Attorney-General.—Hon. George Briscoe Kerferd. Minister of Mines and Agriculture.-Hon. Jonas Felix Levien. Solicitor-General and Commissioner of Public Works and Water Supply.-Hon. Alfred Deakin. Minister of Lands.-Hon. Albert Lee Tucker. Commissioner of Trade and Customs.-Hon. George David Langridge. Minister of Railways and of Public Instruction.-Hon. Duncan Gillies. Minister of Defence.-Hon. Frederick Thomas Sargood. Hon. Nathaniel Thornley, M.L.C., without office. The Premier and Chief Secretary have each a salary of 1,8007., and the other ministers from 1,400l. to 1,6501. At least four out of the ten ministers must be members of either the Legislative Council or the Assembly. For purposes of local administration the colony is divided into urban and rural municipalities. The former ought not to be of a greater area than 9 square miles, and in being constituted must contain at least 300 householders. The latter called shires are portions of country, of undefined extent, containing rateable property capable of yielding a revenue of 500l. In 1883 there were 59 urban and 119 rural municipalities, ths of the whole area of the Colony being included within their limits. A large and powerful torpedo boat and two gunboats were launched in England in 1883 for the defence of the colony, while another two torpedo boats are being built. There are besides an ironclad, the Cerberus, of 2,100 tons, and a wooden vessel, the Nelson, with heavy armament and engines of 500 horse-power. The strength of the naval force was 336 officers and men in 1883. The approaches to Melbourne are protected by batteries. The colony possesses a volunteer force consisting of cavalry, artillery, rifles, engineers, torpedo and signal corps. The strength of the force in 1882 was 3,001 officers and men. There are a military and a naval commissioner appointed by the Home Government at the expense of the Colony. In 1883-4, 80,110l. were spent on military and naval defences, and 188,000l. in the estimates of 1883-4. The land and naval forces are (1884) being remodelled, but no particulars are as yet available. Church and Education. There is no State Church in Victoria, and no State assistance has been given to religion since 1875. Prior to that period a sum of 50,0001. had been set apart annually out of the general revenue for the advancement of the Christian religion in Victoria, and this amount had been distributed proportionately amongst the various denominations. At the date of the last census about 73 per cent. of the population were Protestants, 24 per cent. were Roman Catholics, and a half per cent. were Jews. The following are the numbers of each of the principal divisions:--Episcopalians, 311,291; Presbyterians, 132,591; Methodists, 108,393; other Protestants, 66,117; Roman Catholics, 197,157; Jews, 4,330; Pagans (principally Chinese), 11,159; others (including unspecified), 31,308. Educational establishments in Victoria are of three kinds, viz., the University with its two affiliated colleges, State schools, and private schools. The Melbourne University was established under a special Act of the Victorian Legislature, which was assented to on January 22, 1853, and the building was opened on October 3, 1855. The Act, which was amended in 1880, provides for its endowment by the payment of 9,000l. annually out of the general revenue. It is both an examining and a teaching body, and in 1859 received a Royal Charter empowering it to grant degrees in all faculties except divinity. Affiliated to the University are two colleges-Trinity and Ormond-in connection with the Church of England and Presbyterian Church respectively. From the opening of the University to the end of 1883, 1,911 students matriculated, and 860 degrees were conferred. In 1883 the students who matriculated numbered 128, the graduates numbered 73, and there were 385 students attending lectures. The present system of public instruction, which has been in existence since January 1, 1873, is strictly secular; it is compulsory in the case of children between the ages of 6 and 15, with certain exceptions, and it is free, no fees being charged for teaching the subjects comprised in the ordinary course of instruction. In 1882 there were 1,762 State schools, with a total enrolment of 222,945 scholars, instructed by 4,162 teachers. The average attendance was 118,279, or 53 per cent. of the numbers on the roll. It was estimated that, in 1881, about 96 per cent. of the children at school age living in the colony were being educated during some portion of the year, and that 80 per cent. of these were at the State schools. Amongst persons aged 15 years and upwards at the census of 1881, 92 per cent. were able to read and write, and only 3 per cent. were entirely illiterate. In 1882-3 the total cost of public instruction, &c., was 598,9707. Secondary education is entirely under the control either of private persons or proprietary bodies, usually