| Minerals. | Quantity. | Value. | |
| Metallic— | |||
| Gold | oz. fine | 274,267 | £1,165,013 |
| Silver | ,, | 417,520 | 52,196 |
| Silver, lead and ore | ton | 441,447 | 2,441,356 |
| Lead, pig, &c. | ,, | 210 | 2,657 |
| Zinc spelter and concentrates | ,, | 103,532 | 221,155 |
| Tin ingots and ore | ,, | 1,957 | 226,110 |
| Copper ingots and ore | ,, | 8,592 | 527,403 |
| Antimony and ore | ,, | 388 | 5,221 |
| Bismuth | ,, | 55 | 20,763 |
| Wolfram | ,, | 86 | 7,361 |
| Scheelite | ,, | 138 | 10,122 |
| Molybdenite | ,, | 19 | 2,507 |
| Platinum | oz. | 398 | 825 |
| Non-metallic— | |||
| Coal | ton | 6,632,138 | 2,003,461 |
| Coke | ,, | 162,961 | 100,306 |
| Kerosene shale | ,, | 38,226 | 21,247 |
| Alunite | ,, | 2,702 | 6,750 |
| Limestone flux | ,, | 14,941 | 9,519 |
| Ironstone flux | ,, | 6,801 | 4,525 |
| Marble | . . | 2,420 | |
| Diamonds | carat | 6,354 | 3,745 |
| Opal | . . | 59,000 | |
| Sundry minerals | . . | 2,919 | |
| Total | £6,897,081 | ||
The value of gold won varies from year to year, but from 1894 to 1906 in only two years did it fall below £1,000,000. About one-fourth of the gold won is alluvial. The yield of gold from quartz mines was in 1904 11 dwt. 14 grs. per ton, which was somewhat below the average for the previous ten years. The Broken Hill silver lode is the largest as yet discovered; it varies in width from 10 ft. to 200 ft., and may be traced for several miles. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company owns the principal mine, and at Port Pirie in the neighbouring colony of South Australia erected a complete smelting plant; the problem of the recovery of the zinc contents of the ore having been satisfactorily solved, the company made extensive additions to the plant already erected, and in 1906 the manufacture of spelter was undertaken. From the commencement of mining operations on a large scale in 1885 to the end of 1905 the value of silver and lead ore won was £40,000,000. The production of tin rapidly declined after 1881, when the value of ore raised was £569,000: the production varies both with the price and the occurrence of rain, but the principal cause of the decreased production was the exhaustion of the shallow deposits of stream tin, from which most of the ore was obtained. The principal deposits of copper are in the central parts between the Macquarie, Bogan and Darling rivers. The copper lodes of New South Wales contain ores of a much higher grade than those of many well-known mines worked at a profit in other parts of the world, and, with a fair price for copper, the production largely increases. Iron is widely diffused, principally in the form of magnetite, brown haematite, limonite and bog iron. Coal mining is carried on in three districts. In the northern or Hunter river district there were 63 collieries, employing 10,500 men, and the quantity of coal raised was in 1904 about 4,100,000 tons; in the southern district there were fifteen collieries, employing 3100 men and raising 1,600,000 tons of coal. The western or mountain collieries were seventeen in number, employing 540 men and raising about 418,000 tons. About 52% of the coal obtained is exported. Kerosene shale (torbanite) is abundant and is systematically worked.
Manufacturing.—There are a large and rapidly increasing number of manufactories, but in 1905 only about 250 employed more than 50 hands. The following gives a statement of factory employment for eleven years:—
| Year. | No. of Establish- ments. |
Hands Employed. |
Value of Plant and Machinery. |
| 1895 | 2723 | 48,030 | £5,255,000 |
| 1900 | 3077 | 60,779 | 5,703,000 |
| 1905 | 3700 | 72,175 | 7,920,000 |
About 5·3% of the males and 10·6% of the females employed are under sixteen years; the total number of male employees in 1905 was 56,117, and of females, 16,058 About two-thirds of the hands are employed in Sydney and the adjacent district. The total, value of the articles produced in manufactories, and the increased value of materials after undergoing treatment, was £30,028,000 in 1905, of which £17,500,000 represented value of materials used and £600,000 the value of fuel: the total wages paid was £5,200,000.
