and when
they are sent home, after two years' absence, to their palms and coral
shores, it is in full costume, generally in excellent spirits, and
always more or less civilised. Sometimes, poor fellows, they are
stripped and plundered by their naked relatives, but at any rate they
help, by what they have learnt, to improve the style of life in those
native groves, so sunny but so full of superstition and barbarous rites.

#11. Present State of the Colony.#--In 1868 Sir George Bowen was sent to
govern New Zealand, and Governor Blackall took charge of affairs in
Queensland. He was a man of fine talents, and amiable character, and was
greatly respected by the colonists; but he died not long after his
arrival, and was succeeded by the Marquis of Normanby, who, in his turn,
was succeeded, in 1874, by Mr. Cairns. Sir Arthur Kennedy, in 1877, Sir
Anthony Musgrave, in 1883, Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer, in 1888, and
General Sir H. Wylie Norman bring the list of Governors to the present
year (1894).

Queensland possesses magnificent resources, which have only recently
been made known, and are now in process of development. Her exports of
gold exceed two million pounds a year; she produces large quantities of
tin, copper, silver, and other minerals. The wool clipped from her sheep
exceeds one million four hundred thousand pounds in annual value; and
her total exports, including cotton, sugar, and other tropical
productions, amount to about six million pounds per annum. The
population is now about half a million, and immigrants continue to
arrive at the rate of about sixteen thousand a year. Though the youngest
of the Australian colonies, Queensland now ranks fourth on the list, and
appears to have a most promising future before her. Her cotton industry
has almost vanished, and her sugar plantations have passed through
troublous times, but there seem to be good hopes for them in the future.
However, it will be in the raising of sheep and of cattle, as well as in
gold-mining, that the colony will have to look for her most permanent
resources. She has now nearly twenty million sheep and six million
cattle, and sends wool, tallow, hides, and frozen meat to England, while
she supplies prime bullocks for the Melbourne Market.

#12. The Aborigines.#--Australian history practically begins with the
arrival of the white man, for before that time, though tribe fought with
tribe and there were many doings of savage men, there is nothing th