THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES NOTES AND GLEANINGS NOTES AND GLEANINGS BEING LEAVES FROM THE DIARY OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND, IN 1893 BY JAMES T. GOUDIE, J.P., F.S.A. SCOT. " Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." Othello PRINTED BY R. & R. CLARK, EDINBURGH, FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY 1894 DU 1 6 PREFACE IN preparing for printing these extracts from my Diary, I have selected only what I think may be of interest to my personal friends, for whom this little volume is intended. The names of many of our friends with whom we spent pleasant days and evenings have been omitted, because, although we shall always remember them with the kindliest feelings, their names could not be of interest to most of our friends at home. I have noted only the subjects and objects which interested us from day to day, and some leading particulars regarding the Colonies in which we spent a delightful holiday. For statis- tical information and details as to government, trade, and social economics in the different Colonies, I have drawn largely upon The Victorian Year Book, compiled by H. H. Hayter, Esq., Government Statist of Victoria ; Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure of the Colony of Victoria, 1893; The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales, 1892, compiled by T. A. Coghlan, Esq., Government Statist of New South Wales ; 3079193 vi Notes and Gleanings Estimates of the Ways and Means of the Govern- ment of New South Wales for the Year 1893 ; The Tasmanian Official Record, compiled by the Government Statist, Mr. Johnston ; The Government Statistics of New Zealand, 1892, and other publications kindly supplied to me by the Agents-general for the various Colonies, and by some colonial friends. Though under temporary depression at the time of my visit, there is no doubt that a great future is before these Colonies. Whether as independent states, or as continuing to form part of Greater Britain, they cannot fail to occupy an important position ; and their fortunes can- not be matter of indifference to citizens of the old country, especially to those connected with colonial trade. If any of my friends who may peruse the following pages should be induced to visit those distant regions, whether for business or pleasure, or, as in my own case, for both combined, they may be assured of a cordial reception, and of a lifelong gratification as the result. J. T. G. OAKLEIGH PARK, POLLOKSHIELDS, GLASGOW, May 1894. CONTENTS PAGE I CHAPTER II PORT SAID TO MELBOURNE .... 22 CHAPTER III MELBOURNE ...... 40 CHAPTER IV TASMANIA . . . . . . . 48 CHAPTER V NEW ZEALAND ...... 52 CHAPTER VI SYDNEY ....... 104 CHAPTER VII QUEENSLAND ...... 108 viii Notes and Gleanings PAGE CHAPTER VIII NEW SOUTH WALES . "S CHAPTER IX VICTORIA . . 132 CHAPTER X SOUTH AUSTRALIA . J 4 X CHAPTER XI AUSTRALIAN BANKING AND FINANCE . . H5 CHAPTER XII HOMEWARD . . .160 NOTES AND GLEANINGS CHAPTER I LONDON TO EGYPT A LONG business connection with the Australasian Colonies had often made me wish to visit those interesting parts of the world ; but the constant attention required by a wide-spread business at home and abroad is not easily set aside ; and I had to defer my visit until I felt sure that every one of my principal assistants could manage the departments under their charge to my satisfaction and advantage, and until my eldest son should be of age, and able to act for me in private matters of business. Having made all necessary arrangements, I left home on the 3io per acre. Men with a small capital, going to New Zealand, should always work for wages for a year or two, till they learn how farming or business is done, and come to understand how best to invest their money. For farmers with 500 to 1000 of capital the North Island is best. Farming is now very remunerative to men who know it well. The greatest extent of land that can be applied for by any one applicant is 640 acres of first class, or 2000 acres of second class land. New Zealand 101 The public debt of the Colony, at the end of 1892, amounted to 38,713,068 ; but it must be remembered that it has been mostly invested in remunerative undertakings, and not spent for war purposes, as most of the public debts in Europe have been. Of the money borrowed by the Government, 14,104,093 has been invested in railways, 606,648 in telegraphs, 4,478,481 in roads, bridges, and harbours, 1,780,785 in public buildings ; and for water supplies and other public works the Government have spent 6,007,775. Previous to 1870 a debt of 9,724,723 had been incurred, but no official statement is given as to how that money was expended. The debts of local bodies amount to 6,668,889, and the mortgages on property publicly recorded to ^ 3 0,5 02, 2 3 I, and other private indebtedness has been estimated at 17,000,000, whereas lands, public and private, and other property of all classes are valued at 218,033,963. But this value is purely hypothetical, and varies according to the basis on which it is calculated. The railways paid 2.95 per cent on their cost in 1890-91, the last year for which I have been able to obtain returns. The total imports for 1892 were 6,943,056, of which 4,767,369 came direct from the United Kingdom, 1,071,563 from Australia, largely by trans-shipment, 120,723 came from continental IO2 Notes and Gleanings Europe, and ,381,651 from America. The duty collected on the imports amounted to .1,654,064. The value of imports into Auckland was 1,124,308; Wellington, 1,124,795 ; Lyttleton (for Christchurch), 7 8 8,2 2 3 ; Dunedin, I , 1 09, 165; and Napier 221,499. The total exports were 9,490,420, of which there went direct to the United Kingdom 7,483,618, to Australia 1,338,167, America 524,196, and to con- tinental Europe 9701. The shipments from Auckland were 1,642,686 ; from Wellington, 1,527,186; from Lyttleton, 1,206,080 ; from Dunedin, 1,618,567; and from Napier, 1,152,01 1. Of the exports, wool was the most valuable, realising 4,3 1 3,307 ; frozen meat, of the value of 1,194,724, being next. Under the heading of animal products the value amounted to 6,27 1,280, and under the heading of agricultural products the amount was 1,035,637, and of minerals 1,044,945. The value of timber was ; 100,000, and of Kauri gum 517,678. This latter article is formed of the turpentine that had exuded from Kauri trees, when there were forests of them where they have now ceased to exist. It is found a little under the surface of the ground, and is used for making fine varnishes. It is worth at present 8 to 10 sterling per cwt. The value of the gold produced in New New Zealand \ 03 Zealand, up to 1892, was .48,387,861, but how much British gold had been sunk in worthless mines is not tabulated. When gold mines have been wrought out, and are what is called " Dead- heads," their past output is carefully stated in glowingly-worded prospectuses, and they are sold in London for more gold than they have ever produced. There were no fourfooted animals in New Zealand when Captain Cook visited it in 1769, except a few dogs and rats. In 1891 there were 17,865,423 sheep, 788,919 cattle, 2 1 1 ,040 horses, and 222,553 pigs. Deer were introduced into the Middle Island by John A. Ewen, Esq., of Sargood, Son, and Ewen, and there are now herds of them in the forests, and some splendid specimen heads were sent home to Mr. Ewen a few months ago. Mr. Ewen took an active part in introducing trout, which are now abundant in several of the rivers, and grow to an enormous size. He has also succeeded in introducing lobsters into New Zealand waters, which are likely to thrive and multiply, as all creatures sent from home have done, man not excepted. CHAPTER VI SYDNEY OUR voyage from Auckland to Sydney was a very pleasant one. There were only about thirty passengers in the Alameda, but they were a very agreeable company. We arrived at the entrance to Port Jackson, which is less than a mile wide, and lies between two high headlands, at 9 A.M. on the 25th of April, and an hour later landed at Woolloomoolloo wharf, and drove to the Australia Hotel, where we had engaged rooms. This hotel we considered the best we had seen south of the line. It is a handsome building, said to have cost ^240,000, and is well conducted in every way. Sydney Harbour we found to be a very charming bay, more like an inland lake than an arm of the sea ; but, as a sheet of water, it is not equal to Loch Lomond. There are many small islands in it covered with luxuriant vegetation, among which are built handsome villas ; and along its beautiful shores are many fine residences, all white painted and surrounded by lovely gardens. The city of Sydney 1 05 Sydney is very home-like in its architecture, but more continental in its style than any of the other Australian towns. The streets are narrower and shorter than those of Melbourne ; but Pitt Street, George Street, and York Street, are all very handsome thoroughfares. The offices of the Lands Department, the Post Office, and the City Hall (in which is the largest organ in the world, said to have cost ; 15,000), are all splendid specimens of modern architecture, as are also many bank and commercial buildings. The Botanic Gardens, both as regards situation and the collection of plants, trees, etc., are un- equalled by any in the Australian Colonies ; and as a piece of landscape gardening, I have not seen anything to surpass them except at Monte Carlo. Sydney has also a good collection of pictures for a modern city, and an interesting museum. The tramways are dirty road trains, consisting of large railway carriages, drawn by small locomotives. The fares are about i|d. per mile. The harbour of Sydney is strongly fortified, and guarded by a regular militia. The best view of the harbour is from near the lighthouse on the south head ; and the drive to it is a very fine one. We had several trips on the harbour steamers, to the north shore, to Paramatta, and elsewhere, all of which were very enjoyable. Botany Bay is eight miles from Sydney by steam tram. We io6 Notes and Gleanings did not find anything in that district to interest us. The population of Sydney and suburbs in 1891 was 443,492, and the rental 6,013,697, and of Melbourne, 490,896, and 6,815,315 respectively ; while the rental of Glasgow and suburbs, with nearly the population of both, was under 5,000,000, showing how much more costly houses and shops are in Australia than at home. The city of Sydney has a municipal debt of 3,306,649 for water-supply, 1,447,287 for sewage, 598,508 for public parks, and 710,000 for other purposes. Wages are about the same as are paid in New Zealand, and the working day is eight hours. There was an air of slowness about the whole business of the city which I did not find in any other of the Australian towns ; but whether this is habitual, or was caused by the depression in connection with the bank failures, I am unable to say. The warehouses, with the exception of that of W. Gardner and