The agriculturist feels keenly the need for more people on the land, but he stands with the trade unions in opposition to letting in swarms of coloured labour from the over-populated Orient.
The next process is making the blanks. This is done by steel punches which cut the metal into disks much as a cook cuts the dough in making biscuits. I stood beside this machine and heard it chop, chop, chop, as it punched out sovereigns at the rate of ninety to the minute, twenty-seven thousand dollars per hour.
Each blank is weighed to see that it has exactly the right weight of gold for a sovereign, and is then run through a coining press which stamps the image of the king upon it and at the same time mills the edges. All of this work is done with cold steel pressing upon the cold gold. The only heat after the melting is that which comes from the pressure caused by the enormous weight on the metal.
I have no doubt that Australia will be turning virgin gold into sovereigns for years and years to come, but its production of the precious metal is on the wane. The mines of Kalgoorlie are still paying, but those of Coolgardie are worked out. The annual production for the whole country is now only half that of Victoria in its best days, and is considerably below the best year’s output in Queensland and Western Australia. It may be, though, that more Golden Miles lie hidden under the vast unprospected areas of the continent.
CHAPTER XVI
A WHITE WORKERS’ CONTINENT
THE workers’ continent—and for white men only!
That is how these people speak of Australia. They have tried to make it the paradise of the labourer, and are determined to keep out all members of the coloured races—black, brown, or yellow—who might wish to share it with them. All sorts of schemes have been devised for the benefit of the wage-workers, most of them intended, as far as I can see, to help them sell the least work for the most money.
Australia is the land of the labour union. No other country is so thoroughly unionized, and nowhere else does organized labour go so far toward running both the government and business. There are unions of sheep shearers and factory workers; unions of rabbit trappers and harness makers; there are unions for occupations I hardly knew existed. Six hundred thousand people, or one out of every nine of the population, belong to labour unions of one kind or another.