the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Encyclopedias
New South Wales
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or A state of the Australian Commonwealth. The name was given by Captain Cook, in his exploratory voyage in 1770, to the southern portion of the eastern coast of Australia, from some imagined resemblance of its coast-line to that of South Wales. The name was afterwards extended to the eastern half of Australia, but now designates a much more restricted area. New South Wales is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the E., by Queensland on the N., by South Australia on the W. and by Victoria on the S. It lies between 28° and 38° S. lat., and 141° and 154° E. long. The coast-line, which is about 700 m. in length, extends from Cape Howe (37° 30') at the south-eastern corner of Australia to Point Danger in 28° 7' S. The colony is approximately rectangular in form, with an average depth from the coast of 650 m. and an average width from north to south of Soo m. The superficial area is estimated at 310,700 sq. m., or about one-tenth of the whole of Australia.
Physical Configuration
The surface of the state is divided naturally into three distinct zones, each widely differing in general character and physical aspect, and clearly defined by the Great Dividing Range running from north to south. The tableland, which forms the summit of the range, comprises one of the three zones and separates the other zones, viz. the coastal region, and the great plain district of the interior. The main range follows the line of the coast, varying from 30 to 140 m. distant, being nearest at the south and receding the farthest at the sources of the Goulburn river, the main tributary of the Hunter. The crest of this range is, in some places, narrow; in others it spreads out into a wide tableland. The eastern slopes are, as a rule, rugged and precipitous, but the western versant falls gently to plains. The highest part of the Dividing Range is in the south-eastern portions of the state, on the borders of Victoria. Here some of the peaks rise to a height of over 7000 ft.; one of these, Mount Kosciusco, the highest peak in Australia, attains an elevation of 7328 ft. The tableland varies greatly in elevation, but nowhere does it fall below 1500 ft., and in places it reaches an average of 5000 ft. The great plain district, lying west of the tableland, is part of a vast basin which comprises portions of Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, as well as of New South Wales. The great plains are traversed by a few rivers, whose long and uncertain courses carry their waters to the river Murray, which empties itself into the Southern Ocean through the state of South Australia, and during 1250 m. of its course forms the boundary between the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The Murray has a very tortuous course, as may be judged from the fact that the measurement along the joint boundary of New South Wales and Victoria is only 460 m. in a straight line, the river course being 1250. The chief tributaries of the Murray are the Darling and the Murrumbidgee, which is joined by the Lachlan. The Murray and the Murrumbidgee are permanent streams, but the Darling occasionally ceases to run in part of its course, and for a thousand miles above its junction with the Murray it receives no tributary. In its upper course the Darling receives numerous tributaries. Those on the right bank all come from Queensland and bring down enormous volumes of water in flood time; on the left bank the most important tributaries are the Gwydir, Namoi, Castlereagh, Bogan and Macquarie. Here and there along the course of the western rivers are found lagoons, sometimes of considerable dimensions. These are commonly called lakes, but are in reality shallow depressions receiving water from the overflow of the rivers in times of flood, and in return feeding them when the floods have subsided.
The coastal belt differs greatly from the other divisions of the state. The main range gives rise to numerous rivers flowing eastward to the South Pacific. Almost everywhere between the main range and the sea the country is hilly and serrated, more particularly in the southern portions of the state. In the Illawarra district, 56 m. south of Sydney, the mountains skirt the very edge of the coast, but farther north there is a wider coastland, with greater stretches of country available for tillage and pasture.
