached settled districts and 
received succour when some of the party were becoming insane 
from physical suffering. We shall meet Sturt again in the course 
of this narrative. 

The next traveller who sought to fill up the blanks in the map 
of Australia was Major (afterwards Sir Thomas Livingstone) 
Mitchell, a native of Stirlingshire, who served in the Peninsular 
War and became, in 1827, Surveyor-General of New South Wales. 



64 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

His first effort as an explorer, on an expedition starting from 
Sydney in November, 1831, took him and some of his party of 
fifteen convicts to the Darling. While the Major was ahead, his 
camp of stores, in the rear, was surprised by the blacks, who 
speared the two men left in charge, and carried off the cattle and 
most of the goods. Lack of supplies soon compelled a return to 
the coast. Again, in March, 1835, Mitchell started with a strong 
party, but this attempt ended in a partial failure through native 
hostility, causing the death by murder of Richard Cunningham, a 
botanist like his brother Allan. Much territory had, however, 
been examined between the Darling and Bogan rivers, and the 
following March, 1836, saw the explorer again afoot towards the 
Darling and the Murray. After traversing a great extent of new 
country, and some fighting with the natives, Mitchell found and 
named the Grampians, and the river Glenelg. On this the party 
embarked in boats which they had carried with them. The 
scenery along this stream was charming. From the banks hung 
down luxuriant festoons of creepers, trailing amongst the eddies of 
the current, and partly hiding beautiful grottos wrought out by 
the action of the water on the pure white limestone. Through 
verdant valleys and round hills of abrupt sides the river wound its 
way until the voyagers towards the sea w r ere stopped by the bar 
at the mouth of the Glenelg. They had reached the coast near 
Portland Bay, about 150 miles west of Port Phillip, and were 
surprised to see a neat cottage on the shore, with a small schooner 
in front at anchor. This was the lonely dwelling of the brothers 
Henty, who had crossed from Tasmania and founded a whaling 
station at Portland Bay. The magnificent country through which 
Mitchell and his men had passed in this quarter was styled by the 
discoverer "Australia Felix". The party then returned to Sydney 
after a journey of 2400 miles, making great additions to geo- 
graphical knowledge. Ten years later, this accomplished and 
energetic man, knighted in 1839 and honoured by the University 
of Oxford with the degree of D.C.L., passed far beyond the upper 
Darling into a sub-tropical region, and discovered the Barcoo, or 
Victoria, river. In its lower course this stream was called Cooper's 
Creek by its discoverer in that region, Captain Sturt. 

There are few things more strange and terrible in the history 
of exploration than the hardships encountered by that great 



EXPLORATION. 65 

traveller and his comrades in 1844 and the following year. Under 
the auspices of Lord Stanley, the Colonial Secretary in England, 
Sturt undertook to conduct an expedition to the heart of Aus- 
tralia. In May, 1844, a well-equipped party of sixteen persons 
under his command started from the banks of the Darling river, 
near its junction with the Murray, and journeyed north-west as 
far as Cooper's Creek. The draughtsman of the party was Mr. J. 
M'Douall Stuart, who received, in this expedition, a splendid 
training for his future work as an explorer. After leaving the 
river-bank for the interior, through a dead level of desert, Sturt 
came to the hills by him called Stanley Range, in the extreme 
west of New South Wales, and now also known as the Barrier 
Range, with the highest peak, Mount Lyell, reaching 2000 feet. 
Great care was now needed in the advance through unknown 
territory. The expedition included n horses, 30 bullocks, and 
200 sheep, and water for so many mouths could with difficulty be 
obtained. It was necessary for the leader always to ride forward 
and find a "creek" or pond with a sufficient supply, as the next 
place of encampment, before allowing the main body of men and 
animals to quit the water which they had reached. During the 
winter (our summer), some of the creeks were fairly supplied with 
water, but the summer of 1844, one of the hottest in Australian 
records, was upon them in October, and, while the burning sand 
scorched the feet of the men, and split the horses' hoofs, the water 
in every creek and pool was dried up. Death from thirst was 
before the travellers when a creek was found in a rocky glen, 
whose waters seemed to have a constant flow. For six months 
Sturt and his men were forced to remain in this haven of refuge, 
surrounded by country in which they could not move backwards 
or forwards, or in any direction, from lack of water. The heat, some- 
times rising to 130 degrees in the shade, became such as to dry 
up the ink, split the combs, make the lead drop out of their 
pencils, and render the finger-nails as brittle as glass. They were 
at last compelled to excavate an underground chamber in order to 
escape the furnace-glow on the surface. Mr. Poole, the surveyor, 
died of scurvy, and all the members of the party had grown thin 
and weak, when the winter-rains gave them release, and enabled 
them to move forward to the north. Their journey ended in a 
region covered with hills of red sand, amid lagoons of salt and 

VOL. VI. 115 



66 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

bitter water. On the approach of summer, in the later months of 
1845, the threatened lack of water compelled a return to Adelaide, 
which was reached after an absence of nineteen months. In one of 
the excursions made on this great journey, Sturt discovered the 
fine river called Cooper's Creek. The daring and hardy explorer 
suffered the loss of his eyesight from the glare of the burning 
sands. 

We now proceed to notice the famous names of Eyre, Leich- 
hardt, M'Millan, and Kennedy. Mr. Edward John Eyre, born in 
1815, son of a Yorkshire clergyman, emigrated to Sydney in 1833, 
became a sheep-farmer on the lower course of the Murray, and 
was appointed a magistrate and "Protector of Aborigines". 
Taking an interest in exploration, he was selected, in 1 840, by the 
government of South Australia, to lead a party of five Europeans 
and three natives into the interior. In June, a start was made 
from Adelaide, with horses for transport and a small flock of sheep 
for food. At the head of Spencer Gulf a three months' supply of 
provisions was received from a vessel despatched for the purpose. 
In the journey to the north, Lakes Torrens and Eyre were dis- 
covered, reduced at that time by the previous summer's heat to 
sheets of salt-encrusted mud. Lack of water compelled a return 
to Spencer Gulf, and then an attempt was made to reach West 
Australia along the sea-coast. With an Englishman named Baxter 
and three blacks a start was made in March, 1841, and great toil 
was endured in the scramble along the tops of rough cliffs from 
300 to 600 feet above sea-level, with sandy desert stretching far 
inland. Much suffering was due to scarcity of water; some of the 
horses perished, and others were eaten as food fell short. Baxter 
wished to return, but Eyre persisted, and the end came for the 
former when two of the blacks, during Eyre's absence at night in 
search of straying horses, shot his friend, plundered the stores, 
and made their escape. The other black, W 7 ylie, remained faith- 
ful to Eyre, who was obliged to leave Baxter's body, wrapped in a 
blanket, lying on rocky ground where no grave could be dug. 
After many more weary days of travel towards King George's 
Sound, Eyre and Wylie obtained fresh food and an eleven days' 
welcome rest on board a French whaler that lay off the coast. 
The travellers then, in three weeks' journey, made their way to the 
little town of Albany, and returned by sea to Adelaide, where they 



EXPLORATION. 67 

arrived after an absence of more than twelve months. Eyre was 
the first explorer who faced the dangers of the Australian desert. 
Angus M'Millan, born in Skye in 1810, went to Sydney in 1830, 
and became overseer on a brother Scot's station in New South 
Wales. His services as an explorer include the first examination, 
in 1840, of the fine country called Gippsland, in the south-east of 
the colony of Victoria. 

The discoveries made by Allan Cunningham had extended over 
the northern parts of New South Wales and the southern districts 
of Queensland. All the north-eastern parts of the continent were 
still unexplored when an intrepid young Prussian botanist, Ludwig 
Leichhardt, undertook the task, after four years' residence in New 
South Wales. Starting from Brisbane in August, 1844, with a 
party of six Europeans and two natives, he journeyed through a 
country of noble forests and fine pasture-lands to the Gulf of 
Carpentaria. Many large rivers the Fitzroy, the Burdekin, the 
Mitchell, and the Gilbert with some of their tributaries, were 
discovered and explored, and in December, 1845, after the loss of 
one Englishman at the hands of natives, the party came out, in 
what is now the " Northern Territory", at Port Essington, a fine 
harbour in the centre of the northern coast, and thence took ship 
for Sydney. The announcement of Leichhardt's discovery of so 
much valuable territory was received with the utmost enthusiasm, 
and the government awarded him the sum of ^1000, while 1500, 
raised by public subscription, was distributed among his followers. 
In the first days of 1848, Leichhardt again set out from Moreton 
Bay, with a small party of Europeans and two blacks, intending to 
devote two years to a journey of exploration, through the centre of 
the continent, to the Swan River. In a few weeks' time a letter 
was received at Sydney, dated by the explorer from a point about 
300 miles west of Brisbane. Leichhardt therein described himself 
as in good spirits and full of hope, and purposing to strike north- 
wards to the Gulf of Carpentaria and thence west and south-west 
for the Swan River. From that time to the present day nothing 
has ever been heard of Leichhardt or his comrades. All expedi- 
tions sent in search of traces, the last despatched in 1865 at the 
cost of the ladies of Melbourne, utterly failed in their object. 
Edmund Kennedy, second in command of Major Mitchell's ex- 
pedition in 1845, was another brave man who lost his life in the 



68 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

cause of Australian exploration. After Mitchell's return, he had 
remained to prove that the Barcoo or Victoria river was only the 
higher part of Cooper's Creek, which, after a course of about 1 200 
miles, loses its waters in the broad marshes of Lake Eyre. In 
1848, Kennedy was sent to survey the country in York Peninsula, 
and, starting with twelve men from Rockingham Bay, in the north 
of Queensland, he encountered great difficulties in the tropical 
region which was traversed. Dense jungles of prickly shrubs 
impeded the course and lacerated the flesh of the travellers, and 
vast swamps had to be rounded, or crossed with much risk and 
delay. Kennedy, desiring to avoid these hardships save for him- 
self and three of the party, left eight of his comrades at Weymouth 
Bay, intending to call for them on his way back in the schooner 
that was to meet him at Cape York. Within a few miles of that 
point, one of the party, accidentally wounded by a gun-shot, was left 
behind under the care of two of the white men, and the leader, 
with his faithful black servant, Jackey, started to obtain help from 
the schooner. Their steps were closely followed by a tribe of 
natives, lurking among the forest-trees, and Kennedy, in spite of 
the utmost watchfulness, at last fell pierced from behind by a spear. 
A shot from Jackey caused the flight of the blacks, and then the 
native servant, weeping bitterly as he held up his dying master's 
head, received his papers and last commands. After laying the 
body in a shallow grave, dug with a tomahawk among the trees, 
and covered with branches, Jackey proceeded along a creek, walk- 
ing with his head alone above water, to the schooner at the Cape. 
This was one of the most tragical of exploring adventures in 
Australian history. The man wounded by a gun-shot, and the 
two left behind with him, were never seen or heard of again by 
Europeans; and the eight men left at Weymouth Bay, after much 
trouble with the natives, had been reduced, by starvation and 
disease, to only two before relief arrived. 

For many other exploring expeditions we must refer our readers 
to the works on Australasia above named, or to special books on 
Australian exploration, or to the magnificent three-volume Pictur- 
esque Atlas of Australasia, edited by Dr. Garran, Member of the 
Legislative Council of New South Wales. We cannot, however, 
dismiss this subject without some account of Stuart, Burke, and 
Wills. John M'Douall Stuart arrived in South Australia in 1839, 



EXPLORATION. 69 

and acquired, as we have seen, valuable "bush" experience, in 
1844, as draughtsman with Captain Sturt's expedition. In 1859 
he was employed by a number of " squatters " in South Australia 
to search out new land for the flocks and herds, and finding a 
passage between Lakes Eyre and Torrens, he discovered a fine 
pastoral territory beyond the desert which Eyre had failed to 
penetrate. In the meantime, the South Australian government 
offered a reward of ^2000 to the first man who should succeed in 
traversing the continent from south to north. Stuart resolved to 
attempt the feat, and in 1860, with but two companions, he travelled 
from Adelaide to within 400 miles of Van Diemen's Gulf on the 
north coast, when hostile natives compelled the party to return. 
On the way he discovered and named the hill called Central Mount 
Stuart, and planted the British flag on its summit, within two miles 
of the exact centre of the continent, in 21 50' south latitude and 
133 30' east longitude. In January, 1861, he was again in the 
field for a second attempt, and, following exactly the same route, 
with twelve comrades, he arrived within 250 miles of his destin- 
ation, when return was forced on him by lack of food. In 1862, a 
third enterprise, along the same course, was crowned with success, 
and Stuart reached Van Diemen's Gulf on July 24th, having 
rendered to Australia the distinguished service of marking out the 
practicable route across the continent, through a fairly continuous, 
if narrow, belt of upland and stream, which was used, ten years 
later, for the great line of trans- Australian telegraph wires. He 
returned to Adelaide to find that he was not the first man who had 
crossed the continent from south to north. He entered the capital 
of South Australia, by a remarkable coincidence, on the very day 
when Hewitt's mournful party arrived there, on their way to Mel- 
bourne, bearing the remains of Burke and Wills, who had all but 
reached the Gulf of Carpentaria in February, 1861. The South 
Australian government, however, gave pleasure to all admirers of 
heroism and perseverance by paying over to Stuart the promised 
reward, with a large grant of land for seven years rent-free, in con- 
sideration of the courage which had been displayed, and of his 
nearness to success in the two first expeditions. The Home 
Government, in consequence of Stuart's success, placed the 
Northern Territory under the control of South Australia. The 
great explorer was further rewarded with the gold medal of the 



70 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Royal Geographical Society, who also presented him with a watch. 
He returned to England and died there in June, 1869. 

The most tragical enterprise in all Australian exploration was 
that conducted by Burke and Wills. On August 2Oth, 1860, a long 
train of explorers and their baggage-animals set out from the Royal 
Park of Melbourne, with the leader, Robert O'Hara Burke, heading 
the procession on a small gray horse. The expedition was com- 
posed of fourteen persons, including Mr. G. J. Landells as second 
in command, W. J. Wills as surveyor and astronomer, T. Beckler 
as medical officer and botanist, L. Becker as artist and natu- 
ralist, and nine assistants in various capacities. The most inter- 
esting and remarkable feature in the procession was the twenty- 
seven camels, animals now first seen in Australia, expressly brought 
from India by Landells, with John King, a young Irish soldier of 
the 7<Dth Foot, and three Hindoo drivers. There were also twenty- 
three horses, with forage, wagons, food, stores, and medicine. 
Never was any expedition more completely organized, and never 
did any body of men go forth with better prospects of success. 
The heavy charges, amounting to over ,13,000, were borne by the 
Victorian Government, the Royal Society (then the " Philosophical 
Institute") of Victoria, and by private subscribers, the chief of 
whom, to the amount of 1000, was Mr. Ambrose Kyte, a Mel- 
bourne citizen. Burke, born in co. Galway, Ireland, in 1821, 
belonged to a younger branch of the famous Burkes or De Burghs. 
After education in Belgium, he entered the Austrian army and 
attained the rank of captain. In 1848 he joined the Royal Irish Con- 
stabulary, and in 1853 he emigrated to Tasmania, whence he flitted 
to Victoria, and became an inspector of police. William John Wills, 
son of a medical man at Totnes, in Devonshire, was born there in 
1834, and emigrated to Victoria in 1852, becoming first a shepherd, 
then a surveyor, and finally assistant to Professor Neumayer at 
Melbourne Observatory. The party left the Park at Melbourne, 
after a short speech from the Mayor, wishing them God-speed. 
The explorers gave a final hand-shake to their friends, and then, 
amid the ringing cheers of thousands of spectators, the long and 
picturesque line moved forward. The instructions furnished to 
Burke directed him to make Cooper's Creek his base of operations; 
to form a depot there, and then to explore the country lying between 
that and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The journey through the settled 



EXPLORATION. 7! 

country, as far as the Murrumbidgee, passed without notable incident. 
Then the long series of misfortunes and mistakes began. On the 
banks of the river, quarrels arose. Landells resigned his post, and 
returned to Melbourne with several members of the party. An 
unhappy choice of a substitute for Landells then gave charge of the 
camels to a most incompetent and dilatory man named Wright, 
a plausible person picked up by Burke at a sheep-station on the 
Darling river. On October iQth, Burke, Wills, and six men, including 
John King, with half the camels and horses, setout from Menindie, on 
the Darling, leaving Wright behind with instructions to follow them 
up in due course. On November nth, the advance-party were at 
Cooper's Creek, where they found fine pastures and plenty of water. 
After a long wait, Wright did not appear, and Burke resolved to push 
forward for the sea on the north. Four men, with six camels and 
twelve horses, were left behind at Cooper's Creek, with instructions 
to remain there for three months, and on December i6th, 1860, 
Burke and Wills, with John King and another man named Gray, 
set forth into the wilds, with some horses and camels, carrying 
provisions intended to last for three months. We quit them for the 
moment to note, without comment, the simple fact that Wright, left 
at Menindie on October igth, did not move forward from that place 
until January 2 7th, 1861, and did not arrive at Cooper's Creek until 
early in May, having lost, on the way, Becker, the artist and natu- 
ralist, and two other men, by death from scurvy. The four men 
left behind at Cooper's Creek on December i6th, 1860, after waiting 
the return of Burke and Wills for four months and four days, quitted 
the depot on April 2ist, 1861, meeting Wright as he slowly came 
forward to the Creek. 

We now give details of the suffering that befell Burke, Wills, 
King, and Gray as they pushed across the continent with what one 
historian describes as " heroic determination and injudicious speed". 
It is believed that Burke, at Menindie, had received some hint of 
M'Douall Stuart's intended expedition, and was eager to anticipate 
him in the achievement of crossing Australia from south to north. 
However that may be, it is certain that the haste of the journey 
had something to do, in the physical exhaustion which it produced, 
with the tragical result. On January 7th, 1861, they came within 
the tropics, and on February loth, after passing through forests of 
boxwood, alternating with plains well-watered and richly covered 



72 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

with grass, the party came to the banks of the Flinders river, and, 
with their provisions now more than half exhausted, hurried on 
towards the sea, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, with such speed that 
some camels died of fatigue. Burke and Wills, leaving King and 
Gray behind, pressed on, with only one horse to carry a small 
supply of food. The horse was soon left behind, inextricably 
bogged in swampy ground, and, when they were at last almost 
without provisions, the explorers had to return, from the tidal part 
of the river, without actually having sight of the sea. Half-starved, 
Wills and Burke rejoined Gray and King, and the four men slowly 
moved southwards, greatly weakened by the previous hasty travel 
under a tropical sun. The provisions began to fail towards the end 
of March, and the flesh of a camel and a horse were consumed. 
On April i6th Gray died of exhaustion, and the other three could 
scarcely totter along. Five days later, Burke, Wills, and King 
reached the depot at Cooper's Creek, to find the place deserted, as 
we saw above. On a tree was the direction cut, " Dig three feet 
westward", and a chest was found, with a small supply of food, and 
a letter stating that the party had left that very morning. Nothing 
more pitiful can be conceived than the succession of mistakes and 
mishaps which ensued. The party going southwards from Cooper's 
Creek moved in so leisurely a fashion that, if Burke, Wills, and 
King, after their hearty supper on the food from the chest, and 
a night's rest, had hurried on, they would easily have overtaken 
their comrades. On the other hand, if Burke and his two com- 
panions had stayed on, with a view to complete restoration of their 
strength, for some days less than three weeks at Cooper's Creek, 
living, as a last resource, on the flesh of the two camels there found, 
they would have been rescued by the arrival of the other party 
from the south. These men, after meeting Wright and his people 
from Menindie, returned with them to Cooper's Creek, in the hope 
of finding Burke, Wills, and their other two comrades. The depot 
was reached on May 8th, but no thought was taken about digging 
to see if the chest had been disturbed. Had this been done, a letter 
from Burke would have been found stating the course pursued. 
The luckless three, Burke, Wills, and King, could then have been 
followed, overtaken, and saved. The party led by Wright, seeing 
no cause for further delay, and believing that the others had perished 
on the northern journey, finally left Cooper's Creek for home. 



EXPLORATION. 73 

On April 24th, the three men, Burke and his comrades, started 
down Cooper's Creek, making for a large sheep-station on the 
road to Adelaide, now a much nearer point than Melbourne. This 
plan, on which Burke insisted, was adopted with fatal results. Wills 
had strongly urged a return to Melbourne, by way of Menindie, on 
the Darling, for, as he said, "we know the road, and are sure of water 
all the way". It is obvious that they would thus have met Wright's 
party. The point at which they were first aiming was Mount Hope- 
less, where the sheep-station lay. They came into a fearfully barren 
country, following the creek until it was lost in marshes. The two 
camels were killed for food, and the doomed travellers, daily growing 
weaker, gave in at last and retraced their steps when they were 
within 50 miles of Mount Hopeless, and would have seen its 
summit peering above the horizon, if they had gone a few miles 
further. The party again reached the fresh water and grassy banks 
of Cooper's Creek, at a point away from the depot, with provisions 
for only a day or two left, and then Burke and King set out to find a 
native encampment. They were successful in this search, and, after 
a kindly reception, were shown how to prepare for food the seeds 
of a plant called nardoo. With this information they returned to 
Wills, and for a few days the three men just sustained life in this 
fashion. On May 3Oth, at Burke's suggestion, Wills made his 
way back to the dep6t on Cooper's Creek, but saw no traces of 
the recent visit made by Wright's party. On his way back to 
rejoin Burke and King, he fell in with a native camp and had a 
good feast of fish, being kindly treated for four days until his 
strength was somewhat restored. He then set out to bring his 
friends to enjoy the same hospitality, but he was some days in 
reaching them, and when, with journeying made slow by weakness, 
the three arrived at the place, the natives had gone elsewhere. 
For a short time longer, the unhappy men struggled to sustain life 
on the very short supplies of nardoo seed which their lack of skill 
and their weakness permitted them to prepare. The diary kept 
by Wills has shorter and shorter entries: the fight with starvation 
needs all his little strength. "His legs", we learn, "become so 
weak that he can barely crawl out of the hut." " Unless relief 
comes, he cannot last more than a fortnight." Then his mind 
seems to wander, and frequent blunders occur. The last words 
written by the dying man were that "he was waiting; like Mr. 



74 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Micawber, for something to turn up, and that, though starving on 
nardoo seed was by no means unpleasant, yet he would prefer 
to have a little fat and sugar mixed with it". With such serene 
heroism and humorous spirit did Wills face death incurred in the 
cause of Australian exploration. The end, for him, was now close 
at hand. The inclemency of winter, at its height for Australia in 
the month of June, and the lack of protection in scanty clothes, 
had combined with starvation and fatigue to wear out the last 
remnant of physical strength. Burke, in desperation, set out with 
King to find a party of natives as the last resource against death 
from hunger. They laid Wills down gently within the hut, placing 
at his side nardoo-cake enough to last him for some days. He 
then gave his watch to Burke and a letter addressed to his father, 
and the two men, pressing his hands, saw him alive for the last 
time. In the utter silence of the wilds, the brave man drew his 
last breath, on some day in the last week of June, 1861. Two 
days later, Burke lay down and died of exhaustion, after handing 
his watch and pocket-book to King, for his friends in Melbourne, 
and, at his desire, the body was left lying on the ground, with a 
pistol in the right hand. King, stumbling on, came upon a native 
encampment where the blacks, by neglect, had left a bag of nardoo, 
sufficient to last one man for a fortnight. He returned to the hut 
where Wills had been left, found him dead, and buried his body in 
the sand. He then set forth with his only chance of life depen- 
dent on meeting with some friendly natives. 

We must now see what was occurring in Melbourne, many 
hundreds of miles from these scenes of suffering and death. 
About the middle of June, Wright's party reached the Darling 
river, and sent despatches to the Exploration Committee in Mel- 
bourne, explaining the position of affairs. Five relief parties, 
when the news was spread abroad, were sent out from the different 
colonies. Victoria, by good right, was first in the field, and it was 
her expedition that succeeded in the object which all had in view. 
The father of Wills was anxious himself to conduct a search- 
party, but the command of the expedition starting from Melbourne 
was given to Mr. Alfred William Howitt, afterwards Secretary for 
Mines in Victoria. This son of William and Mary Howitt, the 
charming writers on rural English subjects, had already won repu- 
tation as a fearless, able, and energetic bushman. With a strong 



KING WATCHING THE LAST MOMENTS OF BURKE. 

There are few more tragic chapters in the whole history of exploration 
than that relating to the expedition sent out from Melbourne in 1860, 
under Robert O'Hara Burke, to make the journey from the south of 
Australia to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Subsidized by the Victorian Govern- 
ment, and liberally equipped in every respect, it started with excellent 
prospects of success; but various causes combined to make it a series of 
disasters. Cooper's Creek in the interior was taken as a base of operations, 
and starting from thence Burke and Wills (his second in command) were 
able to reach the northern coast district. On returning to their depot, 
along with King, who had only gone part of the distance, they found it 
deserted by the party whom they had left. They then ill-advisedly set out 
in the direction of the South Australian settlements, but were compelled to 
return by want of water, and the friendly help of some natives only served 
to prolong for a little the sufferings of two of them. First Wills and then 
Burke succumbed; but King was rescued by Howitt's relief expedition in 
September, 1861. The object of the expedition had been partially ac- 
complished, for the ill-fated men had crossed Australia from south to north, 
and had all but reached the sea, having traversed a great extent of country 
previously unknown. 

(44) 




AVAL. FACET. 



KING WATCHING THE LAST MOMENTS OF BURKE. 



Vol. vi. p. 74. 



EXPLORATION. 



party of assistants, Howitt arrived at the oft-named depot on 
Cooper's Creek, on September 8th, 1861. On a Sunday morning, 
just a week later, the searchers were going along the banks of a 
creek, when they came upon a party of natives among whom was 
an emaciated white man. He said, in reply to a question from 
Mr. Welch, the surveyor to the relief expedition, "Who, in the 
name of wonder, are you?" "I am King, sir, the last man 
of the exploring expedition." He told his story, and it was 
then found that he had been living among the aborigines 
since the middle of July. The remains of Wills and Burke were 
then found and decently buried, and the kindly blacks were re- 
warded by presents of knives, tomahawks, necklaces, mirrors, and 
other articles. Gay pieces of ribbon were fastened round the 
black heads of the children, and the whole tribe moved away 
rejoicing in the fifty pounds of sugar distributed among them. 
The expedition, accompanied by King, arrived back in Melbourne 
on November 28th, 1861. Public feeling demanded the recovery 
of the bodies of Burke and Wills, and a second expedition, also 
under Mr. Howitt, brought them to the capital of Victoria in the 
last days of 1862. A lying-in-state for twenty days, and a public 
funeral on January 2ist, 1863, were the last honours accorded to 
the two brave explorers, save the colossal joint statues modelled 
and cast in bronze by the hands of Charles Summers, the eminent 
Melbourne sculptor, and erected afterwards in that city, with a 
plinth commemorating, in bronze bas-reliefs, the more important 
incidents of their wanderings. At the little Devonshire town on 
the mid-course of the beautiful river Dart, an obelisk does honour 
to her distinguished son, the gallant and gentle Wills. A pension 
was bestowed on Wills' mother by the Victorian government, and 
sums of money were awarded to his sisters. King also received a 
handsome pension until his death in 1872, and Burke's nearest 
of kin had good awards of public funds. In concluding the 
subject of Australian exploration, we may note the services 
rendered by other expeditions in search of Burke and Wills, under 
Landsborough from Queensland, and M'Kinlay from South Aus- 
tralia. Great additions were made to public knowledge of the 
interior of the continent, and large areas of country, previously 
believed to be deserts, were opened up for pastoral settlement. 



76 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

CHAPTER III. 
NEW SOUTH WALES. HISTORY FROM 1801 TO 1851. 

Administration of Governor King Progress of the Colony The New South Wales 
Corps Governor Bligh deposed Improvements under Governor Macquarie 
Exploration across the Blue Mountains Sir Thomas M. 'Brisbane and Sir Ralph 
Darling, governors The Bush-ranging Act passed Popular rule of Governor 
Bourke His new arrangements for the sale of land Systematic transportation 
abolished Agitation for representative institutions William C. Wentworth and 
Dr. Lang A popular Legislative Council established Financial depression under 
Governor Gipps A new trade introduced Mr. Wakefield's system of industrial 
emigration Improved condition of the colony A new constitution granted Dis- 
covery of gold in 1851 Researches of Count de Strzelecki and Mr. Clarke the 
"father of Australian geology" Mr. Edward H. Hargraves, the pioneer of gold- 
mining in the colony The gold-fever described Methods of obtaining the gold 
Rapid rise of towns Measures adopted to preserve law and order. 

We resume the history of New South Wales with the appoint- 
ment, at the close of the year 1800, of Captain King as Governor. 
We have seen this able and energetic man as founder, in 1788, of 
the first settlement at Norfolk Island, whence he was summoned 
to take charge of the Australian colony, still chiefly composed of 
convicts hard to control, and almost impossible to reform into 
industry and good conduct. During his five years' tenure of 
office much progress was made in agricultural affairs. The pro- 
duction of wool was extending, and fresh land was being taken up 
by settlers on the fertile banks of the Hawkesbury and Nepean 
rivers. Sydney Cove received shipping from all parts of the 
world, and vessels were fitted out for whaling and sealing in the 
southern seas. Schools and churches were built, but the moral and 
material progress of the colony was much checked by the baneful 
influence exerted by the officers of the New South Wales Corps 
through their practical monopoly of articles of merchandise, and 
especially through their sale of rum to the emancipated convicts 
and the immigrants. In 1806, when King left New South Wales, 
the population was nearly 10,000, of whom above half were adult 
males, and 1700 adult females. Of the 166,000 acres of occupied 
land, about 12,000 were being tilled, and 145,000 were under 
pasture. The live stock of the colonists comprised over 2000 
horned cattle, 10,000 sheep, 500 horses, 7000 pigs and 2000 goats, 
these figures including Van Diemen's Land and Norfolk Island. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 77 

Works for spinning wool and flax had been started; coal had 
been found at the place thence called Newcastle, at the mouth of 
the Hunter river, and salt was being made in "pans" there and 
at Sydney. The colony of Australia was thus fairly launched on 
her career. The governorship of King's successor, Captain Bligh, 
from August 1806 to January 1808, may be briefly despatched. 
This man was the notorious person whose brutal severity as 
captain caused the mutiny on board the Bounty frigate in 1 789. 
He was not without kindly feeling, and received the special thanks 
of the home authorities for his exertions in alleviating, in 1806, 
the distress of settlers in the Hawkesbury district who were ruined 
by a flood. He was, however, devoid of tact and conciliation, and 
his severe methods of rule, applied not only to the convicts, but 
to the free settlers, soon caused great discontent. It is certain, 
on the other hand, that the hostility of the officers of the New 
South Wales Corps was largely due to his prompt and summary 
measures in dealing with their iniquitous trade in rum. At last, 
early in 1808, he was deposed by the use of military force, and 
permitted to go to Tasmania, whence he returned to England. 
Major Johnstone, the commandant of the Corps, and ringleader 
in the movement for ridding the colony of Bligh, was dismissed 
from the service, and on January ist, 1810, Colonel (afterwards 
Major-General) Lachlan Macquarie, of the 73rd Regiment, took 
up his duties as Governor. 

Macquarie's twelve years of rule were distinguished by vigorous 
and successful efforts to improve the means of internal communica- 
tion and to develop the resources of the country. It was he who 
built the first lighthouse, that at the South Head; he established 
a market at Parramatta, founded the towns of Bathurst and New- 
castle, laid the foundation-stone of the first public school, and 
built the first Benevolent Asylum. It may be fairly said that, 
under his auspices, New South Wales was transformed from a 
penal settlement into a colony, and financial progress is evinced by 
the foundation of the first banking institution, the Bank of New 
South Wales. Macquarie's main achievement was that of ex- 
panding the bounds by the construction of a road across the Blue 
Mountains, the practical demolition of the barrier which had 
hitherto hemmed in the free settlers, and shut them out from the 
rich near interior of the great land where " The world was all 



78 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence 
their guide ". The governor's chief delight lay in making roads. 
On his arrival in the colony, he found existing but forty-five 
miles of what were little better than bush-tracks; when he quitted 
his post, over 300 miles of substantial roads stretched in all direc- 
tions from Sydney. Many persons had in vain striven to cross 
the Blue Mountains. The only one who had succeeded in 
penetrating far into the wild, rugged region was a gentleman 
named Caley, who stopped at the edge of a precipice which he 
could find no way of descending. In 1813, Lieutenant Lawson, 
accompanied by two settlers named Blaxland and Wentworth, 
with four servants, horses, and dogs, made a new attempt at 
exploration in that difficult country. Starting on May nth, with 
provisions for six weeks, the adventurous party went into the 
ranges, cleared their way through thick "scrub", clambered up 
and down precipitous places, passed over gloomy chasms and 
through thickly-wooded ravines, and in twenty days' time, after 
a journey of fifty miles, they reached fine grass-land and then 
returned to Sydney. On the way back, they found that by 
keeping on the crest of a long spur, the passage through the 
mountains could be far more easily made, and the Governor, on 
their report, caused the pass to be carefully surveyed. On receipt 
of a favourable opinion, Macquarie ordered the work to be at once 
taken in hand by convict labour. Through fifty miles of rugged 
country, where many chasms had to be bridged, and solid rock to 
be cut away, the construction of a road went on, and in less than 
15 months a good carriage highway from Sydney, across the Blue 
Mountains, to the beautiful plains on the west, enabled the 
Governor to take Mrs. Macquarie on a trip to the fine pasture- 
lands where he founded a settlement and named it Bathurst, after 
Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State. Many squatters quickly 
emerged from the limited space between Sydney and the sea, 
and, driving their flocks and herds before them, settled down in 
the fine district of the Macquarie and Lachlan rivers. This great 
work was finished in April, 1815. 

We may here observe that Macquarie adopted the policy of 
administering New South Wales mainly as a convict settlement, 
the purport of which was to reform the prisoners and enable them 
to rise. After serving his sentence, or receiving a pardon, a con- 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



79 



vict was to be admitted on equal terms into society and the public 
service. The free settlers were offended at this conduct of affairs, 
and an inquiry made by a Special Commissioner led to Macquarie's 
recall in 1821. Circumstances had been too strong for the 
Governor's views as to the purpose for which territory had been 
occupied in New South Wales. The cessation, in 1815, of the 
great war which had continued, with little intermission, from the 
first establishment of the colony, gave the people of Great Britain 
leisure to think about their possessions in Australasia, and, in 
spite of Macquarie's quiet and persistent discouragement of 
immigration, free settlers continued to arrive and to occupy land. 

Macquarie's successor, who became General Sir Thomas Mac- 
dougall Brisbane, Baronet, G.C.B., was descended from an ancient 
Ayrshire family, and served with high distinction under Wellington 
in the Peninsular War. He made his four years' tenure of office 
memorable by the encouragement of immigration, and by the aid 
which he rendered to settlers in grants of land, and in the assign- 
ment to them, as servants, of as many convicts as they were able 
to employ. The colony thus grew fast in the possession of rich 
flocks and herds, and, while the area of cleared land was doubled, 
and the export of wool multiplied fivefold, the moral condition of 
affairs was improved by the breaking-up of the costly government 
farms, and the scattering among the free settlers of the convicts 
who had once lived together in large numbers. This Governor 
also introduced good breeds of horses at his own expense. He 
was not successful in acquiring popularity, or in his financial 
administration, and the fine old soldier, a man of the highest 
character, and, as we shall see, of no mean acquirements in science, 
was recalled in 1825. We must note an important change, due to 
the home government, in the grant of some constitutional rule, in 
place of the former arbitrary sway of governors responsible only 
to the Colonial Office in London. An Act of 1823 created a 
Legislative Council of seven members, including the chief officials. 
These members were nominated by the Crown, but this measure 
was really the dawn of freedom for British subjects in Aus- 
tralasia. 

From December 1825 till 1831, the post of Governor was held 
by another military man, Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Darling, G.C.B., 
a martinet of painfully precise and methodical habits, with a devo- 



8 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

tion to minute details which caused neglect of more important 
affairs. He became very unpopular through his despotic proceed- 
ings, and consequent embroilment with the public press, and his 
difficulties were enhanced by a depressed state of agricultural and 
financial affairs, due to a long period of drought, and to a mania 
for speculative joint-stock companies. In 1828, an Act of the 
British Parliament enlarged the Legislative Council to fifteen 
members. The Bush-ranging Act, passed by the Council in 1830, 
dealt with a great and growing evil, under which, in the Bathurst 
district, a party of over fifty escaped convicts fought a pitched 
drawn battle with a large body of settlers. The police were then 
attacked by the desperate ruffians, and some of them were killed. 
After another indecisive conflict, the whole gang were forced to 
surrender to soldiers of the 39th Regiment sent from Sydney. 
Ten of the prisoners were hanged, and a most salutary effect was 
produced by severe measures of repression which included the 
arrest, without warrant, of suspected persons; the use of search- 
warrants for arms concealed in houses, and the execution, on the 
third day after conviction, of robbers and house-breakers. 

