is on the whole healthful and agreeable, but subject to frequent and sudden cheap in condition and temperature. The average temperature of the year is between 57' and 59°, or about 9° above that of London, above that of Edinburgh. The common summer-heat is from 65° to 80°, with an occasional advance to 90' and even to from 100' to 108°, during hot winds and a dry season. The winter range is mostly from 45° to 60°. Ice occurs in the midwinter of July, but it rarely, except on elevated ground, survives the noonday sun. Every few years an unusally severe season will cover the higher levels, and even the country generally, with snow, to recall to the col onists the familiar scenes of ancestral homes. The cold of winter is keenly felt, and household fires are not uncommonly indulged in for even six months.of the year, espe cially in the morning and evening.
Civil and Political is divided into four districts and 37 counties, the principal counties being Bourke, Talbot, and Grant. Prior to 1848 there were but three counties, the still existing Bourke, Grant, and Normanby, laid out in 1837, along with the sates of several chief towns, when the infant settlement, then but two years old, was'officially taken charge of by the New South Wales government, within whose jurisdic tion the territory was then comprised. One chief object of the counties was to distinguish by certain special regulations the more accessible and valuable of the Colonial lands, leaving the remainder (the districts) to pastoral or squatting uses, But the subsequent discovery of the gold-fields in 18M interfered with this arrangement, as the new condition created towns and markets indiscriminately in county and district. Squatting is still an important colonial vocation, second only to gold-mining, and still pursued over most of the colonial •rea. The electoral districts, in general, coincide (but not always) with county and municipal divisions. This is the case for the assembly, but for the council or upper house there is a special division of the colony into six great districts. A law of the colony specially facilitates townships to become municipalities; and as early as 1861 there were 61 such towns, all of them with their respective mayors and corpora tions.
distinction of first settling Victoria is due to the Messrs. Henty of Launceston, Tasmania, who occupied the s.w. part at Portland bay with some flocks of sheep in 1834. But the settlement that mainly influenced the future was that of the following year upon the shores of Port Philip. This enterprise alsoovas from Launces ton, first in May and June by a small party under Batman, which occupied Indented Head, on the w. side, 15 m. inside the harbor; and again in Aurgist following by another party sent forth by Fawkner, he himself having been short while longer by sickness. This last party passed on to the head of Port Philip, ascended the Yana,
and'settled upon the site of the present capital, Melbourne. The story of the subsequent progress is marvelous even in an age of marvels as to colonies. When the gold mines were discovered, the settlement, after 16 years' existence, had a colonial population of 80,000, of whom nearly one-third were in the capital. Thenceforth for several years the advance has scarcely been paralleled. The imports, exports, and the public revenue increased tenfold. In 1856 Melbourne had become a city of great wealth and commerce, containing 100,000 inhabitants, while the colony comprised above 400,000. Although the race has since been at a more leisurely speed, Melbourne has continued to advance, and in 1877 the pop. had increased to 210,000. See MELBOURNE. Some interior towns, besides, are rising to importance, in particular Ballarat. Geelong, with 16,000 of population, finely situated on the western arm of Port Philip, was long second only to Melbourne, but is now surpassed by Ballarat (with 48,000) and Sandhurst (with 27,000), the two principal gold-field towns of Victoria. The pop. of Victoria in '71 was 731, 628, of whom 330,478 were females; in '77, the pop. was 849,021.
Victoria, while a part of New South Wales, was termed the Southern or Port Philip district of that colony. As early as 1840 an agitation for separation, and a government independent, of that of New South Wales, began, and was ended successfully in 1851, when the new colony received the name it now bears. The title of lieut.governor was then given to the queen's representative in this colony as well as in others adjacent, the gov.general being in New South Wales. But the rising importance of Victoria led to this distinction being discontinued some years afterward. This importance indeed ex pedited, to these colonies, their concession of self-government, which was inaugurated in the years 1854-56, with very lively demonstrations on the part of the colonists, who have since shown no want of interest or earnestness in the charge of their own affairs. During this last brief term, although the progress, in point of population, ow ing to diminished immigration, has been unimportant, there has been a very marked advance in the improvement of the colony generally, and of the arts and industries and amenities of social and commercial life. At the great international exhibition of 1862, Victoria stood at the head of the entire colonial department; and in less than twenty years this enterprising colony had undertaken to hold (1880) an international exhibition ou a large scale in its own capital.