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POLITICAL DIVISIONS.

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'HE first settlement in New South Wales, the oldest of the seven colonies of Australasia, was effected by an expedition under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, who landed at Botany Bay on the 19th January, 1788, and formally took possession of the whole continent. Botany Bay being found unsuitable, the fleet was brought round to Port Jackson, and the city of Sydney founded on the 26th January of the same year. New South Wales was proclaimed a colony on the 7th of the following month, and its boundaries were defined as extending from Cape York, the northern extremity of Queensland, 10° 37′ south latitude, to South East Cape, the most southerly point of Tasmania, 43° 39' south latitude, and from the 135th degree of east longitude to the east coast, including the adjacent islands. The boundaries thus defined include the whole of the territories now known as New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Tasmania, and about half of the area of South Australia. Although the colony was originally a penal settlement, yet there was an influx of free immigrants from the first, and after the abolition of transportation in 1840 all traces of the penal element were、 rapidly lost. The Constitution Act of New South Wales was assented to on the 16th July, 1855, and proclaimed on the 24th November of the same year; and the first representative Parliament was opened on the 22nd May, 1856. The boundaries of the colony at the date of proclamation included that portion of the continent now known as Queensland, but did not take in Victoria, which had been made a separate colony in 1851.

Tasmania, formerly known as Van Diemen's Land, was colonised from New South Wales, and was intended to serve the purpose of a subsidiary penal settlement. Lieutenant Bowen, in charge of an expedition despatched from Sydney, took possession of the island on the 12th September, 1803, and formed a settlement on the east bank of the Derwent River, at Risdon; but the actual commencement of colonisation dates from February, 1804, when Lieutenant-Colonel Collins established himself at Sullivan's Cove, and laid the foundations of the present city of Hobart. The government was administered from Sydney until the year 1825, when, in

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the month of December, Van Diemen's Land was duly constituted an independent province. In May, 1853, it was officially announced that transportation had ceased, and in the following year the name of the colony was changed from Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania. The Royal assent to the existing Constitution Act was proclaimed on the 24th October, 1855, and the first representative Parliament was opened on the 2nd December, 1856.

The foundation of the colony of Western Australia dates from the year 1826, when Major Lockyer landed at Albany in charge of an expedition from Sydney, consisting of a detachment of the 39th Regiment and a number of prisoners. In 1827 Captain Stirling arrived in H.M.S. Success, and explored the Swan River, with a view to establishing a permanent settlement on its banks; in June, 1829, Captain Fremantle landed near its mouth; and in the same year the town of Perth was founded. The Swan River Settlement, as it was known originally, was made a separate colony, under the name of Western Australia, on the 1st June, 1829, Captain Stirling being appointed the first Governor ; and it remained a Crown colony under the direct control of the British Government until the 20th October, 1890. The present Constitution Act was assented to on the 15th August, 1890; it was proclaimed on the 21st October; and the first representative Parliament was opened on the 30th December in the same year.

The first attempt to settle Victoria was made in 1803. On the 7th October of that year Lieutenant-Colonel Collins arrived from England with the intention of founding in Port Phillip a convict settlement similar to that which had been established at Sydney. The expedition landed on the shores of Port Phillip, near Sorrento, and several explorations of the country were made, but in the course of a few months the attempt at colonisation was abandoned, as the place was believed to be unsuitable for settlement. For twenty years thereafter the District of Port Phillip continued to be neglected. In 1824 Hume and Hovell undertook an exploration of the territory to the south and west of the land then known to the settlers, reaching, it is believed, the western arm of Port Phillip, not far from the present town of Geelong. In 1826 another expedition, under Captain Wright, was sent from Sydney to form a settlement at Western Port, but returned by order of Governor Darling after one year's trial, although the reports of Hume and Hovell and of the officers of the military were favourable to a continuation of the occupation. The first permanent settlement was made in 1834, at Portland Bay, by Edward Henty. In May, 1835, John Batman arrived at Port Phillip from Launceston, Tasmania, and obtained from the aborigines tracts of land covering an area of 600,000 acres on the shores of Port Phillip and the banks of the Yarra, but these grants were afterwards disallowed by the Imperial Government. In August of the same year another party, under the leadership of J. P. Fawkner, also from Launceston, arrived in the Yarra, and formed a settlement on the site now occupied by the city of Melbourne. In 1836 Captain Lonsdale