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Victoria (British colony in Aus- S E)

a British colony in Aus- S. E. by the Pacific, S. by Bass Strait and Southern Ocean, and W. by South Australia; area 87,884 square miles; pop. about 1,500,000. It has about 600 geographical miles of sea-coast, with considerable bays and indentations, especially about the middle, where Port Phillip Bay, with an area of 875 square miles and an entrance barely 2 miles wide, affords shelter sufficient for the largest fleet.

Topography. The interior, though diverisfied by mountains, is chiefly distinguished by vast unwooded plains mostly occupied as pasture. There is one principal mountain range, a portion of the Great Dividing Range of Eastern Australia, running from E. to W. through the colony, with various offshoots. The E. portion of it, called the Australian Alps, with numerous N. and W. ramifications, rises in Mount Bogong to 6,500 feet, in Mount Hotham to 6,100 feet, and has several peaks exceeding 5,000 feet. The most W. portion, called the Grampians, runs N. and S., and in Mount William reaches a height of 5,600 feet. The Grampians and Australian Alps are connected by such ranges as the Pyrenees and Hume Range, containing numerous cones and extinct craters, and composed of metamorphic rocks of craters , granite, quartz, syenite, etc. This is the region of the gold-fields.

Waterways. The rivers are numerous, but generally small and dry up in summer, leaving the country parched.

The chief is the Murray, which rises in the Australian Alps, forms the N. boundary of the colony for 980 miles, is in all 1,300 miles long, and is navigable for several hundred miles. The Yarra Yarra is a short navigable river, on which, at its entrance into Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, the capital is situated.

Others are the Goulbourn, Snowy, Glenelg, Wimmera, and Loddon. Lakes are numerous but small, and many of them are salt.

Climate. The climate of Victoria is temperate, but liable to sudden fluctuations; and hot winds blow at intervals from November to February, causing VICTORIA great discomfort. The hottest period is in January and February, when the thermometer may rise to 108° in the shade. Some of the common English quadrupeds and birds have been introduced, such as hares, rabbits, deer, pheasants, partridges, larks, etc., and have become quite plentiful. Rabbits are now so numerous in some districts as to prove a nuisance.

Production and Industry. The acreage and production under the principal crops in 1919 was as followes: wheat, 2,214,000 acres, production 25,240,000 bushels; oats, 343,000 acres, production, 5,275,000 bushels; barley, 100,000 acres, production, 2,229,000 bushels; potatoes, 52,000 acres, production 138,000 bushels; hay 984,000 acres, production 1,114,000 tons. The total value of agricultural products in 1917-1918 was £14,401,173.

The gold production in 1919 was 135,427 ounces, valued at £575,260. There were about 3,500 miners employed in the gold fields. The mineral production in 1918 was valued at $1,342,322. There were in 1918 5,627 manufacturing establishments, and the value of the product was £67,066,715.

The total value of overseas imports in 1918-1919 was £34,822,019, and of exports £27,824,749. There were in 1919 330 lines of double railway track and 3,867 miles of single track, or a total of 4,197 miles. The total revenue in 1919 amounted to £12,786,589, and the expenditures to £12,468,068. The public debt on June 30, 1918, amounted to £78,192,- 361.

Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14. In 1918 there was a total enrollment of 254,461 scholars in the schools. Secondary education is for the most part under the control of private persons or proprietary bodies. The University of Melbourne has four colleges affiliated with it; Trinity, Ormond, Queens and Newman.

Government. The government is invested in a governor appointed by the crown, aided by an executive ministry consisting of 12 members, and a Parliament consisting of a legislative council of 34 members and a legislative assembly of 65 members. History. Victoria was first colonized from Tasmania in 1834. It made rapid progress, especially in sheep breeding, and the discovery of gold in 1851 caused a rush of population from all parts.

Hitherto it had been known as Port Phillip, and formed part of New South Wales, but in this year (independently of the gold discovery) very) it was erected into a separate colony under the name of Victoria. In 1850 the population numbered 76,162, in 1854 it was 312,307. In 1856 responsible government was con- VICTORIA ferred on the colony. The chief towns are Melbourne (the capital), Geelong, Ballarat, and Sandhurst. See Aus- TRALIA: AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH.