Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/57

Rh per fleece, and there has been a further improvement since the year named. The following were the number of sheep depastured at the dates named: 1861, 6,240,000; 1871, 10,002,000; 1881, 10,267,000; 1891, 12,928,000; 1901, 10,841,790. The horses number 385,513, the swine 273,682, and the horned cattle 1,737,690; of these last, 649,100 were dairy cows. Butter-making has greatly increased since 1890, and a fairly large export trade has arisen. In 1905, 57,606,821 ℔ of butter were made, 4,297,350 ℔ of cheese and 16,433,665 ℔ of bacon and hams.

Manufactures.—There has been a good deal of fluctuation in the amount of employment afforded by the factories, as the following figures show: hands employed, 1885, 49,297; 1890, 56,639; 1893, 39,473; 1895, 46,095; 1900, 64,207; 1905, 80,235. Of the hands last named, 52,925 were males and 27,310 females. The total number of establishments was 4264, and the horse-power of machinery actually used, 43,492. The value of machinery was returned at £6,187,919, and of land and buildings £7,771,238. The majority of the establishments were small; those employing from 50 to 100 hands in 1905 were 161, and upwards of 100 hands, 124.

Commerce.—Excluding the coastal trade, the tonnage of vessels entering Victorian ports in 1905 was 3,989,903, or about 3¼ tons per inhabitant. The imports in the same year were valued at £22,337,886, and the exports at £22,758,828. These figures represent £18, 8s. 5d. and £18, 15s. 6d. per inhabitant respectively. The domestic produce exported was valued at £14,276,961; in 1891 the value was £13,026,426; and in 1881, £12,480,567. The comparatively small increase over the period named is due mainly to the large fall in prices of the staple articles of local production. There has, however, been some loss of trade due to the action of the New South Wales government in extending its railways into districts formerly supplied from Melbourne. The principal articles of local production exported during 1905 with their values were as follows: butter and cheese, £1,576,189; gold (coined and bullion), £1,078,560; wheat, £1,835,204; frozen mutton, £275,195; frozen and preserved rabbits and hares, £220,940; skins and hides, £535,086; wool, £2,501,990; horses, £278,033; cattle, £293,241; sheep, £326,526; oats, £165,585; flour, £590,297; hay and chaff, £97,471; bacon and ham, £89,943; jams and jellies, £73,233; fruit (dried and fresh), £125,330. The bulk of the trade passes through Melbourne, the imports in 1905 at that port being £18,112,528.

Defence.—The Commonwealth defence forces in Victoria number about 5700 men, 4360 being partially paid militia and 1000 unpaid volunteers. There are also 18,400 riflemen belonging to rifle clubs. Besides these there are 200 naval artillerymen, capable of being employed either as a light artillery land force, or on board war vessels. The total expenditure lat 1905 for purposes of defence in the state was £291,577.

Railways.—The railways have a total length of 3394 m., and the cost of their construction and equipment up to the 30th of June 1905 was £41,259,387; this sum was obtained by raising loans, mostly in London, on the security of the general revenues of the state. In 1905 the gross railway earnings were £3,582,266, and the working expenses £2,222,279; so that the net earnings were £1,359,987, which sum represents 3.30% on the capital cost.

Posts and Telegraphs.—Victoria had a length of 6338 m. of telegraph line in operation in 1905; there were 969 stations, and the business done was represented by 2,256,482 telegrams. The post offices, properly so-called, numbered 1673; during that year 119,689,000 letters and postcards and 59,024,000 newspapers and packets passed through them. The postal service is carried on at a profit; the revenue In 1905 was £708,369, and the expenditure £627,735. Telephones are widely used; in 1905 the length of telephone wire in use was 28,638 m., and the number of telephones 14,134; the revenue from this source for the year was £102,396.

Banking.—At the end of 1905 the banks of issue in Victoria, eleven in number, had liabilities to the extent of £36,422,844, and assets of £40,511,335. The principal items among the liabilities were: notes in circulation, £835,499; deposits bearing interest, £23,055,743; and deposits not bearing interest, £12,068,153. The chief assets were: coin and bullion, £8,056,666; debts due, £29,918,226; property, £1,919,230; other assets, £617,213. The money In deposit in the savings banks amounted to £10,896,741, the number of depositors being 447,382. The total sum on deposit in the state in 1905 was, therefore, £46,020,637, which represents £37, 15s. 4d. per head of population.

