KALGOORLIE, a town of Western Australia some 380 miles E. by N. of Perth. Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, Boulder, Kan owna and some others form a group of mining towns fairly typi cal of south-western Australian conditions. The climate is arid (ay. ann. temps.: 77.5°-51° F ; ay. ann. rainfall c. 9 in.). Gold began to be discovered from about 1888 onwards and settlements rapidly sprang up and swelled to great dimensions (Kalgoorlie pop. [1900] c. 30,000). Water shortage was a difficulty and led to the construction of the Goldfield Water Supply system, one of the greatest in existence, by which water is piped (since 1903) from the Darling Ranges (capacity 5,000,00o gal. per diem; dis tance c. 1,50o miles in all). The Goldfields had a most meteoric career.
The output of the East Coolgardie and of the Boulder mines alone totals some 34.65 million fine oz. (c. £137,000,000) (see also AUSTRALIA: Minerals and Mining), but the output has now greatly declined (Kalgoorlie, pop. [1933] 9,091; Boulder, 5,809), the place of mining being to some extent filled by agricultural and pastoral pursuits (wheat and sheep). The Trans-Australian
railway now passes through Kalgoorlie, and the line from Esper ance (q.v.) via Norseman to Boulder—which will, it is hoped, open up extensive (c. 8,000,000 ac.) new wheat areas—was approaching completion in 1928.
KALI, "dark" or Kali Mai, "dark mother," in the late Epic Hindu mythology a cult-title of Durga, wife of Siva. The origin of her worship is obscure and her attributes enigmatical. Usually regarded as a goddess of death and destruction, she is depicted as black, four-armed, with red palms and eyes, her tongue, face and breasts blood-stained, matted hair and fang-like teeth. She wears a necklace of skulls, corpses as earrings, and a girdle of snakes. She was also incarnate as Chamunda (Skt. Chhinnamastaka, "headless"), a type of those who lay down their life for a cause. One of her shrines was Kalikshetra, near Kalighat (now Calcutta). There goats are slain as vicarious sacrifices to Kali, at the Kali puja, on the darkest night of November.
See Hastings' E.R.E. (Edinburgh, 1914, 7) ; s.v. Kalighat.