Co., are not so large as those in Melbourne, but they are equally well arranged and lighted ; and those of Henry Bull and Co., Robert Reid and Co., and W. and A. Macarthur, are handsome buildings ; and in the extensive ware- house of Anthony Hordern and Sons is done the largest retail trade of any firm in the southern hemisphere. Other fine retail warehouses are those of Farmer and Co., E. Way and Co., and Sydney 107 David Jones and Co. We spent from Tuesday forenoon to Saturday afternoon in Sydney, and then I left for Brisbane by steamer, leaving my wife and daughters to spend a few days with friends. CHAPTER VII QUEENSLAND THE distance between Sydney and Brisbane by sea is 500 miles. The sail along the coast was very uninteresting, the shores being low and sandy, and only near the mouths of the principal rivers was there any appearance of cultivation. . The range of mountains which run north and south near the coast is not of any great height, all being below the snow line, and consequently the rivers are small, but the Richmond is navigable for small craft for sixty miles, the Clarence for sixty-two miles, and the Maclay and Hawkesbury for shorter distances. When we arrived at the mouth of the river Brisbane, we found that the floods of February had so silted up the channel that we had to go sixteen miles up to the town of Brisbane in a barge. The river, at the part where the town is built, is shaped almost like an S, and the highest point of the ground on which the town stands is only fifty feet above high- water mark. The whole of the rain which caused Queensland 109 the disastrous flood fell within twenty miles of the town, and the fall was thirty-nine inches in twenty-four hours. The great damage done by the flood was not apparent to a stranger, when I was there, except in the ruin of bridges, and of some unoccupied houses, but the damage was said to be over two millions sterling to private property. The Gresham Hotel, in which I stayed, was flooded to within a few inches of the first floor, and the residents were supplied with food from boats at the first floor windows. The warehouses of Messrs. D. L. Brown and Co., and Scott, Dawson, and Stewart, were flooded to the first floors, and these firms had a large amount of damage done to their stocks. I saw a photo showing Messrs. Brown's people in a steam-launch opposite their first floor windows. These floods occur periodi- cally, but no special provision for such contingen- cies seems to be made in any of the buildings. The day I arrived in Brisbane was a holiday in celebration of the passing of the Act establishing " an eight hours' day," and there were processions of all the different trades, followed by races and other amusements, filling up the day. This was the only opportunity I had in the Colonies of seeing large bodies of working men together, and the physique of the Brisbane men was certainly far above the average in such gatherings at home. In the afternoon I went to no Notes and Gleanings the races ; and while sobriety and order prevailed, it was a saddening sight to see women, with children in their arms, staking their half-crowns and their half-sovereigns on their favourite horses, and as excited over the events as if fortunes were at stake. All classes of people were represented on the course, and money was changing hands freely. So popular are horse-races in the Colonies that book-makers are regarded as men of considerable social standing. The town of Brisbane is one of the most modern capitals, and the Government offices are only in course of construction. They will be handsome, but not extravagant buildings when finished. There are several handsome commercial buildings in the town, the finest being that of D. L. Brown and Co., which is also the largest dry- goods warehouse in the Colonies. The two largest retail establishments are those of Grimes and Petty, and Finney, Isles, and Co. I spent the evening with some friends, and next forenoon called on my customers, most of whom I had not seen before. It is very pleasant to meet business men who have all their time occupied with local affairs, but who have many pleasant associations with, and recollections of the homes of their early days, which they like to call to memory, with even a stranger who has Queensland 1 1 1 some knowledge of the places of their nativity and the old folks at home. Queensland has 2406 miles of railway, con- structed at a cost of 16,143,174, and at the head of this great department, as chief Govern- ment Commissioner, is Mr. John Matheson, lately superintendent of the Glasgow and South- western Railway line, an old friend, with whom I spent most of an afternoon, pleased to find him in excellent health and his usual good spirits. The railway system in Queensland is rapidly develop- ing its mineral and natural resources, and the future prospects of that Colony are second to none on the Australian Continent. The popula- tion of the Colony, which in 1860 was only 28,056, is now nearly 400,000, and the exports in 1891 amounted to 7,415,431, the imports being 4,941,765. The value of wool exported in that year was 3,453,548; of frozen meat, 240,000 ; of sugar, 630,000 ; and of gold, 1,951,563. Gold is found in nearly every district of Queensland, the production to the end of 1891 being 28,052,199. In i 891, the value of silver raised was 2 1,879 I of tin, i 16,387 ; of coal, 128,198 ; of bismuth, 11,070; opals, 1 0,000 ; and antimony, 3625. The pastoral industry of the Colony is a very large one. At the end of 1891 the area of pastoral 1 1 2 Notes and Gleanings holdings was 438,165 square miles, and the annual value 3 10,812. The number of sheep was 20,289,633 ; of cattle, 6,192,759; of horses, 399,364; and of pigs, 122,672. At the beginning of 1892 there were sixty-eight sugar mills pro- ducing 51,219 tons of sugar per annum; and connected with them were nine rum distilleries, yielding 192,051 gallons of spirits yearly. The production of wine in 1891 was 168,526 gallons. The number of oranges grown in the Colony in 1892 was 1,090,804 dozen; of bananas, 11,644,769 dozen; and of pine-apples, 543,415 dozen. Wheat, maize, barley, potatoes, and tobacco grow abundantly. In 1891 the Colony exported 682,252 pounds of arrowroot. The revenue for the year ending 3Oth June 1892 was 3,473,716, and the expenditure 3,625,280. Education costs the Colony over 200,000 per annum, and is secular and free. The death-rate in 1892 was 13 per thousand per annum. A general election was going on when I was in Brisbane, and feeling between the trade unions and all other sections of the community ran very high, and, while kept under police control, seemed more intensely bitter than anything I have ever seen at home. If the man who said " the classes were against the masses" in this country, Queensland 113 could have seen the effect of the animosity between the two sections of the people in Brisbane he must have wished that sentence had never been uttered. The recent strikes had crippled trade in the Colony, and the bank failures had added to the general depression, causing a great deal of want of employment and distress. The Government had been asked by the unemployed to start relief works and state-aided village settlements, but they were averse to both on principle. They had, however, opened labour bureaux, and kept them- selves in communication with all parts of the country, and assisted men to reach places where work was to be had. The inquiry that was made into the circumstances of all applicants for relief disclosed a great deal of imposture, many appli- cants having considerable property. Many men in the large towns had, on pretence of going to the country to secure work, abandoned their wives and families, and these had to be provided for by the Government or private charity. But I am glad to know that since I was there trade has improved, and employment become more abun- dant. Wishing to see the country inland, I decided to go back to Sydney by rail, and left Brisbane at 6.20 P.M. on Wednesday, 3rd May. The distance between these towns is 739 miles by railway, and the time occupied was twenty-nine hours. The landscape is not particularly inter- I 1 1 4 Notes and Gleanings esting, being mostly flat and occupied for pastoral purposes, and there was a want of the picturesque appearance of cultivated fields and forests adjoin- ing. I had to change carriages at the frontier of New South Wales, and pass my luggage through a formal examination by the revenue officials. The carriages of both railways are good. On my return to Sydney I found two more banks had closed their doors, and business practically at a standstill. The questions most anxiously discussed seemed to be how the deposits from home could be retained, while local deposits could be freed ; and how the banks could be changed into limited companies to save the shareholders from heavy losses. I could discover no feeling of sympathy for depositors at home who had their savings locked up in the banks, and who would suffer many hardships through being unable to get the use of their capital when they required it. CHAPTER VIII NEW SOUTH WALES WE had arranged to visit the famous Blue Mountains near Sydney, and started for them on Saturday the 6th May. The first part of the journey as far as Paramatta is flat and uninterest- ing, but after two hours travelling we came to the first or little zigzag steep, and began the ascent of the mountains. The height of each station above the sea-level was painted on the name-boards, and at Springfield, forty-eight miles from Sydney, we found we had risen 1216 feet. At Lawson, ten miles farther, we had risen to 2399 feet ; and at Wentworth, four miles more, we had climbed to 2856 feet above the sea-level ; and at Katoomba, the highest point on the railway and sixty-two miles from Sydney, the line is 3349 feet above the sea. We stopped at Katoomba, and put up at the Carrington Hotel, a large and comfortable house, much frequented by people from Sydney and Melbourne in the hot season. The breezes on the mountain tops are cool even in the hottest 1 1 6 Notes and Gleanings weather, and the night air is very invigorating. The nights were frosty when we were there, but the days were delightfully warm and exhilarating. The scenery in the neighbourhood of Katoomba is unique in its way. The highest parts of the Blue Mountains are not ridges and peaks like those of most other mountains, but flat table- lands which present one strange peculiarity, that of portions of them having sunk many hundreds of feet, forming valleys as far as the eye can reach, the sides of which are walled in by sand- stone cliffs of height so enormous as to be without parallel elsewhere in the world. The bottoms of these valleys are covered with dense vegetation, and from the cliffs above look like floors covered with rich carpets of harmonious colours, while through channels down the rocky sides of these valleys pour small cascades, leaping from point to point until lost to view among