THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA In 1503 a French navigator named Binot Paulmyer, sieur de Gonneville, was blown out of his course, and landed on a large is land which was claimed to be the great southern land of tradition, although Flinders and other authorities are inclined to think that it must have been Madagascar. Some French writers confidently put forward a claim that Guillaume le Testu, of Provence, sighted the continent in 1531. The Portuguese also advance claims to be the first discoverers of Australia, but so far the evidence cannot be said to establish their pretensions. As early as the Dutch historian, Wytfliet, describes the Terra Australis as the most south ern of all lands, and proceeds to give some circumstantial particu lars respecting its geographical relation to New Guinea, venturing the opinion that, were it thoroughly explored, it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world.
In 1642 Abel Janszoon Tasman sailed from Batavia on Aug. 14. After a visit to the Mauritius, then a Dutch possession, Tasman bore away to the south-east, and on Nov. 24 sighted the western coast of the land which he named Van Diemen's Land, in honour of the governor of the Dutch East Indies. The honour was later transferred to the discoverer himself, and the island is now known as Tasmania. Tasman doubled the southern extremity of Van Diemen's Land and explored the east coast for some distance. The ceremony of hoisting a flag and taking possession of the country in the name of the Government of the Netherlands was actually performed, but the description of the wildness of the country, and of the fabulous giants by which Tasman's sailors believed it to be inhabited, deterred the Dutch from occupying the island, and by the international principle of "non-user" it left their hands.
After voyaging westward for nearly three weeks, Cook, on April 19, 177o, sighted the eastern coast of Australia at a point which modern geographers identify with Cape Everard.
The "Endeavour" then coasted northward, and Botany Bay was discovered on April 28, 177o. As it appeared to offer a suitable anchorage, Cook entered the bay and dropped anchor. The ship brought-to opposite a group of natives who were cooking over a fire. Cook and his men were not a little astonished that these natives took no notice of them or their proceedings. But when a landing was attempted, two natives, each armed with a bundle of spears, presented themselves on a projecting rock and made threatening signs to the strangers. It is interesting to note that the ingenious wommera, or throw-stick, which is peculiar to Australia, was first observed on this occasion. As the men were evidently determined to oppose any attempt at landing, a musket was dis charged between them, in the hope that they would be frightened by the noise. But it produced no effect. Cook examined the bay in the pinnace, and landed several times ; but by no endeavour could he induce the natives to hold any friendly communication with him. From the great variety of new plants there obtained Botany Bay derives its name. Before leaving, Cook performed the ceremony of hoisting the Union Jack and thus took formal possession for the British Crown.
Cook then sailed northward. He saw and named Port Jackson, but forbore to enter the finest natural harbour in Australia. Broken Bay and other inlets, and several headlands, were also seen and named, but the vessel did not come to an anchor till Moreton Bay was reached, although the wind prevented Cook from entering this harbour. He next landed at Bustard and Keppel Bays and the Bay of Inlets. After sailing 1,3 oom. in safety, the "Endeavour" one night suddenly ran into shallow water and struck heavily. Only with great difficulty and with the loss of guns and other heavy gear was she floated off next evening. The land was soon made near the mouth of a small stream, which Cook called, after his ship, the Endeavour river. A headland close by he named Cape Tribulation. The ship was steered into the river, and there careened and thor oughly repaired. Cook, having completed the survey of the east coast, to which he gave the name of New South Wales, sighted and named Cape York, the northernmost point of Australia, and took final possession of his discoveries northward from 38° S. to 1o° S. on a spot which he named Possession Island. Thence he returned to England by way of Torres Straits and the Indian Ocean.
Cook's second voyage, undertaken in 1772, with the "Resolution" and the "Adventure," is of less importance. The vessels became separated, and both at different times visited New Zealand. Cap tain Tobias Furneaux, in the "Adventure," also found his way to Storm Bay in Tasmania. In 1777, Cook, while on his way to search for a north-east passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, again reached the coast of Tasmania and of New Zealand.
Cook in 177o believed that Tasmania was an island, but on his last voyage he seems to have changed his mind, and, until 1798, when Bass, accompanied by Flinders, discovered the strait which bears his name, Tasmania was considered part of the mainland.
In Jan. 1788 a British colony was founded at Botany Bay, and Australian history began.
For twenty-five years the colonists were acquainted only with the country along the coast extending northwards about 70m. from Sydney and about a like distance to the south. This narrow strip, not more than 5om. wide at its broadest part, was shut in to the west by the Blue Mountain range.
The Blue Mountains attain a height of between 3,00o and 4,000 ft. only, but they are intersected with precipitous ravines, 1,5ooft. deep, which baffled every effort to reach the interior until, in 1813, Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth, after crossing the Nepean river at Emu Plains and ascending the Dividing Range, obtained a view of the grassy valley of the Fish river. A line of road was constructed across the mountains as far as the Macquarie river by the surveyor, Evans, and the town of Bathurst laid out. This marks the beginning of the occupation of the interior of the continent.
Some small expeditions were made from Bathurst, resulting in the discovery of the Lachlan, and in 1816 Lieutenant Oxley, R.N., accompanied by Evans and Allan Cunningham, the botanist, led an expedition to trace the course of the Lachlan in a westerly direction. The results were disappointing. In a circuitous journey of Boom. Oxley discovered that the Lachlan, east of 147° E., ended in swamps, and that, below Mt. Harris, the Macquarie did the same. He crossed the Arbuthnot Range and the Liverpool Plains; then, ascending the Peel and Cockburn rivers, at last reached the sea at Port Macquarie. Captain King in three voyages next explored the north-west coast, and Melville Island was settled for a short time. Then in 1823 Oxley reached Moreton Bay and Port Curtis (69om. north of Sydney) and found the river Bris bane. About the same time Hamilton Hume and Hovell set out from Lake George, crossed the Murrumbidgee, and, skirting the foothills of the Australian Alps, reached the river Hume. Cross ing the Murray at Albury, the explorers followed the western shore of Port Philip and reached the coast near the future site of Gee long. In 1827 and the two following years, Cunningham explored both sides of the Liverpool Range, some of his discoveries, includ ing Pandora's Pass and the Darling Downs, proving exceedingly valuable.
Desiring to trace the courses of the large rivers flowing west, Governor Sir Ralph Darling, in 1828, sent out an expedition under Captain Charles Sturt, who, turning westward from the Macquarie marshes, struck a large river, with many affluents, to which he gave the name of the Darling. The course of the Murrumbidgee, a deep and rapid river, was followed by the same explorer in 1831. He travelled on this occasion nearly 2,000m., and discovered that both the Murrumbidgee and the Darling finally joined another and larger river, the Murray. In 1833 Sir Thomas Mitchell, after es tablishing a depot at Fort Bourke, traced the Darling southwards for 3oom. and confirmed Sturt's report that it joined the Murray about 142° E. Meantime, Eyre explored the country north and west of Adelaide, travelling in 1840 all the way along the barren sea-coast of the Great Australian Bight, from Spencer Gulf to King George Sound. He also explored the interior north of the head of Spencer Gulf. Sturt, however, in 1845 made his way from the Darling northward to the very centre of the continent, reaching about S. lat. 24° 25'.
Other valuable achievements include Captain Banister's dis covery of the route from Swan river to King George Sound, and the journey of Robinson and G. H. Haydon in 1844, from Port Philip to Gipps' Land. In Western Australia the Arrowsmith, the Murchison, the Gascoyne, and the Ashburton rivers were ex plored, by Captain Grey, Roe, Governor Fitzgerald, R. Austin, and the brothers Gregory, whose discoveries have great impor tance from a geographical point of view.
Four other parties were sent out that year from different Aus tralian provinces. Three of respectively commanded by Walker, Landsborough and Norman, sailed to the north, the two last named landing on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, while Walker marched inland from Rockhampton. The fourth party, under J. McKinlay, from Adelaide, made for the Barcoo (Cooper's Creek) by way of Lake Torrens. Landsborough crossed the continent from north to south, between Feb. and June 1862; and McKinlay, from south to north, before the end of Aug. in that year. New South Wales and Queensland, east of the i4oth degree of longitude, were examined. The Barcoo, the Flinders, the Gil bert, the Gregory, and other rivers were also explored. These valuable discoveries were made in the attempt to relieve the lost explorers. The bodies of Burke and Wills were recovered and brought to Melbourne for a solemn public funeral.
Stuart, in 1862, made his third attempt to traverse the continent from Adelaide. He started in Jan. and on April 7 reached the point where he had turned back in 186r. He then pushed on, through a very thick forest, with scarcely any water, till he came to the streams which supply the Roper. Having crossed a table-land of sandstone which divides these streams from those running to the western shores of Arnheim Land, he passed in July down what is called the Adelaide river of north Australia, and came at length to the Indian Ocean. The electric telegraph connecting Australian cities with London follows the line thus explored.
A third part, at least, of the interior of the continent, from about to 134° E. long., an extent of half a million square miles, still remained unexplored. On April 21, 1873, William Christie Gosse, with men and horses provided by the South Australian Govern ment, started from the telegraph station 5om. south of Central Mount Stuart (S. lat. E. long. 134°) to strike into Western Australia. He passed the Reynolds range and Lake Amadeus, but was compelled to turn south, where he found well-watered grassy land, and having travelled above boom. to 26° 3 2' S. and 127° E., was forced to return. In the same year, Major Warburton, with thirty camels, provided by Mr. (afterwards Sir) T. Elder, of South Australia, left the telegraph line at Alice Springs (23° 40' S., 14' E.), and succeeded in mak ing his way to the De Grey river in Western Australia. Overland routes between all the widely separated Australian provinces had now been discovered. Hann, Warner, Tate and Taylor, in 1873, explored the country north of the Kirchner Range, Queens land. G. Elphinstone Dalrymple, with Hill and Johnstone, fin ished, in Dec. 1873, a coasting expedition in which they surveyed the inlets and navigable rivers of the Cape York Peninsula.
In July 1896, the Hon. David Carnegie equipped and led an expedition to find a stock route between Coolgardie and Kimber ley. In eight months he had travelled 5,000m. No practicable route for stock was discovered, and the desert showed few, if any, traces of gold, the search for which and for unoccupied pasturage quickly diminished the areas, nowhere extensive, of unexplored Australia.
The first British governors at Sydney, from 1788, were naval or military officers in command of the garrison, the convicts, and the few free settlers. In the twelve years' rule of General Macquarie, closing with 1821, the colony made a substantial advance. By means of bond labour, roads and bridges were constructed, and a route opened into the interior beyond the Blue Mountains. The population was 30,000, three-f ourths of them convicts. Captain John McArthur in 1803 had introduced the rearing of fine wool sheep, and the community profited greatly thereby. During the next ten years, 1821-31, the colony increased, and eventually, in the administration of Sir Richard Bourke (1831-37), obtained political representation by means of a legislative council.
Melbourne, which began with a few huts on the banks of the Yarra-Yarra in 1835, was in 184o a busy town of 6,000 inhabitants, the population of the whole district, with the towns of Geelong and Portland, reaching 12,85o. Its import trade amounted to f 204,000, and its exports to £138,000. At Melbourne there was a deputy governor, Mr. Latrobe, under Sir George Gipps at Sydney. Adelaide had its own governors, first Captain Hindmarsh, next Colonel Gawler, and then Captain George Grey. Western Austra lia progressed but slowly, with less than 4,00o inhabitants alto gether, under Governors Stirling and Hutt.
Taking the states as a whole, agrarian legislation has been the most important subject of parliamentary debate. Such legislation seeks to ensure permanent settlement on the land, to encourage tillage, or tillage joined to stock-rearing, and to discourage large estates devoted chiefly to grazing. The land question is a difficult one and the laws are continually being amended. Since 187o there have been five radical changes made in New South Wales. In Victoria the law has been altered five times, and in Queensland and South Australia seven times.
The first noticeable effect was a great scarcity of employment, since much capital was locked up in the banks that had failed. Wages and rents fell precipitately ; building almost ceased; credit was greatly restricted, and all speculative enterprise came to an end. The consuming power of the population was greatly dimin ished, and in 1894 imports decreased by four and three-quarter millions. But good came out of evil. Trade was put on a sound basis, and the abuses of the credit system were abolished. Above all, agriculture everywhere expanded, and the mining industry re vived. But for the low prices of staple products, the visible effects of the crisis would have passed away within a few years.
In 1902 occurred the great drought. The disaster was due, in part, to the improvidence of pastoralists, who had made no sort of provision for feeding stock in times of drought. But the lesson was learnt, and, as the year 1903 proved most bountiful, the effects of the disaster quickly passed away.
