and iron, have been but feebly guessed at as yet. In Rhodesia a four foot reef averaging 10 dwts. of gold per ton is, according to Mr Knight of the Times, a marvellous claim. There are sixty-eight proclaimed goldfields in Queensland, 95 per cent, of the output from which is from reefs. And reefing returns, according to the official statistics of the colony, about £300 per head for each miner actually engaged in obtaining the metal. The nominal capital of the gold mining industry of Australasia is about ninety-seven millions, of which at least seventy-six millions is British money. The nominal capital of Queensland gold mines is about six millions, of which at least three-fifths is held by Queenslanders; and which, with a bare million sterling invested in machinery, yielded dividends amounting to half a million in 1898. Queensland gold mining is a home industry, maintained by local money, which is the reason of its slow development (for local capital is not unlimited, and local men have their hands full), and the reason, also, of its good management and small waste of money; while the fact that the best mine in the Malay countries, a well-known property near Singapore, is owned in Brisbane, is one of those exceptions which sustain the rule. The gold yield for 1897 was 807,926 ounces; for 1898, 918,106; an increase of 110,180 ounces, or, say, £440,000.
The most conspicuous industry of the colony, to the traveller along the coast, is the export trade in chilled meat; and it is curious to notice that on the map attached to the handbook of the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company, apart from the names of towns, and routes of railways and steamers, nothing is marked but the sites of freezing works, boiling-down works, preserving works, and chilled meat stores. The annual cast, from about twenty million sheep and six