The rule of General Sir Richard Bourke, K.C.B., from 1831 to 
1837, was a notable period in the history of the rising colony. 
Warmly welcomed by those who had suffered, as they declared in 
their address, from " an inveterate system of misgovernment ", the 
new administrator of affairs so acquitted himself that the colonists, 
for years after his departure, used to talk of him as "good old 
Governor Bourke ". This most able and popular of all the Sydney 
governors, a man full of energy, and endowed with sound judgment, 
firmness of character, and a frank and hearty manner, was an Irish 
land-owner and Peninsular veteran who had already gained two 
years' experience as Lieut-Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. 
His services are stated in eulogistic terms on the monument erected 
to his memory at Sydney. We there learn that he was the first 
who systematically applied the vast resources of the colony to the 
benefit of the people; that he was the first governor to publish 
satisfactory accounts of public receipts and expenditure; that he 
vastly increased the revenue, and used the surplus to promote 
immigration; that he established religious equality on a just and 
firm basis, and sought to provide for all, without distinction of sect, 
a sound and adequate system of national education ; that he founded 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 3 r 

savings-banks; was the warm friend of the liberty of the press; 
extended trial by jury; and by these and many other measures for 
the moral, religious, and general improvement of all classes, raised 
the colony to unexampled prosperity. One of Bourke's most 
important services was connected with the land question. The 
system of free grants had been attended with many abuses. People 
having influence with the Sydney officials soon found themselves 
possessors of a portion of the soil; other immigrants of the best 
quality for a new country met with much difficulty and delay. The 
new arrangement of affairs provided for the sale by auction of all 
vacant land in settled districts, at an upset price of five shillings 
per acre. The large sum of money yearly received from the sale 
of land enabled the government to resume the practice, which had 
been laid aside in 1818, of assisting poor people in the British Isles 
to emigrate to Australia. At the same time, squatters who had 
settled beyond the surveyed districts, and had no legal title to 
their sheep-runs, were secured in the peaceable occupation of land 
by the payment of a moderate rent, proportioned to the number of 
sheep which their holdings could support. This tenancy was to 
continue until such time as the land might be required for sale, 
and the new regulation did much for the stability of " squatting " 
interests in New South Wales. The close of Governor Bourke's 
tenure of office is of much interest as nearly coinciding with the 
accession of Queen Victoria. The progress of the colony which 
he had so well ruled is proved by the facts that, on his resignation 
in December, 1837, the population had grown to nearly 77,000 
persons, of whom over 25,000 were male, and over 2500, female 
convicts, either under punishment or who had served their sen- 
tence; the imports much exceeded a million sterling in value, and 
the exports were approaching ^700,000. 

Early in 1838 a new Governor arrived in Sir George Gipps, 
another Peninsular veteran, a man of great ability and most upright 
character, very diligent in business and devoted to the welfare of 
those whom he ruled, but rendered somewhat unpopular by an 
imperious and arbitrary method of advancing to the goal which he 
had in view. In 1838 came the cessation of the system of assign- 
ing convicts as servants to settlers, and two years later an Order 
in Council abolished systematic transportation to the colony, though 
it was not finally extinguished until some years later. The rising 

VOL. VI. 116 



82 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

free community had long been demanding representative institutions, 
the leaders in this agitation being those distinguished Australian 
patriots and political pioneers, William Charles Wentworth and 
Dr. Lang. Wentworth, son of a Dublin surgeon who became 
medical officer at Norfolk Island, was born there in 1793, and, 
after early education in England, went out to Sydney and, as we 
have seen, joined Blaxland and Lawson in the successful attempt 
to cross the Blue Mountains. He then returned to England, 
published a work on New South Wales, and went through the 
curriculum of Cambridge University, where, in 1823, he was placed 
second to the brilliant Winthrop Mackworth Praed in competition 
for the Chancellor's Medal for an English poem on " Australasia ". 
In 1824, Mr. Wentworth joined the Sydney bar, practised with 
great success, went largely into "squatting", started the Australian 
newspaper, and, having established his reputation as a speaker and 
writer, became the leading man in the " Patriotic Association ", 
which was formed to promote the claims of the colonists to civil 
and political privileges similar to those enjoyed by other British 
subjects. Always the fearless opponent of the arbitrary rule of 
some of the military Governors, Wentworth, in 1830, at a public 
meeting in Sydney, carried an amendment to an address of con- 
gratulation to William the Fourth on his accession, and in addition 
to the stereotyped loyal phrases, called for the extension " to the 
only colony of Britain bereft of the rights of Britons, of a full parti- 
cipation of the benefits and privileges of the British Constitution ". 
John Dunmore Lang, born at Greenock in 1799, graduated at 
Glasgow University, and received the degree of D.D. in 1825. 
Two years prior to this he had become minister of the Scottish 
National Church in Sydney, where he received a warm welcome 
from his fellow-countrymen, and had the honour of introducing the 
Presbyterian church and school system into Australia. His dis- 
tinguished career did not end until August, 1878, when he was 
accorded the tribute of a public funeral. This very able, public- 
spirited, liberal-minded, energetic and disinterested citizen of New 
South Wales was an ardent supporter of immigration, making 
frequent visits to England in that behalf, and in 1836 he took out 
thence a supply of suitable ministers for the Presbyterian Church, 
with schoolmasters and other settlers, numbering with their families 
about three hundred persons. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 3, 

It was in 1842 that the efforts of Wentworth, Lang, and their 
supporters met with some success. An Act was passed, and on 
January ist, 1843, the measure came into force which provided for 
the establishment of a Legislative Council of 36 members, of whom 
six were to be officials, six nominees of the Governor, and twenty-four 
appointed by popular election. Lang and Wentworth were, of 
course, among the first representatives elected by the people to the 
Council which met in Sydney in the following August, Mr. Robert 
Lowe (long afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke) being one of the 
Crown nominees. The Port Phillip district, for which Dr. Lang 
was one of six members thereto assigned, soon began to agitate for 
the separation which was, as we shall see, carried into effect some 
years later. It was the fate of Governor Gipps to incur unpopu- 
larity among colonists suffering from troubles largely due to their 
own imprudence. From 1841 to 1846, when he left the colony, 
there was severe financial depression caused by previous exces- 
sive speculation in land; by the loss of funds from the home-country 
once expended on the convict-system; and by the substitution of 
paid free labour for that of the convicts. Trade and industry were 
in a state of collapse; property in land and stock fell greatly in 
value, and the Bank of Australia failed, with liabilities reaching 
a quarter of a million. Some relief was afforded by a colonial law 
which legalized liens on wool and mortgages of stock, and by 
measures in aid of the shareholders of the bank, who, under 
unlimited liability, were threatened with ruin. In this time ol 
trouble, when squatters were forced to sell their sheep in a glutted 
market, so that animals which had been bought for 305. were gladly 
disposed of for is. 6d., and a large flock was sold in Sydney at 
sixpence per head, an ingenious settler did far more than any legis- 
lative devices to restore prosperity to the afflicted colonists. Mr. 
O'Brien, a squatter on the river Yass, about 200 miles south-west 
of Sydney, discovered that sheep could be turned to other uses than 
for wool and food. In the fashion long pursued in Russia, he boiled 
down the carcases of his sheep for the fat, and thus started a large 
and lucrative trade in tallow, of which each animal produced about 
six shillings' worth. An export trade to Europe arose, and tallow, 
with the hides of cattle, became a regular source of colonial wealth. 

In 1846 Sir George Gipps, glad to retire from a harassing 
task, was succeeded by Sir Charles Fitzroy, a man of good temper, 



84 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

moderation, and tact, who had acquired previous experience in 
colonial rule as Governor of Prince Edward's Island and of Antigua. 
Before he arrived on his new scene of duty in New South Wales, 
a revival of prosperity had begun. Free emigration and extension 
of settlements inland had given new life to the colony, and railways, 
and steam-traffic with the home-country, were being mooted. The 
great want of the colony was free labour, to obtain which various 
devices had been tried in the past. Free grants of land, and the 
bounty system of paying so much a head to every immigrant, had 
alike failed. Some relief came in the adoption of the Wakefield 
system, advocated by the famous Edward Gibbon Wakefield, whom 
we have seen in connection with Lord Durham in Canada. It was 
in 1833 that Wakefield, in his View of the Art of Colonization, 
denounced the method of free grants of land, and urged the sale of 
the public lands at a fair upset price, and the use of the proceeds 
for the promotion of industrial emigration. Money was yearly sent 
by the colonial government to a Board of Emigration Commis- 
sioners in London, who selected and despatched emigrants to New 
South Wales, paying half the passage-money and offering loans to 
mechanics. For some years onwards from 1838 the lack of new 
settlers and free labourers was at its worst, and during the stagnant 
days from 1841 to 1846 there was hardly any immigration at all. 
In 1847, the arrival of labour began to improve in amount, and the 
discovery of gold a few years later brought a rush of new-comers 
from all parts of the world, and for ever ended the difficulty. In 
1849, after a brief revival in the interest of squatters who found 
that convicts, "assigned" as servants, made good shepherds and 
stockmen, transportation of convicts to New South Wales finally 
ceased. 

Before describing the all-important discovery of gold, we may 
deal with some notable events of the period during which Sir 
Charles Fitzroy held rule. In July, 1850, the first sod of the first 
Australian railway, a line from Sydney to Goulburn, was turned by 
Mrs. Keith Stuart, the Governor's daughter. In the same year, the 
Port Phillip district of New South Wales became a separate colony. 
In 1852, the University of Sydney, chiefly due to the exertions of 
Wentworth, was opened "as a national institution for the secular 
education of all classes and denominations". The following year 
saw the sanction of the Crown given to the establishment at Sydney 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 85 

of a branch of the Royal Mint, the building being opened in 1855. 
Just before the departure of Sir Charles Fitzroy in January, 1855, 
a new constitution, under an Act of the British Parliament, had been 
granted to New South Wales, establishing full responsible govern- 
ment, with an Upper House nominated by the Crown. The 
measure was watched through Parliament by its chief promoter, 
Wentworth, who made the voyage to London for the purpose, accom- 
panied by the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, Mr. (after- 
wards Sir) Edward Deas Thomson. Thus did the colony become 
at last a nation. 

The new system of rule was inaugurated by Fitzroy's successor, 
Sir William T. Denison, who had for some years been at the head 
of affairs in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). He was a resolute, 
painstaking, able man, who did good service in the initiation of 
responsible government, as a system under which the representa- 
tive of the Crown was to reign but not govern, following the advice 
of his cabinet of ministers in all but certain matters reserved for 
settlement at home as being affairs of imperial concern. We may 
here at once state that the internal history of Australian politics, as 
regards party struggles, disputed questions, successive ministries 
and so forth, alike in New South Wales and the other colonies, lies 
outside the scope of the present work. For information on these 
points we refer our readers to special Australian histories, and to 
such works as the Dictionary of Australasian Biography already 
named, and Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, by 
Sir Henry Parkes, G.C.M.G., formerly Premier of New South 
Wales. 

The year of the "Great Exhibition", 1851, was that made 
specially memorable in the annals of Australia by the discovery of 
gold, an event which had so vast an effect upon the fortunes of the 
British colonial empire in the southern hemisphere. The revela- 
tion of mineral treasures surpassing in value those obtained by 
Europeans in Mexico and Peru in and after the days of Cortes 
and Pizarro, but hitherto lying hidden in the soil of the great 
island-continent, was the opening of a new and most exciting 
chapter in the romance of history. A fresh animation was given 
to industry by a vast augmentation of the metallic currency of the 
world; an outflow of population to Australia from other quarters 
of the globe set in; and we may regard the discovery of gold in 



86 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

New South Wales and, above all, in Victoria, viewed in its 
ultimate results, as marking an epoch in the progress of the human 
race. The existence of the most precious of metals in the 
mountain district of the south-east had long been suspected and, 
in a slight measure, demonstrated by scientific observers and 
chance discoveries. In 1839, the eminent scientist and explorer, 
Count de Strzelecki, a Polish noble who became K.C.M.G. and 
F.R.S., as a British subject, for his services and attainments, 
discovered gold-bearing quartz at a point about 200 miles west of 
Sydney. Two years later, the Rev. William Branwhite Clarke, 
a clergyman of the Anglican Church who had emigrated to Sydney 
in 1839, confidently asserted the existence of gold, from geological 
and mineralogical evidences. As a student at Cambridge Univer- 
sity, Mr. Clarke had attended the geological lectures of Professor 
Sedgwick, and he pursued the study with such zeal and success as 
to earn the letters F.R.S. and the title of "the father of Australian 
geology ". He also found specimens of gold in the Vale of Clwyd, 
below the Blue Mountains, but both the count and the clergyman 
were induced to keep silence on the subject by the Governor, 
Sir George Gipps, who dreaded the effect of exciting the cupidity 
of the convicts and free labourers. It is remarkable that both 
Mr. Clarke and Sir Roderick Murchison confidently predicted 
metallic wealth in that part of Australia from the close geological 
resemblance of the Blue Mountains to the Ural chain in Russia. 
Between 1844 and 1849 specimens of gold were found in the Port 
Phillip district, one of them being a nugget weighing 10 ounces. 
The discovery of gold in California at the close of 1848 drew 
many Australians to the western shores of the United States, 
Among these voyagers was the man who, though he was far from 
being the first discoverer of Australian gold, is now regarded 
as the actual starter of the gold-mining industry in Australia. 
Edward Hammond Hargraves, born at Gosport in 1816, emi- 
grated to New South Wales in 1832, and was soon engaged in 
pastoral pursuits. Well-nigh ruined as a squatter by droughts 
occurring in the period between 1844 and 1848, he went to Cali- 
fornia in the hope of retrieving his losses on the Pacific slopes 
of another continent. He did not obtain much of what he there 
sought, but he did acquire the practical knowledge which, on his 
return to Sydney, in 1851, enabled him to discover gold, in 



NEW SOUTH WALES. fy 

Summerhill Creek, beyond the Blue Mountains, on February i2th 
of that notable year. A few small specks of gold were found 
by him in four out of five panfuls of soil taken from a bank of 
red earth and clay. After a careful examination of the surroundino- 
district, over a large area, and the attainment of like results from 
washing, Hargraves made his way to Sydney with several ounces 
of gold, and the Government geologist, in May, 1851, confirmed 
his report after a personal inspection. The discoverer was re- 
warded by various grants amounting, in all, to .15,000, as the 
pioneer of an industry which, throughout Australia, has produced 
gold to a value far exceeding 300 millions of pounds sterling. 
The discoveries of gold in the new colony of Victoria, much more 
important than those made in New South Wales, are hereafter 
described. The rush which was made to the scene of Hargraves' 
discoveries may be well imagined. Five days after the announce- 
ment was publicly made, on May I4th, 1851, the Summerhill 
valley had 400 persons at work, stooping over the creek in a row 
about a mile long, each man having a dish in his hand, and busily 
engaged in washing the earth for gold. A week later, a thousand 
men were on the spot, and excitement spread far and wide when 
lumps of gold were found worth .200, the forerunners of famous 
nuggets which, in New South Wales and Victoria, ranged in 
value from ,4000 to ; 10,000. The almost simultaneous finding 
of gold to great values in Victoria added to the gold-fever which 
was carried through the world, and, while in Australia itself work- 
men abandoned their previous employment, shepherds deserted 
their flocks, shopkeepers closed their "stores", and sailors left 
ships in harbour without a crew, the south-eastern shores of the 
new auriferous continent were sought from Europe by men of 
every class Cornish miners, University graduates, mechanics, 
clerks, younger sons of good families, Polish, French, and German 
political refugees, and adventurers of every nation. Asia, for her 
part, sent forth thousands of Chinamen to dig and wash for a 
share of the spoil. In course of time, the work of the early 
diggers, as individuals or in small parties, among the upper alluvial 
deposits, was succeeded by toil that needed capital for sinking 
deep shafts to ancient river-beds or auriferous drifts, with the 
employment of pumping and hoisting machinery. This new 
phase of gold-mining was succeeded by the costly method of 



88 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

crushing auriferous quartz in rocky regions where the gold was 
found richly at great depths. In this style of work, the capital 
employed amounted to millions sterling, and in one Victorian mine 
the crust of the earth has been pierced to a depth exceeding 
2400 feet. Some Australian towns owe their origin to the gold- 
fields. The tents and huts of the early miners were succeeded by 
substantial buildings; an irregular encampment became a well-built 
town, and the town grew into a handsome city with the appliances 
and resources of modern civilization, the centre of a district rich 
in agriculture, horticulture, pastoral industry, and manufacturing 
enterprise of varied character. The disappointments of diggers 
hoping to win riches within a week or a month of arrival at the 
scene of new finds of gold; the wild extravagance of successful 
men; the mingling of misery and mirth, ruin and riotous excess, 
are the materials of an oft-told tale of the Australian diggings. 
In New South Wales, Bathurst, Braidwood, Ophir, and the Turon 
river were among the earliest localities to furnish abundant gold. 
The government soon adopted measures for the preservation of 
law and order at the diggings, in the appointment of a com- 
missioner to act as a magistrate in each locality, assisted by a body 
of police; and in requiring diggers to take out licenses, with pay- 
ment at the rate of $os. per month, in order to have a legal right 
to the gold obtained from a particular " claim " or area of ground. 



CHAPTER IV. 

NEW SOUTH WALES Continued. HISTORY FROM 1851 TO THE 

PRESENT TIME. 

Condition of the colony in 1861 Political changes A new Land Act passed Bush- 
ranging Robbing a gold escort" Sticking up " a station An atrocious deed A 
desperate gang broken up Daring exploits of the Kelly gang or " iron-clad bush- 
rangers "Their final destruction Increasing prosperity of the colony Sir Hercules 
Robinson a popular governor International Exhibition at Sydney in 1879 Colonial 
troops sent to the Soudan Popular governorship of Lord Carrington Chinese 
immigration prohibited Proposals for Australasian federation. 

The separation of Port Phillip district from New South Wales 
reduced the population of the latter colony by one-fourth, and her 
wealth by fully one-third, and for a year or two prosperity was checked 
through the lack of labour for all modes of industry save gold-mining. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



8 9 



The true source of permanent wealth lay in the production of wool, 
and we may observe that the yield of gold in New South Wales, 
never great as compared with that of Victoria, in no year except 1 85 2 
produced more than the value of two millions sterling. A large 
majority of the men who had been' drawn away in the first rush for 
gold by degrees returned to theft* usual avocations, and the colony 
entered on a career of steady success based upon her vast pastoral 
resources. In 1857, the population of Sydney, including the suburbs, 
exceeded 80,000; the horned cattle were approaching 2^ millions; 
the sheep exceeded 8 millions. The census of 1861 showed a popu- 
lation, for the whole colony, of 358,000. The Governorship was at 
this time assumed, and held from 1861 to 1867, by Sir John Young 
(afterwards Governor-General of Canada and Lord Lisgar), an Irish 
baronet who had been Chief Secretary for Ireland and Lord High 
Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. He was an able, successful, 
and popular ruler, holding the balance fairly between different 
parties, an example which has, on the whole, been well followed 
by his successors in New South Wales. The representative 
institutions of the colony had already, under Sir William Denison, 
been developed, in a democratic sense, by the introduction of vote 
by ballot; by the increase of the number of representatives in the 
Lower House, or Legislative Assembly, from 54 to 80; and by 
the extension of the franchise to every adult male of six months' 
residence in any electorate. Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and 
Tasmania had been connected by telegraphic wires, and in 1858 
the colony of Queensland had sprung into existence by the 
separation of the Moreton Bay district from New South Wales. 
Under Sir John Young, the important Land Act caused large 
tracts of soil to be brought under cultivation by the facilities 
afforded to men of small capital for acquiring possession of farms 
on easy terms. This measure was very strongly opposed in the 
Legislative Council, or Upper House of Crown nominees, chiefly 
consisting of large " squatters ", holding " runs " rented from the 
State, and liable, under the new legislation, to have fertile portions 
of land selected for purchase by new-comers. A long agitation on 
this subject had been carried on throughout the Australian colonies, 
and like legislation in all of them followed the Land Act of New 
South Wales. It was at this time also that political disabilities, 
long maintained by jealousy on the part of the descendants of free 



9O OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

settlers, were finally abolished for those who had sprung from 
convict ancestors. Progress was made in railway construction, and 
the condition of country roads was improved. 

We must now give some account of a temporary evil element 
in the social condition of the colony, the "bush-ranging" or robbery 
with violence, practised in the country districts, originally by run- 
away convicts sent from the British Isles, and afterwards taken up 
by criminal adventurers born in Australia, men familiar with the 
mountains and forests, good horsemen and excellent shots, formid- 
able foes alike to the outlying settlers whom they harassed by their 
depredations, and to the police who sought their capture. In order 
to give a fair view of this interesting and picturesque subject, 
which has almost a literature of its own, we shall deal with its 
various phases of highway robbery, "sticking up" houses, and 
robbing towns and banks, passing for one or two scenes into the 
neighbouring colony of Victoria. We have seen that in 1830 a 
large gang of desperate men was finally dealt with by military 
force, and bush-ranging on this scale ceased under the operation of 
the strong Act which was renewed in 1834. Robbery on the high- 
way, in the usual sense of the words, was never rife in Australia, 
from the lack of travellers bearing on their persons large sums of 
money or other valuables. Payments were invariably made by 
cheque, and it was only with the discovery of gold that an opening 
was afforded for profitable work in this direction. The transport 
of the precious metal from the diggings to the great coast-towns 
for deposit in the banks or for exportation caused bands of ruffians 
to attack the gold-escorts of mounted and armed police, in some 
instances with success due to well - planned ambush and rare 
audacity. At a wooded point of the road by which the coach 
must pass trees were cut down by the ruffians to block the way, 
while their horses were kept concealed in readiness for escape with 
the booty, and from a dozen to a score of men with loaded rifles 
were hidden behind rocks and stumps affording a view of the 
approaching party. The two troopers riding in front of the four- 
horse " drag " carrying the escort-gold, with its guard of four armed 
men on the box and in the body of the drag, and two mounted 
men bringing up the rear, are brought to a halt by the felled trees. 
One man dismounts to see if aught can be done to remove the 
obstacle, and the coach drives up close so that the advance-guard 



ATTACK ON A GOLD ESCORT. 

The form of highway robbery known in Australia as bushranging first 
became common about the time of the discovery of gold in 1851. Before 
that period several gangs of escaped convicts had committed depredations, 
but those with whom the Governments had to deal after that time were 
natives of Australia, brave, thoroughly acquainted with the country, and 
splendid marksmen. They blocked with trees the road by which a gold 
escort must pass; and whilst the police were seeking to remove the 
obstruction they were fired at from an ambush and easily overpowered. 
The robbers on seizing the booty would ride off at full speed in different 
directions, ready to organize another raid in a very short time. About 
1862 a bushranging epidemic broke out in New South Wales, and it was 
only with very great difficulty that it was suppressed. The evil was finally 
brought to an end in 1880 by the capture of the notorious and daring 
Kelly gang of "iron-clad bushrangers", four miscreants who chiefly en- 
gaged in the robbery of banks and large stations, and for four years set 
the law and police at defiance. 

(45) 




STANLEY L. WOOD 



ATTACK ON A GOLD ESCORT. 



Vol. vi. p. 90. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 9! 

and the main body are an easy mark for the hidden robbers. Their 
leader's cry of "Fire!" brings a volley of bullets with a crack and 
crash redoubled by the rocks around; the driver falls like a log 
from the box; the troopers lie dead or wounded in the road; and 
the mounted men from the rear gallop up to find the bush-rangers 
cutting the traces of the team as they madly plunge, and letting 
the horses go. They are soon disposed of by the fire of the 
robbers; the locker in the centre of the coach is opened; the square 
boxes of gold are forced; the canvas bags, all labelled and weighed, 
each containing 1000 ounces, are seized; the spoil is divided 
amongst the gang; the pack-horses are brought up from the place 
of hiding, and the plunderers vanish at full speed, by different 
routes, to places of refuge known only to themselves and to a few 
terrorized or sympathizing people. The speed of the horses ridden 
by some of the bush-rangers enabled them to appear, within a brief 
space of time, at far-distant points, and the same gang who on one 
day robbed a settler's station in one district would be "sticking up" 
another, a hundred miles off, within twenty-four hours. The efforts 
of the police were often baffled by this rapid movement, and there 
were some squatters who, in fear of personal and deadly vengeance 
from the marauders, were backward in helping the troopers' work. 
The " sticking up " of a station, save for the victims of such a 
deed, was sometimes almost ludicrous in its sheer coolness, com- 
pleteness, and daring. In daylight, while the squatter and his 
family, as evening draws on, are gathered in converse after the 
labours of the day, a man with a revolver raised in his right hand, 
steps in at the French window from the verandah lit up by the 
rays of the sinking sun. The house is " stuck up ". Every outlet 
is guarded; sentinels are posted to give warning of any perilous 
approach; the horses of the dismounted gang are held in readiness 
for instant flight, or have been exchanged, if they are wearied by 
a long journey, for the best animals in the stock-yard or stable. 
Resistance to the cocked revolvers of five or six robbers is a vain 
thought, and all valuables in money or trinkets are quietly handed 
over to the foe. A meal is furnished for the strangers, and they 
pass an hour or two in consuming the best eatables, liquors, and 
cigars which the house affords, while the lady and her daughters, 
if they are wise and gifted with sufficient nerve, do their best to 
please the bush-rangers with piano and song. Then the robbers 



92 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

mount and ride away, carrying off, amongst other booty, the 
squatter's best suits of clothes and a selection of his firearms, which 
may include the last new thing in repeating rifles. Such were the 
men whom it was the task, well accomplished in course of time, of 
the brave, energetic, and crafty Australian mounted police to hunt 
down to extermination. 

One instance will show the difficulties and dangers encountered 
by these able and daring officers of the law. In 1866 a whole 
district in the southern part of New South Wales, having an area 
nearly as large as Ireland, was held in a state of terror by a des- 
perate gang of bush-rangers, headed by two brothers named Clarke. 
These men contrived to elude all the vigilance and activity of a 
police force in the district numbering three times the usual body 
employed. Their system of " bush telegraph ", in which women 
and girls conveyed intelligence by word of mouth, was arranged 
and maintained with wonderful completeness and success. There 
were some small settlers who were known to afford shelter to 
members of the band, and the efforts of the police were constantly 
foiled in stratagem and outstripped in speed. Mr. (afterwards Sir 
Henry) Parkes, the Colonial Secretary, deeply feeling his respon- 
sibility for the lawless condition of affairs, accepted the offer of 
John Carroll, an ex-policeman, and at that time a jail warder, who 
had abundant experience in dealing with criminals. This able and 
enterprising man undertook to form a special party for the capture 
of the Clarkes and their associates, and was intrusted with the 
command of three men chosen by himself, the body being made 
independent of the regular police, and secretly accredited to certain 
magistrates in the district infested by the bush-rangers. They 
took the field on September 22nd, 1866, and pitched a camp about 
i y 2 miles from the Clarkes' house, under the guise of surveyors. 
Two of the party paid visits to the house, and formed an acquain- 
tance with Mrs. Clarke and her daughters, having no reason to 
suppose that their real character and business had become matters 
of suspicion. Their proceedings, however, were closely watched 
by the girls, and the pretence of surveying failed of its purpose. 
Early in October, Carroll had to report to Mr. Parkes that he and 
his comrades, on returning to camp about six in the evening, were 
fired on from various directions, amid thick darkness lighted only 
by the glare of their camp-fire. Their assailants, thus guided in 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



93 



their aim, were lying- on the ground sheltered behind trees. Car- 
roll and his men returned the fire, and started in pursuit, driving 
the villains from position to position, in opposite directions, until 
firing ceased without any of the police having been struck, though 
one of the party had been forced to return to the tent and to place 
himself within the range of the firelight in order to secure some 
ammunition left behind. For three months, Carroll and his men 
moved about as a surveying party in the wild Tingera district, 
using every effort to entrap the outlaws. There can be no doubt, 
from the tragical issue, that for the ninety days and nights succeed- 
ing the skirmish in the woods, the constables who were tracking 
the bush-rangers were being more closely watched and tracked 
themselves. On January loth, 1867, in a township called Jindera, 
nearly 400 miles south-west of Sydney, all four men were shot 
dead by the robbers, firing from ambush behind some trees. The 
bodies were not rifled of money or other property, but on Carroll's 
breast a bank-note, not corresponding with those in his possession, 
was pinned in mockery of his expected reward. 

The terror felt by all honest men in the district was inten- 
sified by this atrocious deed. Traders went forth on their 
business journeys under cover of night, and a feeling of insecurity 
filled every house. In this state of affairs, Mr. Parkes, on a journey 
for public business, came across a constable named Wright, 
forming a part of his official escort. He was struck by the 
man's smart appearance, and by his keenness of observation for 
every slight circumstance along the road, and he asked him to 
undertake the charge of a picked body of police for the capture 
of the Clarke gang. This selection of the Colonial Secretary's 
had the happiest effect. In a short space of time, Wright and 
his men tracked the leaders, Tommy and Johnny Clarke, to a 
lonely hut where they were harboured. The place was surrounded, 
and for some hours shots were exchanged by the police and the 
ruffians thus brought to bay. The constables then closed in, 
and the two brothers were taken, brought to Sydney, tried, con- 
victed, and hanged. Other arrests and convictions made an end 
of the worst gang of bush-rangers that ever troubled New South 
Wales. 

This narrative of crime closes with some account of the deeds 
and destruction of the Kelly gang, or "iron-clad bush-rangers", 



94 



OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 



four men who for two years, from 1878 to 1880, set at defiance 
the law, government, and police of New South Wales and Victoria. 
Rewards amounting to ^"8000, or ^2000 per head, were long 
in vain offered for their capture, and the sum of i 15,000 was 
expended on special efforts before the end in view was attained. 
Those who desire full particulars of the extraordinary career of 
these matchless ruffians will find them in the exciting book en- 
titled The Last of the Bush-rangers, by Mr. Francis Augustus 
Hare, police-magistrate and formerly Superintendent of Victorian 
Police. Ned Kelly, the leader, born near Melbourne in 1854, 
was a known horse-stealer from his youth. His brother Dan 
Kelly, seven years younger, was a thorough specimen of a juvenile 
scoundrel. Steve Hart, born in 1860, was a professional horse- 
thief, and Joe Byrne, an evil-doer from his early days, was but 
twenty-one years old when the quartet of precocious villains first, 
in 1878, became notorious in the two colonies. In October of that 
year Sergeant Kennedy and three other mounted constables were 
scouring the hills called the Wombat Ranges, in search of the 
Kelly gang stated to be there in hiding. Taken by surprise by 
the cunning outlaws, three of the party were ultimately shot dead, 
the fourth making a lucky escape, after surrender, by leaping into 
the saddle of one of his comrades' horses which bolted when the 
rider, Kennedy, had dismounted to carry on the fight. The Kelly 
gang flew at high game in their contest with the powers of law 
and order, and, disdaining petty crime, swooped on large "stations", 
small towns, and banks. Their proceedings in the township of 
Euroa, about 90 miles north-east of Melbourne, were marked by 
marvellous audacity and success. About noon on December i8th, 
1878, the four men appeared at a homestead, and, with cocked 
revolvers, demanded food for themselves and their horses from Mr. 
and Mrs. Fitzgerald, the people in charge for the owner of the 
estate. As the station hands came in to dinner, they were seized 
and shut up in a detached storehouse. At five o'clock Mr. Mac- 
auley, the manager, arrived, and was added to the number of 
prisoners. A travelling merchant, with a wagon of clothing and 
other articles, was the next person locked up. During the night, 
the captives in the barn, supplied with food, were carefully guarded 
by the armed marauders mounting sentry by turns. On the 
following morning, four men who called at the station were seized, 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



95 



and the next step was the destruction of telegraphic communication 
by the cutting down of the posts and wires of the line, carried 
along the railway running past the farm buildings. While the 
outlaws were thus engaged, four railway "gangers" came up, and, 
being promptly seized and shut up in the barn, raised the number 
of male prisoners to twenty or more. At half-past three, the two 
Kellys and Steve Hart started for the town of Euroa, a place three 
miles distant, with about 300 people, on the main line of railway 
from Sydney to Melbourne. Joe Byrne, left in sole charge of the 
prisoners, not only kept them safe in hand, but locked up with 
them a telegraph repairer who alighted from a train that stopped 
when the break-down of posts and wires was observed. At Euroa, 
Ned Kelly obtained admission to the bank, after business hours, 
by an urgent request for cash to meet a cheque of Mr. Macauley's, 
the manager at the " stuck-up " station. The premises were then 
seized; the tills were robbed of nearly .400 in cash, and the safe, 
opened by the cashier at Ned Kelly's order, afforded plunder to 
the extent of ^1500 in notes, ^300 in gold, ^90 in silver, and 
about 30 ounces of gold-dust. The three men, in order to prevent 
an alarm from being raised too soon for their escape, then carried 
off, in two wagons and the manager's gig, all the inmates of the 
bank, including the manager himself, his wife, his mother-in-law, 
seven children, two maid-servants, and two clerks. On arrival at 
the station, the men prisoners were locked up in the barn with the 
rest, the women and children being allowed to stroll about the 
place, and the four bush-rangers rode away with their spoil, after 
partaking of a hearty meal. When the manager and his house- 
hold reached Euroa at midnight, they found the inhabitants still 
ignorant of the " sticking up" and robbery of the bank. After 
this unparalleled exploit, two months elapsed without any further 
news of the famous Kelly gang. 

On February 9th, 1879, the two officers in charge of the police 
station just outside Jerilderie, a small town on the railway, 412 
miles south-west of Sydney, and on the territory of New South 
Wales, were aroused at midnight by some one calling out that 
their immediate presence was demanded by a great disturbance 
in the town. On opening the door, they were promptly seized 
by the four armed members of the band, deprived of their weapons, 
and locked up in their own watch-house. On the next morning, 



96 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Sunday, Joe Byrne accompanied the wife of one constable to the 
little church, and stayed with her while she prepared it, according 
to her custom, for service, lest her absence should cause inquiries 
to be made. He then conducted her back to the police station, 
and the rest of the day passed peacefully away. At eleven o'clock 
on Monday morning, the four men went into the town, the two 
Kellys on foot in police uniforms, and Hart and Byrne on horse- 
back. They had chosen the Royal Hotel as their base of opera- 
tions, and, marching boldly in with revolvers ready for action, 
they proclaimed who they were, and locked the landlord, servants, 
and all guests in the house, in one of the rooms. The bank, 
in charge of a manager, an accountant, and a clerk, was then 
" stuck up " and robbed, in the contents of the office tills and the 
safe, of about ^2150. At six o'clock on the summer's evening 
the outlaws went their way, Byrne leading a pack-horse with 
plunder of various kinds. The Murray river was crossed, and the 
Kelly gang returned, no man hindering, in safety to their retreat 
in the mountains of Victoria. 

