Chapter III
VICTORIA
THE journey from Adelaide to Melbourne, the capital city of the Colony of Victoria, or the Cabbage Garden, as I heard a candid, but, I fear, jealous, Sydney man name it, can be made either by train or steamer; and, as time was an object to me, I chose the former method. The train leaves Adelaide about seven o'clock in the evening, and arrives in Melbourne shortly before noon the next day; the length of the journey being 483 miles, 196 of which are in South Australian territory, and the remainder in Victoria. Sleeping berths were provided, and the trip was most comfortably made. Our colonies are famous for their hospitality, and do not belie their reputation. On my arrival I was presented with a free pass over all the railways, and in many other ways during my visit I had proof of the proverb that a prophet hath least honour in his own country. These free passes, however, are taken quite as a matter of course by Colonial politicians; every sitting member in each of the provincial Parliaments wearing a gold token on his watch-chain, which entitles him to free transit not only over the Government lines of his own colony, but (by courtesy) over those of the whole continent. The privilege was considerably abused at one time, and was even extended to the wives and other connections of the members. During the first few miles of the journey the scenery is very picturesque, for the line climbs the Mount Lofty range by a circuitous route. Deep ravines are crossed on lofty iron bridges, and the shoulders of the hills are tunnelled through frequently; so that the scene is constantly changing, and one passes from an extended view of the great plain on which Adelaide is situated, with the city in the middle distance and the Southern Ocean beyond, into total darkness, to emerge a minute later and catch a passing glimpse of a long winding mountain gorge.
Sixty miles from Adelaide the river Murray is crossed. It is a slowly flowing river of about one-third of a mile in breadth, and of about 1,700 miles total length. It is navigable for steamers for the greater part of its course, considerable sums of money having been spent by the three colonies of South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales, through the respective borders of which it flows, in "snagging"; that is to say, in clearing from its bed the huge red gum trees which have fallen into its waters. The red gum is a valuable species of eucalyptus, very tough and durable, from which the felloes of wheels are made. It is also one of the most lasting timbers known for pier building. These trees grow close to the banks of the river, and, being gradually undermined as the earth is washed from their roots, they fall in and become what is known as a "snag." The word has been given a wider meaning, and a politician, for instance, who has been baulked in some effort is said to have run against a snag. Too many snags spoil the politician. The control of the Murray River and its tributaries formed one of the great inducements to (as well as one of the difficulties in the way of) federation; the apportionment of the respective rights of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia to draw off water for irrigating and other purposes having given rise to bitter disputes. New South Wales is said to have threatened to cut off the stream at the head, and Victoria claimed some credit for not intercepting the whole supply before it reached Adelaide. But of these things I shall have to speak in dealing with Federation as a whole.
The principal town through which the train passes on the way to Melbourne is Ballarat, where I broke my journey; famous in the gold-digging days, and contesting with the equally well-known Bendigo the honour of being the chief provincial centre of Victoria. It has a population of about 40,000. This place was in 1851 and the years immediately following one of the richest alluvial goldfields in Australia. It was here that the diggers took up arms to resist what they considered an unjust tax imposed upon them. The famous Eureka stockade was formed, which was carried by storm by the police and troops and forty or fifty miners were killed. The whole dispute really took its rise in the unnecessarily rough treatment meted out to the diggers by the police. All over the Anglo-Saxon world both police and wardens have learned to understand diggers better since then; and it is probable that the Ballarat riot, if handled properly, would have been no more serious than the manifestation which occurred at Kalgoorlie some two years ago. Peter Lalor, an Irishman, the leader of the insurgents, lost an arm in the fight. A price was put on his head, but he evaded arrest, and lived to become Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. A statue of him now stands in the main street of Ballarat. Ballarat has been a great gold producer from its discovery to the present time, and has produced, from first to last, over seventy-two millions sterling in gold. Its deep leads, or buried auriferous river-beds, are examples of cheap mining; twenty of the leading properties having returned amongst them £6,000,000, and having paid two and a half millions in dividends, while making calls of only half a million. The chief mining here, however, is in quartz. So heavily impregnated with gold is the water in the deep levels of these Victorian mines that the old hands working in them have a superstition that, when exhausted, a level has only to be left unpumped for a few years to be worth working again; and some barrels of water taken from below, hermetically sealed and shipped to Paris, are recorded, when opened after