11,500,000 are in the mallee scrub. The wheat of Victoria, like that of South Australia, is the best in the world; and it is very cheaply harvested. But the available Crown lands are mainly taken up, and the only means now of obtaining the fee-simple of Government land is by taking up a 1000 acre agricultural and grazing block, and selecting 320 acres for freehold out of it. This is only possible to the successful applicant to whom a land board awards the right of leasing these blocks, the applicants on every occasion being many more than there is land to go round for. The rise in the price of land which may be expected to follow in Victoria on the alienation of the last available blocks will probably hasten the rush for the soil in the other colonies. Western Australia, owing to her peculiar conditions of settlement and to the patchy nature of her lands, is already, for practical purposes, almost in the same stage as Victoria in this respect. The latter colony has been a large exporter of wheat to the United Kingdom this season, having shipped over 2,000,000 bags during the first thirty-one weeks of the year. The average yield, for nearly a decade, has not exceeded 8 bushels; but agricultural authorities have advised the farmers to adopt better mechanical means, a more rational system of manure, and a more careful selection of seed, assuring them that if they only increase their yield by 2 bushels to the acre they will increase the wealth of the colony by £400,000 a year.
What I have said as to education in South Australia applies also to Victoria, where the system is similarly free, secular, and compulsory. The masses are well educated in their way, and there are no illiterates to speak of. On the other hand, sound learning is scarcely indigenous. The University of Melbourne is a fine institution, and its