The governments of the two colonies, along with the bank 
proprietors, now raised the reward for the capture of these brigands 
to the large total sum of ^"8000. The police gained over to 
their cause one of the principal "agents" or abettors of the gang, 
a young fellow named Aaron Sherritt, sweetheart of Joe Byrne's 
sister. For several weeks, amid hardships from cold on frosty 
nights when caution prevented the lighting of a fire, Superintendent 
Hare and a party of police kept watch amongst the rocks above 
Byrne's mother's house, a solitary dwelling in the hills, whither 
Sherritt assured them that the bush-rangers, sooner or later, would 
come. All their trouble was thrown away through a very slight 
lack of care, and the vigilance of old Mrs. Byrne. Her keen eye 
detected the glitter of an empty sardine-tin amongst the rocks. 
She then crept through the " bush " and walked straight into the 
police-camp to the surprise and chagrin of its occupants. The 
treachery of Sherritt was, on June 26th, 1880, punished by Joe 
Byrne, who, accompanied by Dan Kelly, went to the house where 
he was living with his newly-married wife (not Byrne's sister), 
and shot him dead. This event occurred on a Saturday night, 
and we now come to the last scenes in this strange, eventful 
history. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. g- 

On the next morning, Sunday, June 27th, Ned Kelly and 
Steve Hart, the other two members of the gang, presented them- 
selves early at the house of a railway repairer named Reardon, at 
Glenrowan, a village, with a railway-station, 135 miles north-east 
of Melbourne. He and several of his mates were then ordered 
to get their tools, march down tne line, and tear up the rails at a 
point where the railway ran along the top of a high embankment. 
The object of the desperate villains was to destroy, with its 
occupants, the special train which they knew would be sent out 
with a party of police, when the news of Sherritt's murder reached 
Melbourne. The workmen, with loaded pistols at their heads, 
were forced to take up the rails, and were then conducted to the 
Glenrowan Hotel, a small wooden building, and kept under guard. 
At this time Dan Kelly and Byrne arrived, having galloped across 
country from the scene of their murderous work at Sherritt's house. 
All the people of Glenrowan, sixty-three in number, including the 
police officer of the little hamlet, were then forced to come to the 
hotel, and the outlaws waited events on the line of railway. They 
had, however, at last undertaken a task beyond their power in 
striving to keep perfect watch over so many persons. A special 
train, with a strong body of police and native " trackers ", was on 
its way, but the cruel eagerness of the bush-rangers, and the fears 
of the imprisoned people, all excited to the utmost degree by the 
distant sound of the approaching train, had no response in the 
form of the expected crash and cry. The village schoolmaster 
had made his escape from the hotel, and stopped the train a mile 
from the station by a danger-signal contrived with a candle and 
a scarlet scarf held in front. This was the first news which the 
police had of the gang's presence at Glenrowan. Up to the 
station the line was safe, and the village constable, who also 
escaped, hurried thither when he heard the train stop. He met 
Mr. Hare and the police running up towards the hotel, where 
utter darkness now prevailed. At about sixteen yards' range, a 
shot from the verandah disabled the Superintendent's left hand. 
A regular siege then began, and Ned Kelly's voice was heard 
in defiance "Fire away, you beggars, you can do us no harm!" 
The bullets of the police went crashing from all sides through 
the frail walls of the building, and several of the hapless prisoners 
were wounded, while the screams of the women and children added 

VOL. VI. 117 



98 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

to the din and terror of the conflict. The steady fire of the 
assailants drove the bush-rangers from the verandah into the house; 
reinforcements of police arrived, and a heavy volley gave a 
speedily mortal wound to Joe Byrne. A careful watch was kept 
through the night, to prevent the escape of any of the gang, 
and just before dawn a fresh sensation arose. A tall figure came 
through the twilight gloom into the midst of the police, and 
opened fire with a revolver. For half an hour nine policemen 
emptied their firearms upon the solitary foe at short range, re- 
peatedly hitting him, and causing him to stagger, but still their 
fire was returned, until one of the officers stepped up close and 
fired two shots into his legs. He then fell and was disarmed, and 
was found to be Ned Kelly, clad in iron armour on his head, chest, 
back, and sides, composed of metal hammered out of ploughshares, 
weighing in all nearly 100 Ibs. The head-piece resembled an 
iron pot with a narrow slit for the eyes. Dan Kelly and Steve 
Hart were left in the hotel, whence most of the townspeople now 
rushed forth. It was June 28th, and until one o'clock in the day 
an incessant fire against the house was kept up by the police, 
who, in their disgust at the long resistance made, telegraphed 
to Melbourne for a field-piece to batter the hotel to pieces. This 
weapon was actually despatched from the capital, but before it 
could arrive, the matter was ended by setting fire to the building. 
As the flames and smoke arose, the police rushed in to save a 
wounded townsman lying inside, and brought him out, with the 
dead body of Joe Byrne. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were seen 
lying dead on the floor how slain, none can tell. The place 
was burned to the ground, and their charred bodies, armour-cased, 
like those of their comrades, were then found. Ned Kelly, cured 
of his wounds, was hanged at Melbourne, and thus ended the 
career of the most notorious and desperate criminals of Australian 
history. 

The records of New South Wales, in her later years, present 
little save a continuity of peaceful progress. The increase of 
agriculture showed crops of maize growing on the lands along the 
coast, and the product of wheat sufficed for the consumption of 
inland settlers. Dairy produce became abundant, and the sugar- 
cane began to appear in the sub-tropical region towards the north. 
The number of sheep increased to tens of millions, with a corre- 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



99 



spending export of wool. In January, 1868, the Earl of Belmore, 
an Irish representative peer, who had held a minor post in Mr. 
Disraeli's first ministry, assumed office as Governor. The census 
of 1871 showed a population exceeding half a million; the revenue 
and expenditure were then each of about 3 millions; the imports 
were approaching 10 millions, and the exports had a value of 
1 1 y^ millions. Railways and telegraph wires were being greatly 
extended, and the manufactures of the colony assumed the pro- 
minent position in Australia still retained, and only surpassed by 
Victoria. Sir Hercules Robinson succeeded Lord Belmore in 
June, 1872, and was for nearly seven years a very popular 
Governor, displaying admirable tact and ability in dealing with 
political affairs as a constitutional ruler. He had the advantage of 
previous experience in administration and especially in colonial 
matters as an Irish Commissioner, a West Indian and then a Hong 
Kong governor, and as Governor of Ceylon from 1865 to 1871. 
This Irish gentleman's patronage of the turf and personal share in 
sport as an owner of race-horses did him no harm in the estimation 
of most inhabitants of New South Wales. In August, 1879, his 
successor, Lord Augustus Loftus, arrived in Sydney. The new 
Governor was previously distinguished as a diplomatist in the 
highest posts at the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg. 
His first important duty was that of inaugurating the first Inter- 
national Exhibition held in Australia. A beautiful building on the 
brow of the hill between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove displayed, 
to the viewer from the harbour waters, a dome and fluttering flags 
rising above the luxuriant foliage of the Botanic Gardens. The 
structure, regarded with fondness and pride by the people of New 
South Wales, as one that proclaimed to the world that the colony 
was taking her place as a full-grown nation, was destroyed by fire 
shortly after serving its special purpose. The Exhibition, an 
enterprise undertaken by the government after successful annual 
shows held by the Agricultural Society, gave ample proofs of the 
colony's progress in her special industries, and attracted competitive 
displays of goods from almost all civilized countries. The expendi- 
ture of a quarter of a million sterling was held to be well incurred 
in making known the resources of New South Wales, and causing 
an increase of foreign trade. 

The despatch of a colonial contingent of troops to aid the British 



100 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

forces in the Soudan, in 1885, was chiefly due to the Governor and 
to Mr. W. B. Dalley, the acting Premier. A great impression 
was made on the British public by this display of loyal feeling in 
Australia, and from that time forth the value of the colonial empire 
seemed to be better understood, and the still undecided question 
of Imperial Federation came to the front. The naval defence of 
the empire was viewed in a new light, and the interest taken in the 
Indian and Colonial Exhibition, held in London in the following 
year, was much increased. As a note of progress, we may observe 
that the census of 1880 showed the population as numbering over 
751,000, of whom 411,000 were males, and 340,000 females. In 
the same year, railway communication with Melbourne was com- 
pleted, and in 1883 the mineral wealth of the colony was largely 
increased in the discovery of silver deposits on the western frontier. 
At the close of 1885 the most popular of all recent Australian 
rulers appeared in the person of Lord Carrington, a British peer 
of very ancient lineage on the side of his mother, a daughter of 
Lord Willoughby de Eresby, joint hereditary Lord Great Cham- 
berlain of England. He had sat for some years in the House of 
Commons as a Liberal member, before succeeding to the peerage 
in 1868, but his reputation, up to 1885, was mainly one belonging, 
with a high character, to a man of society and pleasure. His 
appointment as Governor of New South Wales was partly due to 
a long-expressed dissatisfaction, on the part of the Australian 
colonies, with rulers of -the official type. They demanded that 
future viceroys should be men of a class to whom the higher prizes 
of British political life were held to be open. It was difficult to 
comply literally with such a requirement, and the Colonial Office 
in London decided on a compromise. In the appointment of Lord 
Carrington, the Secretary of State induced the Crown to go outside 
the official class, and, regarding the post of colonial governor in 
Australia as mainly a social one, to select a man of superior wealth 
and social position. The duties of the office, thus viewed, were 
performed by Lord and Lady Carrington with unfailing skill and 
charm, and they left New South Wales in 1890 amongst expres- 
sions of esteem and regret without any parallel in Australian history. 
Lord Carrington's period of rule was marked, in 1888, by the 
completion of railway communication with Queensland, and by an 
enthusiastic celebration, in the same year, of the centenary of the 



NEW SOUTH WALES. IO i 

colony. The influx of Chinese aroused great agitation, and laws 
were passed which practically prohibited immigration from " the 
celestial empire". In 1889 Sir Henry Parkes, the premier, gave 
his adhesion to the movement for Australian federation, and New 
South Wales was represented at the Conference held at Melbourne 
in the following year. Early in "1891 the Earl of Jersey, a grand- 
son, by his mother's side, of the great Sir Robert Peel, arrived in 
Sydney as the new Governor. Lord Jersey had been, for two 
years in his earlier life, a lord-in-waiting to the Queen, and also 
held office as Paymaster - General in Lord Salisbury's second 
ministry. In March and April, 1891, representatives of all the 
Australasian colonies met at Sydney, and agreed to a constitution 
for a " Commonwealth of Australia ", to be referred, in the first 
instance, to the colonial legislatures. For his brief period of office 
Lord Jersey was a popular Governor. He resigned his post early 
in 1893, an d was succeeded by Sir Robert Duff, a Scottish Liberal 
M.P. of thirty years' standing, and a Civil Lord of the Admiralty. 
On his death soon after arrival in the colony, he was succeeded 
by Viscount Hampden, son of a former Speaker of the House of 
Commons. 



CHAPTER V. 

NEW SOUTH WALES Continued. 
SCENERY, INDUSTRIES, STATISTICS, TOWNS. 

Area and population of the colony Climate Coast-line Surface of the land The river 
Darling Scenery of the coast and country Govett's Leap The Nepean and 
Hawkesbury rivers The Jenolan Caves Port Jackson or Sydney Harbour 
Political constitution of the colony Ecclesiastical affairs Educational system 
Administration of justice Exceptions from the law of England The Torrens Real 
Property Act Industries The wool trade Squatter life Extent of holdings 
Statistics of pastoral progress Agriculture Cultivation of the sugar-cane and vine 
Minerals Gold and silver mining Working of other metals Extensive coal 
production Manufactures Internal communications Roads and railways Zigzag 
railway across the Blue Mountains Telegraph and postal systems Intercolonial 
and foreign trade Lines of ocean steamers Financial affairs Customs-duties 
Sydney, the capital, described Newcastle, Maitland, Parramatta, Bathurst, Bourke, 
Goulburn, and other towns. 

In considering New South Wales, the reader must imagine 
a country more than six times as large as England (without 



102 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Wales), having an area just exceeding 311,000 sq. miles, and a 
population officially estimated, on June 3Oth, 1897, as 1,311,440, 
composed of 702,395 males and 609,045 females. The census of 
1891 showed that 64 per cent of the inhabitants were natives of 
the colony; 7*^ per cent of other Australasian colonies; over 13 per 
cent English, over 6^ per cent Irish, 3^ per cent Scottish, the 
remainder being, in order of numbers, "other foreigners" (i.e. not 
Chinese or Germans), Chinese, Germans, aborigines, and Welsh. 
During the ten years ending 1896 the increase in population was 
above 277,310, towards \vhich the excess of births over deaths 
contributed more than 85 per cent, the remainder being due to 
immigration, which in the year above named brought about 62,700 
people, against an emigration of about 62,500. The country is an 
irregular four-sided figure, with an extreme length of 900 miles, and 
a greatest breadth of 850 miles, the average being 500 miles of 
length and breadth. The boundaries are seen in a glance at the 
map, with the chief geographical features which, along with the 
climate, fauna, and flora, have been dealt with in our general account 
of Australia. We may note, however, as a main characteristic of 
the climate of New South Wales, as of Australia in general, the 
abundance of sunshine. The "gray days" of northern countries 
are there almost unknown; clouds seldom obscure the sky save 
when they bring rain, and when that has ceased to fall, the clouds 
disappear and the sun shines forth with undimmed brilliancy. The 
dryness and purity of the air afford a climate as enjoyable as that 
of Algiers, the one disadvantage being the hot winds which some- 
times occur in summer, never lasting for more than three days, 
lulling at night and raging in the forenoon like the blast of a 
furnace. On the coast we observe that there are no very large 
indentations and no conspicuous projections. Cape Byron is 
remarkable as the most easterly point of the continent; St. George's 
Head and Green Cape for their prominence, and Cape Howe as 
the southern extremity of the colony. The largest inlet is Jervis 
Bay, in latitude 35 s. Few natural harbours exist, and, with the 
exception of Port Jackson, all are so inclosed with mountainous or 
unproductive country as to be of little value for trade, some which 
are very safe for shipping being difficult of access from the land- 
ward side for the transport of produce from the richer districts. 
The estuaries of the rivers are in some cases obstructed by sand- 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 103 

bars, but form outlets for the produce of the country. The surface 

of New South Wales may be regarded in three distinct portions 

the coast district, a narrow strip of undulating and generally fertile 
country crossed at intervals by mountain ridges, between which are 
river-valleys of greater or less extent; the table-lands, surmounted 
by the highest mountains of the colony; and the great inland 
plains. The Darling River and its affluents drain almost all the 
western slope, and, though it is robbed of its name after its junction 
with the Murray near the 34th parallel of south latitude and the 
I42nd meridian of east longitude, the Darling is really the great 
river of the continent; measuring 2500 miles in length from its 
most distant sources to the sea; flowing (at first under the name of 
the Barwan or Barwon) for about noo miles within New South 
Wales; and draining an area of about 300,000 sq. miles; facts which 
entitle it to rank amongst the great rivers of the world. 

In describing some parts of the scenery in this vast territory, 
we note that the coast-line of about 800 miles, though it is not, as 
already stated, one of deep indentations, has abundant interest and 
beauty in its changes from cliffs to sandy beaches and from head- 
lands to little bays; in the varied hues of vegetation and of geologic 
strata; in the rapid succession of little outports with their beacons 
and coasting craft, and in the varied outline of the mountainous back- 
ground as the hills rise and fall, advance and retire. Among the 
salient features is Point Perpendicular, on the northern entrance of 
Jervis Bay, a steep, stern cliff, rising sheer from the water to 300 
feet in height, with a storm-beaten summit, bare of tree or bush. 
The South Head, at the entrance of Port Jackson, is a striking 
object, with the white tower of its lighthouse perched 300 feet up, 
showing at night a revolving electric light visible, in clear weather, 
for over 30 miles. The estuary of the Hawkesbury River affords a 
beautiful scene in Broken Bay, with fiords of deep water, dark and 
still, overshadowed by cliffs from 500 to 600 feet in height, varied 
by beaches of deep red or reddish-brown colour, set off by back- 
ground foliage of dark green. The mouth of the Clarence River is 
another fine opening, with a deep stream navigable and half a mile 
in width for 70 miles up from the Pacific waters. In the Blue 
Mountains, now becoming the great sanatorium of Sydney, with 
the railroad conveying invalids to any height up to 3500 feet, the 
Wentworth Falls, or Great Falls, make a descent of 1000 feet in 



104 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

three cascades, having at their base a tall point which looks, from 
above, like a bank of moss half hidden by the mist from broken 
water. In the Valley of the Grose, amidst the wildest scenery of 
mountain and gum-forest, is the grand gorge containing the fall 
called Govett's Leap, from the name of the surveyor who discovered 
the glorious natural picture. From a ledge of gray rock the visitor 
looks down into a gulf whose floor, clothed with a great forest, 
undulates like the face of a rolling, unbroken sea. The tree-tops 
are 1200 feet below, and beneath them, unheard from the distance, 
runs the Grose River, with an occasional glimpse of the tree-ferns 
on its banks, or of silvery flashes of its water rushing over a rocky 
bed, revealed through gaps in the trees made by the force of its 
floods after heavy rains. The water of Govett's Leap descends for 
520 feet, in summer being but a thin veil of spray and transparent 
liquid shining upon the surface of brown rock decked in every 
nook and cranny with fern-leaves of bright, delicate green. The 
falling stream breaks on a ledge at the foot of the cliff, to lose itself 
in a bank of ferns on the edge of the forest. There are countless 
more cascades, and many grand mountain-gulfs in the huge rocky 
mass of hill and forest that lies within sight of great and populous 
Sydney. 

The Nepean River and its tributaries, flowing northwards on 
the way to join the noble stream called the Hawkesbury in its 
lower reaches, almost encircle the metropolitan county of Cumber- 
land. The whole of this river-system is of great interest in the 
history of New South Wales. On one point of the Nepean is the 
Camden district, to which the cattle that escaped from the first settle- 
ment made their way as the best grazing-ground near Sydney. 
Lower down, from Penrith to Richmond and Windsor, is a broad 
valley with rich alluvial soil, and this was the first agricultural land 
farmed by the early settlers. The sandstone gorges in the upper 
parts of the Nepean country contain the pure tributary streams of 
that river which furnish the capital with its supply of water. The 
lower course of the Hawkesbury is the Rhine of Australia, the 
romantic river of the tourist and the artist, the favourite haunt of the 
yachtsman. At the point where the river merges into the estuary, 
the great bridge of the Newcastle railway crosses the stream. Bold 
cliffs rise up 300 feet from the water's edge, with faces of weather- 
worn sandstone showing many tints of red and brown, and above 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



105 



these tower great hills, forest-clad from base to summit, all perfectly 
mirrored in the liquid surface below. It is a fair scene of land and 
water that is here displayed, indescribable in the beauty of atmo- 
spheric effects, of light and shade, from dawn to sunset beneath an 
Australian sky. One tributary of the Hunter is the Paterson, 
a beautiful little river running through rich red soil, of fertility that 
grows well-bearing vines, luxuriant fig-trees and pomegranates, with 
melons lying thick around their roots. 

We turn now to another specimen of Nature's work in New 
South Wales. In several parts of the colony there are limestone 
caverns remarkable for beauty of structure, and highly interesting 
to the geologist for fossil remains. Of these, by far the most striking 
and accessible, and the best explored, are the Jenolan Caves, one of 
the great sights of the country, in a deep valley 107 miles west of 
Sydney. The caves lie in a limestone belt from 200 to 400 yards 
in width running right across the valley, and were formed by streams 
working out for themselves subterranean channels. Nothing in this 
class of natural structure is more marvellous for grandeur, beauty of 
form and hue, variety and size. Five great caves have been fully 
explored, and are open to tourists, for whom the guides use magne- 
sium wire to show the richer beauties of the wondrous succession 
of scenes. At one point, a domed roof larger than that of St. Peter's 
has huge masses of rock hanging down like a skirt of gigantic 
garments, fossilized into a dull gray stone, tinged with dark red and 
green from impregnations of iron and copper. In the chamber 
styled "the Woolshed", the stalagmites formed by dropping water 
have assumed the shape of fleeces of various sizes, from the tiny 
fairy-like to the colossal, hanging on benches or spread upon the 
floor, and looking, in the flickering light of the candles, as soft as 
newly-shorn wool. Another cave is rich in " shawls " of the same 
material, hanging from the roof, draping the walls, and enfolding 
the alabaster columns of a great central formation resembling a 
reredos. Of purest marble and alabaster, tinted by the native ores 
of the hills, the "shawls "droop from the rocks in lengths from 3 inches 
to 6 feet, and from an eighth to half an inch in thickness. With 
the light of the magnesium-lamp behind them, they are semi-trans- 
parent, showing delicate tints of pink and white, of pale yellow and 
apricot, with cross-bands of deep orange, red, and brown. The 
"Jewel Casket" cave has crystals and beautiful forms of miniature 



106 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

pinnacles and spires. The right-hand branch of the "Imperial Cave" 
is a succession of bewildering scenes of beauty in grottoes large and 
small, displaying all the treasures of Nature's craft in stalactite and 
stalagmite formation. We must pause, however, and leave the rest 
to be imagined from such titles as the "Confectioner's Shop", the 
"Crystal City", the "Queen's Jewels", the "Diamond Wall", the 
" Bridal Veil", the " Crystal Palace", the " Hall of the Kings", and 
many more. A large separate work, with profuse illustrations, could 
only convey a faint idea of the countless wonders and charms of the 
Jenolan Caves. 

Any detailed description of Port Jackson or Sydney Harbour, 
with its 100 miles of coast-line, and 150 bays or coves, is beyond 
our scope. A full account would have to deal with many varieties 
of beauty, of nature left unadorned or improved by art with 
rocky islets, sandy beaches, sometimes milky white; with bold 
cliffs and verdant slopes; with palatial mansions, picturesque 
villas, and secluded picnic haunts; with the foliage and flowers of 
orchards and orange-groves, creepers of most gorgeous hues, the 
richest growth of climbing roses, bananas and plantains, cedars, 
hibiscus, flame-trees, and vines budding in spring with tender 
green, purple in autumn with mellow clusters. The uses of 
commerce and defence make a varied and picturesque display of 
frowning batteries and busy wharves; of countless vessels, large 
and small, under steam and sail, including great ocean-liners and 
men-of-war; of tall massive wool stores, docks and engineering 
works; while the architect claims the quarry of fine-grained sand- 
stone that furnishes material for the best new buildings of the 
splendid capital of New South Wales. The grand expanse of 
landlocked water, stretching for about twenty miles inland, with 
branches in every direction, is a rival to those of Rio de Janeiro 
and the Bay of San Francisco. The entrance varies from 2*^ 
miles to i ^ in width, the lowest depth of water at low tide being 
22 feet in the eastern channel and 26 feet in the western. The 
hills which form the general outline often rise to a height of 200 
to 250 feet, with terraces of ground showing a lower level at other 
points, and many smooth sandy beaches. The brilliant writer who, 
under the nom de guerre of Rolf Boldrewood, has rendered such 
service to British readers who can never, with their own eyes, 
behold Australian scenery or Australian life, is enthusiastic in his 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



107 



description of " the noblest, safest, most picturesque harbour in the 
southern hemisphere, in the British possessions, in the known 
world". In the midsummer season of December, when showers 
have refreshed the groves and gardens which line the shores and 
heights, the glades are emerald green between the flower thickets; 
the air is heavy with perfumes; and the scene at evening is superb 
in tropical beauty such as, if it were placed on canvas with absolute 
fidelity, would be condemned by some critics as false to nature in 
its richness of colour. The numberless tiny headlands, covered 
with wood or greensward, have shining waveless bays nestling 
between them, like havens for fairy fleets. " The tall araucarias 
stand columnar on every height, giving dignity and ordered beauty 
to the landscape. The white walls of stately mansions and trim 
villas gleam freshly bright among the dim woods, shining like 
Grecian temples in the olden days of earth's glory; while, as the 
western sky becomes gradually empurpled and aflame with the 
gorgeous pageantry of the dying sun, an unearthly brilliancy 
appears to illumine the scene, more akin to theatrical effects of 
light and colour than the mere summer splendour of the hour.'* 
We turn perforce to other and more prosaic themes. 

In dealing with the institutions of a country which, in general, 
simply reproduces, in religion, politics, education, and social affairs, 
the familiar condition of the British Isles, we need do little more 
than note any points of difference which occur. The legislative 
power is vested in a Parliament of two Houses the Legislative 
Council of 65 members (at the end of 1897) appointed by the Crown 
for life, and the Legislative Assembly of 125 members, one each 
for as many electorates, with no property qualification nor plural 
voting. The members are paid ^300 per annum ; the parliaments 
are triennial. Every male subject 21 years of age is qualified to 
vote after a residence of one year in the colony and three months 
in his electoral district. Elections all take place on one and the 
same -day. In 1896 nearly 268,000 electors, or above 21 per cent 
of the population, were enrolled, and of the existing electors over 60 
per cent voted at the general election of 1895. The chief executive 
power lies, of course, with the Governor, who is also commander- 
in-chief of all the troops. He is assisted by a cabinet of ten 
ministers, among whom we note three Secretaries for Lands, Public 
Works, and Mines and Agriculture, a " Minister of Justice", and a 



108 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Minister of Public Instruction, Industry, and Labour. Local govern- 
ment exists in about 75 boroughs and 107 municipal districts, in 
addition to the City of Sydney, and the proportion of fully settled 
country to the whole great territory is shown by the facts that, 
while the population residing within municipal areas much exceeds 
one-half of the whole, the incorporated portion of the colony is 
only about 2760 square miles, or about H3th part of the whole 
area. There are 71 police districts, with land, registration, educa- 
tional, and other divisions, but the only permanent territorial 
division is that into 141 counties, and into parishes. These last, 
however, have no significance for administrative purposes, and are 
useful only in connection with the survey and description of land. 
We may note that in 1887 a Forest Conservation Department was 
created in the government, having charge of twenty-one State 
forests covering about 98,000 acres, and of over 1000 timber 
reserves, covering an area of nearly 5,500,000 acres. A revenue 
is derived from royalties and licenses for timber-cutting, the value 
of wood sawn in 1894 exceeding three-quarters of a million sterling. 
In regard to religious profession, we find that the census of 
1891 gave the Anglican Church 503,000 adherents, with 333 
clergy. This body, by far the largest of the denominations, is 
ruled in ecclesiastical affairs by six bishops, those of Sydney, 
Bathurst, Goulburn, Grafton and Armidale, Newcastle, and 
Riverina, the latter being a new diocese formed in a large tract 
of pastoral country in the south, bordered by the Murray River. 
The Bishop of Sydney is Metropolitan, and Primate of Australia 
and Tasmania. Each diocese has its own Synod and Church 
Society, controlling the temporalities of a body which, since the 
Act of 1862 abolishing State aid to religion, is supported on the 
voluntary system. The method of administering ecclesiastical 
patronage generally may be gathered by reference to the Sydney 
diocese. The see is divided into 79 parishes, and the patronage 
of 48 is vested in the Bishop, and of the remaining 31 in a "Board 
of Nominators ", composed of two representatives of the Synod, 
and three others elected by the parishioners. The bishops are 
appointed by the respective synods of each diocese, and the bishops 
of Australia nominate the metropolitan, for consecration by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. Every fifth year the Australian Con- 
vocation, or General Synod, meets at Sydney, and is composed of 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 109 

the bishops of Australia and Tasmania, and of clerical and lay 
representatives from each diocesan synod. The Roman Catholics 
of New South Wales, in 1891, numbered 287,000 with 295 clergy, 
under the spiritual sway of seven bishops and of the Cardinal 
Archbishop of Sydney, who is also Primate of Australasia. Next 
in point of numbers come the* Presbyterians, with 109,000 lay 
people and 156 clergy; the Wesleyans, with 87,500 and 133 
respectively; the Congregationalists or Independents, with 24,000 
and 65; "other Methodists" (than Wesleyans), with 22,500 lay 
people and 34 ministers; Baptists, with 13,000 and 32; and about 
75,000 of many other sects or of none, including about 5500 Jews. 
The educational system is well organized on lines resembling 
those of the home country. The University of Sydney, affiliated 
to Oxford in 1888, is endowed with ,5000 a year from the public 
funds, and has received great further aid from special votes and 
private donations, the chief of which was the noble bequest of Mr. 
John Henry Challis, which became applicable for the endowment 
of a number of new " chairs " or professorships, on his widow's 
death in 1888, to the amount of ,180,000. The university, to 
which the theological colleges of St. Paul (Anglican), St. John 
(Roman Catholic), and St. Andrew (Presbyterian) are affiliated, 
has the power of granting degrees in arts, medicine, science, and 
law. There is a good provision of high schools for both sexes, 
with 893 private schools, and among the institutions aided by the 
State are the Sydney Grammar School, four industrial schools, 
and one for the deaf, dumb, and blind. The total expenditure on 
State schools in 1896 exceeded ,651,000, chiefly devoted to the 
primary schools spread all over the settled country, including 
" half-time schools " and " house-to-house schools ". These last 
are a special feature in the system, providing itinerant teachers in 
a land with so widely scattered a population, free rail way -passes 
being also granted to children who are compelled to attend schools 
at a distance from their homes. The whole system is " undenom- 
inational ", and the expense is entirely defrayed from the public 
revenue, except for the small fee of $d. per week. Evening schools 
exist for adults of neglected education. Compulsory attendance 
up to fourteen years is one feature of the Act of 1880, but the 
great majority of parents highly prize the benefit provided for 
their children. A State system of technical instruction was 



1 10 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

instituted in 1883, on the principle laid down by the City of 
London guilds, and proficient students receive certificates as 
"industrial experts". Excellent progress in this respect is being 
made, and liberal grants are yearly received from Parliament. To 
sum up, the State schools of every class, in 1896, numbered 2785, 
with 4442 teachers, and an average attendance of 142,192 among 
221,603 children enrolled. The private schools were 893, with 
53,967 pupils and 3087 teachers, of which numbers 293 schools, 
1527 teachers, and 36,552 pupils were Roman Catholic. As 
regards religious instruction, this may be given in the schools by 
appointed teachers of any denomination during a certain hour of 
the school-time, and there are about 2000 Sunday-schools in towns 
and villages, with over 12,000 male and female teachers, and about 
120,000 scholars, in charge of the four leading religious bodies. 
In this, as in all the chief Australasian colonies, the means of 
culture for all classes of society include libraries, museums, mechanics' 
institutes, art galleries, and schools of art under various names and 
forms. 

The administration of justice resembles that of England, with 
a Supreme Court composed of a Chief-Justice and six assistant 
judges; trial by jury for all persons charged with offences liable 
to over six months' imprisonment; courts of magistrates, quarter- 
sessions, circuit-courts in the chief towns twice yearly, stipendiary 
magistrates in the police-courts of the metropolitan district, police- 
magistrates and justices of the peace in the country. The licensing 
of houses for the sale of alcoholic liquors is in the hands of magis- 
trates specially appointed. Courts of Divorce, Admiralty, and 
Bankruptcy are presided over by Justices of the Supreme Court. 
The law of the Australian colonies is in substance identical with 
that of England, but there are important exceptions to be noted. 
In criminal matters, capital punishment is inflicted, in New South 
Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, not only for murder, but for 
attempts at murder, rape, and one other offence. In all the Aus- 
tralasian colonies, marriage with a deceased wife's sister is a legal 
union. In New South Wales and Victoria, the law of primogeni- 
ture has been abolished. In every Australian colony, the Torrens 
Real Property Act, adopted in various forms, has cheapened and 
facilitated the transfer of land and tenements. Inestimable benefit 
has been derived from this admirable measure, specially applicable 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Ill 



to new countries where titles are easily traced. The author, who 
had to contend with severe and prolonged opposition from the 
legal profession, was Sir Robert Richard Torrens, K.C.M.G., a 
native of Cork (1814) and son of one of the founders of South 
Australia. In 1857, Torrens became Premier and Treasurer of 
that colony for a short time, and then, as member for Adelaide in 
the first Legislative Assembly of South Australia, he succeeded in 
carrying the bill which substituted title by registration, in the case 
of real property, for title by deed. He then resigned his seat in 
parliament to undertake the headship of the department charged 
with carrying out the Act, and, after one or two amendments in 
details, his foresight and energy were rewarded by its easy working. 
It was owing, in a great degree, to Torrens' expositions and efforts 
that the measure was adopted in the other colonies of Australasia, 
where many thousands of small land-owners have thus been enabled 
to secure their holdings. 

The main source of wealth in New South Wales has been and 
is the pastoral industry, for the production of sheep above all, with 
a view to their fleeces rather than to their flesh. The growth of 
wool was the first and largest factor in the development of Aus- 
tralia, and the wool-trade had established our colonial dominions in 
that quarter of the world on a sound commercial basis, long before 
the days when the discovery of gold gave so great a new impetus 
to material progress. The rise of the industry, mainly through the 
efforts of Captain Macarthur, has been given in an early stage of 
this work. In 1825, an enterprising member of the early Legisla- 
tive Council, Mr. Richard Jones, brought out a fine flock of Saxony 
sheep to the colony, and in subsequent years other animals were 
imported from famous stud flocks in France and Spain. The 
value of the inland climate in the western country, as favouring 
the growth of a finer fleece, was discovered, and a new type of 
wool, the Australian, was produced, in softer, brighter, more 
elastic, less dense but longer, material than that of the original 
merino flocks. Enterprise, energy, and sound judgment here, as 
in other lines of business, have had a rich reward, and the Aus- 
tralian merino now produces the best wool for manufacture of any 
sheep in the world. The records and descriptions of Australian 
life frequently present us with the terms " squatting " and " squat- 
ter". The word, in England, was associated with settling on a 



112 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

common, and in Australia the first plan was to grant common 
grazing rights over a large area, by lease, to a group of settlers. 
When this system was found to be too restricted for the rapidly 
increasing flocks, letters of occupation were granted to some 
persons, so as to allow them to range beyond the prescribed limits. 
We have seen the gradual development of the land-system by 
method of sale, and the security of tenure granted to the squatters, 
who must be regarded as graziers or holders of large sheep-walks. 
In the earlier days of the colony, the life of a squatter was a rough 
one, and his pursuit of wealth was attended with other difficulties than 
those arising from alternations of drought and flood. The buildings 
of the homestead comprised a wooden house for the residence of the 
squatter and his family, with four or five rooms lined with lath and 
plaster, a verandah in front, into which one room opened, and a 
"lean-to" in the rear. An adjacent hut was used as a kitchen, 
and scattered about were other wooden edifices, of split slabs or 
of logs, serving as stores and as houses for the station hands, and 
for the shearers in clipping-time. Outside the paddock-fence, a 
quarter of a mile away in the forest, an immense building, heavily 
roofed with logs and bark, was the wool-shed, with the pressing 
apparatus, and around were the needful yards for the management 
of the sheep in driving them into the shed, and in branding and 
other matters. Such would be the appearance of an up-country 
station representing ten thousand sheep and a few hundred head 
of cattle. Severe losses were sometimes suffered in the stealing 
of large " mobs " of cattle by audacious robbers of the bush-ranging 
class, who drove them off from the back parts of a large "run", 
and took them away to Adelaide or Melbourne, disposed of them 
there, and returned to New South Wales by sea. On a smaller 
scale of plunder, cattle ready for killing were taken, slaughtered, 
and salted down, the head and feet being boiled to prevent recog- 
nition by the brands or natural marks. In other cases, unbranded 
cattle and calves would be appropriated by a dishonest settler 
through the simple process of branding with his own recognized 
mark. The squatting industry grew and flourished. One of the 
finest pastoral districts of the colony is found in the Liverpool 
Plains of the north-east, ten million acres of rich volcanic soil, 
sloping away from the coastal range towards the Darling. The 
large scale of farming in New South Wales appears from the 



NEW SOUTH WALES. ri j 

figures concerning the extent of holdings in 1897. With over 
14,000 little farms having from one to fifteen acres, over 27,600 
from 1 6 to 200 acres, nearly 8600 from 201 to 400, over 7500 
from 401 to 1000 acres, there were above 2550 persons engaged in 
pastoral or agricultural industry, or both combined, holding from 
1000 to 2000 acres; more than "2100 farmers with from 2001 to 
10,000, and 672 owners or tenants of 10,001 acres and upwards. 
The total land area of the colony being about 196 millions of acres, 
the amount occupied under leases of various kinds, at the end of 
1896, exceeded 126 million acres, and the total land alienated was 
about 45,000,000 acres, the proceeds from land-sales from 1862 to 
1897 having reached the sum of 43 millions sterling. The progress 
of New South Wales in pastoral industry during the reign of Queen 
Victoria is shown in some comparative statistics. In 1840, there 
were under 5 million sheep; in 1897, there were 48^ millions. In 
the same period, the number of horned cattle rose from 900,000 to 
nearly 2^ millions; of horses, from 56,000 to above half a million. 
In regard to these last, we may observe that our army in India 
largely draws from New South Wales remounts for the cavalry 
regiments. The dairy-farming noticed in another place, and the 
new trade in beef, is soundly based upon the best breeds of cattle, 
such as the Shorthorn, Devon, Hereford, Ayrshire, Blackpolled, 
and Channel Island stock. 

When we turn to the tillage of the colony, or agricultural industry, 
we find a vast difference as compared with sheep-farming. In 1897, 
only about 1,660,000 acres of ground, or little more than H2th 
part of the area, were under cultivation, mostly in holdings of 
less than 500 acres. The chief cereals grown are wheat and maize, 
the product of the former, for the year ending March 3ist, 1896, 
being 8^ million bushels on 866,000 acres; of the latter, over 
5^4 million bushels on 21 1,000 acres. Maize, only produced largely 
in Queensland among the other Australian colonies, is in New 
South Wales an easy and certain crop, raised throughout the coast 
districts as far south as the 36th parallel of latitude. In the year 
above given, 834,000 bushels of oats were grown on about 39,500 
acres, with 110,000 bushels of barley, both being chiefly used as 
fodder. Lucerne is a most luxuriant crop, and mangold-wurzel, 
turnips, and pumpkins are used for the artificial feeding of the 
choicest cattle. The yield of potatoes, as above, was about 84,000 

VOL. VI. 118 



114 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

tons on 31,170 acres. The growth of sugar has now become 
considerable. In 1863 but 2 acres of canes were to be seen in 
New South Wales; in 1897, 31,053 acres of cane, on the banks of 
the northern rivers, yielded over 320,000 tons of canes. The culti- 
vation of the vine is fast becoming an important matter. Large 
districts are suitable in soil, climate, and aspect for the growth 
of the vines introduced in 1831, as a first serious attempt at the 
production of wine, from France and from the Rhenish vineyards. 
This parent stock of the vines now growing in New South Wales 
has, in course of time, so far succeeded that, in the year ending 
March, 1897, 8060 acres of vineyard produced about 794,000 gallons 
of wine. All the fruits of Europe are grown with success; oranges 
are largely exported to the neighbouring colonies. The gardens 
are gay with flowers dear to the sight of British visitors in the 
violet, pansy, wallflower, sweet-william, mignonette, candytuft, lupin, 
nasturtium, convolvulus, and rose. The camelia reaches a large 
size, and is rich in blooms ; the geranium is like a bush, and flowers 
during most of the year. 