the lovely vegeta- tion below, to form small rivulets under ever- verdant arches of graceful tree ferns and giant eucalypti. The Commissioners of Lands have formed footpaths to the bottoms of most of these valleys, and we descended 1700 feet to the bottom of one of them to see the marvellous beauty of the scenery, and were well rewarded for our trouble. Steps have been cut out of the sandstone, or where a little soil rests on some ledge, the steps are formed of branches of trees, New South Wales 1 1 7 and over all hangs a lovely roof of green leaves through which peeps of sunshine penetrate now and again ; while on every fallen tree-trunk and mass of rock, mosses, green and gray of all shades, adorn and enliven the solitude of nature. We lingered in this valley of delight until the rays of the sun were becoming nearly horizontal above our heads, and then we found the ascent more difficult than the descent had been ; and we had only time to escape from the shadows of the great rocks before the shades of night gathered around us. The valley of the Grose is the most wonderful of them all ; it is a great chasm, the perpendicular walls of which are over 1500 feet high, and the depth to the bottom 2000 feet. It looks as if the centre of the earth had collapsed, and drawn with it a huge forest into perpetual repose beyond the disturbing foot of man. A waterfall, called Go vet's Leap, falls in broken cas- cades down the almost perpendicular side of the valley, a distance of 2000 feet. The first fall of the water is 520 feet, and from that point to the bottom of the valley it rolls down like fleeces of carded wool. The points from which the best views of the valley can be had are carefully fenced round for the safety of visitors. Previous to 1813 this range of mountains was considered impassable, but in May of that year three ex- plorers named Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth, 1 1 8 Notes and Gleanings penetrated a little beyond Katoomba after twenty days' hard work, and a tree, called the Explorer's Tree, is still carefully preserved by a wall and rail, on which they cut their initials, and under which they are said to have rested for a night. Next year they penetrated to the Bathurst Plains be- yond the Blue Mountains ; and shortly afterwards convicts were set to make the road over the mountains. Having spent four delightful days in this neighbourhood we returned to Sydney to prepare for our homeward journey. Colonials of many years' experience say that society in Sydney is more continental in its habits and ideas than English. There are horse-races in Sydney every week-day throughout the year, and when the days are short, races are run by electric light. Betting is said to be the besetting sin of young colonials. Old-world affairs and history do not seem to interest the young people of any part of Australia, but cricket matches do. The laws of heredity are clearly observable in the character- istics of the descendants of some of the earlier settlers in Sydney, the " larrikin " of the present day being a direct continuation of a class deported to the Colony long ago. On Sunday the I2th of May we went to service in the Cathedral. The most remarkable feature of the inside of that church is, that a space of about four feet all round the walls is New South Wales 1 1 9 being covered with memorial tablets made of glazed tiles, on which the virtues of deceased individuals are set forth in the best post obit style, at a charge of from twenty to fifty pounds per slab two feet square, according to the position which it occupies. That is surely an easier way of raising money than even by bazaars ; and then if people have few virtues of their own, they can point with pride to those of their ancestors, en- shrined within the sacred walls of the temple, some of whom, according to the tile slabs, pos- sessed sufficient to have saved the city of Sodom. In the afternoon we went to Bondi to see the Centennial Park and have tea with friends. This park cost ^198,277, and was of course paid for out of a loan. The history of a country always interests me as much as do its present inhabitants, as by knowing their past history I can understand something of their present characteristics. " Happy is the country that has no history," said a wise man ; but that could not be said appropriately of New South Wales, because it has had a very interesting history for at least a hundred years. It is considered possible that Australia was known to the Chinese early in the sixteenth century, but the first authentic account of it is by Don Pedro de Quiros, a Spanish navigator who sailed from Lima in Peru in 1606 for the purpose of discover- 1 20 Notes and Gleanings ing a southern continent, in the existence of which he had a confident belief. It was visited by Dutch explorers in 1622, and by Dampier, an Englishman, in 1699; but it was in 1770 that Captain Cook, after his discovery of New Zealand, anchored in Botany Bay, and from that time its history begins. The graphic account of his voyage published by Captain Cook, and his favourable reports regarding Australia and New Zealand, intensely interested the people of Britain, and as they had just lost their American Colonies, a new field for enterprise seemed opened to them. At the same time the home Government were feeling a difficulty in disposing of their criminal population ; and early in 1787 Viscount Sydney, Secretary of State for the Colonies, determined to plant a colony in New South Wales. In May 1787 a fleet, consisting of six transports, small vessels of about 350 tons each, on board of which were packed no fewer than 5 64 men and 192 women sentenced to transportation, a small frigate of twenty guns, an armed tender, and three store-ships, was despatched to Botany Bay to found a colony, and arrived there early in January 1788. But Captain Philip, who com- manded the expedition, found that harbour too exposed and shallow, and he moved his fleet into the bay now called Sydney Harbour, where the convicts were landed and the town of Sydney New South Wales 1 2 1 founded. From that time till transportation was abolished in 1840, 83,290 convicts were sent to Sydney. In 1831 the population was 51,000, mostly composed of people who had been trans- ported there and their offspring ; but in that year a system of assisted emigration was initiated, and the first two companies to arrive under that system were fifty young women from an orphan school in Cork, and fifty-nine mechanics from Scotland, whom the Rev. Dr. Lang introduced to aid him in building the Australian college. Three years after transportation had been abolished a commercial crisis occurred, owing to the inflow of Government money having ceased. The Bank of Australia suspended payments, and its assets were disposed of by a lottery to save its shareholders from ruin. Now the Australian banks save their shareholders by converting them- selves into limited liability companies. The discovery of gold in 1851 was a most important event in the annals of the country. Wages were low and work scarce at the time, and there was a general rush to the gold fields. Farms and stations were left without hands, and ordinary occupations were neglected. It was soon known over the world that great finds of gold were being made, and enterprising spirits from all quarters rushed to share in the anticipated 122 Notes and Gleanings prosperity. From that time the Colony has ad- vanced by leaps and bounds. In 1850, 976 vessels of a tonnage of 234,215 entered the ports of New South Wales, and 1014 vessels of 263,849 tons sailed from there. In 1891, 3021 vessels of 2,821,898 tons entered, and 3100 vessels of 2,872,338 tons left ports in the Colony. Up till 1 88 1 the trade of the Colony was practically in British hands, but since then I find the foreign tonnage has increased from 172,855 tons to 791,629 tons in 1891, but still the ton- nage under the British flag is 86 per cent of the whole. The value of the imports in 1850 was 2,078,338, and of the exports 2,399,580. In 1891 they had risen to 25,388,397 and 25,944,020 respectively. But gold sent from other Colonies to be minted was dealt with as imports and exports, and the enormous sums of money borrowed in London and elsewhere were dealt with as imports also. Of the imports into New South Wales in 1891, 10,588,230 came direct from the United King- dom, i i, 12 7, 178 came from the other Australian Colonies, 766,947 from other British possessions, and 2,909,042 from foreign countries. Of the exports from the Colony, 8,855,465 went direct to the United Kingdom, 11,603,170 to the New South Wales 123 other Australian Colonies, .607,970 to other British possessions, and 4,877,414 to foreign countries. The classification of the imports was as follows : Food and Beverages .... 3,658,780 Wines and Liquors . . . . . 991,163 Live Stock ...... 1,336,771 Wool and other Animal Products . . 2,850,163 Clothing and Textile Fabrics . . . 5,740,362 Minerals and Metals . . . . 2,283,858 Coals and Coke ..... 442,944 Specie and Precious Metals . . . 2,503,222 Articles of Education and Art . . . 1,259,975 Manufactured Articles not elsewhere included 3,979,359 Unclassified Articles .... 336,600 In 1891 the exports were nearly ^4,000,000 over those of 1 890, owing partly to the great strikes which in 1890 kept exports back. The exports were classed as follows : Animal and vegetable products, including wool . .... 12,126,357 Gold, Silver, and other Precious Metals . 4,923,381 Live Stock ...... 1,478,803 Coal and Coke ..... 1,313,861 Other Minerals ..... 605,501 Wines ....... 21,077 Clothing, etc. ...... 12,671 Other Unclassified Articles . . . 125,367 The imports from the United States amounted to about 2,500,000, but the States took only 124 Notes and Gleanings 583,723 in the produce of the Colony, and were paid the difference in gold coin and bars ; and, as a contrast, Belgium took goods of the value of -1,039,723, chiefly wool, while the Colony took only 188,277 from that country, principally in the form of iron-wire bars and plates. From Germany the imports were 773,016, and the exports to that country 437,522. To France was sent 480,599, mostly wool, and from France 120,321 was bought. All the exports have fallen enormously since these tables were compiled, but the data are so far unavailable. The amount of duty paid on imported spirits in 1891 was 869,513 ; on tobacco, 409,069; and on tea at 3d. per lb., 120,326. The total customs revenue for the year was 2,539,480. The disposal of Crown lands previous to 183 i rested solely with the Governor, and large areas were granted to naval and military officers and men and free settlers; but in 1831 a system of selling the lands by auction was introduced, and in 1884 and 1889 new Acts for the disposal and occupation of land were passed on very much the same lines as those obtaining in New Zealand. The value of the land sold between 1862 and 1891 was 45,837,717, the acreage being 35,270,331, and the average price 26s. per acre. The acreage under cultivation is 840,896, or only 2 per cent of the land disposed of. New South Wales 125 Success in agricultural operations in New South Wales is altogether independent of the fit- ness of the soil for cultivation. So far experience has shown that an irregular rainfall and the want of uniformity in the seasons, which are the chief characteristics of the climate, are the greatest drawbacks to the advance of agriculture. Only 0.4 per cent of the total area of the Colony is devoted to the growth of agricultural produce ; and, including that under artificial grasses for dairy farming, only 0.6 per cent, or i.o acre per head of the population, is under cultivation in any form. Taken as a whole, the yield of crops in New South Wales is equal to that of any of the other Colonies in Australia ; but communication with the seaboard is more expensive and difficult, and stock rearing is therefore far more remunera- tive. The average production of wheat was, in i 888-90, 4.8 bushels per acre. The average from 1862 to 1892 was 13.1 bushels per acre. The yield varies from 18.2 along the north coast to 9.8 in the western district. The estimated value of agricultural produce for the years 1891-92 was 3,584,490, of which Wheat represented ... . Maize ....... 