men, though at the time of his decease he had long retired from active politics. During the year, Victoria made great progress in the agricultural and pastoral industries, and immense strides were also made in dairying, the export of butter amounting to nearly 1,405,000 lb., or nearly twice the quantity for the preceding year. In common with the other states, Victoria provided contingents to assist the British Army in South Africa, the first detachment of troops being sent away in 1899. The closing days of the year were marked by destructive bush-fires, the conflagrations being most extensive in the Beechworth district where immense damage was done to property and live stock. It was not until heavy rains fell that the fires ceased and the settlers were able to set about the restoration of their homesteads. The ministry of Mr. McLean, after holding office for a little over eleven months, was overthrown by a vote of censure, and Sir George Turner again became Premier on the 15th November, 1900.. The session was not an extended one, but the Old-age Pensions Act became law, and the preliminary arrangements were made for the establishment of the Commonwealth, in so far as Victoria was concerned. Sir George Turner shortly afterwards accepted office as Treasurer of the first Federal Cabinet. He continued to act as Premier, however, until the 12th February, 1901, when he finally handed over his charge to Mr. (now Sir) A. J. Peacock, who had been Chief Secretary in both the Turner ministries. The despatch of volunteers to the seat of war in South Africa was continued in 1901, and a naval contingent was sent to assist the British forces in the suppression of the Boxer outbreak in China. Lord Brassey's term of office as governor expired in January, and the duties of administration were thereupon assumed by the Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Madden. It was decided that no fresh vice-regal appointment should be made until after the establishment of federation. Both at the beginning and end of the year serious losses were occasioned in the country districts by outbreaks of bush-fires.

On the 5th May, 1901, Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales landed in Melbourne, and were accorded a most enthusiastic reception. An account of the proceedings in connection with the opening of the first Federal Parliament will be found in another chapter. Destructive bush-fires again occurred during the year. Several persons lost their lives, and a vast amount of damage to property was occasioned in the country districts, the devastating effects of the outbreaks in some localities being described as equalling those of "Black Thursday." The ceremony of swearing-in the present Governor, Sir George Sydenham Clarke, took place on the 11th December, 1901.

With 1902 a movement towards state reform was commenced. It was recognised that in consequence of the increased expenditure cast on the state the necessity existed for rigid economy in administration. As a first step towards this end it was considered that the number of parliamentary representatives should be diminished. In order to assist the Premier in this regard the whole of the Ministers, with one

exception placed their resignation in his hands. Sir A. J. Peacock, however, announced that the resignations would not be accepted inasmuch as he intended to make Parliamentary Reform part of the government programme for 1902. On the 3rd June, 1902, the Peacock Ministry was displaced on a no-confidence motion, the voting being 45 to 42. Mr. Irvine, the Opposition leader, in his speech on the occasion declared that the Government had deceived the country with regard to the reconstruction policy, while the Ministers' joint letter of resignation being postdated five months made reconstruction in the recess impossible. A virtually defunct Government was thereby in charge of departments, and all active duty was shirked. The Premier in reply professed ignorance of the date of the resignations, and stated that he had not wilfully deceived the House, but had been himself deceived by his colleagues. The new Ministry under the leadership of Mr. Irvine was sworn in on the 10th June, 1902.

The following is the succession of Ministries, with their term of office in each case, from the inception of Responsible Government to the date of the publication of the present volume :

66

As

QUEENSLAND.

S early as the year 1822, the existing settlements in New South Wales were considered by the authorities to be inadequate to accommodate the increasing number of prisoners constantly arriving in Port Jackson. It was therefore deemed advisable to make an examination of the coast and inlets to the northward, particularly in the vicinity of Port Curtis, with a view to finding a suitable locality for the establishment of a branch colony. Sir Thomas Brisbane, the then Governor of New South Wales, acting upon instructions from England, despatched Surveyor-General John Oxley in the month of October, 1823, in the colonial cutter "Mermaid," accompanied by Messrs. Stirling and Uniacke, to examine and report upon the inlets of Moreton Bay, Port Curtis, and Port Bowen. Discovering and naming the Tweed River en route, Oxley first examined Port Curtis, but deeming the site unsuitable for settlement, he turned south, as it was too late in the season to make an examination of Port Bowen. Upon his arrival in Moreton Bay on the return journey, the anchor was scarcely let go when a number of natives were seen about a mile distant, and amongst them one whose appearance was not that of an aborigine. This man subsequently turned out to be one Thomas Pamphlet, who, with three others, had left Sydney in an open-boat to bring cedar from the Five Islands (Wollongong). They were driven out to sea by a gale, and suffered terrible hardships, one man of the party dying of thirst. At last they were shipwrecked on Moreton Island, and had lived with the blacks for a period of seven months. Pamphlet and his two companions, Finnegan and Parsons, had once started out to reach Sydney overland, but Pamphlet and Finnegan separately returned, after going some 50 miles; and Parsons was suffered to proceed alone. Guided by Pamphlet and his comrade, Oxley and Stirling set out to examine the large river of which the castaways told them, and which emptied its waters, after a tortuous course, into the south end of Moreton Bay. The explorers found the river, according to their informants' report, and pulled up it in a whale-boat for a distance of about 50 miles. Oxley was not provisioned for a longer journey, so he turned back at this point. To the river he gave the name of Brisbane, in honor of the Governor of New South Wales. The two rescued men were taken on board the "Mermaid," and the return voyage was made to Sydney, which the party reached on the 13th December, 1823. In the month of September following, Governor Brisbane despatched Oxley to Moreton Bay in the brig "Amity," with Lieutenant Millar and a detachment of the 40th Regiment in charge of thirty prisoners to prepare for the establishment of a penal settlement.

