stock, and in 1905 possessed some 3% million sheep, 632,000 cattle, and about 97,400 horses. Nearly a third of the sheep and cattle are in the Kimberley district in the north.

Agriculture, though now extending, has been retarded by the want of labour and the difficulty of transporting produce to market. The making of new roads and railways has naturally been followed by a large increase in the area under cultivation, which even yet, however, only amounts to 240,000 acres— an insignificant acreage indeed in a country of over 1,000,000 square miles in extent, even granting that vast areas are sterile and uninviting, and doomed to perpetual aridity and barrenness. Although the agricultural land available for settlement is limited, compared to the vast area of the colony, there is a large extent of good, and in many places excellent, soil suitable for European grains, fruits, and vegetables, most of which can be cultivated and brought to a high state of perfection. But wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes, though grown to some extent, are largely imported; and, although many districts are wel. adapted for dairy-farming, large quantities of butter and cheese and other farm products have to be imported from the other colonies. In the alluvial river plains of the north, both soil and climate are suited for the cultivation of sugar, cotton, and other tropical products. In the south, strawberries, apples, pears, &c., grow well, while grapes, oranges, apricots, figs, and bananas come to perfection in the warmer districts. The number of vineyards and olive gardens is increasing, and wine and oil of good quality are produced. The pearl-fishery is an important industry along the north-west coast, especially in Sharks Bay and round Cossack.

Timber-cutting is a great source of wealth in the south-western districts, and a number of short railways and tramways have been laid down from the forests' to the shipping ports on the coast. The famous jarrah-a species of eucalyptus, but better known as the West Australian mahogany-is in demand all over the world for all purposes requiring durability and imperviousness to the white ant and the teredo navalis. The karri, which abounds along the south coast to the west of Albany, is even stronger and larger, growing sometimes to a height of 300 feet. The sandalwood tree abounds principally in the

York district.

MINERALS: Western Australia is now the premier goldproducing state in the Commonwealth. The output for 1905 amounted to 1,995,320 ounces, or greater than all the other states together-excluding Queensland.

Gold is said to have been discovered on the north-western coast, in 1688, by the bold buccaneer, Dampier, and in some old Dutch charts this part of the coast is marked "Provincia Aurifera." Exactly two centuries later, in 1883. rich alluvial deposits were found in the same district, and much gold has been already obtained from the Pilbarra field, on the Yule River, 80 miles east of Roebourne. During the last ten years rich deposits of gold have been discovered in many parts of the state, and the annual output of the gold-export has increased from 30,311 ounces in 1891, to nearly 2 million ounces in 1906.

1. The forests of Western Australia cover an area of 41,700 square miles, and include white gum, 10,000 square miles; jarrah, 14,300 square miles; karri, 2,300 square miles; tuart, 5,000

square miles; rei gum, 8,000 square m'es: and York gum, 2,400 square miles. The annual output is about 140 million square feet.

The richest goldfields are those of COOLGARDIE and KALGOORLIE, which were discovered in 1892, and have already a very large mining population. They are situated over 300 miles to the east of Fremantle, with which they are connected by rail. The other more important goldfields are the Kimberley, Ashburton, Murchison, Yalgoo, Peak Hill, and Dundas goldfields.

Fine lodes of lead and copper have been worked near NORTHAMPTON and at other places, but, owing to unremunerative prices, the mines are now closed. Good coal has been discovered at WYNDHAM on Cambridge Gulf in the north, and coal seams also crop out on the upper branches of the Irwin River, to the north-east of Geraldton. Rich deposits of stream tin are now worked on the Blackwood River near Bridgetown, in the extreme south-west, and this valuable mineral has also been found on the goldfields at Roebourne on the north-west coast.

COMMERCE: More than half the trade of Western Australia is carried on with the United Kingdom, and the rest mainly with the other Australian States. Value, in 1906, £16,353,000; imports, 61⁄2 millions; exports, nearly 10 millions.

The trade of the state consists in the export of raw produce, such as goldwhich amounts in value to four-fifths of the total exports-timber and sandalwood, wool, pearl-shells and pearls, hides and skins, coal and tin, and the import of manufactured goods, principally from the mother country. ports to Great Britain consist almost entirely of gold, wool, pearl-shells, and

timber.

The ex

The chief ports are FREMANTLE and ALBANY in the south; and DERBY and WYNDHAM in the north.

