rets, and poisoning with arsenic, strychnia, and phosphorus, destroyed them by millions, yet checked but slightly their multiplication. Wirefences were early tried to confine them within bounds, but they burrowed beneath the inclosures without difficulty. Since then, however, rabbit-proof fences have been devised, yet in some localities they have learned to leap over fences that were considered a perfect barrier. The Government of New South Wales, for the purpose of protecting the populous districts of the eastern division, proposes to build a wire fence, 400 to 500 miles long, from Albury to the borders of Queensland, at an estimated cost of £770,000. The Parliament of that colony offered a bonus of sixpence for every rabbit killed, and the payments under the act have increased in rapid progression, the sum called for in 1886 being £146,000, in 1887 about £250,000, and in 1888 it was calculated to amount to £500,000. The same Government has now offered a reward of £25,000 to any person who shall invent an effective process for the extermination of rabbits that shall not be injurious in its operation to horses, sheep, or other domestic animals. The inventor must demonstrate the efficacy of his method or process, which must be one that is yet unknown in the colony, at his own expense, and will receive the prize after a year's trial. Pasteur, who discovered remedies for the silkworm disease and cattle-disease, communicated to the agents-general in London a method that he had already tried with success in France. This is to produce an epidemic of chicken-cholera, a disease that is very infectious and fatal among rabbits, though harmless to other animals, except poultry. In the spring of 1888 a party of French and English scientists went to Australia, taking with them infusions containing the microbes of this disease, with the intention of introducing the infection among the rabbits of various localities by laying before them contaminated food, after which it was expected to spread spontaneously. The Federal Council.-The British Parliament in 1885 authorized the formation of a council of the colonies, to meet at least once every two years for discussion and united action on matters of common Australian interest. The second meeting of the council was held at Hobart, Tasmania, the regular place for assembling, in January, 1888, terminating a threedays' session on the 19th. New Zealand, South Australia, and New South Wales had not joined the confederation, and the representatives of the other colonies discussed the means of inducing them to take part in the councils. The New Hebrides.-The anxiety of the Australians on account of the French occupation of the New Hebrides islands abated when the French Government set a date for the withdrawal of the military force. A convention for a joint naval commission was signed on Nov. 16, 1887, and the French agreed to evacu ate the islands within four months from that date. On Jan. 26, 1888, the English and French representatives signed at Paris a declaration defining the functions and powers of the Anglo-French Naval Commission, and establishing regulations for its guidance. The commission consists of a president and two British and two French naval officers. It is charged with the maintenance of order and the protection of the lives and property of British and French citizens in the New Hebrides. The presidency of the commission shall be held in alternate months by the commanders-in-chief of the British and French naval forces present in the group. The regulations provide that in the event of a disturbance of peace and good order in any part of the New Hebrides where British or French subjects are found, or in case of danger menacing their lives or property, the commission shall forthwith meet and take measures for repressing disturbance or protecting the interests endangered, but not resorting to military force unless its employment is considered indispensable. If a military or naval force lands, it must not remain longer than is deemed necessary by the commission. In a sudden emergency the British and French naval commanders nearest the scene of action may take measures for the protection of persons or property of either nationality, in concert if possible, or separately when only one force is near the disturbed locality; but they must at once report to the senior officers, who shall communicate the report to each other, and immediately summon the commission. The commission has no power to interfere in disputes concerning title to land or to dispossess either natives or foreigners of lands that they hold in possession, but it is charged with the police duties of stopping the slave-trade with the Kanakas and of preventing acts of piracy. The last of the French troops left the New Hebrides on March 15. They The Chinese Question.