In 1876 the Australasian emigration constituted 29 per cent. In the preceding period it was 14 per cent. In the five years 1866-70, it was 9 per cent. of the total. The Registrar-General reports that the number of emigrants to Australasia in 1877 was nearly the same as in the previous year, while the numbers to the United States and to British North America in 1877 were still less than the already greatly diminished numbers in the previous year. The emigrants to the several destinations, however, bore nearly the same proportions to the total as in 1876.

Table showing the Average Annual Number of Emigrants of British Origin to each of the undermentioned Places.

Note. No correction has been made in the above table for those whose nationality was

not distinguished.

These are striking figures, and they fully justify the observation of Mr. Wells, that the rapid development of the British colonies in the South Pacific is one of the wonderful social and economic phenomena of the latter half of the nineteenth century.

6

The recent commercial recovery of the United States has once more stimulated the movement of emigration to the more accessible field of North America. Mr. Giffen observes, in his latest report on the returns of emigration, that of persons of British and Irish origin, 54,694 went to the United States in 1878 as compared with 45,481 in 1877, so that the United States had more than half the increase of 17,707 in the emigration. There was also a great increase of the emigration to Australia, viz. from 30,138 in 1877, to 36,479 in 1878; and an increase in the emigration to British North America from 7,720 in 1877, to 10,652 in 1878.'

We have dwelt at such length on the Australian colonies, that space forbids a detailed statement of the growth of our other dependencies. The readers of Mr. Wilson's pages will be aware that our colonies in South Africa have of late made remarkable strides. Since the discovery of diamonds, the export of precious stones has been enormous. The great Kimberley mine alone has furnished some 12,000,000l. The great need of the Cape is population.

The capabilities of Canada, especially of the Upper Canada Provinces of the Dominion, have been described in glowing terms by Mr. Wells in an article entitled, 'How shall the Nation regain Prosperity?' contributed to the North American Review' in 1877. He says: North of Lake Erie and Ontario and the River St. Lawrence, east of Lake Huron, south of the 45th parallel, and included mainly within the present Dominion Province of Ontario, there is as fair a country

as exists on the North American continent; nearly as large in area as New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio combined, and equal, if not superior, as a whole, to these States in its agricultural capacity. It is the natural habitat on this continent of the combing-wool sheep, without a full, cheap, and reliable supply of the wool of which species the great worsted-manufacturing interest of the country cannot prosper, or, we should rather say, exist. It is the land where grows the finest barley, which the brewing interest of the United States must have if it ever expects to rival Great Britain in its present annual export of over 11,000,000 dollars worth of malt products. It raises and grazes the finest cattle, with qualities especially desirable to make good the deterioration of stock in other sections; and its climatic conditions, created by the encirclement of the Great Lakes, especially fit it to grow men. Such a country is one of the greatest gifts of Providence to the human race, better than bonanzas of silver, or rivers whose sands contain gold.'

Mr. Wells does not seek to persuade his fellow countrymen to annex this fertile region: he asks them to utilise its resources, to the mutual advantage of the United States and the colony, by the abolition of protective duties.

It is stated by Mr. Alfred Bateman that nearly twelve millions of acres were under crop in Canada in 1870-71, and five millions under pasture. No less than 90,000,000 bushels of corn and grain were grown. The Dominion possesses 2,500,000 head of cattle, and 3,000,000 sheep. The annual value of the butter,

cheese, and maple-sugar made in Canada has been estimated at 3,000,000l.; while the other agricultural products included 47,000,000 bushels of potatoes, besides hops, tobacco, and fruits.

The following remarks on the climate are taken from the Canadian official hand-book:

'If the climate of a country is to be measured by its productions, then Canada, either in the quality of her timber, grains, fruits, plants, and animals, not excepting man, must be accorded a front rank.

'Her extremes of cold, though of short duration, and her invaluable winter covering of snow, have given her an Arctic reputation-acquired in the past when the fur trade was her only export, and when the savage was "lord of the soil." Furs are suggestive of cold and snow, and these have obliterated from memory the heat of the Canadian summer, whereby the range of production is extended, in grains, from barley to maize in fruits, from apples to peaches, grapes, melons, nectarines, and apricots; in vegetables, from turnips, carrots, and cabbages, to the egg plant and tomatoes.

'Snow and ice, however objectionable they may be in other countries, are no drawback to the Canadian winter. To Canada they mean not only protection to her cultivated acres, almost as valuable as a covering of manure, but the conversion of whole areas, during several months in the year, to a surface upon which every man may make his own road, equal to a turnpike, in any direction, over swamp or field, lake or river, and on which millions of tons are annually transported at the minimum cost,-whereby employment is

afforded for man and horse when cultivation is arrested

by frost.

'Intensity of winter cold has little effect upon the agriculture of a country except the

beneficial one of

pulverising the soil where exposed. High spring and summer temperatures, with abundance of rain, secure the certain ripening of maize and the melon in Canada.

'On the other hand (for the continent of America), on the lines of latitude where frost and snow cease, malignant fevers commence, and in the tropical zones the trees become dwarfed by a rank growth of vegetation. In a country so extensive as Canada there is a great difference in climate on the same lines of latitude, which is due rather to longitude than to elevation above the sea. Like Europe, the western coast is the warmest, and for the same reason-warm winds and waters from the adjacent ocean.'

In addition to her agricultural resources, Canada possesses most productive fisheries. In a recent paper by Mr. Young we are informed that these fisheries give employment to two hundred thousand men, a thousand ships, and seventeen thousand smacks, manned by seven thousand sailors and twenty-six thousand fishermen. The importance of the fisheries is growing every year. The annual return from the fisheries increased from 1,320,000l. in 1870, to 2,240,000l. in 1874.

The mineral production of Canada is not unimportant. Nearly a million tons of coal have been raised in some years in Nova Scotia, and more than 150,000 tons were raised in Vancouver in 1877.

The number of persons in the receipt of wages in