New South Wales is the oldest colony of Australasia. It formerly included what is now known as Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, all under the governor at Sydney. The area is now diminished to 310,700 sq. m. or 198,848,000 acres, being five times that of England. It has the Pacific to the east, from Point Danger, S. lat., to Cape Howe, ; South Australia to the west, along the meridian E.; Victoria to the south, by the Murray River; and Queensland to the north, from S. lat. A series of mountain-chains, from 20 to 100 miles distance to the sea, extend from near Cape York to the Australian south-east corner. The southernmost are the Australian Alps, running over into Victoria, culminating in Mount Townsend, 7350 feet high. Northward are the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, with peaks 4000 feet, and containing the Jenolan Caves (q.v.). Liverpool Range is more northerly; and the New England hills, north-east, rise 5000 feet. With the exception of some isolated mountains, the region to the west consists of vast plains, up to the Barrier Ranges near South Australia. The mountains give birth to short and rapid streams toward the sea, but long and sluggish ones westward. The Hawkesbury or Nepean, Hunter, Clarence, Shoalhaven, and Macleay are eastern. The Lachlan, 700 miles long, runs into the Murrumbidgee, which flows 1350 miles before falling into the Murray. The Murray, after 1100 miles on the New South Wales border, passes into South Australia. The Darling, rising in Queensland, has more than 1000 miles through the colony before reaching the Murray, the main receptacle of the country's waters. The Macquarie and Namoi go northward to the Darling. The dry interior has few streams. Among the few lakes are George, Bathurst, Illawarra, Macquarie, and Brisbane Waters—the last three sea-lakes. Two-fold Bay is not far from Cape Howe. North of it are Jervis Bay, Botany Bay, Port Jackson, Broken Bay, Port Hunter, Port Stephen, Port Macquarie. The capital, Sydney (q.v.), is on Port Jackson, and is the headquarters of the Australian naval squadron. Near it are Windsor and Parramatta. Newcastle and Maitland are by the Hunter River. Goulburn and Bathurst are westward, Albany and Wentworth on the Murray, Bourke and Wilcannia on the Darling; Wellington is on the Macquarie, Wollongong by Illawarra, Deniliquin in Riverina, Silverton in the Barrier Ranges.
The colony was established in January 1788, under Governor Phillip, with a party of transported prisoners from England, as the former place of exile, America, was closed by the independence of that country. For years the settlement suffered much from want of food. The introduction of free colonists, to whom grants of land were given, promoted pastoral and agricultural pursuits; and the change from despotism to responsible government was gradually made. The cessation of transportation in 1840 was followed by social and political advance; and the gold discovery in 1851 gave a great impetus to the search for minerals. Town industries were developed; and commerce was aided by a fine harbour, an excellent mercantile marine, and the extension of railways.
As regards flora, the eucalyptus-tree prevails in the colony, but acacias also are common, and pines and cedars, as well as palms in the north-east. Forest preservation is now receiving official attention. In addition to products of native vegetation, plants of commercial value are being introduced, adapted to the warmer, colder, moister, or drier localities. Of 1600 economic plants in the colony, 210 are useful for food, 158 forage, 123 drugs, 57 oils, 87 tans, 60 gum-resins, 39 kinos, 14 perfumes, 35 dyes, 67 fibres, 630 timber. Some of these are available for export. There are more flowering plants than in all Europe.
The fauna, as in the rest of Australia, consists mainly of marsupial animals. In a single year there have been killed, as nuisances, 1,310,900 marsupials. Birds are of great variety, many of very beautiful plumage, and some of pleasant notes. Insects are pretty numerous, and not always welcome. Lizards and snakes may run to a good size, but there are no alligators. Fish, especially in the bays, are plentiful.
Geology.—Silurian and Devonian formations, with granitic, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, are rich in gold, silver, lead, copper, tin, and other metals. The hilly country forms the centre of mining industry, but the older rocks underlie the Tertiary and Post-Tertiary beds of the vast plains to the westward. Coal is seen in both Palæozoic and Mesozoic strata. The Cretaceous beds are confined to the north-west corner. Trappean irruptions are of various geological epochs; yet the colony has fewer recent volcanic, though extinct, craters than its Victorian neighbour. Marsupialian remains of huge dimensions are observed in the Pleistocene formations. Besides the monsters Diprotodon and Nototherium, there are the marsupial lion Thylacoleo, and the Thylacinus. In the Pliocene and Pleistocene are the alluvial gold workings and the diamond and tin washings. While the more ancient rocks prevail in the ranges, Mesozoic ones are nearly confined to the eastern side, north and south of Sydney, as the Sydney sandstone, and in the Clarence basin.