COMMUNICATIONS: Formerly all the mail steamers called at Albany, but latterly Fremantle has been the chief port of call. Coasting steamers run regularly from port to port, and a line of steamers runs direct to London, via Singapore. There are over 2,300 miles of railway open for traffic, and several hundred miles are under construction. The principal line, 354 miles in length, runs from Fremantle to Perth, and thence by Guildford, York, and Beverley to Albany on King George's Sound. A branch line is now open from Spencer's Brook to Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Menzies. Other lines open for traffic are, (1) from Geraldton northwards to Northampton and southwards to Guildford on the Eastern Railway, and a line from Geraldton to Cue in the Murchison goldfields; (2) Bunbury north to Perth, and south to the timber district; (3) a tramway from Cossack to Roebourne ; and (4) some 50 miles of railways and tramways constructed by the Timber It is Companies for bringing timber from the forest 1anges to the sea. proposed to construct a railway under a Land Grant from York right across the Lake District to the port of Eucla, at the head of the Great Australian Bight, and other lines are projected in the northern half of the colony. All the chief centres are connected by telegraph, and the Western Australian system is connected with that of South Australia at Eucla, and has also been extended northward from Perth to Roebourne and Derby, and thence to the Kimberley goldfields and Wyndham.

GOVERNMENT: Western Australia now forms one of the states of the Australian Commonwealth.

Western Australia had been the last of the Australian states to obtain the privileges of complete self-government. As in the other states the Governor represents the King and holds the executive power, while the legis lative authority is vested in a nominated Legislative Council and an elected Legislative Assembly representing the 33 constituencies into which the state has been divided.

The Revenue, in 1900, amounted to £3,078,000, and the Expenditure to £3,165.244, while the Public Debt was nearly 12 millions sterling.

For the defence of the state there is a small force of artillery and rifle volunteers, but there are no regular forces or military works, with the exception of two small forts at the entrance to King George's Sound.

Education is compulsory, and free. Both the Government and the Assisted Schools are under inspection. There is a High School at Perth and a Grammar School at Fremantle.

DIVISIONS and TOWNS: There are six land divisions, namely, the South-West Division, and the Gascoyne, North-West, Kimberley, Eucla, and Eastern Divisions, and 29 magisterial and police districts.

The SOUTH-WEST DIVISION includes the older settled districts and is by far the most fertile part of the state. It has three well-marked natural divisions (1) the coastlands, which are admirably adapted for agriculture and pasture; (2) the great forest belt, extending from the ranges to within from 10 to 15 miles of the sea, with inexhaustible supplies of the finest timber; and (3) the uplands, with a mean elevation of about 1,000 feet above sea-level, between the forests and the unoccupied interior, and along which the railway from Albany to Beverley (and Perth) runs.

The chief towns in this division are PERTH (36, with suburbs 52, t'e capital of the state, prettily situated on a fine lake-like reach of the Swan River, about 12 miles above its port, Fremantle (27), at the mouth of the river; Guildford, also on the Swan, 9 miles above Perth, a charming little town surrounded by fields and vineyards; York (1), 80 miles east of Perth, on the Eastern Railway, which connects at Beverley with the Great Southern Railway, which runs thence to the principal port of the state, Albany (4), an important port of call on King George's Sound. Albany and Fremantle are connected by rail with the Coolgardie goldfields. From the port of Bunbury, on the western coast, much timber, sandalwood, tin (rom the Greenbushes Tin Fields on the Blackwood River), and many horses are exported.

The Victoria District, in the northern part of this division, contains good pasture lands, and there are large wheat farms between the Irwin River and Geraldton (2%), the capital and chief port of the district. From Geraldton a short railway runs north to the lead and copper mining town of Northampton, and south to Walkaway, whence a line 300 miles in length runs to Guildford on the Eastern Railway. Geraldton is also connected by rail with the Murchison goldfields.

The GASCOYNE DIVISION extends from the Murchison River to the Ashburton and takes its name from the Gascoyne River, which flows through it into Shark's Bay. There is much good pastoral land about Carnarvon, the principal port at the mouth of the Gascoyne. The basin of the Murchison River is rich in gold. There is an important pearl fishery in Shark's Bay. The NORTH-WEST DIVISION, another pastoral and mining district, ex tends along the coast for over 400 miles. It includes the basins of the Lower

Ashburton, the Fortescue, the De Grey, and other rivers, and, though the rainfall is uncertain, large areas are well grassed and provided with water for stock. Much gold has been obtained from the Pilbarra and the Nullagine goldfields. Roebourne, the chief town in the district, is connected by a tramway, 8 miles in length, with the port of Cossack, a great centre of the pearl and pearl-shell fisheries.

KIMBERLEY DIVISION, in the extreme north, is already very largely occupied by sheep and cattle farmers, and the goldfields in East Kimberley may ultimately prove very productive. The fields are about 350 miles west of Derby, the capital and chief port of the division, picturesquely situated on King Sound, and some 200 miles south of Wyndham, a rising port on Cambridge Gulf. Hall's Creek is the centre of the mining industry.

The vast EASTERN DIVISION is as yet imperfectly known, but it appears to be, for the most part, a very dry area, covered here and there with spinifex or with mulga scrub. In the lake district, on the western side of this division, are numerous shallow depressions, which are filled with water after the rains, but are generally perfectly dry. The Yilgarn, Coolgardie, and Dundas goldfields, in the south-west, lie two or three hundred miles east of Perth. The chief gold-mining centres in this district are Coolgardie (4), Kalgoorlie (6%1⁄2), Menzies, Kanowna, and Boulder; all connected by rail with Perth.