In the report of the committee appointed in 1852 to prepare a constitution for New South Wales, the following passage occurs: "One of the most prominent legislative measures required by the colony, and the colonies of the Australian group generally, is the establishment at once of a general assembly, to make laws in re lation to those intercolonial questions that have arisen or may hereafter arise among them. The questions which would claim the exercise of such a jurisdiction appear to be (I) intercolonial tariffs and the coasting trade; (2) railways, roads, canals, and other such works running through any two of the colonies; (3) beacons and lighthouses on the coast; (4) intercolonial gold regu lations; (5) postage between the said colonies; (6) a general court of appeal from the courts of such colonies; (7) a power to legislate on all other subjects which may be submitted to them by addresses from the legislative councils and assemblies of the colon ies, and to appropriate to any of the above-mentioned objects the necessary sums of money, to be raised by a percentage on the revenues of all the colonies interested." This wise recommenda tion received scant attention, and, though Federation at no time actually dropped out of sight, thirty-five years passed before any practical steps were taken towards its accomplishment. Meanwhile a sort of makeshift was devised : the imperial parliament permitted the formation of a Federal council, to which any colony that felt inclined could send delegates. Of the seven colonies New South Wales and New Zealand stood aloof. The council moreover was merely a deliberative body. It had no executive functions and possessed no control of funds or other means to give effect to its decisions. Little interest, therefore, was taken in its biennial meetings. In 1899, on the eve of Federation, the council sat for the last time. Major-General Edwards had, in 1889, reported on the defences of Australia. In view of this report, Sir Henry Parkes took such action as led to a conference in Melbourne of representa tives from each of the seven colonies. This conference adopted certain resolutions which affirmed the desirability of an early union, under the Crown, of the Australasian colonies, on principles just to all, and provided that steps should be taken for the appoint ment of delegates to a national Australasian convention. Accord ingly the various Australasian parliaments appointed delegates to attend a national convention which was held in Sydney on March 2, 1891. Sir Henry Parkes was elected president. He moved a series of resolutions embodying the principles necessary to estab lish, on an enduring foundation, the structure of a Federal Govern ment. These resolutions were slightly altered by the conference, and were adopted in the following form : 1. The powers and rights of existing colonies to remain intact, except as regards such powers as it may be necessary to hand over to the Federal Government.
2. No alteration to be made in states without the consent of the legislatures of such states, as well as of the Federal parliament.
3. Trade between the federated colonies to be absolutely free.
4. Power to impose customs and excise duties to be in the Federal Government and parliament.
5. Military and naval defence forces to be under one command.
6. The Federal Constitution to make provision to enable each state to make amendments in the constitution if necessary for the purposes of federation.
On March 31 Sir Samuel Griffith, chairman of the committee on constitutional machinery, brought up a draft Constitution Bill. This was carefully considered by the convention in com mittee of the whole and adopted on April 9. The convention then formally dissolved. The bill, however, fell absolutely dead, though desire for federation still survived, especially in Victoria.
In 1894 an unofficial convention was held at Corowa, at which the cause of federation was strenuously advocated, but it was not until 1895 that the movement obtained new life. Mr. (afterwards Sir) G. H. Reid of New South Wales convened a meeting of pre miers, in which all the colonies except New Zealand were repre sented, and it was agreed that each parliament should be asked to pass a bill enabling the people to choose ten representatives on a Federal convention ; this convention was to frame a Federal Con stitution which should be submitted to the people for approval by means of the referendum. During the year 1896 Enabling Acts were passed by the New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia, and delegates were elected by popular vote in all the colonies named except Western Australia, where the delegates were chosen by parliament. The convention met in Adelaide on March 22, 1897, and, after drafting a bill for the consideration of the various parliaments, adjourned till Sept. 2. The delegates reassembled in Sydney, and debated the bill in the light of suggestions made by the legislatures of the federating colonies. As it was announced that Queensland wished to join the proposed union, the convention again adjourned. The third ses sion was opened in Melbourne on Jan. 20, 1898, but Queensland was still unrepresented. The draft bill was finally adopted on March 16 and remitted to the various colonies for submission to the people.
The constitution was warmly received by Victoria, South Aus tralia and Tasmania, but in New South Wales great opposition was shown. The main points of objection were the financial pro visions, equal representation in the Senate, and the difficulty of amending the constitution in a conflict with the smaller states. The statutory number of votes necessary for the acceptance of the bill was 8o,000. The result of the referendum in New South Wales showed 71,595 votes in favour and 66,228 against, and the bill was accordingly lost. In Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia, on the other hand, it was accepted by triumphant majorities. Western Australia did not put it to the vote, as the Enabling Act of that colony only provided for joining a federation of which New South Wales should form a part. The general election in New South Wales, held six or seven weeks later, was fought on the Federal issue. The new parliament decided to send the premier, Mr. Reid, into conference, with a request that the other colonies should re consider those provisions which were most generally objected to in New South Wales. The other colonies readily agreed to this course of procedure. A premiers' conference, at which Queens land was for the first time represented, met in Melbourne at the end of Jan. 1849. Something was conceded to the claims of New South Wales, but the main principles of the bill remained intact. The bill, as amended, was triumphantly carried in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. New South Wales and Queensland carried it also, and the way was now clear for a decision on the part of Western Australia. The Enabling Bill passed through its various stages, and the question was then adopted by referendum.
The colonial draft bill was submitted to the imperial govern ment for legislation as an imperial act. Six delegates were sent to England to explain the measure. A bill was presented to the Brit ish parliament and speedily became law. Under this act, which was dated July 9, 1900, a proclamation was issued on Sept. 17 of the same year, declaring that, on and after Jan. 1, 1901, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queens land, Tasmania, and Western Australia should be united in a Fed eral commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia.
The constitution, parliament and laws of each state, subject to the Federal Constitution, retained their authority; state rights were carefully safeguarded, and an inter-state commission was given powers of adjudication and of administration of the laws relating to trade, transport, and other matters. Provision was made for alteration of the constitution of the Commonwealth, but no alteration could be effected unless the question had been di rectly submitted to, and the change accepted by, the electorate in the states. The seat of government was to be within New South Wales, not less than 1 oo m. distant from Sydney, and of an area not less than 1 oo sq. m. Until other provision was made, the gov ernor-general was to have a salary of f I o,000, paid by the Com monwealth. Respecting the salaries of the governors of states, the constitution made no provision.
Lord Hopetoun (afterwards Lord Linlithgow) was chosen gov ernor-general, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Edmund) Barton became prime minister. The first parliament under the constitution was elected on March 29 and 3o, 1901, and was opened by the Prince of Wales on May g following.
The administration of Papua, which had been for some time in the hands of the Queensland Government, was transferred in 1906 to the Commonwealth, and a lieutenant-governor, assisted by an executive and a legislative council, appointed. Under the Treaty of Versailles (1919), Australia accepted the Mandate over German New Guinea and the adjacent islands (see NEW GUINEA; MAN DATE) .
In Oct. 1908 the Yass-Canberra district, near the town of Yass, N.S.W., was at length selected by both Federal houses to contain the future Federal capital, Canberra (q.v.) . In 1913 the founda tion stone was laid; in 1923 the Parliament House was begun; and on May g, 1927 the Duke of York opened the first parliament which met in the capital.
The free immigrant and the time-expired convict (who both objected to the competition of the bond labourer) were the pioneers of the Australian Labour movement. After transporta tion ceased, Labour strove mainly to secure shorter hours. The principle of an eight-hour day was conceded in several trades, and from 1873 to 1889, in spite of a steady fall in the cost of living, wages remained as high as ever. Thus the Labour unions, though as yet without political influence, had proved themselves effective.
After 1884 Labour troubles became frequent, especially in the mines of New South Wales. Work had become difficult to obtain, and some industries had been carried on without any profit. A strike of Newcastle miners, having lasted twenty-nine weeks, came to an end in Jan. 189o. On Sept. 6 the silver mines closed down, and a week later 40,000 men came out. The Great Strike had begun. There were riotous scenes in Sydney and on the coal fields. Towards the end of Oct. 20,000 shearers were called out, and many other trades concerned with the handling and shipping of wool joined in the strike. But early in Nov. the employers gained a decisive victory. The result was the entry of Labour into politics.
The two features of the Labour Party in New South Wales are its detachment from other parties and the control of the caucus. The caucus, which is the natural corollary of this detachment, determines by majority the vote of the whole of the members of the party, independence of action being allowed on minor ques tions only. The party has refrained from formal alliance with the other great parties of the state. It supports the Government as the power alone capable of promoting legislation, but its support is given only so long as the measures of the Government are consist ent with the Labour policy. This position the Labour Party has been able to maintain with great success, owing to the circum stance that the other parties have been almost equally balanced.
All the other states followed New South Wales in forming a parliamentary Labour Party. It may be noted that South Australia, in addition to the pledge of solidarity, requires that candidates shall have worked for their living at manual labour; and this qualification of being an actual worker was strongly insisted upon at the formation of the party and strictly adhered to, although the temptation to break away from it and accept as candidates persons of superior education and position has been very great.
On the formation of the Commonwealth a Labour Party was established in the Federal houses. It comprised one-third of the representation in the House of Representatives, and a still larger proportion in the Senate. The party was, however, formed on a broader basis than the state parties; for the solidarity pledge extended only to votes upon which depended the fate of a govern ment. The conscription issue of 1916 broke up the Labour party. In 1927 it had not yet regained political power in the federal parlia ment, and had lost it in the states of South Australia and New South Wales.
Australian legislation in the closing years of the 19th century and the first decade of the loth bore the most evident traces of the Labour Party's influence. In all the colonies every branch of do mestic industry has been subjected to the control of specially con stituted tribunals, which were empowered among other important functions to fix the minimum rate of wages to be paid to all grades of workmen. (See also the articles ARBITRATION AND CONCILIA TION ; TRADES UNIONS.) Victoria.—Victoria, in 1873, was the first state to pass factory laws. In 1884 a royal commission, appointed two years earlier to inquire into the conditions of employment in the colony and into certain allegations of "sweating" that had then recently been made, reported that : "The most effective mode of bringing about industrial co-operation and mutual sympathy between employers and employed, and thus obviating labour conflicts in the future, is by the establishment of courts of conciliation in Victoria, whose procedure and awards shall have the sanction and authority of law." This report led to the passing of a number of acts which, proving ineffectual, were followed by the Factories and Shops Act of 1896, passed by the ministry of Mr. (afterwards Sir Alexander) Peacock. This measure, together with several subsequent amend ing acts, of which the most important became law in 1903, 1905, and 1907, forms a complete industrial code in which the principle of state regulation of wages is recognized and established. Its central enactment was to bring into existence (1) "Special Boards," consisting of an equal number of representatives of employers and workmen respectively in any trade, under the presidency of an independent chairman, and (2) a Court of Industrial Appeals. A special board may be formed at the request of any union of em ployers or workmen, or on the initiative of the Labour department. After hearing evidence, which may be given on oath, the special board issues a "determination," fixing the minimum rate of wages to be paid to various classes of workers of both sexes and different ages in the trade covered by the determination, including appren tices, and specifying the number of hours per week for which such wages are payable, with the rates for overtime when those hours are exceeded. The determination is then gazetted, and it becomes operative over a specified area, which varies in different cases, on a date fixed by the board. Either party, or the minister for Labour, may refer a determination to the court of industrial appeals, and, should a special board fail to make a determination, the court may itself be called upon to frame one. The general administration of the Factories and Shops Acts is vested in a chief inspector of factories, subject to the minister of Labour in matters of policy. Before the end of 1906 fifty-two separate trades in Victoria had obtained special boards, by whose determinations their operations were controlled.
But in July 1908 a Surplus Revenue Act was passed which was based on a different interpretation of the constitution. Under this act the appropriation of these surplus funds to certain trust pur poses in the Federal treasury is held to be equivalent to payment to the states. The money thus obtained was appropriated in part to naval defence and harbours, and in part to the provision of old age pensions under the Federal Old Age Pension Act of 1908. The act was strongly opposed by the Government of Queensland, and the question was raised whether it was based on a true interpreta tion of the constitution. The chief external interest, however, of the new financial policy of the Commonwealth lay in its relation towards the empire as a whole. At the Imperial Conference in London in 1907 Mr. Deakin, the Commonwealth premier, was the leading advocate of colonial preference with a view to imperial commercial union; and, though no reciprocal arrangement was favoured by the Liberal cabinet, who temporarily spoke for the United Kingdom, the colonial representatives were all agreed in urging such a policy, and found the Opposition (the Unionist Party) in England prepared to adopt it as part of Mr. Chamber lain's tariff reform movement. The Australian ministry therefore, in drawing up the new Federal tariff, gave a substantial preference to British imports, and thus showed their willingness to go farther. Indeed by the Tariff Act of 1921 this favourable treatment of the United Kingdom was considerably extended.
The second decade in the history of the Commonwealth was a period of national development. The rapidity of this development was due to the World War, but many signs in Australian political history of the period 1910-28 suggest that war merely hastened what peace would have attained in the end. The construction of the transcontinental railway, the creation of the Australian navy, and the provision of compulsory military training in time of peace, were all products of the years before the War.
The year fig I o saw the end of the third Deakin administration, and in February the House was dissolved. The elections which followed resulted in a substantial victory for the Labour Party under Mr. Fisher, who had previously been prime minister from Nov. 1908 to June 1909. He now returned to office with a working majority both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. In May 1911 he submitted to a referendum certain amendments of the Federal Constitution, without which the Government could not carry out its avowed programme. These amendments sought to give the Commonwealth Parliament fuller powers to deal with questions of trade and commerce, with labour problems and with monopolies; but the proposals were defeated by about 250,000 votes.