Along the sea-board are twenty-two well-defined headlands or capes and about a score of bays or inlets, to mark which for navigators there are thirty-four lighthouses. There are four very fine natural harbours, viz. Jervis Bay, Port Jackson, Broken Bay and Port Stephens, and several others of minor importance. Port Jackson, on which is situated the city of Sydney, is one of the six greatest ports of the British empire. The port second of commercial importance to Sydney is Newcastle, at the mouth of the Hunter river, which is the great coal-shipping port of the colony. Secondary harbours, available for coasting steamers, south of Sydney are at Port Hacking, Wollongong, Kiama, Shoalhaven, Bateman's Bay, Ulladulla, Merimbula, and Twofold Bay. North of Sydney the secondary ports are at the mouths of the Hawkesbury, Manning, Hastings, Macleay, Nambucca, Bellingen, Clarence, Richmond and Tweed rivers. The rivers of the sea-board are as just enumerated, the only other of importance being the Hunter. The Richmond drains an area of 2400 sq. m. and is navigable for 60 m. The Clarence is a fine stream draining an area of 8000 sq. m.; it has a course of 240 m. navigable for 67 m. The Macleay drains an area of 4800 sq. m., and empties at Trial Bay after a course of 200 m., of which 20 m. are navigable. The Hastings and Manning are both important rivers. The Hunter is one of the chief rivers of the state and embouches at Port Hunter or Newcastle Harbour after a course of 200 m. It drains an area of 11,00o sq. m., more than twice the area of the Thames basin. Less commercially important than the Hunter, the Hawkesbury is nevertheless a fine stream; it has a
course of 330 m., of which 70 m. are navigable. South of Sydney the rivers are of less importance; the principal is the Shoalhaven, 260 m. long, draining an area of 3300 sq. m.
Climate
The three geographical regions above described constitute three distinct climatic divisions. The coastal region, 28° to 37° S. lat., shows a difference between the average summer and winter temperatures of only 24° Fahrenheit. Sydney, which is situated midway between the extreme points of the state (33° 51' S.), has a mean temperature of 63°, the mean summer temperature being 71° and that of winter 54°, showing a mean range of 17°; the highest temperature in the shade experienced at Sydney in 1896 was 108.5°, and the lowest 35.9. The coastal district has an area of 38,000 sq. m., over which there is an average rainfall of 42 in. The rainfall is greatest at the sea-board, diminishing inland; the fall also diminishes from north to south. Sydney has an average fall of 50 in., while the Clarence Heads, in the north, has 58 in., and Eden, in the south, 35.5 in. The tableland is a distinct climatic region. On the high southern plateau, at an elevation of 4640 ft., stands the town of Kiandra, with a mean summer temperature of 56.4° and winter of 32.5°. Cooma, in the centre of the Monaro plains, at an elevation of 2637 ft., has a mean summer temperature of 65.9° and winter, 41.7°; its summers are therefore as mild as those of London or Paris, while its winters are much less severe. On the New England tableland, under latitude 30° S., the yearly average temperature is 56.5°, the mean summer 67.7° and the mean winter 44.3°. The tablelands cover an area of 85,000 sq. m. and have an average rainfall of 32.6 in.; there is, however, a small area in the southern portion where an average fall of 64 in. is experienced. In the western division, or great plains, severe heat is experienced throughout the summer, and on occasional days the thermometer in the shade ranges above ioo° Fahrenheit, but it is a dry heat and more easily borne than a much less degree of temperature at the sea-board. The mean summer temperature ranges between 75° at Deniliquin in the south and 84° at Bourke. The mean range in winter is between 48° and 54.5 and, accompanied as this is with clear skies, the season is very refreshing. West of the tableland the amount of rainfall decreases as the distance from the Pacific increases, and in a large area west of the Darling the average annual rainfall does not exceed io in. For the whole western division, embracing an area of 188,000 sq. m., the average rainfall is 19.8 in. (T. A. C.) Geology. - New South Wales consists geologically as well as geographically of three main divisions which traverse the state from north to south. The highlands of eastern Australia form the middle belt of the state, to the east of which are the low coastal districts and to the west the wide western plains. The highlands of New South Wales consist, geographically, of a series of tablelands, now in the condition of dissected peneplains; geologically, they are built of a foundation of Archean and folded Lower Palaeozoic rocks, covered in places by sheets of more horizontal Upper Palaeozoic and Mesozoic rocks; these deposits occur along the edge of the highlands, and are widely distributed on the floor of the coastal districts. They have been lowered to this level by a monoclinal fold, which has brought down the Mesozoic rocks, so that they extend eastward to the coast, where they dip beneath the sea. The western plains contain isolated ridges of the old Archean and Lower Palaeozoic rocks; but in the main, they consist of plains of Cretaceous beds covered by Cainozoic drifts. The stratified rocks in the highlands strike north and south, as if they had been crumpled into folds, in Upper Palaeozoic times, by pressure from east to west. The weak areas in the crust caused by the earth movements were invaded by great masses of Devonian granites. They altered the Lower Palaeozoic rocks on their edges, and were once thought to have converted wide areas of Lower Palaeozoic rocks into schists and gneisses. Most of these foliated rocks, however, are doubtless of Archean age. The highland rocks no doubt once extended along the whole length of the state from north to south; but they are now crossed by a band of Upper Palaeozoic sediments, which extend up to the valley of the Hunter river and separate the Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands of New South Wales from the New England tableland to the north.
