publication, besides being revised to date, contains some useful new
features, the chief of which seems to be that shipping returns are given in nearly all the Colonies for each of the ten years ending 1886 under two heads, " British Tonnage " and " Total Tonnage ;" and the returns of imports and exports for the same period are divided into columns showing the direction of the traffic, whether " From (or to) the United Kingdom," " From (or to) the Colonies," or " From (or to) elsewhere." In the general introduction, we are reminded that " as yet the trade of the Colonies is mainly an exchange of raw materials for manufactured goods," and figures are given showing the extent to which the raw materials required for our chief manufactures, and also our food-supply, are derived from the Colonies and India ; and, on the other hand, statistics proving that " our Dependencies are our best customers for our principal manufactures." The valuable statistical tables at the beginning of the volume contain a new column, giving the estimated population in 1886, which shows a total increase of about 16 per cent. over the census returns of 1881, the largest increase being in Australia ; but the interesting column giving the number of children in the schools of each Colony has dropped out of this edition. A special feature of this book is the insertion of the Customs tariffs of all the Colonies, among which we notice that the Canada revised tariff of 1887 occupies twelve pages, as against half-a-page occupied by the New South Wales tariff of the same year, which was passed to repeal the Protectionist Act of 1886, and is a return to the former Free-trade scale, with some modifications. The functions and powers of the Australasian Federal Council are for the first time described (under " Victoria," which Colony took a leading part in promoting the scheme) ; and we are told that " the first meeting took place at Hobart on January 26th, 1886, when representatives were present from Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, Fiji, and Western Australia. Measures were passed extending the operation of warrants and judgments of the Courts of the different Colonies throughout the territories of those repre- sented, and various important questions were discussed, including the defence of King George's Sound and Torres Straits. The Council met for its second session on January 16th, 1888, and adjourned on the 19th ;" but we are not told which Colonies were represented at this second session, nor whether any practical business was transacted before the adjournment. The introduction gives an account of the proceedings and results of the Colonial Conference in London, without doubt " the most important event of 1887 relating to the Colonies." Not the least useful portion of the volume is the bibliographical section, containing a classified list of Parliamentary Papers on Colonial affairs published from 1877 to the present time. The Member of Parliament who has read all of these papers must be an industrious and well-informed politician. The book has twenty-eight maps, one of Mauritius having been added this year, and Tasmania seems to he the only important Colony of which there is no map. Some of the maps are capable of improve- ment,—for instance, that of the Malay Peninsula, on which the boundaries of none of the protected States are marked, as they are stated to be " not known " at the date of the map (1875), and the names of places are printed in such a way as not to distinguish towns from States, nor to show the precise position of the former. We notice a want of consistency in the statistics of the silver-using Colonies, as some of them are properly given in the local currency, and others are converted into sterling at an arbitrary rate of ex- change. A useful addition is a geographical index, referring "to nearly every locality mentioned in the work ;" this contains about eight hundred names, but it could doubtless be extended in future editions.
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