a storage of some years, to have been found to have precipitated several nuggets. Ballarat, which is a most unusually clean and pleasant place for a mining town, is remarkable chiefly for its wide, tree-planted streets and for the municipal lake of Wendouree. An economical town-councillor, criticising a proposal to beautify this lake by procuring some gondolas to float on its waters, is said innocently to have proposed to "get a pair of them and trust to Nature." As the centre of a large and very flourishing agricultural and pastoral district, Ballarat is not dependent on mining alone, but has as its near neighbours the farmers of the forest of Bungaree, as well as being within an (Australian) day's drive of the famous and hospitable squatters of Colac. It was the former whom the present Mayor of one of the municipalities into which, according to Australian custom, the place is divided, immortalised, when he thundered at an excited meeting, during a Parliamentary election, as "Men of Ballarat, and savages of Bungaree!" And it was not so very far from here that a weary sundowner, disgustedly conscious of the failure of his most lurid adjectives to convey the full tedium of his dusty tramp from the one town to the other, started a new vogue in colonial swearing by sandwiching his oaths. He had walked all the (bloomin') way, he said, from Dim-(dam)-boola to Warrackna(bloomin')-beal. The Botanical Gardens are decorated with marble statuary, bequeathed to the city, for the most part, by mining speculators. One group, the Flight from Pompeii, by Benzoni, cost over £4000.
A journey of about sixty miles further lands one in Melbourne, one of the two principal cities south of the Equator. It was named after Lord Melbourne, who was Prime Minister of England at the time it was founded, in the year 1836. It had then only a handful of enterprising settlers, and its remarkable growth has been one of the wonders of the century; for in fifty years it has developed into a city of nearly half a million inhabitants, with property of the net annual value of £15,000,000. The latest estimate, for 1897, gives the population of Melbourne and suburbs at 458,610 (as against Sydney's 417,250). During the boom period of a few years ago it rose to 470,000. But the burst of the land boom was followed by the reconstruction of the Banks: and it will be long before rents, even near the centre of the city, recover themselves, for the simple reason that its suburbs are full of empty houses and shops.
One of the first things that struck me in Melbourne was the splendid means of communication, throughout the whole place, in its system of tramways, the best, and the most costly, in the world; far superior to anything we can show in England, and only paralleled by the similar system in San Francisco. We are not likely to see anything like it in England, in any case. For this was an extravagant luxury of the boom times; and both Sydney and Perth, in choosing their new tram systems, have bowed to the demonstrated fact that electricity, while nearly as good, is much cheaper than the cable system to instal. The cars run through all the principal streets, communicating with the various suburbs, and they take you, apparently, anywhere for threepence. (A threepenny bit used to be the smallest coin in circulation in Melbourne.) There is a double line of rails, and I ascertained that there are now 54 miles of this double track in operation. The cars are neat structures, and are fitted with perforated wooden seats. One car is enclosed and one open; they start and stop without a jerk; they glide into almost instant motion at the highest speed compatible with safety; they are cool, and clean; and they are in every way suitable to the climate, and have proved very popular since running was commenced twelve years ago. The motive power is an underground cable, worked by large stationary engines about midway along each journey. I visited some of the engine-houses, and saw the splendid machinery, the enormous wheels round which the cable revolves, and the great engines doing their work almost silently. One objection to the cable system of cars is that if there is an accident to the machinery, or if a cable breaks, the whole of the cars on the line are stopped till the repairs are effected. When first the lines were opened, there were occasionally such stoppages, causing inconvenience to travellers, who, depending on them to reach a railway terminus to take perhaps a long journey, were disappointed. But now, I am informed, owing to the greater experience of the drivers (or "gripmen," as they are called), stoppages are unknown, and the ordinary citizen relies on his tramcar with as much confidence as, and perhaps more than, on his train. The company has in use over 90 miles of wire rope, costing about £40 per ton. The total amount expended on tramway construction was £1,600,000. The company obtained running powers over the streets from Parliament for thirty years. At the end of the lease the lines become the property of the various municipalities, without any charge, excepting that the tram stables have to be taken over at a valuation. Twelve years of the lease have now expired, so that in eighteen years this magnificent revenue-producing property will pass to the municipalities. As the income from traffic receipts amounts to over £330,000 a year, and the working expenses to less than £200,000, the wisdom of the policy which dictated these terms in favour of the municipalities will be at once apparent. The company sets apart a certain amount of its revenue for a sinking fund, so that at the end of its term its debt will be liquidated.