-Anticipations of an increase of Chinese laborers and of the effect of their competition on the condition of the white laboring class, have produced an exciting political and international question in the Australian colonies. Two high commissioners, accredited by the Chinese Government, visited Australia in May, 1887, with the objects of learning the manner in which their countrymen were treated and of advancing commercial relations between the two countries. found little to complain of in the treatment of the Chinese, but questioned the rightfulness of restrictions on immigration that have recently been introduced, especially the headtax that is imposed in the various colonies. The Chinese ambassador in London, on Dec. 12, 1887, asked the explanation of this exceptional legislation, and objected to it as a violation of treaty oligations. Chinese competition is most severe on the tropical northern shores of Australia, especially in the Northern AUSTRALIA. Territory of South Australia. The white residents of the territory in the spring of 1888 addressed a memorial to the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, urging restrictive measures, in which they blamed their own Government for introducing the evil by importing Chinese laborers for the gold-mines at public expense, and afterward allowing them to squat on Government lands, to bid for Government contracts, and to vote as rate-payers. From that district they had advanced inland by way of Roper and McArthur rivers into Queensland and the The GovernSouth Australian ruby - fields. or resident at Port Darwin in the beginning of April advised the authorities in Adelaide of information that had come to him, according to which vessels sailing under the Chinese flag were preparing to land a great number of Chinamen to work the ruby-mines. The Government has hitherto encouraged the immigration of Chinese into the territory, because they alone have developed the agricultural resources of the land, and are almost the only laborers who will long remain and work in the mines. Without them it would not have been possible to build the Port Darwin Railroad, which is expected to make the territory prosperous and self-supporting. There are at present 6,000 Chinese in the Northern TerriThere is a tory and only 600 Europeans. regulation limiting the Chinese to a distance of 1,000 miles inland, but the South Australian Government proposes now to adopt in respect to the Northern Territory the same restrictions on immigration that prevail in the rest of Australia. The Chinese question is treated by Australian politicians as a workingman's question, although the workingmen there, unlike those of California, have not yet felt the direct competition of Chinamen in the trades, save in furniture-making, which the Chinese have learned and pursue on their own account. They have been very successful as gardeners, and have taught the English colonists many improvements in the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. The large cities are entirely supplied with such produce from their gardens. Once before, when the Chinese, who began to come in 1851, increased from 2,000 in 1854 to 42,000 in 1859, Victoria imposed a capitation tax on immigrants, which had the effect of reducing the Chinese population to 20,000 by 1863, when the poll-tax was removed. The first of the more recent measures was passed in 1881 in consequence of the action of the authorities of Western Australia, who were about to import Chinese laborers. The Chinese evaded the tax by procuring letters of naturalization, which their countrymen in Victoria began to take out in unusual numbers. While only 91 letters had been issued to Chinese during the eleven years preceding, there were 317 naturalizations in 1882, and the number increased to 1,178 in 1885. The arrivals by sea had fallen on the imposition of the head-tax from 1,348 in 1881 to 327 in The question raised in the letter of Lew-taIen, the Chinese Minister, was submitted to the premiers of the different colonies by Lord Salisbury. Sir Henry Parkes, replying for New South Wales, and D. Gillies for Victoria, urged the home Government to make a treaty similar to that which was being negotiated between China and the United States. Public meetings were held in the two colonies, much political feeling was aroused on the subject, street demonstrations took place, anti-Chinese riots were threatened, and, finally, the executives manifested their energy by prohibiting the landing of Chinamen and sending about four hundred back to China. The New Zealand Government, in order to accomplish the same object, declared all the ports of China to be infected districts. In the middle of May a severer Chinese restriction bill was introduced as a Government meas ure in the New South Wales Parliament, and passed the House of Assembly at once. It was made operative from the beginning of that month, and contained no exception in favor of immigrants who were then on the seas or in Australian ports. The act was virtually prohibitive, restricting the number of passengers to one for every 300 tons of the vessel carrying them, and raising the poll-tax to £100. Chinese were allowed to trade only in certain districts, and only five in each district. Naturalization of Chinese was forbidden. No Chinamen could mine without authority, and all must take out licenses annually to be allowed to reside in the colony. The Legislative Council refused to suspend the rules to hurry the passing of the bill, and meanwhile the supreme court granted writs of habeas corpus for the release of fifty Chinamen who were detained in Sydney Harbor, declaring their detention illegal. Two amendments of the Legislative Council, one keeping open the Supreme Court to persons who have claims for indemnity, and the other striking out the clause limiting the Chinese to certain areas and occupations, which