Almost the first person Oxley met upon landing on the beach near his old station at Pumicestone River was Parsons, the shipwrecked companion of Pamphlet. He had started out the year before to walk to Sydney, and had been given up for lost.

The spot named Redcliffe by Flinders, during his exploration of the inlet, was selected for the new settlement, and extensive buildings were erected there. The site was, however, found to be disappointing, and a new one was chosen on the banks of the Brisbane River, some time after Oxley's departure. While the Redcliffe settlement was being prepared, Oxley, accompanied by Allan Cunningham and Lieutenant Butler, made a fresh exploration up the river, and this time went as far as his boat could be navigated. Here the Surveyor-General and Cunningham proceeded on foot, ascended an eminence, and obtained an extensive view over the whole of what is now the West Moreton district, extending as far as the Albert River.

In the year 1825, Major Lockyer made a long-boat excursion up the Brisbane River, and, the stream being somewhat swollen by floods, he was enabled to penetrate inland for nearly 150 miles. During the same year, Captain Logan, of the 57th Regiment, was sent up from Sydney to take charge of the little settlement. At this time the entire population was recorded as comprising only forty-three males and two females. In May, 1824, Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of New South Wales, had visited the place, and officially approved of the last selected situation. He appears, however, to have been absolutely oblivious of the great possibilities of the river for future development, and somewhat coldly discounted Oxley's enthusiasm in this direction. While visiting the new settlement, the Governor ordered the abandonment to the natives of the buildings at Redcliffe; the aborigines seem, however, not to have greatly appreciated this act of generosity, for they made no use of the gift, and gave to the deserted structures the name of Umpie Bong (literally "dead houses"), an appellation still preserved in "Humpy Bong."

Captain Logan was a man of energetic and resolute character, but his rule was marked by excessive severity in the enforcement of discipline. Under his direction building, clearing, and cultivation were vigorously pushed forward. The alignment of what is now the principal street in Brisbane originated in the long façade of a massive range of buildings built by Logan to serve as prisoners' barracks. These buildings, before their ultimate demolition, served successively for the first House of Parliament and for the Supreme Court. Logan erected, on an abrupt and elevated knoll which dominates the city, a windmill, which subsequently served as an observatory for watching, and still serves as a tower for signalling, the approach of vessels. It is said, however, that his industrial projects were not always directed by a knowledge equal to their needs, and a story is extant of his having sown the prepared rice of commerce in expectation of its germinating. Logan, besides being a builder and cultivator, was a vigorous explorer and an ardent botanist. He discovered the river which bears his

name, and voyaged up the Bremer, the principal tributary of the Brisbane. Finding at the head of boat navigation plentiful outcrops of limestone rocks and many indications of coal, he sent up a party of prisoners to construct a kiln, and quantities of lime were thence conveyed for use in the buildings of the main settlement, which had now received the name of Brisbane, and the population of which, at one time during Logan's rule, had risen to between 1,000 and 1,500 inhabitants. These were, however, with the exception of the civil staff and a hundred or so of soldiers to preserve order, all prisoners; no free person being permitted to visit or to settle without a special permit. In 1827, Allan Cunningham, who, in company with Oxley, had already had some experience of inland exploration, and had sailed round the continent with King, set out from the Upper Hunter at the head of an expedition, with the intention of reaching Brisbane overland along an interior route. At the outset of his journey, and to avoid having his movements hampered by its spurs and lateral offshoots, he crossed the dividing range, and, turning northward, skirted the Liverpool Plains. After traversing much unpromising country, he reached the banks of the Gwydir River, and afterwards discovered and named the Dumaresq, so called after the colonel who had filled the post of Commissioner of the Australian Agricultural Company. Cunningham pierced northward from the stream just named through a belt of very poor country, and emerged on the 5th June, 1827, on the famous Darling Downs (named after the then Governor of New South Wales). This discovery was destined to have a most important influence upon the pastoral industry of the southern settlement, and to form a centre round which gathered the elements of the future colony of Queensland. The edge of the plateau on which the Downs are situated appeared to be inaccessible from the coastal settlements on the east. But here fortune favoured the explorer, as it had previously done in his discovery of Pandora Pass, which opened a gateway through the Liverpool Ranges to the rich plains beyond; and on this occasion a route through the mountains was found, and received the name of Cunningham's Gap. After noting the whereabouts of this pass the explorer retraced his steps to Segenhoe Station, on the Upper Hunter, which he had left on the 30th April, and from which he had been absent about thirteen weeks. Besides the discovery of the Downs, the most important results of this expedition were the finding of the streams which are tributary to the Condamine, and of the Dumaresq, the Gwydir, and the Barwon-in short, of that network of rivers that forms the Upper Darling system and feeds the main stream.

During the year 1827, Governor Darling went up from Sydney on a visit to the settlement at Moreton Bay, and expressed dissatisfaction with its site. In a subsequent despatch to Lord Goderich he actually suggested the abandonment of the place, the tediousness and difficulty of the approach rendering it extremely inconvenient. He suggested the removal of the settlement to Dunwich, a knoll on the bay shore of