The oldest rocks in New South Wales are referrable to the Archean system, and consist of gneisses and schists, including the glaucophane-schists in the New England tableland, and hornblendeschists of Berthong. The Archean rocks are comparatively sparsely exposed in New South Wales. They enter the state from the south, being continuous with the Archean block of north-eastern Victoria. They occupy a large area in the western districts of New South Wales, where a projection from the Archean plateau of central Australia crosses into the state from South Australia; it is best exposed in the Barrier Ranges around Broken Hill. Cambrian rocks have not yet been discovered in New South Wales; but Pittman has recorded an Agnostus from Mandurama, near Orange. The rocks of the Ordovician system, though widely distributed, have not always been separated from the Silurian rocks, which they often closely resemble lithologically. The occurrence of Ordovician rocks was first established by Dun at Tomingley, 33 m. S.W. of Dubbo, where he discovered graptolites that he identified as Clinaacograptus and Dicellograptus. Other graptolites have been found near Orange, and at Lyndhurst, near Carcoar. The fossiliferous horizon is of Upper Ordovician age. The extent of the Ordovician will probably be increased by addition of areas, which cannot yet be separated from the Silurian. The Silurian system is the best-known constituent of the Lower Palaeozoic foundation of New South Wales. The rocks consist of sandstones, quartzites, slates and shales, associated with lenticular masses of limestone. The typical Silurian rocks are richly fossiliferous, the shales containing trilobites, the sandstones many brachiopods, and the limestones a rich coral and bryozoan fauna. There are also beds of chert, which are largely composed of radiolaria. Caves have been dissolved in the limestones by underground streams; the Jenolan caves in the Blue Mountains and those of Yarrangobilly and the Goulburn district are the most famous. The slates of the Silurian have been bent into folds, and saddle reefs occur along the axis of the folds, as at Hargraves. Numerous quartz reefs occur both in the Silurian and Ordovician rocks. In these reefs the chief mineral is gold. Some schists, attributed to the Silurian, but possibly older, contain platinum; and associated with the limestones are beds of copper.
The rocks of the Devonian system rest unconformably upon the Silurian; but some beds of which the age is still uncertain are called Devono-Silurian. The Devonian beds are well developed in the Blue Mountains, where the lower Devonian sediments at Mount Lambie are estimated to be Io,000 ft. in thickness. They are extensively developed along the Cox river and along the slopes of Mount Canoblas. They are also developed in the New South Wales highlands, to the south-east of Goulburn. Some of the best-known exposures are in the ranges which rise above the western plains, such as the Rankin Range on the Darling and the Kokopara Range to the north of the Murrumbidgee. The Devonian rocks at Yalwal are sharply folded and are associated with a series of rhyolites and basic lavas. The lower part of this series is probably Lower Devonian; and it is covered by shales and volcanic rocks belonging to the Upper Devonian. In the extreme south-east of New South Wales, at the head of the Genoa river, are sandstones with Archaeopteris howitti, which are an extension of the Lower Devonian beds of Victoria; while farther to the east, at Eden and Twofold Bay, are Upper Devonian sandstones.
The Devonian system is separated from the Carboniferous by an interval, during which there were powerful earth movements; they produced a lofty mountain chain, running north and south across New South Wales. The highlands are the worn down stumps of this mountain line. In Lower Carboniferous times these mountains were snow-capped, and the valleys on their flanks were occupied by glaciers.
