POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC FINANCES.

The following table shows the revenue and expenditure of the Postal and Telegraph Departments of the colonies during 1896

The revenue set down for Victoria is but an approximation, as the receipts for postage are merged with those for stamp duty under the general heading of fees. In other colonies postage stamps are also used for the purpose of stamping acknowledgments for the receipt of money. During 1896 the New South Wales Post Office made an allowance of £24,000 on this account, and this sum is not included in the revenue of that colony as given above. In the expenditure shown in the table, interest on the outlay on post-office buildings and telegraph lines and maintenance of buildings is not taken into account. If allowance be made for these, the total expenditure and the deficiency in revenue would be as follow:

It is estimated that, under uniform letter postage of 2d. and 1d. per half-ounce, the following increases or decreases in the departmental revenues would result :

Were a uniform newspaper postage of d. imposed, it is estimated that the revenue derivable therefrom in those colonies which now carry a portion of their newspapers free would be as follows:

As regards telegraphic charges, it is estimated that a loss of £17,000` would result to the revenue of the New South Wales Telegraph Department by an assimilation of rates to the Victorian rate of 9d. for ninewords on all inland messages. A slight loss would probably also be experienced by the Western Australian and Tasmanian Departments; while it is considered that the South Australian revenue would not beaffected by the change. If, on the other hand, the Victorian charges. were altered to 6d. and 1s. for ten words of local and inland telegrams respectively--the rates in force in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania,—it is not expected that any differ ence would be caused in the Victorian revenue by reason of the increased business that would result. Similar estimates for Queensland (where a uniform rate of 1s. for all inland messages is in force) and New Zealand (which imposes a rate of 6d. for all ordinary, and 1s. for urgent inland messages) have not been framed, as the available statistics do not distinguish inland telegrams from others.

MINERAL RESOURCES.

ALMOST all the principal metals of economic value are found in

Australasia, and many are common to several colonies. In dealing with the occurrence and value of mineral deposits, a classification has been made into noble and other metals, carbon minerals, salts, stones and clays, and diamonds and other gem stones.

GOLD.

Gold, the most valuable of noble metals, is found throughout Australasia, and the present prosperity of the colonies is largely due to discoveries of this metal, the development of other industries being, in a country of varied resources, a natural sequence to the acquisition of mineral treasure. Settlement in Australia was still young when manytongued rumour spoke of the existence of the precious metal, but it was not until the 16th February, 1823, that the Government was officially apprised of a discovery destined to be the precursor of a prosperity seldom surpassed in the history of nations. On the date mentioned Mr. AssistantSurveyor M'Brien reported that at a spot on the Fish River, about 15 miles east of Bathurst, he had discovered gold. Mention is made in the early records of New South Wales of several other finds, but it remained for Count Strzelecki and the Rev. W. B. Clarke to demonstrate the existence of the precious metal in payable quantities, and to assert their belief in its abundance, an opinion strongly supported in England by several eminent authorities, and substantiated by Hargraves' discovery in the year 1851. The gold-fields of Lewis Ponds and Summer Hill Creek had hardly been opened up when, on the day that witnessed the severance of the Port Phillip district from the mother colony of New South Wales, Mr. J. M. Esmond discovered gold in Victoria. Shortly afterwards a rush set in for Ballarat, and the gold fever took possession of Australia. The following year (1852) saw gold found in South Australia and Tasmania; the rush to Canoona, in what is now Queensland, took place in 1858; and gold was discovered in New Zealand in the same year, though it was not until 1861 that a large population was, by the prospect of rapidly obtaining wealth, attracted to the last-mentioned colony. The last of the seven colonies in which extensive deposits of the precious metal were found was Western Australia, to which province a great rush set in but a few years ago, although gold was discovered in payable quantities in 1882.

From the date of its first discovery, gold to the value of nearly 400 million pounds sterling, has been obtained in Australasia. Victoria,

which has, in a period of forty-five years, contributed about 250 millions to this total, is still the largest producer, its yield of the precious metal in 1896 being nearly three times as great as that of Western Australia, and more than one-fourth greater than the production of Queensland. There has been a notable increase in the output of gold in the colony during the past five years, the yield of 805,087 oz. in 1896 being the highest since the year 1882. This development is said to be due to the great improvement in gold-saving appliances; the prominence attained by the large and only partially-developed gold-fields of North and East Gippsland ; and the investment of foreign capital in the mines. Attention has also been given by the State to the question of rendering practical assistance to the mining industry, and the Mines Development Act of 1896 authorises the expenditure of £140,000 during the ensuing three years. Mining tracks have been cut through the mountainous districts on a much more extended scale than hitherto, with the object of opening up the areas which were found difficult of access; and in other directions efforts have been made to stimulate the industry. In 1896 the Sandhurst district, with 191,941 oz., supplied the largest portion of the gold yield of the colony, followed by the Ballarat district with 160,317 oz., and Gippsland, with 116,056 oz. In Gippsland the increase in the output of late years has been very striking, the yield in 1892 having been only 39,919 oz. There were 32,123 men engaged in the search for gold in Victoria in 1896. Of these, 1,939 were Chinese, but the miners of this race are steadily decreasing in number.