Gold, known in 1823, was first worked in 1851, near Bathurst. It is found over an area of 70,000 sq. m., in granite, porphyry, diorite, quartz, breccias, and alluvial deposits. Dry blowing is employed by miners where water is scarce. Gold is often mixed with silver, copper, or tin; and the ore is worth, according to purity, from 70 to 82 shillings an ounce. The output to the beginning of 1890 was nearly £38,000,000, though only £434,070 in 1889. Silver, found at Boorook, Sunny Corner, &c., abounds in the Barrier Ranges near South Australia, at Silverton, Thackaringa, &c., where there are over 4000 miners. Discovered in 1883, in an almost rainless region, the silver area is 100 miles by 12. One company paid in dividends £1,676,000 up to 1890, having raised 161,500 tons of ore, yielding 6,236,000 ounces of silver and 25,170 tons of lead. The district up to 1890 produced £4,168,397; the Broken Hill Company has raised 20,000,000 ounces; and in 1889 the product of silver for the colony was £1,971,198. Copper, first wrought in 1858, yielded £122,444 in 1889; its ore being known to extend over 8000 sq. m. Tin, worked since 1872, from streams and lodes in granite, has fields of equal area, with a yield for 1889 of £207,670. Lead is chiefly got from silver-mines. Antimony, manganese, bismuth, &c. are mined. Iron is abundant, but not profitable to work owing to the cost of labour. Precious stones, as the diamond, emerald, zircon, sapphire, topaz, &c., occur in granite localities. Asbestos, zinc, mercury, cobalt, and alum are exported. Graphite, kaolin, and building-stone enrich the colonists. Coal is the most valuable mineral of New South Wales. It extends over 24,000 sq. m.; £22,000,000 worth was raised during 1860-89; and the export of 28 million tons brought in £16,000,000. In 1894 the gold produced was worth £1,156,717; the silver, £94,150; copper, £63,617; and coal, £1,155,573. Kerosene is also produced in considerable quantity from the shale of the Blue Mountains.
The pastoral resources in 1895 include as many as 56,977,270 sheep (in spite of recent losses of 8,000,000 from drought); cattle, 2,465,411; horses, 518,181; swine, 2,733,591. Most of these animals are upon stations or runs, on land leased from government, sometimes at less than a penny an acre rental in the dry west. The leases are for twenty-one years in western divisions, ten in central, and five only in eastern, at a higher rent. The lessees are the squatters. In the early years of the colony only salt meat from England was in use, as there were no native sheep, cattle, or horses. The sheep imported from Bengal and the Cape were hairy, but the wool was improved by the introduction of Spanish merinoes; the cattle also were improved by good English stock. Pigs, goats, and poultry have been introduced. Wool exported in the year exceeds two hundred million pounds' weight.
Agriculture occupies far less land than pasturage. While 140,000,000 acres produce a rental of £917,190, being devoted to flocks and herds, there are but a million acres, or one acre to one inhabitant, devoted to culture, and nearly one-fourth of that is laid down in artificial grasses. But farming ground, especially near towns, is very valuable. Some of this is freehold; bought at government auction sales, though formerly bestowed in grants at a nominal quit rent. Much is leasehold, held at various rentals on terms of years from the state, till the full purchase is thereby effected. Of 46,197 holdings, 580 were over 10,000 acres each, and 6889 were under 15 acres. The land laws of New South Wales are liberal and easy to settlers. The country, however, is more pastoral than agricultural, growing less produce proportionately to its size than Victoria and South Australia. In March 1890 the area under crop was 947,072 acres, but 47,620 holdings contained 41,042,629 acres. In 1890 there were 419,758 acres in wheat, averaging 15 bushels to the acre; 173,836 in maize, averaging 30½; 5440 in barley; and 7867 in vines; hay, of various kinds, 222,262; sugar-cane, 18,730; oranges, 9804; tobacco, 3239; orchards, 16,867; market-gardens, 5409; potatoes, 17,551. Yet, while the colony exported £1,076,350 of agricultural produce in 1889, it imported £5,548,915. The sugar-plantations in the north-east are not so productive as in Queensland; nor are the apple-orchards and potato-furrows equal to those of
Tasmania. But all the fruits that thrive in England and Italy grow here.
Climate influences vegetation in the colony. Farming facilities exist in the Dividing Range, the highlands of New England in the north-east, and the alpine slopes to the south, because of fair moisture. The scacoast, with from 40 to 70 inches of rain a year, differs much from the western interior, where in some years as little as 5 inches may fall. But the climate is so uncertain that a region may suffer from fearful drought in one season and floods in another. Cold and ice with heavy snows may be experienced on the lofty plains; but Sydney, 33° 50' lat., had no snow in thirty years. Though in summer the thermometer might rise to 100° and beyond it during the day, the nights are generally cool and recuperative after the heat.
