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Show Hughes. The council of -this institute comprises sixteen members, including university professors and some of the biggest practical men in their respective respec-tive lines. These are giving their time freely to the study of problems which confront the Australian manufacturer, pastoralist and agriculturist; and under their direction the scientific resources of all the universities and of private experimentalists, backed by government funds, have been organized. By this council many raw materials of all kinds have been tested with a view to ascertaining whether or not they are of industrial value. For example, ex-ample, a considerable number of Australian Aus-tralian plants have been treated for their pulping qualities. In some instances in-stances valuable results have been obtained. ob-tained. It has been found that a good grade of paper can be made from the eucalyptus. Naturally, many of the investigations in-vestigations have produced negative results, re-sults, but these, too, have been beneficial, benefi-cial, as they have exploded wildcat ideas and obviated fruitless and expensive expen-sive work in tho future. With the exception of a few specialized special-ized classes of machinery, every bit of iron that can be made in Australia is either being made there or plans for its production are under way. Tha) council takes tho view that quantity output should be kept to the front in the effort to stimulate successful manufacturing. manu-facturing. That is a feature which, bs-fore bs-fore the war, had not been conspicuous, either in the minds of tho Australian legislators or manufacturers. Among other aims, it is hoped that the woolen industry will be developed so that there will be exported more manufactured goods and not so much "wool in the grease. ' ' The commonwealth statistician recently re-cently estimated that in the year 2000 the population of Australia, at the present pres-ent rate of increase, would number 1S.S24,000. Long before that year, writes the Melbourne correspondent, the population should be trebled, but that could not be achieved merely bv rural development. Intense land settlement settle-ment is largely dependent upon home consumption. The dangers to Australia of a small population are three-fold: First, Australia might have to defend the country; second, it might have to show its right to hold it; and, third, it has to bear the war burden which the community has undertaken. The importation during the first eignt months of this year amounted to 30'"',-000,000. 30'"',-000,000. The estimate for the whole year is $500,000,000. That would be tho largest bill Australia ever paid in one year to importers of fotvign manu- faMures, and murh more than the cnun-try cnun-try should pay to other nations if it produces iti own poods. In view of the rapid forward strides already noted, Australia seems bent upon wiping out its adverse balance with foreign countries; and if the paec set during the war and since is maintained, main-tained, the great land t "the other side of the globe" will soon rank among the independent nations of the world. AUSTRALIA'S PROGRESS. Bat for the trr!ble Joss of lifo and the ma! mini? of enormous numbers on the battlefields of Kurope, Australia could w?!l regard the war fti one of the t greatest benefits the continent has ever I enjoyed. Tho sNcrn necessities of wartime war-time proved to Australians, as it did to Americana and to the people of many other nations, that their own eountrifH contained resources all sufficient for their 7)Ced3. As a fact, AustraJia developed de-veloped industrially during the war nn nhe never before dreamed of developing develop-ing in so relatively short a period of time. An illuminating review of fhl remarkable re-markable advancement iu Australia in respect of manufacturing is contained in a ltttr from Melbourne nnd published pub-lished in the New York Evening Fdft The writer says that five years ago Australia was depeni-n M irnpnrts for many of the eentiala of civilization. The war, with Its effect on Slipping) threw tho country on its own resources and compelled it to produce what was needed or ko without. The extent to which Australian manufacturers rose to the emeryrncy has astonished the world, nnd foreign countries which formerly exported immense quantitie of manufactured manu-factured goods to the Antipodes are likely to find their pre-war markets largely monopolized by local products. This Is particularly true of tUftrlal material, machinery, hardware, motor car parts, chemical, priiht and dye, and many other item. The development, of Anst i .'ili:ri indti frte i being largely assisted ,y Hie fnatltutai of Heience and Industry, tnbliah'd by the prime minister, W. M. |