The minerals of the colony are its chief source of wealth next 
to its pastoral products. High authorities believe the mineral 
treasures to be almost inexhaustible. The auriferous area is known 
to amount to 70,000 sq. miles, of which one-half is included within 
gold-fields that have been actually worked. The total value of gold 
coined or exported, from its discovery in 1851 to 1896 exceeded 
43^ millions sterling, and of late years the product, after a great 
decline since 1875, has begun to increase again, the returns for 
1896 showing about 295,000 ounces, worth .1,073,000. Better 
methods of treating the auriferous pyrites, and more capital, are 
needed for the development of gold-mining, especially in the 
working of quartz veins. Silver has recently assumed great im- 
portance. Rich veins were found at Sunny Corner and Mitchell's 
Creek, on the western slope of the Blue Mountains, about 130 
miles from Sydney, but the great "silver boom'' of New South 
Wales came with discoveries made far away, on the south- 
western frontier, in the hill-country called the Barrier Ranges, 
nearly 900 miles from the capital. A wild rush was made for the 
mines at Broken Hills, and thousands of acres were soon pegged 
out into "claims". Scores of companies were started, most of 
which soon collapsed, but there was abundance of good ore for 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 115 

those who knew how to find it, and the town of Silverton has 
arisen and flourished on the new scene of industry. The yield of 
silver, in 1889, in a district 50 miles long and about half as wide, 
was worth i^ millions sterling. Railway communication with 
Adelaide, in South Australia, soon provided for the shipment of 
the silver ore, and reduced the previous enormous cost of carrying 
food, forage, and material to the scene of operations. In 1896, the 
total value of pure silver and of silver-lead ore obtained in the 
colony reached over i^ millions; the whole value obtained to 
the end of 1896 was over 22^ millions. Excellent iron ore 
abounds in the districts west and south of Sydney, but has not 
been worked at a profit, though it has been found in close proximity 
to coal and limestone. Copper-mining has been more successful; 
the chief area of production lies in districts between the Lachlan 
and Darling rivers, with a value exceeding 4 millions to the end of 
1 896. The northern table-land is rich in tin, the value of ingots 
exported in 1896 exceeding ,152,000. The total value of the 
product of tin since the mines were opened in 1872 has been 
6,196,518. It is, however, in the king of minerals, coal, that we 
have the most important mining industry of New South Wales. 
In 1863, little more than 300 tons were raised; in 1884, the output 
was about 2^ million tons; up to the end of 1896, the whole 
quantity raised in the colony had reached nearly 75 million tons, 
valued at about 32 millions sterling. The mineral is of excellent 
quality for smelting, gas, household, and steam purposes, and the 
exports to San Francisco, New Zealand, India, eastern Asia, South 
Australia, and Tasmania amounted, in 1893, to 1,840,000 tons of 
coal and coke, worth 820,000, in addition to the large amount 
consumed in the colony. Nearly the whole of the coast region is 
a vast coal-field, extending into and, in some points, beyond the 
Great Dividing Range, the chief seats of the industry being in the 
lower valley of the Hunter river, and in the Illawarra district, south 
of Sydney. In 1896 there were 99 coal-mines in the colony, em- 
ploying 9460 men, and the quantity raised in that year exceeded 
3,909,000 tons, worth nearly 1,125,000. The capabilities of 
New South Wales in coal-production may be estimated from the 
facts that the known coal-area exceeds 24,000 square miles, while 
Great Britain, with her enormous output, has only about 4000 
sq. miles of coal-fields. 



Il6 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

As might be expected from the abundance of natural products, 
and the sparse population compared with the territorial size of the 
country, New South Wales has, at present, no high place among 
manufacturing regions. There are, however, many important 
industries of this class, the chief of which are concerned with the 
preparation of foods and drinks; metal-works and machinery; 
building materials; clothing and textile fabrics; paper, printing, 
and bookbinding; vehicles, harness, and saddlery; and the treating 
of raw pastoral products. The first-mentioned of these includes 
the manufacture of flour, malt, biscuits, and maizena from the various 
kinds of grain ; the preparation of preserved meats ; wine-making, 
and brewing. The returns of 1896 show the existence of 3106 
factories or works, employing nearly 50,000 hands, with an invested 
capital of nearly 16 millions. In connection with the toilers in this 
and other industries, it is satisfactory to note the deposits in the 
hundreds of savings-banks, including those under government 
control. In 1896, these sums amounted to over 8^ millions, 
belonging to about 213,600 depositors, an average of nearly ^40 
per head of these thrifty persons. 

We deal next with the important subject of internal communi- 
cations. Without giving figures as to the many thousands of miles 
of government-roads in the various forms of efficiency denoted by 
"metalled, gravelled, or ballasted", "formed and drained", and 
simply " cleared", we may state that here, as in Australasia generally, 
great attention has been paid to road-making. Under the Wake- 
field system, one-half the net proceeds of the sale and rental of the 
crown-lands was devoted to the construction of highways for 
traffic; and the country roads in our colonies on the Pacific are 
usually much better than those of most new countries, and especially 
than the rude tracks of the United States. Three main lines run 
north, west, and south from Sydney, and from these, minor roads 
branch off" in all directions, covering the whole country with a 
net-work of highways, the formation of which required cutting 
through hills, filling up swamps, and the construction of bridges 
over rivers and creeks. The earliest coaches were strong carts 
drawn by one or two horses. Next came mail-coaches of the 
English fashion, and the great development brought by gold- 
discovery caused the introduction of long low vehicles like those 
used in Mexico and California. An enterprising American named 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 117 

Cobb introduced carriages of this class into all parts of Australia 
and New Zealand, and " Cobb's coaches" still hold their own in 
districts not possessed of railway communication. The larger towns 
throughout Australasia are provided with vehicles for hire of the 
classes with which we are familiar in Great Britain. Sydney and 
the suburbs have many miles of Government tramways worked by 
steam motors, with one steep gradient served by a cable-tram. 

Australia, as we have seen, is very deficient in navigable rivers 
as means of internal communication, and it is for this reason that 
the utmost energy has been displayed in furnishing the various 
colonies with good highways and with railways. Nearly the whole 
railway-system is in the hands of Government. In New South 
Wales, the main trunk-lines are the Great Northern, Great 
Western, and Great Southern. The first of these runs from 
Sydney, by Newcastle, to join the Queensland system, traversing 
a total distance of nearly 500 miles. The line taps the chief coal 
district, the agricultural valley of the Hunter, and the rich pastoral 
country of New England, in the north-east. The river Hawkes- 
bury is crossed by the longest bridge in Australasia, 2896 feet long. 
After climbing the Liverpool ranges, the line enters the hilly New 
England, the highest point, near Ben Lomond, being 4500 feet 
above sea-level. The Great Western line crosses the Blue 
Mountains by two of the finest railway- works -of the world, the 
Zigzag and the Great Zigzag, ascending the hilly region on the 
east, and descending it on the west. A great viaduct, in a long 
valley named Knapsack Gully, carries the rails where the trains 
run higher than the tops of the tallest trees. Then a steep and 
rocky incline, 700 feet in height, is crossed by a series of zigzags 
cut in the rock so that the trains run first to the left, rising upon 
a slight incline, and then reverse and proceed to the right; again 
to the left, and so on until the summit is reached. The line after- 
wards runs along the top of the ridge, gradually rising until, at 
88 miles from Sydney, and 50 miles from the first zigzags at 
Lapstone Hill, it reaches the culminating point of the system, 
3658 feet above sea-level. The work throughout, due to Mr. 
John Whitton, Engineer-in-chief of the New South Wales railways, 
as designer, and to Mr. Patrick Higgins, as contractor, was one of 
great boldness and skill. At one point, where a great rocky mass, 
above a tunnel already bored, seemed likely to crush downwards 



Il8 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

upon the excavation, the whole dangerous mass was split in pieces 
by the explosion of 3^ tons of gunpowder placed at intervals in 
the tunnel, and fired by Lady Belmore, the Governor's wife, 
through wires connected with a galvanic battery. The operation 
of firing the mines was made a public spectacle. With a dull and 
rumbling sound the rock heaved slowly upward, and then settled 
back into its place, covered with rolling clouds of dust and smoke, 
and broken into masses which workmen could remove, leaving 
a clear course for laying the rails. The descent from the Blue 
Mountains to the Lithgow Valley involved the construction of 
zigzags to a greater extent than on the eastern side. The total 
excavations caused the removal of over three million cubic yards 
of material, of which nearly 1,800,000 were solid rock, and the cost 
of the whole work exceeded ,800,000. The carriages of the 
railways are usually on the American principle, and sleeping-cars 
are attached to long-distance trains. When the Western line has 
crossed the Blue Mountains, it proceeds by way of Bathurst and 
Dubbo to Bourke, 503 miles from Sydney. The Great Southern 
runs from the capital, by Goulburn and Wagga Wagga, to Albury, 
388 miles from Sydney, and there joins the Victorian line to 
Melbourne. There are many subsidiary lines and branches, and 
the whole extent of railway open for traffic in June, 1896, was 2640 
miles, constructed and equipped at a cost of nearly 37^ millions 
sterling. The inland telegraphs, as in all the Australasian colonies, 
have been constructed and are worked by the Government, and 
every important township is included in the system, the total length 
of telegraph and telephone open in 1897 being just over 13,000 
miles. The postal system is well organized, with penny postage, 
for half-ounce letters, in the town; 2d. for the same weight within 
the colony or Australasia; and 2%d. to the United Kingdom, 
British Colonies, and " Postal Union" countries. 

The intercolonial trade of New South Wales includes the 
import of bananas and of copra, or dried and broken cocoa-nut 
kernel for the extraction of oil, from Fiji; sugar from Queensland; 
potatoes from New Zealand; fruit and hops from Tasmania; flour 
and manufactured goods from Victoria; wheat and flour from South 
Australia. In 1896, a year showing a considerable revival in trade 
from the three previous years, the total value of imports exceeded 
20%millionssterling; of this amountarticles worth nearly 7^ millions, 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 

mainly in bullion and coin, iron and textile manufactures, came from 
the British Isles, the rest of the foreign trade consisting of tea and 
silk from China, rice and coffee from India and the Malay Islands, 
sugar from Mauritius, tobacco, kerosene, hard ware and various manu- 
factures from the United States. In the same year, the total value 
of exports, exceeding all previous years except 1889 an d 1891, was 
above 23 millions sterling, of which above 8^ millions' worth of 
goods went to the United Kingdom. The export of hides, skins, 
and leather, by a great increase in later years, nearly reached 
.1,000,000; of tallow, with a less than halved value compared with 
the previous year, the worth exceeded "500,000; the chief article 
of export, wool, reached nearly 10 millions, a value only exceeded 
in few previous years. The British Isles took, in 1896, about 
164 millions of pounds weight of wool, worth more than 5^ 
millions, out of the total export of 307 million pounds weight; the 
chief other British imports were tin, silver ore, tallow, and leather. 
Nearly 6^ million tons of shipping entered and cleared from the 
colony's ports in 1896, exclusive of the coasting trade; of this vast 
amount British vessels had nearly 5 *4 millions of tons. It is worth 
while to observe that less than one-fifth of the tonnage consisted of 
sailing-vessels, a proportion which holds in the case of our colonies 
and foreign countries in general, while in some cases steam-tonnage 
is even far more predominant. It is needless to give details 
concerning the great lines of ocean steamers running between 
Sydney and all the important commercial countries on the globe 
the P. and O., Orient, and other large companies in Great Britain, 
among which the Cunard line communicate by way of New York 
and San Francisco; the Messageries Maritimes and others of less 
note. Large and powerful steamers run between Sydney and 
Melbourne, Brisbane, New Zealand, Fiji, Tasmania, the United 
States, and southern and eastern Asia; submarine cables also 
connect Australia with every part of the civilized world by various 
routes direct and indirect. 

In regard to financial affairs, we find that the colony, for the 
year ending June 3Oth, 1896, had a gross public revenue a little 
exceeding 9^ millions. Of this amount nearly one-half was derived 
from the "services", which include railways, tramways, post, and 
telegraphs. Excise, stamp-duties, and licenses afforded about 
y^ million; a large amount is derived from the customs-duties 



120 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

which, in the above year, afforded ,1,406,970. The tariffs in- 
clude import-duties of 10 to 15 per cent of value on certain yarns, 
woven fabrics, and apparel in linen, silk, wool, and fur; of los. per 
ton on pig-iron, 405. per ton on bars, sheets, and corrugated iron; 
30^. per ton on wire-netting, and 405. per ton on various forms of 
iron manufactures. Earthenware, porcelain, glass, glassware, leather 
and leathern goods pay from 10 to 15 per cent ad valorem; candles 
are mulcted in 1 55. per cwt. ; soap, and articles of food and drink, 
except tea and raw coffee, are also taxed; books are free, with 
writing and printing paper; brown and wrapping paper pay T,S. per 
cwt., and other paper, 10 per cent. The land-revenue for 1896 
was nearly two millions sterling. The expenditure for 1895-96 
(12 months) amounted to ,9,852,220, a sum devoted chiefly to 
public works and services of various kinds, railways and tramways, 
interest on debt, public instruction, post and telegraphs. The public 
debt, in 1896, was over 62 ^ millions, bearing interest, on an average, 
of nearly 3^ per cent. Fully 84 per cent of the debt has been 
incurred for the construction and provision of railways, tramways, 
telegraphs, water-supply, sewerage, docks and wharves, with a net 
return of about 3 per cent on the cost. At the close of 1892, the 
total wealth of the colony, public and private, was estimated at 
nearly 600 millions sterling. The subject of defence is remitted to 
later pages dealing with the Australasian colonies as a whole. 

SYDNEY, the seat of government for New South Wales, and 
the greatest commercial place in Australasia, is the oldest city 
in that part of the world, the only one which has entered upon 
the second century of its history under European civilization. 
The city proper lies on the south shore of Port Jackson, at a 
distance of about four miles from the entrance; the suburbs, some 
of which are separate municipalities, extend for several miles to 
the south, south-west, and east, and are partly found on the 
opposite north shore of Port Jackson. The whole contain a 
population of about 410,000. The most important of the many 
bays, with their miles of water-frontage and wharves, are Sydney 
Cove, or Circular Quay, used by the vessels of the P. and O., 
Orient, and other great steamship companies, and Darling Har- 
bour. The commercial supremacy of the place is indicated by 
the fact that, in 1890, 5666 vessels, with an aggregate of nearly 
millions tonnage, entered or left the port. Some of the 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 121 

main streets, paved with wooden blocks and cubes, are very fine. 
The most spacious and handsome public buildings are the Post- 
Office; the noble Town Hall, containing the largest organ in the 
world; the University, the finest building in Australasia, standing 
on a commanding height, in the centre of a " domain " of about 
150 acres, with a chief faade 500 feet in length, and with its 
Great Hall exceeded in size by only two in the British Isles; 
the metropolitan cathedral of St. Andrew, in the later Perpen- 
dicular style; and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary. 
There is an old quarter of the town, partly inhabited by Chinese; 
this has irregular, narrow streets. The inconvenience of the 
hasty original plan is still found in the inferior access to the 
harbour frontage, and in the steepness of all the roadways leading 
from the water's edge. There is now an excellent drainage 
system to a distant outfall in the sea outside Port Jackson. Water 
is brought, by works that cost two millions sterling, from a distance 
of 60 miles in the mountain gorges. One of the finest residential 
roadways, equal in its frontage to any in the world, is Macquarie 
Street, close to the commercial centre of Sydney, and overlooking 
the Domain, with the Parliament Houses, Mint, and Government 
House, beyond which are seen the harbour and the fleet of out- 
going and incoming vessels, while the sea-breeze comes up fresh 
and cool. The suburban extension is such that there are con- 
tinuous townships to Parramatta, 14 miles away, thickly settled 
for 8 miles, as far as Homebush. The people of the capital are 
greatly favoured in having at command a variety of climate by 
the rapid rise of the railways leaving the city. The south coast 
line attains, 20 miles away, an elevation of 720 feet, and the line 
running northwards to Newcastle rises nearly 600 feet in about the 
same distance. 

Among the notable sights of Sydney for the British visitor are 
the markets in Christmas week, with the people dressed in light 
summer costume, and the stalls heaped with summer produce of 
fruit and flowers. The gay- coloured scarves and handkerchiefs 
of the fancy stalls are displayed by vendors catering for the tastes 
of a prosperous people who have departed from old-world, cold- 
clime notions under the influence of a semi-tropical sky. The 
effect of new conditions of life is shown at once in dress, appear- 
ance, and manners. The sons and grandsons of the earlier 



122 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

generation have been affected by climate in physique, physiognomy, 
and tastes, and in the youths from the farms and market-gardens 
near the capital we see a tall, thin, sunburnt race, often dark-eyed 
and dark-haired, matching well in hue with their oranges, melons, 
and grapes, and showing their fondness for rich colours in bright- 
blue or green veils around their soft felt hats, in the crimson 
sashes twisted about their waists, and in gorgeous cravats. The 
mile-long stream of people in the crowded promenade of George 
Street on Saturday night shows, among types chiefly Australian, 
a mixture of nationalities in German settlers, French and Italian 
vine-growers, and Asiatics from the ships alongside the quay at 
the end of the street, including dark-hued Arab stokers from 
Aden, in frocks of dingy blue, red scarves, and parti-coloured 
caps; shiny-brown natives of Madras and Bombay, gaily dressed 
in crimson, blue, and gold, selling carved and polished sticks, 
silver filigree and ivory work, and rich-coloured scarves and 
kerchiefs from Eastern looms; Chinamen and black boys from 
North Queensland complete the picture. Among the many 
public recreation grounds of Sydney, the Botanic Gardens, touch- 
ing the shore of Farm Cove, hold the highest place for beauty 
due to artistic skill and abundant growth of trees, shrubs, and 
flowers of various climes. Hyde Park and Moore Park, the latter 
having a good zoological collection, are other delightful resorts. 
In 1887, the Centennial Park was opened, covering an area of 
780 acres, and making the total area of the ground reserved for 
public use amount to over 1500 acres. The streets and wharves 
are well lit with gas and electricity, and public amusement, in- 
struction, and recreation find ample resources in theatres, a free 
library, an art gallery, a museum, and other institutions, while 
philanthropy displays her orphan and other asylums, and many 
other charitable and benevolent institutions. The grand cricket- 
ground forms part of an inclosed area of 12 acres, and has seats 
for 5000 people, and standing room for 20,000 more. Bicycle 
contests and athletic sports of all kinds are held within the same 
inclosure, and there are tennis-courts both grassed and asphalted. 
The Agricultural Society have in this quarter of the city stalls 
for the display of stock, and there is a good circular track for 
trotting matches. The Randwick race-course, to the south of 
the town, has a fine grand-stand, and all the needful appliances 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



123 



for first -class meetings. Outside Port Jackson, on the open 
Pacific, at Bondi, Coogee, and Botany Bays, are beaches reserved 
for public use as bathing- places and picnic-grounds. We must 
not forget the National Park, the northern boundary of which 
lies about 15 miles south of Sydney. This reserve of 36,300 
acres lies on the south side of the spacious sea-inlet called Port 
Hacking, and includes an infinite variety of charms in its 56 
square miles of space. There are broad plateaus on the heights 
for military camps and manoeuvres; little glens and grassy plots 
by the sea; fine forest growth and luxuriant semi-tropical plants 
on the upper reaches of the Hacking river. 

Newcastle, lying on the coast to the south of the estuary of the 
Hunter river, is the prosperous centre of a great coal-mining 
district where we find, among the smaller towns, the familiar 
names of Wallsend and Stockton. The place has a population 
of about 15,000 in its own municipal area, but adjoining towns 
double this number. The district has also shipbuilding, lime- 
burning, steam-sawing, copper-smelting, engineering works, soap- 
factories, wool-washing, and several other industries. As a port, 
the city of Newcastle ranks next to Sydney, annually shipping 
over two million tons of coal, and sending cargoes of wool, from 
the northern districts, direct to Europe. As a proof of the rich 
variety of resources in New South Wales, we may mention that 
the alluvial soil on the flats bordering the Hunter estuary, near 
Maitland, about 20 miles from Newcastle, produces yearly five or 
six crops of lucerne, and often fetches, in the land-market, ^100 
per acre. Maitland, East and West, practically form one town of 
about 12,000 inhabitants. Up the valley of the Hunter and its 
tributary the Paterson are many thriving settlements and little 
towns, with crops of wheat, maize, tobacco, and grapes, and a large 
pastoral industry. Armidale, the cathedral town of the Anglican 
bishop of the north, and of a Roman Catholic prelate, lies at the 
height of 3300 feet above the sea, with a population of over 
10,000 in the city and district. The climate and soil are such 
as to furnish the finest European fruits, and the adjacent moun- 
tains abound in wild and picturesque scenes. Grafton, the chief 
town of the north, with about 6000 people, lies on the Clarence 
river, about 45 miles from the sea, in a sugar-growing district, with 
prosperous squatters to the west. 



124 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Returning to the south we find Parramatta, the oldest settle- 
ment save Sydney, lying at the head of that farthest-reaching arm 
of Port Jackson which is called the Parramatta River. With the 
adjacent town of Granville, the junction where the main line of 
railway diverges to the south and west, the population exceeds 
15,000. The place has an old-fashioned air, and possesses, in the 
old King's School, an episcopal institution founded in 1832, one of 
the best schools in the colony, pupils of which have in many cases 
taken the highest rank in the social, professional, and political 
life of Australia. The park is beautiful with pines grown from 
cones that came from Norfolk Island, Italy, California, Norway, 
and Scotland, and with English oaks and willows, grown from 
acorns and slips taken out in 1800. Windsor, the oldest country- 
town next to Parramatta, has, for Australia, a venerable air in 
its ivy-covered brick walls. In the western district, Mudgee, lying 
amongst fine grazing land, shows us the beginning of true bush 
life. The place was settled above sixty years ago, and, having 
a climate and soil like those of the eastern valleys of the Hima- 
layas the cradle of the merino race of sheep the table-lands of 
Spain, and the highlands of Algiers, it is noted for the fine breed 
of merinos dear to Australian flock-masters. The sheep are 
small, but the fleece is dense and the staple fine, and is purchased 
for the most delicate fabrics of French looms, sometimes at the 
price of 4^. per pound. 

Bathurst, the capital of the west, on the banks of the Mac- 
quarie river, has above 10,000 inhabitants. The place and district 
were once famous for gold-fields now little worked. There are 
some fine public buildings in the Anglican and Roman Catholic 
cathedrals, and the hospital, and good educational establishments 
in All Saints' Grammar School, the Roman Catholic College of 
St. Stanislaus, the public elementary school, and the school of arts. 
The climate, at 2300 feet above sea-level, is cool and agreeable. 
Orange, lying high up among grassy hills, overlooked by moun- 
tains which are snow-capped for several months of the year, has 
a very English look in its farms and vegetation. The temperate 
clime does not permit the growth of the magnolias and oleanders 
of Sydney gardens, but there are hawthorn hedges, and currants 
and gooseberries come to perfection. Thence, going north-west 
by rail, we come to Wellington, Dubbo, and other pleasant little 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



125 



towns in agricultural and pastoral country, and so out upon wide 
plains where salt-bush abounds, with the beautiful myall tree, 
having willow-like pendent boughs, a dark trunk, leaves of silver 
olive hue, and an odour, from broken branches, sweet as violets 
or new-mown hay. Far away again to the north-west the railway 
brings the traveller to Bourke, o'n the Darling river, a town of 
historic fame in the pastoral life of Australia, displaying still the 
old type of squatters, drovers, shepherds, and stockmen. The 
place lies on the left or southern bank of the river, in a dead level 
stretching away for many miles. The large buildings churches, 
hospitals, schools, banks, and chief hotels are of brick; the shops 
and private houses are of galvanized iron or of wood. The un- 
metalled roads vary in covering between fine black dust and deep 
sticky mud. There is a large traffic, by river and rail, in live 
stock for Sydney, and in goods for the supply of a vast outlying 
region. 

South from Sydney, on the railway to Goulburn, lies Liverpool, 
with the best paper-mill in Australia; Moore College, a training 
institution for ministers of the Anglican Church; and a large 
benevolent asylum for old men worn-out sheep-shearers, cattle- 
drovers, and early explorers of the vast continent. Pic f on, 53 
miles from the capital, at an elevation of over 500 feet, is a 
favourite health resort, with a hospital for consumptive patients. 
The line rises sharply to the table-land, through long, deep cut- 
tings, until, near Berrima, a great penal station for prisoners on 
the silent system, it reaches 2300 feet above sea-level. Near 
Moss Vale, a few miles further on, are the fine Fitzroy Falls, with 
three chief and several smaller cascades, the first cataract, in rainy 
seasons, showing a large volume of water flowing over a bluff at 
the head of a gorge, half a mile wide, 1000 feet in depth, and many 
miles in length. The district near the falls is a public reserve for 
the benefit of tourists, and is in charge of a care-taker. A few 
miles away from Moss Vale is the Governor's summer residence, 
in a region now becoming known for dairy- farming, whereby, at 
one place, a fine herd of Ayrshire cows supply daily milk to 
Sydney. The well-built town of Goulburn, with about 12,000 
people, has fine Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, and 
handsome churches of the Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Primitive 
Methodists. It lies about 2000 feet above sea-level, in a district 



126 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

noted for the breeding of excellent horses, cattle, and merino 
sheep. Lakes George and Bathurst, and a chain of ponds, afford 
an ample water supply, and there are important manufactures 
tanning, leather-work, brewing, flour-mills in the city. From 
Goulburn the railway passes west and south to the frontier of 
Victoria at Albury, on the Murray, near which is a growth of 
grapes yearly producing 60,000 gallons of wine. 



CHAPTER VI. 

VICTORIA. 
HISTORY TO 1898: GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, STATISTICS, TOWNS. 



Early settlement of the colony Enterprise of the Brothers Henty The founder of 
Melbourne Its small beginnings A measure of self-government granted The 
colony separated from New South Wales Discovery of gold Vast increase of the 
population Insurrection among the gold-diggers A new constitution established 
Political conflicts A tariff-bill passed Education Act Renewed contests between 
the Legislative Assembly and the Council The Melbourne Exhibitions of 1880 and 
1888 Constitutional changes Progress of the colony Its boundaries, area, and 
population Political divisions Religion Features of the coast-line Port Phillip 
The mountain-system Scenery Lakes Surface of the land Rivers Climate 
Pastoral and agricultural industries Cereal and other crops Importance of the 
grape-culture Extensive irrigation work Mildura town Growth of fruit and 
vegetables Mineral wealth Manufactures Trade Internal communication 
Railways Telegraph and postal services Ecclesiastical affairs Schools and 
libraries Education Courts of justice Revenue Customs-duties Public debt 
Constitution of the Victorian parliament Melbourne, the capital, and its suburbs, 
described Geelong, Ballarat, Mount Macedon, Bendigo, and other towns. 

In February, 1802, Lieutenant Murray, commanding the war- 
brig Lady Nelson, entered Port Phillip, and was charmed with the 
scenery of that fine harbour. He assumed formal possession of the 
country for the British sovereign, and soon sailed away. A few 
weeks later, Flinders sailed between the Heads into the bay, and 
on his return to Sydney made such a report to Governor King that 
he wrote home urging the Duke of Portland to have a settlement 
made on the shore of Port Phillip, mainly to anticipate the French, 
who were known to be hankering after possessions in that quarter. 
Two officials were sent out from Sydney to report, and on January 
3Oth, 1803, tne y discovered and entered the river Yarra Yarra. 
The home-government now resolved to form a settlement, and in 



VICTORIA. 



12; 



October of the same year two ships, with about 300 male convicts, 
a few women, some free settlers, and 50 officers and men of the 
Royal Marines, under Lieutenant-Governor Collins, entered Port 
Phillip. He reported against the country as unsuitable for a colonial 
establishment, and Lord Hobart, the Secretary of State in charge 
of the colonies, transferred the expedition to Van Diemen's Land. 
For twenty years thenceforward, the interior of the country 
remained unknown to white men. At last, in October, 1824, 
Mr. Hamilton Hume, starting under the auspices of Sir Thomas 
Brisbane, Governor of New South Wales, made his way, as we 
have seen, overland across the Murray river, and on December 
1 7th reached the shore near the site of Geelong. The four 
brothers Edward, Stephen, Francis and John Henty were the 
first who made a permanent settlement in the region which was to 
become the famous colony Victoria. These enterprising sons of 
Mr. Thomas Henty, a Sussex farmer and banker who emigrated 
to Van Diemen's Land, settled on Portland Bay in and after 
November, 1834. It was Edward Henty who led the way from the 
country afterwards called Tasmania; who put together the first 
plough that ever broke Victorian soil, and welded with his own 
hands the chains by which it was drawn. There was no house 
within five hundred miles of his abode, and he had some difficulty 
at first in dealing with the wild blacks of the region. Farm- 
servants, live stock, agricultural implements, and stores were 
conveyed from Launceston, in Van Diemen's Land, and a great 
pastoral enterprise was afterwards started with merino sheep 
brought from England. The sum of ,10,000 was expended by 
the Hentys in erecting farm-buildings, and a new colony was fairly 
launched on its career, remaining for many years the " Port 
Phillip District " of New South Wales. A native of London, John 
Pascoe Fawkner, afterwards a member of the first Legislative 
Council of the colony, arrived from Launceston in October, 1835, 
and became the real founder of Melbourne in the buildings erected 
on the north side of the Yarra, where he started a farm with 
500 sheep and 50 cattle. In the following year, at the request of 
the settlers, a resident magistrate was sent from Sydney to Port 
Phillip, as the place was beginning to grow in population and 
wealth. At the close of 1836, there were 186 males and 38 females; 
Wesleyan ministers and missionaries started religious services; 



128 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

a blacksmith's forge was set up, land was tilled, and in March, 1837, 
just before Queen Victoria came to the throne, the first flock of 
sheep brought overland arrived from New South Wales. Ground 
for a regular town was then surveyed, and Sir Richard Bourke, 
the Governor at Sydney, came thence to inspect the condition of 
affairs. The city of Melbourne had fairly begun its course, with 
a name derived from that of the British premier. Williamstown 
was also laid out, and Geelong, a designation corrupted from 
a native name. Before the close of 1837, the James Watt, the 
first steamer that ever entered Hobson's Bay, came in from 
Sydney, and an overland mail, carried on horseback by a daring 
stock-rider, John Bourke, was instituted between Sydney and 
Melbourne. 

In these early days, bushrangers or escaped convicts gave 
trouble, and in April, 1838, a large body of natives slew eight out 
of a party of fifteen Europeans in charge of cattle crossing the 
country. Newspapers, banks, and the first post-office, were started, 
and a mail-cart began to run between Melbourne and Geelong. 
The first Roman Catholic priest and the first Presbyterian minister 
arrived; the Melbourne Club was opened, a Commissioner of Crown 
Lands was appointed, and 200 immigrants came by sea from Sydney. 
In October, 1839, Mr. C. J. Latrobe appeared on the scene as 
" Superintendent of the Port Phillip District", and a resident judge 
was appointed. By the end of 1840, villages had arisen along the 
road from Melbourne towards Sydney, and the formation of police- 
stations rendered the route fairly safe. In 1842, the Port Phillip 
people received a measure of self-government in being empowered 
by Act to send representatives to the Legislative Council of New 
South Wales, and Melbourne, at the same time, was made a muni- 
cipal town. As early as 1844, the inhabitants of the new colony 
were aiming at separation from New South Wales, but the motion 
to that effect was decisively rejected in the Council at Sydney, one 
of its main supporters being Mr. Robert Lowe, afterwards Viscount 
Sherbrooke, who was fast rising into eminence, as an emigrant from 
England after a brilliant career at Oxford University. The Port 
Phillip colonists had not, however, long to wait before their object 
was attained. The Queen first allowed the Port Phillip District to 
be styled "Victoria", and in August, 1850, an Act of Parliament 
made it a separate colony, with Mr. Latrobe as the first Governor. 



VICTORIA. 

A memorable time was close at hand. The first man who discov- 
ered gold in the colony was Mr. W. Campbell, who came on some 
of the metal, near Clunes, in March, 1850, but suppressed the fact 
until July, 1851, when William Esmond, a miner returned from 
California, discovered gold in the same district. Thousands of men 
were soon at work around Clunes rand Ballarat, and on the creeks 
in the valley of the river Loddon, in the north-central part of the 
colony. Civil servants, police, domestics, even jail- warders, vanished 
from their scenes of duty ; society was, for the time, dissolved. Before 
the close of the year, more than 10 tons of gold, worth about 
\y^ millions sterling, had been obtained from the Victorian gold- 
fields. The colony at once entered on a new phase of existence, 
and most rapid progress was made. Within six months of the 
known discovery of gold, in July, 1851, the population had been 
increased by 15,000 immigrants; in 1852, nearly 100,000 were 
added to the number, and in 1852-55, about a quarter of a million. 
By the end of 1860, gold worth nearly 100 millions had been 
found, and the population of Victoria exceeded half a million. 

In June, 1854, Sir Charles Hotham reached Melbourne as 
successor to Mr. Latrobe. The new representative of the Crown 
was a distinguished naval officer who had also served on various 
diplomatic missions. With no special ability for his work in 
Victoria, he found serious trouble awaiting him in the office of 
Governor. The Legislative Council, composed of 10 nominated 
and 20 elected members, had imposed on gold-diggers a license-fee 
of 30^. per month. The license could not be transferred, and could 
only be used within half a mile of the police-camp where it was 
issued. The police-force at the diggings included many rash young 
men, and great irritation was caused by their vexatious and tyran- 
nical behaviour towards the miners. An agitation arose amongst 
the diggers at Bendigo, in the Loddon district, in 1853, and the stir 
soon spread to other gold-fields. The Government, instead of 
adopting a conciliatory attitude, issued an order for still harsher 
methods to be employed in hunting down unlicensed diggers, and, 
after various provocations to the miners, causing serious disorder, it 
became needful to despatch some infantry of the 4Oth Regiment from 
Melbourne to Ballarat. The soldiers arrived there on November 
28th, and the diggers, after attacking them with volleys of stones, 
followed them to their camp, whence a strong sortie of police drove 

VOL. VI. 119 



130 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

off the rioters. Two days later, a new " digger-hunt " was organized 
by the authorities, and the troops turned out to support the police. 
A regular battle ensued when the insurgents stockaded themselves 
at Eureka Creek, near Ballarat, under the command of an emigrant 
named Peter Lalor, son of an Irish M.P. Captain Thomas, in 
command of the soldiers, and Captain Pasley, in charge of the 
police, attacked the fortified position at daybreak on December 4th, 
with about 300 men, of whom one-third were mounted infantry and 
police. The defenders of the stockade were inferior in number, and 
many of them were but imperfectly armed. In an engagement 
which lasted for about half an hour, Captain Wise, of the 4Oth Regi- 
ment, was mortally, and Lieutenant Paul, of the i2th Regiment, 
severely wounded; the troops had 6 men killed and a dozen disabled. 
The entrenchments were finally carried at the point of the bayonet, 
when it was found that Lalor was lying on the ground severely 
wounded. He escaped with the loss of his left arm, and, afterwards 
evading the police, he became, when matters had quieted down, 
representative for Ballarat in the Legislative Council, and rose, in 
later days, to the position of Speaker in the Legislative Assembly 
of Victoria. Nearly 30 of the insurgents were killed, many were 
wounded, and 125 prisoners were taken. When reinforcements 
arrived from Melbourne, martial law was proclaimed in the Ballarat 
district; but there was a strong display of public feeling in favour of 
the rioters, and the jury acquitted the thirteen men who were put on 
trial for high treason at Melbourne. An amnesty was then granted 
by the Crown authorities, and all trouble was ended by changes in 
the licensing-law. This was the only instance of rebellion or insur- 
rection throughout Australian history. 

