THE MAKING OF AUSTRALASIA. By Thomas Dunbabin. (Black. 10s. 6d.
net.)—Mr. Dunbabin, who was formerly a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and is now on the staff of a Sydney paper, has written a very readable sketch of the history of the Australian Commonwealth and the Dominion of New Zealand.
It is rather startling to learn that, from the foundation of Botany Bay in 1788 to the final abolition of the system of transportation in 1867, no less than 187,161 criminals were sent from the British Isles to Australia. This has always been rather a sore subject in Sydney, as at least one Governor learnt to his cost, but Mr. Dunbabin gives a dispas- sionate account of the convict days, and shows how,' under the influence of the Maearthurs, Wentworths and Macquaries, this unpromising material contributed to the formation of one of the finest and most independent races to be found anywhere in our Empire. It must, of course, be remembered that a large proportion of the convicts were not what nowadays we should call criminals at all.
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