not take into account persons employed in butter factories, or casual hands engaged at other periods of the year :

From the above table it will be seen that there has been an increase equal to 58 per cent. in the number of persons engaged in pastoral and dairying pursuits during the last ten years. This is chiefly owing to the rapid expansion of the dairying industry, especially in the three larger provinces, where the increase in this branch was more than double that of the first year of the period. Comparing the number of persons employed with the total stock expressed in terms of sheep, it will be found that the proportion in 1901 was 1 person to every 1,552 sheep, as against 1 to every 3,070 sheep in 1891. The decreased proportion in 1901 is of course partly attributable to the loss in stock from unfavourable seasons, but it arises chiefly from the greater amount of employment in the dairying industry, as well as from the tendency previously mentioned to divide the sheep into smaller flocks.

443

THE

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

THE PERIOD PRECEDING THE GOLD DISCOVERIES.

'HE discovery of gold in 1851 divides the industrial history of Australia into two periods, the main characteristics of which are absolutely dissimilar. Prior to the discoveries of the precious metal, Australia appeared to be destined for a purely pastoral country. Its distance from the world's markets, and the fewness of its population, militated against any decided progress in agriculture; but the people were encouraged to devote their attention to a fuller development of the pastoral industry by the circumstance that a local market was not necessary. Moreover, the products of both sheep and cattle were so valuable that the heavy cost of carriage to England could be borne, and an ample margin still left to compete successfully with Russia, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and America, the great wool-growing countries of that epoch. This one-sided development of the country's resources was manifestly dangerous to industrial stability, as a succession of droughty seasons might have had the effect of disturbing the business of the whole country; and this, indeed, was what from time to time actually happened.

Other industries would doubtless have followed in the wake of the great pastoral industry as time went on, and there were not wanting signs that, with an assured market, attention would be given to agriculture, and the manufacture of certain articles of local consumption.

The development of the industries of Australia along their natural lines must undoubtedly have been attended with ultimate success, but the colonists were not content to grow prosperous in such a humdrum way, and early in the forties there was intense speculation in land allotments in towns. Large and small country areas also were disposed of, and redisposed of, at prices far beyond what was warranted by any return that could be obtained from their immediate or prospective use, and many persons grew rich by the tossing backwards and forwards of title deeds. The business of land jobbing was, moreover, encouraged by the action of the local Government which from time to time disposed of considerable areas of land, and frequently altered its policy in regard to the public estate.

Land speculation, carried to excess, has tended on more than one occasion in Australia to a commercial crisis, and the disasters of 1842 and 1843 were undoubtedly attributable to this cause. They were accelerated, however, by the unwise action of the Government in

regard to its financial operations. Having sold much land, the Government was possessed of considerable funds, which were placed with the banks, at one time fully £350,000 being deposited, and the highest rates of interest exacted therefor. The banks accepting these deposits were obliged, on their part, to reissue equivalent sums in discounts, in order to pay the interest demanded of them. They, therefore, readily entered into the spirit of the times, and their willingness to lend stimulated amazingly the dealings in land purchase. It thus happened that business was transacted in a vicious circle. The Government, by selling land, thereby accumulated an amount of money, which was deposited with the banks, the money so deposited being loaned by the latter to their customers for the purpose of buying more land from the Government, the latter depositing the sums paid to them, which again were loaned for the purpose of land buying; and by this means the business of speculation was kept alive so long as the Government maintained its balance with the banks. The immigration policy of the Government, however, made large calls upon it, and the Treasury found itself compelled to withdraw its deposits upon very short notice. To meet this sudden call, the banks were compelled, to the utmost inconvenience of their customers, immediately to restrict their discounts and curtail advances, and it was this sudden contraction of credit that gave the initial downward impulse to the money market. The issue could hardly have been otherwise than as happened, and a financial crisis immediately resulted. The year 1842 was one of acute financial distress. In Sydney, property of all kinds became unsaleable, and many business houses, including some of the principal ones, became insolvent. For nearly two years the failures were at the rate of from fifty to sixty a month. A similar condition of affairs prevailed in Melbourne, and the distress was also keenly felt in Adelaide and Tasmania. The local prices of all descriptions of produce were ruinously low, and were still further depressed by reason of the large number of bankruptcies involving forced sales of real property, stock, wool, furniture, ships-indeed, of everything which promised a return, however small. Historians of that period relate cases of enforced sales at which sheep brought very small prices as little as 6d. being obtained for them; while cattle occasionally realised only 7s. 6d., and valuable horses only £3 each. Boiling down, meat canning, and other devices were resorted to in order to revive the commerce of the country from the stagnation and lethargy into which it had fallen; yet, notwithstanding all expedients, the outlook steadily became more gloomy, prices continued seriously to decline, and speculation was at a standstill. South Australia was the first to emerge from the all-pervading depression. In 1844, copper arrived in Adelaide from the Kapunda Mine, and in 1845 the famous Burra Burra Mine was discovered. Other finds came in quick succession. Population was speedily attracted, and as the mines yielded beyond all expectation a season of prosperity at once ensued. The discovery of copper in South Australia proved to be of advantage to the rest