The streets of Melbourne are broad and straight, and hence they are well suited to the tram traffic. The main streets are 99 ft. in width, and between each two of those broad thoroughfares runs a narrow one, which bears the name of the principal street, with the prefix "little" added—as Collins Street, "Little Collins Street"; Bourke Street, "Little Bourke Street"; and the like. Until a few years ago, many of the relics of the very early days could be seen in the streets, small and dilapidated weatherboard shops holding their place in the midst of more pretentious structures. But within the last twelve years a great portion of the city has been rebuilt, and only a few of these antiquities can now be discovered. The other extreme has, indeed, been reached, for there are no by-laws of the city regulating the height of buildings, and therefore there was no restraint upon the builders, who, during the boom period, ran up structures from 90 ft. to 100 ft. high, and of ten to twelve stories. These stand up like towers here and there, and are a disfigurement to the architecture of the city, which, as a general rule, is very handsome and stately. There are many fine buildings, both for business and public purposes. The Town Hall is a large edifice, occupying a central position: and the city appears to be thoroughly well governed;—to be proud of and contented with the dignified and efficient traditions of its mayor and councillors, who, while occasionally, perhaps, using municipal politics as a stepping-stone to public life, have never allowed their desire for popularity to override their duty to the ratepayers. No scandals as to corruption of municipal officers or councillors have occurred. The streets are well kept and well lighted. Electric lighting companies commenced the work; but recently the city established a plant of its own, and it has now made arrangements to buy out the private companies, and to supply electricity not only for street lighting but for private use.
Melbourne has an abundant water supply; a matter of the very first concern in a warm climate. It was carried out by the Government at a cost of about three and a half millions, and was a splendidly paying concern. So lavish is the use of water that it was stated that, during one very hot day of my stay, the consumption rose to 1 20 gallons per head of the population, without exhausting the supply. A great work now in progress is the sewage of the city. This is being carried out by a specially constituted authority named the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, upon which all the municipalities are represented. The Melbourne water supply was handed over to it, Yan Yean reservoir and all, together with the responsibility for £2,400,000 borrowed by the Government for the construction of additional works. At the time this was handed over, it was thought that there would be sufficient surplus revenue from the water to enable the sewerage to be effected without any additional rate; but this has proved to be too sanguine a view, and an additional rate of one shilling in the pound will be required on all the sewered portions of the city. The works are now well advanced, and parts of the city are already connected with the sewers.
It is a curious fact that several of the suburbs of Melbourne, being anxious, in the boom times, to borrow money (as, being separate municipalities they were entitled to do), changed their names, apparently for the benefit or conviction of the British investor—as, for example, from Sandridge and Emerald Hill to Port Melbourne and South Melbourne. It might almost be hoped that they will now, having achieved their end, go back, like Sandhurst, which is now once more Bendigo, to their older titles.
Lord Brassey is Governor of Victoria, and he resides in a large mansion near the city, in the midst of well laid-out grounds. Government House is quite a landmark, for it is situated on an eminence, from whence it can be seen for miles. Lord Brassey still indulges his taste for the sea. He performed a noteworthy feat of seamanship in sailing out to take up his duties in his fine yacht, the Sunbeam. He also owns a smaller boat, and is president of the principal sailing club. He is noted for his many and weighty speeches on a wide range of topics. As the leader of society in Victoria, Lady Brassey is very popular.