Nevertheless, Labour carried on for two more years, and actually brought into effect important schemes for national defence. The credit for the inception of these schemes was due to the Deakin administration, which in 1909 had not only brought in a Bill en forcing military training on the young men of the Commonwealth, the first instance of compulsory service in an English-speaking community, but also decided to give practical effect to the sweep ing recommendations of the Imperial Defence Committee. But Labour had offered no serious opposition to these measures, and when it succeeded to office it spared no effort in giving them the fullest possible effect. Among other legislation of this period was the grant of a "maternity bonus" of L5 on the birth of each child, and the transfer of the Northern Territory from South Australia to the Commonwealth. In 1926 the Federal Government offered to relieve Western Australia of the burden of the north-western part of her territory.
The election took place on Sept. 17. Again Mr. Fisher tri umphed, and he at once proved that Labour was no less ready and eager than its opponents to put every effort into the war. For more than a year Mr. Fisher remained at the head of affairs. Then, in Oct. 1915, he accepted the appointment of High Commissioner in London and was succeeded by the attorney-general, Mr. W. Mor ris Hughes.
For the next seven years the political history of the Common wealth was dominated by the personality of Mr. Hughes. His services to Australia and to the Empire may have been somewhat over-estimated when he was in power, but there is little doubt that, in the reaction that followed his fall, they came dangerously near to being forgotten altogether.
In 1916 he travelled to Great Britain, where he achieved re markable success by his hard-hitting speeches. But with his re turn to the Commonwealth there came an anticlimax. The tide of recruiting had begun to fall, the best of Australia's manhood had already left for the front, and the nation waited for Mr. Hughes to declare for the measures of conscription which he had advocated so wholeheartedly abroad. He hesitated, and finally decided to submit the question of conscription to a referendum. The refer endum was held and conscription was decisively rejected by the people.
The immediate result was the break-up of the Labour Party. A second referendum and a second defeat made it impossible for Mr. Hughes to remain leader of a party which had officially rejected the most vital clause of his policy, and in 1 o 17 he crossed the floor of the House and formed the Australian National War Govern ment. The new Ministry was recruited mainly from the ranks of the former opposition and included only three of the prime min ister's former colleagues. The Armistice came a year after the re shuffle and once again Mr. Hughes visited England. His vigorous assertion of Australian claims, both in London and at Versailles, re-established his popularity.
Australia made generous provision for ex-service men. Pensions payable for total disability ranged from £ 2 to .£3 a week, with extra provision for a wife and all children under 16 years of age. Ex soldiers and sailors were liberally helped to re-establish themselves in civil life, and the Commonwealth Government, co-operating with the state governments, provided farming lands, grants and loans for houses, working capital, etc. A scheme was also formed to provide education for war orphans and the children of incapaci tated ex-soldiers.
Post-War Problems.—Labour had been badly beaten at a "khaki" election in 191Q, and Mr. Hughes was branded as a traitor by his old associates. The Nationalists were divided, for the new "Country Party" was disposed to flirt with Labour. There were personal considerations as well, and although Mr. Hughes paid a successful visit to the Imperial Conference of 1921 his success was coldly received by his own countrymen.
The eighth parliament of the Commonwealth came to an end at the close of 1922. The elections, held in December, were marked by the most violent personal bitterness, and, although Labour again suffered defeat, it was evident that no alliance of Nationalists and the Country Party was possible under the leadership of Mr. Hughes. An acceptable successor was found in Mr. Stanley Mel bourne Bruce. His first task was to form a coalition with the strongly reinforced Country Party. Dr. Page, its leader, became Treasurer, and the administration was known as the Bruce-Page ministry. But Mr. Bruce was the real leader, and by the time he came to visit London for the Imperial Conference of 1923 his position was firmly established.
The chief business of the Conference was concerned with Im perial Preference. Mutual preference was agreed to between Great Britain and Australia. But the new Government of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald neither carried out these arrangements nor approved of a naval base at Singapore. Mr. Bruce replied by a new naval programme, a scheme to assist exporters, and a series of Bounty Bills to help the primary producer. A reciprocal trade treaty with Canada was also sanctioned.
A long series of shipping strikes culminated in the crisis of 1925. Shipping in Australian ports was held up and trade production seriously affected.
A general election was held in Nov. 1925, which resulted in the heavy defeat of the Labour Party in both Houses. Voting was compulsory under a penalty of f 2.
The year 1927 was disturbed by two strikes of unusual magni tude. The strike of the sugar-cane workers in Queensland spread to the railway unions, and threatened a serious constitutional crisis, which was, however, averted by the firmness of the Queens land premier, Mr. McCormack. The strike of the waterside workers, at the end of the year, was even more serious. A bill imposing penalties for unjustified strikes and lock-outs was in troduced in the Commonwealth Parliament.
In 1916 the Commonwealth Shipping Line had been floated by Mr. Hughes. Heavy reverses were experienced, and the Australian Government was compelled to advocate the disposal of the line. In Nov. 1927 Mr. Bruce defeated the Labour vote of censure on his policy, and on April 24, 1928, he announced the acceptance of the White Star Line's tender of .f 1,900,000. Mr. Bruce became prime minister in 1928, but was succeeded in 1929 by the Labour leader, Mr. J. H. Scullin. In January 1932 a government was formed by Mr. J. A. Lyons, leader of the United Australia Party. In August 1935, Sir Alexander Gore Arkwright Hore Ruthven succeeded Sir Isaac Isaacs as Governor General, and Australia, following Canada and South Africa decided to appoint a High Commissioner in London. In June 1935, a Joint Committee of Lords and Commons in London declined to entertain a petition from Western Australia dealing with the secession controversy. The British Committee held that such a petition should be pre sented by the Commonwealth as a whole.
Experience has demonstrated the marked rigidity of the Aus tralian Constitution. Between 1908 and 1925 only one amendment was carried in accordance with the procedure outlined in section 128. The situation foreseen by certain critics, in which proposed amendments would be carried by sweeping popular majorities, but lost to an opposition strong enough to control three small states, did not occur. The submission of proposed alterations to a referendum proved a sufficient barrier.
Proposed Amendments.—In simultaneously with the general election of April 13, electors were asked to decide on two constitutional amendments. By section Io5 of the constitution the power of the Commonwealth to take over the debts of the states was limited to debts already existing at the date of the Common wealth's establishment. By the amendment, state public debts incurred later could also be taken over. This amendment was ac cepted by a majority. The other proposal, although passed in Par liament, was rejected. It related to the allocation of the customs and excise revenue between the Commonwealth and the states. Under section 87, the Commonwealth's share was limited to one f ourth of its total. This arrangement was to continue for a period of ten years and thereafter until the Commonwealth Parliament otherwise provided. Parliament resolved, however, to diminish the proportion left to the states to an amount representing f 1.5.o. for each unit of population—and to do so, not by statute, a course which was open under section 87, but by constitutional amend ment, in order to give the states a somewhat more stable claim on the proportion left to them. At a slightly later date, an ordinary statute to the same effect was passed. The effect of this was greatly to enhance the financial importance of the Federal Govern ment, while the corresponding reduction of the states' share in customs and excise revenue, by approximately 50%, initiated a period of considerable stringency in their finances.
A further unsuccessful effort to amend the constitution was made in 1911. On April 26 of that year, a referendum was sub mitted to the people the object of which was to give to the Com monwealth parliament power to deal with the following matters : (a) Trade and commerce, without any limitations, instead of "trade and commerce with other countries, and among the states." (b) The control and regulation of corporations of all kinds, ex cept those formed not for the acquisition of gain. (Only "foreign corporations and trading and financial corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth" came under the jurisdiction of the Federal parliament.) (c) Labour and employment, including wages and conditions of labour and the settlement of industrial disputes generally, includ ing disputes in relation to employment on state railways. (Con ciliation and arbitration by the Commonwealth operate only in the case of any industrial dispute extending beyond the limits of any one state.) (d) Combinations and monopolies in relation to the production, manufacture, or supply of goods or services.
This proposal was rejected by a majority and also by a majority in every state except Western Australia. On the same occasion and as an outcome of the same legislation, it was proposed to insert in the constitution the following sub-section : "When each House of Parliament, in the same session, has by resolu tion declared that the industry or business of producing, manufactur ing, or supplying goods, or of supplying any specified services, is the subject of any monopoly, the Parliament shall have power to make laws for carrying on the industry or business by or under the control of the Commonwealth, and acquiring for that purpose on just terms any property used in connection with the industry or business." This proposal was also rejected by closely similar voting. In 1913 the same proposed alterations of the constitution, with certain minor changes, were again submitted in the form of six separate amendments. They were again rejected, although on this occasion a majority for them was obtained in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, while New South Wales, Victoria and Tas mania were hostile. In 1919 proposals were again submitted to a referendum for extending the legislative powers of the Common wealth relating to industrial disputes and the nationalization of monopolies. Both proposals were rejected. On this occasion South Australia was hostile, but Victoria gave a majority for the pro posals, as did Queensland and Western Australia. In 1926 Mr. Bruce's Government desired to give further powers to the Com monwealth in regard to (a) Industry and Commerce and (b) Essential Services. The proposals were submitted in a referendum on Sept. 4, and both were rejected by a majority.
When a similar question arose in Queensland over the position created by a statute (modelled upon the New South Wales statute) in which the operative words were equivalent, the Court changed its attitude and, on fuller consideration, came to the conclusion that in the interval preceding the actual transfer of stock, or meat, to the King, an intermediate type of property interest, not pre viously known to the law, had been created, and that it was within the province of the state Legislatures to create such new forms of property. Confronted later with the somewhat different problem presented by the action of the Queensland parliament in endeav ouring to make it unlawful for the trader to sell commodities within Queensland at anything above an officially proclaimed price, the Court held that so far as it sought to impose this prohibition upon traders of other states this act was invalid. (McArthur v. Queensland 28 C.L.R. 53o.) This decision also has affected the standing of the constituent states of the Commonwealth, by imposing a definite limitation upon their legislative powers. Whether the same limitation would apply to the legislation of the Commonwealth was, of course, not a matter to be decided. But the majority of the Court indicated clearly that they considered it would not. The net result of the judgment would thus appear to exclude a whole field of legis lation from the jurisdiction of the states and leave it, subject to any further decision of the High Court, to the Commonwealth.
In June 1927 a conference between the Federal prime minister and the State premiers established the principle of a Loan Coun cil under the Commonwealth to prevent unchecked and com petitive borrowing by State Governments, a measure described by Mr. Bruce as "the most important financial measure submitted to the Commonwealth parliament since the Commonwealth was constituted." Australia and the League of Nations.—From the inception of the League, Australia has sent delegations to the Assembly. In 1924 both parties in the Federal parliament were represented. Since 1922 a woman has always been sent as substitute delegate. Aus tralia has also taken part in every conference of the International Labour Office. League of Nations unions exist in all the six states, and useful propaganda work has been done. The public opinion thus created has been of service in the good administration of the Mandated Territories. A chair of anthropology founded at ney university should help to train suitable administrative officers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Physical Geography. T. G. Taylor, Geography of Bibliography.-Physical Geography. T. G. Taylor, Geography of Australia (1920) ; J. D. Rogers and R. N. Kershaw, Historical Geog raphy of the British Dominions, vol. 6, Australasia (2nd ed., 1925). Flora. Bentham and Mueller, Flora Australiensis (1873) ; A. J. Ewart and O. B. Davies, Flora of the Northern Territory (Melbourne, 1917) ; Ida Lee, Early Explorers in Australia, including the diary of Cunningham, the Botanist (1925).
Fauna. A. H. S. Lucas and W. H. D. Le Souef, Animals of Australia (Melbourne, 1909) ; G. M. Mathews, Birds of Australia (1910-27, bibl.) .
History. Oxford Survey of the British Empire, vol. 5, Australasia (1914) ; Ernest Scott, A Short History of Australia (Melbourne, 1916) ; A. W. Jose, History of Australasia (Sydney, 1921) ; G. A. Wood, The Discovery of Australia (1922) ; C. E. W. Bean, F. M. Cutlack, H. S. Gullett, etc., Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 (Sydney, 1923) ; Sir Charles P. Lucas, The Empire at War, vol. 3. (1925) ; S. H. Roberts, History of Australian Land Settlement, 1788 1920 (1925, bibl.) ; G. A. Wood, The Voyage of the "Endeavour" (Melbourne, 1926) .
Social and Labour. C. H. Northcott, Australian Social Develop ment (New York, 1918, bibl.) ; Sir T. A. Coghlan, Labour and Industry in Australia (1918) ; Viscount Bryce, Modern Democracies (1921) ; Meredith Atkinson (edit.) , Australia, Economic and Political Studies (19_21) ; H. Heaton, Modern Economic History with special reference to Australia (Adelaide, 1922) ; V. G. Childe, How Labour governs: a Study of Workers' Representation in Australia (1923) . Constitutional. John Quick and R. R. Garran, The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth (Sydney, 1901) ; Sir John Quick, The Leeislative Powers of the Commonwealth and the States of Australia (Sydney, 1919) ; W. Harrison Moore, The Con stitution of the Commonwealth of Australia (Melbourne, 1902) ; A. Berriedale Keith, Responsible Government in the Dominions: Imperial Unity and the Dominions (1916) ; H. Duncan Hall, The British Commonwealth of Nations (1920) ; A. Berriedale Keith, Dominion Home Rule in Practice (1921) ; A. D. Ellis, Australia and the League of Nations (Sydney, 1922) ; Commonwealth Law Reports. Statistics and General. T. A. Coghlan, A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia (Sydney, 1904) ; G. H. Knibbs, Local Government in Australia (Melbourne, 1919) ; A. W. Jose (edit.), The Illustrated Australian Encyclopaedia (Sydney, 1925-26) ; Australian Commonwealth Year Books (Melbourne, 5908-27, bibl.) ; Institute of Pacific Relations (Various Publications, Honolulu, Hawaii) . See also special articles on the different States.