The EUCLA DIVISION includes the south-eastern part of the state, and, though the Hampton Plains are now being utilised for pastoral purposes, most of the division is sterile and uninhabited. At Eucla, a station on the border of South Australia at the head of the Great Australian Bight, the telegraph line of Western Australia connects with the South Australian system.

TASMANIA.

TASMANIA is an island, nearly as large as Ireland, situated to the south-east of Australia, from which it is separated by Bass Strait, a broad channel of from 80 to 150 miles in width. It is by far the smallest of the Australian colonies, but it is, in many respects, the most interesting and certainly the most beautiful of the "New Englands" under the Southern Cross.

The "Garden of the South," as Tasmania is justly called, is a "beautiful and well-watered island, rich in harbours and inlets, traversed by high mountain chains, full of crags, glens, and ravines of commanding appearance. Everywhere on the coast there are good anchorages and many excellent harbours. Altogether, the coast offers the most charming scenery, being for the most part bold and rocky. The interior, especially, is delightful, and here are united, so to speak, the climate of Italy, the beauty of the Apennines, and the fertility of England. Mountain and valley, hill and dale, crowned with high forests and rich pasture grounds in the plains, afford the most pleasing variety." And yet, with an area of more than half that of England, it has a population of less than 150,000, or one-tenth that of Wales.

Tasmania takes its name from the Dutch navigator, Tasman, who discovered it in 1642, and named it Van Diemen's Land, in honour of the Governor of the Dutch East Indies, under whose orders he had sailed to explore the "Great South Land." A penal settlement was established on the present site of Hobart in 1803. Free settlers followed, and, in 1825, the island was formed into an independent colony. Transportation was abolished in 1853, and, in 1856, a Constitutional Government was granted, and the name was then changed from Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania.

BOUNDARIES: Tasmania is bounded by Bass Strait on the north, by the Tasman Sea on the east, and by the Southern Ocean on the south and west.

Bass Strait separates Tasmania from the coast of Victoria, a line drawn from the southernmost point of that colony, Wilson Promontory, would pass through the middle of the island. Tasman Sea is the name given to that part of the South Pacific Ocean which lies between Australia and Tasmania on the west, and New Zealand on the east. The Southern Ocean, to the west of Tasmania, is, strictly speaking, a part of the Indian Ocean.

EXTENT : This heart-shaped island is about 200 miles in length from north to south, and a little less from east to west, while the total area, including the lakes and islands, is over 26,200 square miles, or more than half that of England. The population in 1901 was 172,475.

The main island has an area of about 24.330 square miles; the smaller islands, most of which lie of the northern and south-eastern coasts, cover in all about 1,875 square miles.

Tasmania is roughly triangular in shape, the base being to the north and the apex to the south. The three extreme points are Cape Grim on the north-west, Cape Portland on the north-east, and South Cape on the south.

COASTS: "The comparatively smooth north coast is broken by the long estuary of the Tamar; the west coast is a line of cliffs with one great inlet, Macquarie Harbour, about the middle; but the southern outcurve and the east coast are split into a labyrinth of long inlets, irregular peninsulas, and rocky islands like Western Scotland."

Although the Tasmanian coast is, on the whole, bold and rocky, many of the numerous estuaries and bays form excellent harbours. Even on the inhospitable west coast there are at least three accessible ports-Port Davey, formerly much frequented by whaling vessels, Macquarie Harbour, a large inlet running inland for about 25 miles, and the estuary of the Pieman River. On the north coast, besides Port Dalrymple at the mouth of the Tamar, there are several harbours such as those of Port Sorell, Devonport at the mouth of the Mersey, Emu Bay, and Stanley or Circular Head. On the east coast, the chief openings are Oyster Bay and George's Bay. The south and south-east coasts are studded with safe bays and harbours, the principal being Port Arthur, in Tasman Peninsula, Storm Bay, leading into the estuary of the Derwent (on which stands Hobart, the capital of the colony), Frederick Henry Bay, and Norfolk Bay; with Récherche Bay, Southport, and Port Esperance, on the western side of D'Entrecasteaux Channel.

Of the 55 island's which belong to Tasmania, the largest are Flinders Island and Cape Barren Island, in the Furneaux Group, at the east end of Bass Strait, and King's Island at the western entrance; with Hunter's Island off the north-west coast, Schouten and Maria Islands on the east coast, and the double Bruni Island on the south. "The 100-fathom line round Australia includes all these islands, and Tasmania itself indicates the former union of the two countries."

The three chief peninsulas are Freycinet Peninsula on the east coast, and the double Tasman and Forestier Peninsula, with Ralph Bay Peninsula, on the

south-east coast.