In 1899 the private schools of the Commonwealth numbered 2,699, having 8,513 teachers. The total enrollment was 149,233, or more than 4 per cent. of the population. The average attendance was 117,209. The majority of the pupils are enrolled in Roman Catholic schools. A considerable number of the schools are undenominational.

With respect to the diffusion of commonschool education the Australian States make a creditable showing, and yet a considerable number of children are in attendance only part of the time. Mr. Coghlan concludes that in New South Wales, out of a total of 187,900 children, 67,100 are not properly instructed. In Victoria some 40,000 children, out of a total of 200,000, were not in regular attendance at State schools or taught at home. According to the census of 1891 there were 262.515 persons who could not read, out of a total of 3,269,773 over five years of age. The number

of illiterates has steadily decreased since 1861, when they numbered 20 per cent.

Australia has 1,057 public libraries, having 2,143,391 volumes. The increase in the circulation of newspapers has been remarkable-the number passing through the mails in 1861 being 10,941,400, while in 1899 it was 106,165,400.

The attendance at the four Australian universities in 1899 was: Sydney, 519; Melbourne, 691: Adelaide, 311; Tasmania, 35. The income of these institutions from government endowments, lecture fees, and other sources (in pounds sterling) was:

Sydney (1899)

Melbourne (1898)

Adelaide (1899) Tasmania (1899)

£

34,467

28,649

18,496

3.819

Of late years technical instruction has received great encouragement, and numerous schools of mining and engineering have been established. State expenditure for technical schools (in 1899) in these five colonies was:

The average consumption of spirits in Australasia (including New Zealand) was less than one gallon per inhabitant; of wine, 1.03; of beer, etc., 10.48. Says Coghlan: "The largest consumption of spirits per inhabitant is in Western Australia, Queensland being second. Wine is used most freely in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia; and beer, in the colony of Western Australia. The average consumption of alcohol in all the colonies for the last three years amounted to 2.41 gallons of proof spirit per inhabitant, ranging from 5.24 gallons in Western Australia to 1.37 gallons in Tasmania. There was a great diminution in the quantity of alcohol consumed in

Australasia from 1889 to 1895; but since that year an annual increase is again observable, which is probably in great part due to the improvement in the economic condition of the people. In 1889 the average consumption was 2.82 gallons of proof alcohol; in 1890 it was 2.90 gallons; in 1891, 2.94 gallons; in 1892, 2.63 gallons; in 1893, 2.19 gallons; in 1894, 2.13 gallons; in 1895, 2.10 gallons; in 1896, 2.33 gallons; in 1897, 2.41 gallons; in 1898, 2.47 gallons; and in 1899, 2.41 gallons. Four of the colonies manufacture spirits, and five make wine, while beer is brewed in all the colonies."

The totals of intoxicants consumed the last three years averaged as follows for Australasia: Spirits, 3,181,430 gallons; wine, 4,452,935 gallons; beer, etc., 45,246,130 gallons.

During the last five years the average annual expenditure per inhabitant, for fermented and spirituous liquors, was £3 4s. 2d. It is estimated that the yearly expenditure of each inhabitant for food and non-alcoholic beverages was £13 15s. 2d.; and for tobacco, 16s. 10d. The proportion of expenditure for the four principal items was: Food, 34.6 per cent.; fermented and spirituous liquors, 8.1 per cent.: clothing and drapery, 13.9 per cent.; rent, 11.2 per cent.

WOOL MARKET.-The quantity of Australian wool sold during the year, July 1, 1900June 30, 1901, amounted to 718,677 bales of the gross value of £6,176,083, an average of £8 11s. 10d. per bale, as compared with 807,031 bales, worth £13,503,594, and an average of £16 14s. 8d. per bale in the season 1899-1900 (the highest on record). The distribution of the quantities sold in 1900-1901 is as follows:

The returns are for the output of coal in 1899.

The coal output of Queensland in 1900 was 497,130 tons, valued at $868,520.

The value of the principal minerals of New South Wales in 1899 was as follows: Copper, $1,650,000; iron, $277,500; argentiferous lead, $9,968,720; pig lead, $498,945; silver, $384,565; tin (ingot), $490,690; zinc ore, $246,035.

The mineral production of Tasmania in 1899 was: Copper ore, $2,792,860; lead-silver ore, $1,397,395; limestone, $202,699; tin ore, $1,354,320.

The Government Gazette of Western Australia for Feb. 4, 1901, gives the following statistics of the output of minerals of Western Australia in 1899 and 1900:

.258,891

.179,471

Germany

.103,330

41

5

MINERALS.

