The importance of political safeguards is accentuated not only by the accelerated movement in the direction of constitutional change, but by the increasing belief in the efficacy of State control and state interference. During the session of 1896 the Government brought forward measures dealing with the conservation of water, the public health, adulteration, and the regulation of coal mines and of factories and workshops, the passage of which would necessitate a considerable increase in the number of State officials; and the Labour Party, the transference of whose support would place the Ministry in danger of defeat, have shown, by their votes in the past, their conviction that all new public works which are in the nature of a monopoly, should be constructed and owned by the State.
The scope of my inquiries in New South Wales led me in directions which have caused me to emphasise the darker sides of political life; but I wish to guard against the inference that similar shadows could not have been found elsewhere, and have touched upon the subject in my general observations upon Australasian tendencies. In fact, I may add, I was drawn into my particular line of study at Sydney by the knowledge that New South Wales had taken especial precautions, except in regard to the unemployed, against the evils which I have here sought to summarise. The predominant note in that Province is one of hopefulness: the vast pastoral, mineral, agricultural, and other resources of the country, the harbour at Sydney which renders it the natural centre of the foreign trade of the Continent, and the rapidity of the recovery from the crisis of 1893, are calculated to inspire confidence in the future; as are the high average wages of the working classes, the low cost of living, and the short hours of labour. But the most impressive sign of a healthy national life is the readiness of the democracy to recognise the dangers inherent in its rule, and to divest itself voluntarily of some of its powers, in the interests of pure and upright government.
[[1]] "New South Wales; the Mother Colony of the Australias."
III
PROBLEMS OF QUEENSLAND
The agitation of Central and Northern Queensland for separation from the South—The "Kanaka" traffic—White and coloured labour on the plantations—The Sugar Works Guarantee Act—The irregularity of employment in the sugar and pastoral industries—The conditions and opinions of the shearers—Assistance to dairymen and producers of frozen meat—The Labour Party, its history and prospects—Criticisms of the Government—The principles of State action.
In the Southern Provinces of Australia, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are not only the political capitals, but have become naturally, from their geographical position and other advantages, the points of departure of the trunk lines of railway and the centres of commercial and intellectual activity. In the case of Queensland, Brisbane, which was selected as the capital because settlement was almost confined to its neighbourhood, had to compete with several other good harbours; it is situated at the south-eastern extremity of a vast territory, and is connected only by sea with the northern parts above Bundaberg. The existence of this means of communication caused successive Governments to postpone the construction of a coastal railway in favour of lines running from East to West which would promote the development of the pastoral resources of the interior by affording access to the nearest port; but these lines, which start from Brisbane, Rockhampton, and Townsville, and have a respective length of 483, 424, and 235 miles, have tended, by increasing the importance of the latter places, to foster in their inhabitants a feeling of jealousy at the supremacy of the former and of antagonism of interests with the South. The climatic conditions also are divergent: the Centre and South are semi-tropical; the North, which lies wholly within the tropics, contains a low fringe of fertile land along the coast, suitable for the cultivation of sugar, and the cause of the constant struggles which have surrounded the question of the employment of coloured labour.
The establishment of Queensland as a separate Province dates from 1859, and was at once followed by an extension of population to the Northern districts, and a few years later by the growth of a demand for separation, which culminated in 1871 in a petition to the Crown, in which the desire was expressed that the country to the North of the Dawes Range, which lies between Gladstone and Bundaberg, should be created into a new Province, on the ground that the absence of regular communication between the capital and the Northern settlements rendered good government and the administration of justice very difficult and uncertain. During the succeeding years the agitation flickered in the North and was latent in the Centre, which had been conciliated by the construction of its railways and appeared to have identified itself with the South. Some ten years ago the Northern members pressed their claims very strongly, and more recently the Central members have petitioned the Crown, sent a deputation to the Colonial Secretary, and brought their case before the Queensland Parliament.