There are, as is usual in the colonies, two Houses of Parliament; the Legislative Assembly being the popular chamber, and the Legislative Council the representative of property and stability. It is in fact the ratepayers' house, as only owners of property to the extent of £10 annual value, and lessees of £25 annual value, have votes. For the Assembly every ratepayer has a vote, and also every male person of the age of twenty-one years, who has been resident for one year, and takes out an elector's right. The members of the Assembly are paid £300 a year each for their services, and this payment of members is universal throughout the colonies, except, as has been said, in Western Australia. The absence of a leisured class has made the practice almost a necessity. Yet it is worthy of remark that the "amateur," or unpaid, politicians of Western Australia are almost a by-word, at the moment, amongst their fellows, for what is held to be their excessive astuteness and tenacity in safeguarding the interests of their own colony. The amount of the payment varies in the different colonies; and it will, we may hope, be readjusted, or abolished, after Federation. Members of the Federal Parliament will be paid £400.
The Right Honourable Sir George Turner, who is Premier, has held office for over four years. It is a matter worthy of note that existing Ministries in all the colonies have been in possession of power for an unusually long time; almost all for over four years, some for over five. The average duration of Ministries in the past has been much shorter than this. In South Australia it was about ten months only; in Victoria about eighteen months. Whilst I was in Melbourne a Ministerial crisis arose, chiefly because the Premier lost his temper; but within twenty-four hours all was arranged, and peace reigned supreme once more. These longer-lived Ministries have been coincident with the period of depression, except in the case of Western Australia, where Sir John Forrest's extraordinary tenure of power, which he has held ever since the colony obtained self-government, is perhaps chiefly due to the fact that no one has come forward to replace him. Elsewhere, political differences have been for the time laid aside, in order that Ministries which have instituted a steady course of retrenchment should have a fair opportunity to carry out their reforms. A policy of retrenchment is, however, one of which democracies soon tire; and already what is termed a bold progressive policy has been forced upon the Victorian Government. A loan of two and a half millions has been authorised, one million of which is for expenditure in railway construction and other public works, and the remainder for the conversion of a loan of one and a half millions, falling due in 1899. Sir George Turner is of a retiring disposition, hating all the public appearances necessary in connection with his position. He is a very hard worker, a great master of detail, and a plain, straightforward, lucid speaker, making no pretentions to the name of orator. In politics, like Mr Reid, the late Sir Henry Parkes, or, for that matter, most successful Australian Premiers, he may be termed an opportunist, having no definite or far-reaching views, but being quick to discern and follow the movements of public opinion. Many of his friends have stated that, if he followed his own judgment, he would not advocate a return to a free expenditure upon public works; and, indeed, most of his past utterances belie his present action. But if he had not proposed such a policy, some one else would have done so; and he bows to the public will. When I ventured to remark to a Victorian politician that possibly it would have been more honest had the Government had the courage of their opinions, I was told, and I am bound to admit, with some justification, that people who lived in glass houses should not throw stones. It seems likely, in view of the eclipse of Mr Reid, that Sir George Turner will be the first Premier of the Commonwealth.
In Victoria the policy of Protection has been carried to as great an extreme as it has reached in any part of the world. Sir Graham Berry, formerly Premier for several years, more recently Agent-General in England, and afterwards Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, built his reputation upon the advocacy of Protection. So far was this policy carried that "ad valorem" duties of from 50 to 60 per cent were placed upon many articles, whilst the fixed duties often reached as high as 150 to 200 per cent. This created a reaction, and some of the duties have been modified in recent years; but still they are higher than in any Australian colony. The promises held out when the policy was introduced have not been carried out, and the bright hopes entertained have not been fulfilled. Victoria is a colony of such great natural resources that it was bound to progress in spite of its Protectionist tariff rather than because of it. Sir Graham Berry promised thirty years ago that he would make the colony a paradise for the working man. If it is so, then the working man does not realise his privileges, for nowhere in Australia is there greater discontent; whilst the problem of what to do with the unemployed is always present It is a theme of constant discussion in Parliament, and the renewal of a borrowing policy is mainly justified on the plea that work must be found for the workless. There is an Anti-Sweating League in Melbourne, which is mainly composed of members of the Protectionist Association, and the deliverances of the same men in their different capacities are strikingly inconsistent. On the one hand they claim that Victoria owes almost everything it possesses to the Protectionist policy, which has been a brilliant success. On the other hand they present reports of misery and destitution amongst factory workers, of unconscionably long hours and wretchedly poor pay, which could not be exceeded in heart-rending detail in the thickly populated lands of Europe.