At the close of 1855, Sir Charles Hotham died, just after the 
proclamation of a new constitution for Victoria, under an Act of 
the Imperial Parliament. Responsible government, with two 
elective chambers, was now established. It was not till December, 
1856, that Sir Henry Barkley arrived as successor to Hotham. 
The new Governor was a man of Scottish origin, being only son 
of a native of Ross-shire, who became an eminent merchant in 
London. Sir Henry had sat for some years in the British Parlia- 
ment as a supporter of Sir Robert Peel, and had gained colonial 
experience as Governor of British Guiana and of Jamaica. In 
his new post he acquired popularity and public esteem. During 



VICTORIA. 



his seven years' tenure of office, manhood suffrage and vote by 
ballot were introduced, and the property qualification for members 
was abolished. State aid to religion came to an end, and large 
areas of land were thrown open, in amounts not exceeding one 
square mile, or 640 acres for each person, to be occupied by 
colonists or emigrants as agricultural or pastoral farmers. From 
1863 to 1866 the Governorship was held by Sir Charles Darling, 
a nephew of the former ruler of New South Wales, under whom 
he served for some years as secretary. He had passed many 
years in the West Indies as holder of various appointments, 
including the Governorship of Jamaica. His term of office in 
Victoria was a much-troubled time. The Legislative Assembly, 
and a majority of the voters, were in favour of a protective fiscal 
policy: a large and influential minority, and the Legislative 
Council, supported freedom of trade. As a special instance of 
Parliamentary conflicts in our Australasian colonies, we may give 
some particulars of what occurred in Victoria at this time. A 
Bill imposing protection duties at the custom-house was passed 
by the Lower House or Assembly, and was rejected by the 
Upper House or Council. In imitation of tactics adopted by 
a party in the British House of Commons under William the 
Third, the Lower House in Victoria "tacked" their protection 
bill on to the Appropriation Bill (Supply), and the Council again 
threw out the measure. The Government then proceeded to 
collect the protective customs duties on the sole authority of the 
Legislative Assembly, and the Executive Council, or Ministry, 
with the approval of Sir Charles Darling, borrowed money for 
the public service from one of the banks. The Supreme Court 
declared the collection of customs-duties, on the Assembly's sole 
resolution, to be illegal, and in the next session the Tariff Bill, or 
measure for protective duties, was again passed by the Assembly 
and thrown out by the Council or Upper House. After a dis- 
solution, the new Assembly contained 58 " Protectionists " and 
20 " Free-traders ". The Tariff Bill, carried a third time, was 
a third time rejected. The struggle continued; the Ministry 
resigned; a new Ministry came into office; the salaries and 
wages of all persons in government employ were ten weeks in 
arrear. At last, the Legislative Council and the Assembly came 
to terms, and the Tariff Bill, in a modified form, was passed. 



132 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Sir Charles was recalled to England for having failed to be neutral 
in the constitutional dispute, and was succeeded, in August, 1866, 
by Viscount Canterbury, a title which he inherited, on his brother's 
death, three years later, being theretofore known as Sir J. H. T. 
Manners-Sutton. 

The new Governor, second son of the first Viscount Canter- 
bury, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 to 1834, 
had been Under-Secretary for the Home Department, under Sir 
Robert Peel, from 1841 to 1846, and had then acquired colonial 
experience as Lieut-Governor of New Brunswick and Governor 
of Trinidad. During his seven years' term of office, from 1866 
to 1873, Lord Canterbury showed much ability and tact. There 
was a lull in party warfare after the struggle which had established 
the supremacy of the Legislative Assembly in financial affairs, 
and the colony prospered in the agricultural, pastoral, and manu- 
facturing industries, aided by the development of railways. In 
1872, the important Education Act was passed, abolishing the 
previous systems, both national and denominational, and establish- 
ing free, secular, and compulsory instruction up to a certain 
standard. The number of schools and teachers, and the amount 
of average attendance of children, were increased, in the course 
of twelve years, by about 75 per cent. Another question had 
been coming to the front, that concerning the payment of members, 
a matter desired by the working-men of the colony, who wished 
to see themselves represented in parliament by a fair number of 
men of their own class. A new contest arose between the two 
Houses about the time when Lord Canterbury, in 1873, was 
succeeded in office by Sir George F. Bowen, an Irish gentleman 
who, after a distinguished career at Oxford, became in succession 
President of Corfu University, Chief- Secretary of the Ionian 
Islands, Governor of Queensland, and Governor of New Zealand. 
The members of the Legislative Assembly had been paid for three 
years, when the Legislative Council made a difficulty. There 
were no funds for the payment of public servants, as the Council 
set aside the Appropriation Bill to which the ministry " tacked " 
the proposal for paying the members, instead of passing a special 
bill. In January, 1878, the Gazette announced the dismissal of 
all heads of departments, county-court judges, mines' courts 
judges, police-magistrates, insolvency -courts' judges, and other 



VICTORIA. 



133 



officials. A " panic " arose from this extreme proceeding of the 
Executive or Ministry, and business was greatly injured. The 
Council then passed a separate bill for paying members, and 
the Appropriation Bill, for " supplies " of public money to meet the 
expenses of government, and the crisis, in that respect, came to 
an end. The Assembly then attacked the Council, or Upper 
House, by a measure depriving that body of most of its political 
powers. The bill was thrown out, and an appeal was made to the 
Colonial Office at home. The Secretary of State declined to 
interfere, and practically told the colonials of Victoria to settle their 
own constitutional contests. 

Matters then became comparatively quiet, in prospect of the 
coming Exhibition. There had been local exhibitions at Mel- 
bourne in 1854 and 1861, and competitive intercolonial shows in 
1866, 1872, and 1875. In 1879, Sir George Bowen was succeeded 
by the Marquis of Normanby, who had sat for some years in the 
House of Commons, and had ruled in colonies as Lieut-Governor 
of Nova Scotia, and as Governor, first of Queensland, and then 
of New Zealand. A quarter of a million sterling was expended 
on erecting and equipping the fine cruciform building, in the 
Carlton Gardens, for the Melbourne International Exhibition, 
opened on October ist, 1880, in the spring-time of the Australian 
year. The building, 500 feet in length, has a dome 220 feet high, 
and two towers, each of 100 feet; the east and west sides are each 
460 feet long. The dome rises above the point where the naves 
and transepts intersect. An organ, made by a local builder, was 
constructed at a cost of ^5000. The Sydney Exhibition of 1879 
had first fairly revealed the Australian colonies, their importance, 
prosperity, and resources, to most of the people of Europe, and 
had given a prospect of the great new markets opening beyond 
the seas for European manufactures and luxuries. All the chief 
European nations were represented in the grand display of goods, 
with the United States, India, China, Japan, and all the Austral- 
asian colonies. Statuary, pictures, and water-colours from the 
chief European centres of art were also largely shown. The 
native-born population of the colony had a great revelation made 
to them in the display of European products, and much improve- 
ment of colonial taste came in household furniture and decoration. 
Local faculties were stimulated, and new British and foreign houses 



134 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

of business were opened in Melbourne for the supply of new 
colonial demands of refinement and luxury. The Exhibition 
remained open for seven months, until May, 1881, and was visited 
by 1,310,000 people. The main building was then consigned to 
the care of trustees for purposes of popular instruction and 
recreation. We may here note that seven years later, in 1888, 
a much larger show than the former one included a fine collection 
of pictures, a grand display of machinery, educational courts, and 
excellent orchestral music. 

In 1 88 1, an important constitutional change was made in the 
raising of the number of the Legislative Council, or Upper House, 
from thirty to forty-two members, with a lower property quali- 
fication, a briefer tenure of office, and a wider electoral basis. 
The Council, after this democratic innovation, was to be elected 
by all persons having 10 annual freehold value, or 25 annual 
leasehold. Great public measures were also passed for a Harbour 
Trust, and for the vesting of all railway administration in the 
hands of three Commissioners. The chairman, Mr. Speight, a 
man of great ability and experience on the staff of the Midland 
Railway, was procured from England. Since that time, the 
railway-lines have been a financial success, affording a small 
surplus towards general revenue, after meeting interest on the 
loans for construction, and defraying all the working expenses. 
All the public services of the colony have now been placed in 
the hands of non-political Commissioners, so as to remove patronage 
out of the power of ministries. In July, 1884, Sir Henry Brougham 
Loch, a Scottish gentleman of wide experience as a military officer 
in India and elsewhere; as a diplomatist in China and Japan; in 
the Home Department in London; and as Governor of the Isle 
of Man, became Governor of New South Wales in succession to 
Lord Normanby. His services in the colony, until his retirement 
nearly five years later, were highly appreciated by those whom he 
ruled. In 1886, fifty years after the foundation of the colony, the 
population numbered one million, and Melbourne and the suburbs 
contained about 300,000 inhabitants. In 1889, the Earl of Hope- 
toun, a Scottish noble of superior gifts of manner and tact, who 
had been a lord-in-waiting to the Queen, and Lord High Com- 
missioner to the Church of Scotland, entered on a five years' 
tenure of office as Governor, and won much popularity during 



VICTORIA. 



135 



that period. His successor was Lord Brassey, a nobleman of 
vast wealth, who sat for many years in the House of Commons, 
and has displayed much ability and intelligence in naval and 
maritime matters as a Civil Lord of the Admiralty, as Secretary 
to the Admiralty, as a writer on naval and commercial subjects, 
and as a veteran yachtsman on board his famous Sunbeam, the 
vessel which conveyed him to his new sphere of duty in the 
(European) summer of 1895. 

The recent history of the colony involves some events of a 
disastrous character. At the close of November, 1897, a cyclone, 
described as " a terrific dust-storm ", swept over the Wimmera 
district, in the north-west, wrecking several towns, with the 
destruction of many churches and prominent buildings. On 
November 2ist, the worst conflagration that ever occurred in 
Melbourne, the most destructive, indeed, ever known in any 
Australian town, destroyed property worth about a million sterling. 

This trouble was quickly followed by another of the same class, 
partly due to the intense heat of the Victorian summer of 1897-98, 
which will be remembered as having partially disabled the British 
team of cricketers then visiting Australia. The country was in 
the condition when " bush-fires " are to be most dreaded, and 
during the week ending with January i5th, 1898, the beautiful 
south-eastern district called Gippsland, with large tracts of range 
and forest, became a prey. The greatest destruction of property 
occurred among the holdings along the Great Southern Railway 
and the Gippsland line and its branches, though bush-fires also 
raged in other parts of the colony along the Dividing Range. In 
Gippsland, a prosperous dairy ing -district became an appalling 
scene of desolation, misery, and want, swept clean of all except 
tall, gaunt tree-trunks, charred from root to crown, and the frizzled- 
up bodies of horses, cows, pigs, and poultry; of wallabies (the 
smaller kangaroos), bandicoots, and snakes. Burnt-out settlers 
sat despairing by their ruined homes, sometimes mourning over 
victims of the fire. Many heroic deeds of rescue were performed. 
One thrilling incident of the week was the passage of a train, 
empty of travellers, through a burning forest and over burning 
bridges, the engine-driver being resolved, at all risks, to make his 
way to his own and the guard's family, who were " on the other 
side of the danger". The flames were tearing like a tornado 



136 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

across the line, leaping from tree to tree, and as the train passed 
through at full speed long tongues of fire, shooting up under the 
boiler and round the wheels, more than once caught the clothing 
of the driver and fireman. This terrible disaster had its origin in 
fires made for clearing the "bush" by settlers, and the smouldering 
embers, blazing up again under the action of the wind, brought 
ruin on a region made dry as tinder by the heat. Prompt measures 
for relief were taken by the Victorian government and by con- 
tributors to charitable funds. 

Victoria, the smallest colony on the mainland of Australia, and 
the youngest, with the exception of Queensland, in independent 
political existence, is bounded on the north by New South Wales, 
on the south by the ocean and Bass Strait, and on the west by 
South Australia. With an extreme length, from east to west, of 
420 miles, and a breadth varying from 150 to 250 miles, the country 
is almost equal in size to the island of Great Britain, having an 
area of 88,198 square miles, or nearly 56^2 million acres. The 
population, as officially estimated for the close of 1896, was then 
1,175,000, comprising about 596,000 males, and 579,000 females. 
The number of Chinese and aborigines, respectively 9377 and 
565 by the census of 1891, has much decreased during the last 
ten years. In 1891, 97 per cent of the population were British 
subjects by birth; native Victorians formed 63 per cent; nearly 
80,000 were natives of the other Australasian colonies; 163,000 
of England and Wales; over 85,000 were Irish, and 50,660 were 
of Scottish origin. About three-fifths of the whole people live 
in towns. The colony is divided into 37 counties, greatly varying 
in size. For purposes of local administration there were, in 1 896, 
about 60 urban and 149 rural municipalities, the former being 
"cities", "towns", or "boroughs", not exceeding 9 square miles 
in area, and the latter, called " shires ", being portions of territory 
containing rateable property that will yield an annual revenue of 
^"500. In religious profession, in 1891, about 75 per cent of the 
people were "Protestants", thus divided: Episcopalians, 417,000; 
Presbyterians, 167,000; Methodists, 158,000; other Protestants, 
94,600. The Roman Catholics formed 22 per cent of the whole 
population, or 248,600; the Jews were 6460, or */ per cent of 
the whole; the remainder, of various creeds or none, numbered 
about 48,500, including a few thousand Buddhists and Confucians 



VICTORIA. 



137 



of the pig-tailed race. There is no State Church, nor has there 
been any State assistance to any denomination since 1875. 

The most remarkable features in the 600 miles of the Victorian 
coast-line are, taking them in order from east to west, the Ninety- 
Mile Beach; Corner Inlet; Wilson's Promontory; Western Port 
Bay, with Phillip and French Islartds; Cape Schank; Port Phillip 
Bay; Cape Otway; Portland Bay; Cape Nelson; and Cape 
Bridgewater. The Ninety Mile Beach, really of much greater 
extent than its name indicates, is a narrow sand-bar, dividing the 
sea from a long line of narrow lagoons, stretching for 60 miles 
south-west. The entrance to Corner Inlet, an oblong expanse 
15 miles long by 10 in breadth, is almost blocked by an 
archipelago of islands large and small. The grand Wilson's 
Promontory, the most southerly point of the continent of Australia, 
is the extremity of a granitic peninsula, 24 miles long by 9 in 
average width, covered by a mass of mountains with some peaks 
exceeding 2500 feet in height. The lighthouse on the headland 
rises about 400 feet above sea-level, warning the mariner from the 
perils of the storm-beaten rocky coast. After the coast-line has 
turned south-west, Waratah Bay displays its handsome crescent- 
shaped contour. Western Port is a very spacious double inlet, 
the outer one opening into a circular expanse half-filled by French 
Island. An iron-bound coast running due west leads to Cape 
Schank with its commanding lighthouse, whence the shore turns 
north-west in a long line of sand hummocks and dunes to the 
entrance of Port Phillip. This noble sheet of sea-water, 40 
miles across, of roughly triangular shape, with an area of 700 
square miles, has an entrance over 2^ miles wide between the 
Heads at Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale. There are three 
minor bays within the great inlet Hobson's Bay, on the north, 
the anchorage for Melbourne; Geelong Bay, a narrow western 
arm; and Corio Bay, the anchorage for Geelong, at the south- 
western end of Geelong Bay. The scenery has no special charm. 
On the western coast of Port Phillip there is a long low line of 
sandy beach, with a broken ridge of scrub. On the south and 
east the shore is more picturesque, with miniature bays and a fine 
background of wooded hills near Sorrento and Mornington. After 
the voyager has passed the Nine Mile Beach, a narrow white 
riband of sand, a succession of sea-side villages and towns, in- 



138 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

eluding a Mentone and a Brighton, lead on northwards to St. 
Kilda, the fine suburb of Melbourne. 

Running south-westwards from the entrance to Port Phillip, 
we find the coast, with a hundred or more " creeks " discharging 
their currents into the sea, assuming a grander character. A 
rugged landwall of 300 feet in height extends for 60 miles, with 
only two places where it is possible to land; this line of cliff is 
backed by hills reaching nearly 2000 feet, splendidly wooded 
with blue gums and beech, blackwood and tree-ferns, and much 
other timber and foliage of the finest Australian types. Cape 
Otway, an imposing headland 3 miles broad, has a lighthouse 
crowning its western extremity. Far westwards again, as we near 
the border of South Australia, after coasting along a little-explored 
region heavily wooded, of thick tangled undergrowth, deep ravines, 
and icy-cold springs, we reach the fine Portland Bay, having an 
entrance 30 miles across, and running 5 or 6 miles inland, while 
the coast curves round in a south-easterly sweep to the bold Point 
Danger. There it turns westwards again to rugged Cape Nelson, 
with its lighthouse on a huge platform of jutting rock. Cape 
Bridgewater, rising about 450 feet above sea-level, lies amongst 
coast scenery of romantic and savage grandeur in rocky masses, 
and caves hollowed out through the ages by the force of storm- 
driven seas from the icy south. 

The mountain system consists chiefly of a portion of the Great 
Dividing Range already described, running mainly east and west 
in Victoria, with branches to north and south, and many outlying 
isolated hills. The highest ground is in the north-east, where 
many summits exceed 5000 feet, and the culminating point of 
the country, Mount Bogong, attains 6508. There are also many 
elevations of over 4000 feet. The scenery in summer, in the 
Mount Bogong part of the range, is rich in the variety and verdure 
of deep ravines and moist valleys, and has a winter grandeur in 
its many mountain-tops clothed with dazzling snow. Nothing can 
surpass the charms derived from perfection of form in the hills, 
and from changes of colour, according to the season, the hour of 
the day, and the cloud effects, in this most lonely and lovely 
mountain region. Among the hundred lakes of the colony, about 
twenty are salt or brackish, of which the largest, Lakes King, 
Victoria, and Wellington, lie inside the Ninety Mile Beach. Lake 



VICTORIA. !39 

Tyers, on the coast to the east of the above, is a much smaller 
and beautiful sheet of water with very irregular outline and lofty 
banks clothed with leafage to the top, and abounding in exquisite 
inlets and scenes having every kind of sylvan charm. Among the 
finest cascades are the Erskine Falls, on the river of the same 
name in the south-west, with rugged rocks, rich foliage, and a fine 
down-dashing volume of water. The Trentham Falls, near a 
mining settlement 2200 feet above the sea, about 65 miles 
north-west of Melbourne, are fine in winter-flood of the river 
Coliban, which then descends for 90 feet over a broad ledge of 
rugged rock, amid trees and shrubs of vivid and perennial verdure 
then seen through a veil of silvery mist. Steavenson Falls, on the 
river so-named in Gippsland, present a magnificent sight in winter, 
as the mountain torrent descends for hundreds of feet in successive 
cataracts through a deep ravine made umbrageous and verdant 
by stately trees, graceful tree-ferns, and intermingled creepers 
and shrubs, amid rocks almost coal-black in contrast with the 
snowy spray. 

In many points the surface of Victoria resembles that of New 
South Wales, though the natural features are upon a less extensive 
scale. There are a coast district, a table-land through which runs 
a dividing chain, and some interior plains. As these are included 
in a far smaller territory than that of the sister colony, they cause 
the surface to be more varied. The coast district is mostly un- 
dulating, with an average breadth of 40 miles, and the eastern 
portion is the most level. The river system is very simple. 
There are two principal slopes, one to the north into the Murray 
river, the other to the south into the ocean. The Dividing Range 
is the watershed. The chief Victorian tributaries of the Murray 
are the Mitta Mitta, the Ovens, the Goulburn, the Campaspe, and 
the Loddon. Of these the most important is the Goulburn, very 
picturesque in its upper course, passing by many towns, and 
having a length of nearly 350 miles. The Loddon has a course 
of 225 miles. The Avoca (160 miles) flows north into a lake, 
and the Wimmera, 230 miles long, empties itself into the large 
salt Lake Hindmarsh. On the southern slope, the Snowy River, 
partly in New South Wales, enters the sea west of Cape Howe; 
the Latrobe falls into Lake Wellington; the Yarra Yarra, 150 
miles long, into Hobson's Bay; the Glenelg, after a course of 



I4<D OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

280 miles, falls into the ocean between Capes Northumberland 
and Bridgewater. The climate, one of the most healthy and 
enjoyable in the world, greatly resembles that of New South 
Wales. At Melbourne, the mean temperature of the year is 
about 56; the rainfall being about 26 inches. North of the 
Dividing Range the temperature is somewhat higher and the 
rainfall less. Gippsland, the beautiful south-eastern district, well- 
watered, fertile in soil, and generally cooler in climate than most 
other parts of Victoria, was once densely wooded in the west and 
south-west, but much land has now been cleared and is tilled for 
root and grain crops, while the central district is richly grassed. 
This "garden of Victoria" supplies the capital and other towns 
with much of the animal and vegetable food there consumed. 
The Murray District lies between the Dividing Chain and the 
Murray River, and is mainly pastoral in character, with some 
tillage and much mineral wealth. The Loddon District, west of 
the Murray District, is chiefly pastoral, with much gold in the 
southern part. The north-west portion of the colony, also mainly 
in pasture, forms the Wimmera District. The flora and fauna of 
Victoria are identical with those of the southern part of New South 
Wales, except that in the animal kingdom the platypus and lyre- 
bird are more common, and in the vegetable world the tree-fern 
is more abundant, while the cedar and cabbage-tree palm are very 
rare. 

The mainsprings of prosperity in this colony are the pastoral 
and agricultural industries. Some of the land in the western plains 
is better adapted than any other territory in the world for the growth 
of fine wool. The soil which has been cleared of primeval forest 
is extremely rich, and Victoria stands at the head of the Austral- 
asian colonies in the value and extent of her crops. Up to the end 
of 1896 about 1 8 million acres of crown lands had been granted and 
sold, of which above i*/ million acres were, at that date, produc- 
ing wheat to the amount of 7 million bushels; 63,570 acres grew 
over 823,000 bushels of barley; 419,000 acres under oats furnished 
nearly 7 million bushels; about 9750 acres gave 560,000 bushels 
of maize; 43,500 acres of potato ground yielded 146,000 tons; and 
29,500 acres of vineyards furnished large supplies of wine and table 
grapes; the return of wine and brandy for the year 1889-90 was 
respectively 1,578,600 and 5285 gallons. There are very large 



VICTORIA. 141 

crops of hay and artificial grasses; all the common European fruits 
are grown, and culinary vegetables in such abundance as to leave 
a surplus for exportation to neighbouring colonies. Peas and beans, 
hops and tobacco are also produced. The growth of grapes for 
wine production, and for table use both as fresh fruit and as raisins, 
is now important. The pioneers of viticulture in Victoria were two 
natives of Switzerland, Hubert and Paul de Castella, brothers who 
emigrated to the colony, where the latter planted the first Victorian 
vineyard, in 1856, at Yering cattle station. Some of the Australian 
wines are very favourably known. At the Melbourne Exhibition 
of 1 88 1, Messrs, de Castella (Hubert) and Rowan, of St. Hubert's 
Vineyard, in Victoria, carried off the "grand prize " of /"8oo offered 
by the Emperor of Germany to "an exhibitor . . . promoting 
art and industry as shown by the high qualities of the goods manu- 
factured ", and at Bordeaux, the home of the French wine-industry, 
some medals were awarded for specimens shown, in 1882, by 
seventy Australian wine-growers. In regard to pastoral wealth in 
Victoria, we find that the colony, in March, 1894, contained about 
432,000 horses, over 1,833,000 horned cattle, nearly 13,200,000 
sheep; 337,000 was the number of pigs. 

Returning now to the subject of tillage, we find this colony 
taking an honourable and, in a continent subject to drought, a very 
useful lead in the important matter of irrigation. The name of 
Mildura, a town on the Murray river, 340 miles north-west of 
Melbourne, is closely connected with the inauguration of a great 
fruit-producing industry in the establishment of Australia's first 
" irrigation colony ", a form of enterprise which, welcomed in every 
part of Victoria as likely to enrich the country with a new territory, 
in five years' time transformed a mere wilderness of mallee scrub 
into a delightful region of well-ordered orchards and vineyards. 
The word is the native term for " red earth ", describing the soil 
throughout the settlement made in a district where the land lay 
valueless and untouched, so bare that even rabbits were dying by 
hundreds on the parched ground. It was a rare opportunity for 
the display of energy and skill, and these forces were applied with 
remarkable success. In 1886, mainly through the efforts of Mr. 
Alfred Deakin, Chief Secretary and Commissioner of Water Supply, 
the Victorian Legislature passed an Act providing for a national 
system of irrigation. The same gentleman, born at Melbourne in 



142 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

1856, and a member of the Victorian bar, had in 1883 carried a 
" Water Conservation Act ", the first measure ever passed in 
Australia for public irrigation on a large scale. The great imme- 
diate outcome of Mr. Deakin's irrigation-policy was the arrarige- 
ment which the Victorian government made, in 1887, with the two 
brothers George and William Benjamin ChafTey, natives of the 
Province of Ontario, Canada, who had for some years been success^ 
ful irrigators in Southern California, emigrating to Australia in 
1886. The Chaffeys, in 1887, secured 250,000 acres of land on the 
banks of the Murray, on condition of spending, within twenty years, 
the sum of ,300,000 on improvements, and of paying ,200,000, 
in that time, for the whole area. The contract bound them to 
make an outlay of ,33,000 in the first five years. So rapid was 
the success obtained, and so bright the prospect, that in far less 
than the above time, or up to June, 1891, ,275,000 had been 
disbursed on the new Mildura settlement, in addition to improve- 
ments, made by settlers themselves, to the estimated value of 
,100,000. 

In 1894, the town of Mildura contained a number of hand- 
some buildings in brick churches and stores, public offices 
and dwelling-houses, with an agricultural college fully endowed 
by setting aside one-fifteenth of the whole value of the land. 
The main street, Deakin Avenue, is planted for 5 miles with 
ornamental trees; parallel to this, on both sides, run other road- 
ways, crossed by long streets at right angles. The town-sites 
extend about a mile back from the Murray, and are bounded by 
suburban allotments, beyond which ten-acre blocks run back for 
9 or 10 miles, the highest water-channel being about 90 feet 
above the summer-level of the river. Hundreds of miles of main 
and subsidiary channels are supplied with water from a dozen 
pumping-stations, with plant ranging from 200 to 1000 horse-power, 
the largest having four centrifugal pumps each raising 10,000 
gallons per minute. The landscape of this delightful region is 
dotted over with settlers' homes of every description and size, from 
handsome mansions with every modern convenience and comfort 
to small tenements of wood and corrugated iron. These are erected 
amongst orchards, vineyards, and fruit-gardens in every stage of 
progress, tilled by fruit-growing experts from California, Anglo- 
Indians, emigrants from South Africa, and from the other Austral- 



VICTORIA. 143 

asian colonies, and by English, Scottish, and Irish settlers of good 
class, including many sons of English country gentlemen. The 
production of raisins, dried in the sun as the method which alone 
preserves the aroma and flavour of the grapes, is a leading industry, 
and this fruit is sold at is. per pound in the local market. The 
apricots, peaches, and figs are of tiigh quality, and orange- and 
lemon-trees bear heavily at two years of age. The combination of 
excellence in soil, climate, and weather with skill and care in culti- 
vation has produced marvellous results in return for capital expended. 
In eleven weeks after planting, ripe apricots have been gathered 
from the trees, and a crop of some tons' weight of grapes has been 
given, within two years of planting, by a ten-acre lot of vines. 
Tomatoes, potatoes, and every kind of vegetable, with lucerne, hay, 
and sorghum or durra or Indian millet, are produced, the last three 
furnishing full supplies for horses and cattle. A large canning 
trade in fruit for export has arisen, and the settlement is on the 
high-road to enduring prosperity, having solved the problem of 
how to deal with deficient and capricious rainfall. Under the Acts 
of 1883 and 1886, about thirty local " Irrigation and Water Supply 
Trusts", constituted by the Governor in Council, composed of 
members elected by the ratepayers, and having jurisdiction over 
more than 3 million acres of land, are dealing with the soil in other 
parts of the colony. 

The mineral wealth of Victoria still lies chiefly in gold, the 
value of which, up to the end of 1896, had exceeded 240 millions 
sterling, with a present annual output of about 3^ millions, giving 
employment to over 23,000 miners, of whom 2700 are Chinese. 
Silver, tin, copper, iron, lead, zinc, antimony, and coal are also 
found, but have not been worked to any great extent. In the 
amount and value of her manufactures, Victoria surpasses all the 
other Australian colonies, giving employment to over 46,000 
" hands ", with an invested capital of about 1 7 millions, in flour- 
mills, breweries, brickyards and potteries; tanneries and wool- 
washing works; woollen mills for textile work in tweed, cloth, 
flannel and blankets; soap and candle works; tobacco manufac- 
tories, distilleries, paper and stationery works, machinery and tools, 
carriages, harness, furniture, chemicals, and many other branches 
of industry both for home-supply and for export. For 1896 the 
total imports had a value exceeding 14^2 millions sterling, of which 



144 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

goods worth nearly 6 millions came from the United Kingdom, 
chiefly in manufactured articles; 6 I / millions of imports were 
received from other Australian colonies, and ,657,000 worth from 
India, Ceylon, and other British possessions, the bulk of the remain- 
ing import trade being conducted with the United States, Java and 
the Philippine Islands, Germany, China, Sweden and Norway, and 
Belgium. In the same year, the total exports amounted to nearly 
14*4 millions sterling, of which the United Kingdom accounted for 
,6,704,100, mainly in wool, gold (coined and in bullion), hides 
and leather, and tallow; while the other Australian colonies took 
produce and goods worth over 5^ millions, the remainder belong- 
ing chiefly to France (about ^ million), Germany, Belgium, and 
the United States. The importance of the pastoral industry is 
shown by the fact that in 1896 the value of exported wool was 
nearly 5 millions; the butter export, in the same year, was worth 
.874,710, and flour and grain exceeded .350,000. The commerce 
of the colony employed, in 1896, over 4^ millions tonnage of 
shipping " entered and cleared " (exclusive of the coasting trade), 
of which over 4 millions were in British vessels. 

As regards internal communication, the Murray is the chief 
navigable river, and forms a highway of trade for the whole of the 
colony north of the Dividing Range. The vessels which ply on 
its waters are small steamers, towing after them, on the upward 
voyage, barges laden with various stores, and returning with 
vessels conveying wool and other products. The only other 
navigable stream is the Yarra Yarra, enabling ships of consider- 
able size to reach the business quarter of the capital. The railway 
system is very well developed, belonging wholly to the State, 
extending to the remotest parts of the colony, and comprising, in 
June, 1896, over 3120 miles of road, with a working expenditure 
of .1,546,000 and receipts of .2,401,392, affording about 2^2 per 
cent on an expended capital of above 37 millions, chiefly derived 
from loans. With branches in all directions, the chief lines are the 
Northern, from Melbourne to Echuca, on the Murray, 156 miles; 
the North-eastern, Melbourne to Wodonga, 187 miles; the Eastern, 
Melbourne to Sale (in Gippsland), 128 miles; the Western, by 
Geelong, Ballarat, and Ararat, to the South Australian frontier, a 
distance of 313 miles. There are over 7500 miles of telegraph, 
with double that length of wires and nearly 900 stations, and 



VICTORIA. I45 

telephones are also much employed. The postage rate for town 
and country is id. for letters under half an ounce, with a id. inter- 
colonial charge for same weight, and 2y 2 d. to the United Kingdom 
and countries within the Postal Union. 

The Anglican Church is under the local control of the Bishops 
of Melbourne and of Ballarat; the Church of Rome is subject to 
five prelates, at the head of whom is an Archbishop of Melbourne. 
The arrangements for education closely resemble those of New 
South Wales. The Melbourne University, with buildings opened 
in 1855, has a yearly income of about ,12,250 from the public 
revenue, and is both an examining and a teaching body, with a 
royal charter empowering it to grant degrees in all faculties except 
divinity. There are three affiliated colleges, respectively Anglican, 
Presbyterian, and Wesleyan, and the School of Mines at Ballarat 
is also attached to the university. Victoria takes the lead of all the 
Australian colonies in secondary education, conducted in numerous 
and efficient private colleges and schools, much resorted to by 
pupils from other parts of the continent. There are many techno- 
logical schools under the control of the Educational Department, 
including working-men's colleges, schools of arts and of mines, and 
two agricultural colleges. The public library of Melbourne contains 
about 422,000 volumes, including a large number of pamphlets 
and "parts". Every leading town is provided with a public library 
or a mechanics' institute, the whole number exceeding 424 in 1896, 
with a total (exclusive of the Melbourne collection) of more than 
600,000 volumes. The public instruction given at the primary 
schools is strictly secular, compulsory between the ages of six and 
thirteen, free for ordinary subjects, and so well conducted in over 
1880 schools, with 4500 teachers, and an average attendance of 
138,000 children out of 235,000 on the roll, that the census of 
1891 showed 95^4 P er cent f persons above fifteen years as able 
to read and write, while only about 2 per cent were entirely illiter- 
ate. The total cost of public (primary) education in the year 
1895-96 was nearly ,600,000, exclusive of expenditure on school 
buildings; 12 exhibitions, annually worth ,40, and tenable for 
four years; and 100 scholarships, of the yearly value of 10, ten- 
able for three years; are annually given to the ablest pupils for 
their further education at the private colleges or "grammar- 
schools" or at the university. The system of public justice includes 

VOL. VI. 120 



146 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

a Supreme Court, with a Chief Justice and four assistant judges; 
courts of general and petty sessions, county-courts, courts of insol- 
vency, mines, and licensing. 

The revenue, for the year ending June 3Oth, 1896, in a time of 
great commercial depression, was a little under 6^ millions sterling, 
having exceeded, in 1889 and 1890, 8^ millions. The receipts 
are derived chiefly from customs-duties (about 2 millions), profits 
on railways (over ^ million), crown-lands and land-tax, duties on 
estates, stamp-duty and excise. The protective tariff for imported 
goods includes 25 per cent ad valorem on woven silk, 35 per cent 
on jute matting, 35 to 40 per cent on heavy woollen goods, 50 per 
cent on woollen apparel, 35 per cent on many iron wares, 35 per 
cent on some machinery, 45 per cent on many leathern wares, pay- 
ments on china and glass, about 195. per cwt. on candles, heavy 
duties on soap, bacon and hams, and butter, is. per gallon on beer, 
15^. per gallon on spirits and sparkling wines, i2s. per gallon on 
other wines, and charges on cigars (6s. per lb.), manufactured 
tobacco (35. per lb.), and stationery, with ^3 per ton on scrap iron. 
The public expenditure for the same year was just over 6*/2 mil- 
lions, chiefly on interest of debt; railways, telegraphs, and postal 
service; public instruction; public works; charitable institutions, 
defences, police, civil service and judicial administration. The 
outstanding public debt, on June 3Oth, 1896, was just below 47 
millions sterling; over 36^ millions has been borrowed for the 
construction of railways, nearly 7^/2 millions for water- works, 
,1,105,000 for State school-buildings, and ,1,600,000 for other 
public works. The rate of interest averages 4 per cent. The 
estimated total value of rateable property in the colony, in 1896, 
exceeded 197 millions sterling, with an annual value of over 13^ 
millions. In the same year, there were 378 post-office and 37 
general savings-banks, with over 7^ millions of pounds belonging 
to about 345,475 depositors. 

The Victorian parliament consists of two Chambers. The Legis- 
lative Council, of 48 members, of whom about one-third must retire 
every two years, is elected by voters with a small property or 
tenancy qualification, except they be graduates of British universi- 
ties, matriculated students of the Melbourne University, ministers 
of religion, certificated schoolmasters, lawyers, medical practitioners, 
or officers of the army and navy not on active service. Members 



VICTORIA. 



147 



of the Council must have estate of the annual value of ^100. The 
Legislative Assembly (95 members) is elected for three years by 
universal manhood suffrage. No minister of religion may sit in 
either body. The members of the Assembly are paid at the rate 
of ^300 a year for expenses, and members of both Houses have 
free passes over all the railways. The Governor is assisted by a 
cabinet, ministry, or executive council of 1 2 members, at least 4 of 
whom must be either in the Legislative Council or the Assembly, 
but not more than 8 can be at any one time members of the 
Assembly. These high officials include a " Minister of Railways 
and Health ", a " Minister of Defence", one of " Mines and Water 
Supply", "Agriculture and Public Works", and one who, at present, 
combines the office of Chief Secretary with that of Minister of 
Public Instruction. 