(Use has been made of the articles published in the 11th and 13th editions of THE ENCYCLOPSEDIA BRITANNICA.) (H. D. N.) The development of a self-reliant national spirit in Australia can be traced directly to the withdrawal of British troops in 1870 which caused Australians to face the question of defence without immediate help from elsewhere. The despatch from Sydney of a contingent of New South Wales troops amidst scenes of great en thusiasm to fight in the Sudan in 1885 marked a further step towards co-operation with Great Britain in emergencies. The occasion was marked by a prophetic speech by the prime minister (W. B. Dailey) "All statesmen who contemplate disturbing the world's peace will from this time not limit their calculations as far as England is concerned to her ironclads and to her armies. They will consider the rapidly increasing millions of colonial sub jects." Further demonstrations, from all the six Australian col onies, occurred in Jan. 1895, and all sent contingents to the Boer War of 1899-1902, at which period we can date the birth of the Australian nation. In March the newly-formed Australian Federal Government took charge of defence questions and of the existing defence forces. These included :—from New South Wales, Victoria, 6,335; Queensland, 4,028; South Australia, 2,932; West Australia, 2,096; Tasmania, 2,024; making a total of 26,753, excluding cadets, reserves, rifle clubs, etc. Universal service in time of war, for all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 6o years, was introduced in 1903-04; universal military training, made law for the first time in modern days for any community, was in force in 191i. The necessary legislation had been passed in 1909 on the advice of Lord Kitch ener. 412,953 Australians joined the military forces in the World War of 1914-18, and 331,781 of them served outside their own country, suffering 214,63o casualties including 56,132 deaths, and establishing for all time the fame of Australians as hard and skilled fighters. The year 1921 saw another administrative advance, the establishment of a divisional organization, wherein the traditions and the laurels earned in Gallipoli, in Palestine and in France and Flanders can be maintained in perpetuity. Such has been the history of military developments in Australia since 1864, when other European nations began to acquire territory in Australasian waters, to the present day.
A Military Board which is modelled on the Army Council in Great Britain, administers the Australian military forces. The minister of defence presides. There is also a Council of De fence, a section of the Imperial General Staff, and boards for dealing with radio-telegraphy, with railways in war and with muni tions supply. The war railway council has taken steps to establish a uniform railway gauge. The six states constitute military districts (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Aus tralia, Western Australia and Tasmania). The military formations are distributed on a territorial basis, according to male population, each area providing a battalion of infantry and other troops in pro portion. There are 62 such areas.
The only permanent fortifications in Australia are those defend ing certain harbours and anchorages considered to be of strategic value to the Australian and British navies.
In 1914, on the outbreak of war, the Australian fleet, to which two submarines had been added was first employed in the capture of the German Pacific Colonies, and afterwards, under the direc tion of the Admiralty, served in all parts of the world, its most notable achievement being the sinking of the "Emden" by H.M.A.S. "Sydney" in Nov. 1914. After the armistice all warship building was suspended and the personnel was reduced, by 25 per cent, to 3,50o. As a result of the Washington Treaty the battle cruiser "Australia" was disposed of by sinking her and the num ber of ships in commission were reduced from 25 to 13. In 1925 the Commonwealth Government decided to bring their fleet up to date by building two io,000 ton cruisers ("Australia" and "Canberra"), two submarines and a seaplane carrier. These ships, completed in 1928, brought the strength of the Royal Australian Navy to 6 cruisers (2 modern) 12 destroyers (6 modern) a sea plane carrier, 3 submarines and 4 sloops. The chief naval base is at Sydney and at the Officers Training College at Jervis Bay and the Training Schools at Geelong the training is similar to that in the establishments in Great. Britain. Australian Naval ex penditure from 1922-28 averaged approximately £2,500,000.
An island with a long coast-line and hence a potentially well developed coastal and maritime life, Australia is yet a continent with continental interests. The most influential characteristic of its surface is perhaps its flatness. Owing largely to this, minerals (including coal), sub-surface waters and easily-worked soils are widely available, while movement and transport—except where coastal highlands create obstacles—are facilitated. On the other hand surface-drainage and waterpower possibilities are not bene fited, though the juxtaposition of lowlands and steep-rising, valley seamed highlands favours irrigation works and also gives in places a welcome change of climate and scenery within a small space.
Climate is a strong determinant as regards settlement : in climatic conditions some of Australia's major problems are rooted. Here size implies variety : Australia has climates ranging from sub-equatorial to cool temperate. Flatness, or low relief, here works mostly adversely. Australia—unlike, e.g., Africa—has com paratively little lofty land in the tropics where it might mitigate temperatures. Instead, the most mountainous parts are in temper ate latitudes occupying space which would be more valuable were it low. The rims of the continent, again, catch much of the rain, especially on the east, and though there is strictly no "dead heart," the areas of maximum vitality are broadly peripheral. So far as heat alone is concerned, few parts of Australia seem unsuited for "whites," especially as "tropical" diseases are few. The dry heat of most of the continent, including the inner north, is not un healthy, provided hygienic modes of living are observed. The hot, damp, coastal lowlands, on the other hand, present a different problem. Much of the richer (alluvial) soil of the north is thus situated and often, in addition, liable to floods.
Apart from questions of health, humidity broadly speaking de termines economic productivity, mining excepted. The vegeta tion belts or areas (v. supra) serve as rough indices. They show a general progression from more intensive agricultural, forestry and industrial possibilities in the coastal parts to more extensive and mainly pastoral possibilities inland, the process of closer settlement having, in historical fact, grad ually pushed the large holdings in many parts backwards into the interior. Over very large areas, and in a degree not paralleled in a country like England, an assured water-supply is the essential prerequisite of settlement and of economic stability. Useful soils in great variety abound but, while those situated in humid areas are, or were originally, mostly tree-clad, those having a lighter cover are in drier parts. Thus, where the change of en vironment for British peoples is least, the initial effort of settle ment is often greatest : conversely, where little labour (in clear ing) is required, the necessity for adaptation and for learning new methods (e.g., dry farming) is greatest. Pests, animal and vegetable, are further to be reckoned with, and variability of climate, particularly of rainfall, introduces uncertainty. Produc tion statistics in Australia, partly for this reason, often show con siderable variations and are best considered over periods of years. In many respects, therefore, Australian conditions demand close and even rigid adaptation and in turn they stamp upon those who learn to conform a certain regional individuality.
Compared with, say, the North American continent Australia bulks small in terms of absolute economic values. Measured by the physical scale and difficulty of its problems, by the small number of people and the relatively short time they have been engaged, the economic development and national productivity are impressive. Partly, no doubt, this is due to relative lateness of growth whereby the purely pioneering stage has been curtailed and the weapons and technique of r 9th century civilization were available. But largely also the new and vitalizing environment, the challenge of great tasks and greater rewards, have liberated energy and widened the scope of its application, so that Australia, continentally and in its own individual way, reflects and epitomizes the processes and impulses which created, and which sustain, the British empire. The second major stage of Australian develop ment is now closing or closed. The new era, born partly in the experiences of war and inspired more or less consciously by ex ternal examples and ideals (e.g., of the United States), is marked by the large-scale application of science to the solution of national problems, whereby a people, vigorous and intelligent, is organiz ing its next great advance and is seeking, with virtual certainty of success, to enlarge, intensify and strengthen its hold over a somewhat baffling physical environment.
In the New South Wales basin the coal-bearing strata occupy an area of c. 15,00o sq.m. and extend some 16om. along the coast on either side of Sydney and about Isom. inland from it. They form a saucer-like body the productive rim of which outcrops towards the north, south and south-west. The four chief fields are situ ated on these outcrops, viz., the Maitland-Cessnock area, the most important and that which produces the best coal in Australia (steam, gas, household) ; the Newcastle field, leading for half a century but now largely worked out ; Illawarra (Southern) field, around Bulli, on the coast (steam and coking coal) ; Lithgow (Western) field, 95m. from Sydney (steam coal). The production from these fields in 1924 was I1,600,000 tons (f9,589,o00), the maximum recorded, and the proved reserves of readily available coal are 19,00o million tons, or, deducting probable work ing loss, 12,00o million tons. A field of sub-bituminous coal was discovered in the Riverina (Coorabin, north-west of Albury) in 1915, the position of which may lend it importance. Queensland possesses fields scattered along its east (highland) margin from the extreme north to the extreme south and containing coal, ranging from anthracitic to bituminous, to an estimated amount of some 2,000 million tons, of which c. 410 million are "actual" reserves. The softer coals—notably the Ipswich and Darling Downs (Tri as-Jurassic) and the Burrum (Maryborough) Cretaceous coals— have been chiefly worked hitherto (e.g., for use on railways and in Brisbane). But the harder Permo-Carboniferous types, e.g., Daw son river (Baralaba) and Blair Athol (Clermont) seams, the latter containing some 258,000,000 tons, are being increasingly worked. The output, which is steadily rising, is about 1,200,000 tons (c. f I , I oo,000) .
Victoria has coal (Jurassic) of fair quality in the South Gipps land (Wonthaggi) field which produced (1926-27) c. 600,000 tons, with reserves of 15,750,00o tons. But her chief asset is the enor mous deposit—Morwell, 78oft., the thickest known—of brown coal containing (1925) some i 1,000 million tons extractable reserves. The Morwell deposits are now being worked by open cut to supply Melbourne and district with light, power and fuel (briquettes).
Western Australia has scattered deposits of various geological ages, those of the Irwin river and Collie being Permo-Carbonifer ous. Only the latter field is worked. It has reserves of c. 3,500 mil lion tons and produces some 430,000 tons per annum (f39o,000) consumed in the State. Tasmania has coals of varying ages and qualities (135,000,00o tons extractable reserves) mined chiefly in the north-east. South Australia has fair-sized deposits of lignite (e.g., Leigh Creek) but they are not worked and she is dependent upon imported coal.
The total amount of coal mined in Australia had risen in 1924 to c. 13,750,000 tons valued at f H,600,000 (1926 value, f 11,850, coo). Of the total annual production some 800,000 tons (exclusive of bunker coal) was (1925-26) exported abroad, chiefly to New Zealand but also to the United Kingdom, the Philippines and other south-west Pacific destinations. Bunker coal amounted to another oo,000 tons. The remainder is consumed in Australia, but New South Wales, which supplies c. of the bunkering coal and practically all the exports abroad, also ships c. 3,000,000 tons per annum to other Australian ports, chiefly in Victoria and South Australia. Over 87% of all this trade is done by Newcastle. Recently, however, from causes similar to those affecting the industry in the British Isles, the foreign export trade has declined almost to the vanishing point; the bunkering trade (owing to increasing use of oil) has much diminished, and the Newcastle coal-mining areas are suffering severe depression. The growth of iron and steel industries is leading to the increasing production of metallurgical coke (1925, 610,000 tons valued at £940,000 in New South. Wales; some 5,000 tons in Queensland). Coke derived from gas-distillation is additional to this, and some further 54,00o tons were imported in 1925-26 from the United Kingdom, mainly by South Australia.
Deposits of oil-shale exist in New South Wales (c. 40,000,000 tons) and Tasmania (40,000,000 tons proved, and very large addi tional reserves), but methods of working these profitably have yet to be evolved and the output has so far been small.
Forestry.—Forestry as understood in the modern scientific sense is young in Australia, the establishment at Canberra (1927) by the Commonwealth Government of a national School of For estry marking an important stage in development. Out of the total vegetated area—i.e., very nearly the whole—of the continent, only some 24, 50o,000ac. (38,300 sq.m.) are forest proper (i.e., 1.29%; cf. British Isles, 3.9o%; New Zealand, 17.3o% ; United States of America, 24.35%), and of this only about 11,800,000 ac. have so far been definitely reserved for cultivation. More over, the claims of land settlement were until recently in the ascendant, and these forests occupy mainly highland ridges, valley flanks, and generally inaccessible positions, at least in the eastern States. In addition they have been cut over by the saw-miller and swept by fires, losses from the latter cause being considerable and recurrent, especially in Victoria and New South Wales. Over large areas "ring-barking" to encourage the growth of grass, mining, and the cutting of fire-wood have bared the country-side of timber. Except in the cities, wood—some 12-13 cu.ft. per Caput annually —still forms the common fuel. Moreover, 50-6o% of all the tim ber felled for saw-milling has hitherto been wasted. Thus in New South Wales (1927), out of 4,Ioo,000ac. of hardwoods in the re served forest area, only 90o,000ac. carried first-quality timber trees, much was low-grade, and large areas of good and accessible timber-forest had passed into private ownership. Australian forests range from the tropical rain type (7oin.-14oin. average annual rainfall) in the north-east through sub-tropical to the temperate rain type (rainfall 3oin. and upwards) in the south-east and south west of the continent and in Tasmania. Indigenous softwoods oc cur in Queensland and northern New South Wales (hoop, bunya, Queensland Kauri and other pines, besides non-coniferous soft woods), and in Tasmania (huon, celery-top, King William pines) particularly in the south and west. The reserves of these were never large ; both coniferous and broad-leaved types (e.g., red cedar) include valuable cabinet woods and they have been much exploited. Australia consequently suffers from a dearth of soft woods. She imports some 43% of her timber requirements : in 1925-26 timber products (including pulp-wood) were imported to the value of f5,556,000 and of this some £5,000,000 were for soft woods, chiefly from the United States of America, Scandinavia, New Zealand and Canada. Something is being done to remedy this by the cultivation of imported species, notably of the Monterey pine (Pinus insignis) (v. inf.). Australian forests are composed predominantly of hardwoods, mainly eucalypts (e.g., in New South Wales [1927] out of a total reserved area of 5,314,000ac., 4,10o,000ac. were hardwood, 75o,000ac. were "cypress," and 450, 000ac. miscellaneous "brush" including hoop pine). Hence some of the characteristic features and problems of Australian forestry.
