the value of goods imported was {29,424, oo8; and the value of exports was £36,757, oo2. The average value of imports per inhabitant was £20 and of exports £24, 17s. The bulk of the trade is carried on with the other Australian states; in 1905 the value of such trade was, imports, £14,938,885, and exports, £12,263,472; the British trade is also considerable, the imports direct from Great Britain being valued at £8,602,288 and the exports £IO,222,422. <Vith all British countries the trade was, imports, £25,989,399, and exports, £25,994,563 New South Wales maintains a large trade with foreign countries aggregating £, %434,609 imports and £IO,762,439 exports. France, Germany, elgium and the United Stages are the principal foreign countries with which the state tra es.
Wool is the staple export, and represents, in most years, one-third the value of the ex orts. Gold coin and bullion form one of the principal items in tiieiexport list, but only a small portion of the export is of local production, the balance being Queensland and New Zealand gold sent to Sydney for coinage. The course of trade from 1880 to 1905 was as follows:—Minerals. Quantity. Value.
Metallic-
Gold , oz. Hne 274,267 £I,165,013
Silver , , 417,520 52,196
Silver, lead and ore ton 441,447 2,441»356 Lead, pig, &c ' , , 210 2,657
Zinc spelter and concentrates, , 103,532 221,155 Tin ingots and ore 1,957 226,110
Copper ingots and ore 8,592 527,403
Antimony and ore 388 5,221
Bismuth .... 55 20,763
Wolfram , , 86 7,361
Scheelite, , 138 10,122
Molybdenite, , 19 2,507
Platinum oz. 398 825
N on-metallic-Coal
ton 6,632,138 2,003,461
Coke , , 162,961 100,306
Kerosene shale, , 38,226 21,247
Alunite 2,702 6,750
Limestone flux 14,941 9,519
Ironstone flux ., , 6,801 4,525
Marble 2,420
Diamonds carat 6,354 3,745
Opal 59,000
Sundry minerals 2,919
5 Total £6,897,08I
The value of gold won varies from year to year, but from 1894 to 1906 in only two years did it fall below £I,000,000. About one fourth of the gold won is alluvial. The yield of gold from quartz mines was in 1904 II dwt. 14 grs. per ton, which was somewhat below the average for the previous ten years. The Broken Hill silver lode is the largest as yet discovered; it varies in width from I0 ft. to 200 ft., and may be traced for several miles. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company owns the principal mine, and at Port Pirie in the neighbouring colony of South Australia erected a complete smelting plant; the problem of the recovery of the zinc contents of the ore having been satisfactorily solved, the company made extensive additions to the plant already erected, and in 1906 the manufacture of spelter was undertaken. From the commencement of mining operations on a large scale in 1885 to the end of 1905 the value of silver and lead ore won was £40,000,000. The production of tin rapidly declined after 1881, when the value of ore raised was £569,000: the production varies both with the price and the occurrence of rain, but the principal cause of the decreased reduction was the exhaustion of the shallow deposits of stream tin, iiom which most of the ore was obtained. The principal deposits of copper are in the central parts between the Macquarie, Bogan and Darling rivers. The copper lodes ot New South Wales contain ores of a much higher grade than those of many well-known mines worked at a profit in other parts of the world, and, with a fair price for copper, the production largely increases. Iron is widely diffused, principally in the form of magnetite, brown haematite, limonite and bog iron. Coal mining is carried on in three districts. In the northern or Hunter river district there were 63 Collieries, employing 10,500 men, and the quantity of coal raised was in 1904 about 4,100,000 tons; in the southern district there were fifteen collieries, employing 3100 men and raising 1,600,000 tons of coal. The western or mountain collieries were seventeen in number, employing 540 men and raising about 418,000 tons. About 52% of the coal obtained is exported. Kerosene shale (torbanite) is abundant and is systematically worked.
rllanufacluring.-There are a large and rapidly increasing number of manufactories, but in 1905 only about 250 employed more than 50 hands. The following gives a statement of factory employment for eleven years:-
No. of Y Value of
Year. Establish- E H1“dSd Plant and
ments. mp oye ' Machinery.