667,532 Sugar . . 138,493 Oranges ...... 86,812 Grapes and Wine . . . . . 211,610 126 Notes and Gleanings Comparing the whole Australasian Colonies, the average yield of wheat per acre for the last twenty years is as follows : New Zealand, 25.59 bushels ; Tasmania, 18.13; New South Wales, 13.74; Queensland, 12.20; Western Australia, 11.81; Victoria, 11.07 '> ar >d South Australia, 7.46. The number of sheep in New South Wales in 1891 was 61,831,416, and the value of wool exported 11,036,018, but that was largely in excess of any other year. In 1890 the value was 8,991,396. A comparatively small export trade is done by New South Wales in frozen meat, cheese, and butter. The population of the Colony in 1891 was 1,165,300, and of these 502,983 were adherents of the Church of England, 286,917 of the Church of Rome, 109,383 were Presbyterians, 110,110 Wesleyans, and 37,220 Congregationalists and Baptists. The remainder belonged to six other creeds. Education is almost free, and the estimate for that department, which is presided over by a Minister of State, in 1893 was 919,541. A fee of 3d. per week is charged each scholar, and in 1892 that yielded an income to the depart- ment of 75,913. Children attending school travel free by railway. The number of arrests for crimes was 44,854. The divorces were 3 1.6 for every 100,000 married New South Wales 127 couples, and in Victoria 23.8, while in Great Britain the number was only 8.6 ; but in the United States of America there were 200 per 100,000. There were in the Colony i oo males for every 8 5 females, the excess of males being between twenty and fifty years of age. Excluding the aborigines, 725,015 of the population were born in the Colony, 266,101 in the United Kingdom, of whom 149,232 were in England, 4997 in Wales, 75,051 in Ireland, and 36,821 in Scotland. The Germans num- bered 9563, the French 2030, and the Scandina- vians 3397. The death-rate averaged for the last twenty years 16.35 P er thousand per annum. In Queensland it was 17.04, in Victoria 15.56, in Western Australia 16.59, m South Australia 13.62 ; but in the city of Sydney it was 22.17. In 1891 the death-rate in England was 19.5, in Scotland 19.7, and in Ireland 18.2 per thousand. The illegitimate births were, in Sydney, 18.5 per cent, and in the country districts 3.80 per cent. The duty on imported spirits, wines, and beer in 1892 amounted to 970,000, and on home- made beer, whisky, etc., to >\ 58,000. No duty is paid on home-grown wines. The consumption of proof gallons of spirits was 2.83 gallons per head of the population, while in Victoria it was 3.93, and in New Zealand 1.74 gallons per head. The bankruptcies in 1891 numbered 1238, 128 Notes and Gleanings with liabilities amounting to .989,778, and nom- inal assets of 454,2 11. In 1892 the failures were 1243, with liabilities 1,203,685 and assets 540,726. There are 2185 miles of railway in the Colony, which have cost 33,312,608, an average of 12,974 per mile, as against 43,955 per mile in the United Kingdom, where land has to be paid for at extravagant rates. The net earnings are said to be 3.581 per cent on the cost, but as nearly all renewals of lines and plant have been paid for out of loans, and little allowance seems to be made for depreciation, it is difficult to say what the net earnings really are. For instance, 1,000,000 of the 1889 loan was spent in the " reconstruction and improvement of rolling stock and permanent way," and of the 1892 loan 200,000 was spent "on rolling stock, and towards fitting continuous brakes to goods carriages." (See page 63 of Loans Expenditure ; issued to Parliament of 1893). According to the Statement of the Particulars of the Public Debt of the Colony on ^\st Decem- ber 1892, issued to members of Parliament with the estimates, the amount of loans issued to that date was 62,573,703, which had realised the net sum of 60,395,869 ; and in his Budget speech on the I9th October 1893, Sir George Dibbs stated that the revenue for the year then New South Wales 129 ended was ,980,000 less than that of the previous year, leaving a floating debt of .1,500,000. In the Estimates of Expenditure for 1893 the sum of 1,862,630 is put down for " Interest on debentures and funded stock, 70,000 for railway loan of 1867, 82,116 for interest on treasury bills for deficiencies previous to 1886, and 141,875 for interest on treasury bills under Act 55 Victoria," a total of 2,156,621 for interest on public loans ; and Mr. Coghlan, the Government Statist, estimates that, apart from the public borrowings, the sum due to " private credi- tors and absentees" amounts to 57,256,000, on which the interest is estimated to be 3,450,000. The interest payable to persons resident outside the Colony is estimated at 5,326,800. The public revenue for 1891 was 10,036,185, but for 1893 it was only 9,494,000. The ex- penditure in 1891 was 10,586,000, in 1893, 9,727,000. The estimates for 1894 are, income 9,971,000, and expenditure 9,854,000, and the sources of income are stated to be from rail- ways, telegraphs, post office, etc., 4,590,000; taxa- tion, 2,965,000 ; lands to be sold, 2,106,000 ; stamps, etc., 260,000. The sales of land in 1891 were 1,163,338, and in 1892 1,099,536, but I have not been able to procure the returns for 1893. As the sales of land become small, taxation must in- K 1 30 Notes and Gleanings crease enormously to meet the expenditure, and at the same time the security to lenders must decline proportionally. Deficiencies in the yearly budgets are being met by further borrowings. Large sums of borrowed money have been spent in renewing and repairing property which had been paid for by borrowed money before. The following items will show what I mean. Out of the 1 860 loan, 5000 was spent " for repairing the Circular Quay at Sydney," and 1300 was spent on it again in 1861. In 1870, 5000 was spent for " repairing the breakwater at Newcastle," and 35,000 on " Relaying railway line, Sydney to Paramatta ; " and dredgers for rivers and harbours are renewed from loans frequently. In 1883 the Circular Quay was again requiring repaving, and 18,500 was paid for that purpose out of that year's loan, and an additional sum of 9000 was paid in 1886 for the same purpose. For wood-paving Elizabeth and George Streets in 1892, 22,000 was paid out of that year's loan ; and from 1883 to 1893, 60,500 was paid out of loans for dredgers for Sydney Harbour alone. Out of the loan of 1890, over 250,000 was spent on " Making storm water channels " along several roads, an asset certainly not easily realis- able, and in the same year 5000 was spent in building a " Morgue " in Sydney, and 6000 for draining Rockwood Necropolis ; so that, while the New South Wales 1 3 1 Sydney people live they are surrounded by the productions of borrowed money, and when they are dead they rest in ground drained by borrowed money. The new Post Office in Sydney cost 562,021, and after it was built, the street in front of it was considered too narrow, and the whole opposite side, which was composed of valuable warehouses, was bought and pulled down to show off the handsome new building to advantage. I could not ascertain how much the transaction cost, but in the assets of the Colony there is a credit entry for 528,970 : I : 4 to be realised for the ground in New Post Office Street, or something, I believe, like 150 per square yard. CHAPTER IX VICTORIA WE left Sydney for Melbourne on I5th May in the P. and O. Company's steamer Ballarat, commanded by Captain Angus, an excellent type of a gentleman and seaman. Tuesday, the i6th, we sailed along the unin- teresting coast of Australia, and on Wednesday, the 1 7th, we again arrived in Melbourne, and put up at Menzies's Hotel while the Ballarat was taking in cargo. We spent the evening at Mr. Duncan Love's. Thursday, the 1 8th, I was occupied in business calls, and my wife and daughters spent the day with Lady Sargood. The last two banks to fail had closed their doors on the i 5th, and the faces of business men had become so long that it was said the barbers were charging a penny extra for shaving them ! Rumours of commercial disasters were very pre- valent, and it had become ascertained facts that many well-known business men who were wealthy a year or two ago had lost all their fortunes, and Victoria 133 others had suffered heavy losses through the fail- ure of concerns in which they were shareholders. Still life in the homes of most people went on as usual. In the evening we dined with Mr. and Mrs. Beath, at their residence in St. Kilda, and spent a very pleasant time with them and their family. Mr. Beath is another Scotsman who has had a very successful career in Melbourne, and who is held in high esteem for his business abilities and private worth. Friday, the ipth, was a beautiful day, and we made several calls on friends early in the forenoon. My wife and daughters lunched with Mr. and Mrs. Robertson, while I went to the Australian Club with Mr. Paterson and Mr. Bruce, on whose nom- ination I had again been made an honorary mem- ber for another month. In the evening we dined with Mr. and Mrs. Barlow, and added another very delightful one to our many evenings spent in the company of friends in Melbourne. Like all other large cities, Melbourne has its fashionable promenade, which is called " The Block," a part of Collins Street between Elizabeth and Queen Streets ; and there from one to three o'clock daily the youth and beauty of Melbourne are to be seen, and for types of physical excel- lence they could take their place on equal terms with the same class in any city in Europe, while their manner and style possess a delightful free- 134 Notes and Gleanings dom and freshness not to be met with in Pall Mall, the