property-holders not resident in an electorate was abolished and the principle of “one man one vote” was established. Acts have been passed sanctioning Old Age Pensions; prohibiting shops, except those selling perishable goods, from keeping open more than eight hours; compelling the proprietors to give their assistants one half-holiday every six days; preventing persons from working more than forty-eight hours a week; and appointing for each trade a tribunal composed of an equal number of employers and employed to fix a minimum wage. (See Australia.)
Victoria enjoyed a large measure of prosperity during the later ’eighties and earlier ’nineties, and its financial prosperity enabled the government to expend large sums in extending railway communication to almost every locality and to commence a system of irrigation. The soil of Victoria is on the whole more fertile than in any other colony on the mainland of Australia, and in no portion of the continent is there any locality equal in fertility to the western district and some parts of Gippsland. The rainfall is more equable than in any portion of Australia, but the northern and north-western districts, which are the most remote from the sea and the Dividing Range, are subject to droughts, which, although not so severe or so frequent as in the interior of the continent, are sufficiently disastrous in their effects. The results of the expenditure upon irrigation have not been so successful as was hoped. Victoria has no mountains covered with snow, which in Italy and South America supply with water the rivers at the season of the year when the land needs irrigation, and it was necessary to construct large and expensive reservoirs. The cost of water is therefore greater than the ordinary agriculturist who grows grain or breeds and fattens stock can afford to pay, although the price may not be too high for orchardists and vine-growers. In 1892 the prosperity of the colony was checked by a Crisis of 1892. great strike which for some months affected production, but speculation in land continued for some time longer, especially in Melbourne, which at that time contained nearly half the population, 500,000 out of a total of 1,140,105. There does not seem to have been any other reasons for this increase in land values, for there was no immigration, and the value of every description of produce had fallen—except that the working classes were prosperous and well paid, and that the purchase of small allotments in the suburbs was a popular mode of investment. In 1893 there was a collapse. The value of land declined enormously, hundreds of persons believed to be wealthy were ruined, and there was a financial panic which caused the suspension of all the banks, with the exception of the Australasia, the Union of Australia, and the New South Wales. Most of them resumed payment, but three went into liquidation. It was some years before the normal condition of prosperity was restored, but the great resources of the colony and the energy of its people discovered new markets, and new products for them, and enabled them materially to increase the export trade. (G. C. L.)
VICTORIA, a city and port of Brazil, capital of the state of Espirito Santo, on the W. side of an island at the head of the Bay of Espirito Santo, 270 m. N.E. of Rio de Janeiro, in lat. 20° 18′ S., long. 40° 20′ W. Pop. (1902, estimated) 9000. The city occupies the beach and talus at the base of a high, wooded mountain. The principal streets follow the water-line, rising in terraces from the shore, and are crossed by narrow, steep, roughly paved streets. The buildings are old and of the colonial type. The governor's residence is an old convent, with its church at one side. The entrance to the bay is rather tortuous and difficult, but is sufficiently deep for the largest vessels. It is defended by five small forts. The harbour is not large, but is safe and deep, being completely shut in by hills. A large quay, pier, warehouses, &c., facilitate the handling of cargoes, which were previously transported to and from the anchorage by lighters. Victoria is a port of call for coasting steamers and a shipping port in the coffee trade. The other exports are sugar, rice and mandioca (manioc) to home ports.
Victoria was founded in 1535 by Vasco Fernando Coutinho, on the S. side and nearer the entrance to the bay, and received the name of Espirito Santo. The old site is still occupied, and is known as Villa Velha (Old Town). The name of Victoria was adopted in 1558 in commemoration of a crushing defeat inflicted by Fernando da Sa on the allied tribes of the Aimorés, Tapininguins and Goitacazes in that year. It was attacked (1592) by the freebooter Cavendish, who was repelled by one of the forts at the entrance to the bay.
VICTORIA, the capital of British Columbia and the principal city of Vancouver Island, in the S.E . corner of which it is finely situated (48° 25′ 20″ N., 123° 22′ 24″ W.), on a small arm of the sea, its harbour, however, only admitting vessels drawing 18 ft. Pop. (1906) about 25,000. It is the oldest city in the province. It has fine streets, handsome villas and public buildings, government offices and churches. The high school is affiliated with McGill University, in Montreal. Victoria is connected with the mainland by cable, and is a favourite tourist resort for the whole west coast of North America. Till 1858 Victoria was a post of the Hudson's Bay Company. The city was incorporated in 1862, and according to the census of 1886 the population was 14,000, including Chinese and Indians, spread over an area of 4 sq. m. Until the redistribution of the fleet in 1905, the headquarters of the British Pacific squadron was at Esquimalt, a fine harbour about 3 m. W. of Victoria. This harbour, though spacious, is not much used by merchant vessels. It is provided with a large dry-dock and is defended by fortifications of a modern type.
VICTORIA FALLS, the greatest waterfall in the world, forming the most remarkable feature of the river Zambezi, Central Africa. The falls are about midway in the course of the Zambezi in 17° 51′ S., 25° 41′ E. For a considerable distance above the falls the river flows over a level sheet of basalt, its valley bounded by low and distant sandstone hills. Its clear blue waters are dotted with numerous tree-clad islands. These islands increase in number as the river, without quickening its current, approaches the falls, whose nearness is indicated only by a veil of spray. At the spot where the Zambezi is at its widest—over 1860 yds.—it falls abruptly over the edge of an almost vertical chasm with a roar as of continuous thunder,
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