page 92

The Australasian Colonies.

Ninety Years Ago and What They are Now.

1st, New South Wales, 1788; 2nd, Tasmania, 1825; 3rd, Western Australia, 1829; 4th, South Australia, 1836; 5th, New Zealand, 1841; 6th, Victoria, 1851; 7th, Queensland, 1859.

The first settlers arrived January 26, 1788, at Port Jackson, and planted the British flag in Sydney Cove by the little stream that then and for many years after flowed over the ground on which Sydney is built.

The population—1,030 souls, 6 cattle, and 7 horses—after in interval of ninety-three years will be found nearly as follows:—Area, 3,103,903 square miles; population, 2,603,122; land in cultivation, 6,594,757 acres; in wheat, 2,226,600 acres or 26,025,360 bushels; in oats, 340,920 acres or 8,978,498 bushels; in barley, 69,744 acres or 1,373,522 bushels; in maize, 151,489 acres or 4,836,974 bushels; in potatoes, 87,194 acres or 294,899 tons; in hay, 629,090 acres or 737,635 tons; in vines, 14,135 acres, which produced 1,592,294 gallons of wine; other crops as tobacco, cotton, bananas, sugar, &c.

The public debt, £63,607,698; average indebtedness per head, £25 5s. 9d.; exports, £45,389, 111—value per head, £17 5s. 8d.; imports, £50,545,966—value per head of exports, £19 15s. 4d. of imports, £19 12s.; revenue,,£17,357,316; raised by taxation, £6,092,812—per head, £2 7s. 10d.: Total exports and imports, £94,742,703—value of trade per head, £37 is.; miles of railway opened, 3,977; in construction, 1,160; telegraph lines opened, 25,370 miles: total miles of wire, 40,501.

Total number of horses, 1,009,878; cattle, 7,402,659; sheep, 61,066,100; pigs, 815,110.