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