Victoria has one of the most severe Factories Acts which have ever been enacted. Boards are appointed to fix rates of remuneration in various trades, such as furniture, boot and shoe-making, clothing, and white work. No one is permitted to work outside a factory without receiving a permit from the chief inspector. The competition of the alien races is most severely restrained. One Chinaman working at the furniture trade is by law a factory, and is treated, and inspected, as such. The effect of all this legislation has been to make the condition of the slow, the aged, or the unhealthy workman worse than ever, the tendency being to drive all factories to employ only the best hands. It does not pay them to find room for the slow at piecework, and factories are not allowed to give the work out except under stringent conditions. When a minimum weekly or daily wage is fixed, as it is in some cases, only those who are well worth that wage are employed, and inferior or slow workmen have been driven out of work altogether, in spite of their piteous appeals to be allowed to earn what they can, and in spite of the reluctance of humane employers to refuse work to such cases. So great was the cruelty in many instances that the Chief Secretary has been obliged to break his own law, or to wink at its evasions. But the cry is for still more legislation, and just before the last session closed a Bill was introduced which provided that, where the door of any shop was found to be open after the closing hours fixed by law, the occupier should be deemed to be selling after hours, and be required to prove a negative to avoid a fine. At this proposal the Assembly revolted, and it was struck out; for it was pointed out that in hundreds of cases in the metropolis the front door of the shops is the only safe entry, after nightfall, to the dwelling attached. The dominion of the petty inspector is rapidly extending and becoming more burdensome. Whenever he finds a difficulty in obtaining a conviction, he asks for an amendment of the law; but fortunately there is a point at which the common sense of the community revolts, as in the instance given.
The reason Protection has obtained such sway in Victoria is that it secured the adherence of the working classes, being at the outset advocated by Liberal politicians: thus it came to be regarded as the Liberal policy. In New South Wales the reverse happened. And there the working men are clamorous in their defence of their favourite doctrine of Free-trade. Nothing is more surprising, to the traveller, than to hear the working men of Melbourne "boo-hoo" whenever Free-trade is mentioned, and to hear the same class of men in Sydney cheer it lustily. The truth is that in Australia the question has never become one of principle, but has been considered rather, as, after all, perhaps, it ought to be, as a matter, for the balance of local and immediate expediencies. Both parties are gratified by the arrangement come to for the Federal Commonwealth: which provides for Protection against the outside world, and for Inter-Colonial Free-trade.
A law which has been found to work well in Victoria is that which enables the Government credit to be made use of to provide money at a cheap rate for settlers who have security to offer. Commissioners are appointed to administer the Act; they make advances up to two-thirds of the value of freeholds at 3 per cent, with a small amount for a sinking fund added, the repayments being spread over a long series of years. The system has been in operation for several years, and hundreds of thousands of pounds have been thus advanced; whilst the default has been so small as not to be worth mentioning, though the colony has been passing through a period of prolonged drought. The working of the Act is strictly guarded from political interference.