Bois-de-Boulogne, the Corso, or Princes Street. On Saturday forenoon several friends called at our hotel to say farewell, and others met us at the railway station to see us off, while two or three accompanied us to the steamer, to all of whom we felt much indebted for their extreme kindness. We left Williamstown Wharf at I o'clock for Adelaide, the next stage of our homeward journey. The first permanent settlement in Victoria was founded at Portland Bay by Mr. Edward Henty from Tasmania, who landed there on the I pth No- vember 1834. Others followed, but the absence of good land in the vicinity of the port caused it to be considered an unsuitable site for a town, and the capital was eventually founded at the northern end of Port Philip Bay in May 1835, by two parties, one led by John Batman and the other by John Fawkner. These were soon followed by other parties from the same island and from Sydney. In October 1836 Captain Lonsdale was sent from Sydney to act as Resident Magis- trate of the Port Philip district. In 1837 Sir Richard Bourke arrived from Sydney, and gave the name of Melbourne to the first town of the new settlement, and in 1842 it was incorporated as a town by an Act of the Legislature of New South Wales (13 Victoria, No. 40). Victoria 135 In 1857 Port Philip district was separated from New South Wales and erected into an inde- pendent Colony under the name of " Victoria." In July and August of the same year gold was discovered in Ballarat and other districts. A constitution giving responsible government to the Colony was proclaimed on the 23rd November 1855. The population was then 364,000. The area of the Colony of Victoria is 87,884 square miles, while that of New South Wales is 309,175, of Queensland 668,224, of Western Australia 975,920, of South Australia 903,425, of Tas- mania 26,375, an d of New Zealand 104,235. Added together, the area of the Australasian Colonies is only 68o,764 square miles less than that of the Continent of Europe ; and, excluding the territory of Alaska, they are larger than the United States of America by 47,647 square miles. The population of Victoria in April 1891 consisted of 598,414 males and 541,991 females. The Chinese numbered 9377, and the aborigines 565 as against 780 in 1881. Of the population, 713,585 were born in the Colony, 157,813 in England, 5094 in Wales, 50,667 in Scotland, and 85,307 in Ireland. The Church of England had 401,604 adherents, and the Presbyterian Church of Victoria 163,149 ; the Methodist Church I 50,000, and the Independ- ents and Baptists numbered 49,993. There 136 Notes and Gleanings were 240,310 Roman Catholics, 6459 Jews, and 6746 Buddhists.. Of the smaller denominations there was one " converted Jew," but to what he had been converted is not stated. Other fifty denominations had only one adherent each. The Gaelic Church had one representative, and the Puritan Church one. There was one Nazarene, one Morisonian, one Glassite, one Fakir, and one " Servant of God." One who believed in Moses and his laws, and one in the Church of the Future. Only one believed in Universal Brotherhood, and another in Conditional Immortality. One re- turned himself as Orthodox, and only two ladies and two gentlemen considered themselves Moral- ists. In the whole population there were only two Infidels and four Sceptics ; but, stranger still, only three whose religion was " . s. d" Education in the Colony is compulsory, un- denominational, and free; but the cost to the State in 1891-92 was 808, 171. The urban population at the end of 1892 was estimated to be 686,026, and the rural 471,652. Of the whole population 43.05 per cent resided in Melbourne. There were at the same time 23,526 men employed in gold mines. In Melbourne and suburbs the death-rate in 1892 was 20.65 per thousand. Of the deaths in the Colony in the same year phthisis caused 1483, pneumonia 1126, heart disease 1093, Victoria 137 bronchitis 982, cancer 699, typhoid fever 356, and diphtheria 326. The mean temperature of Melbourne in 1891 was 57.6, but it varied from 33.9 to 103.0 in the shade. The average rain- fall is about 26 inches. In Sydney the rainfall is much higher, sometimes, as in 1891, being over 50 inches. The average rainfall in London is 24 inches, in Dublin 30 inches, in Liverpool 37, and in Glasgow 43 inches per annum. The average production per acre of wheat, oats, and barley, in the Australian Colonies for the last twenty-five years is considerably under that of the United Kingdom ; in the Colonies it was wheat 9.3, oats 25.6, and barley 18.6, against wheat 31. 3, oats 38.8, and barley 34.1, in Britain. Victoria exported 6,853,195 bushels of wheat in. 1891, while New South Wales imported 2,853,195 bushels. The sum of ;68 2,501 of the money borrowed by the Colony of Victoria for irrigation purposes had been spent at the end of 1892, but none of the works were finished. The acreage which can draw supplies from these works when finished is 1,818,304. The number of sheep in Victoria at the end of 1892 was 12,692,843, of horses 436,459, of cattle 1,782,978. In the United Kingdom at the same time there were 33,642,808 sheep, 2,067,549 horses, and 11,519,417 cattle. The weight of the wool produced in Victoria 138 Notes and Gleanings in 1891 was 76,503,635 Ibs., and the value An idea may be formed of the enormous in- debtedness of the Colony, by noting that for the eleven years ending with 1890 the imports averaged 19,455,019, and the exports only 14,491,137. In 1891 the imports were 21,711,608, and the exports 16,006,743. In that year New Zealand was the only Australasian Colony from which the exports exceeded the imports, and these were 7,33M96 against 6,986,348. The value of gold raised in Victoria in 1891 was 2,305,600, but the value per miner was only 97 : o : 6, showing that the present pro- duction of gold does not pay the cost of raising it. For alluvial diggers the production was only 69 : 19 : 5 ; but for quartz miners, where machinery is largely employed, the value of the gold raised was 119:9:8 per man employed. The Colony gets the value of the labour in the mines, and the shareholders in mining companies at home pay the cost. The companies showing a profit in 1891 paid dividends amounting to 515,947, but no estimate of the capital invested in mining companies is available. The machinery in use, however, was valued at 1,848,218. The agricultural produce of the Colony in 1891 was valued at 7,770,658, and the animal production at 10,237,952. Victoria 139 The revenue of Victoria for 1891 was .8,843,588, and the expenditure 9,128,699; but for the last two years the revenue has been very much less, and large sums have been borrowed to meet the deficiencies. The import duties on certain manufactured goods are so high as to prohibit their importation, and the Colony will require to reduce these duties very much to enable them to raise a revenue to meet their requirements. The public debt of Victoria at the end of 1891 was 43,610,265, of which 2,603,800 had been borrowed at 5 per cent, 5,000,000 at 4! per cent, 26,006,445 at 4 per cent, and 10,000,000 at 3 1 per cent, and of the total interest of 1,745,449, 1,563,783 was payable in London, at an additional expense of 1.67 per cent on the interest. Of the 3,000,000 applied for in the London money market in 1891 only 2,000,000 were taken up. The public debt of the Colony now is nearly 50,000,000, of which 1,391,565 has been borrowed in the Colony. In 1891 the loss on the railways was 291,273, and on the post and telegraph depart- ment 109,009. The net revenue of the railways in 1891 was equal to 2.64 per cent, but the alterations on plant, renewals of lines, etc., was paid out of loans. Of the net proceeds of the loans up to the end of 1890, 34,460,233 had 1 40 Notes and Gleanings been spent on railways, 3,011,325 on water- supply for Melbourne, 4,181,636 on water- supply for country towns, 579,544 on Parlia- ment Houses and Law Courts, 162,280 on public offices, 98,299 on defences, 1,177,495 on State school buildings, 121,445 on a bridge across the Yarra, 341,819 on the Alfred graving dock, and 259,091 on harbour works. The private and municipal debts of the Colony must be twice as much as the public debt. Residence in the Colony for one year entitles every male subject of full age to be registered as a voter. The Colony has two Legislative Cham- bers. For the membership of the Lower House, full age and two years' residence in the Colony is required ; and for members of the Upper House, a free income of not less than 100 from free- hold property. The latter are elected by persons paying not less than twenty-five pounds of rent per annum, or possessed of property worth not less than ten pounds of yearly rent. The Lower House consists of ninety - five members, and the Upper House of forty-eight members, and there are ten responsible ministers. Members of the Upper House of the Legislature are not paid for their services, but members of the Lower House receive 300 each per annum. CHAPTER X SOUTH AUSTRALIA WE arrived at Largo Bay at 1 1 A.M. on Monday the 22nd May, and went to Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, by the 12.30 P.M. train. Adelaide is finely situated on level ground surrounded by hills. Its streets are wide, well paved, and well kept. Round the city proper is a belt of unoccupied land about a mile wide, called the Domain, a public park in fact, and outside that space are the suburbs of the city, beautifully situated on ground rising towards the hills. Adelaide has fine botanical and zoological gardens, a technical college, and some other good public buildings, including the Houses of Parliament. The population of the Colony of South Australia in 1891 was 320,723, of whom 164,993 were males and 155,730 females, and of the city of Adelaide 1 33,252, equal to 41.59 of the entire population of the Colony. The Colony extends from the extreme south to the extreme north of the Australian Continent, and so far at some 142 Notes and Gleanings points has its eastern and western boundaries defined by degrees of longitude only. Like the other Australian Colonies, it has borrowed freely, and at the end of 1891 had a public debt of 21,133,300, of which 11,398,839 had been spent on railways. The revenue in that year was ,2,829,453, and the expenditure 2,768,353. The value of the imports was 9,956,542, and of the exports 10,512,049. Of the Crown lands 12,802,180 acres have been disposed of. In the same year the acreage under tillage was 2,533,291, and the amount of wheat raised 6,436,488 bushels. The wine crop produced 801,835 gallons. One of the best authorities on Australian wines, Mr. Burgoyne, informed me that owing to the vines not being the best suited to the soil, and to the want of care in classing the grapes before pressing them, the value of the wine is very small compared to what it might and ought to be ; and the same remarks apply to the 1,554,130 gallons produced in Victoria, 913,107 in New South Wales, 168,526 in Queensland, and 168,526 in Western