# Maury's New Elements of Geography for Primary and Intermediate Classes/Australia

AUSTRALIA.
LESSON LXIII.
1. Australia.—Let us sail from Madagascar across the Indian ocean and visit Australia. This is so large a body of land that we call it a continent. It is nearly the size of the United States.
A street in Melbourne, Victoria.
If we look at a globe, we shall see that Australia is on the other side of the world from us. For this reason, when it is night here it is day there.
Transporting wool, Australia.
Australia is different from our continent in another way. We are north of the equator. It is south. Because of this, when it is winter here it is summer there. Christmas day there comes in midsummer.
2. The Climate of Australia is generally hot. The eastern portion of the continent is the best watered and the most fertile. The interior is almost rainless, and much of it is an arid waste.
3. The Plants and Animals are very remarkable. Most of the plants are evergreens. Some of them shed bark instead of leaves.
The ferns grow to the size of trees, and nettles are sometimes forty feet in height.
4. The Natives of Australia are black-skinned, degraded savages. They are fast dying out.
5. The Commonwealth of Australia, a part of the British Empire, consists of five states and the island of Tasmania.
Australia is famous for its sheep, and produces more wool than any other part of the world.
Gold, copper, and tin are found in great abundance, and many of the settlers are miners.
The chief exports are wool, hides and gold.
The largest cities are Melbourne, the temporary capital of the Commonwealth; and Sydney.
Gathering the kauri gum in New Zealand.
A sheep ranch in New Zealand.
6. New Zealand also belongs to England. It is famed for its sheep, its forests, its flax and kauri (kow'-re) gum. The flax grows nearly twenty feet ​
MAP STUDIES
In what direction is Australia from Asia? In what direction is it from the United States?
Use the scale and measure the distance from Honolulu to Sydney. From Singapore to Melbourne.
What ocean is southwest of Australia? What ocean is east? What sea is off the east coast? What gulf is on the north?
What bight is on the south? (Bight means bay.)
Name the two important rivers of Australia. Where is Melbourne? Sydney? Brisbane? Adelaide?
What island is south of Australia? What group of islands is southeast?
What large island is north of Australia?
Where is Java? Where is Sumatra? What strait lies between them?
What large island is north of Java? What islands are northeast of Borneo?
What island is south of the Philippines? What islands are between New Guinea and the Philippines?
Where are the Ladrone islands?
Guam (gwahm), the largest of these islands, belongs to the United States.
Where are the Fiji islands? They belong to Great Britain.
​high. The gum is dug from the ground. It is used in making varnish. Sheep-raising and mining are leading occupations, as in Australia, .
7. Oceania.—The Pacific ocean is dotted with islands. Taken together they are called Oceania.
8. Coral Islands.—Many of these islands are made by the little creatures called coral polyps.
Honolulu, the Hawaiian capital, has been built by Americans, and looks like our cities.
They are very soft, and look like tiny drops of jelly.
They have something like bone inside of them, very small, but hard. These bony parts are built up into a great pile, one on top of the other, like so many very little bricks. Each polyp lays his little brick on top of the one below, and then he dies. His soft part is now washed away by the sea. His hard little brick remains in its place.
Another polyp now begins to build himself upon the bones of his dead friend, and so they go on and on, until, after a long, long time, the pile is so high that it reaches nearly to the top of the water. Sand and shells are wafted to it, and at length it becomes an island.
9. The Inhabitants of Oceania are dark-skinned. Some are Malays, others are Negroes. They are very tine swimmers and boatmen.
The bread-fruit is the principal food on many islands. When baked it is like bread.
10. Principal Islands.'—The largest islands of Oceania are near the continent of Asia, and are often called the East India Islands.
Java (jah'-vah) is the finest of them all. It belongs to the Dutch. It is one of the great coffee-yielding countries of the world.
This street in Manila shows queer houses with tile roofs. The country scene shows houses of natives. Notice the bamboo bridge, fence, and houses, and the banana tree growing wild.
Sumatra (soo-mah'-tra), Celebes (sel'-e-beez) and the Spice Islands are famed for cinnamon, nutmegs, and other spices; Borneo for gutta-percha; New Guinea for pearls.
Sumatra and Celebes are chiefly under the control of the New Netherlands. The Dutch and the English have possession of Borneo; and New Guinea is divided among the English, the Dutch, and the Germans.
Scene in Java.
The Philippines, famed for Manila hemp, formerly governed by Spain, now belong to the United States. Manila is the capital.
The Hawaiian Islands are now a territory of ​the United States. Most of the land is owned by Americans. The natives are civilized. There are schools and churches. The products of the islands are sugar, rice, and coffee. Honolulu is the capital.
For Recitation.—For what is Australia noted? What are the chief products of New Zealand? Name the chief exports of the East India islands. What islands in the Pacific belong to the United States?