MELBOURNE, the capital of Victoria, as both the seat of govern- 
ment and the commercial centre, is in itself a city of about 75,000 
inhabitants, but taken, like London in the usual sense of the word, 
as an aggregation of towns within a radius of 10 miles from the 
General Post-office, the place contains about half a million people, 
or more than two-fifths of the whole population of the colony, and 
disputes with Buenos Ayres the honour of being the largest and 
most important town in the Southern Hemisphere. The chief 
municipalities which make up "Greater Melbourne" are North 
Melbourne, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond, Prahran, South Mel- 
bourne, Brunswick, St. Kilda, Port Melbourne, Footscray, Williams- 
town, Essendon, and Hawthorn, with populations varying from 
1 5,000 to over 40,000, all the towns being connected by good roads 
and cable tramways. The mansions in the various residential 
suburbs such as Toorak, St. Kilda, Kew, South Yarra, Hawthorn, 
and Brighton, would grace any city in the world, and the Victorian 
capital is remarkably rich in the beauty and extent of its public 
gardens and parks, above a dozen in number, and containing a total 
area of nearly 4500 acres, out of the entire space, 60,000 acres, 
covered by the city and suburbs. The position of the city, much 
of which, in its suburban parts, lies on marshy land at a low level, 
has hitherto caused the drainage to be very defective, but a com- 
plete scheme for proper disposal of the sewage is now being carried 
out by the Metropolitan Board of Works at an estimated cost of 
five millions sterling. The lighting, with gas and electricity, and 



148 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

the paving, are excellent. The water-supply, admirable in abun- 
dance and puality, is mainly derived from the Yan Yean reservoir, 
in a township nearly 600 feet above sea-level, about 20 miles 
north-east of Melbourne. The south side of a valley was closed 
up by the formation of an embankment 3159 feet long, 31 feet high, 
and varying in width from 20 feet at top to 1 70 feet at bottom. A 
river, well named the Plenty, was then diverted into the space, 
forming a lake, 1330 acres in area, and 25 feet in greatest depth. 
This gigantic work, executed at a cost of i^ millions sterling, has 
a capacity of 6400 million gallons. 

Noticing first some of the suburbs of Melbourne, as we approach 
by sea the northern extremity of Port Phillip, we find on the 
eastern shore .5V. Kilda, a borough of 25,000 people, with terraces, 
stately detached houses, a fine esplanade, a sea -front 3 miles 
in length, and bathing-places securely fenced in from sharks. 
This charming town is a place of residence for thousands of the 
most prosperous citizens. On entering Hobson's Bay, we have 
on the western shore Williamstown, with about 18,000 inhabitants, 
the outlying port where the largest European steamers receive 
and discharge passengers and cargo, in a situation made advan- 
tageous by the depth of water and the sheltered position of the 
wharves. The Alfred Graving Dock is a very spacious one, 
adapted for the largest vessels. There are railway workshops 
and factories, and the usual business connected with a seaport 
and an arsenal. On the opposite or north-eastern shore of 
Hobson's Bay lies Port Melbourne (about 15,000 people), formerly 
known as "Sandridge", having a retail trade connected with the 
shipping, and joined to the city by a railway 2 miles in length, 
the first ever constructed in Victoria. The approach to Melbourne 
proper by the narrow river Yarra has been vastly improved in 
recent years by the widening of the channel, the extension of the 
wharfage, the action of many powerful dredgers, and by the cut- 
ting of a canal across an awkward bend of the river bank. The 
scene is busy with traffic in all kinds of sea-borne goods connected 
with foreign and intercolonial trade, save wool and wheat, which 
are shipped at Williamstown. As the city is neared, the air 
becomes filled with the clang of hammers, the whirr of machinery, 
the panting of steam-engines, and the hissing of circular saws from 
the factories, workshops, and yards. Flinders Street West, at 



VICTORIA. 



149 



the water's edge, has an enormous business conducted on the 
ordinary roadway, double tramways, and a railway, and is lined 
on one side by coal -yards, wood -yards, warehouses, shops, and 
taverns. The Yarra is crossed by several bridges, including the 
fine Prince's Bridge, of three wrought-iron arches each 100 feet 
in span, the whole structure, with approaches, having a length 
of 550 feet and a width of 150. The city is laid out on the chess- 
board plan, with streets, the chief about 100 feet wide, intersecting 
at right angles. Collins Street, paved with asphalt and planted 
with trees, is one of imposing architecture, being lined on each 
side by tall, massive, and ornate buildings, chiefly banks, offices, 
warehouses, shops and hotels. Bourke Street corresponds to the 
London Strand, containing the chief theatres and music-halls and 
many shops; it is, however, three times as wide and four times as 
long as the famous thoroughfare of the world's chief city. 

The Protestant Cathedral, ill placed among warehouses that 
hem it in on every side, is a fine specimen of Middle Pointed 
Gothic, 246 feet long, and 93 feet wide, having two towers each 
127 feet high, and a central tower 40 feet square, with a spire 
rising to 260 feet. The Congregational Church is a fine adapta- 
tion, in parti-coloured brick, of the Romanesque style, and the 
Scots Church, the architectural gem of Collins Street, is a good 
stone specimen of Early English, with a graceful spire above 
200 feet in height. It is due, in a large measure, to the admirable 
energy, skill, and integrity of Melbourne's municipal rulers, that 
a town whose streets, about sixty years ago, were mere bush- 
tracks, has been transformed into a place whose thoroughfares 
are as well paved, lighted, and watched, as those of London, 
Paris, or Vienna. This great Australasian capital also owes much 
to the munificence of leading citizens. The Ormond (Presbyterian) 
College, one of the finest educational structures south of the 
equator, was erected at the expense of Mr. Francis Ormond, a 
native of Aberdeen, who went out to Victoria at an early age, 
and became a successful squatter, and a member of the Legislative 
Council. The charge thus incurred amounted to ,40,000, in 
addition to 2500 paid to the endowment fund. Mr. Ormond 
was also largely instrumental in founding the Working-Men's 
College, which has been vastly successful in technical education, 
and had, in 1889, 2000 names on the roll of students. Before his 



150 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

death in the above year, the same benefactor endowed a chair 
of music in Melbourne University, at the cost of ,20,000, and 
by his will and codicils bequeathed .40,000, in amounts of ,5000 
for each, to eight Melbourne Asylums and Hospitals for the sick, 
orphans, deaf and dumb, blind, sailors, and sick children; ,40,000 
to the Ormond College, ,10,000 to the Working-Men's College, 
.20,000, in four sums of .5000, to as many hospitals and asylums 
at Geelong and Ballarat; and some thousands more to various 
religious and educational institutions. The Wilson Hall, a notable 
adjunct of Melbourne University, was erected, at the cost of 
nearly .40,000, by Sir Samuel Wilson, a native of Ireland, who 
became a miner at the Victorian gold-diggings in 1852, and then 
a successful sheep-farmer, and a member of the Legislative Council. 
He returned to England, sat for some years in the House of 
Commons, and became tenant of Hughenden Manor, famous as 
the residence of Lord Beaconsfield. 

Returning now to the architectural adornments of Melbourne, 
we note the Town Hall, completed in 1870, of mingled Classic 
and Renaissance style, with a grand double front at the corner 
of Collins Street, a mansard roof, a clock tower 140 feet in height, 
and a hall 1 74 feet long, 74 feet wide, and 63 feet high, furnished 
with a fine organ the whole structure having cost above ,100,000. 
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick has a noble site 
on the crown of a hill, and is a splendid triple-spired structure 
in Geometrical Decorated English Gothic, the central tower and 
spire rising to a height of 330 feet. Inside the walls, the building 
is 345 feet long, with transepts of 160 feet, and a height of 92 feet 
to the ridge of the main roof. The Houses of Parliament form 
one of the most magnificent buildings in Australasia, in the Roman- 
Doric style, covering an area nearly 320 feet square, and completed 
in 1891 at the cost of about a million sterling. The Exhibition 
Building, in the Carlton Gardens, and the General Post Office 
are conspicuous among the public buildings. The noble public 
library has been already mentioned, and on the same "reserve", 
or public domain, are the national art gallery and the technological 
museum. All three institutions, governed by a body of trustees, 
are well supported by a state endowment. Among the open 
spaces for health and recreation are the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens 
(64 acres); Yarra Park, the scene of cricket and other athletic 



VICTORIA. jtj! 

sports; the Friendly Societies Gardens; the Royal Park (between 
200 and 300 acres), which includes the Zoological Gardens of 50 
acres; Studley Park (300 acres); and Kew Park (396 acres). 
Albert Park, of 570 acres, contains an extensive natural lao-oon, 
deepened and widened for boating and yachting, and has grounds 
for cricket, football, polo, and lacrosse. This resort, in the southern 
suburbs, contains the " Rotten Row" of Melbourne, for the drives 
of fashionable folk, and is the most valuable of the numerous 
"lungs" of the capital. The Botanical Gardens, of about 100 
acres, beautifully formed by nature with undulations of the ground, 
have a valley containing a lake of 8 acres, and display very beau- 
tiful, varied, and valuable specimens of native and foreign flora. 
Government House, of no special architectural merit, is nobly 
placed on a hill commanding views that embrace the city and 
suburbs, Port Phillip Bay, and a horizon mostly of mountain ranges. 
Such is some account of the great metropolis of Victoria, a city of 
public palaces and superb warehouses, shops, and private mansions; 
rich in institutions of commerce, charity, education and art; 
abreast of the old great cities of the world in all characteristics of 
civilization; all developed in the space of sixty years from a little 
township on the banks of the Yarra, a settlement which had the 
name of " Beargrass ", and consisted of only thirteen buildings, 
three composed of weather-board, two of slate, and eight huts put 
together of turf. 

Victoria possesses a larger number of towns worthy of the name 
than any other Australian colony, and this is a special feature of 
Victorian social and political life. Of late years, however, the 
growth of provincial towns has been somewhat arrested, and the 
population has become more and more concentrated in and near 
Melbourne. Geelong, 45 miles south-west of the capital, has about 
25,000 people, and is beautifully placed in a natural amphitheatre 
rising from the edge of Corio Bay, being girt on the landward side 
with a zone of bowery suburbs composed of pretty villages and 
cottages amidst flowers and shrubs, while the higher ground shows 
many handsome mansions, the Scotch College, the Roman Catholic 
Orphanage, and the Convent of St. Augustine. The place is one 
of the prettiest in the colony, on the south side of the bay, which 
curves round with picturesque outline into the miniature capes 
Point Lillias and Point Henrv on the north and south of the 



152 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

entrance from Port Phillip. The broad streets leading to- the 
water slope down from south to north, intersected by equally 
spacious thoroughfares running east and west. The public edifices 
are numerous and often handsome. A tree-planted esplanade 
connects the town with the botanical gardens of 120 acres, situated 
on a promontory and containing the largest and finest fernery in 
Australia. Cathedral-like in shape, height, and size, being cruci- 
form, with three aisles, the structure has, beneath its central dome, 
a fountain springing from rock- work adorned with ferns, and 
having its encircling rim jewelled with water-lilies. The columns 
supporting the arched roof are entwined with creepers. There 
are two other public parks, and Jeffery's Garden, at Newtown, 
in the outskirts, has a noble collection of roses in 400 varieties. 
The town is famous in Australia for its woollen manufactures, 
and promised, in early days, to become the capital of the colony, 
but railway extension carried traffic past the place, and it is now 
rather notable for peace and beauty than for commercial activity. 
Just inside the entrance to Port Phillip, the little town of Queens- 
cliff, on the peninsula to the south of Geelong Harbour, is a 
favourite summer resort of Melbourne people in the hot season 
from November to April. One of its charms is the view afforded 
of the large ships that pass in and out of the gateway of the colony 
to the number of over two hundred in a week, about sixty of which 
are noble steamers of the P. and O., the Orient, the Messageries, 
and the Norddeutscher lines, the rest being steamers trading to 
and from Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, and New Zealand, vessels 
scarcely less splendid in appearance and size. The spectacle is 
completed by grand sailing-ships built at Glasgow and Aberdeen, 
as they pass in heavy-laden with merchandise. The entrance to 
Port Phillip is guarded by heavy guns at Queenscliff and at Point 
Nepean on the opposite shore. 

About 1 60 miles westwards from Melbourne by rail is Warr- 
nambool, on the coast, a town of 7000 people, much sought by 
invalids for its mild climate and wholesome air. A great trade 
is carried on in potatoes, grown in this district to great advantage, 
and a few miles off lie the chief dairy-farm and cheese-factory 
of Victoria. There are several large public parks, botanical 
gardens, a fine race-course, and excellent sea-bathing. Ballarat, 
containing about 45,000 people, lies TOO miles by railway north- 



VICTORIA. 



153 



west of Melbourne, and is the second largest town in the colony. 
Situated on the most important gold-field, a great railway-centre, 
and an important station on the main line to Adelaide, the place 
has the advantages of a bracing and healthy climate, fine forests 
near at hand, and a fertile soil all around. The town soon became 
self-supporting, and now contains large flour-mills, breweries, and 
woollen factories, with some of the greatest iron-foundries and 
engineering works in the colony, one of which has sent out about 
250 locomotives, now at work on the State railways. The streets 
are worthy of the importance of the city. The noble boulevard 
called Sturt Street, one of the finest in the southern hemisphere, 
has a double avenue of trees in the centre, with well-kept roads 
between them and the footways. The public buildings are fine, 
and the streets are lit with electric lamps; the drainage and water- 
supply are excellent. Great skill and liberality have been used 
in laying out the city of gold. It covers so large an area in 
proportion to population that every little house, save in the chief 
business streets, has its acre or half-acre of ground, with garden 
in front and rear. The thoroughfares display pines from Los 
Angeles, in California, and from the Caucasus, along with British 
oaks and elms and limes, and the tall factory-chimneys and the 
shafts of mines are intermingled with cedars of Lebanon, deodars 
or Himalayan cedars, stately eucalypti, the arbutus, the acacia, 
and the blackthorn. Among the many places of worship are 
the grand Gothic R. C. Cathedral, St. Patrick's; St. Andrew's 
Presbyterian Church, a very fine structure; the Wesleyan Church, 
and the noble Anglican Cathedral. The city is " Ballarat West"; 
Ballarat East is a separate borough, a fine spacious place like 
its neighbour, with flourishing factories. A mile to the north 
of Ballarat city is the beautiful Lake Wendouree, 600 acres in 
extent, a sheet of water created by human skill and labour out of 
a mere reedy swamp. Studded with wooded islands, surrounded 
by a carriage-drive, well stocked with native and foreign fish, 
frequented by wild- fowl, and furnished with several steamers and 
hundreds of sailing and rowing boats, plying for hire, the lake 
is a charming summer-resort, with botanic gardens and the orna- 
mental forest close at hand. Not far away from Ballarat, to the 
north, are the active gold-working towns of Creswick and Clunes. 
Maryborough, about 800 feet above sea-level, at 140 miles from 



154 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

the capital by way of Ballarat, is another prosperous gold-mining 
centre among reefs of quartz, and contains a population of about 
6000, with thrice that number in the district. 

In the Central District we find Mount Macedon, a spur of the 
Great. Dividing Range, here about 3300 feet in height. This 
region, having a cool night -temperature at the hottest season, 
and an endless variety of romantic scenery, is a place of summer 
residence for many wealthy Melbourne citizens. The southern 
slopes of the mountain are dotted with villas commanding noble 
prospects. Daylesford, about 2000 feet above sea-level, surrounded 
by fine mountain scenery, has valuable mineral springs, and 
botanical gardens occupying an unique position on the summit 
of Wombat Hill, a round isolated mountain of rich chocolate soil, 
2300 feet high, planted with groves of pine, cedar, laurel, juniper, 
and other trees, so placed as to leave the visitor's view to range 
over a most extensive prospect of ridge after ridge of hills in 
every direction, resembling the billows of an ocean solidified 
amidst a raging storm. Between the long waves are seen green 
plains and fertile bottom-lands under tillage. The gardens and 
orchards of this volcanic soil are rich in all the English fruits, and 
send to the Melbourne markets large supplies of strawberries, 
raspberries, black currants and other produce. The third town 
of the colony in population is Bendigo, about 100 miles by 
railway north of Melbourne, and containing 41,000 inhabitants. 
The place lies on the upper part of Bendigo Creek and its 
tributaries, in one of the earliest and most famous gold-fields. The 
region contains about 300 well-defined auriferous reefs, and having 
a gold-bearing area of noo square miles, it has produced, from 
only a few thousand acres of the whole surface, about 70 million 
pounds' worth of the metal, won from shafts of which some descend 
more than 2000 feet. The city has 100 miles of tree-planted 
streets, beautiful gardens (Rosalind Park) of 60 acres, fine public 
buildings, 30 churches and chapels, and great industries in iron, 
brewing, tanning, pottery, bricks and tiles, and carriage-building. 
The place is the same as the " Bendigo " of early gold-digging 
days. The Eastern District has the heaviest rainfall and some of 
the grandest mountain-scenery, with sylvan solitudes of exquisite 
charm in their solemn cloisters of columnar trees, beneath whose 
long-drawn aisles of verdure are avenues of tree-ferns overarching 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 155 

ice-cold streamlets with their feathery fronds. Many settlements 
of wood-cutters and of tillers of the soil are seen by the railway 
traveller in this country, but there are no large towns. Beechworth, 
Mansfield, and Walhalla are centres of important mining-districts; 
Euroa of a pastoral region. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOUTH AUSTRALIA: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, 
STATISTICS, TOWNS. 

Early explorations of the coast First colonization of the territory in 1836 The South 
Australian Land and Colonization Company Failure of its land schemes Estab- 
lishment of the colony proclaimed Quarrels of the officials Difficulties of Governor 
Gawler Able administration of Governor Grey Rapid development of the colony 
Discovery of copper The mines of Burra Burra, Wallaroo, and Moonta Governor- 
ship of Sir Henry Young His measures to escape a financial crisis Responsible 
government introduced Land reform The Northern Territory added to the colony 
The overland telegraph established Its route from Melbourne to London Con- 
struction of public works Financial depression in 1886 The changes of fifty years 
Adelaide Exhibition of 1887 Boundaries, area, and population of the colony 
Religion Climate Coast-line Mountain ranges and vast plains Adelaide, the 
capital, and its suburban towns described Railway engineering Mount Gambier, 
Gawler, Endunda, Port Augusta, and other towns Proposed transcontinental rail- 
way. The NORTHERN TERRITORY Palmerston town Rivers Climate. Chief 
industries of South Australia Manufactures Trade Railways System of Govern- 
ment Education Administration of justice Revenue Customs-duties Public 
debt. 

It was in December, 1800, that Lieutenant Grant, of the 
Lady Nelson, was the first European, so far as is known, to see 
any part of the southern coast of what is now South Australia. 
He sighted Cape Northumberland, on a voyage to Tasmania, 
guiding his course by information furnished by Flinders. In 1802, 
as we have seen, Flinders explored the southern coast of the 
island-continent, carefully examining Spencer's and St. Vincent 
Gulfs, and meeting, in Encounter Bay, the French expedition 
under Baudin already referred to. Several names on the map, 
between Encounter Bay and Cape Northumberland, as Lacepede 
and Rivoli Bays, and Capes Bernouilli and Buffon, are the 
memorials of French discovery in this quarter. Franklin Harbour, 
on the west coast of Spencer's Gulf, commemorates one of Flinders' 
midshipmen, afterwards the famous Arctic voyager, Sir John 



156 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Franklin. Kangaroo Island was much visited, in those early 
days, by whaling and sealing ships, and the first white settlers 
in South Australia were seamen who deserted from these vessels. 
The explorations made by Captain Sturt at a later time have been 
recorded, and we come, in 1836, to the first colonization of the 
territory which enjoys the distinction of having never received 
any convict-immigrants. The discoveries made by Sturt had 
attracted much attention in England among people who desired 
to see a colony founded in Australia independent of New South 
Wales, and on a different principle from that which had prevailed, 
of granting large blocks of land to settlers who had no means of 
cultivating great holdings or of stocking extensive pastoral areas, 
and paying for the needful labour. The South Australian Land 
and Colonization Company received from the home government 
the control of all the lands in the colony, on condition of sale to 
settlers at not less than i zs. per acre, a price afterwards increased 
to 2os. Under the "Wakefield system" adopted by the company, 
the proceeds of sales, divided into the " Immigration Moiety" and 
the "Crown Moiety", were to be devoted to the importation of 
young men and women as farm-labourers and servants, in the pay 
of the wealthier colonists, and to the construction of roads, bridges, 
and other public works. Nothing is more dreary than the details 
of the failure of flattering schemes. The Wakefield system broke 
down simply because the ladies and gentlemen who went out from 
England as owners of estates and employers of labour shrank from 
the trouble and hardships involved in developing the resources of 
a new country, and, clustering in the little capital, instead of going 
forth upon the land, began to speculate and gamble in town-lots. 
It was on December 28th, 1836, that Captain Hindmarsh, the first 
Governor, proclaimed the establishment of the colony of South 
Australia, at the spot, on the shore of Holdfast Bay, where the 
town of Glenelg now stands. On that midsummer's day, under 
the shade of the historic " old gum-tree ", about half a mile from 
the beach, the royal proclamation was read in presence of about 
200 settlers, the Union Jack was hoisted, the guns of H. M. S. 
Buffalo, at anchor in the bay, were fired, a party of marines shot 
off a musket-volley, and rounds of cheers were given, followed by 
a cold luncheon spread under the trees, with patriotic toasts and 
" God save the King". The site of a town was afterwards marked 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. ! 57 

out near the foot of the Mount Lofty range of hills, and Adelaide, 
named from the very popular wife of the reigning sovereign, beo-an 
to exist. 

The first trouble came from the dual system of government, 
quarrels having arisen between Mr. Fisher, the Resident Com- 
missioner for Crown Lands, and Captain Hindmarsh, a naval 
veteran who had served under Nelson at the Nile and Trafalgar. 
In October 1838, Mr. Fisher was superseded, and the Governor 
was recalled to England, and succeeded by Colonel Gawler, a man 
whose service included the leadership of a " forlorn hope " at 
Badajoz, and the command of a company at Waterloo. Gawler 
was a resolute and adventurous man who did his utmost to cope 
with the difficulties which confronted him on his arrival in the 
colony. A considerable number of emigrants from England, who 
had come out in expectation of employment which was not provided, 
were face to face with starvation in a country where no food was 
being produced from the soil, and the price of imported provisions 
had increased fourfold. The Governor took energetic measures. 
After settling the land-lots, and putting the owners on them, 
according to the terms of sale, he found employment for the 
destitute among the 6000 inhabitants of the struggling colony in 
a series of government works. A good road was made between 
Adelaide and its port, wharves were formed, and much of the 
miasmatic swamp was drained. A Government House, Custom- 
house, hospital, barracks, jail, warehouses, and other buildings, in 
substantial style, arose, and most of the Governor's private fortune 
was expended in the payment of wages. In spite of the arrange- 
ment that the colony should be self-supporting, Gawler persuaded 
merchants in England to send out provisions and clothing for the 
poorest colonists, making payment in drafts on the British Treasury 
to the amount of above ,150,000. Of this amount, nearly half 
was repudiated by the authorities at home, and when the merchants 
pressed for payment, the colony was declared insolvent, with 
liabilities to the amount of 300,000. In May, 1841, the Colonial 
Secretary removed Colonel Gawler from his post. He left the 
colony with a population of 12,000, and with a prospect of better 
days in the fact that 2500 acres were under tillage, and 200,000 
sheep on the pasture lands. The. sheep had been introduced by 
enterprising young squatters of New South Wales, who had driven 



158 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

their flocks overland in defiance of the then somewhat numerous 
blacks and of the toilsome journey. The difficulties of the colony's 
position were removed under Gawler's successor, Captain George 
Grey, the distinguished colonial ruler already seen in these pages. 

In the course of three years, the new ruler, by unflinching 
economy, reduced the annual expenditure from over ,100,000 to 
about one-third of that amount. He opened up the rural districts 
by making roads, and persuaded the poorer settlers to take employ- 
ment with the farmers and squatters who were now developing the 
resources of a fertile country. As a resolute opponent of the 
aristocratic Wakefield system, he enabled people to become pos- 
sessed of land at very moderate prices, so that in 1 843 about 20,000 
acres were under tillage, the greater part being devoted to wheat, 
and, before he left the colony in 1845, the settlers were not only 
supplying the wants of South Australia, but were exporting 200,000 
bushels of corn at cheap rates to the neighbouring colonies, and 
had then a surplus of 150,000 bushels which they could neither 
sell nor use. Rarely indeed has so rapid a development of a new 
country's natural wealth, or so sudden an accession of prosperity, 
been witnessed in colonial history. The colony had then above 
30,000 acres under crop, and the settlers possessed 30,000 horned 
cattle, 2150 horses, and 450,000 sheep. The future of the colony 
was further assured in the discovery of copper at Kapunda, about 
40 miles north-east of Adelaide, in 1842, by a man named Dutton, 
overseer to Captain Bagot, a squatter. In searching for some 
sheep which had strayed into the bush, Dutton observed a bright 
green rock jutting from the earth, and, having broken off a small 
piece, he took it to his employer. The specimen proved to be 
malachite, containing copper in combination with water and carbonic 
dioxide. The wily pair kept a quiet tongue, and then, as partners 
in the venture, bought eighty acres of apparently worthless land 
for as many pounds, and started copper-mining with a first year's 
yield worth ^4000, a second year's of ,10,000, and a continued 
prosperity which enabled each to make a handsome fortune, and 
then sell the property to an English company. Another discovery, 
made in 1845, caused copper to become, for many years, to South 
Australia, what gold was to her neighbour Victoria. At a spot about 
100 miles north of Adelaide, a shepherd named Pickitt found some 
very rich specimens of copper ore. In great haste, when the news 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 159 

arrived, a company was formed in Adelaide. Ten thousand acres 
were purchased at the place, called by the natives Burra Burra; the 
first shot, fired on September 29th, blasted away a mass of rich ore, 
and in six years' time 80,000 tons were shipped to England, yielding 
a profit of about .440,000. The gold rush to Victoria caused a 
stoppage of the working for a time, but it was afterwards resumed, 
and the famous mine, until the supposed exhaustion of the lodes, 
and the cessation of work, in 1877, furnished ore to the total value 
of five millions sterling. The dividends, for several years after the 
first working of the mine, reached 800 per cent per annum on the 
shareholders' outlay. The effect of this great mineral discovery 
upon the fortunes of the colony was immediate and striking. The 
lonely Burra Burra moorland became a scene bustling with miners 
brought from Cornwall, noisy with the sounds of engines, pumps, 
and forges. Acres of land were covered with the company's ware- 
houses and offices, and behind these were seen huge mounds of 
blue, green, and dark-red ores of copper. The roads were being 
ever worn by the passage of hundreds of teams, each consisting of 
eight bullocks, drawing the wagons that conveyed the ore for ship- 
ment. In order to complete the subject of mineral wealth in South 
Australia, we may note the great discovery of copper made in 1860 
on sheep-stations at the head of Yorke Peninsula, near the eastern 
shore of Spencer Gulf. Near Wallaroo, about 120 miles north- 
west of Adelaide, and, in 1861, at Moonta, a few miles nearer to 
the capital, ore was discovered which proved so abundant that a 
whole generation has passed away without any signs of exhaustion. 
In 1889 the yearly profit of the Wallaroo mines had reached nearly 
.40,000, and the Moonta mines, in amount of ore, far exceeded 
the yield at Wallaroo. 

With the arrival of Grey as Governor, the rule of the Com- 
missioners came to an end, and South Australia was, for a time, a 
" Crown colony ". The public debt was provided for by a loan, and 
the new ruler administered affairs with the firmness, ability, and 
courage which were conspicuous in his character. Expenses were, 
as already noted, severely retrenched, new taxes were imposed, and 
all opposition was borne down by his overmastering will. The 
revival of business caused by the growth of the agricultural, 
pastoral, and mining industries brought many thousands of immi- 
grants; wages rose, commerce grew, and the prosperity of the 



160 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

colony was established on a firm basis. Grey's successor, Colonel 
Robe, an officer of the old school, upright, kind-hearted, and 
hospitable, but obstinately adhering to antiquated methods, annoyed 
the colonists by attempts to impose a royalty on minerals, and to 
subsidize the various religious bodies, a policy contrary to the 
principles on which the colony was founded. He was recalled in 
1848, and succeeded by Sir Henry Young, son of a Governor of 
Prince Edward Island. The new Governor was a man of great 
vigour combined with moderation, and earnestly strove to promote 
the benefit of the colonists, having already gained experience as 
an official in the West Indies, and as Lieutenant-Governor in the 
eastern province at the Cape. His period of office in South 
Australia, from August, 1848 to December, 1854, was one of 
importance in various ways. By 1850 the population numbered 
63,000; the sheep were over three-quarters of a million; about 
65,000 acres of land were tilled; and the exports were approaching 
half a million in annual value. In the following year, a serious 
check to prosperity came with the rush to the Victorian gold- 
diggings. Business almost collapsed for lack of labour. The 
streets of Adelaide were deserted, and in the rural districts whole 
villages were left without other dwellers than women and children. 
All kinds of securities swiftly declined in value, and a financial 
crisis had arrived, when the Governor took the bold step of causing 
the now partially elective Legislative Council to pass an Act 
making gold by weight, in the form of small stamped ingots, a 
legal tender at the fixed standard-value of ^3, i2s. per ounce. 
The banks were thus enabled to meet their engagements at a time 
when the rush to the gold-fields had carried off nearly all the coin- 
age of the country. At the same time, an efficient armed escort 
for the rough gold obtained at the mines was provided on the 
overland route from Victoria, where gold was worth only about 
2, i $s. per ounce. Many of the diggers preferred to send away 
their gold by this route rather than to Melbourne, and South 
Australia thus enjoyed some of the advantages of a gold-producing 
country. The higher price of gold in the colony also induced 
many of the fortunate diggers to invest their surplus earnings in 
South Australian land, and to become farmers when they were 
tired of mining. When the first excitement had abated, and large 
numbers of the South Australians returned to their former avoca- 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. j(5 r 

tions, the colony benefited much by the market opened for its 
wheat and flour among the vast crowds on the Victorian gold-fields, 
and the former prosperous state of affairs was resumed with rapid 
augmentation. 

On the transference of Governor Young to Tasmania, rule was 
assumed by Sir Richard MacDonnell, son of the Provost of Trinity 
College, Dublin. He became a member first of the Irish, then of 
the English bar, Chief-justice at the Gambia, and then Governor in 
succession of that colony, and of St. Lucia and of St. Vincent, in 
the West Indies. For nearly seven years he held power in South 
Australia, from June, 1855 to March, 1862, and one of his first 
important duties was that of inaugurating the " responsible govern- 
ment", with full representative institutions, which superseded the 
Legislature composed of 8 nominee and 16 elective members. At 
the time (October, 1856) when a democratic form of government 
came into operation, the population just exceeded 100,000, who 
were thus, with admirable reliance upon their loyalty, prudence, 
and intelligence, placed in control of a region amounting, before 
the annexation of the Northern Territory, to about 300 millions 
of acres, or above nine times the area of England. The city of 
Adelaide had its corporation, set aside by Governor Grey, revived, 
and district-councils for local government were established through- 
out the settled territory, under the general control of the ratepayers. 
MacDonnell proved himself to be an energetic, liberal-minded, and 
popular ruler. During his term of office the first railways of the 
colony, from Adelaide to the port, and the lines to Gawler and 
Kapunda, were opened, and telegraphy was introduced by the 
energetic and able "Astronomer and Superintendent of Telegraphs 
for South Australia", Mr. Charles Todd, F.R.S., a native of 
London, and for some time an assistant at the Observatories of 
Greenwich and Cambridge, whom we shall see again in these 
pages. In 1858 came the great reform involved in Torrens' Real 
Property Act, already described in connection with New South 
Wales. To this period also belong the explorations, narrated in 
another section, of McDouall Stuart and Major Warburton. 

One of the most popular of all Governors of South Australia 
was Sir Dominic Daly, a native of Galway, who had acquired great 
colonial experience as a high official (Secretary, Member of 
Council, and Lieutenant-Governor) in Canada and the West Indies. 

VOL. VI. 121 



162 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

He was the only Roman Catholic that ever held office, and enjoyed 
universal esteem from his assumption of power in March, 1862, 
until his. lamented death six years later. During this period of 
great progress the vast region once called Alexandra Land, now 
known as the Northern Territory, was added, extending the colony 
to the sea on the north; Port Darwin or Palmerston became the 
capital of the new region thus annexed in 1864. In February, 1869, 
a new Governor arrived in Sir James Fergusson,an Ayrshire baronet, 
educated at Rugby and at Oxford, an Inkerman hero, long M.P. 
for his native county, and an Under-Secretary (India and Home 
Department) in the ministries of Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli. 
During his term of office, ending in February, 1873, the continent 
of Australia was placed in swift communication with the mother- 
country and the whole of the civilized world by that great engin- 
eering work, the overland- telegraph. In 1870 Mr. Charles Todd 
was appointed Postmaster-General, and the work of constructing 
the trans-continental line of wires was forthwith taken in hand. The 
British-Australian Telegraph Company had offered to lay a sub- 
marine cable from Singapore to Port Darwin (Palmerston), on 
the northern coast, 1975 miles distant from Adelaide, along a route 
of which much had been traversed by McDouall Stuart in his 
explorations. More than 800 miles, however, had never been seen 
by any white man when the survey for the overland line was made. 
Much of the country was destitute of trees for making telegraph- 
poles, and in this region 19,000 iron posts, carted through rocky 
deserts and over sand-hills, were used. Mr. Todd divided the whole 
length into three sections, taking the central portion into his own 
hands, and intrusting the two others to contractors. The central 
and southern portions were, with wonderful energy, soon completed, 
but the northern section caused much difficulty and delay. The 
horses died, provisions failed, and the enterprise at first collapsed 
in that quarter. The Government then sent a fresh expedition to 
the north. Wells were dug at intervals along the route, and great 
teams of bullocks were employed to carry the needful provisions 
and materials to the different working-stations, but this attempt also 
failed, and when the day arrived, January ist, 1872, on which the 
South Australian authorities had undertaken to have their work 
completed, there were no wires to meet the cable already laid to 
Port Darwin. Action for damages was threatened by the Com- 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. jg-, 

pany, and Mr. Todd went in person to superintend the third and 
successful attempt. On August 22nd the wires met at Central 
Mount Stuart, and the Postmaster-General, seated on the ground, 
and working a pocket-instrument, received messages of congratula- 
tion from the Governor, the foreign consuls, and friends in the other 
colonies. A flaw in the submarine cable prevented communication 
with England until October, but on the second day of that month, 
the Lord-mayor of London, standing at one end -of the line, sent his 
hearty congratulations through 13,500 miles of wire to the Mayor 
of Adelaide, who conversed with him from the other extremity. The 
whole grand work had occupied 28 months. Taking Melbourne as 
the starting-point in Australia, we will see how that city talks to 
London by a route of 13,695 miles, of which 4408 miles are land- 
lines, and 9287 miles consist of cables. Repeated at the many 
points now stated, the message goes from Melbourne to Mount 
Gambier, a corporate town and railway-station in the south-east of 
South Australia, 300 miles from the capital of Victoria. Thence it 
is flashed in succession to Adelaide (270 miles); to Port Augusta 
(eastern shore of Spencer Gulf, 200 miles); to Alice Springs (in 
the Northern Territory, 1036 miles); to Port Darwin (898 miles); 
to Banyuwangi (east coast of Java, 1150 miles); to Batavia (north- 
west coast of Java, 480 miles); to Singapore, 553; to Penang, 399; 
to Madras, 1280; to Bombay, 650; to Aden, 1662; Suez, 1346; 
Alexandria, 224; Malta, 828; Gibraltar, 1008; Falmouth, 1061, 
and from Falmouth to London, 350 miles. In order to deal finally 
with Mr. Todd's achievements, we record here that in 1877 a tele- 
graph-line of 980 miles, through very difficult country, along the 
barren coast on which we saw that Eyre so nearly perished, was 
completed from Adelaide to Perth, in Western Australia. 