Australia. The value of gold produced in South Australia in 1891 was 125,529, and the total previous production 1,174,296. There are 7,646,239 sheep, 188,587 horses, and 399,077 cattle in the Colony. The value of wool exported in 1891 was 2,166,125. The South Australian Govern- South Australia 143 ment does not publish statistics as do those of most of the other Colonies. The weather was fine the two days we were off Adelaide ; the sky was cloudless, and the temperature 73 in the shade. I would prefer Adelaide as a place of residence to any of the other large Australian towns. On the morning of 24th May, when we were preparing to leave for Albany, one of the first saloon passengers, a gentleman over 80 years of age, died suddenly, and his body was sent ashore before we left. He had been in Tasmania over sixty years, and was going home to see a sister in London. We had rather a rough passage across " The Bight," the weather being showery and dull, with a strong breeze of wind and a temperature of only 54. We arrived at Albany, the second town in Western Australia, at 8.30 P.M. on Saturday the 27th, where a number of passengers landed on their way to the new diggings near there. We left again for Colombo at I o P.M., feeling sorry our tour in Australia, where we had received much kind attention, was ended, but with pleasant remembrances of happy days and pleasant evenings spent in the society of friends we shall never forget. The people and the country were both different 144 Notes and Gleanings i to those of New Zealand. The large towns in Australia give the people there more of a city style, but it is not of the old world style. There is an air of youthfulness about the towns, about the people, about their ideas, and even about their modes of expression. Little of the serious side of life seems to trouble them, and their philosophy has more of the " eat, drink, and be merry style " than ours has. They have borrowed and spent money with the recklessness and energy of youth, and have been more anxious to enjoy the fruits of industry than to be cultivators of the tree ; and that spirit may readily be seen in the amount of money borrowed for places of recreation, such as public parks, botanical and zoological gardens, and picture galleries, etc., which are more prized as pleasure resorts than for their educational value. To pay for these luxuries out of their incomes, as we do at home, never occurs to the Australians oh no, they will rather borrow the savings of people in the old country and lay it out for their own enjoyment. CHAPTER XI AUSTRALIAN BANKING AND FINANCE THE way in which most of the Australian banks have set up receiving boxes, called " deposit agencies," all over Britain, and after having secured all the deposits they could possibly get possession of by offering high interest and the security of unlimited companies, their suspension of payments, and proceedings to limit the lia- bility of their shareholders to their creditors are so well known as not to require special notice ; but it shows how ready they are to borrow and how uncertain their payments may be. Early in the banking crisis, a leading colonial financier pointed out in one of their papers that the system of banking at home could not be carried out in the Colonies, as bills and convertible securities could not be had there for the amount of money in their hands seeking investment, and that the Australian banks must, for their future welfare, secure as debentures at long or intermin- able dates a large proportion of the money L 146 Notes and Gleanings hitherto received on deposits for from one to three years ; and his compeers have not been slow to act on his opinions and advice. That even under their present arrangements they will all be able to continue their business is not considered probable by those best able to judge ; and, that there are some wonderful revelations in connection with Australian banking in store there is little doubt. The affairs of none of the suspended banks have been investigated except in a perfunctory manner, although all have been reconstructed. Such a process could not have been gone through in Britain. The depositors in Britain were little considered in the rearrangements ; and the Parliament of Victoria had very shortly before the banking collapse passed an Act, of which the following is a copy, and which is worthy of careful consideration by those taking an interest in Australian affairs, as it regulated the proceedings in the reconstruction of all the banks having their head offices in Melbourne : "No. 1269 " AN ACT TO AMEND THE COMPANIES ACT 1890 " \st December, 1892. " Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Australian Banking and Finance 147 Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly of Victoria in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same as follows (that is to say) : "1. (i) This Act may be cited as the Com- panies Act Amendment Act 1892, and this Act and the Companies Act 1890 may be cited together as the Companies Acts. (2) This Act shall be construed as one with the Companies Act 1890. " 2. The Act mentioned in the Schedule to this Act is hereby repealed. " 3. Where any compromise or arrangement shall be proposed between a company which is, at the time of the passing of this Act or afterwards in the course of being wound up, either voluntarily or by or under the supervision of the Court under the Companies Acts and the creditors of such company or any class of such creditors, it shall be lawful for the Court in addition to any other of its powers on the application in a summary way of any creditor or the liquidator, to order that a meeting of such creditors or class of creditors shall be summoned in such manner as the Court shall direct, and if a majority in number repre- senting three-fourths in value of such creditors or class of creditors present either in person or by proxy or attorney at such meeting shall agree to 148 Notes and Gleanings any arrangement or compromise such arrange- ment or compromise shall if sanctioned by an order of the Court be binding on all such creditors or class of creditors as the case may be and also on the liquidator and contributories of the said company. " 4. Where no order has been made or resolu- tion passed for the winding up of a company and any compromise or arrangement shall be proposed between such company and the creditors of such company or any class of such creditors it shall be lawful for the Court in addition to any other of its powers, on the application in a summary way of the company or of any creditor of the company, to restrain further proceedings in any action suit petition or proceeding against the company upon such terms as the Court shall think fit, and also to order that a meeting of such creditors or class of creditors shall be summoned in such manner and at such time as the Court shall direct, and if a majority in number repre- senting three-fourths in value of such creditors or class of creditors present, either in person or by proxy or attorney at such meeting shall agree to any arrangement or compromise, such arrange- ment or compromise shall, if sanctioned by an order of the Court, be binding upon the company and its shareholders, and upon all such creditors or class of creditors as the case may be. Australian Banking and Finance 149 " 5. The Court, on the application of the company or of any creditor or person interested in the company, before sanctioning any arrange- ment or compromise under this Act may order such meetings to be summoned and inquiries to be made as it shall think fit, and may alter or vary such arrangement or compromise and impose such conditions in the carrying out thereof as it shall think just. " 6. Every person who is a shareholder at the date of the holding of such meeting shall in the event of the said person transferring his shares in the company during the term of any arrangement entered into at a meeting summoned as in the preceding sections mentioned be liable until the end of one year after the expiration of the term of such arrangement or until the end of three years from the date of such meeting whichever shall first happen to contribute to the assets of the company for the purpose of paying the creditors or class of creditors bound by the resolutions passed at the meeting an amount not exceeding the amount which he would have been liable to contribute if the company had commenced to be wound up on the day prior to the holding of such meeting in the event of the existing holder of the transferred shares being unable to satisfy the contributions required to be made for such purpose. 1 50 Notes and Gleanings " 7. The word ' company ' in this part of this Act shall mean and include a building society under the Building Societies Act 1890. " 8. Every building society under the Building Societies Act 1890 shall for the purpose of being voluntarily wound up be deemed a company duly incorporated under Part I. of the Companies Act 1890. " 9. Any company limited by shares may so far modify the conditions contained in its memorandum of association if authorised so to do by special resolution as to reduce its capital by cancelling any shares which have not been taken or agreed to be taken by any person or which have been forfeited." It may interest some of my friends to know particulars of the settlements made by the banks which suspended payments, and a few other items regarding these institutions. At the end of May 1892 the paid-up capital of the whole of the Australian banks was 1 6,7 5 4,99 1 , and their reserve funds were said to be 9, 1 5 9,5 9 1 , but that item has been written off by all the sus- pended banks. The deposits were at the same time stated to be 112,863,807, of which 43,342,373 was due to British depositors according to Mr. Hayter, and the assets were returned as follows, viz. Australian Banking and Finance 1 5 1 Coin and bullion . . . .19,652,206 Landed property . . . 