latter was drawn in imitation of the existing regulations for foreigners in China, were accepted by the Assembly; and, when the Council stood firm, others were adopted by the Government, and finally accepted by the house, removing the features of the bill that were most flagrantly in contravention of the treaties, but not mitigating its severity as a restrictive measure. An intercolonial conference on the subject of restriction was held at Sydney. Its conclusions were embodied in the bill that was introduced in the Victorian Parliament, which opened its sessions on June 21. The right of domicile of Chinamen in British dominions rests not merely on international law and the comity of nations, but on the first article of the treaty of Nankin, signed Aug. 29, 1842, which provides that there shall be peace and friendship between the sovereigns of Great Britain and China and between their respective subjects," who shall enjoy full security and protection for their persons and property within the dominions of the other." This treaty was renewed by the one signed at Tientsin on June 26, 1858. The Pekin Convention of 1860 provides that Chinese in choosing to take service in British colonies are at liberty to enter into engagements and take passage in British vessels at the open ports, and that the Chinese authorities shall, in concert with the diplomatic representative of Great Britain, frame regulations for the protection of emigrants sailing from the open ports. Traffic in Arms with the Pacific Islanders. Great Britain has for three or four years been attempting to induce other nations to enter into an agreement prohibiting the sale of fire-arms and powder and of alcoholic liquors in the western Pacific. The consequences of supplying the natives with arms of precision are described in a blue-book on the subject. In some of the islands the people kill each other in family and tribal feuds. The effect on the relations of the natives with whites is pointed out by Bishop Selwyn, of Melanesia, in a letter to the Colonial Office. Any outrage committed by a white man is sure to be avenged by a volley fired at the next boat's crew, and then a man-of-war is sent to punish the islanders, and a party landed, often in the face of a heavy fire, thus "exposing valuable lives for the most trivial of causes." Recently the boats of the "Eliza Mary were fired on from the New Hebrides, the natives mistaking the English vessel for the "Tongatabu," a labor vessel flying the German flag, which had recruited laborers for Samoa under the pretense that they were for Queensland. Without waiting for a convention, the governments of Queensland and Fiji in 1884 prohibited the sale of fire-arms to natives. But these regulations are evaded by the labor agents who find that guns and powder are the only price that will gain laborers for the sugarplantations. When an international agreement was proposed, France at once signified her willingness to enter into the compact if the other powers should do likewise. Germany returned no answer to the proposal. The United States declined to accede to the proposed regulations. Mr. Bayard in his reply recognized their general propriety and the responsibility of conducting such traffic under proper and careful restrictions, while signifying the intention of the Government of the United States for the present "to restrain its action to the employment, in the direction of the suggested arrangement, of a sound discretion in permitting traffic between its own citizens in the articles referred to and the natives of the western Pacific islands." New South Wales.-The oldest of the Australian colonies has been self-governing since 1855. The present Governor is Lord Carrington, who entered on the office in December, 1885. The present ministry, which was constituted on Jan. 19, 1887, is composed of the following members: Premier and Colonial Secretary, Sir Henry Parkes; Colonial Treasurer, John Fitzgerald Burns; Minister for Lands, Thomas Garrett; Minister for Works, John Sutherland; Attorney-General, Bernhard Ringrose Wise, who received his appointment on May 27, 1887; Minister for Public Instruction, James Inglis; Minister for Justice, William Clarke; Postmaster-General, C. J. Roberts; Minister for Mines, Francis Abigail; President of the Executive Council, Julian Emmanuel Salomons, who represents the Government in the Legislative Council, but holds no portfolio. The revenue in 1886 amounted to £7,594,300, of which £2,389,138 were derived from the state railways, £2,068,571 from customs, and £1,643,955 from the public lands, the sales amounting to £1,206,438. The revenue has increased from £22 per head of population in 1871 to £39 in 1886. The total expenditure in 1886 was £9,078,869, being larger than in any previous year, and more than twice that of 1877. The expenditure on railroads, including tramways, was £1,710,495; on post and telegraphs, £610,651; on other public works, £1,248,877; on the public debt, partly for extinction of loans, £1,579,689; on public instruction, £741,121; on other services, £3,152,639. The total expenditure in 1887 was £8.614,276. with an estimated revenue of £8,458,225. The revenue for 1888 is expected to reach £8,511,725, while the expenditure is estimated at £8,209,335. The public debt has grown from £7,830,230 in 1860, and £14,903,919 in 1880, to £41,034,249 in