AUSTRALASIA, as'tral-l'shia, a geograph ical term of loose application, but usually re garded by British geographers as comprehend ing the continental island of Australia and an unascertained number of other islands, some of them very little known, lying between long. 110° and 180° E., and stretching from Papua or New Guinea, the farthest northern island of the division, to lat. 50° S. Besides the great island of Australia, it thus includes Tasmania, New Zealand, the Loyalty Islands (New Cale donia, etc.), Norfolk Island, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, New Ireland (Neu-Mecklen burg), New Britain (Neu-Pommern), Admiralty Islands and New Guinea, besides numerous other islands and island groups. The island of Timor and those lying west of it, though coming within the general boundary above indicated, belong to the Eastern or In dian Archipelago, called also Malaysia. Australasia is estimated to have an area of 3, 740,000 English square miles, and a population of 6,400,000. It forms one of three portions
into which some geographers have divided Oceania, the other two being Malaysia and Poly nesia. In America the term is generally limited to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. Con sult A. R. Wallace, formerly known as New Holland, the world's largest island and only sea-girt continent, lies between the Indian and Pacific oceans, to the southeast of Asia. It is separated from New Guinea on the north by Torres Strait, and from Tasmania, on the south by Bass Strait. The Tropic of Capri corn divides it into two unequal parts. In the present article Australia, its geography, his torical and political development, commerce and industry, social life, etc., are dealt with under the following heads: