The State of Tasmania is an island to the south of Victoria and separated from it by Bass Strait.

The Colony of New Zealand consists of two large islands, and a number of smaller islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about 1,200 miles to the south-east of Australia.

The Fiji Islands, a British Crown Colony, are also situated in the Pacific, about 1,000 miles north of New Zealand.

British New Guinea includes the southern and south-eastern part of the island of New Guinea, which lies off the north-eastern coast of Australia, at a distance of about 60 miles from it.

EXTENT: Some idea of the immense extent of Australasia may be gained by comparing the areas of the various colonies with that of Great Britain and other countries. Australia alone has an area of nearly 3,000,000 square miles, or 33 times that of Great Britain, while New Zealand, Fiji, and British New Guinea have together an area of 200,000 square miles, or nearly 31⁄2 times that of England and Wales.

Australasia has thus a total area of no less than 3,174,000 square miles, or 26 times the size of Great Britain and Ireland, 15%1⁄2 times the size of France, and rather larger than that of the United States of North America, and only about one-sixth smaller than that of all the countries of Europe taken together.

The proportion in size of the Australian states to each other and to the whole continent may be readily seen by the following comparison :-If the continent were divided into 100 equal parts, Victoria would comprise 3 such parts; New South Wales, 10; Queensland, 23; South Australia, 30; and Western Australia, 34.1

DISCOVERY: The "Great South Land" was probably first seen by a French navigator in 1503, but it was not practically made known to the world until 1770, when the famous Captain Cook explored the whole eastern coast, from Cape Howe to Cape York, and took formal possession of the country, to which he gave the name of New South Wales, from a real or fancied resemblance to the southern part of the Principality.

During the long period between its first discovery and the visit of Captain Cook, portions of the coast of New Holland, as it was then called, were sighted by Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and English navigators, and their discoveries may be traced by the names which they gave to various portions of the coast. Thus, Dirk Hartog, the captain of a Dutch vessel, gave his own name to the large island on the west side of Sharks Bay, and another captain of a Dutch ship discovered and named Cape Leeuwin (Lioness), the southwestern extremity of Australia, after his vessel. The first Englishman who trod Australian soil was the bold buccaneer, Dampier, who sailed along the western coast as far as Cape Lévêque, in 1688, and again in 1699 explored the north-west coast of West Australia, leaving his name to be perpetuated in Dampier Archipelago and Dampier Land. Torres, a Spaniard, passed through the strait which bears his name in 1606, and Tasman, an enterprising and

1. The Australian Handbook (Gordon & Gotch).

skilful Dutch navigator, in 1642 discovered Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land, after Van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, who had commissioned him to explore the "Great South Land." Tas man also was the first European to make known the existence of New Zealand: he sighted it in 1642, and gave it the name, first of all, of Staatenland, after wards altering it to Nova Zeelanda. No European landed on the shores of New Zealand until 1769, when the great navigator, Cook, disembarked at Poverty Bay, on the east coast of the North Island, and subsequently took formal possession of both North and South Island in the name of His Britannic Majesty King George III. In April, 1770, Cook discovered and named Cape Howe on the south-eastern coast of Australia, and subsequently explored and named the chief features along the whole eastern coast. In 1791, Captain Vancouver explored the south coast, and in 1801 a French expedition, comprising the Géographe and the Naturaliste, under Baudin and Freycinet, explored and named a considerable portion of what is now the south-western coast of West Australia. In the following year, Flinders sailed round the island-continent and gave it the name of "Australia."

The Fijian Archipelago was discovered by Tasman, the discoverer of New Zealand and Tasmania, in 1643, but remained unvisited until Captain Cook touched at one of the eastern islands. As for New Guinea, it was sighted by a Portuguese navigator as early as 1526, and, two years later, another Portuguese explorer landed on its shores. In 1545, a Spanish mariner coasted along the northern shore, and gave it the name of Nueva Guinea, from some fancied resemblance it bore to the Guinea Coast on the west of Africa. The Spaniard, Torres, sailed through the strait named after him, in 1606. In 1643, Tasman explored part of the coast; and 56 years later, in 1699, Dampier, in the Rebuck, circumnavigated the island.

SETTLEMENT: The first settlement in Australia was formed in 1788 at Sydney Cove, the neighbourhood of Botany Bay, which had been, on Cook's recommendation, chosen as the site of the new settlement, being found utterly unsuitable.