Queensland promised at one time to overtake Victoria in the value of its annual gold yield, but in 1896 its production only amounted to £2,341,348, as compared with £3,220,348 in the southern colony. The output of Queensland, although higher than that of 1895, was less than in 1894, and did not quite reach expectation-due, first, to the dry season, and, second, to the failure of the mines to attract foreign capital. To the total production of the colony, the Mount Morgan mine contributes about one-fourth. At this mine the returns for the year showed a satisfactory advance on those of the previous twelve months. Large additions which are now being made to the reduction works will permit of the production of ore in greater quantity, and of the treatment of lower-grade material. When the new works are completed it is estimated that the capacity will be equal to an additional 50,000 tons per annum. In 1896 there were 1,541 men employed in the mine, being an increase of 400 during the twelve months. The number of men engaged in gold-mining in the whole of the colony was 10,364, of whom 758 were Chinese. As in Victoria, the number of Chinese finding employ

ment on the gold-fields is decreasing.

In New South Wales the greatest annual production of gold occurred in 1852, soon after the first discovery of the precious metal, when it was valued at £2,660,946. The only other year which saw a production in excess of two millions sterling was 1862, the amount reaching £2,467,780. In 1874 the yield had fallen to 270,823 oz., valued at

£1,040,329; and thenceforth the industry declined considerably in importance, reaching its lowest point in 1888, when only 87,503 oz., valued at £317,100, were produced. From that date a steady improvement took place, and in 1894 the Government took the step of furnishing large numbers of the unemployed with miners' rights and free railway passes, and sending them to the abandoned alluvial fields as fossickers. This action, with the increased attention paid to quartzmining, nearly doubled the production, the quantity obtained during the year being set down at 324,787 oz., valued at £1,156,717; while in 1895 the yield reached 360,165 oz., of a value of £1,315,929—the highest since 1873. In 1896, however, this yield was not maintained, the production amounting to 296,072 oz., valued at £1,073,360, making a total yield to date of 11,717,616 oz., of a value of £43,399,958. The principal seats of alluvial mining in the colony are the Bathurst and Mudgee districts, and the country watered by the various feeders of the Upper Lachlan, and also the Tumut and Adelong and Braidwood districts; while the principal quartz-veins are situated near Adelong, Bathurst, Armidale, Hill End, Orange, Parkes, and Wyalong. Besides the Mount Drysdale gold-field, in the Cobar district, discovered in 1893, the most important find of recent years was made at Wyalong, in the Lachlan district. The first prospecting claim on this field was registered on the 26th December, 1893, and in the early part of the following year there were over 10,000 persons on the ground. This number has now been reduced to reasonable proportions. In 1896 the quantity of gold obtained from this field was 33,495 oz., which was only exceeded by the yield from the Hillgrove district.

Until quite recently, Western Australia was considered to be destitute of mineral deposits of any value, but it is now known that a rich belt of mineral country extends from north to south. The first important discovery was made in 1882, when gold was found in the Kimberley district, but it was not until a few years later that this rich and extensive area was developed. In 1887 gold was found in Yilgarn, about 200 miles east of Perth, the find possessing importance because the precursor of the discovery of the immense tracts of gold-bearing country, the knowledge of the existence of which has drawn population from all parts of Australasia and brought the colony into the prominent position which it occupies at the present time. General attention was first attracted to these fields by further discoveries at Southern Cross, to the east of Yilgarn; and the sensational finds at Coolgardie which followed in 1892 resulted in a rush to Western Australia which was reminiscent of the experiences of the fifties in the older-settled portions of the continent. Thereafter, before the march of the prospector, the known gold-bearing area was rapidly extended, and in 1894 the country was divided into separate gold-fields, so extensive were the preparations for its exploitation. At the present time, there are thirteen gold-fields in the colony, the most important, from the point of production in 1896, being East Coolgardie and Coolgardie, in the eastern district;