Commerce.—During 1905, 2725 vessels entered New South Wales ports from places outside the state; their tonnage was 4,697,500; the value of goods imported was £29,424,008; and the value of exports was £36,757,002. The average value of imports per inhabitant was £20 and of exports £24, 17s. The bulk of the trade is carried on with the other Australian states; in 1905 the value of such trade was, imports, £14,938,885, and exports, £12,263,472; the British trade is also considerable, the imports direct from Great Britain being valued at £8,602,288 and the exports £10,222,422. With all British countries the trade was, imports, £25,989,399, and exports, £25,994,563 New South Wales maintains a large trade with foreign countries aggregating £3,434,609 imports and £10,762,439 exports. France, Germany, Belgium and the United States are the principal foreign countries with which the state trades.
Wool is the staple export, and represents, in most years, one-third the value of the exports. Gold coin and bullion form one of the principal items in the export list, but only a small portion of the export is of local production, the balance being Queensland and New Zealand gold sent to Sydney for coinage. The course of trade from 1880 to 1905 was as follows:—
| Year. | Imports. | Exports. |
| 1880 | £14,176,063 | £15,682,802 |
| 1885 | 23,737,461 | 16,750,107 |
| 1890 | 22,615,004 | 22,045,937 |
| 1895 | 15,992,415 | 21,934,735 |
| 1900 | 27,561,071 | 28,164,516 |
| 1905 | 29,424,008 | 36,757,002 |
The principal articles of export in 1905 were: Wool, £13,446,260; gold, £3,053,331; silver and concentrates, £2,407,142; lead, £1,072,858; butter, £817,820; coal, £1,565,602; copper, £1,280,599; bread stuffs, £1,345,589; leather and skins, £1,559,033; meats, £761,235; tallow, £464,330; timber, £353,265: tin, £466,049.
Banking.—The banks of issue number thirteen; their paid-up capital amounts to £13,918,000 and the capital and reserves to £19,319,000, but of this sum only about £9,000,000 is used in the state. On the 30th of June 1906 the coin and bullion in reserve amounted to £8,192,000 and the note circulation to £1,462,000. The banks had on deposit £23,325,730 bearing interest and £15,773,883 not bearing interest, representing a total of £39,100,000. The savings banks had on their books at the close of 1905 about 355,714 depositors, with £13,500,000 to their credit. This represents £9, 1s. 6d per inhabitant. The total deposits in all banks therefore amounted to £52,600,000 The progress from 1860 to 1905 was as follows:—
| Year. | Amount on Deposit. |
Average per Inhabitant. |
| £. s. d. | ||
| 1860 | £5,721,208 | 16 8 3 |
| 1870 | 7,044,464 | 14 2 6 |
| 1880 | 19,958,880 | 26 13 8 |
| 1890 | 43,390,141 | 38 13 6 |
| 1900 | 43,135,000 | 31 17 0 |
| 1905 | 52,600,000 | 34 17 6 |
Postal and Telegraph Service.—The postal business of 1905 was represented by the carriage of 102,292,888 letters and postcards, 44,599,104 newspapers and 23,077,094 parcels and books; the telegrams despatched numbered 3,837,962. To transact the postal business of the country, mail conveyances travelled 12,000,000 m. The income of the postal and telegraph department in 1905 was £1,065,618 and the expenditure £933,121, but there were some items of expenditure not included in the sum named, such as interest charges, &c., and cost of new buildings. The administration of the post office is under the commonwealth government.
Railways.—The railways are almost entirely in the hands of the state, for out of 3471 m. open in 1906 the state owned 3390 m. The capital expended on the state lines open for traffic was £43,626,000, of which sum £7,400,000 was expended on rolling stock and equipment and £36,226,000 on construction of roads, stations and permanent ways. The net earnings amounted in 1906 to £1,926,407, which represents a return of 4·41% upon the capital invested. The state pays, on an average, 3·69% for the money borrowed to construct the lines, and there is therefore a considerable surplus to the advantage of the revenue. The year 1906 was, however, a very excellent one as regards railway working, the operations of the ten previous years showing an average loss of about a quarter of 1%. (T. A. C.)
History
New South Wales was discovered by Captain Cook on board the “Endeavour,” on 20th April 1770. After he had observed the transit of Venus at Tahiti, he circumnavigated New Zealand and went in search of the eastern coast of the great continent whose western shores had long been known to the Dutch. He sighted the Australian coast at Early history.
