Since the introduction of cold-storage plants in steamships, Australia has become a heavy exporter of meat. Areas long unproductive are now cattle-ranges; mutton constitutes the heaviest shipment. Inasmuch as the transportation is almost wholly by water, the cost is very light, and the mutton can be sold to London dealers at less than four cents per pound.
AUSTRALIA
Wheat is grown mainly for home consumption. Grapes for wine and for raisins are good-paying crops in Victoria and New South Wales. Both products find a ready market in Great Britain. Australian claret is a strong competitor of California claret for public favor, and the two are similar in character. Cane-sugar is grown in the moist regions of Queensland; it is the chief supply of the commonwealth and the neighboring islands. The forests produce an abundance of hard woods, but practically no building-timber. Jarrah wood paving-blocks are an important export. British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon supply much of the building-timber.
Gold has been the chief mineral product since the settlement of the country. The mints convert the metal into coin. As a rule the value of the exports exceeds that of the imports, and the excess swells the amount of metal exported. The most productive mines are in the district of Ballarat. Coal is abundant on the east coast, and a considerable part is sold to California, and more to Asian ports. Tin is extensively mined in Tasmania.
More than fifteen thousand miles of railway have been built to carry the traffic of the country. Most of them were built by private corporations, but on account of financial difficulties and poor service they were acquired by the government. The policy proved a wise one.
Great Britain encourages the trade of her colonies, and gets about three-fourths of the traffic of the commonwealth, the imports being manufactured goods. Of the foreign trade the United States has about half, nearly all of which is landed at San Francisco and Puget Sound. Wool, cattle products, and coal are exported to the United States, and the latter sends to Australia structural steel—mainly rails—printing-paper, and coal-oil.