WEST AUSTRALIA
West Australia (population 162,394), the largest of all the Australian colonies, has only been recently settled, and its constitution as a self-governing colony dates only from 1890. A large part of its area has never been explored, and a large part is known to be scrub desert. But there is scarcely any part of it, even of its "scrub" areas, but that will support sheep when once artesian wells have been sunk, and large portions of the colony, especially along the coasts, are as fertile as need be. And the climate, though very dry, is exceedingly healthful. Perth (43,000) is the capital. Albany is the principal port.
THE IMMENSE RESOURCES OF AUSTRALIA. ITS PROBABLE FUTURE
Australia is undoubtedly on the eve of a period of great development. Its resources are known to be immense. Its climate has been found most favourable to human health, and the objectionable feature of the climate, the smallness and irregularity of the rainfall, has been studied and become understood and found remediable. Once the confederation that is now in process of formation takes place, there is no doubt that Australia will enter upon a new and prosperous commercial era. Owing to the fact that its chief opportunities for wealth lie in the development of its natural resources, it is probable that for some time to come almost all the manufactured goods Australia needs will have to be imported. Already its importation amounts to $275,000,000, of which, of course, Great Britain supplies the principal share. This importation is principally clothing and materials for clothing, but it also comprises hardware and machinery, and in fact everything required by a highly civilised and money-spending people, except breadstuffs and provisions. The magnitude of this importation may be comprehended from the fact that it is more than one third of the total exportation of the United States for any year save one up to 1896, including our immense export of breadstuffs, provisions, and cotton. And besides the articles of export already mentioned—wool, meats, hides, skins, minerals, fruits, etc.—there is one other Australian resource that is capable of almost indefinite development. This is its timber. The eucalyptus or gum-tree prevails almost universally in Australia, and some of its commonest varieties, being both strong and indestructible by insects, are of almost unequalled value for ship-building, railway ties, and dock and harbour construction. That the Australians are fully alive to the importance of developing their foreign trade is seen in the efforts they have made to provide facilities for bringing their products to ocean ports. There are 11,980 miles of railway, almost every mile of which has been built by the governments. This is one mile of railway for every 300 inhabitants, as against one mile for every 400 inhabitants in the United States. These railways run wholly to and from the seaboard. There are no manufacturing towns to be catered to. Australian trade consists wholly in exchanging home-raised natural products for imported manufactures. Equally remarkable with the railroad enterprise of the Australians is their enterprise in telegraphic construction and the establishment of cable communications. For example, a telegraph line 2000 miles long, running across the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin, has been built by the province of South Australia so as to connect with a cable from Port Darwin to Java, Singapore, etc., and thus with Europe and America. For at least 1500 miles this telegraph line runs through one of the most desolate and inaccessible regions in the world.
XI. THE TRADE FEATURES OF SOUTH AMERICA
SOUTH AMERICA, A FERTILE CONTINENT WITH DRAWBACKS
South America is an immense but very fertile continent, whose natural resources are as yet scarcely begun to be utilised. Though not so large as North America, it has a far greater area of productive soil—and, indeed, much of its soil is quite unsurpassed in fertility. It suffers, however, from two great drawbacks. 1. A great portion of its area (four fifths) lies within the torrid zone. In the low coast regions of this torrid area, and also in the low forest regions watered by the great flat rivers of the interior, the climate is for the most part unendurable to white men. 2. South America has been unfortunate in its settlement and colonisation. Until in recent years colonisation as understood in Anglo-Saxon communities has scarcely been attempted in South America at all. All the earlier immigrations from the Old World were prompted by the thought of getting gold and silver and precious stones—if need were by the spoliation and enslavery of the natives. Only a small proportion of the population—not more than a quarter of the whole—consists of whites, and these are principally from Spain and Portugal. These conquerors of the continent have not in the main succeeded in establishing either stable forms of government or high types of civilisation. Furthermore, the mixed races—the mestizos or metis, as they are called, the descendants of the earlier Europeans and the natives—instead of advancing in civilisation have for some time past been retrograding. Then, again, there is a large negro element, the descendants of Africans once imported as slaves, to still further complicate the race question; and there is a considerable element partly negro and partly Indian. In only one state, Argentina, can affairs be said to be really prosperous, and even in Argentina the civilisation developed by its prosperity is gross and material rather than refined and intellectual. The next most prosperous and important states are Brazil and Chile. Perhaps Uruguay, though the smallest of all the states, should be placed after Argentina. The remaining independent states of the continent—Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay—are all states of the prevailing South American type. Their governments are more or less unstable. They are terribly burdened with debt, and their credit is such that they must pay high rates of interest. The civilisation once introduced among their native races by the zeal of Spanish missionaries is deteriorating if not vanishing. And even among their leading classes there is much to be desired in the observance of the ordinary principles of right and wrong.
EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION IN SOUTH AMERICA
All the South American states enumerated above, with the exception of Brazil, were first taken possession of and "settled" by the Spanish, and the Spanish language still remains in them the language of government, education, and society. Brazil was first taken possession of and "settled" by the Portuguese, and in Brazil the Portuguese language prevails, just as elsewhere in the continent the Spanish language prevails. Among the natives many different languages are found, but in Brazil a "common language" is used, one introduced by the original Portuguese missionaries, and understood by nearly all the tribes. Between Brazil and Venezuela is a triangular piece of country called Guiana, which, unlike the rest of South America, is still under the control of European powers. It consists of three parts—French Guiana, Dutch Guiana, and British Guiana—colonies of France, Holland, and Great Britain, respectively. Leaving out Guiana, South America has received its entire civilisation from Spain and Portugal, and, with the exception of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, there has been little or no emigration to any South American country except from these two European countries. To Argentina, however, there has been a large emigration from Italy especially, but also from France, Great Britain (mainly from Ireland and Wales), Germany, and Sweden. A similar emigration has taken place to Uruguay, though the foreigners in Uruguay are principally Basques, a people that live on the border-land between Spain and France, but are neither Spanish nor French. In Brazil the immigration, where it has not been Portuguese, has been chiefly Italian and German, and in the temperate region of the extreme south of Brazil a large German population exists. Everywhere in South America the parts most prosperous are the parts that have come most directly under the influence of recent European emigration.