1395 2723 48,030 £5,255,000
1900 3077 60,779 5,703,000
1905 3700 72,175 7,920,000
About 5-3% of the males and I0~6% of the females employed are under sixteen years; the total number of male employees in 1905 was 56.117, and of females, 16,058 About two-thirds of the hands are employed in Sydney and the adjacent district. The total, value of the articles produced in manufactories, and the increased value of materials after undergoing treatment, was £30,028,000 in 1905, of which £I7, 500,000 represented value of materials used and £600,000 the value of fuel: the total wages paid was £§ ,200,000. Commerce.-During 1905, 2725 vessels entered New South Wales ports from places outside the state; their tonnage was 4,697,500; Year. Imports? *T Exports. T-1880
£14,176,063 £15,682,802
1885 23,737,461 16,750,107
1390 22,615-004 22,045,937
1395 15,992,415 2 I,934,735
1900 27,561,071 28,164,516 5
1905 29,424,008 36,757,002
The principal articles of export in 1905 were: Wool, £13,446,260; gold, £3,053,331; silver and concentrates, £2,407,142; lead, £I,072,858; butter, £817,820; coal, £I,565,602; copper, £I,280,5Q9§ bread stuffs, £1,345,589; leather and skins, £1,559,033; meats, £76I»235; tallow, £464,330; timber, £353,265: fin, £466,049-Banking.—The banks of issue number thirteen; their paid-up capital amounts to £I3, Q18,000 and the capital and reserves to £19,319,000, but of this sum only about £9,000,000 is used in the state. On the 30th of June 1906 the coin and bullion-in reserve amounted to £8,192,000 and the note circulation to £I,462,000. The banks had on deposit £23,325,730 bearing interest and £15,773,883 not bearing interest, representing a total of £39,100,000. The savings banks had on their books at the close of 1905 about 355,714 depositors, with £13,500,000 to their credit. This represents £9, Is. 6d per inhabitant. The total deposits in all banks therefore amounted to £52,600,000 The progress from 1860 to 1905 was as follows:-
Amount on Average per
Year' Deposit. Inhabitant.
£. s. d.
1860 £5,72I,208 16 8 3
1870 7,044»464 14 2 6
188O 19,958,880 26 13 8
1890 43,390,141 38 13 6
1900 43,135,000 31 17 0
1905 52,600,000 34 17 6
Postal and Telegraph Service.-The postal business of 1905 was represented by the carriage of 102,292,888 letters and postcards, 44,599,104 newspapers and 23,077,094 parcels and books; the telegrams dispatched numbered 3,837,962. T 0 transact the postal business of the country, mail conveyances travelled 12,000,000 m. The income of the postal and telegraph department in 1905 was {1,065,618 and the expenditure £933,121, but there were some items of expenditure not included in the sum named, such as interest charges, &c., and cost of new buildings. The administration of the post office is under the commonwealth government Railways.-The railways are almost entirely in the hands of the state, for out of 3471 m. open in 1906 the state owned 3390 m. The capital expended on' the state lines open for traffic was £43,626,000, of which sum £7,400,000 was expended on rolling stock and equipment and £36,226,000 on construction of roads, stations and permanent ways. The net earnings amounted in 1906 to £I,926,407, which represents a return of 4~41 % upon the capital invested. The state pays, on an average, 3-69% for the money borrowed to construct the lines, and there is therefore a considerable surplus to the advantage of the revenue. The year 1906 was, however, a very excellent one as regards railway working, the operations of the ten previous years showing an average loss of about a quarter of 1 %. (T. A. C.)
HISTORY
New South Wales was discovered by Captain Cook on board the “ Endeavour, ” on 20th April 1770. After he had observed the transit of Venus at Tahiti, he circumnavigated Earl New Zealand and went in search of the eastern coast, ,, st, ;'y of the great continent whose western shores had long
been known to the Dutch. He sighted the Australian coast at