—J. Bonwick, Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip (Melbourne, 1856), Early Days of Melbourne (Melbourne, 1857), and Port Phillip Settlement (London, 1883); Rev. J. D. Lang, Historical Account of the Separation of Victoria from New South Wales (Sydney, 1870); Victorian Year-Book (annually, 1873-1905, Melbourne); F. P. Labilliere, Early History of the Colony of Victoria (London, 1878); G. W. Rusden, Discovery, Survey and Settlement of Port Phillip (Melbourne, 1878); R. B. Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria (2 vols., Melbourne, 1878); J. J. Shillinglaw, Historical Records of Port Phillip (Melbourne, 1879); David Blair, Cyclopaedia of Australasia (Melbourne, 1881); E. Jenks, The Government of Victoria (London, 1881); E. M. Curr, The Australian Race: its Origin, Language, Customs, &c. (Melbourne, 1886-87); Edmund Finn, Chronicles of Early Melbourne (Melbourne, 1889);

Philip Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography (Melbourne, 1892); T. A. Coghlan, Australia and New Zealand (1903-4).

History.—The first discoverer of Victoria was Captain Cook, in command of H.M.S. “Endeavour,” who sighted Cape Everard, about half-way between Cape Howe and the mouth of the Snowy river, on the 19th of April 1770, a few days prior to his arrival at Botany Bay. The first persons to land in Victoria were the supercargo and a portion of the crew of the merchant ship “Sydney Cove,” which was wrecked at the Furneaux Islands in Bass Strait on the 9th of February 1797. In the same year, Mr Bass, a surgeon in the navy, discovered the strait which bears his name and separates Victoria from Tasmania. Lieut. Grant in the “Lady Nelson” surveyed the south coast in 1800, and in 1801 Port Phillip was for the first time entered by Lieut. Murray. In 1802 that harbour was surveyed by Captain Flinders, and in the same year Mr Grimes, the surveyor-general of New South Wales, explored the country in the neighbourhood of the present site of Melbourne. In 1804 Lieut.-Colonel Collins, who had been sent from England, formed a penal settlement on the shores of Port Phillip, but after remaining a little more than three months near Indented Head, he removed his party to Van Diemen Land. Victoria was visited in 1824 by two sheep fanners named Hume and Hovell, who rode overland from Lake George, New South Wales, to the shores

of Corio Bay. In 1826 a convict establishment was attempted by the government of New South Wales at Settlement Point, near French Island, Western Port Bay, but it was abandoned shortly afterwards. In 1834 Messrs Edward and Francis Henty, who had taken part in the original expedition to Swan river, West Australia, and afterwards migrated to Van Diemen Land, crossed Bass Strait, established a shore whaling station at Portland Bay, and formed sheep and cattle stations on the river Wannon and Wando rivulet, near the site of the present towns of Merino, Casterton and Coleraine. In 1835 a number of flock owners in Van Diemen Land purchased through Batman from the aborigines a tract of 700,000 acres on the shores of Port Phillip. The sale was repudiated by the British government, which regarded all unoccupied land in any part of Australia as the property of the crown, and did not recognize the title of the aborigines. Batman, however, remained at Port Phillip, and commenced farming within the boundaries of the present city of Melbourne. He was followed by John Pascoe Fawkner and other settlers from Van Diemen Land, who occupied the fertile plains of the new territory. In 1836 Captain Lonsdale was sent to Melbourne by the government of New South Wales to act as resident magistrate in Port Phillip. The first census taken in 1838 showed that the population was 3511, of whom 3080 were males and 431 females. In 1839 Mr Latrobe was appointed superintendent of Port Phillip, and a resident judge was nominated for Melbourne, with jurisdiction over the territory which now forms the state of Victoria. The years 1840 and 1841 were periods of depression owing to the decline in the value of all descriptions of live stock, for which the first settlers had paid high prices; but there was a steady immigration from Great Britain of men with means, attracted by the profits of sheep-farming, and of labourers and artisans who obtained free passages under the provisions of the Wakefield system, under which half the proceeds from the sale and occupation of crown lands were expended upon the introduction of workers. The whole district was occupied by sheep and cattle graziers, and in 1841 the population had increased to 11,738. Melbourne was incorporated as a town in 1842, and was raised to the dignity of a city in 1847. In that same year the first Anglican was ordained, and in 1848 the first Roman Catholic bishop. The third census (taken in 1846) showed a population of 32,870.

The elective element was introduced into the Legislative Council of New South Wales in 1842, in the proportion of twenty-four members to twelve nominated by the crown, and the district of Port Phillip, including Melbourne, returned six members. But the colonists were not satisfied with government