Large areas of the best lands of the colony were bought up in the early days and formed into great grazing stations. Natural causes are gradually operating to break up these large estates. Fathers die, and, as there is no entail, the land is divided amongst their sons; while some owners are tempted into disastrous speculations in great sheep stations in the far north of the continent, and are obliged to sell to meet their engagements. It is thought, however, that the process of disintegration is too slow, and provision has been made in a Land Bill just passed to allow the Government to make purchases of land where the owner is willing, and then to lease or sell it on long terms in small farms to persons who will put it to a profitable use. A similar practice obtains, as we shall see, in New Zealand, Queensland, and elsewhere. It was proposed to give the power of compulsory purchase, but this was fiercely combatted in the Lower House, and rejected by an overwhelming majority in the Council. The Legislative Council of Victoria is probably the most powerful institution in the Australian colonies. The weight and local influence of its members makes it impregnable to the assaults of the demagogue: and not on this occasion only has it been able to save private rights from unnecessary spoliation. At the same time, there is no doubt that the future, in Victoria, is with the small holding. The real founder of Victoria, Mr Henty, was also its first agriculturist: whose plough is preserved in Melbourne as a sacred relic to this day. But the pastoralist, naturally, had the first innings; and the day of mining and its attendant commerce followed. Agriculture has been progressing less and less slowly during the last quarter of a century: but it may be said to be still only in its initial stage; a fact which no one appreciates more clearly than Mr Taverner, the energetic Minister of Agriculture, Measuring about 420 miles from east to west, by 250 from north to south, with an area, roughly, of 88,000 sq. miles, Victoria is the smallest colony on the continent, its area being about equal to that of Great Britain. One thirty-fourth part of Australia, it contains one-third of her inhabitants; and has a density of population equal to thirteen and a half souls to the sq. mile as against four and a quarter in New South Wales, and one in the colonies as a whole. Of a total of 1,170,000 souls, (65 per cent, of whom are native-born Australians, a mere 215,000 being British, and 85,000 Irish), 458,000 are settled in Greater Melbourne: leaving for the country districts but little more than 700,000, of whom half are females. 350,000 males, then, had, in 1898, 3,240,000 acres under cultivation of some sort, as cultivation is understood in Australia, out of a total territory of 88,000 sq. miles; turning out in agricultural produce the equivalent of five millions sterling, and in pastoral (to leave mining for the present out of the account) seven and a half millions. It will be profitable to turn aside for a moment to consider the history of the Hen ties. In Horsefield's History of Sussex, it is written:—"In the year 1796, Thomas Henty, Esq., purchased the demesne lands in this parish (West Tarring), consisting of 281 acres. … The breed of merino sheep has been brought by Mr Henty to great perfection, and from his flock many have been sent to New South Wales." Mr Henty, we have it on good authority, took first prize wherever he exhibited his sheep in England, till at last he became an exhibitor merely for honour, being barred from taking prizes, on account of the immense superiority of his sheep over those of any other flock in Great Britain. His flock, which was formed with pure merinoes from that kept by H.M. George III., was sent out in part to Western Australia; where James Henty took up a location of 1500 acres in 1829, But the early months of settlement on the Swan were full of wet, misery, and blundering; scab, and discouragement. The merinoes, which were in charge of Mr Henty's sons, did not thrive on the salt-bush of Fremantle. They were shipped to Tasmania in the Cornwallis, where they were joined by Mr Henty himself with the rest of the flock. Dissatisfied with Western Australia; finding both Colonies full of scab; and unable, again, to obtain certain lands he had been promised in Tasmania, Mr Henty sailed in 1834 for Portland Bay, on the Australian main, in what was then an unknown land, where he was free from neighbours, disease, and Government interference. And this was the real foundation of Victoria; though Batman sailed also from Tasmania next year in the schooner Rebecca, ascended and named the Yarra, and tried to buy the site of Melbourne for thirty tomahawks, some trousers, and 100 lbs, of flour. It was Henty's merinoes, bred on the pastures of the Western District, that stamped Port Phillip wool, as the most valuable wool in the world, with a primacy which it still retains; though MacArthur's sheep from the Cape, connected, by the way, with that same flock of George III.'s, had reached New South Wales in 1797. The great flats and rolling downs of Colac and Camperdown were marked out and occupied by the Robertsons and other allied families, mostly of Tasmanian extraction; and Victoria was a land of flocks and herds for many a day to come. Henty, indeed, tried agriculture, as his plough is there to testify: but the Henties tried everything,—many things which are now forgotten included,—such as whaling, which they carried on with success from Portland as well as in Western Australia. Even the gold rush, which gave a market to the graziers, rather discouraged agriculture, until the decay of mining, in the period of transition from alluvial to reefing, before the value of the deep levels was established, threw some of the miners back upon the cultivation of the soil. The separation of the colony from New South Wales was obtained by great efforts. It was held that, being a remote district, it was neglected. So keen did the feeling become that the electors of Port Phillip District, as Victoria was then called, refused to send an actual representative to the Sydney Parliament, and elected Earl Grey, who was then Secretary of State for the Colonies, as their member. This drew pointed attention to the grievances of the settlers, and the Privy Council decreed the separation of the present colony from the parent stem, the river Murray becoming the boundary. It is alleged that it was owing to a mistake of a clerk in the office of the Secretary of State for the Colonies in writing "Murray" instead of "Murrumbidgee"—(perhaps he found the former easier to spell) — that the Murrumbidgee was not made the boundary, that being the original intention. This would have given Victoria a large additional extent of fertile land; and she was left with a hankering for extensions even so lately as the 'eighties, when there was still talk of the Debateable Land on the South Australian boundary, and a vague notion of annexing the Riverina was a constant source of alarm to New South Wales. However, at the time, so delighted were the colonists with their success, that Separation Day was proclaimed a public holiday: and it was continually observed as such until a few years ago, when it seemed so inconsistent with the desire for federation to be still celebrating separation that the day was taken out of the list of public holidays.