of Australia. Labourers and others were attracted to Adelaide from the neighbouring provinces, though not in such large numbers as would have relieved the labour markets. The men employed in the copper mines were able to earn 7s. per day, which at the time was considered a very high wage. Skilled mechanics were not so well remunerated; plasterers were paid from 4s. to 7s., very few getting the higher wage; painters' wages ranged from 4s. to us. 6d. ; blacksmiths' from 4s. to 5s.; wheelwrights' 5s. to 5s. 6d. Carpenters' wages ranged from 5s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per day-the highest rates paid to mechanics; bricklayers and masons earned from 5s. 6d. to 6s. per day. Farming hands were paid 10s. to 12s. per week with rations and sleeping accommodation, and were in much request. Domestic servants were in demand at wages varying from £14 to £22 per annum with board and lodging, and the supply was insufficient. The wages quoted were greatly in excess of those obtained prior to the discovery of copper and about 20 per cent. higher than for similar employment in New South Wales.

The average wages paid in New South Wales prior to 1851 were as indicated in the accompanying statement. Inferior workers, of whom there was naturally a considerable proportion, considering the origin of a large part of the population, did not receive within 20 per cent. of the rates quoted:

These rates show a great reduction on those obtaining in 1841, in which year mechanics' wages stood at 7s. 6d. to 8s. per day, and those of farm servants at £25 a year. In the Port Phillip district wages

were generally higher than in Sydney, as also were those of Tasmania. A schedule of the latter is given below. The fall in wages was! in a measure compensated for by a lowering of the price of provisions. During this period the average price of beef in the Australianța cities ranged from 21d. to 64d. per lb., and of mutton from 2d. to 3d. per lb. The price of flour ranged from 14s. to 24s. per 100 lb. These prices were very greatly below those paid prior to the crisis. Bread, for example, in 1839 sold at 114d. the 2 lb. loaf; in 1843 the price was 34d., and thereafter it did not rise higher than 5d. until after the gold discoveries. House rents, however, continued high.

Throughout the period the demand for pastoral and agricultural labour was always fairly keen, and the stream of bounty-paid immigrants was maintained in spite of the fall in wages and the restriction in employment. The immigrants, however, were mainly of the agricultural class-shepherds, gardeners, and useful mechanics for country employment, who were readily absorbed by the community. condition of the mechanics who clung to the towns was one of great distress. Inferior men could not earn more than 2s. 6d. per day, and at no time was the average for good men more than 5s., while even at those rates employment was at times difficult to obtain.

The

In Tasmania wages were maintained at a higher level than in New South Wales, and in the undermentioned trades the ruling rates per day were:—

The financial crisis of 1842 did not affect Tasmania in the same degree as it did New South Wales, since in the island colony there had been less land jobbing and riotous speculation. The fall in wages in 1844 was accompanied, and, in a measure, brought about, by a fall in the cost of living. It is difficult to determine the retail prices of the various commodities in common use, and to account for the causes of the great variation apparent from year to year. The price of flour, for example, seemed to have a very ill-defined relation to the price of wheat. In 1839, wheat was sold throughout the year at 26s. per bushel, and