connected with some religious denomination. No State assistance has been given to such bodies of late years, but formerly a few of the principal ones received money and grants of land from the Government. There were, in 1884, 670 private schools in Victoria, with 1,638 teachers and attended by 35,773 scholars. These numbers include 182 schools, 555 teachers, and 21,019 scholars in connection with the Roman Catholic denomination, the members of which do not as a rule avail themselves of the free education afforded by the State. Revenue, Expenditure, and Debt. The revenue of Victoria may be divided into three heads, viz., that derived from taxation, land revenue, public works (chiefly railways and water supply). Taxation consists chiefly of customs and excise duties, with an annual revenue of 1 millions sterling; a land tax yielding 120,000l.; and probate and succession duties, duties on bank notes, and other stamp duties, over 200,000l.; also revenue from port and harbour dues, and business licenses. In 1882-3 the total amount raised by taxation was 2,334,255l., which gives a proportion of 21. 11s. 7d. per head of the population. The revenue and expenditure of the colony in each of the five financial years, ending June 30, from 1880 to 1884, were as follows: Of the revenue in 1883-4, 1,769,1077. came from customs, 446,3477. from excise and inland revenue, 719,3127. from land, 2,227,5771. from public works, 216,6797. from posts and telegraphs. The revenue for 1884-5 is estimated (including balance and recoups), at 5,963,7207., and the expenditure at 6,257,8811. Victoria has a debt, incurred in the construction of public works, which amounted at the end of June 1884, to 28,325,1127. Of this sum, the greater part was borrowed for the construction of railways, and the rest for water supply, docks, State school buildings, and other public works. The estimated total value of the rateable property of the colony in 1883 was 95,610,9597., and the annual value 7,692,7067. Area and Population. The colony, first settled in 1835, formed for a time a portion of New South Wales, bearing the name of the Port Phillip district. It was erected in 1851-by Imperial Act of Parliament, 13 and 14 Victoria, cap. 59-into a separate colony, and called Victoria. The colony has an area of 87,884 square miles, or 56,245,760 acres, about 4th part of the whole area of Australia. The colony is divided into 37 counties, varying in area from 109 to 236,778 square miles. The growth of the population, as shown by the census of ten successive periods, is exhibited in the following table: The following table gives a summary of the population of Victoria, according to the census taken on April 3, 1881 :— During the last decade there has been a large decrease in the number of the Chinese and aborigines. The following are the births, deaths, and marriages in the colony for the five years from 1879-83: : In 1883, 1,292 births or 4.7 per cent. of the whole were illegitimate. The progress of population of the colony since its establishment was greatly aided by immigration, which, however, declined in recent years, on the nearly complete withdrawal of the system of 'assisted immigration, which reached its highest point in 1863, when 8,622 persons-3,213 males and 5,409 females-were brought into the colony at the expense partly or wholly of the State. In the 37 years from 1838 to the end of 1874, more than 167,000 immigrants received assistance from the public funds for defraying their passage to the colony. The total immigration into and emigration from the colony of Victoria was as follows in each of the five years from 1879 to 1883 : -- At the date of the last census 96 per cent. of the population were British subjects by birth; native Victorians numbered 499,199, or 58 per cent. of the population; natives of the Australian colonies, 39,861; of England and Wales, 147,453; of Ireland, 86,733; of Scotland, 48,153. Of the total population in 1881, 108,919 were directly engaged in agriculture; in pastoral pursuits, 13,731; commercial, 23,559; mining, 36,066; in 'entertaining or clothing,' 41,712; contractors, artisans and mechanics, 46,883; domestic servants, 24,723; 'public business,' 9,901. About one-half of the total population of Victoria live in towns. In 1871 the town population numbered 361,356, and in 1881, 434,467. Inclusive of the suburbs the populations of the principal towns were as follows in 1881 ::- Melbourne, with suburbs, 282,947 (December 1883, 304,409), nearly one-third of the population of the colony; Ballarat, 41,087; Sandhurst, 38,420; Geelong, 20,682; Castlemaine, 8,600. The average density of the population was 9.8 per square mile in 1881. In 1883, 662 persons were tried for serious crimes and 350 were convicted. Trade and Commerce. The total values of the imports and exports of Victoria, including bullion and specie, in each of the five years from 1879 to 1883, were as follows: |