The Fielding Star, OROUA & KIWITEA COUNTIES GAZETTE. Published Daily. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1897. AUSTRALASIA.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 58, 6 September 1897, Page 2

The Fielding Star, OROUA & KIWITEA COUNTIES GAZETTE. Published Daily. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1897. AUSTRALASIA.

In the last number of the Review of Reviews the editor has essayed the task of translating Australian geography into the terms of European areas. He shows that the whole of Europe, omitting Russia, " can be packed within the map of Australia and yet leave a margin sufficient to set up half a dozen decent- sized kingdoms." A European area carrying a population of nearly two hundred and fifty million people covers only about two-fifths of the surface of Australia. Italy has a population of thirty million s, yet New South Wales could find room for nearly three Italys, " while in soil it is as rich, in climate as soft as Italy, and in mineral resources it is incomparably greater than Italy." Five Austrias would go into West Australia, and South Australia would hold within its boundaries five countries the size of France. The colony, if populated as thickly as France, would contain one hundred and fifty million souls. Spain has altogether an area of over 197,000 square miles and a population of nearly eighteen millions, yet "in all the elements of natural wealth, in fertile soil and rich pastures, in all the products of a scmitropical agriculture, Queensland is incomparably richer than Spain, and it has an area more than three times as great." Within the boundaries of Victoria could be packed England and Wales, and the surplus space would be large enough for Denmark and Switzerland. New Zealand has nearly twice the area of Turkey, and Tasmania is more than twice as big as Holland. .Summing up the possibilities which lie before Australasia the editor, after remarking that it contains geographical room for at least a dozen mighty States on the European scale, says; — " All the other natural conditions for fast growing communities, too. are with us in a degree which Kurope cannot rival. We have climate on our side. If mineral wealth b • considered these colonies form one of the greatest treasure chambers of the planet. The old notion of the ' sterility ' of Australia was bred of ignorance, and is confuted by fuller knowledge. We have, tw. a population of a single type, and therefore will have the purest blooded variety of the English speaking race." Our lack of history has its. compensations, and altogether the editor holds that the true mood for the Australian mind is one of devout gratitude and of something like exultant hopefulness.