The Lower Carboniferous beds are represented by conglomerates and sandstones with some shales and limestones. The sandstones are characterized by Lepidodendron (Bergeria) australe. It is associated with beds of lava and volcanic ash, some of which contain copper ores. Granites and granodiorites were intruded at this period into the older rocks, and altered the adjacent Devonian beds into slates and quartzites, and formed gold-quartz veins, which have been worked in the Devonian rocks at Yalwal. The Lower Carboniferous rocks also occur in the Blue Mountains, along the Cox river and Capertee river; and a northern continuation occurs along the western slope of the New England tableland, from the Macintyre river to the Queensland border.
The Upper Carboniferous rocks are most important from their rich seams of coal. They occupy from 24,000 to 28,000 sq. m., which are best exposed in the Hunter river and around Newcastle.
Farther south they disappear beneath the Mesozoic sandstones, from which they again rise along the coast around Lake Illawarra and near the mouth of the Shoalhaven river. The Coal Measures have been reached under Sydney, by a deep bore at Balmain, which pierced a seam of coal io ft. thick, at the depth of 2917 ft. The Coal Measures are classified by Professor T. W. David as follows: Ft.
1. Upper or Newcastle Coal Measures, containing an aggregate of about 100 ft. of coal. .
2. Dempsey Series; freshwater beds, containing no productive coal. This series thins out completely in certain directions .
3. Middle, or Tomago, or East Maitland Coal Measures, containing an aggregate of about 40 ft. of coal.. .
4. Upper Marine Series; specially characterized by the predominance of Productus brachythaerus 5. Lower or Greta Coal Measures, containing an aggregate of about 20 ft. of coal. .
6. Lower Marine Series; specially characterized by the predominance of Eurydesma cordata. 13,650 Geologically, perhaps, the most interesting rocks in the Carboniferous are the glacial conglomerates, containing ice-scratched, erratic blocks. Some of the boulders are encrusted by marine organisms and must have been dropped by icebergs in the sea. The northern limit of the glacial beds is in dispute; they have been described as far north as Ashford. The Carboniferous beds contain numerous sheets and flows of basalt and andesite. A syenite massif of this age occurs at Mittagong; and leucite has been discovered in Carboniferous basalts by David.
The Mesozoic rocks of New South Wales begin with the Narrabeen Shales; they are covered by the Hawkesbury Sandstones, which are well exposed around Sydney; and they in turn are covered by the Wianamatta Shales. The Triassic age of the Hawkesbury Sandstone is supported by the evidence of the fossil fish; though, according to Dr Smith Woodward, they may perhaps be Rhaetic, .'But the fossil plants of which the chief are Taeniopteris daintreei and Thinnfeldia odontopteroides are regarded by Seward as Lower Jurassic. At Talbragar there is a bed containing Jurassic fish, which rests in an erosion hollow in the Hawkesbury Sandstone. The Talbragar beds, then, may be representative of the Jurassic; and the underlying Hawkesbury Sandstone may be Upper Triassic. The Cretaceous system is widely developed in the western part of the state, where it is represented by two divisions. The Rolling Downs formation is regarded as Lower Cretaceous. It consists of a thick series of shales containing marine fossils. It is covered in places by tablelands and ridges of the Desert Sandstone, the remnants of a sheet which doubtless once covered the whole of the Western Plains. The chief economic product of the Desert Sandstone is opal, which occurs in it at White Cliffs and Wilcannia. The opal beds contain Cretaceous fossils such as Cimoliosaurus. An occurrence of Upper Cretaceous beds occurs in the coastal district at Nimbin on the Richmond river. The Cainozoic rocks are best developed in the western districts, as the silts of the Darling and Murray plains. They include some Miocene, or perhaps Oligocene marine sands, formed in the northern part of an inland sea, which occupied the basin of the Lower Murray. The most significant point in the distribution of the marine Cainozoic rocks in New South Wales is their complete absence from the coastal districts; this fact indicates that while the Middle Cainozoic marine beds of Victoria and New Guinea were being deposited, Australia extended far eastward into the Tasman Sea. The Cainozoic series of New South Wales contains many interesting volcanic rocks, including leucite-basalts, nepheline-basalts and sodalite-basalts. In a basic neck of this period at Inverell, there are eclogite boulders, containing diamonds in situ; and it is doubtless from these basic volcanic necks that the diamonds of the New England tableland have been derived. The volcanic rocks occur on the tableland of New South Wales, and contribute much to the fertility of their soils.
