The tendency to merge large firms into limited liability companies, which has extended lately from America to England, has also been felt in Australia, though not to the same extent as in New Zealand.  In certain classes of business these come into competition with the smaller banks, but each, as a rule, runs hand in glove with a large bank, undertaking certain classes of loans and supplementing the bank’s business.  They buy wool and wheat freely in Melbourne, hold auction sales there, sell on commission in England, advance upon wool on the sheep’s back and standing crops onwards; in short, merit their usual description of loan, mercantile, and agency houses.  Mortgage and land investment companies are another class which has been springing up of late.  One company has been started professedly to deal solely with wheat:  several already exist which make wool their only concern.  Besides these, there are the usual run of mining companies, which spring up epidemically and mostly have their headquarters in Victoria.  It is needless to say, that in these companies it is a case of neck or nothing.

Land is naturally the safest investment of any that offer themselves in the colonies.  Although every ten years or so there comes to each colony a period of intense speculation in land, with a consequent reaction, it is a generally accepted maxim, that ’you cannot go far wrong in buying land.’  There is always the chance of making 50 to 100 per cent. in the year by a land purchase, and at the worst you will get 10 to 20 per cent. per annum, if you can only afford to tide over one, or at most two bad years.

On first-class mortgages the rate of interest varies from 6 1/2 to 8 per cent. for large amounts.  For small amounts 8 per cent. is always obtainable by a man who keeps his eyes open.  But, beyond this absolutely secure class of investments, one thousand-and-one small chances of making large profits with little risk occur to every man who has got a few hundreds; and if he fails to turn them to account he will have nothing but himself to blame.

In the early days there was of course no distinction between wholesale and retail business, and in country towns the largest firms still keep stores where you can buy sixpennyworth of anything you want.  Even in the towns the distinction is not firmly established, and many of the wealthiest importers still keep shops.  Nor are the trades specialized to anything like the same extent as at home; though, in wholesale trade, they are becoming more so every day.  Nearly the whole of the extra-Australian trade is still with England—­chiefly London—­though there is a small import trade with America and China, and export to India and the Cape.  The French and Germans are both making strenuous efforts to establish a market here, and the Germans especially are succeeding.  A great deal of business has been done of late by agents working on commission for English manufacturers; but most of the larger importers have their buyers in England.  The tendency, however, is towards buying in Australia, although it is opposed by the large wholesale importers who are injured by closer connection between manufacturers and small buyers.