divided into that on revenue-yielding works, viz. railways,
£4,122,589, and telegraphs, £142,410; and that on works not
yielding revenue, £4,970,018. For local government purposes
Tasmania is divided into municipalities, town boards, and road
trusts. The rates are assessed on an assumed annual value, which
in 1900 was £1,417,547, corresponding to a capital value of, 'upwards
of £28,000,000. The bulk of the revenue of the local government
bodies is obtained from rates. The sources of revenue in 1905
were: government endowment, £5355; local rates, £71,920; and
other sources, £83,187. The outstanding loans of municipalities
amount to £697,133, of which the greater portion is represented by
the indebtedness of the two chief cities, Hobart and Launceston.
Defence.—Tasmania being a portion of the Commonwealth of Australia, its defence is undertaken by the federal government. The strength of the local forces is about 1500 officers and men.
Mining.—Mining is now the foremost industry, the gross production in 1905 being valued at £1,858,218 as compared with £1,500,000, the value of agricultural production, which is next in importance. Tasmania produces gold, tin, silver, copper and coal, and in 1905 the production of these minerals was valued at: gold, £312,380; silver and silver-lead, £465,094; copper, £672,010; tin, £346,092; and coal, £44,194. Beaconsfield is the chief goldfield, 26 miles north-west of Launceston. There are about 1500 persons employed mining for gold on the various fields. The Mount Zeehan and Dundas districts produce almost the whole of the silver at the present time, and most of the ore is sold to agents of the Australian and German smelting works. Tasmania is the largest producer of tin in Australasia, and a very large proportion of the tin hitherto produced has been obtained from alluvial deposits, the lodes, except at Mount Bischoff, having, comparatively speaking, been neglected. The Mount Bischoff mine, which is worked as an open quarry, is the largest producer of tin, and (with an original capital of £30,000) has paid over two millions sterling in dividends. The number of tin miners in the state is about 1170. Tasmania also takes the lead amongst the states in copper production: in 1896 there was a small production of £1659; in 1897 it grew to £317,437, in 1898 to £378,565, in 1899 to £761,880, and in 1900 to £901,660; and although the production has since been considerably reduced it is still a great industry. This expansion was chiefly due to the enterprise of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, whose mine is situated at Gormanston. Coal-mining is carried on in various districts of the island, but the principal mines are at Mount Nicholas and Cornwall, in the Mount Nicholas Range; the output of the field is increasing, but no export trade is at present possible, the mines being situated too far from the sea-board. The number of men employed in coal-mining is 150, and the output about 52,000 tons per annum.
Manufactures are on a small scale, the number of establishments being about 440, and the hands employed 9000.
Agriculture.—After being much neglected, agriculture received renewed attention in 1892 and the following years up to 1904, when the area under crop reached a total of 259,611 acres; since the year named there has been no increase, and the area cultivated may be placed at about 250,000 acres. The area under crop, at intervals of ten years, was as follows: 1861, 163,385 acres; 1871, 155,046 acres; 1887, 148,494 acres; 1891, 168,121 acres; and 1901, 224,352 acres. Wheat is the principal crop, and the yield is larger per acre and less variable than that of the Australian states : Tor the fifteen years ending with 1905 the average yield was 18·9 bushels per acre, ranging between 15 bushels in 1894 and 27 bushels in 1899. The oat crop is also much above the Australian average, and may be set down at 30 bushels an acre, but an average of 5 bushels higher is not infrequent. Tasmania is renowned for its fruit crops, and now that this fruit has found an opening in the British market, renewed attention is being devoted to the industry. In 1905 there were 12,683 acres of apples, 2098 acres of pears, 1111 acres of apricots, 1,123 acres of plums, 426 acres of cherries, 498 acres of peaches, 2000 acres of strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries, and 1107 acres of currants. The crop for the same year included 1,100,000 bushels of apples, 75,000 bushels of pears, and nearly 170,000 bushels of other fruit. Tasmania finds its best markets for fruits in New South Wales and in Great Britain. The total value of the produce of Tasmanian farms now exceeds £1,250,000, which is equivalent to £4, 17s. 5d. per acre cultivated.