It was the discovery of gold in 1851 which sent the colony forward by leaps and bounds, attracting population from all parts of the world. I cannot retell that old story, but let it be stated that from that time to the present over 63,000,000 ounces of gold have been produced in the colony, of the value of £250,000,000, and gold production is still going on at the rate of 800,000 ounces a year. Bendigo is the main gold-producing centre, after Ballarat; having a record of some fifty odd millions sterling. It has been frequently alleged that Lord Salisbury was once a digger on the Bendigo goldfield, and it is undoubtedly a fact that he visited the colony in the height of the gold fever. Some few years ago a colonist wrote to the Prime Minister on the subject, and received a reply stating that Lord Robert Cecil certainly visited the colony, and that he journeyed to the goldfield, and stayed there as a guest of a Government officer. But his residence, unfortunately for the tradition, was for a few days only; and he could have seen little of the practical side of mining. Bendigo is a most important provincial centre, having a population, as we have seen, of about 40,000. The deepest gold mine in the world is in this district; Mr Lansell, a wealthy and public-spirited mine owner, having sunk a shaft to a depth of 3350 feet, practically two-thirds of a mile, and at that great depth the mine is still auriferous. There are eleven other mines in Bendigo which have been sunk over 2400 feet—five of them are down to the 3000 feet level and over; and mining will probably be possible at 4000 feet, so far as the heat of the rock is concerned. There are many other private mine owners in Victoria, though Mr Lansell is by far the most successful and best known. The industry, so far, has been carried on, fortunately for the colony, as is the case with Queensland mining, almost entirely with locally-provided capital. The Victorian bred manager is perhaps rather given to the rule-of-thumb, and has been supplemented or superseded, in the great mines of Western Australia, by engineers of American experience and training, and by mining chemists from Germany. But, both for prospecting for reefs, and for "following the gold" in the earlier stages of a mine's development, it is probable that Victoria is the true home of mining knowledge in the English-speaking world. Cornish and Welsh labour, for reasons which are notorious amongst practical men, requires careful supervision.
Nearly one-third of the world's annual production of gold is raised in the Australasian colonies, and amongst these Victoria is not yet tired of claiming the premier position. The real fact is that Western Australia is easily first, and must remain so, in all human likelihood, for many years to come; while, though the Victorian yield for 1897 was 812,000 ounces (say £3,250,000) as against Queensland's 807,000, the Queensland figures for 1898 overpassed that limit by 100,000 ounces, and left Victoria hopelessly behind. The enthusiasm for gold dredging, which the speculators of Melbourne have caught from New Zealand, is not likely appreciably to swell the gold returns, as many of the claims pegged out are distinctly wild-cat.
It must not be supposed from anything I have said that Victoria has not established manufactures. On the contrary, she has only lately recovered from a craze which was leading her to sacrifice everything to the attempt to acclimatise them. There are in the colony 50,000 people engaged in manufactures: though it is true that New South Wales, the Free-trade Colony, has just about the same number, and that there is a larger proportion of females working in factories in Victoria than in New South Wales. Woollen mills, tanneries, potteries, agricultural implement works, coach factories, and many more works are very successful in their productions.
