Evening star., 1924-03-16
TASMANIA REPLICA
OF ENGLISH. SCENERY
Extends South to- Range Compare
BILE to That of Boston
in North.
NATIVES HAVE VANISHED
Were Worlds Most Primitive Peo-
pie When Found.

Tasmania. one of the countries TO
appear most recently i'll cablegrams
as experiencing earthquake shocks. is
the subject of the following bulletin
from the headquarters here of the
National Geographic Society:
known affectionately as Little
Tassy' and "Australia's Little Sister,
Tasmania, an island just $50 miles
south of that continent, is the Rhode
Island OF the Australian common
wealth." says the bulletin. But
though it is the smallest of the prov
inces that make up Australians fedora
lion, it is of fair size, having more
than twenty times the area of our
own smallest state. Its $4,000 square
miles give it a size slightly greater
than West Virginia
Gives Cool Climate.
There was a tendency among the
people of the mainland to consider
Tasmania of small account when the
political battles for the formati of
the Australian commonwealth were
being fought out, and there was like
hhood at times that the island would
isolated somewhat beyond the 150-
mile Bass Strait, dubbed the Aus
tralians other siders.' Tasmania was
included, however. and promises to be
which it is a part. Mainland Aus
tralia's farthest projection toward the
pole carries 1t only into a latitude
corresponding to Washington, Il. c.
Tasmania, reaching to position COM
parable to that of Boston and Buffalo,
adds land of cool climate needed
to round out the predominantly tropi-
cal and Semi-tropical mainland.
Broad Belt OF Soil.
The island is largely highland, but
has relatively broad belt Of rich
brown soil on the northern border
closest to Australia. There potatoes
and other vegetables flourish and are
and sydney. The most spectacular
agricultural development, however,
has been in apple. growing. 1t was
found that the region around Hobart,
fection. Now great orchards cover
the countryside, and more than
100000 bushels of apples are shipped
yearly to Australia, Great Britain. the
European continent and even Africa.
Potential Water Power.
One other important contribution
which Tasmania makes which is lack
ing somewhat on the mainland is
water power and potential water
Ocean blow a tremendous amount of
moisture to the highlands of western
Tasmania, and the rivers of that
region, though not long. carry a huge
cipitation is in the form of snow
which blankets the mountains and
melts slowly far into the summer.
Already some waterpower has been
developed and there are plans for
more extensive development Some
OF the power is oprating woolen mills
for the utilization of Tasmania and
Australian wool, and this industry is
growing steadily.
''Hravy forests grow in Tasmania,
most of the trees being of Australian
types. There are some, however, un-
like those of Australia, which are
exactly like trees growing in TERRA
del Fuego. the southernmost tip of
South Americas fact that has made
biologists wonder: The animals are
marsupialS.
when Tasmania was discovered,
in 1912, by Dutch navigator, Tas-
Land. n name which stuck to it for
several centuries. The British hur-
riedly established the first settlement
on the island in 1903 for fear the
French were about to colonize II.
Disappearance of Natives.
The original inhabitants of Tas-
mania were black and woolly-haired,
but differed from the Australian abo-
rigines. They are said to have been
the most primitive people of modern
times, having the DEVELOPMENT of men
Of the stone age. Only about 1000
strong in 1903, they rapidly disap-
peared. Their going constitutes one
of the most tragic chapters in the
history of the white settlement of new
lands.
Like Australia, Tasmania suffered
in the early years of it's settlement
from the blight of convict trans
portation. Its first settlement was a
penal colony, and for number of
years only convicts and their guards
made up it's population. Free settlers
came in also, but shipload after ship
load of felons and robbers. horse
thieves and burglars were dumped
among them until 1853, when the
British government was induced to
abandon that method of disposing of
its criminals.
Replica of Old England.
Naturally Tasmania in the early
days, with such human material was
an inferno. Many convicts escaped
to the back country. They became
bush rangers unprincipaled thugs,
who. operating in bands, attacked the
settlers. robbed them, and killed their
victims like wild beasts. Their brutal
treatment of the natives aroused their
enmtty against the whites, and they,
TOO, attacked the settlements. This
led to retaliation in which the blacks
were practically exterminated The
few survivors were placed on a res
ervation in 1882. but they did not
thrive, and the last full blooded ma
tive died in 1876, Only a few half
SootSo iSiiiali eoudS. fAltST the
tives were gotten out of the way, the
bush rarrS>rS were rounded up and
executed.
- ''Purged of its unruly clements by
the elimination of the blacks and the
bush rangers and by the exodus of
many ex-convicts to the Australian
gold fields, Tasmania settled down to
a quiet life in which today one can
find no traces of the hectic pioneer
ing days. The inhabitants are almost
entirely of British and Irish stock
born in the island. This fact, to-
gether with the cool climate and the
tlourishing crops of Europe, make
Tasmania more truly replica of old
England than any other British
colony"
AcKc &En nm nAaAANro