CONTENTS.

PAGE

STATISTICAL SUmmary of VicTORIA (Folding sheet No. 1).

SUMMARY OF AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS (Folding sheet No. 2).

VI.-INTERCHANGE ...

...

...

...

DIGEST OF STATISTICS OF VICTORIA, 1877-8.

PART I.-BLUE BOOK.

events.

1. The following are the dates of some of the principal events con- Principal nected with the discovery and early history of Victoria* :

1770. April

1798. June

19th.-Victorian land first discovered by Capt. James Cook, R.N.-
(Point Hicks, believed to be either the present Cape
Conran or Cape Everard in Gippsland).

4th.-Western Port discovered and entered by Surgeon George
Bass, R.N.

Nov. and Dec.-The existence of a strait between Australia and Tasmania
proved by Flinders and Bass, who sailed right round the
latter island in the sloop Norfolk.

1802. January 15th.-Port Phillip Bay discovered by Acting Lieutenant John

April

Murray, R.N.

26th.-Port Phillip Bay entered and examined by Commander
Matthew Flinders, R.N., who was not aware it had been
previously discovered by Murray.

December.

-Port Phillip Bay surveyed and the Yarra and Saltwater
Rivers discovered by Charles Grimes, Surveyor-General of
New South Wales, and party.

1803. October 7th.-Attempt to colonise Port Phillip by Colonel Collins, in
charge of a party of convicts.

1804. January 27th.-Port Phillip abandoned by Collins as unfit for settlement. 16th.-Hume and Hovell arrived at Corio Bay, having travelled overland from Sydney.

1824. Dec.

1834. Nov.

1835. May

19th.-Permanent settlement founded at Portland Bay by the
Messrs. Henty.

29th.-John Batman arrived in Port Phillip and made a treaty with
the natives for a grant of 600,000 acres of land.

August 28th.-John Pascoe Fawkner's party sailed up the Yarra in the
Enterprise and founded Melbourne. (Fawkner followed
shortly after, and landed on the 18th October.)

1836. April to Oct.-Major (afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel Sir) Thomas Living

stone Mitchell made extensive explorations in the Port
Phillip District, the western portion of which he named
Australia Felix.

29th.-Regular Government established under Captain Lonsdale,

who was sent from Sydney to act as Resident Magistrate. 2nd.-Governor Sir Richard Bourke arrived from Sydney and gave the name of Melbourne to the metropolis of the new settlement.

* For a detailed account of the early history of Victoria, see Victorian Year-Book, 1874,

A

1851. July

1st.-Port Phillip separated from New South Wales and erected into an independent colony under the name of Victoria.

July and Aug.-Discovery of gold in Victoria.

1854. November.

1855.

Governors.

-Riots on Ballarat.

December.)

(Eureka Stockade taken on the 2nd

23rd.-New Constitution proclaimed in Victoria.

2. Subjoined is a list of the Governors and Acting-Governors of Victoria, with the dates of their assumption of and retirement from office:

The Right Honorable John Henry 15th August 1866 ... 2nd March 1873
Thomas Viscount Canterbury, K.C.B.

Duration of Governorships.

Interregnum in Victoria.

3. Since Victoria has been an independent colony, the average time during which the Governors of Victoria, prior to Sir. G. F. Bowen, not including the Acting-Governors, have held office has been about four years.

4. During the twelve days between the 19th March and the 31st March 1873, the former being the day on which Sir W. F. Stawell left the colony, and the latter that on which Sir G. F. Bowen arrived, there was neither Governor nor Acting-Governor in Victoria.

At the first of these dates Mr. La Trobe assumed the office of Superintendent of Port Phillip; at the second, he became Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria.

+ Sir Charles Hotham died at this date.

Sir G. F. Bowen absent on leave from the 31st December 1874 to the 14th January 1876.