now competing for employments of this description. The emigration of needlewomen, housekeepers, governesses, and others of the class who have not been accustomed to domestic service, is not encouraged. The description of female emigrants most required are general servants, who can cook and wash, etc., housemaids, good cooks, and industrious strong girls who can cook a little, milk a cow, make butter, and are accustomed to other farm and dairy work."

From New South Wales and South Australia, from Tasmania and New Zealand, similar advice is sent home. In Tasmania, “female domestic servants who thoroughly understand household work are in constant demand, at wages varying from £20 to £30 per year. Agricultural labourers always find employment at high wages, with rations of meat, flour, tea, and sugar, and dwellings rent free. Tailors, shoemakers, and brassfounders are of artizan labourers the most in demand at present." In New Zealand, 66 good female domestic servants are wanted throughout the colony. Young men of no particular profession and without capital fail to procure employment; and those brought up to mercantile pursuits are equally unsuccessful."

Concerning Queensland, the Australasian colony in which there is most room for the enterprise of settlers able to buy or lease land and stock it for agriculture or pasturage, the following observations are especially worth extracting: "The colony possesses numerous harbours, of which Moreton Bay is the principal. Anchorage may be found in almost any part of it, under shelter of the numerous shoals. It is about forty miles long north and south by seventeen miles wide, and receives the waters of five navigable rivers, viz., the Arrowsmith, the Logan, the Brisbane, the Pine, and the Cabulture. Most of these rivers have, however, a bar entrance. Besides Moreton Bay, there are Keppel Bay, Hervey's Bay, Port Curtis, Port Bowen, Port Denison, Cleveland Bay, Rockingham Bay, Port Albany (near Cape York), and several other smaller harbours on the eastern sea-board of Queensland. The principal harbour at the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria is at Investigator Road. There are already settlements at or near all the above-named ports. The upland plains and downs of the interior afford excellent cattle and sheep pasturage throughout the year. The agricultural capabilities of Queensland are also great. Wheat, maize, and other cereals, potatoes, cotton, the sugar cane, tobacco, indigo, coffee, rice, and almost all the English and tropical fruits, are successfully cultivated in suitable situations. In the uplands beyond the mountain range the wheat is of the finest quality, sometimes weighing above 60 lbs. to the bushel, and yielding about 30 bushels to the acre. The average yield

QUEENSLAND AND VICTORIA.

389

of maize is 40 bushels, and of potatoes about three tons to the acre. East of the main range of mountains the climate and soil are reported to be peculiarly adapted to the growth of the finest kinds of cotton; and owing to the absence of frosts the plant is perennial, and not an annual, as it is in America. It is estimated that some millions of acres are well suited to the production of cotton. To encourage its cultivation the local legislature have offered a premium in land-orders to the extent of £10 for every bale weighing 300 lbs. of colonial grown clean cotton exported to Great Britain before October 1868. For the succeeding two years the premium is reduced to £5, and half these premiums are payable on the exportation of the common descriptions of cotton. Temporary privileges have also been granted to encourage the cultivation of sugar and coffee. To encourage immigration land-orders are granted to the value of £30 to each adult emigrant direct from Europe who may pay his own passage, or the passage of any member of his family. A land-order of the value of £15 is granted on account of a child between one and twelve years old. Besides its agricultural and pastoral resources, the colony is stated to possess much mineral wealth. Gold has been found in several localities, though no systematic search has yet been made for it; also copper and tin in a very pure state. Coal of good quality is abundant, and is accompanied as usual with iron ores. Provision has also been made by the legislature for promoting education by means of primary and grammar schools, and in the towns ample means exist for public worship for all denominations."