From 1873 to 1877 the Governor of South Australia was Sir 
Anthony Musgrave, a man of abundant experience as a high official 
and ruler in the West Indies, Newfoundland, and British Columbia. 
His term of office was marked by a spirited policy in public works, 
the construction and improvement of roads, railways, tramways, 
telegraphs, and harbours, involving a heavy outlay met by substantial 
fiscal returns. In 1876, the population of the colony had grown to 
about 226,000, while the imports exceeded 4^ millions sterling, 
and the exports were above 4^ millions. Between 1873 and 1880, 
the railways were extended from 200 miles to nearly 700 open for 



164 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

traffic, with 320 miles in course of construction. From October, 
1877, to February, 1883, the post of Governor was held by Major- 
General Sir William Jervois, an officer of Royal Engineers who 
had served with much ability and distinction at the Cape; as 
Inspector-General of Fortifications on the War Office staff in 
London; as secretary to Committees and Commissions on national 
defence; in fortification-work in England, Alderney, Malta, Gib- 
raltar, the Canadian Dominion, Bermuda, India, and Burma, and as 
Governor of the Straits Settlements. The selection of such a man 
for high office in Australasia was due to the fact that the subject 
of colonial defences was then one of anxious consideration with 
the authorities at home. The work of Sir William Jervois in South 
Australia, and elsewhere in the southern hemisphere, in this respect, 
will be referred to in a coming chapter of this record. Under the 
able administration of this popular Governor great general advance 
was made, and, in particular, a new system of national primary 
education was established. Jervois' successor, Sir William C. F. 
Robinson, who held office from February, 1883, to March, 1889, 
was a younger brother of that veteran Colonial ruler, Sir Hercules 
Robinson, under whom he served in the West Indies and at Hong 
Kong, afterwards holding many colonial ruling appointments in 
the west and east of the Empire, as well as the Governorship 
of Western Australia from 1874 to 1877 and from 1880 to 1883. 
This very able and experienced Governor was most energetic 
and successful in his six-years' rule of South Australia. Much 
advance was made with public works of lasting benefit to the 
country, and schemes for the storage of water, irrigation, sanitation, 
and forestry were started. During the year 1887 alone, 900,000 
trees were planted by the Government. In 1886, the Jubilee of 
the colony was to be celebrated by the opening, at Adelaide, of an 
International Exhibition. The time of this intended celebration 
proved to be one of great financial depression in the colony. 
Harvests had failed for lack of rain, and much stock died under 
the same drought. Prices of produce had fallen; mines were 
closed; and there was a great reaction from rash speculations in 
land. The Commercial Bank failed ; joint-stock companies collapsed. 
Parliament had passed the Bill for the expenses of the Exhibition 
when this disastrous state of affairs arose, and, under the influence 
of panic, the measure was repealed. The scheme was, however. 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 165 

speedily revived when private liberality created a guarantee fund 
for the charges of the Exhibition, which was postponed until the 
following year. At the Jubilee celebrations held in December, 
1886, there were persons present who could remember the site of 
the city of Adelaide as covered with trees. Fifty years had passed 
away and a population, risen in numbers from one or two hundred 
to above 300,000 was in possession of a territory containing 2^ 
million acres under corn-crops; great mineral resources; millions of 
sheep, hundreds of thousands of horned cattle and horses, and having 
annual imports and exports respectively, in 1886, of nearly five and 
about 4^ millions sterling. The sand-tracks, with their bog-holes, 
had become good high-roads, and the post-cart and bullock-drag 
were now set aside, on the main lines of communication, for 2000 
miles of railway, with 10,000 miles of telegraph-wires. Another 
Jubilee was close at hand. The year 1887 brought a revival of 
prosperity. An early and abundant rainfall cheered the hearts of 
the agriculturists and sheep-farmers. On June 2Oth and 2ist, 
Queen Victoria's completion of the fiftieth year of her reign was 
made the occasion of great rejoicings throughout the colony, and at 
the very hour when, on June 2ist, the Royal procession was on its 
way to Westminster Abbey, the Governor opened the Adelaide 
Exhibition, which became a great success for variety, extent, and 
beautiful display, and did much to draw attention to the resources 
of the colony. In 1889, Sir William Robinson was succeeded by 
the Earl of Kintore, a Scottish noble of ancient lineage, educated 
at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, who had been a lord- 
in-waiting to the Queen and captain of the Yeomen of the Guard. 
Under his rule the colony continued to prosper. In October, 
1895, the Earl was succeeded as Governor by Sir Thomas Powell 
Buxton, Bart, K.C.M.G. 

The boundaries of South Australia are shown by the map. 
The country would be more fitly styled "Central'' or "Mid" 
Australia, since the annexation to South Australia proper, by 
Letters Patent in 1863, of the Northern Territory, extended the 
bounds from the 26th parallel of south latitude to the sea on 
the north coast of Australia, and raised the area of the colony 
from about 300,000 to over 900,000 square miles. It thus 
stretches over 27 degrees of latitude, more than a third lying 
within the tropics. The population, in 1897, was 355,000, all in 



l66 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

South Australia proper, except about 5000. Of the above, about 
182,000 were males. Between 1881 and 1891 the aborigines 
decreased in number from over 6000, in settled districts, to about 
one-half; in the latter year, there were nearly 4000 adult Chinese, 
almost wholly in the Northern Territory. The increase of popu- 
lation, from about 280,000 in 1881, is chiefly due to a great excess 
of births over deaths, the immigration by sea only slightly exceed- 
.ing the emigration by the same route. In point of religious 
profession, the census of 1891 showed nearly 90,000 adherents 
of the Anglican Church, under the spiritual charge of the Bishop 
of Adelaide, holder of a see endowed by the munificence of the 
Baroness Burdett-Coutts: 47,000 Roman Catholics, under the 
Archbishop of Adelaide and the Bishop of Port Augusta; 49,000 
Wesleyans; over 23,000 Lutherans (German colonists); 18,000 
Presbyterians; 17,500 Baptists; 1 1,600 Methodists; nearly 16,000 
Bible Christians; nearly 12,000 Congregationalists or Independents, 
and about 850 Jews. It will be seen that South Australia is 
remarkable for variety in religious belief. All forms of religion 
are on a level before the law, no State aid being given to any 
sect. With many varieties of rainfall and temperature in so vast 
an area, the climate of the settled portion, the south-east of 
the colony, is healthy in spite of great summer heat, and may be 
compared to that of central Italy and Sicily; the average rainfall 
at Adelaide is 21 inches, with much variation from year to year. 
There are no rivers of any importance in the south except the 
Murray, and the country is not well watered in comparison with 
Victoria and New South Wales. 

The southern coast-line, from the frontier of Victoria to Western 
Australia, is broken, in its extent of about 2000 miles, westwards 
by the Great Australian Bight and by Streaky and other bays; 
in the east, by the two large gulfs, Spencer's and St. Vincent, 
and by the two peninsulas Eyria (Eyre's Peninsula) and Yorke. 
The estuary of the Murray and Encounter Bay lie further east 
again, with a projection ending in Cape Jervis. The coast is, 
in general, high and rocky, but in some places low and swampy, 
as on the shore of Encounter Bay, where a narrow lagoon called 
Coorong Lake runs south-east, from near the Murray mouth, 
parallel with the coast for 100 miles. The islands both in the 
south and on the coast of the Northern Territory, with the coast- 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 167 

line of the latter region, need no mention beyond a reference to 
the map. We turn to some account of the interior, with a 
description of the towns. 

From Cape Jervis, at the southern extremity of St. Vincent 
Gulf, mountain ranges run almost due north for 200 miles, with 
their culminating point in Mount Lofty, near Adelaide, 2334 feet 
above sea-level. The system consists of parallel chains, with wide 
grassy valleys and fertile plains, the hills being clothed with 
splendid varieties of eucalyptus. The southern part of the colony 
is watered by streamlets in every gully. The Flinders Range 
extends far inland from near the head of Spencer's Gulf, and has 
several peaks over 3000 feet high. Far to the west of Port 
Augusta, the Gawler ranges have an elevation of 2000 feet, and 
the interior has several mountain chains. Eastwards of the 
Mount Lofty ranges vast plains stretch away to Victoria and 
New South Wales. The only navigable river is the Murray, 
spreading out into great expanses of water as it nears the coast, 
and entering the ocean at Encounter Bay. The interior waters, 
both lakes and intermittent streams, have been already referred 
to in the general description of Australia and in the history of 
exploration. They are of no value, interest, or scenic beauty, but 
the interior is not by any means the mere stony desert spoken 
of by the earlier explorers, and the area of good sheep country is 
found to be considerable. 

The voyager to ADELAIDE steams for about 50 miles up the 
east side of St. Vincent Gulf, past rugged cliffs and picturesque 
bays lined with cliffs or sand-hills, to Glenelg, if he be aboard 
a P. and O. liner, or, by Orient or Messageries boats, to Largs 
Bay, and so reaches the capital by road or rail. The city, divided 
into two portions by a belt of park-lands, through which the river 
Torrens, spanned by five massive iron bridges, runs in winding 
course, is beautifully situated on a plateau about 1 70 feet above 
the sea, from which it is distant about 6 miles, with the Mount 
Lofty Range as a fine background to east and south. The 
northern and smaller portion of the municipality, North Adelaide, 
is a great residential suburb of irregular shape; the real metro- 
polis, South Adelaide, is almost exactly a parallelogram covering 
above 1000 acres. Both parts are laid out in chess-board style, 
with broad, well-paved, and mostly tree-lined streets cutting each 



168 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

other at right angles. South Adelaide has a central and four 
other squares, symmetrically placed towards the corners of the 
area. The banks of the river are planted with ornamental trees, 
and a portion of the stream has been dammed to form a winding 
lake nearly 2 miles in length, as a place for boating and for illu- 
minated flotillas at night on occasions of public rejoicing. The 
city is the best-drained place in Australasia, has an excellent supply 
of water, tramways for locomotion, and brilliant lighting with 
electricity and gas. The public recreation -grounds, including 
the Botanic Gardens of 40 acres, and Adelaide Oval, on the river 
bank, one of the finest cricket-grounds in the world, are extensive 
and charming. Rundle Street, Hindley Street, and King William 
Street are the chief thoroughfares, with handsome shops and other 
commercial buildings. There are some manufactures of woollen, 
leather, earthenware, and iron, but the chief importance of Ade- 
laide, with a population, including all suburbs, of about 144,000, is 
based upon its position as the seat of government and as the great 
emporium of goods for the whole vast territory of South Australia. 
The new Parliament Houses, of colonial marble, were erected at 
a cost of ^100,000. The Art Gallery, Public Library, and Museum, 
are under one roof. The Post-office is a splendid structure in the 
Italian style, built of freestone, with frontages of 150 feet and 
1 60 feet to King William Street and Victoria Square. Its tower, 
called the Victoria, 158 feet high, has musical chimes, and from 
a platform at the summit gives a magnificent view of the city, the 
hills, the plains, and the sea. The Albert Tower, with a fine peal 
of bells, surmounts the Town Hall. King William Street, 132 feet 
wide, with broad flagged footpaths, passes through Victoria Square, 
in the centre of the city, for the whole width from north to south, 
and is declared by much-travelled judges of such matters to be the 
finest thoroughfare south of the equator. The Arcade connecting 
Grenfell and Rundle Streets is a lofty and elegant structure, electri- 
cally-lit at night, and is said to be unrivalled for size and beauty in 
the British Isles, or America, or Australasia. The numerous spires 
have caused Adelaide to be styled "the city of churches", while 
the display in its glorious Botanic Garden and other resorts has 
led others to call it a "city of gardens and flowers". 

The metropolis of South Australia is girdled by suburban towns 
extending for miles in every direction, with an excellent service of 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 169 

trams and trains to convey the citizens either to the sea or to the 
uplands. Port Adelaide, 7^ miles to the north, is the chief 
shipping-place of the colony, on an estuary now having 1 7 feet of 
water at low-tide over the bar, and 22 feet beside the wharves 
which present nearly three miles of frontage. There are also a dock 
of 5 acres and a graving-dock, with extensive warehouses, and all 
the appliances of a first-rate port, including a well-managed Seamen's 
Home. Gfanetg-and Brighton, to the south-west of Adelaide, are the 
two favourite seaside resorts of the citizens. On the east, visitors 
from London find familiar names in the populous and attractive 
suburbs Kensington and Norwood', farther out is the beautiful 
Waterfall Gully, in a valley with prolific gardens, and having three 
cascades in wooded dells amidst broad-leaved and maidenhair ferns, 
mosses and lichens, and graceful trees. A few miles away, the 
Auldana vineyard of 120 acres, at about 600 feet above sea-level, 
produces white and red wines which gained the highest prize for 
Australian wine at the Melbourne International Exhibition. 

The hill-country along the coast near Adelaide has abundant 
charms of towering cliffs, rugged rocks, dark ravines, vine-clad 
slopes, wooded heights, and green valleys. The viceregal summer 
residence on Marble Hill commands a noble prospect of scenery 
both soft and stern, and near Summertown, a village ten miles east 
of Adelaide, the hills are clothed with fine forest trees beneath 
which grow masses of heath; the rugged ridges glow with the 
brilliant pink and crimson, white and spotted, flowers of various 
kinds of epacris, a heath-like shrub or small tree, while hundreds 
of acres of orchards display, according to the season, a ravishing 
spectacle of blossoms or fruit. In this region of delightful climate 
and charming scenery there are scores of villages and tiny towns, 
each with its church and school and assembly-hall, its post-office 
and telegraph-station, and the hills are dotted over with the 
country-residences of colonial magnates and Adelaide merchants. 
To an Englishman's eye the roads are made beautiful by their 
bordering for miles of great blackberry hedges, and by the sight of 
British oaks and elms, and of laurustinus and laurel replacing the 
native undergrowth as the ground is cleared around the mansions. 
Fruits, flowers, and vegetables of every kind come to perfection for 
the markets of the capital. 

The railway southward over the hills is a fine specimen of 



I/O OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

engineering work, with two iron viaducts, of 360 feet in length and 
107 feet in height, and of 260 feet long by 79 high, crossing a 
grand double ravine amid romantic scenery of steep, partly-wooded 
hills. The line climbs by a zigzag to a height of over 1600 feet at 
about 20 miles from Adelaide. At 60 miles from the city, it 
crosses the Murray by one of the finest bridges in the colonies. 
The river is there about 200 yards wide, but the left bank has an 
extensive swamp, and the iron structure that carries the railway 
across all has a total length of 1980 feet, with a width of 22 feet for 
carriage-road and railway-lines, besides 10 feet for two footways. 
The bridge, with 5 spans each of 120 feet, carrying the road 33 
feet above the water, and 23 spans of 60 feet each above the 
swamp, contains nearly 2000 tons of wrought, and about 2200 tons 
of cast iron, the total cost being .125,000. Towards the Victorian 
border, in the south-east, is a sportsman's paradise of lagoons and 
meres with millions of wild-fowl. Near Narracoorte, about 65 
miles north of Mount Gambler, is a series of caves rivalling those 
of Jenolan in interest and beauty, if not in extent. Mount Gam- 
bier, a town of about 3000 people, lying near the coast nearly 300 
miles south-east of Adelaide, is the centre of a district which may 
be called the garden of the colony, where a rich, black, friable 
mould, with a volcanic subsoil, produces English grasses, shrubs, 
flowers, trees, fruits, hops, and potatoes in wonderful luxuriance and 
amount. Between the town and Port Macdonnell a scene of great 
beauty presents itself in the crater of an extinct volcano, a nearly 
circular basin of broken outline, almost a mile across, with precipi- 
tous sides 300 feet in depth, the rocky walls adorned with shrubs 
from the topmost verge to the edge of a placid lake below, blue as 
the sky, clear as crystal, and in some places from 300 to 400 feet 
deep. 

Running northwards by rail from Adelaide, the traveller passes 
to Gawler, 24 miles away, over a plain which is mainly a great 
wheat-field with no obstruction to the plough save the wire-fences, 
a few uncleared patches of scrub, and the plantations around the 
homesteads. Some of the finest wheat in the world is grown in 
this district. Gawler, with a population of 3000, is a handsome little 
town, with foundries, saw-mills, factories for coach-building and for 
agricultural implements; a beautiful park, fine churches, and excel- 
lent shops. Farther north, a territory large enough for a European 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



171 



kingdom contains many flourishing settlements of German agricul- 
turists, who grow abundant grapes and other fruits, and have, with 
settlers of other races, above 40,000 acres under wheat. Endunda, 
about 70 miles north of Adelaide, is the centre of a vast pastoral 
district, and is situated at the culminating point between the capital 
and the Murray, 1350 feet above sea-level. Far to the north, 
westwards of the Murray, and east and north of St. Vincent and 
Spencer Gulfs, agricultural and pastoral settlements extend, with 
some mining towns already described. The little town of Clare, 
on the road to Burra Burra, is the centre of a district with abun- 
dant wheat-tillage, and many sheep and cattle stations. At about 
150 miles from Adelaide, the railway attains its highest point, 
nearly 2000 feet above the sea, and passes out on bare and windy 
uplands, partly tilled. Between Petersburg, 154 miles north of 
Adelaide, and Port Pirie, to the west, near the head of Spencer's 
Gulf, are rich agricultural districts and several flourishing little 
towns. Port Pirie, the chief shipping place for the northern 
districts, has a large export of wheat. At 260 miles from the 
capital, the traveller arrives at Quorn, at the point of junction with 
the intended transcontinental railway from Port Augusta, at the 
head of Spencer's Gult. 

Port Augusta seems designed by nature to be the entrepot and 
emporium for an interior country of vast extent, where the land is 
occupied, for hundreds of miles to east, west, and north, and the 
amount of imports and exports must steadily increase. There is a 
channel 150 feet wide, with 18 feet depth at low water, cut to the 
railway- wharf, where the transcontinental line begins. The railway 
penetrates the Flinders Range through a tortuous and rugged 
defile, and at about 100 miles from Port Augusta comes out upon 
a region of stony plain, with little vegetation save " salt-bush ", 
some scrub, and a few gum-trees. To the west, the vision is 
limited only by the convexity of the globe; to the east appear the 
bare, fantastic peaks of the Flinders Range, rich in minerals, and 
abounding in scenes both of rugged grandeur and bewitching 
beauty in rocky pinnacles, verdant vales, and glassy lakelets. The 
line turns westwards to pass round the southern end of Lake Eyre, 
through a country containing the curious "mound-springs", conical 
hillocks occurring singly and in groups, natural artesian wells of 
water sometimes useful for drinking and irrigation, sometimes warm 



1/2 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

or impregnated with mineral substances. At about 450 miles from 
Port Augusta, as the railway continues to bridge a region impractic- 
able for any other mode of conveyance, it passes out upon the vast 
interior where the telegraph-line alone keeps an open thoroughfare 
through the heart of the continent, and supplies tiny centres of 
civilization in its stations. Save for the lack of society, the condi- 
tions of life are by no means unpleasant at some of these localities. 
Alice Springs, 1036 miles from Adelaide, has a mean temperature 
of 70 degrees, with a rainfall of 12 inches, and is prettily situated 
on the banks of a river issuing from the MacDonnell Range, to the 
north. The valley stretches far to east and west, bounded to the 
south by a grand wall of towering cliffs, with natural gateways and 
gorges at many points. Exploration is still enlarging our know- 
ledge of the great interior composed of stony and sandy wastes, 
grassy plains, mountain-chains, and extensive lakes receiving inland 
rivers, some of which are hundreds of miles in length, to soak away 
into subterranean reservoirs or to evaporate beneath the rays of a 
tropical sun. 

In dealing with the NORTHERN TERRITORY, we find Port Darwin, 
with outer and inner " heads ", the latter about two miles apart, to 
be a Port Jackson of the north for depth of water, extent, and safe 
anchorage for ships. Seven miles in breadth, this great harbour 
has three main branches running far inland. Palmerston, the chief 
town of Northern Territory, is well placed on the eastern shore, 
with good public buildings of stone, and other edifices of wood and 
iron, sixty feet above the sea, the white roofs showing well against 
masses of tropical foliage. Vessels of the Eastern Australian Steam 
Navigation Company and "British India" steamers are the large 
craft calling at a jetty 1120 feet in length, connected with the rail- 
way running inland to the mining district. The place is intensely 
hot, and has a population of about 800 Europeans, with a far 
larger number of Chinese, much engaged in fishing, gardening, 
tailoring, washing, and carpentry. Pine-apples and bananas are 
abundantly grown. The country for 150 miles east and west of 
the telegraph-line ending at Palmerston has been explored, and has 
many ranges of well-wooded hills, with numerous rivers and streams. 
The flora is, of course, tropical, and the fauna include the bower- 
bird and jungle pheasant. The gold-mining from alluvial diggings 
and from reefs, along the southern half of the railway running 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



173 



south-east to Pine Creek, 145 miles from Palmerston, is now mostly 
abandoned to Chinese, having produced about five tons of gold 
up to 1887; the yield for 1895 exceeded 29,500 ounces. Some 
copper, silver, and tin are also obtained. Half the whole area 
of the territory is now held under squatting license, and 171,000 
square miles are stocked with over '300,000 horned cattle, over 
78,600 sheep, and over 15,000 .horses. Some of the fine rivers 
the Roper, the Liverpool, the Adelaide, the South and East Alli- 
gator, the Daly, the Victoria, and the Fitzmaurice swarm with 
fish and water-fowl, and have lovely tropical scenery on the banks. 
The climate, very hot and with 65 inches of annual rainfall at 
Palmerston, is not suited to Europeans, and commercial progress 
seems to depend on Asiatic immigration. 

The chief industries of South Australia, as in the other colonies, 
are in tillage and pasture. About 34 millions of acres are inclosed, 
and of these, in 1896, about 1,087,300 acres were under wheat, 
producing 2,804,500 bushels; 14,500 acres under barley (108,000 
bushels); 40,200 growing oats (190,000 bushels); 6400 acres with 
potatoes (16,130 tons); and over 18,300 acres in vineyards, pro- 
ducing about 1,473,000 gallons of wine. As regards wheat, the 
country, exporting large quantities of corn and flour to the other 
colonies in that quarter, may be styled the granary of Australia. 
At Renmark, on the banks of the Murray, about 140 miles north- 
east of Adelaide, is an irrigation-colony exactly like that already 
described at Mildura, in Victoria. Thriving settlements have 
there arisen for the production of fruit. The pastoral value of 
the colony is shown by the returns for 1896, which give, for South 
Australia proper, about 177,000 horses, 337,000 horned cattle, 
and over 6^ million sheep. Manufactures, in 1892, employed 
about 11,000 people. The total exports for 1896 had a value 
of over 7*^ millions sterling, including ,1,275,000 in bullion and 
specie, ,219,000 in copper, over .523,000 in flour, .89,000 in 
wheat, .81,700 in wine, and over i^ millions sterling (65 million 
Ibs. weight) in wool. Of the above, produce to the value of over 
2*4 millions was sent to the British Isles. The imports, in the 
same year, had a total value of nearly 7^ millions, chiefly in bullion 
and specie (over .354,000), coals and other fuel (nearly ^ million), 
and manufactured goods, with groceries and oilmen's stores, timber, 
and wool sent down the Murray for exportation. Of the above, 



174 UR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

nearly 2% millions sterling in value came from the United King- 
dom. Of the whole trade of South Australia, 95 per cent is carried 
on with the British Isles and with the other Australian colonies. 
Of the total tonnage (about 3,318,000), exclusive of coasting trade, 
"entered" and "cleared" in 1896, nearly 2^ million tons were 
British vessels. The colony had, in 1897, including the line lately 
noticed in the Northern Territory, 1868 miles of railway open for 
traffic, bringing a profit of 5 per cent to the Government. The 
Great Northern line, or transcontinental railway, extended in 1895 
from Adelaide to Quorn (234 miles) and thence as far as Oodna- 
datta, on the overland telegraph line, a point 450 miles from Quorn, 
or nearly 700 from Adelaide. There are many branches to various 
settlements and ports. The 5865 miles of telegraph (and telephone), 
with over 14,000 miles of wire, include the overland line already 
described. As a recent member of the Postal Union, South 
Australia has a ty^d. postage for half-ounce letters to and from 
the United Kingdom and most other countries, with a 2d. postage 
for Australasia. In addition to the usual banking system for com- 
mercial affairs, there are Government savings-banks which, in June, 
1896, had over 90,000 depositors, with ,2,836,000 standing to 
their credit. 

With the exception of the Northern Territory, which is ruled 
by a "Resident", assisted by a small staff of officials, South 
Australia has a system of government almost exactly resembling 
that of Victoria. The Parliament has two Houses, of which the 
Legislative Council consists of 24 members, elected by voters with 
a small freehold, leasehold, or rental qualification; every three years 
the 8 members first on the roll retire, and two new members are 
chosen by each of the four districts into which the colony is 
divided for this purpose. The House of Assembly, of 54 members, 
is elected for three years, under manhood suffrage, by the voters 
of 27 districts. In 1896 the number of registered electors was 
over 138,000. Voting for members of both houses is by ballot, 
and judges and ministers of religion are ineligible. Members of 
the Council and of the Assembly receive each ^"200 a year, with 
a free pass over government railways. The executive power is 
vested in the Governor and an Executive Council or Ministry of 
six responsible members, including one for Education and Agri- 
culture combined. Local government is in the hands of 33 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



'75 



municipalities and 141 district councils, the latter having municipal 
powers. The 42 counties are merely blocks of country thrown 
open for tillage. A complete system of public instruction is estab- 
lished, secular and compulsory up to a certain standard, with 
Government " exhibitions " and scholarships leading to the higher 
schools and the University. TeacheVs are paid, in the elementary 
schools, partly from Government grants secured by lands set apart 
for the purpose, and partly by fees. A good feature is a somewhat 
extensive and systematic use of military drill. The University of 
Adelaide, founded in 1872, owes its existence to the munificence 
of two leading colonists, Sir Walter Watson Hughes, a native of 
Pittenweem, the little Fifeshire seaport, who acquired great wealth 
from the Moonta, Wallaroo and Yorke's Peninsula Copper Mines; 
and Sir Thomas Elder, another Scot, born at Kirkcaldy, who 
emigrated to South Australia jn 1854, was a chief promoter of the 
Moonta mines, a breeder of first-class horses, and a member of the 
Legislative Council. They each contributed .20,000 to the found- 
ing of the institution now endowed with ,50,000 and 50,000 acres 
of land; authorized to grant degrees in arts, law, music, medicine, 
and sciences; open to female students; and privileged to nominate 
annually one student to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. 
The usual arrangements exist for the administration of justice in 
a Supreme Court, courts of vice-admiralty, and insolvency, and 
circuit, local, and police magistrates' courts. At the end of 1896 
the prisons of the colony contained only 102 males and 22 females, 
a far smaller proportion than in Victoria or New South Wales, 
which, at the same date, had respectively 1109 males and 186 
females, and 2354 prisoners of both sexes, out of populations in 
each case less than four times that of South Australia. The public 
revenue, for the year ending June 3Oth, 1896, amounted (apart from 
.63,820 from Northern Territory) to ,2,609,824, mainly derived 
from customs-duties and excise, railways, post and telegraphs, and 
public lands. As in Victoria and New South Wales, the custom- 
house levies duties, varying from 10 to over 100 per cent ad valorem 
on manufactured goods, articles of food and drink, oils, metals, and 
tobacco. The expenditure for the same year, excluding "131,220 
for Northern Territory, a little exceeded ,2, 5 75,000, mainly 
devoted to public works, railways, interest on a public debt of 
.22, 867, 200, and administrative charges. Three-fourths of the 



176 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

debt has been incurred for railways, telegraphs, and water-works, 
the net earnings of which exceed the interest payable on loans. 
The history of the colony, and the statements and figures that have 
been adduced, are convincing testimony of what can be effected, in 
the space of sixty years, by British energy and skill, enterprise and 
toil, patience and endurance, in creating a new country rich in corn 
and wine, fruits and fleeces, out of a wilderness where a few 
wandering savages did not cultivate a rod of ground. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

QUEENSLAND: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES, STATISTICS, 

TOWNS. 

Early history of Moreton Bay At first a penal settlement Arrival of the Brothers 
Leslie Gradual increase of free colonists Colony of Queensland constituted Its 
first premier Sir Robert Herbert Progress of pastoral industry Discovery of gold, 
copper, tin, and coal Importation of coolies The Mount Morgan mine Progress 
of the colony Bold policy of Sir Thomas M'llwraith Proposed annexation of 
New Guinea Sir Samuel Griffith Important services of Commander Heath The 
disastrous floods of 1893 Area and physical features of the country Rivers 
Climate Population Aborigines Religious denominations Features of the coast- 
country The Barron Falls Thursday Island and Port Kennedy Political divisions 
of the colony Pastoral and agricultural industries Growth of fruit, sugar, &c. 
Value of the forests Live stock Manufactures Exports and imports Mineral 
wealth Brisbane, the capital Ipswich, Toowoomba, Maryborough, Gympie, Rock- 
hampton, Mackay,and other towns Means of communication Railways, telegraphs, 
and postal system Lines of steamers Government Education Revenue and 
import duties Public expenditure and debt Assisted immigration The trade in 
Kanakas or South Sea Islanders. 

The history of QUEENSLAND, formerly known as the Moreton 
Bay district of New South Wales, began with the discovery, in 
1770, of the inlet named by Captain Cook after his friend the 
Earl of Moreton, President of the Royal Society. He hoisted 
the English colours, claiming for his sovereign the whole eastern 
coast-line of Australia, at the group thence named Possession Isles, 
off the north-eastern point, and on August i3th he reached Cape 
York, as already recorded in an early stage of this work. In 1802, 
Flinders, on his second voyage of exploration in that quarter, 
discovered Port Curtis, just above the 24th parallel of south 
latitude. The record remains a blank until Oxley's discovery, 
already mentioned, of the great river flowing into Moreton Bay, 



QUEENSLAND. j 

named by him after Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of New 
South Wales, then our only Australian colony; and the establish- 
ment in the following year, 1824, of a small penal settlement, for 
convicts from New South Wales, at a point on the new-found 
river. In 1825, Captain Logan, of the 5;th Regiment, went 
from Sydney to take charge of the little colony, then numbering 
under 50 persons. He exercised a very stern discipline over the 
doubly-convicted prisoners committed to his care, and was ener- 
getic in building, in clearing the ground, in tillage, and in explora- 
tion. The discovery of the Darling Downs, in 1829, by Allan 
Cunningham, has been noticed above. In 1830, a body of 1000 
convicts, with 100 soldiers as their guard, arrived from the south 
to swell the number of dwellers at Moreton Bay. In the same 
year, Captain Logan, while he was engaged on exploring, was 
murdered, probably by convicts of his party, though the crime 
was long attributed to the natives. The earlier history of Queens- 
land is, indeed, by no means pleasant. The brutal floggings 
inflicted upon convicts were followed, in the earlier days of 
settlement, by conflict with the natives in which the government 
troopers shot down the aborigines by scores, and two shepherds 
did not shrink from poisoning them, on a large scale, by presents 
of flour in which arsenic had been freely intermingled. In 1839, 
the town of Brisbane was laid out, and, a year later, when the 
convicts had been almost all withdrawn, a new chapter of Australian 
history in that region was opened by the arrival of a true colonizing 
element in the person of the brothers Leslie, friends of Cunningham. 
These enterprising men, pushing forward from the south with 
their stock of over 5000 sheep, had with them about two dozen 
" assigned " convicts, or " ticket-of-leavers ", excellent men in work 
and conduct, as Mr. Patrick Leslie declared. Their installation on 
the Darling Downs was followed by the arrival of other squatters, 
by land and by sea, from New South Wales, and in 1844, there 
were more than 40 "stations" or homesteads within 50 miles 
of Brisbane, and a good export of wool had begun from a new 
colony, or colonial district, containing nearly 500 free settlers, 
660 horses, over 13,000 cattle, and 200,000 sheep. Queensland, as 
she was to be named, was fairly started on her prosperous career. 
In 1841, a new form of rule had begun in the appointment of 
Captain W T ickham, R.N., as Superintendent, and of two "Crown- 

VOL. VI. 122 



1/8 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

lands Commissioners " for Moreton Bay and Darling Downs. 
Two years later, the four settled districts, namely, the two above 
and " Macquarie " and " Upper Hunter", sent one joint representa- 
tive to the Legislative Council at Sydney. The explorations made 
by Leichhardt and Kennedy opened up much country within a few 
years from this time. The first ship-load of immigrants from 
Europe direct brought 240 new settlers in 1848, and Dr. Lang, the 
able and energetic Scot whom we have met in the history of New 
South Wales, did much towards introducing some hundreds more. 
It was in 1859, when the population of "Moreton Bay District" 
numbered about 25,000, that, after many years of agitation to that 
end, the independent colony of Queensland was constituted, re- 
ceiving almost at once representative institutions and responsible 
government, under the viceregal control of Sir George Bowen, 
whose career in other quarters has been seen in the history of 
Victoria. Brisbane, then containing 7000 inhabitants, became the 
capital of the new colony. The political organization was success- 
fully started on its work by the Governor, with the valuable 
assistance of his Colonial Secretary, Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) 
Herbert, a scion of the Earl of Carnarvon's family; a gentleman 
who had a few years previously closed a most brilliant career at 
the University of Oxford, and was to become the first Premier 
of Queensland, and then, for more than twenty years, a very valu- 
able official at home as Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial 
Office in Downing Street. The pastoral industry which here, as 
in the other Australian colonies, was the early basis of prosperity, 
had now become such that about 1 300 " runs ", spreading far to 
north and west, had live stock represented by 23,500 horses, 
433,000 horned cattle, and more than 3,000,000 sheep. In 1858, 
there had been a discovery of gold in the north on the banks 
of the Fitzroy River, and about 15,000 diggers were quickly 
attracted to the region. The supply, however, soon gave out, 
and the starving crowd was, to a large extent, rescued in vessels 
sent by the governments of Victoria and New South Wales. A 
few energetic persons who remained to till the fertile soil became 
the founders of the town of Rockhampton. A lack of suitable 
labour for purposes of tillage caused an importation of coolies from 
Polynesia and China, to be employed in the cultivation of sugar, 
cotton, and other tropical or sub-tropical products. Legislation 




.{tlnnao 61 



ariJ lo jnimoqrn 
i sorl* : 







fifc 



^C'DEPAffT^ 




QUEENSLAND. 



179 



was soon needed to cope with the abuses of a system which was 
becoming little better than a slave-trade. 

Sir George Bowen, in January, 1868, left the colony for New 
Zealand, and the following year showed a population of about 
110,000, with revenue and expenditure each exceeding three- 
quarters of a million. Railways and telegraph-wires were now in 
operation, and a new impulse had been given to progress by rich 
discoveries of gold. In 1867, an auriferous region of large extent 
was found at Gympie, about 120 miles north of Brisbane, and this 
event was followed by the working of other gold-fields, including 
the enormously valuable Mount Morgan mine, near Rockhampton, 
a remarkable instance of loss of fortune through failure to look 
below the surface. In the midst of the district where, in 1858, the 
miners were starving by thousands for lack of sufficient return for 
their labour, a young squatter bought a block of 640 acres from 
the government. It lay on a rocky hill, and the soil was so barren 
that he was glad to sell it for a pound per acre to three brothers 
named Morgan. In their hands, it proved to contain one of the 
rarest things in the mineral world, a reef 600 feet long, 300 wide, 
and of unknown depth, composed of ironstone most richly impreg- 
nated with gold. From lack of suitable processes for " saving " 
the gold found thus combined, the Morgans disposed of the 
property to those who, with others, have obtained from the hill 
at the least seven millions' worth of gold, at the rate of from three 
to twelve ounces per ton of ore. In 1872, while fresh finds of gold 
were being often made, rich deposits of copper and tin were dis- 
covered respectively in the north and the south, and coal was found 
and has been worked in large amount. No special notice is needed 
by the Governorships of Sir George Bowen's successors Colonel 
Blackall (1868-1871), the Marquis of Normanby (1871-1874), 
Sir William Cairns (1875-1877), and Sir Arthur Kennedy (1877- 
1883). The colony, like her Australian sisters, has had her draw- 
backs to prosperity, from time to time, in the shape of droughts 
and financial panics, but nothing has long interfered with progress 
due to the development of natural resources unrivalled on the 
Australian continent for variety and abundance. The colony was, 
by degrees, thoroughly explored; railways were ever extended as 
new regions were opened up. In 1870, the number of holdings for 
sheep and cattle exceeded 2200, with over 83,000 horses, 1,800,000 



ISO OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

horned beasts, and 8,000,000 sheep. This number of sheep was 
decreased, within the next decade, by 2^ millions, as it was 
found that much of the land thus occupied was unsuitable; but 
in 1880 the "runs" had increased to 6600, with nearly 180,000 
horses, and over 3,000,000 cattle. Steady and substantial progress 
has been made since 1883, in spite of severe droughts in 1884-5 
and 1888, and heavy floods in 1887. 