The most important mineral in New South Wales is coal, of which the state has probably a larger available supply than any other country in the southern hemisphere. The coal-fields occupy 24,000 sq. m. The coal is present in such vast amount as to offer the possibility of very economical working of the abundant iron ores of Australia. Kerosene shale occurs in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, in the Upper Carboniferous rocks. Gold is widely distributed through the highlands. It was first recorded by James McBrien in 1823, as occurring in grains in the sands of the Fish river, between Rydal and Bathurst; and though further discoveries were made, they were kept secret as far as possible. The first discovery of gold in mining quantities was made by Hargraves in 1851, at the junction of Lewis Ponds and Summerhill Creek, in what was called the Ophir Diggings, near Bathurst. The gold mines are very numerous and widely scattered, but individually they are mostly small and of no great depth. The total value of the gold raised since 1850 is over £50,000,000. The output of alluvial gold is now increased by the employment of dredges. The gold-quartz veins are mainly in the Ordovician and Silurian rocks; but some also occur in the Devonian, and there are impregnations of gold in tufas of Devonian age. Deep leads beneath the basalts occur at Kiandra.
The silver-lead mines of New South Wales are famous owing to the importance of Broken Hill. The mines there occur in gneiss and schists, which are probably of Archean age; the lode has in places been worked for a width of over 200 ft. The zinc ores associated with the silver-lead long lay unutilized, as the problem of their separation from the associated rhodonite has only recently been overcome. Tin is worked in the rivers of the New England tableland as at Vegetable Creek. The chief copper field is at Cobar in the north-western plains. Bismuth, platinum, molybdenum and antimony are obtained in small quantities.
The geology of New South Wales has been described in the Monographs, Memoirs and Records of the Geological Survey, which in the fullness and high scientific character form the most valuable contribution to Australasian geology. Pittman's map of the state in two sheets, on the scale of 16 m. to the inch, was issued by the Survey in 1893. The economic geology has been admirably summarized in a work by E. F. Pittman, The Mineral Resources of New South Wales (1901). Numerous geological memoirs have appeared in the Rep. Austral. Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, the Journ. R. Soc.
N.S. Wales and the Proc. of the Linnaean Soc. N.S. Wales. A systematic account of the minerals has been published by A. Liversidge, The Minerals of New South Wales (1888), and to him is due a valuable chemical study of the meteorites and gold nuggets. Contributions on the palaeontology of New South Wales are contained in the Rec. Austral. Museum, Sydney. A bibliography of the economic geography has been issued by W. S. Dun, Rec. Geol. Surv.
N.S. Wales, vol. vi., 1899, and of the Cretaceous geology, also by W. S. Dun, in Journ. of Proc. Royal Soc. N.S. Wales, 1903, vol. xxxvii. pp. 140-153. (J. W. G.) Artesian Water. - Before actual boring proved that the belief was well founded, it had long been scientifically demonstrated that water would probably be obtained in the Cretaceous formation which underlies the whole of the north-west of New South Wales; and it is probable that the artesian water-bearing - basin extends much farther south than was previously supposed. It may, indeed, be yet found to extend approximately along the course of the Lower Darling. Artesian water is also obtainable in other than Cretaceous rocks. This is shown by palaeontological evidence; and some of the most successful bores, such as those at Coonamble, Moree, Gil Gil and Euroka, have pierced rocks of Triassic age, corresponding with the Ipswich Coal Measures.
Population
The population on the 1st of July 1906 was 1,504,700, viz. 799,260 males and 705,440 females. The total includes 105,000 Chinese and 7500 aborigines and half-castes. Since 1860 New South Wales had added more largely to its population than any of the other Australian states. In 1860 the population was 348,546; in 1890 the number was 1,121,860. From 1890 to 1901 the population increased 238,083, or at the rate of 21-2%. By far the largest part of the increase is due to excess of births over deaths, for out of the increase of over 1,000,000 since 1860, only 350,000 was due to immigration. In 1905 there were 39,572 births and 14,980 deaths; these figures are equal to 26.78 and 10.13 per thousand respectively. The birth-rate has fallen very much, especially since 1899. In 18611865 it was 42.71 per 100o; in1896-1899it was 27.92, and in 1906 it had fallen still further to 26.78. The marriage rate for 1905 was 7.40 per thousand, and the persons married 14.80 per thousand. The mean for 20 years was 7.39. The chief cities are Sydney and suburbs, population in 1906, 535,000; Newcastle and suburbs, 56,000; Broken Hill, 30,000; in 1901, Parramatta, 12,568; Goulburn, 10,610; and Maitland (East and West), 10,085. There are nine other towns with between 5000 and io,000 inhabitants each.