With those observations may be compared some remarks by Mr Brough Smyth upon Victoria, in which, though the best peopled of the Australian colonies, there is ample room for fresh enterprise, especially in agriculture. "It is the most southerly part of the island continent of Australia, and consequently enjoys a comparatively cool climate. Though the country is generally low and level, there is a great range (an extension of the Australian Cordillera) extending from the sources of the River Murray to Wilson's Promontory, the highest peaks of which attain an elevation not far short of 8000 feet; and there is also a great spur running westward at a distance of 40 or 50 miles from the coast, which, in some places, is very high. The ranges running at right angles to the main dividing range are not very lofty. Gipps Land, which lies to the east, and is bounded by the great dividing range on the north and west, and by the sea on the south and south-east, has a cool and rather moist climate. There snow lies on the high lands during a great part of the year,

and cool and refreshing streams flow from the icy reservoirs in the great range all through the year. The country south of the great spur, extending westwards from Melbourne to the 141st meridian, consists of plains broken by schist ranges and volcanic hills of inconsiderable height. The river basins are mostly at right angles to the sea, and consequently the sea breezes penetrate far inland. That part of Victoria north of the main spur has a warmer climate, and near the Murray the vine yields a grape as rich and as luscious as can be found in any part of Europe. The estimated area of the colony is 55,571,840 acres, or 86,831 square miles. In other words, Victoria is nearly as large as England, Scotland, and Wales united. It contains, in addition to almost inexhaustible mineral wealth, fine soils, suitable for wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, the grape, olive, fig, date, coral tree, sugar, millet, and tobacco; and in certain favoured situations the tea plant would grow remarkably well. There are some parts also suitable for cotton and rice. The mean temperature for the year, as deduced from a long series of meteorological observations, is 58°. In autumn and winter the northerly winds exceed the southerly, and in spring and summer the southerly winds exceed the northerly. In summer the north winds are dry and often hot, but at night the wind most often changes to the south-west or south; and from either of these points it is always cool and refreshing. The climate is indeed delicious. Probably in no part of the world is it possible to find fewer impediments to labour or recreation, as regards the weather, than in Victoria. Though the summer is invariably marked by a few days of great heat, yet, even in that season, there are many days when the weather is pleasant and cool, and nothing can exceed the climate experienced in this colony during the autumn, winter, and spring. A cloudless sky, a bright sun, and a refreshing breeze, are characteristic of the greater number of days in each of those seasons; and while the salubrity of the climate is shown by the absence of those diseases which yearly sweep off so many of the inhabitants of England, it is yet equally favourable to the growth of fruits and vegetables of colder countries. The apple, pear, peach, nectarine, apricot, almond, gooseberry, currant, and fig, and the cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, carrot, parsnip, asparagus, pea, bean, water melon, rock melon, and tomatoes, may be seen all growing together luxuriantly, in the same plot of ground; while the borders blossom with the fuschias, geraniums, and other common flowers of the English garden. Already the wines made in Victoria have taken a high place in the estimation of the European connoisseurs, and the cultivation of the

COLONIAL LANDS OPEN FOR SETTLEMENT. 391

grape will, it is certain, form a source of great wealth. Already large vineyards have been planted, and, while the quality of the wine is such as to command a ready sale at a high price, the yield per acre is large; the average being about 250 gallons per acre. From the nature of her soils, and the favourable character of her climate, it is not too much to say that Victoria will be as remarkable for the growth of wine and oil as for the extraordinary yield of gold."

The quantity of land available for settlement, and its cost in the leading colonies, are shown in the two following tables—

COLONIAL PUBLIC LANDS ALIENATED AND REMAINING FOR ALIENATION AT THE DATE OF THE LAST RETURNS.

SUMMARY OF MODES OF SALE, AND PRICES, IN THE PRINCIPAL LAND-SELLING COLONIES.

Victoria, .

Ditto

do.

Ditto, in

"Agricultural

Reserves," selected without competition.

Ditto.

(1) By selection at fixed £1 lots leased for 7 years

price.
(2) By auction.

at 2s. an acre.

Upset price not less

than £1

an

Prompt payment.

acre.