5,598,766 Notes and bills of other banks 548,920 Balances due by other banks 3>967,95i regarding the last of which Mr. Hayter remarks at page 508 of the Statistics of Victoria^ and Mr. Coghlan at page 700 of the Statistics of New South Wales, that that sum included balances due by the branches of two Sydney banks to their own head offices after they had taken credit for the assets of the same branches. All other debts due to the banks were valued at ,142,941,265. The notes in circulation amounted to ^5,510,891, and these are a first charge on the capital and assets of the banks. In New South Wales banks may issue notes to the extent of their paid-up capital and the coin in their pos- session. The average rate of the dividend paid by these banks in 1891 was 1 1 : 10:2 per cent on their paid-up capital. In 1891 the average charges for discounting bills were for 3 months 7 per cent, 4 months 8 per cent, and 6 months' currency 9 per cent per annum, while in England the average rate was ^3 : 9 : 6 per cent. The average rate paid for deposits by the colonial banks was 5 per cent, while in London it was i : 6 : 8 per cent. The banks which suspended payment have 152 Notes and Gleanings been reconstructed on the following terms, viz. The Commercial Bank of Australia, with its head office in Melbourne, suspended payment on 4th April and resumed business on the 7th day of May 1893. The old bank had a capital of .3,000,000, in shares of 10 each; the new bank has a nominal capital of 6,000,000, also in shares of 10 each, on which 4 is credited as paid, and the remainder of the 10 is to be paid up in quarterly instal- ments of five shillings per share extending over six years. Depositors have received fully paid pre- ference shares for one-third of their deposits, and deposit receipts maturing five years afterwards for the other two-thirds. The British deposits were 5,683,938. The English, Scottish, and Australian Char- tered Bank, 38 Lombard Street, London, sus- pended 1 2th April and resumed 9th August 1893. The old bank had a capital of 900,000, the new bank has an authorised capital of 1,575,000. The British deposits were 1,000,649, and the depositors have had to take 4 per cent debenture stock for one-fourth, 4 per cent terminable de- posits for one-fourth, and 4^ per cent inscribed stock for the other half. The London Chartered Bank, 2 Old Broad Street, suspended on 25th April and resumed business on loth August 1893. The British deposits were 3,500,000, and the depositors Australian Banking and Finance 153 have had the option of taking preference shares or deposit receipts bearing interest at 4^ per cent, payable in two yearly instalments beginning in July 1898. The nominal capital has been raised from one to four millions. The Australian Joint Stock Bank, Sydney, suspended 2ist April and resumed ipth June 1893. The British deposits were 3,868,881, and are to be repaid in ten equal instalments, beginning in June 1897, and half-yearly there- after, with interest at 4-^ per cent per annum. The National Bank of Australasia, Melbourne, suspended 3Oth April and resumed payments 23rd June 1893. The British deposits were 1,804,865, and the depositors have received deposit receipts for two-thirds of their claims, bearing interest at 4^ per cent, payable in equal amounts, five, six, and seven years from June last, and fully paid preference shares for the balance of their claims. The Bank of Victoria, Melbourne, suspended on 9th May and resumed payments on 1 2th June 1893. British deposits 1,100,000, are to be paid, one-fifth in preference shares, and four-fifths in deposit receipts, payable at different periods from two to twelve years hence, and bearing in- terest at 4| per cent. The Queensland National Bank, Brisbane, suspended I5th May and resumed 2nd August 154 Notes and Gleanings 1893. To British depositors were due 4,56 1,247, and they are to be paid by twelve deposit receipts, each for one-twelfth of the sum due, the first to be payable in June 1899, and yearly thereafter, bearing interest at 4^ per cent per annum. The Bank of North Queensland, Townsville, stopped payments on the I5th of May and re- sumed at the end of July 1893. The deposits due in London were only 150,000, and de- positors are to be paid by deposit receipts bearing interest at 4^ per cent per annum, the first for one-fourth payable in July 1897, and the remaining ones yearly thereafter. The Commercial Bank of Sydney had only 242,924 of British deposits when it suspended payment on the i 5th of May, and these are to be repaid by four deposit receipts bearing interest at 4| per cent, the first payable in June 1898, and yearly thereafter. When the City of Melbourne Bank stopped payment on the I5th of May 1893, it owed to British depositors 3,261,634. It resumed busi- ness on 1 6th June, and the depositors are to be paid four-fifths of their claims by deposit receipts at five, six, seven, and eight years, and bearing interest at 4^ per cent, and the remaining fifth in fully paid preference shares. The Royal Bank of Queensland, which closed its doors on the same day, opened again on the A ustralian Banking and Finance 155 7th August, the creditors having agreed to accept payment in four deposit receipts bearing interest at 4| per cent, and payable five, six, seven, and eight years from ist July 1893. The amount due to British depositors was only .300,000. The money poured into the coffers of the banks had been largely in excess of the ordinary commercial requirements of the Colonies, and therefore stimulated building and other unre- munerative enterprises, causing them to invest their funds in a way which must ultimately lead to serious complications. The apparent prosperity of the Australian Colonies for the last ten years was only an in- dication of the reckless way in which money borrowed by the Governments, the banks, building societies, and other institutions was being spent ; and little actual accumulation of capital has taken place, except that imported by immigrants, taking the Colonies as a whole. Their national, municipal, and individual indebtedness has now brought about a financial collapse, and what they have to show for the capital expended is largely assets of doubtful value. The Governments have been the greatest sinners as regards borrowings. Large sums have been spent in public parks, botanical and zoological gardens, city halls, government offices and post offices, all of which are largely in excess of the requirements of their respective 156 Notes and Gleanings communities, and the interest on the cost of which will be a serious item in their future budgets. It is not by borrowing money and building therewith fine cities that a new colony can be made permanently prosperous, but by extracting wealth from the land in the forms of mineral, pastoral, and agricultural produce. The true prosperity of all colonies must arise from the land, as the labour employed in its cultivation and improvement affords the greatest and most valuable product to society, and not only pays its own wages, but the rent of the land on which it is employed, and interest on the capital which employs it. The earlier settlers in colonies usually get possession of more land than they and their families can cultivate, and having got possession of it at a nominal value, they can afford to give as wages a larger proportion of its produce than can be given where land is dear. High wages are therefore paid to agricultural labourers, enabling them to save money and become landowners themselves, and in their turn to employ more labourers ; and such prosperity encourages mar- riages, the children of which grow up well fed and trained agriculturists to carry on the prosperity of the land ; and agricultural prosperity and mining industries always call into existence aggregations Australian Banking and Finance 157 of manufacturing and artisan labourers to form towns, and to supply the agricultural and rural communities with their requirements at lower rates than these can be imported for, owing to the heavy carriages and long distances from which they have to come. At the same time, these town communities afford a ready market for the rude produce of the country in their neighbour- hood, and by giving a higher price for it than could be got by exporting it, they thereby increase the wealth of the rural labourers. But when that class of population has grown in excess of the requirements of the rural population it becomes a parasite and impoverishes the population it lives upon, and can only be kept alive by the im- position of protective tariffs which prevent the agricultural colonists from getting the advantage of cheap labour and capital elsewhere, and causing a loss to them of the difference between the cost of what they could import the goods for and what they pay extra to protected labour. The old theory that to buy things produced at home was a national benefit, and to introduce foreign commodities a national loss, has long since been given up, as it is quite clear that the impor- tation of foreign goods in the common course of traffic never takes place except when it is, economically speaking, a national good, by causing the same amount of commodities to be obtained 158 Notes and Gleanings at a smaller cost of labour and capital to the country. While the land is so cheap, labour will always be so dear that the colonist can import from the mother country the more refined manufactures cheaper than they can make them for themselves, and the mercantile class, who are always ready to dispose of the produce of the Colonies to the best advantage in all parts of the world, are the proper parties to administer to the opulence of the pro- ducers of the goods exported. The question of the relative proportion of urban to rural population required for the pros- perity of a new colony depends on so many circumstances and conditions that no rule can be laid down ; but it is clear that the present propor- tion of town to country population cannot be maintained in the Australian Colonies even by the aid of extreme protection. At present Melbourne alone contains 43.05 per cent of the whole population of Victoria, Sydney 34.22 of the population of New South Wales, Adelaide 41.59 of the population of South Australia, and Brisbane 23.79 P er cent f tne population of Queensland, besides other consider- able towns in each of these Colonies. A large proportion of the inhabitants of the whole of them have for the last ten years lived on the moneys borrowed by their respective Governments for Australian Banking and Finance 159 public works ; and when their populations decrease, as they are bound to do now that all the great public works are completed, and borrowings of moneys for such purposes having ceased, a heavy load of taxation will have to be borne by the rural population which will check their progress in wealth. At present only about 40 per cent of the revenues of the Colonies is raised by taxation, the revenue from land sold being the largest item ; but when the land is disposed of, taxes must increase enormously, as has already been noticed. Colonial Federation has been looked on by some Australian public men as likely to be advantageous to the Colonies generally ; but I found all the business men to whom I spoke of the matter opposed to that arrangement, except those of Victoria. Each Colony is jealous of the other getting any advantage ; and Sydney people would not hear of Melbourne being made the capital of a Federation, neither would Melbourne tolerate Sydney as their superior. The great stretch of territory covered by the Australian Colonies alone would make it very inconvenient to have a central authority ; and to include New Zealand and Tasmania would make the scheme unworkable. CHAPTER XII HOMEWARD THE weather was fine all the week after we left Albany for Colombo, and the daily routine undisturbed by anything of note. Our daily runs were from 320 to 330 miles, according as the wind and the tide favoured us. The afternoon of Sunday the 4th June was squally, and