The relatively large supplies, rapidity of growth, strength, dura bility, resistancy to insect attacks, and variety of these timbers constitute them a valuable asset for numerous constructional pur poses, and thus in fact they have been, somewhat unsparingly, used in Australia itself. Western Australian jarrah and karri have a wider reputation and logs are exported, chiefly to South Africa, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, to the value of L1,300,000 annually.
Of rising importance is the pulp and paper-making industry. Recent investigations have shown not only that excellent brown wrapping paper can be made commercially from the Finns insig nis, which is being increasingly planted (1924-25, c. 33,000ac. chiefly in southern South Australia, and in New South Wales and Victoria), but also that eucalypt hardwoods, of which abundant supplies exist, can yield both newsprint pulp and cellulose (cf. artificial silk) of high grade at £2-43 per ton below normal costs. By these means it is hoped before long to make Australia inde pendent of imported pulpwood. The newsprint manufacturing industry now established on the Huon river (Tasmania), where water-power is available, aims at using the large supplies of Tas manian eucalypt hardwoods and beech (Fagus Cunninghami) and gives much promise. Eucalypts, certain varieties in particular, yield valuable gums and oils. Eucalyptus oil has long been dis tilled and, in addition to the large quantities used in ore-concen trating (flotation process) some L70,000 worth is exported annu ally, chiefly from Victoria to Great Britain.
Beyond the forests proper, Australian vegetation includes the black wattle and other trees notably in Western Australia, and mangrove thickets in the tropical north, which are rich in tanning materials. The wattle supplies are greatly depleted and Australia has to import tanning materials to the value of c. £1oo,000 per annum, including wattle bark from Natal derived from trees origi nally introduced from Australia. As a result of recent investiga tions it is hoped before long to rectify this situation. A minor product is sandalwood, exported chiefly from Western Australia to China (1925-26, £252,000).
There remains the more general function of trees and forests in regulating run-off, checking erosion, dispensing shade to sheep and cattle, and fixing moving sands. In all these respects, though useful beginnings have been made and regulating legislation exists (e.g., bush-fire prevention, etc.), very much remains to be done through the medium of scientific forestry. The total annual forest production of Australia is valued at some L11,000,000, but a good deal of the forest wealth represents a wasting capital asset and will remain so until the present forestry efforts reach fruition.
Fisheries.—The fishing industry in Australia has received per haps less development than it deserves. Inland waters, partly for purposes of private sport, have been systematically stocked and fished. Sea fishery, though it has been continuous and, in certain areas, systematic, has not been comprehensively dealt with. The deep-sea fishing grounds of Australia are undoubtedly rich : two chief grounds are known off the south-east coast, one (c. 200 sq.m.) lying south-east from Sydney Heads, the other (c. 300 sq.m.) north-east from Cape Howe. Here in 30-75 fathoms, over a floor open but with rocky patches, excellent results have been obtained first by (New South Wales) Government, and later by private, trawling enterprise. There are probably equally good grounds south of Victoria (Bass strait, etc.) and in the Great Aus tralian bight, and the shallow seas to the north of the continent may also prove productive. Catches from the two first mentioned have mostly been sold in the Sydney, Melbourne and South Queensland markets. Distinct from these is the off-shore and in shore fishing—in estuaries, bays, etc.—especially along the north coasts of New South Wales and in Victoria (Port Phillip). Here, too, oyster breeding has attained to some dimensions. Fish is obtainable in most of the coastal parts and Murray cod is also familiar in the south-east. But the supply has been irregular, mar keting is not well organized, and the per Caput consumption is rather low (c. 131b. per annum; cf. Great Britain, c. 421b). In 1925 the total New South Wales supplies, including shell-fish, were valued at about £58o,000, those of Victoria at c. £590,000. At various parts along the north and north-west coast from Cape York to Shark's Bay, and particularly along the Great Barrier Reef, are grounds where pearl oysters, beche-de-mer (trepang), turtle, etc., are obtained.
Fleets comprising some 400 boats (Queensland, c. i 5o; Western Australia, c. 250) and carrying c. 3,00o men, owned and managed by Australians but equipped with Asiatic divers, obtain pearl-shell and, as a by-product, pearls, trepang, etc., to the value of some per annum and pearl, turtle and trochus shell form the most valuable export of Australia's fisheries. The pearl-oysters live at depths of 4-20 fathoms, but are mainly collected at 7-8 fathoms. In the west, Broome is the chief centre; on the east, Thursday Island in Torres Straits. The total value of fishing prod ucts is given as £1,820,000 (1925-26), but the imports—chiefly tinned fish, e.g., salmon from the United States of America, Can ada, etc.—were valued, 1925-26, at c. L1,550,000; 1927-28, C. L2,000,000, so that the recent indication that the industry is about to be systematically developed by the Commonwealth is welcome.
Pastoralism is one of the oldest, historically most interesting, and economically most important industries in Australia. Some 56% of the area of the Commonwealth is probably, mining value apart, available for pastoral pursuits only, while, with an annual production valued at c. million (1925-26: £113.3 million) the industry produces some 28% of the national wealth and ranks second only to manufacturing (29%). (If dairying and its allied industries are included the relative figures are £140 million-39% of total production.) The broader "world" significance of the industry is even more marked: the average annual exports years 1916-17-1925-26) are c. £62 million-5i% of total export values, or dairying etc. included: £70.5 million-58%. Pastoral exports are thus easily the most valuable, agricultural exports coming second. In this result physical, and particularly climatic, conditions play a large part. The climate of Australia is on the whole favourable to stock. At the same time regional and local climatic differences give rise to differentiations, e.g., as between the cattle (meat), sheep and dairying industries (and cf. differentiation in breeds of sheep). Aridity sets severe limits; some 20% (c. 600,000 sq.m.) of the total area has at present little value, even as pastoral land, and in another 20% the conditions have proved more or less precarious. Droughts are an undoubted disadvantage; they recur irregularly, but on an average perhaps once in every 4 or 5 years. In one year ) one station on the Darling is said to have lost 90,000 out of 276,00o sheep. In the two years' drought which prevailed in Queensland (1926-28), 8 to 50 million sheep and 2 million cattle were lost—(total loss some £15-16 million). At the same time they are seldom universal; they interdict growth and enforce rest, and are followed by vigor ous recuperative periods. They exercise a severely selective effect on vegetation and thus restrict the natural fodder to certain types. Economically they are perhaps no worse than the grasshoppers and locust visitations of Uruguay and the Argentine and perhaps less handicapping than the annual snows of Canada. Artesian and sub-artesian waters have increased and stabilized the carrying capacity over wide areas, while, as Government wells along the great overland stock-routes, they constitute essential links in lines of movement. Droughts are also being fought by conserva tion of water and of fodder (hay and ensilage), by improvement of transport, removal of stock to unaffected areas, and by avoid ing overstocking in periods of plenty. Australia is well endowed with natural fodders many of which are highly nutritious and also either drought-resisting or capable of rapid growth upon the advent of rains. The value of Australian salt-bush as a dry area fodder has led to its cultivation in e.g., the Union of South Africa. On the other hand native noxious plants (poison plants; burrs, etc.), though not very plentiful, exist and their numbers have been greatly augmented by imported varieties. More important, per haps, is the selective action of the climate (v. sup.). Thus cer tain Australian fodders may be deficient in essential constituents (e.g., phosphorus). Moreover the tendency of stock is to denude, to "eat out" the best fodder-plants, to spread pests, puddle clayey soils (cattle in particular), break up light ones, upset drainage, start erosion, and generally to disarrange the natural balance and impoverish feeding grounds. Droughts and rabbits aid these processes. Moreover "artificial" fodders have not been used to the same extent as, for instance, in the United States or New Zealand. The use of these, however, is increasing and, in general, more at tention is being paid to the conservation and improvement of pastures. Careful breeding is needed to maintain the standard of Australian flocks and herds. Here, also, regional differentiation comes into play and breeding stock from Tasmania, etc., will be imported to New South Wales or Queensland. The pastoral in dustry in Australia has many scourges (blow-fly [sheep] ; tick [cattle] ; pleuro-pneumonia, etc.). Dingoes still cause immense aggregate loss in the "back-blocks" and beyond : the loss in Queensland alone is estimated at some £i00,000 per annum. They breed in the cattle country, where they are more or less ignored, and invade the sheep areas and even the outlying farm lands. They have even made certain areas impossible for sheep and have led to cattle being substituted for these. Though difficult to master they are perhaps slowly yielding to the advance of settlement. Not so the rabbit. Spreading like a flood over vast areas of coun try, rabbits eat up the pasture, ring-bark trees; devour seedlings, intensify the effects of drought and reduce the stock-carrying capacity of the Commonwealth by perhaps one-fifth. Vast sums have been spent in fencing, trapping, poisoning, etc. The cam paign of extermination has so far been either half-hearted—in 1925-26 exports of frozen rabbits and hares and their skins were valued at £3.27 million—or lacking in large-scale organization, and the rabbit remains a disastrous and expensive pest.
The general flatness of Australia greatly favours the pastoral industry. While in a sense size is essential to the industry, it also often implies great distances and involves special problems of movement and transportation. Drovers in the north charge for droving cattle per hundred miles. Where coastal highlands inter pose steep gradients, the cattle industry is at a disadvantage as compared with the Argentine or New Zealand where a flatter terrain, a denser railway net, or shorter distances are present singly or in combination. The distance of Australia from its present chief markets in northwest Europe also entails special problems for the meat export trade, as well as for the dairying in dustry. Pastoralism in Australia is steadily following the general lines of evolution of this industry. On the one hand are the enormous pastoral holdings, millions of acres, unfenced save for the "home" paddocks, provided with natural water only and natural pasture; carrying flocks and herds numbering some hun dreds of thousands but having a low average density both of animal and human population (e.g., 4-5 head cattle, 25–too sheep per square mile; on the northern cattle runs, one white man, assisted perhaps by aboriginal stock hands, per 500 square miles). Droughts are severely felt; distances to market are often great; much risk and speculation is entailed but occasional rich fortunes are made. At the other end—(omitting dairying) is stock-raising as an element in mixed farming. Here sheep—not cattle as yet to any extent—form an integral part of the rotation system. Indi vidual holdings and flocks are small but the aggregate number of head that can be carried is great. Somewhere between these ex tremes lies the bulk of Australian pastoralism to-day. But size is relative and distinctions must be drawn. Cattle require more food and room than sheep (v. inf.). Much depends on the class of country, and also on position in relation to markets. Thus in North Queensland 20-35,000 acres of land are considered neces sary, but nearer markets io,000 acres suffice. But broadly speak ing the tendency is to restrict areas, and to this end legislation in the various States has steadily tended. Along with this goes the effort to intensify methods and stabilize production and re turns. Fencing, water and fodder conservation, pasture improve ment, scientific breeding and management, disease and pest elimination or control, improved transport, handling and market ing are all making gradual headway. Physical, economic and also some political difficulties remain, but the industry is steadily emerging from the old "gambling stage" (especially since the advent of cold storage), and gives promise.
