AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10298, 29 July 1911, Page 5

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

Some interesting facte and figures relative to this country aaid Axistralca appear in an article recently con-, tribut-cd to a Sydney journal. Everybody i& aware of the vadt extent cf "tlK\ land of the golden fi-oece," as Sala called Australia, but probably faw realise that out of 200,000,-. 000 acres in the Coinmoivwctflth capable of growing wheat if r-citeutifionJly treated, onuy 7,000,000 acres are actually under cultivation. Immense tracts of country .now lying idle and unproductive in Australia are knowui ■to be suitable for the production of cotton, and rice. Yet, the world is anxEously searching for new cotton fields, while rice i»■ the rbarple food of 800,000,000 people, and Aria, is. wholly unable to supply .their need®. The figures quoted rolat : njg to Live stock i,n Australasia are noteworthy. There are about 115,000,000 l sheep in tlhe Commonwealth and New Zealand, 13,000,000 cattle, and 3,000,000 Australian sheep produce yearly, on an- average, 2,500,000 bales of wool, which, reckoned a.t £l2 pea" bale, represents! £30,000,000 sterling. Both New Zeailaaid and Australia have, yielded vast quantities of gold, tlhe former £80,000,000 worth, and the latter £250,000,000, to say nothing of coal, iron, copper, etc. And there is good reasoni for'believing that the gold, discoveries in the past, in , Australia.. especially, wi11... be ( ecl%>sed by th«JS(& fuftwte.,; In. common parlance, "tnere is plenty more wtherethat ca<me< from." There are about 1,000 miles of railway open in: the l GommjoaweaJth .antLNeW/vZeia- 1 . ]{Us, yrorth), a.iid yieJidr >ing ?: "a'jgrds® ' The total amount standing to the credit of depositors in the Government savings banks of Australia, is £53,000,000. In New, Zealand, with its' comparatively small population!, the sia-vings bank deposit® at the 1 end; of 1909 totalled. £12,668,898, an | average of upwards of £35 for e*vI eiry open account. It is satisfactory, j too, to find tha.t according to tire latest statistics, while the; death rate in Australia, per 1000 is 11, that of New Zealand is only 9.22. Ini this respect this country • com,pares more than favourably, also, with England arnd Wales, Scotland, Irefiaaid, 'France, Giermaoiy, ( Italy and Rus- , sia.