March, 1887. Of the total debt more than £25,000,000 was raised for railroad construction. The colony was a penal settlement before 1840, and in 1828 nearly half of the total population of 36,598 were transported felons. In 1881, when the last decennial census was taken, the population was 751,468, comprising 411,149 males and 340,319 females. The increase in ten years had been at the rate of 4.9 per cent. per annum. In the six years ending with 1886 the net immigration averaged 30,000 a year, the number of immigrants in that year being 70,388; of emigrants, 41,896. The number of births in 1886 was 36,284, and of deaths, 14,587, showing a natural increment of 21,697. The death-rate in 1887 was 13.15 per 1,000. Sydney, the capital, had an estimated population of 332,709 at the end of 1886. The population of the colony on Jan. 1, 1888, was estimated at 1,042,917. The exports in 1886 amounted to £15,556,213, of which sum £12,884,200 represent the exports of domestic produce, including specie. The total value of imports was £20,973,548. The imports of gold and coin were £1,873,235, and the exports, £1,592,340. The export of wool to Great Britain was 134,929,740 pounds, valned at £5,259,309, the exports of this product to all countries being valued at £7,201,976. The next most important exports were coal, of the value of £947.002, and tin, of the value of £725,368. after which came sheep, silver, cattle, textiles, skins, and copper. The number of sheep in the colony on Jan. 1, 1887, was 39,169,304. The gold product in 1886 was £355,600. The number of factories in the colony in 1886 was 3,694, employing 45,783 operatives. The fiscal policies of New South Wales, which has low import duties, and Victoria, which maintains a high protective tariff, are often contrasted to illustrate the advantages of free trade, though without taking into consideration the greater area and natural resources of the former. The manufacturing interests are nearly equal in both colonies. Victoria excels in boot and shoe factories, flour-mills, and iron and furniture manufactures, but in many branches New South Wales has the advantage. The horse-power of the factories in the latter colony is 25,192 against 20,160 for Victoria; the value of the plant, £5,002,000 against £4,654,VOL. XXVIII.-5 A 000. Woolen-mills are not profitable in either colony, and recently the Victorian Parliament has added 5 per cent. to the duty on woolens, which was before 15 to 20 per cent. There were 1,890 miles of railway in operation in 1886, which had been built at a total cost of £24,962,972. The earnings for the year were £2,160,070, and the expenses, £1,492,992. The telegraphs had 20,797 miles of wire, constructed at a cost of £666,028. Rich silver-mines have been discovered near the border of South Australia in a district called Broken Hills. The ore-deposits extend over more than twenty miles, and many companies have been formed and mines opened. The report of a week's run of the principal mine in March, 1888, showed 1,709 tons of ore treated, and 73,659 ounces of silver extracted. Victoria. The Constitution was granted in 1854. Unlike New South Wales, which enjoys universal suffrage, Victoria limits the privilege of voting by a property qualification. The Governor is Sir Henry Brougham Loch, who was appointed on April 10, 1884. Sir William Foster Stawell was appointed Lieutenant-Governor on Nov. 6, 1886, and in the event of the death or absence from the colony of the Governor will assume the administration of the Government. The Cabinet is made up as follows: Premier, Minister of Mines, and Minister of Railways, Duncan Gillies; Chief Secretary and Commissioner of Water-Supply, Alfred Deakin; Attorney-General, H. J. Wrixon; Commissioner of Public Works, J. Nimmo; Minister of Justice, Henry Cuthbert; Commissioner of Trade and Customs, W. F. Walker; Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey, J. L. Dow; Minister of Public Instruction, Charles H. Pearson; Minister of Defense, Sir James Lorimer; Postmaster-General, F. T. Derham; Ministers having portfolios with no offices attached, James Bell and D. M. Davies. The public revenue for the year that ended June 30, 1887, was £6,733,867; the expenditure, £6,665,863. The yield of customs duties was £2,132,361; the income from railways, £2,453,345; from posts and telegraphs, £418,295; from crown lands, £587,100. The interest and expenses of the debt absorbed £1,272,591 of the total expenditure; the working expenses of the railroads were £1,364,400, of other public works £887.827, and of the postal and telegraph service £578,451; the cost of public instruction, £670,856. The revenue for the fiscal year 1887-'88 is estimated at £7,444,000, and the revenue £6,906,000. The public debt in June, 1887, amounted to £33,119,164, of which £25,404,847 were raised to build railroads, £5,004,791 for irrigation works, £1,105,557 for school-buildings, and £1,603,969 for other public works. Interest is at the average rate of 41 per cent. The estimated population on Jan. 1, 1888, was 1,036,118, having increased from 862,346 in 1881. The number of births in 1886 was 30,824; deaths, 14,952; marriages, 7,737. The death-rate in 1887 was 15.70 per 1,000. The excess of births over deaths in that year was only 64 per cent. Immigration has declined since the withdrawal of the aid given by the colony before 