The 24,886 Chinese engaged in search of gold were nearly all males, there being but one woman of the same race included in the number. The larger proportion of the Chinese males were between the ages of 20 and 45.

According to returns of March 1863, the population on the gold fields amounted to 229,600, of whom 88,000 were actually engaged in mining. They had in use 776 steam engines, equal to 11,760 horse power. The total area of the territory of the colony where gold had been found, from 1851, till March, 1865, extended over 1,754 miles. The produce of the gold fields, however, appears to be steadily diminishing, and agriculture is again becoming the main industry of the inhabitants of Victoria.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

Constitution and Government.

THE administration of Western Australia-the only colony to which convicts from Great Britain continue to be transported—is under a Governor appointed by the Crown, who is assisted by an Executive Council composed of certain office-holders, namely, the senior officer in command of the forces, the Colonial Secretary, the Comptroller-General of Convicts, the Surveyor-General, the Attorney-General, and the Treasurer and Collector of Internal Revenue. There is also a Legislative Council, composed, including the Governor, of six official and four unofficial members. The official members are the Governor, the Commander of the Forces, the Colonial Secretary, the Surveyor-General, the Attorney-General, and the Treasurer and Collector of Internal Revenue. The unofficial members are appointed by the Crown, on the recommendation of the Governor.

Governor of Western Australia.-J. S. Hampton, formerly Comptroller-General of Convicts in Tasmania; appointed Governor of Western Australia, Nov. 1861.

The Governor has a salary of 1,8001. per annum.

Revenue and Population.

The revenue and expenditure of the colony during the six years from 1857 to 1863 were as follows:

It will be seen that during part of the above period there was a comparatively large deficit. The revenue of 1863 included an imperial grant in aid of 12,3602.

As defined by Royal Commission, Western Australia includes

all that portion of New Holland situated to the westward of 190° E. long.; its greatest length is therefore 1,280-miles from north to south, and 800 miles from east to west. The occupied portion of the colony is about 600 miles in length from north to south, by about 150 miles in average breadth.

Western Australia was first settled in 1829, and for many years made but little progress, owing, to a certain extent, to an absence of water. In 1850, the colony had not more than 6,000 inhabitants, including men, women, and children. The colony, at the census of 1861, had a total population of 15,691, namely, 9,852 males and 5,839 females.

According to an enumeration made in January 1863, Western Australia, at that period, contained 18,700 inhabitants, of whom about 7,000 lived in the towns of Fremantle and Perth; the rest were dispersed over an area of 560 miles by 130. They consist of farmers who cultivate 100 acres, and run 1,000 to 2,000 sheep; 'cockatoo farmers,' who consume their produce, and carry on some trade; and pensioners, who do military duty, and have allotments. These altogether owned in 1861 about 260,000 sheep, 32,500 cattle, and 9,500 horses. No settled district of any size will carry more than an average of a sheep to twenty-five acres, and so large a proportion of surface is occupied by scrub, sand, and poisonous plants that all the available space is already taken up, and the prospect of extension depends on the discovery of accessible land fit for settlement beyond the present limits, which may exist, but has not yet been found.

For years past, immigration into the colony has been confined to the persons sent out by the British government-paupers and criminals. In the year 1864 there arrived 561 convicts in Western Australia. At the end of the year there were in the colony 1,371 convicts in prison and 1,449 ticket-of-leave holders at large, of which latter number 1,336 were in private service, the rest being at the hiring depôts. The total number of convicts received in the colony down to the end of the year 1864 was 8,179; 2,820 of them were, as just stated, still undergoing their sentence, or only at large on tickets of leave; 1,002 had become free by servitude, 3,858 had been conditionally pardoned, and 24 had received a free pardon; 427 were dead, 45 had escaped, and 3 were missing. All the convicts who escaped in 1864 were recaptured. The expenditure on convict account in Western Australia averages about 241. per man per annum.

Trade and Commerce.

The total value of the imports and exports of Western Australia, in the six years from 1857 to 1863, is shown in the subjoined statement:

Of the imports of 1863, there came 85,4197. from the United Kingdom, while of the exports, 60,6187. were sent to the United Kingdom, or about 8,000l. less than in the year 1862.

The exports of the colony consist almost entirely in wool and timber, the former being of the average value of 60,000l. annually. The soil is believed to be rich in mineral ore, principally copper; but as yet mining has not proved remunerative in Western Australia.

INDEX.