Sheep, cattle and horses are the pillars of Australian pastoral wealth. Horse-breeding is associated to a considerable extent with the other branches of the pastoral industry and also with agriculture. Australian conditions suit horses, and by careful breeding fine types have been evolved suitable to varying localities and needs. Notable is the endurance of Australian horses under hot and dry conditions, as was proved in Egypt and Palestine in the World War and by their export to India for army remounts. This export, however, has largely declined. (Australian horses total c. 21 million of which Queensland and New South Wales possess c. 28% each, Victoria 20.5%, South Australia io%.) Sheep.—Sheep constitute by far the most important single element in the pastoral industry. Progress has continued in spite of fluctuations due usually to droughts. In 1928, at the close of severe drought, sheep totalled just over ioo million (Max. 1891: 106.4 million) and the annual export of sheep products has averaged (5 years ending 1925-26) £63 million (cf. total exports of pastoral industry over same period averaged £70.4 million). Australia moreover produces about a fourth of the world's wool and annually exports wool valued at £50-6o million (i.e., c. 8o% of export values of the whole pastoral industry and [value] of Australia's total exports). The chief sheep areas are disposed in a belt some 30o miles broad which runs from about central Queensland roughly parallel with the east and south coasts, but well inland, until it meets the coast in the south-west of Vic toria. Other areas lie east and north of the South Australian "gulf" region, in Eyre's peninsula and in a belt extending from above Albany to Pilbara and into the Kimberleys in Western Australia. From the coastal regions sheep are largely excluded by humidity which induces footrot and other ailments, but also by agriculture and dairying. Sheep are increasingly kept in the drier farming areas where they afford a valuable safety element. Sheep in their turn tend to displace cattle. Thus the sheep belt, while it largely interpenetrates the wheat belt, is markedly anti thetical to the cattle areas. On the whole sheep seem to do best where the average temperatures are about 65-75° and where the average annual rainfall is 20-35 in. ; in such parts the average densities amount to 100-200 head per square mile. As a result New South Wales has always been the leading producer and owns about half of all the sheep in the Commonwealth (4o-5o million head: Queensland 18-20 million—c. 2o%; Victoria 11-13 million —c. 14%). In Western Australia the industry is expanding. Most important also is the differentiation and specialization within the industry. On the economic side the issue is between meat and wool, broadly between the merino (fine wool and carcase—c. 46 lb.) and cross-bred. Coarse wool and carcase—c. 6o lb.). Thus cross-bred wool in 1912 formed 18.6%; in 1919-20 c. 34%; in 1925-26, c. 18% of wool marketed, the remainder being merino. But since the demand for fine wools persists and Australia is specially suited for growing these, there is a steady tendency to maintain their production; merinos to-day (1928) form 82% of Australian flocks and their supremacy is not likely to be affected. At the same time the cross-bred, with its all-round re turns (wool, mutton, fat, lambs) fits better into the farming regime. The farming areas also have a damper climate which crossbreds can better stand. Merinos do better in large flocks on the open plains with natural pastures. Australians eat 6o lb. of mutton and lamb per caput per annum ; the home market is therefore considerable—of 10-14 million head slaughtered an nually (410-450 million lb.) c. 85% is consumed locally. Hence the attempt to stabilize the "dual-purpose" animal; the evolution of a special type, the Corriedale; and the effort to secure in crossbreds maximum bulk combined with the finest possible quality wool. Australian wools are as a whole unrivalled, and have occasionally fetched remarkable prices. The average weight of fleece has been raised to c. 8 lb. (prize fleeces: 3o-40 lb.) and, with the advent of the shearing machine, shearing and its at tendant processes have reached a high degree of technical effi ciency. Shearing, owing to the size of Australia and the range of the climate, goes on virtually the whole year. The sheep are sheared. dipped, branded; the wool is baled, loaded on wagons or, in the far interior, on camels, and transported often many hundreds of miles. Motor transport, however, is becoming increasingly common. Practically the whole of the Australian clip is now sold in Australia, the markets—which are held in all the capitals and in some other towns as well (e.g., Albury; Geelong)— being visited by buyers from the great wool-consuming countries. Of the total clip only some 5-7% (1925-26: some 45 million lb. out of 850-90o million lb.) is retained for home consumption (v. inf.). The remainder, in recent times almost entirely in the "greasy" (unscoured) state, is exported to the United Kingdom (43%) and other continental countries (41%), and to the United States and Japan (15% ). Of the total wool imports of the United Kingdom Australian wool forms 31% in quantity and 36% in value. Compared with this export trade other branches of the in dustry (e.g., frozen lamb and mutton trade; trade in skins, etc.), seem insignificant. More important is the home woollen manufac turing industry which has grown considerably, especially since the World War. The 45 million lb. of wool (v. sup.) supplies (1926) 5o and tweed mills, situated mainly in the capitals and larger towns (besides minor hosiery, etc., mills) which have a total annual output valued at f 5.76 million.
Agriculture.—Agriculture has advanced to the third place amongst the major Australian industries (L85-90 million—c. 2o% of total annual production of all industries), in spite of fluctuations of seasons. Teaching and research and Government agricultural departments have done much to solve local problems. The physical problems are those of adaptation to climate and soil; nearly 8o% of the cultivated area is now regularly manured, largely by superphosphate manufactured in Australia from rock imported largely from Nauru and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. (Fertilizer imports : c. Li million of which 8o%—rock phosphate, milled in some zoo factories.) Light soils, so wide-spread in Australia, are successfully worked by use of fertilizers, "dry" and mixed farming methods, etc. Mixed farming, fodder cultiva tion and conservation (ensilage, etc.) are also extending as a provision against droughts and will gradually introduce greater stability, and irrigation agriculture is being studied. Grading, transport and marketing are being improved, and co-operative methods are gaining ground (cf. wheat and cotton pools). This in troduces another aspect of the question. The total area under cultivation has steadily expanded to c. 18 million acres (o.9% of the total area of the Commonwealth. Of their respective total areas Victoria has c. 8.5% under cultivation; New South Wales, 2.5 % ; Tasmania 1.6% ; South Australia 1.5 % ), and the produc tivity has correspondingly advanced (v. sup.). At the same time the total number of population engaged in agriculture has rela tively, though not absolutely, declined (e.g., agriculture pop. 191 1 ; I worker per 40.2 acres, 1921 ; I worker per 44.3 acres). Hence it is clear that, with increased efficiency in production, fewer people are retained on the land. Australian farming still favours extensive methods. Wheat occupies 63-68% of the total cultivated area, the recent expansion of which is mainly due to increased wheat production : mixed farming, on the other hand, has made no corresponding progress.
Whereas in Europe hay is derived chiefly from meadow and other grasses, the drier climate and more variable rainfall of Australia necessitate its cultivation by plough. The 3 million acres normally under hay (17% of total cultivated area, annual yield 3-4 million tons) consist predominantly of wheat, oats and lucerne, while the same crops and some others are cut as green forage (i–i million acres). Moreover, in bad seasons, or if prices fall, crops intended for grain will be cut for green forage or for hay, so that the dividing line between agriculture and pastoralism is fluctuating as well as indefinite. Australian agriculture ex hibits broad differentiation into tropical, sub-tropical and temper ate types, though each of these retains distinctly Australian fea tures and there is more or less overlapping and interpenetration. (Vide individual States.) Wheat.—In recent years, in spite of occasional adverse sea sons and markets, the area under cultivation has advanced (1926 2 7) to c. 11.5 million acres representing c. 63% of the total culti vated area—(omitting wheat grown for hay: c. 6o%)—and the total value of the crop to £36-4o million. As with sheep, wheat has been gradually forced away from the moister coastal areas— where rust works damage and where dairy and mixed farming are more profitable—and it now occupies a belt which follows roughly the direction of the coast-line from the Darling Downs (Queens land) along the west and south-west slopes of the New South Wales highlands, across central north and north-west Victoria to Yorke and Eyre's peninsulas (South Australia), in which State it impinges on the coast. It is resumed in south-west Australia where it forms an inland belt running south-east—north-west, also roughly parallel with the coast, but meeting it near Geraldton. Artificial manuring (superphosphates) ; the 3 year rotation grain grazing-bare fallow, the latter associated in drier areas with mois ture-conservation methods of tillage (dry-farming) ; improved types of wheat, the product of scientific breeding, have all con tributed to the progress of wheat-growing. Winter rainfall (April to October) determines cultivation limits. By far the greater part of the wheat-belt, therefore, is bounded outwards by the 20 in., and inwards by the io in. winter rainfall line. Consequently New South Wales (c. 3.3 million acres; 35-45 million bushels), Victoria (2.8 million acres; 30-45 million bushels), South Aus tralia (2.5 million acres; 30-34 million bushels), Western Aus tralia (2.5 million acres; 3o million bushels) are the chief wheat growing States. The areas of heaviest production are in South Australia (north from Adelaide) and in New South Wales (a strip c. Ioo miles wide extending from Dubbo to Albury), but produc tion in Western Australia is rapidly increasing (1927-28: 2.8 mil lion acres; 34.5 million bushels). Yields in places (e.g., South Australia; and in mixed farming practice) reach 30-4o bushels, but cultivation is generally extensive and yields vary greatly ac cording to rainfall (e.g., the Victorian farmer gets c. 1 bushel per acre for every 1 in. [winter] fall) . The average yield is a little over 13 bushels per acre; the quality, however, is high and Austral ian hard wheats command excellent prices (5s.6d.-6s.6d. per bushel). The fact that the total production of wheat, in spite of bad seasons, has averaged 136 million bushels during the last 7 years (Max. 1915-16: 179 million) indicates increasing skill and the elimination of risk. Of this total an annual average of nearly 43 million bushels ( 7.47 bushels per caput of population) is re tained for seed or food, the remainder being exported. In the period 1921-22-1925-26 exports of wheat varied between 31•5 and million bushels of which 39% (in the aggregate) went to the United Kingdom. In the same period flour (360,00o-511,000 tons) was exported, 20.5% to the United Kingdom, some 30% to Egypt. As labour and transport conditions gradually improve, as farming becomes more intensive and markets expand, Australia, which has perhaps some half million square miles of available wheat lands, will doubtless very largely increase her production of wheat.
Sugar is grown in areas scattered down the east coast of Queens land (notably Cairns, Mackay, Bundaberg) and in north coastal New South Wales (Grafton-Lismore). The climate is suitable, the alluvial soils rich, there is plenty of room for expansion, and this has, on the whole, been steady (1925-26; total acreage: 288,800 acres [93% in Queensland], of which 198,000 acres was actually producing). Cultivation has been increasing in New South Wales where the yield is higher (26.6 tons cane per acre; cf. Queensland 17.8 tons) . The total annual production has aver aged (Io years) c. 291,000 tons sugar (from 2.35 million tons cane. Max. production: 1925-26: 518,00o tons from nearly 4 million tons cane). Of this output c. 56% is consumed in Aus tralia (I17 lb. per caput) and the remainder is exported. The in dustry enjoys Commonwealth protection and support without which, since the abolition of coloured labour, it could not survive. Australia at present pays several millions yearly for its "white" sugar industry, and the keeping of the export sugar prices down to a competitive level involves considerable difficulties. These might be solved either by full preference in the United Kingdom or by a voluntary world limitation of output. Associated with this agricultural industry is the milling of cane (c. 4o mills, almost all in Queensland). Of the products, raw sugar, molasses, etc. (an nual value c. f 1 o million) the raw-sugar is refined in 6 refineries (2 each in Queensland and Victoria; 1 each in South Australia and New South Wales) having a total output of over f I o million.
Cotton can probably be grown along a coastal strip extending from Newcastle (New South Wales) to Bundaberg (Queensland) and in a belt stretching across the base of Cape York Peninsula through the Northern Territory to the Victoria River basin. Post war conditions—particularly the Empire cotton-growing cam paign—have stimulated production. The planters are small holders using, often, family labour. The area planted (Queens land only) rose (1925) to 40,000 acres (19.5 million lb.) but the infant industry is sensitive to physical (climatic) and economic (world-market) conditions and there has recently been a decline. Stringent Government control (seed, planting, ginning, etc.) is exercised, and Government also assists both production and marketing and also the nascent cotton-manufacturing industry.
Tobacco of excellent quality can be grown in Australia, which imports tobacco to the annual value of nearly f 2-i million. A seri ous attempt, supported by the Commonwealth Government, is now being made to expand the existing (minor) industry and to make Australia self-supporting.
Vines and Fruit.—These represent one of the most valuable and interesting minor specializations of Australia, the production of which holds out great promise. Vines grow mainly in South Australia and Victoria (Commonwealth acreage, 1925-26: 112, coo: South Australia 5o,000; Victoria 40,00o) where the climate is admirably suited to them. After considerable difficulties Aus tralian wines, supported by a Commonwealth bounty, have gained a footing in external (mainly the United Kingdom and New Zea land) markets (Exports, 1925-26: £372,000). Of increasing value also has been the production and export of raisins and cur rants (chiefly from Victoria). The export trade depends largely upon the British market but the average annual (net) export is valued at £1.3 million.
Fruit-growing fairly accurately represents climatic conditions in Australia and ranges from bananas, pineapples, etc. in Queens land to apples, berry-fruits, etc. in Tasmania, but a larger de nominator comprising both sub-tropical (oranges, lemons, peaches, apricots) and "northern" (pears, plums, cherries, etc.) fruits is common to all states according to local position and climate. The industry, subject largely to the capacity of British markets, is capable of great expansion, and improved methods of culture and marketing are now being achieved. The trade has expanded in both fresh and dried fruits (1925-26: £3 million; of which £I d million was for apples and III million for dried fruits).
Irrigation.—The extensive water-conservation works of Aus tralia supply water either for domestic use in urban or rural (farming) districts, for stock (e.g., north and north-west Victoria), or for irrigation purposes. The development of irrigation, an obvious consequence of the warm climate and erratic rainfall, is taking place chiefly along, and in connection, with the east high land belt from Queensland to Victoria. In Queensland the roomier valleys and larger streams of the east are encouraging large-scale developments (Dawson river scheme) on the coastward side but in New South Wales and Victoria the relief and drainage gen erally favour the inland flank. Exceptions are the irrigation areas of Victoria south of the Dividing Range (Werribee; Macallister), and perhaps also the South Australian (Lower Murray) areas. The highland and valley configuration give considerable catchment areas (Dawson river: 9,000 square miles; Murrumbidgee: 5,000 square miles; Lachlan: 3,200 square miles, above dam sites) and rainfall, though fluctuating, is adequate on the highlands (e.g., Goulbourn (Victoria valley: 20-52 in.) . The valleys, often long, deep and conveniently narrow at the mouth, afford dam and reser voir sites. The alluvial soil of the valley-floors and plains is mostly rich and the hot sunny climate suits fruit and other cultures. Transport distances and facilities, if not ideal, are not prohibitive (cf. Central Murray to Melbourne; Upper Murrumbidgee to Sydney; Lower Murray to Adelaide).
