As an illustration, on the other side, of what can be done and is being done to make labour a worthy thing, so far as agriculture is concerned, it may be well to describe some developments to which Australia is committed. At Ballarat we saw, in full operation, the work of the Agricultural High School. It was a perfect revelation to us. Here, for the first time, a new type of agriculturist is being produced. The old type, both at home and here, is well known, strong, hard-working, dogged, and not too well educated. The new type is entirely different from the old. This high school has been established by the Director of Education for the purpose of giving a broad and liberal education to the young men and women in whose hands the cultivation of the soil rests. It is an experimental college, but its success is already so striking that similar institutions will certainly spring up all over the Commonwealth. It claims to be the best-equipped school for experts in Victoria. The pile of buildings, which cost £13,000, is very imposing, and beautifully situated on the outskirts of the city. It is surrounded by eighty acres of land, used for experiments, as well as for the practical purpose of supplying the institution with vegetables. The whole land is carefully mapped out into certain lengths, upon each of which a trial is made of the value of various phosphates and manures. Thus, before a student passes in the work of practical agriculture, he knows exactly what is the fertilising power of every manure in the market. He also knows the cost of production; hence he can tell immediately whether or not his land will pay at a certain price.
The staff of teachers includes seven Masters of Arts, a Doctor of Philosophy, two Bachelors of Arts, and others. The curriculum is most thorough. The one idea of the institution is to produce intelligent students who can unite science to labour. The course of training includes carpentry, book-keeping, commercial correspondence, history, botany, art, chemistry, mathematics, languages, and cooking. Think of the old-fashioned farmer and his wife with these accomplishments! We watched the students at work, and a healthier or more intelligent body of maidens and youths it would be impossible to find. The girls, no matter what their station, take their turn in cookery. Each day the kitchen is served by these young ladies, who cook the food, serve the meals, and then wash up. There are no servants to do the dirtier work. Everything is done by the young ladies themselves. We had the honour of lunching with the director and some of his staff. The meal served to us was, he assured me, just the ordinary meal of the establishment. Not a single extra dish had been created in honour of the visitors. It was the daily sixpenny meal. We had for sixpence five courses, including tomato soup, beautifully cooked fish, meat, and vegetables, a tasty pudding, cheese, and coffee.
This combination of the literary with the practical is a splendid idea. No student leaves the institution with only theoretical knowledge.
It ought to be said that the land upon which the experiments are made is exceedingly poor, and this is its great advantage for purposes of education. No poorer land is likely to be bought by these students when they set up for themselves. They know, therefore, how to make the best of the worst. Science pitted against a poor soil has conquered. The introduction of artificial manures has produced the most surprising results. The buildings of the institution are modern in every respect, the ventilation and the lighting being perfect.
In the matter of agricultural education, as shown in the Ballarat High School, Victoria is ahead of the Old Country. Is it not possible to adopt the best features of this school and apply them to the conditions in the Old Land? The soil is the radical and the burning question at home. The congestion of England in her towns and cities can only be relieved as the rural life of the country is revived. The poorest soil can be made productive by the use of scientific methods. The Scottish delegation to Australia were greatly impressed by what they saw at Ballarat. May not the mother learn a little from her daughter? The redemption of the land in England and Ireland would solve many of the social difficulties at home.
CHAPTER XXVII
AUSTRALIAN POLITICS
I have no intention of discussing Australian politics. All that I shall attempt is a little portraiture, without the slightest “touching up.” In 1910 Labour was triumphant at the elections. Looking through the list of triumphant candidates, I observe there were two labourers, a bricklayer, five miners, an engine-driver, an engine-fitter, a plumber, two farmers, a hatter, a traveller, a tailor, a pattern-maker, a quarryman, an orchardist, a watchmaker, a physician, an agent, two barristers, and three journalists. Was there ever such a Parliament as that? Of “middle-class” men there are very few; of so-called gentlemen scarcely any.
In 1912 the Liberals were returned to power in Victoria. “Liberal” in Australia is the equivalent of quasi-Conservative in England. There is really no “Liberal” party in the English sense of the word. The members of this party in Australia are Protectionists. The “Conservatives” are Free Traders, and also upholders of the “classes.” This is by way of explanation. An Englishman does not easily or rapidly disentangle the political threads in this new country. They are much more complex than at home. The old English “Radical” party is represented here by the Labour party, which exceeds in its demands the programme of the Birmingham and Bradlaugh schools of the ’eighties.
The chief interest of the 1912 elections lay in the fact that for the first time the principles of preferential voting were put into practice. And it must be admitted that the experiment, with one exception, proved a great success. It was an experiment which might with great advantage be tried in England. In Australia, as in England, three-cornered contests work much harm and most manifest injustice. The introduction of a third party in an election has had the effect of splitting votes, and of returning to Parliament one whom the majority of the people would not and did not vote for. Preferential voting removes this anomaly—this injustice. For the benefit of any who do not understand its working, I may be permitted to explain the method. Three candidates offer themselves for election. Of these only one may represent the constituency. The three, we will suppose, represent only two interests, but for reasons of vanity or gain, in place of a single issue between two opponents, one of the interests is divided between two persons, each of whom has his advocates. Under the old system, as I have said, this rivalry was often fatal to the interests of the majority of the electors. While two quarrelled over the dainty morsel, the third, and least desirable, made off with it. But under preferential voting the electors are compelled to vote, in the order of their preference, for all three candidates. Unless they do this the voting-paper is rendered null and void. If one of the candidates secures an absolute majority over the other two—that is, if against his name the figure 1 predominates in numbers more than equal to 2 and 3 together—No. 1 is at once declared elected. But if No. 1 on the list has only a relative majority—that is, if Nos. 2 and 3 together outnumber him—then the votes given to No. 3, the last on the list, are taken from him and divided, in the order of preference, between Nos. 1 and 2. It may happen that the position of No. 1 is thereby so strengthened that he gains an absolute majority, in which case he is declared elected. Or it may happen, as in one case it did, that in the order of preference the votes taken from No. 3 and added to No. 2 give to the last-named the absolute majority, in which case he is declared elected. All parties are agreed that the system has worked excellently in the last election. The actual will of the majority of the electors has triumphed. In this matter, as in the other matter of voting by post, the Old Country has something to learn from Australia.