ualled value for ship-building, railway ties, and dock and
harbour construction. That the Australians are fully alive to the
importance of developing their foreign trade is seen in the efforts
they have made to provide facilities for bringing their products to
ocean ports. There are 11,980 miles of railway, almost every mile of
which has been built by the governments. This is one mile of railway
for every 300 inhabitants, as against one mile for every 400
inhabitants in the United States. These railways run wholly to and
from the seaboard. There are no manufacturing towns to be catered to.
Australian trade consists wholly in exchanging home-raised natural
products for imported manufactures. Equally remarkable with the
railroad enterprise of the Australians is their enterprise in
telegraphic construction and the establishment of cable
communications. For example, a telegraph line 2000 miles long, running
across the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin, has been built by
the province of South Australia so as to connect with a cable from
Port Darwin to Java, Singapore, etc., and thus with Europe and
America. For at least 1500 miles this telegraph line runs through one
of the most desolate and inaccessible regions in the world.

XI. THE TRADE FEATURES OF SOUTH AMERICA

SOUTH AMERICA, A FERTILE CONTINENT WITH DRAWBACKS

South America is an immense but very fertile continent, whose natural
resources are as yet scarcely begun to be utilised. Though not so
large as North America, it has a far greater area of productive
soil--and, indeed, much of its soil is quite unsurpassed in fertility.
It suffers, however, from two great drawbacks. 1. A great portion of
its area (four fifths) lies within the torrid zone. In the low coast
regions of this torrid area, and also in the low forest regions
watered by the great flat rivers of the interior, the climate is for
the most part unendurable to white men. 2. South America has been
unfortunate in its settlement and colonisation. Until in recent years
colonisation as understood in Anglo-Saxon communities has scarcely
been attempted in South America at all. All the earlier immigrations
from the Old World were prompted by the thought of getting gold and
silver and precious stones--if need were by the spoliation and
enslavery of the natives. Only a small proportion of the
population--not more than a quarter of the whole--consists of whites,
and these are principally from Spain and Portug