Copper

COMMERCE IN 1900.-The following showing the total value of the imports and exports of the Commonwealth in 1899 and 1900, is from the Melbourne Journal of Commerce, March 12, 1901:

RECENT HISTORY.-The present year has been a period of transition for the Australian States. Time is needed for adjustment to the new working order under a Federal régime. What the policy of the government will be is not yet fully settled.

The question of reciprocity between Australia and other parts of the British Empire has been discussed, along with other tariff measures, in the Federal Parliament. Mr. Barton's protective ideas were ably combatted by Mr. G. H. Reid, of New South Wales, who is by some considered the stronger statesman. What the outcome will be remains to be seen. The new Federal tariff is expected to produce a revenue of £8,700,000 annually.

The clause in the Customs Regulation Bill, authorizing the government to collect revenue on all ship stores consumed between port and port in Australian water, was passed July 18. In the meantime interstate free trade is still in the future.

The question of uniform postage in the Commonwealth was discussed July 18, and so much opposition developed, that twelve months may elapse before the States have a uniform penny rate as in New Zealand.

A bill has been drafted, classifying the servants of the railways. For the year ending June 30, 1900, the number of railway employes was 11,665, and the aggregate is now probably 12,000.

Another important measure is a Federal Divorce Bill, intended to bring into harmony the divorce laws of the six States. It restricts some of the causes of divorce allowed at present.

After a long debate on the Post and Telegraph Bill, an amendment was accepted, confining mail contracts to ships manned wholly by white crews.

On July 9 the Federal Parliament took up the Defence Bill, providing for a force of Australians to be kept up by voluntary enlistment, but making all men from 18 to 60 liable to be called upon for active service if need be. Mr. Barton later explained that "it is not contemplated to have a standing army. It was only intended to have a sufficient force to guard the depots, keep the arms in order, and serve as drill instructors for the irregulars and militia that would be necessary in the event of the naval first line of defense being broken." The cost of the navy will be about $5,000,000.

The Paris journal, Le Temps, commenting on the Defence Bill prepared by Sir John Forrest, the Commonwealth Minister of Defence, describes the provision for universal liability to military service as a revolution.

.A bill was introduced (July 28) by Mr. Barton, restricting immigration, excluding objectionable individuals, criminals, paupers, diseased persons, etc. The bill also requires some knowledge of English as a test. Strong opposition to the language test was manifested. The object of the Immigration Restriction Act, which has aroused considerable discussion, is to exclude undesirable immigrants. Possibly the danger of being swamped by Asiatics has been exaggerated. The policy of the Labor party in Australia is to stop all immigration, so wages may be kept up from lack of laborers. The number of Polynesians in Queensland at present is said to be 9,000. Mr. Deakin, referring to the exclusion of aliens, said in the Federal House of Representatives: "We cannot and we ought not to blend with them. Australia would be false to the lessons of the history of the Great Western Republic, if it failed to insist on a white Australia. There may come a time when we shall need a Monroe, doctrine for the Pacific." He further stated that it was not intended to exclude Germans, Scandinavians, or other white people of their caliber.

The introduction of alien labor dates back to the sixties, when a sugar-cane planter of Queensland brought a shipload of Kanakas, as the South Sea Islanders are called, to work on his plantation. Other planters followed his example and employed colored laborers in the sugar industry, claiming that the work was such that Europeans could not do it. The traffic rapidly increased, no less that 1,312 Kanakas being brought in 1870. In the meantime, the opposition of white laborers grew, and the immigration of Polynesian natives was checked for a while, but the government in 1893 passed a bill permitting the use of cheap alien labor in the colonies. In the recent Federal elections the Radical or Labor party raised the cry, "Australia for the white man." This party having the balance of power in both houses of the Commonwealth Parliament, gained the assent of the Premier and the leader of the opposition, Mr. Reid, to the principal plank in their platform, viz.: that alien labor must go; not only the Kanaka, but other colored races-the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Hindu-must be ejected from Australia. "It is the opening of a racial question that, started in the latest-formed Commonwealth of the Empire, is pregnant with international difficulties."

The commission appointed to investigate the question of the total abolition of black labor on the sugar plantations of North Queensland reached the opinion "that the total abolition of that labor means the extinction of the industry."

The Royal Commission, appointed to take evidence regarding the expediency of New Zealand's joining the Commonwealth, presented its report in July to the New Zealand Parliament, advising that the colony remain outside the Federation, owing to its great distance from Australia and to other reasons.

The Duke of Cornwall, who opened the first Federal Parliament May 9, ended the royal tour in Australia July 30, when he sailed from Perth, Tasmania, on H. M. S. "Ophir" for Mauritius. The officers and men of the "Brooklyn" attended some of the state occasions, and many

courtesies were shown them as representatives of the U. S. Government.