Religion
The proportions of the leading denominations in 1901 were: - Church of England, 46.6%; Roman Catholic, 26.0; Presbyterian, 9.9; Wesleyan and other Methodists, 10.3; Congregationalist, 1.9; Baptist, 1.2; Jews, 0.5; others, 3.6. Sydney is the seat of Anglican and Roman Catholic archbishoprics;. the Anglican archbishop is also primate of Australia and Tasmania.
Education
The state has in its employ 3135 male and 2424 female teachers, and maintains 2901 schools. The law requires that all children over six years and under fourteen years shall attend school, and in 1904, 220,000 children of these ages, as well as 39 :00o others below or beyond the school ages, were receiving instruction, making a total of 259,000. Of this number 211,000 were in state schools and 48,000 in private schools. The majority of the private schools are controlled by one or other of the religious bodies. The Roman Catholic Church has 361 schools, with 1835 teachers and an attendance of 33,000 pupils. The total expenditure of the state on public instruction, science and art during the year ended 30th June 1906 was £911,000. During the calendar year 1906 a sum of £840,000 was expended on primary instruction. The fees from pupils 1,150 2,000 570 5,000 130 4,800 amounted to £82,000, making the actual cost of primary instruction £75 8, 000. There are a university and a technical college in Sydney.
Finance
The revenue of the state is derived from four main sources, viz. taxation; sale and lease of lands; earnings of railways, tramways and other services; and share of surplus revenue returned by the commonwealth. During 1906 the income derived under each of these heads was: from taxation £1,297,776; from lands £1,729,887; from railways and other services £5,856,826; from commonwealth £2,742,770; these with miscellaneous collections to the amount of £655,823 made up a total revenue of £12,283,082. The direct taxation is represented by a tax of one penny in the pound on the unimproved value of land, sixpence in the pound on the annual income derived in the state from all sources, except the use and occupation of land and improvements thereon. There are also various stamp duties. The land revenue is derived partly from the alienation of the public estate, either absolutely or under conditions, but mainly from the occupation of the public lands. There is also a small revenue from mining lands, timber licences, &c. The state still holds 146 million acres out of a total of 196 million acres, having alienated about 50 million acres. The principal heads of expenditure were: interest and charges on public debt, £3,291,059; public instruction, £911,177; working expenses of railways and tramways, £2,954,777; other services working expenses, £208,242; other services, £3,900,726. The public debt in 1906 was £85,641,734, equal to £56, I's. per inhabitant; the great proportion of this debt has been incurred for works that are revenue producing, only about £t 1,000,000 was not so expended. Of the total debt in 1903 about £66,000,000 was held in London. The net return from public works in excess of expenditure in 1906 amounted to nearly 31% on the whole public debt, and the interest paid averages 3.6%.
Administration
The political constitution of New South Wales is that of a self-governing British colony, and rests on the provisions of the Constitution Act. The governor is appointed by the crown, the term of office being generally for five years, and the salary £5000. The governor is the official medium of communication between the colonial government and the secretary for the colonies, but at the same time the colony maintains its own agent-general in London, who not only sees to all its commercial business but communicates with the colonial office. The powers of the state parliament have been since 1901 restricted by the transfer of certain powers to the commonwealth of Australia. In the legislative assembly there are 90 members. The principle adopted in distributing the representation is that of equal electoral districts, modified in practice by a preference given to the distant and rural constituencies at the cost of the metropolitan electorates. The suffrage qualification is a residence of twelve months and the attainment of the age of 21 years. Women are entitled to the franchise: there are the usual restrictions in regard to the pauper and criminal classes. An elector has only one vote, which is attached to the district in which he resides. Members of the Legislative Assembly are allowed a salary of £300 a year. There were in 1906 about 700,000 electors. Each electoral district returns one member. The Legislative Council consist of persons nominated for life by the governor, acting on the advice of the Executive Council; the number of members is not fixed by law but in 1906 it was 55. Parliaments are triennial. Local government was extended in I g05 and 1906 to the whole state, excepting the sparsely populated western division; formerly it was confined to an area of about 2800 sq. m. There are altogether about 55,000 m. of road communications, but not more than 15,000 m. are properly formed. The various local bodies are municipalities or shires, the former is the term applied to closely peopled areas of small extent endowed with complete local government, and the latter is the designation of the more extensive districts, thinly peopled, to which a less complete system of local government has been granted.
