Mr. S. Henniker Heaton forwards from Sydney a complete account
of the resources of which an Australian Dominion would dispose. The seven Colonies now own 3,000,000 square miles of territory, or three times the surface of Europe west of the Vistula, inhabited by 2,936,000 persons of European descent. These three millions have placed 7,128,000 acres under tillage, in addition, of course, to their grass land ; and own 1,219,000 horses, 8,429,000 cattle, and 78,493,000 sheep. They have a. trade of £114,000, and a revenue of 221,911,000 a year ; and although their Debt exceeds £99,000,000, the State Railways are valued at more than this sum. They have placed £62,000,000 sterling in Australian Banks as fixed deposits bearing interest, and exclusive, therefore, of current accounts; and they spend 12 per cent. of their entire revenue, heavy as the taxation is, upon public education. In a very few years, probably before 1900, the Dominion will be a powerful State of 5,000,000 of people, with a practically limitless territory for settlement, with a revenue of £35,000,000, and the power of training a permanent militia force of 150,000 men, by drilling only the young men from nineteen to twenty-two. Such a State, so isolated, will dominate the South Pacific, whatever Europe, or even America, may have to say to the contrary.
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