about midnight we enterejd the line of the south-west monsoons, temperature 80, and weather wet. We crossed the equator at 4.30 P.M. on Monday 6th June. We arrived at Colombo at 4.30 P.M. on Wed- nesday the /th, and spent the night ashore with Mr. and Mrs. Walker, of Icicle Hall, their beautiful residence a few miles outside the town, and situated between the cinnamon gardens and the sea-shore. Thursday, the 8th, we spent visiting places of interest near the town of Colombo and making purchases. We lunched with friends in the Grand Oriental Hotel. We went on board at 4.30 P.M., and at 6 P.M. Homeward 1 6 1 sailed for Aden, very pleased to be again home- ward bound. From the time we left Colombo till we reached the island of Socotra we had a gale of wind and a temperature ranging from 80 to 90 in the shade, with a moist atmosphere which made everything feel damp and disagreeable, while the high temperature had a very exhausting effect. We reached Aden at 10 P.M. on Friday the 1 6th June, and left again at 9 A.M. on Saturday the i /th. The night was very hot, and we lay on deck under awnings. The temperature at noon on the i/th was 85, but a gentle breeze of north wind tempered it, and made the weather delightful. At 4.30 P.M. we passed the island of Perim lying in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. It lies five miles from the Arabian and nine miles from the African coast. The water is very deep on both sides of the island. We passed through the channel on the Arabian side. Perim rises 245 feet above the sea, and is bare and destitute of fresh water. It is a mile and a half long, and has a harbour capable of accommo- dating 40 men-of-war within 100 yards of the shore. It was taken possession of by the British in 1/99, DUt was abandoned in 1801. It was again reoccupied in 1857 with the view of pro- tecting our way to India after the opening of the Suez Canal. M 1 62 Notes and Gleanings Sunday and Monday were fine days, with a temperature of 80, a dry atmosphere, and a northerly breeze. Tuesday was a charming day, temperature 8 I and no wind, and we were sailing close to the Arabian coast, which is low and sandy ; and along the shore the sea was of a dark blue colour as if saturated with indigo, but what produced the effect I could not discover. We passed the rocks called the Brothers at 5.30 P.M. About 8 A.M. on Wednesday we passed a valley at the far end of which we would have seen Mount Sinai had the weather been clear, but the morning was hazy. We arrived at Port Suez at I P.M., and after fixing an extra rudder, entered the canal at 2 P.M. We saw the place where Arabi Pasha's men cut the fresh- water canal to stop the supply of water to the English troops who had landed at Suez for the last Egyptian war ; but Admiral Hewit filled the dry dock with water from that canal, and secured a supply till the Egyptians were driven off and the canal repaired. We grounded in the Suez Canal at 9.30 P.M., and it took half an hour to get afloat again. We arrived at Port Said at 6 A.M. on the 22nd. After taking on board some coals we left again at 8 A,M.for Brindisi. The temperature had now fallen to 72, and the sea was as smooth as a mill-pond. Homeward 163 Friday the 23rd was another charming day, with a smooth sea, a fine gentle breeze, tempera- ture 74, and a cloudless sky, and we sailed along the historical island of Crete all day, and felt much interested in seeing the island which, accord- ing to the Greek historians and poets, was governed by its own kings as early as 1300 B.C. It was conquered by the Romans under Metellus, and on the division of the Empire it fell to the share of the Eastern monarchs. In 823 A.D. it was conquered by the Saracens. It was under the rule of the Venetians from 1 204 to 1625 A.D., when the Turks besieged it, and after a war lasting twenty- four years, captured it, and it now belongs to Turkey. The island attained its greatest pros- perity under the Romans. We sighted the coast of Morea early in the morning of Saturday the 24th, 'and at 7.30 A.M. passed the bay where the battle of Navarino was fought in 1827. At 8.30 we passed the island of Strivali, which has a lighthouse and a large Greek convent. The day was one of the finest we had had on our voyage homewards, and we sailed among the classic isles of Greece all day. At 2 P.M. we passed near to the town of Zante, which was nearly destroyed by an earthquake six months before, and saw the houses being rebuilt. The population of the town is about 5000, and it is built along the top of a small bay, and up the 164 Notes and Gleanings slope of a hill on which is a strong fortification. The island of Zante is about 24 miles long by 12 broad. Both the ordinary and a species of dwarf vine, on which currants grow, are largely cultivated on the beautiful sloping ground along its shores. Continuing our voyage, we sailed between Cephalonia and Ithaca, the former of which is the largest of the seven Ionian Islands, being about 30 miles long by 9 broad, and the latter 1 5 miles long and 4 broad. The chief products of these islands are wines, currants, and olive oil, which are exported in large quantities: Ithaca was celebrated among the ancients as the principality and home of Ulysses, and on the hill of Actos tradition points out the ruins of his castle. The channel between these islands is very like Loch Long. We next passed the island of Santa Maura, and saw the white cliff, 200 feet high, from which Sappho, the poetess, leaped on finding her love for Phaon unrequited. The Ionian Islands were formed into a Republic in 1815 under the protection of Britain, and they continued under that form of govern- ment till 1864, when they were ceded to Greece, and now form part of that kingdom. We arrived at Brindisi at 6.30 A.M. on Sunday the 27th. On entering the harbour an Italian steamer called Milo ran right across our bows, Homeward 165 and we struck her near the foremast, smashing one of her boats and doing other damage. Our captain was said to be at fault, as it is a rule of the harbour authorities that no steamer is to follow another inside the harbour entrance at a less distance than ten minutes slow steaming. Having landed our mails, and some passengers going home overland, we left at 1 1 A.M. for Malta. At 3 P.M. we passed Otranto, a fortified town on the strait connecting the Adriatic and Mediter- ranean. It has a curious old castle and a cathedral built partly in the sea. Next fore- noon we passed the Gulf of Catina, and about i o'clock the town of Syracuse, once one of the most flourishing cities of antiquity, but now reduced to a small town of dirty streets. It is still strongly fortified, and has a fine cathedral, formerly a temple of Minerva, and some other good public buildings. At 3.30 P.M. we arrived at Valetta, and at 10.15 P - M - left f r Gibraltar, after having spent some hours ashore. Here we received particulars of the loss of the warship Victoria. Some years ago many English mer- cantile houses had branches in Malta, but they have all withdrawn now, and the trade is entirely in the hands of the natives. On Tuesday the 27th, at 9 A.M., we passed the island of Pantellaria, which used to be a noted resort of Barbary corsairs, and which is now 1 66 Notes and Gleanings occupied as a convict establishment by the Italian Government At I P.M. we passed Cape Bon near the Bay of Tunis, and at 2 P.M. Zembra. At 5.30 we were off Bizerta, a sea-port of Tunis, which has been acquired by the French, and is now being strongly fortified by them. It is the most northerly sea-port in Africa, lying in 37 \f N. Behind the town is a lagoon about 15x9 miles, and having a depth of 40 to 50 fathoms, and the French are deepening the channel between this lagoon and the bay, and making it one of the finest naval stations in the world. The ground behind the lagoon rises rapidly to a height of several thousand feet. At 7.30 P.M. we passed the Fratelli Rocks. The coast along which we sailed all day was hilly and well cultivated. Wednesday, the 28th, we were too far off the coast to see any towns or places of interest, but the weather was beautiful. At 11.30 A.M. on Thursday, the 29th, we sighted the coast of Spain, and as we neared it, found it to be high and broken into valleys running from the shore to high ridges of hills inland. The valleys were well cultivated, and, judging by the number of peasants' houses within sight, appeared to be fertile. At 1.45 P.M. we passed Cape Gata, near the Bay of Almeria. The after- Homeward 167 noon became hazy, and we could only see the high mountains some distance inland. We arrived at Gibraltar at 4.30 A.M. on Friday the 3Oth June, but did not go ashore. The widows of several officers of the Victoria embarked for London with us, and we left for Plymouth at 8 A.M. A Manchester manufacturer, who came on board at Malta, died at 2.30 P.M., and was buried in Trafalgar Bay at 8 P.M. The burial service was read by Captain Angus in a very impressive manner. Saturday, ist July, was fine, and we were within sight of the coast of Portugal most of the day. We passed Lisbon about 1 1 A.M. In the afternoon vessels of all sizes, from fishing boats to ocean liners, were within sight, and we began to feel we were again drawing near to the centre of the activity of the world, our own island home. Sunday, the 2nd July, was our seventh Sunday at sea from the time we left Sydney, and we felt much pleased it was to be the last of our present voyage. The Bay of Biscay had been like a mill- pond when we passed through it. OfT Cape Finisterre we had some showers, the first we had had since we sailed clear of the monsoons. We crossed the Channel on Monday the 3rd, and passed the Eddystone lighthouse at 3.30 P.M., entering Plymouth harbour at 4.30 P.M., where I landed, and went to London by the night mail to 1 68 Notes and Gleanings attend to business, while my wife and daughters continued their journey by the Ballarat, and arrived off Greenwich at 6.30 P.M. next day. We had very few first class passengers on the homeward voyage, the number never exceeding thirty, and only eight or ten besides ourselves did the whole voyage from Australia to England. No entertainments committee was formed, and no series of amusements was carried through as in the Oceana. But all the passengers were very agreeable, and time passed pleasantly enough. The officers were very nice men, and did their best to make all on board as happy as possible. Wednesday, the 4th, we spent in London with some of our good colonial friends again ; and after driving through the principal streets to see the preparations and decorations for the marriage of the Duke of York and the Princess May next day, we left by the night train for home, where we arrived safely next morning, to the intense pleasure of the other members of our family, who had missed us much during our long absence. And so ended the most delightful tour we had ever had, or are likely to have again. Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.