Federal Capital
In 1908 the Seat of Government Act provided that the federal territory and capital of Australia should be in the Yass-Canberra district of New South Wales, and that the territory should have an area of not less than goo sq. m. and easy access to the sea. In 1909 a Board appointed to consider the several possible sites within this district reported in favour of Canberra, on the Molonglo river, near Queanbeyan, as the site for the new city, and the basins of the Molonglo, Queanbeyan and Cotter rivers were indicated as suitable to form the federal territory. Jervis Bay was recommended as offering a site for a port for the territory. Bills were passed in 1909 by the legislative assembly of New South Wales and by the federal parliament, transferring this territory to the federation.
Agriculture
New South Wales might be described as essentially a pastoral country, and the cultivation of the soil has always beC' secondary to stock-raising. But the predominance of the pastuial industry is not by any means so marked as it was even as late as the last decade of the 19th century. The want of progress in agriculture was not to be ascribed to defects of climate or soil, but chiefly to the great distance of Australia from the markets of the world. This difficulty has, for the most part, been removed by the establishment of numerous important lines of steamers trading between Australia and Europe, and recent years have therefore seen considerable expansion in all forms of agriculture.
In 1882 the area of land under cultivation was 733,582 acres, which is slightly less than I acre per inhabitant. In 1900 the total area under cultivation was 2,439,639 acres, and in 1906 it had risen to 2,838,081 acres, which is a little short of 2 acres per inhabitant.
The area devoted to each of the principal crops was as follows: Acres. Wheat 1,939,400 Maize 189,000
Oats. 38,500 Sugar Cane 21,500 Hay. 438,000 Vines. 8,100 The average yield per acre of crops may be set down as follows: - Bushels.
Wheat Maize .
Oats. .
Sugar Cane tons, cane Hay.. I ton Wine. 185 gallons The total value of production in the year 1906 may be set down at £6,543,000, which works out at £2, 6s. id. per acre.
Although the coastal districts are still important, as the crops yielding the largest returns per acre are grown there, as regards the total area under crop these districts are of much less importance compared with the whole state than formerly.
The area under crop on the coast districts is about 320,000 acres; on the tablelands 375,000 acres; on the western slopes, i,Ioo,000 acres; the Riverina district, 750,000 acres; the western plains, chiefly in the central portion, 270,000 acres; and less than 20,000 acres in the western division, which comprises nearly half the total area of the state. The soil in that part of the country is, for the most part, suitable for cultivation, and there are large areas of rich land, but the rainfall is too light and irregular for the purpose of agriculture.
There were 76.000 occupiers of rural holdings in 1905, and the area occupied by them, exclusive of lands leased from the state, is 48,081,000 acres. The great majority, 80% in 1905, of occupiers are freeholders; the practice of renting farm' lands is not followed to any considerable extent, except in the dairying lands on the coast district. New South Wales took up its position amongst wheatexporting countries in 1900; the bulk of the grain exported goes to the United Kingdom. Hay crops and maize rank next in importance to wheat. The cultivation of fruit is receiving increased attention, but the growing of sugar cane and tobacco and the production of wine, until recently so promising, are, if not declining, at least stationary, in spite of the suitability of the soil of many districts for these crops.