For many years after the arrival of the "First Fleet" with convicts and soldiers, who were landed at Botany Bay, but shortly afterwards removed to Sydney Cove and settled on the site of the present city of Sydney, settlement was restricted to the coastlands, and it was not until 1813 that a passage across the wild and rugged ranges known as the Blue Mountains was found, and the fine western plains, on which the city of Bathurst now stands, discovered, and a road opened into the vast interior. Settlements were formed in Western Australia, on King George Sound and the Swan River, in 1829, in order to forestall the French, who were suspected of having an idea of forming settle. ments in that part of the island. Melbourne was founded, in what was then the Port Phillip District of the colony of New South Wales, in 1835, but Victoria was not formed into a separate colony until 1851. South Australia was colonized by British emigrants in 1836, and New Zealand in 1838, but a European settlement had been established at the Bay of Islands in 1814. Tasmania had been settled as a penal colony in 1803, and in the same year an attempt was made to establish a convict settlement at Port Phillip, but had to be abandoned. The settlement of Queensland dates from 1825, when the first batch of convicts was landed at Eagle Farm, near the site of the present city of Brisbane. But although all the Australian Colonies, with the exception of South Australia and Victoria, were founded as penal settlements and for many years received

the rejected elements of society from the mother country, yet an increasing number of immigrants, attracted by the opening up of the rich pastoral lands in the interior, and, above all, by the discovery of gold, and a succession of intrepid explorers and wise and resolute governors, in time overcame all difficulties, and at length the colonies embarked on a career of steady progress, until Australia can now claim a foremost rank in the Empire in respect of efficient administration of the law, eminent security of life and property, and the most favourable social, moral, and material surroundings.

EXPLORATION: Since the discovery and occupation of Australia, a succession of dauntless explorers have crossed and recrossed the continent, in order to ascertain its character and capabilities for settlement.

The discovery and the opening up of the interior of Australia is associated with a crowd of famous names, such as Lawson, who first crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813; Evans and Oxley, who explored the Lachlan and the Macquarie in 1817-18-Oxley, some years later, in 1823, discovering the Brisbane River; Hume and Hovell, who, in 1824, crossed the Murray (then called the Hume), and traversed what is now the Colony of Victoria; the well-known botanist, Allan Cunningham, who, in 1827, discovered the rich pastoral and agricultural country now known as the Darling Downs; Captain Sturt, who, in 1828, traced the Macquarie and the Darling, and, in the following year, the Murrumbidgee to its confluence with the Murray, the "Queen of Australian rivers," which he followed down to Lake Alexandrina, but was unable to find its outlet into the sea; Batman and Fawkner, famous, not as explorers, but as the founders of Melbourne; Count Strzlecki, the explorer of the Australian Alps and the discoverer of Mount Kosciusko (1840); Edward John Eyre, who, in 1840, made known the vast salt lakes to the north of Spencer Gulf; Ludwig Leichhardt, a dauntless explorer, who crossed the continent from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, and perished, in 1848, in another attempt to cross the continent from the Eastern to the Western Sea; the three brothers Gregory, who gave 15 years to the exploration of Western Australia; Sir Thomas Mitchell, who discovered several rivers in what is now Central Queensland; Baron Von Mueller, engaged from 1847 to 1862 in various important explorations (the Australian Alps, the Kimberley District, &c.); John McDouall Stuart, the most celebrated of Australian explorers, who determined to cross the continent from south to north, and camped in the centre of Australia in 1860, but was compelled to return by the hostility of the natives; he again tried and failed in 1861, but, nothing daunted, started the third time, and on July 25th, 1862, planted the British flag on the shores of the Indian Ocean; the intrepid but unfortunate Burke and Wills, who successfully crossed the continent from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but perished miserably of starvation at Cooper's Creek, on the return journey, only one of the party-King, who was found barely alive at a native camp-survived; Major Warburton, who with a troop of camels crossed the solitudes of Western Australia, between the Trans-continental Telegraph line and the De Grey River; John and Alexander Forrest and Ernest Giles, the explorers of Western and Central Australia. Other surveyors and explorers have since made known large areas of the interior, and in time the whole country will be mapped out. Of more recent expedi tions, the most important have been those undertaken at the cost of Sir Thomas Elder, under the leadership of David Lindsay, and the ill-fated Calvert Expedition, two of whose members, Ch. Wells and J. W. Jones, were lost, and perished of thirst.

Unexplored Australia of the present day," says Mr. Ernest Favenc, a recent explorer, "is almost, or quite, confined to two colonies-Western Australia, and a large portion of the Northern Territory of South Australia. To arrive at the extent of unknown territory that we possess, we may assume:-New South Wales and Victoria have an area of over 400,000 square miles, almost every mile of which is fairly known; Queensland may still have a comparatively small extent of unknown land in the far northern peninsula; South Australia has at least 250,000 square miles unexplored or but little known; and the huge Colony of Western Australia can claim more than half-a-million of square miles, just crossed at intervals by the tracks of Giles, Forrest, Warburton, Lindsay, and others. The continent of Australia is almost fairly bisected by the overland telegraph line, which may be considered a line of demarcation between the explored and the unexplored portions."