Among the more prominent statesmen of Queensland we find 
Sir Thomas M'llwraith, a native of Ayr, and a student of Glasgow 
University, who emigrated to Victoria in 1854, and was largely 
employed as an engineer on the railway works of that colony. In 
1870 he settled in Queensland, where he became a member of the 
Legislative Assembly and Minister for Public Works and Mines. 
In 1879 M'llwraith rose to the position of Premier, and became 
specially prominent in April, 1883, by his annexation of New 
Guinea, a bold step which was unanimously approved by the 
Australasian colonies, and, with general indignation, disallowed by 
the timorous incompetence of Lord Derby, the Colonial Secretary 
in London. The way was thus thrown open for German inter- 
vention, and Germany was, through interference with the states- 
manlike action of Sir Thomas M'llwraith and his colonial supporters, 
enabled to gain a foothold in New Guinea and the Western Pacific. 
The Intercolonial Convention, warmly supported by M'llwraith as 
an advocate of Australasian unity, was one consequence of these 
events. In 1888, Sir Thomas was again Premier (holding the 
offices of Chief Secretary and Colonial Treasurer), and then, with 
the support of the Colonial Office at home, he gained a victory 
over the Governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave (in office from 1883 to 
1888), in a contest wherein the Queensland statesman insisted 
that the representative of the Crown had no choice but to follow 
ministerial advice as to the exercise of the prerogative of mercy 
in the case of convicted criminals. On the death of Sir Anthony 
in 1888, M'llwraith claimed that the Queensland Cabinet should 
be consulted by the Imperial authorities as to the appointment of 
a successor, and in this case, though Lord Knutsford, the Colonial 
Secretary, refused to admit the principle, the formal protest of 
Sir Thomas caused a deadlock which ended in the voluntary 
retirement of the Colonial Office nominee, Sir Henry Blake, within 
a short time from his arrival in Queensland. General Sir Henry 



QUEENSLAND. j8 r 

Norman, a distinguished Indian officer in the second Sikh war 
and the Sepoy Mutiny, became Governor in 1889, after experience 
for some years as Governor of Jamaica. Another Queensland 
Premier, Sir Samuel Griffith, at different times an opponent and 
a colleague of M'llwraith, was born at Merthyr Tydvil, and 
emigrated to Queensland (then the " Moreton Bay District ") at 
an early age, in 1854. From the Brisbane bar he entered Parlia- 
ment in 1872, and soon held office as Attorney-General. In this 
capacity he carried a stringent and valuable Insolvency Bill, and 
became Minister of Education after rendering the further service 
of instituting, under a measure of his introduction, a free, secular, 
and compulsory system of State instruction. In 1883, Sir Samuel 
became Premier, after the defeat of M'llwraith and his colleagues 
by a large majority on their policy favouring the importation of 
coolie-labour for the purpose of working the sugar-plantations of 
.northern Queensland. The new ministry carried a Licensing Bill 
which embodied the principle of " local option " without compensa- 
tion, and they also contributed to the national security by a Defence 
Act. Sir Samuel Griffith has been, like M'llwraith, a strong 
supporter of Australian Federation, and took a prominent part, 
in 1887, in the proceedings of the Colonial Conference held in 
London. The other services of this distinguished Queenslander 
include codifications of law on certain subjects. 

In another line of action, mention is due to the energy and 
skill of Commander Heath, a native of Norfolk, who entered the 
royal navy at an early age, and was much employed in surveys 
on the western Pacific station before he became, in 1860, Marine 
Surveyor of Queensland and a member of the Pilot Board. In 
this and higher capacities, including the chairmanship of the 
Marine Board (1869), he rendered services which may be estimated 
by facts relating to the years 1 860 and 1 890, the date of his retire- 
ment. In the former year, the new colony had but one lighthouse 
and one light-ship, both in Moreton Bay. When Heath gave up 
his charge, the long line of coast was illuminated for mariners by 
thirty-five lighthouses, six light-ships, and about 160 smaller beacons. 
Eighteen ports were open with a thousand miles of buoyed and 
beaconed channels, including the intricate navigation of the passage 
through the coral waters of the inner route, described above m 
connection with the famous Barrier Reef. 



1 32 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

The chief event in the recent history of Queensland was the 
disaster due to floods in the south-eastern part of the colony, which 
occurred in the early days of February, 1893. Nothing in the 
history of Australia ever equalled, in this kind, the mischief 
wrought in the valleys of the Brisbane and Bremer rivers through 
a downpour of which dwellers in the British Isles can form slight 
conception. For seven days and nights, without intermission, the 
rain came down in sheets that quickly filled every gully, whence 
torrents rushed to swell the water-courses and so send a deluge 
over the land. The towns of Gympie and Maryborough, respec- 
tively 116 and 170 miles north of Brisbane, suffered severely. 
Ipswich, 23 miles west of the capital, was badly flooded. The 
country around Toowoomba, on the Darling Downs, about 80 
miles further west than Ipswich, presented a scene of utter desola- 
tion. The most severe loss was incurred at Brisbane, where the 
river rose nearly 10 feet higher than during the calamitous floods 
of January, 1890, and, covering the low-lying suburb of working- 
class people, in the district called Fortitude Valley, to the depth 
of 50 feet, demolished several factories, and above 500 houses, 
which were there chiefly built of the native hard woods, with 
shingle roofs, the structures being raised on short trunks of 
timber, metal-capped, in order to preserve them from the ravages 
of " white ants ". Around three, and sometimes four, sides of 
the house a verandah runs, wide enough to serve as a place for 
meals in the hot season. Such buildings could offer no resistance 
to so mighty a flood, and were forthwith swept away with serious 
loss of life. Some of the chief thoroughfares of the city proper, 
on higher ground, were flooded. Six miles above the capital, the 
railway-bridge spanning the Brisbane at Indooroopilly fell with 
a thunderous roar, and its piers and girders were swept away. 
The crowning mischief came when communication between North 
and South Brisbane was cut off by the demolition of the massive 
and magnificent Victoria Bridge, an iron swing structure on the 
lattice-girder principle, 1080 feet long, which took over nine years 
in building at a cost of a quarter of a million sterling. The scene 
at this point was one of terrible interest for many hours before the 
event. Above a hundred houses and great sheds, between the 
afternoon of Saturday, February 4th, and Sunday night, were 
borne down upon the bridge and crushed to pieces. In one case, 



QUEENSLAND. 



183 






six men in a row, hanging on to a floating house, and uttering 
wild cries for help which it was impossible to afford, perished in 
the waters as the house was hurled against one of the piers. The 
Stanley Street swimming-baths dragged their four anchors, and 
drifted on to the bridge, to be instantly broken up. Live stock, 
farm produce, furniture, fencing, trees, pieces of land held together 
by reeds and scrub as floating islets, were carried down the swift 
stream and out to sea. Wreckage piled up against the lattice- 
work of the bridge impeded the free flow of the water on the south 
side, and the rush in the deep channel on the north increased in 
speed. The crisis came at about four o'clock on the morning of 
Tuesday, February 7th, when there was a vast accumulation of 
iron and wood from houses, trees, and other objects. The destruc- 
tion of the bridge started from the centre and worked its way to 
the north bank. With seven separate crashes, girder after girder, 
lattice after lattice, canted up, turned a somersault, and was en- 
gulfed in the boiling flood, while the water dashed up to a height 
of 30 to 40 feet and descended in spray rendered snow-like by the 
rays of a brilliant moon. The wreckage was released and borne 
away seawards with terrific force, and in a few moments a clear 
stream appeared for half the distance across the river, and the 
southern half of the noble Victoria Bridge stood up sheer, ghastly, 
and gaunt in its survival where so much had been swept away. 
In September, a temporary wooden bridge was opened for traffic, 
and an entirely new structure, at an estimated cost, including 
approaches, of about ^i 12,000, has now been completed. 

Queensland, occupying the north-eastern portion of the Aus- 
tralian continent, and including many adjacent islands in the Pacific 
Ocean and the Gulf of Carpentaria, and lying between the nth 
and 2Qth parallels of south latitude, and the I38th and I54th 
meridians of east longitude, has a maximum length of 1300 miles 
from north to south, and an extreme width of about 800 miles, with 
an area of nearly 670,000 square miles, making it about five and a 
half times as large as the United Kingdom. In its main features 
the surface of the country resembles that of New South Wales, 
and may be divided into the Coast District, the Table-land, and 
the Interior Plains. It is upon the first of these, lying between the 
sea on the east, and a backbone of mountains running parallel 
thereto at an average distance of 50 miles, that settlement has 



1 84 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

mainly taken place. The table-land, with an average elevation of 
less than 2000 feet, extending northward as far as the i6th parallel 
of south latitude, lies westward of the mountains, with a gradual 
slope towards the interior, and here the open downs and plains are 
often composed of the richest black soil, covered with herbage of 
the finest fattening quality. The eastern side of the mountain-belt 
has many ridges, and is thickly timbered with the eucalypti peculiar 
to that part of the world. The volcanic element is strongly marked 
in the geological structure of Queensland, and is a source of the 
large area of fertile soil; basalts and lavas abound in the hilly 
districts, and there are hundreds of well-defined extinct craters, 
some about 4000 feet above sea-level, surrounded by sheets of lava 
and masses of volcanic ashes. In the south-west are sandy and 
stony tracts which may be termed deserts: near the Gulf of Car- 
pentaria the land becomes marly in character, producing the " salt- 
bush " and other salsolaceous vegetation which furnishes food to 
horned cattle and sheep. 

The country is fairly well watered. Most of the rivers rising in 
the coast ranges or on the table-land, and flowing into the Pacific, 
have short and rapid courses, but there are some which run for 
considerable distances parallel to the coast either on the table-land 
or in longitudinal valleys among the coast ranges. The most con- 
spicuous of these longer rivers is the Burdekin. The Fitzroy has 
a similar course; the Burnett, Brisbane, and Mary are the other 
chief streams on the east. On the northern slope, to the Gulf of 
Carpentaria, the Flinders and the Mitchell are the largest rivers. 
On the interior slope, we have already seen, in the history of 
exploration, the Barcoo, or Cooper's Creek, flowing south and west 
into Lake Eyre. The other streams in this part of the colony are 
tributaries of the Darling, including the Paroo, the Warrego, the 
Maranoa, and the Condamine, which last may be considered the 
chief source of the Darling. The change of name, at different 
parts of a river's course, is an Australian peculiarity. The Con- 
damine, for instance, rises in the dividing chain about 60 miles from 
the sea, and, flowing north-westerly for 250 miles, turning west and 
south, and being joined by the Maranoa, becomes known as the 
Balonne. Further south, this is exchanged for " Culeoa ", under 

o o 

which title the river enters New South Wales. 

In a country of which two-thirds lies within the tropics, there 



QUEENSLAND. 



I8 S 



must be a wide variety of climate. The northern portion has a dry 
heat reaching 108 degrees, rendered tolerable by a certain exhilar- 
ating quality of the atmosphere. The wet season, extending from 
Christmas to March, there gives a rainfall of 90 to 100 inches; the 
rest of the year is dry, with a pure air and a cloudless sky. For 
seven months the weather is most enjoyable, and has been well 
compared with that prevailing in Madeira. In the sub-tropical 
zone of Queensland the climate resembles that of New South 
Wales, but is somewhat warmer. The mean annual temperature 
of the coast district is about 70 degrees, with an annual rainfall of 
50 inches. The diminution of temperature and rainfall on the 
table-land shows respectively 62 degrees and 32 inches. The great 
plains of the interior have a mean annual temperature of 80 degrees 
and a rainfall ranging from 10 to 20 inches according to position 
and distance from the sea. The whole country is happily free from 
the hot winds which, in the southern colonies, are so injurious to 
vegetation and so disagreeable to human beings. The general 
salubrity of the climate is signally proved by a low death-rate, a 
high birth-rate, and immunity from the scourges of contagious 
diseases and pulmonary maladies. 

The population, at the end of 1896, was estimated at just over 
472,000; the census of April, 1891, showed about 224,000 males 
and 170,000 females. Increase is due almost entirely to excess of 
births over deaths; the immigration (18,765 in 1896) being almost 
balanced by emigration (16,824 in the same year). Of the total 
population (393,700) according to the above census, about 177,000 
were natives of Queensland; 77,000 of England; 43,000 of Ire- 
land; 22,400 of Scotland. Above 28,000 were born in other 
Australian colonies, chiefly in New South Wales and Victoria; 
about 15,000 were natives of Germany, over 3000 of Denmark, and 
there were nearly 2000 Norwegians and Swedes. Over 8500 
Chinese, of whom only 47 were females, were chiefly engaged in 
the gold mines, and nearly 9500, including 826 females, were 
returned as " Polynesians ". No return is made of the aborigines, 
principally found in the unsettled territory; they are of the 
wildest and fiercest character among Australian natives, and, in 
some cases, undoubtedly cannibals; the estimates of number vary 
so widely as from 1 2,000 to 70,000. The religious denominations, 
of which none is supported by the State (except in grants of land, 



1 86 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

free of taxation, made to the chief bodies prior to 1861), comprised, 
in 1891, about 142,500 members of the Anglican Church, spiritu- 
ally ruled by the Bishops of Brisbane and of North Queensland; 
92,700 Roman Catholics, under the Archbishop of Brisbane and 
two bishops; 45,600 Presbyterians; 21,000 Wesleyans; 23,380 
Lutherans; 10,250 Baptists; nearly 29,000 of other Christian sects; 
800 Jews; about 17,500 Mohammedans and Pagans; and over 
1 1,000 of other faiths or of none. 

On and near the Queensland coast, in voyaging from south to 
north, the first feature worthy of remark is Point Danger, named 
by Captain Cook, with its seething jumble of breakers telling of 
jagged submarine reefs. Moreton Bay, with its entrance between 
two islands, Moreton and Stradbroke, is a sheet of water 60 miles 
in length, from north to south, receiving four navigable rivers, 
including the Brisbane. The scenery has few attractions, the 
shores in general presenting more of mud and mangroves than of 
sand. At the extremity of the bay, however, furthest from Bris- 
bane, the watering-place of Southport, with a very fine hotel and 
many villas, has a narrow sandy beach of almost dazzling white-* 
ness, washed by the most limpid water, and is the favourite sea- 
side resort of citizens from the capital. The shallow and tepid 
waters of Wide Bay and Hervey's Bay are favourite haunts of that 
curious mammal, the dugong, killed for the sake of its oil, most 
valuable in medicinal use, and for its delicious flesh having, in 
different parts of the body, the flavour of the best pork and beef 
and veal. Port Curtis is a splendid harbour, fenced by two islands 
from the waves and winds. Cape Capricorn is a bold promontory 
now crowned by a lighthouse, and was named by Cook from the 
fact of lying almost exactly on the tropical line. Keppel Bay 
receives the turbid waters of the great Fitzroy River. Cape Clin- 
ton is a fine headland, with ground from 400 to 500 feet in height, 
on the south side of Port Bowen, a deep inlet with good shelter, 
discovered by Flinders. Whitsunday Pass is a channel between 
Whitsunday Island and the mainland. It presents a surface of the 
calmest sea-water, winding between lofty hills clothed to the sum- 
mit with a profusion of pines and jungle of creeping plants. There 
are many such passages on the northward course among the islets 
inside the Great Barrier Reef described in the earlier part of this 
section of our work, and they give a peculiar charm to the coasting 



QUEENSLAND. ygy 

voyage. Port Denison has in its sheltered basin the little town of 
Bowen, one of the prettiest and most picturesque places on the 
Queensland coast, planted on undulating ridges gently sloping to 
the sea. 

Still sailing northwards, the voyager past the majestic masses of 
the great coast range reaches the channel called Hinchinbrook Pass, 
30 miles in length, and enjoys a scene of rare beauty in the bold 
slopes of Hinchinbrook Island on the one hand, and on the other, 
at varying distances, in the scarped and furrowed sides of the 
coastal mountains. The island displays a splendid variety of 
tropical foliage, of delicate fresh green contrasted with masses of 
darkest olive hue. Jagged rocks, here and there, rise black among 
the leaves, buried at other points by jungles of pandanus and 
feathery fern. On the sea-edge the luxuriant growth of mangroves 
is reflected in the watery mirror, and masses of cloud, drifting 
overhead before the trade-winds, throw cool fleeting shadows on 
mountain-side, ravine, and sea, and hover around the loftier peaks. 
Many streams discharge their waters into this channel, each with 
its little town on the banks, and each flowing through fertile tracts 
of alluvial soil, tilled by settlers for sugar-cane, bananas, maize, and 
other tropical products. Trinity Inlet lies at the bottom of Trinity 
Bay, so named by Captain Cook from his entrance on Trinity Sun- 
day. The inlet is well sheltered from the south-east "trades", 
blowing from April to November, and here, 900 miles north-west 
of Brisbane, in a sugar and gold-field district, lies the town of 
Cairns, with a population of about 8000, shipping large quantities 
of pine-apples and bananas. The zone of heavy rainfall, beginning 
at Hinchinbrook Island, culminates at the Johnstone River and in 
the Cairns district, where the clouds brought by the trade-winds, 
laden with moisture from the sunny Pacific, discharge their watery 
burden, on being intercepted by the lofty ridges of the coast range, 
here exceeding 5000 feet, in a rainfall which has reached 180 inches 
in the year. The vegetation on the soil thus washed down from 
the mountains is of the richest tropical character in the dense 
jungly scrubs with their tangled wealth of ferns, and of orchids 
and many other flowering plants, above which wave the broad 
leaves of the wild banana, with graceful palms and mighty cedars 

towering over all. About 70 miles south-west of Cairns, on a 

i 
table-land 1000 feet above sea-level, is the town of Herberton, with 



iSS OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

4000 people, among mines rich in tin and silver-yielding galena. 
A few miles north of Cairns, Trinity Bay is entered by the Barren 
River, whose banks display rich alluvial "bottoms" and a grand 
growth of cedars. The peculiar and, in Australia, the unrivalled 
attraction of the Barren is found in its upper course. The magnifi- 
cent Barren Falls, where the stream descends 900 feet within half 
a mile, have themselves a depth of 600 feet. Nothing can surpass 
the sublimity of the scene in the time of flood, when a torrent of 
water 300 yards wide, and about 60 feet deep, rushes along at the 
rate of 20 miles an hour, and tumbles in a huge wall over the edge 
of the precipice, launched clear out into space for its descent into 
the rocky abyss. Clouds of spray float upwards for a thousand 
feet, condensing as they rise, and then dripping in emerald showers 
from the trees on the mountain-slopes. The currents of air created 
by the enormous cataract wave the branches of trees that stand 
hundreds of feet above, as if they are swayed by the contending 
winds of a storm. The rocks on which the spectator stands, 
appalled by the indescribable grandeur of what he beholds, shake 
with the thunder of the falling waters. On one side of the main 
fall is a circular pool, 200 feet below the top of the precipice. The 
sides of the rock slope inward from above so as to leave an outlet 
not 20 feet wide at the bottom. A vast body of water falls into 
this cauldron, clear down, striking the surface of the pool as if it 
were a solid rock, dashing itself into vapour, and throwing showers 
of spray far up the face of the opposite rock, whence it descends in 
countless rivulets of sparkling silver like a flood of moonlight on 
the dark surges of a midnight sea. The face of the rocks around 
is adorned with tiny orchids, ferns, and innumerable little plants 
looking down into the wild whirl beneath, while gorgeous blue- 
winged butterflies emerge from the crevices, and flutter slowly 
down to be caught by the spray and vanish like a flash of light 
into the boiling depths. 

The coast-country, to the voyager still going northwards from 
Trinity Bay, shows ever the main range, sometimes approaching 
the sea and dipping abruptly into the waters, sometimes receding 
in long curves, inclosing tracts of country with rich tropical verdure. 
At 1050 miles from Brisbane, the port of Cooktown, with about 
3500 people, on the Endeavour river, has a beche-de-mer fishery. 
A statue of the great navigator is erected near to the spot where 



QUEENSLAND. I gg 

he beached the Endeavour after her narrow escape from destruction 
on the coral reef. This port is the usual place of departure for 
vessels proceeding to New Guinea. Farther north, towards Cape 
York, the course lies among palm-clad isles, past the rugged ranges 
of the mainland, and the charming scenery recalls the beauties of 
southern Italy and of the ^Egean and Ionian seas. Beyond Cape 
York, in the southern part of Torres Strait, lies Thursday Island, 
with Port Kennedy, very valuable as a coaling station and port of 
call for the mail-steamers, and as a harbour of refuge for all kinds 
of craft. The place has been fortified at the joint expense of all 
the Australian colonies, and has a quarantine ground for all infected 
vessels bound to Queensland ports. It lies in the centre of the 
beche-de-mer and pearl-fishing industry of Torres Strait, and, with 
a small government establishment for customs and other purposes, 
has two hotels and some scattered residences. The Gulf of Car- 
pentaria, a tepid shallow sea, presents on its eastern shore an 
almost unbroken line of low swampy land bordered by mangrove- 
trees. In the south, the monotony is broken by groups of islands. 
The chief town in this quarter is Normanton, about 50 miles up 
the Norman River, over 1300 miles north-west of Brisbane. The 
place is an outlet for the rich Cloncurry and Croydon gold-fields, 
with which it is connected by railway. 

Queensland, with counties for the purpose of land-survey, and 
electoral areas, is best regarded in its division into twelve large 
districts. In the south-east, the Moreton District comprises all 
the country of which Moreton Bay may be considered the natural 
outlet. This longest settled and most thickly peopled region con- 
tains the capital of the colony, and is well watered, with a large 
cultivation of sugar, vegetables, and maize. To the north of this, 
the Burnett and Wide Bay District extends beyond the 25th 
parallel of south latitude, and inland to the mountains, with a large 
growth of sugar, sweet -potatoes, maize, and other crops, and a 
great production of timber. The famous Gympie gold-field lies in 
this territory, and in the hilly western portion copper-mining and 
sheep-farming are the chief pursuits. The Port Curtis District 
comes next towards the north, between the sea and the coast 
ranges, with pasturage, agriculture, and the richest gold-fields of 
the colony, including the Mount Morgan mine, near Rockhampton. 
The large Kennedy District, with an area exceeding England and 



IQO OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

Wales together, grows sugar, cotton, and maize near the coast, 
and has pastoral country further inland, with very productive gold- 
mines in the township of Charters Towers. The Cook District, 
having the sea on all sides except the south, includes the Cape 
York peninsula, and, with sugar-growing and grazing, contains 
important gold-fields on the Palmer River and elsewhere. West 
of the Kennedy District, and along the Gulf of Carpentaria, the 
Burke District, watered by numerous streams, is a vast, mainly 
pastoral, region, with good mining for gold and copper on the 
Cloncurry River, a tributary of the Flinders. In the extreme 
west, the Gregory District, little known or settled, is pastoral or 
desert. The Mitchell, Warrego, and Maranoa Districts, lying 
southwards to the boundary of New South Wales, are entirely 
devoted to pastoral pursuits; the Leichhardt, east of Mitchell, with 
its chief industry in grazing-farms, has also gold and copper mining. 
The remainder of the colony, comprising the southern portion of 
the table-land and its western slope, forms the celebrated Darling 
Downs District, with some of the finest agricultural and pastoral 
land in Australia, lying at the height of nearly 2000 feet above 
sea-level, and capable of producing nearly all European crops and 
fruits. 

The chief industries of the colony are pastoral, mineral, and 
agricultural, as will have been gathered from the foregoing account. 
Up to the end of 1896, nearly 14^ million acres of crown-lands had 
been alienated, leaving over 413 millions of acres still unappropri- 
ated. About one-half the area of the colony is natural forest, 
though little has been done hitherto to develop this part of the .rich 
and varied natural resources of the territory. In 1896, nearly 
300 millions of acres were leased in squatting " runs " for pastoral 
purposes, the number of such holdings being about 4500. In the 
year ending March, 1896, about 35,800 acres of land, producing 
601,000 bushels, were under wheat; the growth of barley and oats 
was unworthy of mention, being only in each case a few thousands 
of bushels; over 115,000 acres were devoted to maize, with a pro- 
duct of 3,065,000 bushels; 10,800 acres to potatoes, with over 
32,700 tons; and 2000 acres to vines, yielding over 170,000 gallons 
of wine, and about 2 million pounds of grapes for table use. The 
chief produce of market-gardens, mainly tilled by the patient and 
industrious Chinese, consists of sweet-potatoes, pumpkins, and yams. 



QUEENSLAND. 



191 



The growth of arrowroot is a profitable industry ; tobacco thrives, 
and cotton, rice, coffee, and even tea have been proved to be suit- 
able to the climate and soil. Among tropical and sub-tropical fruits 
bananas and pine-apples have been already mentioned; to these we 
may add oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, guavas, and mangoes, with 
all the chief tropical spices as capable of profitable growth when 
a due supply of suitable (Asiatic or Polynesian) labour can be 
obtained. The value of the Queensland forests was conspicuously 
shown in the beautiful collection of timbers at the Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition in London (1886), the hardwoods including iron- 
barks, stringy-barks, gums, and blood-woods. The easily-worked 
softwoods comprise four excellent pines, and the red cedar, silky 
oak, tulip-wood, yellow-wood, and beech are valuable for cabinet 
and ornamental work. The sugar-industry, begun in 1862 and 
largely developed, has been hampered by scarcity of labour and by 
low prices; in 1896, about 83,000 acres were growing canes, and of 
this area 66,640 acres yielded over 100,000 tons of sugar. 

In regard to live stock, especially in horned cattle, Queensland 
takes a high place. In 1897 tne colony possessed 452,000 horses; 
over 6*/2 million horned cattle, a number exceeding that of all the 
rest of Australasia (Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand) to- 
gether; over 19^2 millions of sheep, and 97,000 pigs. Manufac- 
turing industry is at present confined to the provision of articles 
for home use and not for export, except in the important work of 
preparing the natural products for market at flour-mills, saw-mills, 
factories for wine, tobacco, arrowroot, and sugar; and in meat- 
preserving and "boiling down". The commerce of the colony is 
chiefly carried on with other countries of Australasia, and, next to 
them, with the United Kingdom and with China. For the year 
ending March 3ist, 1896, the exports (including 2^ millions in gold 
and silver bullion and specie) had a value exceeding ,9,163,000; 
of which the United Kingdom took nearly ,3, 560,000 worth in 
wool (to over 2^ millions sterling in 1896), preserved meat, 
pearl shells, tin, tallow, and other articles. For 1896 the export 
of gold in dust and bars exceeded ^2,114,000 in value; of hides 
and skins, nearly ,450,000; live stock, ^"860,000; meats, frozen 
and other, above ^845,000; pearl shells, ,94,864; silver lead, 
21,000-, sugar, ,863,000; tallow, ,338,000; tin ore, over 
,27,000; smelted tin, ,19,500; wool, nearly 3 millions sterling. 



IQ2 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

The imports for the year 1896 (with a recovery from previous 
decline) exceeded ,5,433,000 in value, of which goods worth nearly 
2^/2 millions came from the United Kingdom, chiefly in apparel and 
haberdashery; cottons and woollens; and wrought and unwrought 
iron. The other imports of the colony were beer, ale, wine, spirits, 
and tobacco; tea, flour, paper, stationery (including books); rice, 
oilmen's stores, and boots and shoes. The total tonnage entering 
and cleared from the ports (exclusive of the very large coasting 
trade with neighbouring Australian colonies) was 1,094,000 in 1896, 
nearly all being British vessels. Returning for a moment to the 
mineral resources of Queensland, we find that, with coal-fields esti- 
mated to have an area of 24,000 square miles, the output in 1896, 
chiefly from mines at Ipswich, near Brisbane; at Burrum, near 
Maryborough; and at Cooktown, amounted to 371,000 tons, valued 
at ,155,000; and that, up to the end of 1896, the gold-fields had 
yielded metal to the total amount of 11,198,190 ounces, worth over 
39 millions sterling. 

BRISBANE, youngest of Australian capital cities, and by far the 
largest town and port of Queensland, stretches for a considerable 
distance on both banks of the Brisbane River, picturesquely placed 
on a series of hills sloping up from the stream at a point, about 
24 miles from the river-mouth in Moreton Bay, where the river 
winds in a double curve. The Brisbane is there about a quarter of 
a mile in width, and, having the entrance to the port well lighted 
and buoyed, admits at all times, to the extensive wharves on each 
side, below bridge, vessels drawing over 2 1 feet. The city lies by 
railway about 500 miles north of Sydney, and 60 miles north of the 
southern boundary of the colony, and, within a circle of 5 miles 
radius, embracing the two municipalities of Brisbane and South 
Brisbane, has a population now nearly approaching 100,000. 
Well supplied with water from the neighbouring hills, efficiently 
drained, gas-lit and well paved, Brisbane contains a good number of 
fine buildings, public and private, including two cathedrals, over 
forty churches, a Parliament House erected at a cost of ,100,000, 
the splendid National Bank, a School of Arts, Museum, and Town 
Hall. Among the chief structures is the Queensland Club, the 
most pleasing in Australia for exterior and position. One facade 
commands a view over the Botanical Gardens,, which front the 
river, and have a glorious display of semi-tropical vegetation, being 



QUEENSLAND. ig$ 

further adorned by a lagoon and ponds fringed with water-lilies, 
and by winding paths, grassy lawns and knolls, beds of lovely 
orchids, and radiant parterres of many-hued flowers and variegated 
foliage-plants cunningly inlaid. The Parliament House is a hand- 
some freestone edifice, with a central dome, and wings surmounted 
by high mansard roofs. There are four public parks, and the 
gardens of the Acclimatization Society are as beautiful to behold 
as they have proved useful to the colony in introducing and distri- 
buting plants and trees from every part of the tropical and sub- 
tropical regions of the world. Tram-cars, omnibuses, wagonettes, 
and suburban railway-lines supply ample accommodation for traffic 
between the business quarters and the fringe of suburban residences 
built on charming and healthful sites among the ridgy inequalities 
of the ground. 

Ipswich, 25 miles by railway from the capital, lies on the 
Bremer River, an affluent of the Brisbane, and has good structures 
in St. Paul's Anglican Church, the Grammar School, and a fine iron 
bridge spanning the stream. The population is about 8000, many 
of whose toilers find employment in the workshops, covering 
22 acres, of the Southern and Western line. Thence the railway 
runs westward through rich forest flats to the foot of the coast 
range. The mountains are ascended, not by the "zigzag" method 
described in connection with the Blue Mountains of New South 
Wales, but by the " contouring " plan, whereby the railway follows 
the outline of the hills in a constant ascending grade along their 
face. Tunnels here and there pierce projecting spurs, and iron 
bridges, light but strong, leap across ravines and gullies often of 
great depth, where the traveller looks down from the carriage 
window into a ferny tangle, on to the tops of trees springing from 
ground hundreds of feet below. After an up-grade of about seven- 
teen miles, the line, having overcome the mountain barrier, gently 
descends towards the great plateau of the Darling Downs and 
reaches Toowoomda, the capital of the District. This town, with 
a population of over 7000, lies nearly 2000 feet above sea-level, at 
the head of Cowrie Creek, a tributary of the Condamine. The 
broad gas-lit streets have no architectural merit; the industry of 
the place comprises soap-making, brewing, tanning, saw-mills, flour- 
mills, foundries, and a manufacture of tobacco. Here the line bifur- 
cates, one part proceeding westwards towards the vast region of 

VOL. VI. 123 



194 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

the Maranoa and Warrego Districts, the other turning south to join 
the railways of New South Wales. On this southern arm stands 
the pretty little stone and brick built town of Warwick, in a bracing 
air 1 500 feet above sea-level, with a population of 4000. The place 
is the centre of an agricultural and pastoral district of rich black 
soil. The Condamine flows past to join the Darling far away. 

The Mary River, falling into Wide Bay, has on its banks, about 
25 miles from the sea, thriving Maryborough, with a population of 
about 9000. Vessels drawing 17^2 feet can reach the wharves of 
this District-capital, which is the terminus of several short railways, 
and the port for the Gympie gold and Burrum coal. Two large 
engineering factories, saw-mills, sugar-mills, and important dugong 
and oyster fisheries give work and wealth to the people. The river, 
sharply curving at this point, is crossed by a bridge one-third of a 
mile in length. Gympie, with a population of 9000, lies also on the 
Mary River, many miles above Maryborough, in a mineral district 
which, besides a large production of gold from mines over 1000 feet 
in depth, has silver, copper, cinnabar, antimony, bismuth, and nickel. 
There are good public buildings, gas, and water-supply. Rock- 
hampton, the second town of the colony for size and importance, 
with 12,000 people, lies 420 miles north-west of Brisbane, on the 
Fitzroy River, about 40 miles from its mouth. It is the chief town 
and port of central Queensland, and, as the terminus of a main line 
of railway (the Central), extending about 400 miles inland, it serves 
as an entrepot for a vast interior region. The Mount Morgan 
gold-mine is about 30 miles distant, and the surrounding country is 
rich in copper and silver, with a large trade in wool, tallow, maize, 
and preserved meats. The town is well laid out, with gas-lit streets, 
good water-supply, excellent buildings, and fine botanical gardens, 
on both banks of the river, connected by a good iron suspension- 
bridge nearly 1200 feet in length. Many of the wide streets are 
planted with trees; a fine esplanade fronts the stream on the south 
bank. Shut out from the coast by a lofty range of hills that inter- 
cept the sea-breeze, and shut in by lesser elevations at the back, 
Rockhampton, in summer, suffers much from heat, which prosperous 
citizens escape by resorting to beautiful spots on the coast north of 
Keppel Bay. Another important town in this Port Curtis District 
is Gladstone, 90 miles south-west of Rockhampton. The place lies 
on the coast, with a fine harbour, reputed the best in Queensland, 



QUEENSLAND. T QC 

sheltered by two islands from the winds and waves. With a popu- 
lation of about 4000 in the town and neighbourhood, the place 
largely exports cattle to New Caledonia, the French colonial island 
lying midway between Queensland and the Fiji Isles. Mackay, 
a town on the south bank of the Pioneer river, 625 miles north- 
west of Brisbane, has 4000 people, with over 10,000 in the 
suburban district, and is the centre of Queensland's chief sugar 
region. The buildings are good, and the port, an outlet for copper- 
mines and a gold-field, is being improved by engineering. Towns- 
mile, on Cleveland Bay, with a population of 9000, is the third port 
of the colony, and the most important and progressive place in 
northern Queensland, lying 870 miles north-west of the capital. 'It 
is the commercial centre of a vast area of pastoral and sugar country, 
also containing gold-fields at Charters Towers and elsewhere. The 
only natural port is an open roadstead, but an eastern breakwater, 
4000 feet long, has been completed, and a western breakwater will 
aid in creating an artificial harbour along with dredging of the 
shallow bay. The gas-lit town has a good supply of water from 
wells, and a factory for making ice, a luxury in a place rendered 
very hot by reflection of the rays of a tropical sun from the adjacent 
Castle Hill and Tower Hill. Townsville is the see of an Anglican 
bishop, and has political importance as the head-quarters of the 
North Queensland Separation League, an influential body which 
commands the services of vigorous writers demanding, for the 
northern part of the colony, the independent political existence 
obtained by Queensland in regard to New South Wales. The 
Colonial Office in London has declined to ask the Imperial Parlia- 
ment for an Act of separation until the Queensland Legislature 
approves the claim of the League. 

Communication between different parts of the colony is largely 
effected by sea, owing to the number of excellent harbours, regu- 
larly visited by the large and well-appointed steamers of several 
lines. All the chief towns, on the coast and inland, are connected 
by good roads. The chief railway-lines, southern, central, and 
northern, have been already indicated. There are really eleven 
distinct systems, with no common centre, but all have a uniform 
gauge of 3^ feet, and are in the hands of the Government. In 
1897, 2 43 miles were open, constructed at the cost of over 17 
millions sterling, and having annual receipts of .1,136,861 against 



196 OUR EMPIRE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 

a working expenditure of ^682,646. Over 10,000 miles of tele- 
graph, with 354 stations, are open; the postal system has charges 
of id. for half-ounce letters in towns, 2d. for Australasia, and 
2y 2 d. for the United Kingdom and Postal Union countries. The 
telephone is largely used in Brisbane and some other towns. Many 
lines of steamers and sailing-vessels, with direct communication by 
the London and Queensland Royal Mail Line and the Australasian 
United Steam Navigation Company, afford access to every part of 
the civilized world. 

Government, with an executive head appointed by the Crown, 
is vested, for legislative and taxing purposes, in a Parliament of two 
Houses, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. 
The present Governor is Lord Lamington, K.C.M.G., appointed 
in 1895. The Council consists of 37 members, nominated by the 
Crown for life. The Assembly contains 72 members, returned by 
ballot election, for three years, from 61 electoral districts. Every 
adult male of six months' residence has the franchise. The mem- 
bers of the Assembly are entitled to a payment of i 50 a year, with 
travelling expenses. Owners of freehold estate of the clear value 
of jCioo, or of house property to 10 annual value, or leasehold of 
^10 yearly rent, and holders of pastoral leases from the Crown, 
may vote for members of the Assembly in any district where such 
property is situated. The Executive Council or Cabinet of eight 
ministers includes men having special charge of railways, lands and 
agriculture, public instruction, and public works. Local government 
is carried on by 36 municipalities. The judicial system is of the 
kind usual in Australia; the police force of about 900 men includes 
many native troopers. Education, free, secular, and compulsory 
by statute in the State schools, is not really so in the last par- 
ticular, and the census of 1891 showed 102,000 persons who could 
neither read nor write, and 14,500 who could read only; infants 
and aliens were, however, included in this estimate. In 1896 there 
were ten middle-class schools in populous places, and scholarships 
and exhibitions aid deserving pupils to proceed from the primary 
schools to places of higher instruction. The revenue of the colony, 
for the year ending June 3Oth, 1897, was ,3,613,150, mainly derived 
from cus