Grazing and Dairying
The grazing industry still holds a chief place amongst the productive industries of the state. In 1906 the number of horses was 507,000; of sheep, 40,000,000; of cattle, 2,340,000; and swine, 311,000. There were considerable losses of sheep in 1902 owing to the drought of that year, but the flocks in 1906 were of better quality than at any previous period and little short of the number of 1898. The vast majority of the sheep are of the merino breed, but there are about a million long-woolled sheep and between two and three million cross-bred. Dairying made very great strides in the ten years preceding 1906, and ranks as one of the great industries of the state. There were 644,000 dairy cows in 1906, and the numbers are increasing year by year. The production of wool was 300,000,000 lb, as in the grease; tallow, 493,000 cwt.; butter, 500,000 cwt.; cheese, 42,000 cwt.; and bacon and hams, 110,000 cwt.
Mining
The mining industry has made great strides. In 1905 there were about 38,000 men engaged in the various mines, besides 33 00 employed in smelting. Of these, 10,700 were employed in goldmining; in coal-mining there were 14,100; silver, 7100; tin, 2750, and copper, 1850. The value of mining machinery may be approximately set down at £2,900,000. The following summary shows the value of the various minerals won in 1905. It is impossible to separate the values of silver and lead contained in the ore obtained at Broken Hill; the two metals are therefore shown together.
| Minerals. | Quantity. | Value. | Metallic- | Gold. .. .. .. oz. fine | 274,267 | £1,165,013 | '*- Silver | 417,520 | 52,196 | Silver, lead and ore. .. ton | 441,447 | 2,441,856 | Lead, pig, &c.. ... „ | 210 | 2,657 | Zinc spelter and concentrates | 103,532 | 221,155 | Tin ingots and ore. .. „ | 1,957 | 226,110 | Copper ingots and ore.. „ | 8,592 | 527,403 | Antimony and ore. ... „ | 388 | -5,221 | Bismuth | 55 | 20,763 | Wolfram | 86 | 7,361 | Scheelite„ | 138 | 10,122 | Molybdenite | 19 | 2,507 | Platinum. .. ... oz. | 398 | 825 | Non-metallic- | Coal. .. .. .. ton | 6,632,138 | 2,003,461 | Coke. .. ... „ | 162,961 | 100,306 | Kerosene shale. ... „ | 38,226 | 21,247 | Alunite„ | 2,702 | 6,750 | Limestone flux. ... „ | 14,941 | 9,519 | Ironstone flux. .. .. „ | . 6,801 | 4,525 | Marbl | . . | 2,420 | Diamonds. .. .. carat | 6,354 | 3,745 | Opal. .. ... ... . | . . | 59,000 | Sundry mineral | . . | 2,919 | Total . | £6,897,081 The value of gold won varies from year to year, but from 1894 to 1906 in only two years did it fall below £I,000,000. About onefourth of the gold won is alluvial. The yield of gold from quartz mines was in 1904 II dwt. 14 grs. per ton, which was somewhat below the average for the previous ten years. The Broken Hill silver lode is the largest as yet discovered; it varies in width from 10 ft. to 200 ft., and may be traced for several miles. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company owns the principal mine, and at Port Pixie in the neighbouring colony of South Australia erected a complete smelting plant; the problem of the recovery of the zinc contents of the ore having been satisfactorily solved, the company made extensive additions to the plant already erected, and in 1906 the manufacture of spelter was undertaken. From the commencement of mining operations on a large scale in 1885 to the end of 1905 the value of silver and lead ore won was £40,000,000. The production of tin rapidly declined after 1881, when the value of ore raised was £569,000: the production varies both with the price and the occurrence of rain, but the principal cause of the decreased production was the exhaustion of the shallow deposits of stream tin, from which most of the ore was obtained. The principal deposits of copper are in the central parts between the Macquarie, Bogan and Darling rivers. The copper lodes of New South Wales contain ores of a much higher grade than those of many well-known mines .worked at a profit in other parts of the world, and, with a fair price for copper, the production largely increases. Iron is widely diffused, principally in the form of magnetite, brown haematite, limonite and bog iron. Coal mining is carried on in three districts. In the northern or Hunter river district there were 63 collieries, employing 10,500 men, and the quantity of coal raised was in 1904 about 4,100,000 tons; in the southern district there were fifteen collieries, employing 3100 men and raising I,600,000 tons of coal. The western or mountain collieries were seventeen in number, employing 540 men and raising about 418,000 tons. About 52% of the coal obtained is exported. Kerosene shale (torbanite) is abundant and is systematically worked.
|