1874. In 1886 there arrived by sea 93,404 persons, against 76,976 in 1885, and departed 68,102, against 61,994. About half of the population live in towns. The capital, Melbourne, contained 390,000 inhabitants in 1887. The imports in 1886 were £18,530,575, which was about the average value for five years; but the exports fell off from £15,551,758 in 1885 to £11,795,321 in 1886. The imports of wool amounted to £2,331,599, and the exports to £4,999,662; imports of timber, £1,170,539; of woolens, 892,868; of cottons, £1,027,674. The exports of gold were £1,954,326. The quantity of wool shipped to Great Britain was 93,889,887 pounds. The state railroads in June, 1887, had a total length of 1,880 miles, besides 316 miles in course of construction. The cost of the lines was £26,479,206. The receipts in the year 1886-'87 were £2,453,087; the expenses, £1,427,116. There were 4,094 miles of telegraph lines, with 10,111 miles of wire at the close of 1886. South Australia.-According to a law that went into force in 1881 the Legislative Council consists of twenty-four members, of whom eight retire every three years, and are replaced by new members, two from each of the four districts, who are voted for on one ticket by the whole colony. The House of Assembly numbers fifty-one members, who are chosen by universal suffrage. The Governor is Sir William F. C. Robinson, who was appointed in February, 1883. The heads of the six ministerial departments are as follow: Premier and Treasurer, Thomas Playford, Chief Secretary, James Gordon Ramsay; Attorney-General, Charles Camden Kingston; Commissioner of Crown Lands, Jenkins Coles; Commissioner of Public Works, Alfred Catt; Minister of Education, Joseph Colin Francis Johnson. The revenue in 1887 was £1,869,942; the expenditure, £2,165,245. The public debt, all of which was raised for public works, amounted, on Dec. 31, 1887, to £19,168,500. The population on Dec. 31, 1886, was estimated at 312,758, comprising 162,980 males and 149.778 females. The number of births registered in 1886 was 11,177; deaths, 4,234; marriages, 1,976. The number of immigrants was 17,623; of emigrants, 25,231. At the end of 1887 the population was computed at 312,421, showing a loss of 337. The population of the Northern Territory is not included in these estimates. The death-rate in 1887 was 12.62 per 1,000. The value of imports in 1886 was £4,852,750; of exports, £4,489,008. The exports of wool were valued at £1,955,207; of wheat and flour, £626,610; of copper and copper-ore, £230,868. The mileage of railways in December, 1886, was 1,381. There were 417 miles in progress. The length of telegraph lines was 5,459 miles; the length of wires, 10,310 miles. Queensland. The Constitution dates from 1859, when the colony was separated from New South Wales. The members of the upper house are nominated for life; those of the popular branch are elected by restricted suffrage. The Governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave, was appointed in April, 1883. The composition of the ministry is as follows: Premier, Chief Secretary, and Vice-President of the Executive Council, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, who is also Colonial Treasurer; Postmaster-General, Walter Horatio Wilson; Attorney-General, Arthur Rutledge; Secretary for Mines and Public Works, William Oswald Hodgkinson; Colonial Secretary and Secretary for Public Instruction, Berkeley Basil Moreton; Secretary for Public Lands, Henry Jordan; without portfolio, Sir James Francis Garrick. On May 1, 1886, the colony contained 322,853 inhabitants, of whom 190,344 were males and 132,509 females. There were 10,500 Chinese and 10,165 Polynesians in the total, which does not include the aborigines, numbering about 12,000. The increase since the census of 1881 was 109,328, equal to 51.20 per cent. The estimated population on June 30, 1887, was 354,596. According to the census of 1886, 55,890 persons were engaged in agriculture, 51,489 in industries, 7,040 in professional pursuits, 19,790 in commerce, and 171,163 were wives, children, and domestic servants. The number of births in 1886 was 12,582; deaths, 5,575; marriages, 2,785. The population of Queensland on Jan. 1, 1888, was computed to be 366,940. The death-rate for 1887 was 14:56 per 1,000. The average density of population in 1884 was 0.478 per square mile, that in the northern division of 255,400 square miles being 0.24, in the central division of 223,341 square miles 0·17, and in the southern division of 189,751 square miles 1:16. The northern division contained 52,339 inhabitants, the central, 38,821, and the southern, 221,693. The total value of imports in 1886 was £6,103,227; the value of exports, £4,933,970, of which sum £1,413,908 represent wool, and £855,510 sugar. Other exported products, besides gold, are hides. tin, preserved meat, silver-ore, and pearl-shell. There were 54,010 acres under sugar-cane in 1886, and of this area 34,657 acres yielded 58,545 tons of sugar valued at £1,125,284. At the end of 1886 there were 1,555 miles of railway completed and 637 miles under construction. Their capital cost was £10,716,352; the receipts in 1886 were £640,845, and the running expenses £476,966. The length of telegraph lines was 8,225 miles, with 14,443 miles of wire. Western Australia.-The Government is administered by a Governor assisted by a Legis |