The trade exceeds that of any of the neighbouring colonies. It was worth £46,157,991 in 1889—£22,863,057 in imports, £23,294,934 exports. Each averaged over £20 a head, or about £16 in produce of the colony. The re-exports amounted to £5,871,623. While the United Kingdom sent £8,736,478 of goods, receiving from the colony £8,964,625, the Queensland trade was £6,415,553; the Victorian, £7,804,338; the American, £2,225,286; the German, £1,052,517; the French, £284,004; the Indian, £202,359. The colonial overland trade was £10,070,189. New South Wales imported £2,164,206 of drapery; £1,046,146, apparel; £852,304, iron and machinery; £741,189, flour; £466,390, spirits; £385,363, teas; £438,094, beer; £220,793, tobacco. Of exports, the home produce was £17,423,311; the foreign, £5,871,623. The animal and vegetable products realised £7,300,526; minerals and metals, £1,655,776; live-stock, £1,175,979; and coal, £1,319,271. The colony's wool of 1889 brought £10,620,636. Duties are only levied on forty-seven articles; there are none ad valorem, what is practically free trade having been established in 1872-79. The customs realised £1,905,883 and excise £261,371. There entered, in 1889, 3254 ships of 2,632,081 tons; departed, 3229 of 2,689,098. Of the tonnage, 4,659,798 were British; 661,381, foreign. Of the former, 2,817,071 were colonial; of the latter, 210,164 were American. While London cleared 5,284,149 tons, and Liverpool 4,758,525, Sydney cleared 1,432,340, and the Newcastle coal-port, 1,126,892. The railways connect New South Wales with South Australia, Victoria, and Queensland. The 2530 miles belonging to government has, to 1895, cost £36,611,350. The total imports in 1894 were worth £15,801,941; the total exports, £20,577,673.
Government.—The governor is appointed by the Queen. The executive is of 10 ministers; the Upper House or Legislative Council had, in 1892, 75 life-members; the Lower, or Legislative Assembly, 141 members, in 74 electorates, receiving £300 a year. The parliament is triennial. The revenue in 1825 was £71,682; in 1890, £9,517,121. From taxation was raised £2,758,750; from land, £2,208,039; from postal, railway, and other services, £4,253,830. The public debt, contracted for useful works, was £48,578,837 in October 1890. An excellent volunteer force comprises some 3500 men. In 1885 a contingent was sent to the Soudan, and in 1899 to South Africa, to strengthen the British forces. There is also a naval brigade. The colony is now part of the Federal Commonwealth of Australia. See AUSTRALIA.
The population (1891), 1,132,207, of whom 518,199 were female, included 14,156 Chinese and 1997 aborigines. The ports, farming localities, and mines return seven-eighths of the people. About 3000 manufactories employ 49,238, wages for eight hours a day being from 8s. to 12s. The birth- rate is 33 per thousand; marriage-rate, 6; death-rate, only 13. In religion, the Church of England claims one-half the population, the Roman Catholic nearly one-third; but returns for 1889 gave Sunday attendance at worship as follows: Roman Catholic, 94,422; Church of England, 83,819; Methodists (various), 64,900; Presbyterian, 33,247; Salvation Army, 14,423; Congregational, 13,669; Baptist, 4925.
Public schools are now unconnected with churches, and no state aid is granted to a denominational school; but one hour a day may be devoted to religious instruction in state schools, where parents present no objection. On the roll in 2964 schools are 229,043 pupils. The annual cost to the government of each child is £4, 14s.; the fees bringing in 12s. 5d. But there are many private schools. The Church of England has 36,342 children in Sunday-schools; Roman Catholic, 25,820; Methodist, 29,385; Presbyterian, 12,054. There are technological, industrial, and general museums, picture-galleries, public libraries, schools of arts, and mining schools; and a noble state university, having affiliated colleges, crowns the educational edifice.
See AUSTRALIA and works there cited; Dilke's Problems of Greater Britain (1890); R. Flanagan, History of New South Wales (1862); A. Trollope, New South Wales and Queensland (1874); Dr Lang, Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales (1875); G. W. Griffin, New South Wales, her Commerce and Resources (1888); T. A. Coglian, The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales, 1889-90 (Sydney, 1890); G. B. Barton, History of New South Wales from the Records (16 vols. 1890 et seq.).