The long drouth was broken by abundant rains in July and August, bringing prospects for a new period of prosperity in Australian States. The industrial outlook is encouraging.

The revenue of New South Wales for the year ending June 30, 1901, amounted to £10,794,233, against £10,223,391 for the previous year. The State had £43,000 to its credit (June 13), notwithstanding the unusual expenditure of £681,500 for the contingents to South Africa and China. The fiscal year closed with a debit balance of £87,000. A Melbourne corresponIdent writes that "the amount of ordinary expenditure is at present put at £11,182,528, but there are many accounts unpaid (the Treasury putting off creditors) and liabilities to be met." The State elections held July 3 resulted in the success of the Labor candidates. Parliament opened July 23. The Governor's speech referred to amending the mining laws, to a woman's suffrage bill, a measure for compulsory industrial arbitration, etc. The arbitrators in the strike of the iron-workers' assistants, in Sydney, awarded 6s. 6d. a day as the minimum wage. "One result of the strike," says a correspondent, "will probably be to intensify the feeling in favor of the establishment of arbitration courts." The soldiers returned from South Africa found difficulty in getting employment, the places that they formerly held having been filled by others.

In Queensland the long-continued drouth has made stock-raising unremunerative. Mining and other industries are flourishing. The revenue for the last fiscal year was £4,327,300; expenditure, £4,571,600, leaving a deficit of £528,188. The estimated revenue for the coming year is £3,908,500; expenditure, £3,887,900. As increased revenue is needed, a land tax ́or income tax may be imposed.

The revenue of Victoria was £8,087,265, of which £360,102 is retained by the Commonwealth, leaving a net revenue of £7,727,163. The expenditures of the last fiscal year were £7,709,033. A large item in the expenditure was £225,000 for old-age pensions. The number of depositors in the government savings banks was 393,026, and the amount to their credit was £9,661,774 (an average of over £24 to each depositor).

The expenditure of South Australia exceeded the revenue by £22,000. There was an increase in the railway receipts of £70,000 over those of the previous year, and of £50,000 in customs. A surplus of £6,000 is expected this year. The railway revenue, £2,818,712, is the highest on record in South Australia. Parliament was opened July 18 with a speech by Lord Tennyson, the Governor.

The railway strike in Western Australia over the wage question (in July) seriously affected trade and labor. The strikers at first rejected the Government's offer to submit the question to arbitration. The Legislative Assembly passed a resolution urging the men to return to work, which they did a few days later. The decision of the arbitrators was that line repairers are entitled to eight shillings ($2) a day in the coastal districts and nine ($2.25) in the gold fields district. The State Parliament met June 28. The revenue for the financial

year was £3,078,033, against £2,875,395 for the previous year. There is a deficit of £50,000.

In Tasmania the surplus of revenue for the last year amounted to £131,000. As a reduction in income is anticipated, it is thought that an income tax may be needed to meet financial necessities. The mineral exports for the first six months of 1901 were £873,000, as compared with £736,000 in the corresponding period of 1900. (For full history of Australia see page 13.) EUGENE PARSONS.

CAINE, (THOMAS HENRY) HALL.-Whatever the dispute of the critics over the literary value of Mr. Hall Caine's novels, there is no doubt of the fact that his enormous following makes a new work from his hand something of an event in the reading world. Most men and women buy books because they are interesting, and were Mr. Caine's faults twice as many there could still be no denial of the quality to engage and hold the attention. "The Eternal City," lately published, had the benefit of extensive advertising as containing matter which in the opinion of one magazine owner was unfit for publication. It deals with the broad question of social reform. Its hero is a communist-anarchist, a member of that school of political philosophy which numbers Prince Kropotkin and Miss Emma Goldman among its adherents. Its author asserts that it is founded upon the scriptural story of Samson and Delilah -though the resemblance is too remote to be traced. It has all the prestige of former books with sales reaching into the hundreds of thousands. Small wonder, then, if it is welcomed and read with an assiduity which approaches devotion. As the title indicates, the scene of the principal portion of the story is laid in Rome. There is a prologue, in which a little Italian boy, begging on the streets of London as a victim of the padrone system, is rescued from death by a fellow-countryman, a physician and political exile, and adopted as a member of his family, growing up beside Roma, the little daughter of the house. The novel itself begins with this Roma firmly installed in Roman society as the ward and favorite of the Italian prime minister, Baron Bonelli. David Rossi, a member of the popular branch of the national legislature and a leader of the people, has seized upon the formal progress of the Pope to present a petition asking his intervention to prevent the grinding down of the populace by taxation for armies and navies. The petition being rejected, Rossi makes a speech calling attention to Roma on the balcony above in language the reverse of complimentary to her morals. Roma, seeking revenge and urged on by the Baron, agrees to win the young man's confidence for the purpose of betraying his secrets. To this end she visits him, and in the conversations which ensue learns that he is the lost companion of her childhood; that her father had been cajoled by the Baron into action which led to the confiscation of his estates and their sequestration by that functionary, and, finally, that she loves him, putting treachery out of the question. The reforms sought by Rossi are based upon the Lord's Prayer, taken as a social guide. Deprecating the use of force in any manner, his ad