GOVERNMENT: All the Australian States and Colonies, except Fiji and British New Guinea, which are Crown Colonies, possess responsible government.

The form of government is similiar to that of the United Kingdom. At the head of the executive in each colony is a Governor, representing the King, and appointed by the Crown. The legislative power is vested in a Parliament of two Houses-the Legislative Council, nominated or elected, corresponding to the British House of Lords, and the Legislative Assembly, elected by the people, exercising similar powers to the British House of Commons.

The Commonwealth of Australia, which consists of the six original States of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania, came into being on January 1st, 1901. The affairs of the Commonwealth are vested in a Governor-General (who represents the King), a Senate, and a House of Representatives. Each State sends 6 members to the Senate. The number of Representatives is 75, distributed among the States according to population as follows:-New South Wales, 26; Victoria, 23; Queensland, 9; South Australia, 7; Western Australia, 5; and Tasmania, 5. No State can have less than 5 members. The Federal Parliament has control over the external affairs, trade and customs, defence, postal and telegraphic services, railways, shipping, lighthouses, finance, currency, &c.

The Executive Government is vested in the Governor-General, who can summon and dismiss at his pleasure the 7 members, who, as the "King's Ministers of State for the Commonwealth," are to administer the great depart. ments of State, and are to form the Executive Council, which is to aid and advise him in the government.

As to Finance and Trade, uniform duties of customs are imposed, and absolutely free trade between the States in the Union is established, subject to certain countervailing duties, which cease about 1903.

The powers, privileges, and territorial rights of the seve al existing States shall remain intact, except in respect to the powers exclusively vested in the

1. Mr. Favenc is of opinion that good habitable | Queensland, revealing the fact that, in many of the country and enormous areas of well-watered pasture land may still be found in what is generally supposed to be, on the authority of the explorers who have crossed it-Giles, Forrest, and Warburton-the Central Desert, unfit to sustain human life, and impracticable for settlement. According to the Australian Handbook, several successful boring operations have been carried on in several parts of

driest tracts, unlimited water supply is to be found at a few hundred feet below the surface. Where there is a permanent stream, otherwise worthless land can be cultivated by means of irrigation, and most successful experiments in this direction have been made on the great Irrigation Colonies, established by Messrs. Chaffey Brothers at Mildura in Victoria, and at Renmark in South Australia.

Federal Government. But no State law can be passed antagonistic to, cr nconsistent with, a federal law; although the State Governors are to be appointed by the King as before, all communications with the Home Government must pass through the Governor-General. The boundaries of existing States may be altered and new States formed with the consent of the States affected.

The "Flag of the Commonwealth" is the Union Jack on a blue or red ground, with a white six-pointed star in one quarter representing the six original States, and the "Southern Cross."

The area of the "Commonwealth" is 2,972,573 square miles, with a popula tion in 1900 of 3,800,000 inhabitants. The federal power is entitled to one fourth of the customs revenue, but the bulk is returned to the several State Treasuries. In 1902-3 about £7,500,000 was returned in this way, the sum left for actual Commonwealth purposes being about £4,000,000. The joint incomes of the six states amount to £30,000,000 a year.1

AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIA, the "Southern Land," is, strictly speaking, an island, but it is of such an immense size that it may well be regarded as a continent.

As an island, Australia is by far the largest in the world. Greenland is th next in size, and New Guinea, the third largest island, is only one-tenth the size of Australia.

As a continent, Australia is the smallest of the six great land-masses on the surface of the globe. But it is not much inferior in extent to Europe, which is only about one-fifth larger.

The greater part of South America, and a considerable portion of Africa, are within the Southern Hemisphere, but Australia is the only one of the continents wholly to the south of the Equator, its extreme northern point being in nearly 11° South lat., or 770 miles from it."

BOUNDARIES: Australia is bounded by the ocean on every side-by the Pacific on the east, the Indian Ocean on the west, and the Southern Ocean on the south, while Torres Strait, the Arafura Sea, and the Timor Sea, separate it from the Melanesian and East Indian Archipelagoes on the north, and Bass Strait from the island of Tasmania on the south-east.

1. The Commonwealth is appreciated by ad- and for defence. The Zollverein would certainly vocates of Imperial Federation, and indeed, if be of incalculable benefit to the empire, while the South Africa would but follow the example of Kriegsverein appears to be absolutely essential to Canada and Australia, some definite scheme of the maintenance of its integrity. Federation might be formulated on the boses of a Zollverein and a Krugsverein, or a union for trade

2. The southernmost point of Europe is 360 N lat.. or 9.502 miles north of the Equator,