Tasmania shows a decline in sheep-breeding, yet the state is singularly well adapted for sheep-raising, and its stud flocks are well known and annually drawn upon to improve the breed in the other states. Nor have the other branches of the pastoral industry shown much expansion, as the following table will show:—
| Year. | Sheep. | Horned Cattle. | Horses. | Swine. |
| 1861 | 174,498 | 87,114 | 22,118 | 40,841 |
| 1871 | 1,305,489 | 101,540 | 23,054 | 52,863 |
| 1881 | 1,847,479 | 130,526 | 25,607 | 49,660 |
| 1891 | 1,662,801 | 167,666 | 31,262 | 73,520 |
| 1901 | 1,683,956 | 165,516 | 31,607 | 68,291 |
| 1905 | 1,583,561 | 206,211 | 37,101 | 72,810 |
Commerce.—The shipping increased considerably after 1896. Hobart is now a place of call for several of the European steamship lines, and the state is becoming increasingly popular as a summer resort for the residents of Melbourne and Sydney. The growth of the shipping trade will be seen in the following table, which also gives the imports and exports at ten-yearly intervals:—
| Year. | Shipping entered. | Imports. | Exports. |
| Tons. | £ | £ | |
| 1861 | 113,610 | 954,517 | 905,463 |
| 1871 | 107,271 | 778,087 | 740,638 |
| 1881 | 192,024 | 1,431,144 | 1,555,576 |
| 1891 | 514,706 | 2,051,964 | 1,440,818 |
| 1900 | 618,963 | 2,073,657 | 2,610,617 |
| 1905 | 1,056,256 | 2,651,754 | 3,711,616 |
Tasmania does a large trade with Victoria and New South Wales as well as with Great Britain. The principal exports in 1905 and their values were: wool, £401,958; gold, £187,873; tin and ore, £257,256; silver and ore, £318,971; copper, £569,052; farm, fruit and vegetable products, £477,866; timber, £78,380. The imports represent £14, 15s. 10d. and the exports £20, 14s. per inhabitant. The chief ports of the state are Hobart, where the shipping entered in 1905 amounted to 645,000 tons, and Launceston, 223,000 tons; Strahan on the west coast has also a considerable trade.
Railways.—The railways open for traffic in 1905 had a length of 619 miles, of which 463 were government and 156 private lines. The progress of railway construction will be seen from the following figures: open for traffic, 1871, 45 miles; 1881, 168 miles; 1891, 425 miles; and 1905, 619 miles. The railways, both state and private, are of 3 ft. 6 in. gauge. The capital expended on government lines up to 1905 was £3,920,500; the gross earnings in that year were £243,566, and the working expenses £171,630; leaving £71,936 as the net earnings. This last-mentioned sum is equal to 1·83 per cent, on the capital expenditure; and as the average interest upon outstanding loans is 3·73 per cent., the railways are carried on at a loss of 1·9 per cent. The private railways show somewhat better returns; the Emu Bay and Mount Bischoff line, 103 miles in length, constructed at a cost of £565,365, returned in 1904 about 3·22 per cent., and the Mount Lyell Company’s railway, 22 miles long, costing £220,333, returned nearly 6 per cent.
The roads maintained by the road trusts and boards of the colony extend over 7695 miles, of which 4146 were macadamized; the annual expenditure thereon is over £35,768.
Posts and Telegraphs.—There were 379 post offices and receiving offices in 1905, and 327 telegraphic stations; 12,616,000 postcards and letters, 2,800,000 packets, and 7,200,000 newspapers were received and despatched. The postal revenue amounted to £116,132, and the expenditure to £109,389; these sums include telegraph and telephone business. The telegraph messages sent numbered 496,000. The telephone system is being rapidly extended, and at the beginning of 1906, 1371 miles of line were being worked.
Banking.—There are four banks of issue, of which two are local institutions; their united assets average £3,576,700. The note circulation is about £150,000, and the deposits £3,520,000, about half bearing interest.
History.—Tasmania, or, as it was originally called, Van Diemen’s Land, was discovered in 1642 by the Dutch navigator Tasman (q.v.) who named the territory after his patron, Van Diemen. The island was subsequently visited in 1772 by a French naval officer, Captain Marion du Fresne; in 1773. by Captain Furneaux, of the British man-of-war “Adventure”; in 1777 by the great circumnavigator Captain Cook; by Bligh in 1788, and again in 1792, when he planted fruit trees. In the same year the French navigator D’Entrecasteaux visited the south portion of the island and surveyed the coast. In 1798 Bass sailed through the strait which now bears his name, and discovered Van Diemen’s Land was an island. In 1800 the French explorer Baudin, in command of the ships “Geographe” and “Naturaliste,” surveyed the south of the island, and reports of bis proceedings having reached the British officials at Sydney, they determined to forestall the French and take possession of Van Diemen’s Land.
In 1802 the “Cumberland,” a small schooner, landed at King’s Island in Bass Strait, and in 1803 Lieutenant Bowen was sent by Governor King of New South Wales to form a settlement on the south coast of Van Diemen’s Land. He had aboard his two ships, the “Lady Nelson” of 60 tons and the whaler “Albion” of 306 tons, three officials, a lance-corporal and seven privates of the New South Wales Corps, six free men and twenty-five convicts, together with an adequate supply of live stock, and