The point is, however, that it is not to its manufactures but to its productions that Victoria must look for its future prosperity. There are 300,000 workers in the natural industries, which, from the nature of the case, cannot be protected, for they depend for their success now, or must ultimately do so, on ability to compete in the markets of the world. Wheat, wool and gold are the staple productions at present. The dairying industry has been very profitably developed. Its great rise is due to the system of co-operative production. Factories are established in which the dairymen are shareholders, and butter of first-class quality is produced at an economical rate. A few years ago there was no export of this product to England, Now they are sending over £1,000,000 worth a year. The visit of the delegates of the Manchester Co-operative Association a year or two ago was very highly appreciated in the colonies. What the practical results of it have been I am unable to say; but the spirit of Englishmen who evinced a desire to trade with their own kinsmen was warmly recognised, and personally the delegates were very popular. The butter produced from the sunny fields and sweet herbage of Australia should be superior to that of stall-fed cattle. At any rate, this industry is rapidly growing, and it has been very useful in showing how a large population may be settled on some of the great areas previously given over to sheep and cattle.
Fruit can be grown in abundance all over Victoria. There are 40,000 acres of orchards in the colony, and the export of apples to England is a large and growing one. Great care is now being taken to ascertain the best varieties for export, and to grow them. There are apple orchards in Victoria of 200 acres in extent. Packing, which is the chief difficulty to the British fruit-grower, seems to give trouble also in Australia. We are not so neat-handed as the Americans. 27,000 acres are down in vines, and about 23,000 acres are bearing, the produce being over 2,000,000 gallons per annum. A great deal is being done in this trade, also, by co-operation, through wineries, or wine factories. But the future all over Australia lies, probably, for perfection, with light wines, and, for those who prefer rough methods of production, with grape brandy. Growers should remember the history of Marsala, and of the Cape wines. A permanent wine trade in England is only to be secured from the top. The famous, or notorious, settlement of Mildura, on the Murray, carried out at first on too expensive a scale, has, so far as production is concerned, shown wonderful results. But, placed too far from a market, and requiring a large original outlay from the settlers, it has proved a disappointment to many. The Government has come to the assistance of the settlers, and advanced £40,000 for the purpose of putting the irrigation works in order. A railway to the settlement has also been authorised by Parliament, and will be constructed within a year or two. One of the greatest obstacles to progress will then be overcome, for, depending on river communication as they do now, the orchards are shut out from their markets for four months in the year, just when their produce is ready; for the Murray is not navigable all the year round.
The colony is fifty-six million acres in extent. Twenty-three million acres have been alienated to private owners; and of the 30,000,000 acres available for settlement. 11,500,000 are in the mallee scrub. The wheat of Victoria, like that of South Australia, is the best in the world; and it is very cheaply harvested. But the available Crown lands are mainly taken up, and the only means now of obtaining the fee-simple of Government land is by taking up a 1000 acre agricultural and grazing block, and selecting 320 acres for freehold out of it. This is only possible to the successful applicant to whom a land board awards the right of leasing these blocks, the applicants on every occasion being many more than there is land to go round for. The rise in the price of land which may be expected to follow in Victoria on the alienation of the last available blocks will probably hasten the rush for the soil in the other colonies. Western Australia, owing to her peculiar conditions of settlement and to the patchy nature of her lands, is already, for practical purposes, almost in the same stage as Victoria in this respect. The latter colony has been a large exporter of wheat to the United Kingdom this season, having shipped over 2,000,000 bags during the first thirty-one weeks of the year. The average yield, for nearly a decade, has not exceeded 8 bushels; but agricultural authorities have advised the farmers to adopt better mechanical means, a more rational system of manure, and a more careful selection of seed, assuring them that if they only increase their yield by 2 bushels to the acre they will increase the wealth of the colony by £400,000 a year.
What I have said as to education in South Australia applies also to Victoria, where the system is similarly free, secular, and compulsory. The masses are well educated in their way, and there are no illiterates to speak of. On the other hand, sound learning is scarcely indigenous. The University of Melbourne is a fine institution, and its degrees high rank in the teaching world. It is perhaps, however, only natural that the more likely students, who have ideas of scholarship rather above the pass, or professional, standard, should come home to breathe the atmosphere of Europe.