Thus there has grown up, upon the basis of early private under takings, the characteristic conservation and irrigation and similar public commissions. Victoria has the superior physical position and, with some 350,000 acres actually occupied, takes precedence as an irrigation state; New South Wales has some 120,000 acres occupied; South Australia has large areas, and Queensland is de veloping one large (Dawson river) and some smaller schemes. The most noted dams are the Burrinjuck (Upper Murrumbidgee, New South Wales) which will ultimately impound some 20 square miles and water well over 1 million acres. Besides the old and flourishing Mildura settlement, Victoria has extensive schemes along the Murray and its tributaries (Goulbourn system : c. I mil lion acres), and in South Australia besides Renmark a series of irrigation and drainage works have lined the lower Murray for many miles with growing settlements. In the upper reaches the supply of water is by gravitation; lower down pumping is neces sary. Besides vines (grapes, raisins, currants) and fruits and vegetables of various kinds, these irrigation areas are engaging in fodder (lucerne) growing and in dairying, in fruit-canning and other activities. Finance bulks largely in these schemes which also depend upon expansion of markets, since they produce far in excess of Australia's home demands. Closely connected with them is the extensive programme for regulating and locking the Murray river (q.v.), and the great Hume reservoir which will open up a further extensive area.
Australia desires to employ her own nationals in working up her own raw materials. In 1911 368,00o people were engaged in manufactures (18.4% of all breadwinners) ; in 1921, (19% of breadwinners), an increase of 20.3%. During each of the 4 years ending 1925-26 an average of nearly 14,000 additional persons has found employment in industry. The (net) value of manufactured products has risen from £59 million in 1915 to £ million—(according to another method of reckoning: £155.4 mil lion) in 1925-26, and, in now producing over 29% of the total (average for io years 1916-17-1925-26), industry now stands first as a winner of national wealth. It is true that in Australia many very small concerns are classed as "factories," as are others which use no mechanical power. Thus (1925-26) there were some 17,000 factories (out of a total 21,250=80%), employing be tween them nearly a of all the operatives in Australia, which indi vidually had under 20 hands (average 6.5 hands). Similarly, of all the factories use no mechanical power. On the other hand, there are about 725 factories employing an average of 270 hands each (195,50o operatives out of a total of 451,000 in Australia). Manufacturing is largely concentrated in or near the capital cities (i.e., on or near the coasts), where markets, labour, fuel, transport facilities and raw materials are, if not cheap, more readily available. It is also mainly connected with primary pro duction. Thus from pastoralism arise meat preserving (freezing, etc.) ; fell-mongering and wool-scouring, tarring, boot-making, soap- and candle-making, textile and clothing industries; from agriculture, flour, sugar (raw and refined), jam, biscuits, beer, etc.; from dairying, butter, cheese, bacon, etc.; from forestry, lumber (saw-milling), furniture; from mining, concentrates, pig-iron and steel, coke, gas, foundry and engineering products (agricultural implements) ; electric light and power. Somewhat more complex are vehicle construction (wagons, etc. ; motors ; cycles) ; railway and tram construction; electrical machinery, printing, etc.
Power is derived almost entirely from coal and applied through the medium of steam (56.5%) or, increasingly, electricity (32%). Gas, oil and water-power are naturally little in evidence. Hence New South Wales, with its resources in coal, raw materials and population is the leading industrial State. It has the most (ioi) large concerns, employs the greatest horse power (503,000) and number of hands (I74,000) chiefly in the manufacturing of metal lurgical, food and drink and (woollen) textile products. (A Syd ney firm has recently [ 1928] secured a large contract [£500,000] for the construction of high-power locomotives.) Its (net) output (£65 million) represents 42.5% of the total manufacturing output of Australia. Victoria is not far behind in natural advantages or in development (14 larger concerns; 367,000 horse power; 152,000 hands) but its chief industry is (woollen) textiles, food and metal lurgical industries coming next. (Output : £48 million [net] =3o% of total.) Australian industry works almost entirely for the home market (i.e., not reckoning made-up dairy products—but ter, cheese, bacon, etc.—as manufactures). Only about 5% of the goods manufactured are exported and these form only c. 4.5% of the total exports in value. The industry thus reflects in some de gree the standard of wealth and comfort in the Commonwealth, for amongst the most important products are food and drink, tex tiles, furniture, heat and light, while the metallurgical industry, the most important of all, works for self-sufficiency in the basic requirements of practically all the other industries.
From 1892 to 1919-2o Australian exports normally exceeded imports, thereafter the reverse has been normal and in 1926-27 imports exceeded exports by L19.85 million. New South Wales and Victoria have approximately 42% and 29% respectively of the total trade, South Australia and Queensland having each some io%.
The more important export products have been mentioned under the various industries (v. sup.) . They go chiefly, but decreasingly, to the United Kingdom (1921-22: c. 45 % ; 1925-26: L61.5 mil lion = 41.4% of value of total exports). Wool, wheat, butter were the chief items. France takes c. 12.5% (1925-26: L18.5 mil lion). United States of America: 6-8% only (contrast imports) _ C. £ 13 million. Japan: c. 7. 5 % = L I I million. New Zealand: c. 3.5 % 5 million. Canada: small but increasing amounts.
Australia has the greatest length of railway per head of any country (4.71 m. per i ,000 pop. ; cf. Canada 4.43; Great Britain and Ireland 0-47). But in relation to area, Australia has only 9.56 m. per i,000 square m., a lower figure than any country except Brazil and Egypt (cf. Great Britain and Ireland: 223.57 m.). Hence the significance of the motor car, the "caterpillar" car, and other modern traction devices, and still more of the aeroplane and flying-boat. Shape helps to explain the separateness of the various systems, the close conjunction of railway with coastwise shipping transport, and the mathematical quality (circumferential as well as radial) of the system. Flatness favours movement over very large parts, but along the east and south-east, and elsewhere where highlands run parallel to the coast, transport is impeded. Thus the main lines Melbourne-Sydney and Sydney-Brisbane were built behind and over the eastern highlands, the main net is also developing inland, and the south-east coasts generally have few important railways. Connected with relief also is the presence of excellent harbours at various points along the east, south-east and south-west coasts, in Tasmania, and in the north-west and north. Even with future large developments Australian routes will be largely circumferential—we may look forward to a hollow oval of lines running roughly parallel to the coasts, but with some "short cuts" (e.g., Adelaide-Sydney; Brisbane-Darwin) ; many "radial" lines (i.e., chiefly mineral and pastoral lines roughly at right angles to the coast) ; and at least one "diameter" : Adelaide Darwin). In minor ways climate presents some problems such as heat, dust, water-supply (e.g., non-saline water for locomotive boilers), floods (wash-aways), etc. Starting sporadically, as it were, and as the needs of each mining, each wool, wheat or farm ing area demanded, the separate State railway systems with vari ous gauges have gradually become more widely integrated until they begin to show a truly continental character. State jealousies are gradually laid aside ; and the motor-car and the aeroplane are contributing to this result.
above the South Australian border), and on the Darling, Walgett (1,758 m. from their confluence at Wentworth), while the Mur rumbidgee is at best navigable to Narrandera. But Echuca is the limit of normal river traffic on the Murray, and for the Soo m. in South Australia Morgan is the traffic centre. The trade is mainly in pastoral products (wool, tallow, etc.) and some agricul tural products downstream, and supplies and stores upstream, car ried in the characteristic flat-bottomed, two-decker river steamers; but the trade has dwindled greatly as railways offer preferential rates. The future of the Murray-Darling as a water-way system is bound up with the schemes for large-scale regulation and develop ment—locking, etc.—schemes destined to be but partly fulfilled for some time to come (see MURRAY RIVER). Of the northern rivers the Victoria, Daly and Roper are navigable for stretches of c. 100, 7o and 90 m. respectively, the last for craft drawing 14f t., but in the wet season they are often violent. Most of the streams on the east, south-east and south-west are useful only for short stretches near their mouths (which are sometimes sand-barred)., but their "drowned" lower valleys often provide useful harbours.
Shipping.-Australian trade (passenger, mail and cargo) is carried in some 5.3 million tons (1925-26) of shipping= 1.78 tons per caput of population. The total volume has increased steadily (1921-22: 4.56 million, 1926-27: 5.5 million tons) and the average tonnage of vessels from 2,910 tons to c. 3,350 tons. Vessels trading overseas engage in interstate trade under restricted conditions. The tonnage engaged solely in interstate trade is 6.5 7.5 million tons, coastwise traffic being naturally well developed. The proportion of British-owned (oversew) cargo-carrying ton nage has been declining (1921-22: 82.6%; 1925-26: 75%, carry ing 72.6% of the total cargo). The foreign tonnage (Norway: 4.8%) is engaged mainly in trading between Australia and its home ports (e.g., French: New Caledonia and France; Dutch: Dutch East Indies and Holland). The sale of the Commonwealth Line (1928) to private interests-the result of the failure of the experiment in (Federal) Government shipping-has materially reduced the amount of Australian tonnage, which is now mainly engaged in coastal trade. The total amount of cargo discharged and shipped amounts (1926-27) to over 12 million tons of which more than half (c. 6.6 million tons) is interstate cargo.
Australians are taxed (1925-26) at the rate of £12.9.9 per Caput, the total amount paid in taxes being £77•825 million. (Com monwealth: £54.37 million; States: £23.45 million.) The rela tion between Commonwealth and State finance has now (1927) been reorganized, the outstanding arrangements being that the Commonwealth shall take over (1929) all State debts, contribute £7.5 million annually to interest charges and also contribute towards the extinction of the debts in 58 years. Debts incurred after July 1927 are to be extinguished, by a similar arrangement, in S3 years.
Australia has 3 mints (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth) issuing gold, silver and bronze coin and gold bullion. The total issue of gold had amounted (1926) to £425 million (1925-26: £3.6 million) and of silver and bronze to £367,000.
Banking in Australia is conducted by the Commonwealth Bank -virtually a central bank together with a savings bank business and 20 joint stock banks, 3 of which are foreign institutions and exist mainly for purposes of exchange. The banking business is highly profitable and reveals a high degree of national thrift. The half-yearly dividends (1926) of the Australian banks totalled £1.73 million (c. 10-15 %) and there are reserved profits of over £27 million. The profits of the Commonwealth Bank alone aggre gate, since its inception in 1922, £5.45 million (1926). The joint stock banks held (1926) deposits to the value of nearly £265 million (=f43.18.2 per caput of population), against assets of £292.5 million while the Commonwealth Bank holds assets worth £78.3 million. Every State has a Savings Bank: the de positors number (1925-26) 692 per i,000 of population, and the total deposits amount to £195.5 million = f 3 2.6.9 per caput of population. In addition the Commonwealth Savings Bank carries over 1 million accounts with a total credit of £45.5 million. Of a special nature are the agricultural (rural) banks, conducted by the States, which grant credit to the settlers and in general exist to promote settlement and development.
The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia, as re turned by the Census taken on June was 6,629,839. Of this total New South Wales, which includes only about 10.4% of the whole area of the Commonwealth, had the greatest portion, (or 2,600,847 inhabitants); Victoria, with only about 3% of the territory of the country, had 27.45% of the population (or 1,820,261 inhabitants); while Northern Territory with over 17.5% of the entire area, had but .07% of the population (or 4,86o inhabitants). The division by sex was approximately equal for the continent as a whole, but in the cities and the more closely settled parts there appeared a slight preponderance of females (e.g., in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania) while in the more pioneering areas-notably in Queensland and Western Aus tralia, the reverse holds. Aboriginals and half-castes are now re duced to some 75,000, mainly in the northern areas. They are now protected by the Governments, reserves have been created, and they are cared for by various missionary bodies, sometimes with encouraging results (e.g., the mission stations in the north west). It seems, however, still an open question to what extent they will survive civilization. Of the 49,849 other non-Europeans (including half-castes), 25,143 are Asiatics-mainly pearl-fishers and Chinese (c. (laundry and joinery workers in the cities; market-gardeners and cooks on "out-back" stations). The great bulk of the population (c. 98%) is of British origin and born in Australia-(a rapidly increasing proportion)-the British Isles or New Zealand. Increase in population has been (1921-33) at the rate of 1.38% per annum, and is due partly to "natural" increase and partly to immigration. In the quarter century 1901 26, 8o% of the total increase was "natural." A comparatively low birth-rate (22 per 1,000; cf. Great Britain: 20.3) is counter balanced by a low death-rate (9.4 per 1,000, cf. England and Wales: 1i.6; Scotland: 13) with a resulting "natural" increase of 13.9 per i,000 (England and Wales : 6.9; Scotland: 8.4) . The remaining 20% has resulted from immigration which has recently (1922-26) varied from c. 37,000 to 43,000 per annum.
