Page:The British Empire in the nineteenth century Volume VI.djvu/222

 The imports for the year 1896 (with a recovery from previous decline) exceeded £5,433,000 in value, of which goods worth nearly 2½ millions came from the United Kingdom, chiefly in apparel and haberdashery; cottons and woollens; and wrought and unwrought iron. The other imports of the colony were beer, ale, wine, spirits, and tobacco; tea, flour, paper, stationery (including books); rice, oilmen's stores, and boots and shoes. The total tonnage entering and cleared from the ports (exclusive of the very large coasting trade with neighbouring Australian colonies) was 1,094,000 in 1896, nearly all being British vessels. Returning for a moment to the mineral resources of Queensland, we find that, with coal-fields to have an area of 24,000 square miles, the output in 1896, chiefly from mines at Ipswich, near Brisbane; at Burrum, near Maryborough; and at Cooktown, amounted to 371,000 tons, valued at £155,000; and that, up to the end of 1896, the gold-fields had yielded metal to the total amount of 11,198,190 ounces, worth over 39 millions sterling.

BRISBANE, youngest of Australian capital cities, and by far the largest town and port of Queensland, stretches for a considerable distance on both banks of the Brisbane River, picturesquely placed on a series of hills sloping up from the stream at a point, about 24 miles from the river-mouth in Moreton Bay, where the river winds in a double curve. The Brisbane is there about a quarter of a mile in width, and, having the entrance to the port well lighted and buoyed, admits at all times, to the extensive wharves on each side, below bridge, vessels drawing over 2 1 feet. The city lies by railway about 500 miles north of Sydney, and 60 miles north of the southern boundary of the colony, and, within a circle of 5 miles radius, embracing the two municipalities of Brisbane and South Brisbane, has a population now nearly approaching 100,000. Well supplied with water from the neighbouring hills, efficiently drained, gas-lit and well paved, Brisbane contains a good number of fine buildings, public and private, including two cathedrals, over forty churches, a Parliament House erected at a cost of ,100,000, the splendid National Bank, a School of Arts, Museum, and Town Hall. Among the chief structures is the Queensland Club, the most pleasing in Australia for exterior and position. One facade commands a view over the Botanical Gardens,, which front the river, and have a glorious display of semi-tropical vegetation, being