herents intend to do away with national barriers, war, individual ownership of land and capital, arrogated authority and government, and substitute in their place a great human brotherhood. (In the epilogue of the book, this condition of affairs has already been brought to pass, David being still alive.) It appears later that Roma has yielded herself to the biandishments of Bonelli without informing David, to whom she is married by a priest, though the marriage is not good at either the civil or canon law. She is in receipt of letters from him after he has been compelled to flee, which indicate that he believes in assassination. In her anxiety for guidance, she goes to the father-confessor of the Pope, and he in turn refers her to the Holy Father himself. David, it then appears, is the son of the Head of the Church through a marriage contracted in early youth. Once acquainted with the fact, as Roma supposes, that assassination is in the air, the Pope informs the King of Italy and Baron Bonelli in a private audience of the threat, and Bonelli's astuteness soon learns that, the information having come through Roma, it must be David who is the chief conspirator. David, meanwhile, wholly ignorant of the extraordinary precautions taken for his capture on this account, returns to Rome, is seized by the authorities, escapes to his rooms, in which Roma is living, finds Bonelli there with her, and shoots him; but not until the Baron has told of the girl's intimacy with himself. David flees to the Vatican for asylum and Roma takes upon her own shoulders the guilt of the killing. Her husband regards the betrayal of his presence as treachery on the part of his wife. Eventually, however, they are reconciled, just before her death. The King abdicates, a Republic is declared, and the world is on its way to regeneration when the curtain falls. It is evident that the story lacks nothing which can give it popular interest. Some of its scenes are exceedingly well worked out, especially one in which Rossi addresses a great concourse of people in the Coliseum by night, speaking of his plan for setting the world aright by adopting the Lord's Prayer as a rule of conduct in all human affairs, and in the scenes of riot which follow in the Roman streets. It is evident, too, that grave liberties have been taken with palpable truths, such as go far to destroy the reality of the narrative. The King of Italy is represented as timid and cowardly, a characterization wholly at odds with all that is known of the House of Savoy. The Pope appears in a situation which must shock the sensibilities of many. The knowledge of Romethough we know Mr. Caine spent months in that city for the purposes of study-is of a sort that would have made the Brownings despair and must cause Mlle. de la Ramée many a smile. The use of Roma's betrayal by Bonelli, doubtless the incident which brought the magazine editor to a refusal of publication, is open to the charge of being dragged into the argument unworthily, since all that it accomplishes in bringing about the final catastrophe could have been done without it. The almost complete variance between the story of Roma and David and that of Samson and Delilah renders the author liable to a further charge of seeking the attention of churchly people by pleading

the resemblance. In short, the good qualities of "The Eternal City" will bring additional admirers to the shrine of Mr. Caine, while its weaknesses will as certainly put arrows in the quivers of his critics.

THOMAS HENRY HALL CAINE, novelist and dramatist was born May 14, 1853, at Runcorn, Cheshire, England. He was educated in the schools of Isle of Man and Liverpool. Brought up as an architect he preferred journalism, and was for six years a leading writer on the Liverpool Mercury. He went to London on the invitation of Dante G. Rossetti and lived with him until the death of the poet painter in 1882. During the trying twelve months that preceded the death of his friend, Caine prepared his "Recollections of Rossetti," and this book was published the same year. His "Sonnets of Three Centuries" was also published in 1882,

"Cobwebs of Criticism" in 1883, after which he began his career as a novelist, publishing "The Shadow of a Crime" in 1885, "A Son of Hagar" in 1887, also "The Deemster" the same year. In 1890 he published "The Bondman," and a year later "The Scapegoat." In 1894 "The Manxman," and in 1897, "The Christian."

Mr. Hall Caine was one of the strongest influences in the abolition of the English three volume novel. In 1895 he went to Canada as the ambassador of the Society of Authors, to protest against the proposed Canadian copyright legislation. He framed a compromise which was accepted by the interested parties, and with modifications, by the Dominion Government and the Colonial Office as a basis of fresh legislation. He has written at various times for New York papers. His address is Greeba Castle, Isle of Man.

WALLACE RICE, Critical Staff "The Dial."