AUSTRALIA, We have received from Mr. R. B. Levien, Commercial Agent for the State of Victoria, loment to the "Australasian," containing a large number of excellent illustrations and articles showing the opportunities offered to the public under the new Closer Settlement Act. Mr. Levien has a large supply of these supplements available on application and is prepared to give all information required.
As the Australian Government has now taken in hand the matter of immigration and is disposed to assist intending settlers in a reasonable manner, there is no doubt that advantage will be taken of the favourable terma offered. Australian Governments of the past have appeared very indifferent to the subject of settlement. In the early pioneering days acreage was not 'a matter calling for strict supervision, and where desirable Settlers were concerned the areas of holdings were practically unrestricted. Land was frequently given to Missions and individ nals in great government grants. The largest tracts of country, however, were taken as improvement and pre-eruptive leases, at a nominal rental, for from twenty to fifty years, sometimes on perpetual leasehold. In this connexion the early Governments, while anxious to comply with the applications of th ed population then but fringing the coast of the great island continent, acted in a manner that has often been condemned, but is now seen to have been in the best interests of Inter generations,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.