With 2.23 people per square mile Australia is the most sparsely populated continent (cf. Europe: c. 127), but the densities vary greatly as between and within the different States. Victoria is the most densely populated (2o.71 per sq. mile), Tasmania (8.68), New South Wales (8.41) having also fair densities (cf. South Australia : 1.53 ; Queensland: 1.41; Western Australia : 0.45) . Hitherto, in fact, for settlers from north-west Europe the southern and south east portions of the continent have been found most habitable. Apart from mining settlements (which account for perhaps under 2% of the total population) some 40% of Australia, having less than 15 in. average annual rainfall, is useful chiefly for pastoral purposes and is hence thinly peopled. In the tropical areas (40% of total) there are some 180,000 people, i oo,000 of whom are in the east coastal parts of Queensland. Besides a smaller area in the south-west, a block of c. 4 million square miles (c. 17% of the continent) in the south-east holds 70% of the population and produces c. 75% of the total wealth, and to this area may be added south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales which are also areas of relative concentration. Within the areas of greater density, again, the outstanding feature is the preponderance of urban population, viz., 64% of the total (New South Wales: 69-24%; Victoria : 65.39%; the lowest being Tasmania : due mainly to the growth of the capital cities. Thus 46.87% of Aus tralian population is "metropolitan" ; in Victoria and Southern Australia about 54%, in New South Wales and Western Australia over 47% of the population is in the respective capitals and the six Australian capitals together contain 46.87% of the whole Com monwealth population. (Sydney: [June 30, 1933]. 1,235,367 pop.; Melbourne: 992,048.) The situation is disturbing particularly because it is intensifying (cf. "metropolitan" population in 19ii= 38%), but it is not entirely unnatural or portentous. The causes are complex : amongst them are probably : (I) the desire, strong under Australian conditions and operative particularly amongst the younger generation, for the opportunities and amenities of city life. (2) the same type of desire on the part of successful pioneers (farmers; pastoralists) to retire and enjoy their wealth and leisure in cities. (3) the profitableness of "extensive" methods of land utilization (e.g., wheat farming; pastoralism: v. sup.) coupled with the isolation and lack of amenities often implied. (4) the growth of manufactures and commerce in the urban (coastal) centres. Droughts and the decline of mining are per haps contributory and more or less occasional causes and the fiscal (protectionist) policy has also been blamed—with some reason, though it is probably an effect rather than a cause.
The result is reflected in the proportions of population engaged in various pursuits. Of the total "bread-winners" (1921 : 2.3 mil lion=c. 43% of total population) some 31% work for wages or salaries. Again, in 1921, 31.2% of the "bread-winners" (725,800) were engaged in industry (iii : 28.4%) ; 25.8% (600,000) in primary production (1911 : 30.4%) ; 15.3% in commerce (191I : 14.5%) ; domestic occupations, 9%=210,000 (1911: io%= 203,00o) ; transport and communications : 9% (1911 : 8%) ; pro fessional, 8.7%=2o2,000 (1911: 7.3%=147,000). Thus nearly all occupations connected with urban life in Australia have re ceived accessions, but the country occupations, and also domes tic occupations, have relatively, and in the case of mining and pastoralism, absolutely declined.
Immigration and its problems are closely related to these facts. Unemployment, most marked and most concentrated in the cities with their young and sensitive industrialism, affects public opinion —the city voter is normally in the majority. The immigrants themselves often come from urban conditions and in times of stress readily revert to these conditions. Unemployed persons sometimes refuse to take work outside the cities. The country has thus, in a sense, its apertures blocked and the inflow is care fully filtered. Alien immigration is strictly regulated—the main features of the "White Australia" policy are well known—and the objection to immigration of southern Europeans (Italians) and even of Maltese has recently become pronounced. Land tenure conditions may, at times and in places, have some effect, but the steady policy of all the Governments, through their highly elaborated and varying laws and regulations, is to encourage not only settlement but closer settlement on the land and, when the need has been felt, public opinion has not failed to compel the "discovery" of suitable settlement areas. The settler is regarded as an asset : given a good start in time he becomes a revenue producer besides a citizen and a father of citizens. Thus the most generous treatment is usually accorded—land, implements and stock, scientific advice, seed, credit, easy repayment terms, special freights and such educational and general social amenities as are possible. Large estates are bought and thrown open to closer settlement. The following proportion of the States and Com monwealth were (1925) occupied by private individuals or cor porations under various conditions—freehold or under lease or licence (mining, pastoral, timber, etc.) : New South Wales: c. 90% ; Queensland : 76% ; Victoria : 75%; South Australia : 56%; Tasmania : 52%; North Territory : 44% ; Western Australia : Commonwealth: 58%; and there have been considerable recent increases in Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland. The root causes influencing migration are deep-rooted and the various Government agreements to promote migration (e.g., Joint Commonwealth and States Immigration Scheme [ 192o] ; British and Commonwealth Governments Migration Agreement, 1925), while admirably and generously conceived, have hardly produced the anticipated results. In 1926 some 35,000 persons entered Australia with official "assistance." The Development and Migration Commission appointed (1927) by the Commonwealth Government is designed to probe the situa tion and is engaged upon an extensive and thorough survey of Australian resources and opportunities. Meanwhile group settle ment (notably in Western Australia) and the nomination system— by which successful settlers nominate friends and relations for assisted entry into Australia—can show a degree of success. Western Australia in particular is at present active in encourag ing immigration. Most hopeful and striking is the recent encour agement of migration for young people (cf. "Big Brother" Move ment; Fairbridge Farm Schools in Western Australia; the South Australia farm apprentice scheme) and the attempt to train them for success upon the land.
In Australia a small community, British by descent and in tra dition, has entered and is developing an area relatively large, un occupied and sharply characterized—an area also in the nature of a frontier, isolated and yet confronting massive populations. Herein lies the key to Australian social conditions. In Australia British ways and traditions persist but are liberated, as it were, from certain inhibitions. British ideas and ideals prevail, but with perhaps more of the vehemence of youth. British economic and political methods continue, but modified by a new physical environment and the uncertainty and inexperience entailed. De mocracy takes very concrete, and sometime novel, forms. The ingrained striving for independence and equality and the deep seated desire for racial integrity and a high standard of social life involve difficult questions ; but Australian life is based on sobriety, business ability and common sense.
Normal primary education is provided free by the States (1925: 50,230 schools; 873,000 scholars with an average attendance of c. 83%). Medical care of children is established and extraordinary efforts are made to cater for the sparsely-populated areas (e.g., half-time schools; "travelling" schools; itinerant teachers; cor respondence teaching; lending libraries). Secondary education and the training of teachers is now highly organized and liberal scholarships and bursaries are available. Agricultural education is well-established and progressive, and technical education in general is amply provided for. The educational systems are gradually being internally co-ordinated (New South Wales has led the way) to culminate in the university. There are six uni versities, those of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide being the oldest and best endowed. Good museums, libraries and galleries (art, etc.) exist. Some in) million of public money is spent annually on education in all its forms, and in addition there is the expenditure of private schools, which are numerous and usually good. Public hygiene stands at a high level. Legislation affecting food, drugs, milk, etc., is enforced; infant and child welfare is attended to as well as the control of infectious diseases. Public water-supply and sanitation are efficient in all the more settled areas, many of the former schemes being on a very large scale (cf. Western Australia's goldfields' supply; Southern Australian supply schemes). The Institute of Tropical Medicine (Towns ville) is an illustration of the volume of trained thought focussed on national problems, a movement typified now by the manifold activities of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. These features are related to the largely urban character of that society. The high proportion of persons engaged in professional (including civil service) pursuits is one incidental corollary but the rise of industrialism in recent years is partly a cause and partly an effect of urban life. Australia has been called the "working man's paradise" and its government an "aristocracy of labour." Under adult suffrage labour wields great political power : the trade unions include (1926) some 852,00o members, matched, it is true, by some I13,5oo persons organized in employers' associations. The "basic wage" principle, and the "44 hour week"—though in detail altera tions and modifications continually occur—express the determina tion that every man, woman and child shall have a modicum of health and happiness. State pensions (old-age, invalid, maternity) and the child endowment practised in New South Wales—and under consideration by the Commonwealth (1927)—is regarded as part of a citizen's rights. Distinct from this are the extensive public and semi-public charities amounting to £7.775 million (1925). In a small and much-governed community—there are six State Legislatures besides that of the Commonwealth, with, in all, some 66o representatives—State interest and control is an accepted principle and the system of bounties, bonuses, protec tive tariffs, etc., is applied in the social no less than in the eco nomic sphere. The State, in fact, being the people, thinks and cares for itself. Critics assert that Australians show a tendency to regard their public services too exclusively as citizen-supporting possessions and too little as business organizations subserving general utility. If this is so, it is essential that the community as a whole should pay its way. Australia has a public debt of £I,013.75 million (1925-26) incurred by borrowing.
Compulsory arbitration is in force, but strikes during the five years 1922-26 have occasioned the loss of over 5 million working days and £5.47 million. Arbitration awards have in general re cently raised wages, and though prices have also risen, "real" (or effective) wages (1926) were 7.2% higher than in 1911 or, allow ing for unavoidable unemployment, 4.5a% At the same time some advantage has been taken of the Arbitration Court rulings: mat ters have become so confused that the Commonwealth Govern ment has been compelled to take steps to simplify and regularize the situation.
At the same time the young Australian manufacturing indus tries are somewhat sensitive to economic conditions. The number of unemployed has fluctuated (1922-26) round about 30,00o per annum (=7.7% of total Union members) and those unemployed, along with their industries, are mainly in the cities. At the same time Australian national wealth, even though partly based on bor rowed capital, is considerable. Private wealth has been estimated at £2,165.8 million (=L397 per caput of population in 1921), and this represents a of the total—Government and municipal prop erty forming the remainder. This wealth is on the whole well distributed. But it is, after all, productive capacity which consti tutes real wealth, especially viz-a-viz borrowed capital. The total production of Australians in 1925-26 was estimated at c. f430.4 million or 171.83 per caput, and, if the year 1911 be taken as a basis of reference, this represents a productive activity 4.7% greater than in 1911. Thus, though fluctuations, and also serious crises, are bound to arise, Australian economics are probably se curely based. In common with other young countries she under goes somewhat violent crises but the steady movement is towards the development of her resources, towards an influx and growth of population, and towards her conversion from a debtor to a creditor nation.
Some 2o% of the Commonwealth is of little apparent value except possibly for sporadic mining. A further 50-55% is, apart from possible mining value, probably of permanent value for pas toralism only, while 21% is good–fair agricultural land, the drier parts suitable mainly for wheat-growing. Besides knowledge, therefore, a sense of responsibility is necessary if Australia is to be wisely developed. The "White Australia" policy—morally and economically justifiable on Australian pre-suppositions—demands determination and some self-denial if it is to be maintained in practice. The Australian will have none of the "tropical planta tion" system which he, perhaps shrewdly, identifies with the in terests of capitalism rather than with the interests of the coloured races. But neither could a Queensland sugar industry be main tained indefinitely unless paid for strictly out of Australia's own pocket. Unfortunately there has developed a differentiation— hardly an antithesis—in economic tendencies. On the one hand primary production, land settlement and development, with free trade or deflated protection: on the other industrial and manu facturing development with its concomitants protection and urban —or at least centralized life. On the one hand complete economic self-sufficiency; on the other fuller participation in world, and particularly imperial, economics. The advocate of the former points to increasing output and self-sufficiency and also complains of unemployment. The latter points out that s of the wealth is produced on the land, that labour is scarce and dear, and im migration retarded. And certainly agriculture and pastoral de velopment have in recent years not made the advances anticipated and the pastoralist has perhaps to complain of political quite as much as of economic or physical disabilities. Fortunately this seems but a phase. Manufacturing is a young growth in Aus tralia and so far works mainly for the home market. If ever for eign competition has to be met in an overseas (export) market, it seems inevitable that costs of production will have to be abated, or greater efficiency achieved. Meanwhile the older in dustries—pastoralism and agriculture—though in a degree special izations, have long had to cope with world trade conditions. And if the manufacturing industry is to continue to expand, it will do so most easily with an expanded home market. Thus, it seems, things must adjust themselves, especially as Australia, even in manufac turing industry, will have in some degree to specialize. Fortunately indications are not wanting that these facts are becoming appre ciated. Australia can hardly fail to prosper.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—General: Commonwealth of Australia, Official Year Bibliography.—General: Commonwealth of Australia, Official Year Book, No. 20 (1927, bibl.) and previous issues. Each issue contains articles dealing with some special subject. The Australian Encyclo paedia, edit. A. W. Jose and H. J. Carter (vol. i., 1925 ; vol. ii., 1926) ; A. J. Herbertson and O. J. R. Howarth, Oxford Survey of the British Empire, Australasia (1914) ; "Commonwealth of Australia," British Association Federal Handbook, edit. G. H. Knibbs (1914) ; Griffith Taylor, "Geography and Australian National Problems," Report Aus tralian Association for Advancement of Science (1923, bibl.) ; E. J. Brady, Australia Unlimited (1918) ; Griffith Taylor, Environment and Race (1927) . Much of the . most valuable information concerning Australia is contained in journals and other serial publications, e.g., Reports and Bulletins of the various (Federal and State) Government departments ; Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Societies of the various States; publications of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry (now Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) .
Economics: General: Griffith Taylor, The Australian Environment (v. sup.) ; Meredith Atkinson and others, Australia, Economics and Political Studies (1920) ; F. C. Benham, The Prosperity of Australia (1928, bibl.) .