Here we find a people I suppose about 4,000,000 strong. They have afforded in the great cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart abundant proof of their power of founding an empire. Go beyond the cities; they have accomplished under responsible government what appear to me, and what must appear to any stranger who knew the country thirty-five years ago, marvels in the way of internal improvements. Not only the railways, but the telegraphs, and everything that conduces to the best ends of a civilized community, has been achieved by this scattered people in a marvellous manner. But all through this great, this noble, this successful effort, we have had different sources of irritation, of bad neighbourhood, of turmoil, of aggression, which, if they were to go on, must make these co-terminous communities instead of being one people of one blood, one faith, one jurisprudence, one in the very principles of civilization themselves—instead of that must make us cavilling, disputatious, foreign countries. The only way to stop that is for the whole people—and remember that the whole people in the final result must be the arbiters—to join in creating one great union government which shall act for the whole. That government must, of course, be sufficiently strong to act with effect, to act successfully, and it must be sufficiently strong to carry the name and the fame of Australia with unspotted beauty, and with uncrippled power throughout the world. One great end, to my mind, of a federated Australia is, that it must of necessity secure for Australia a place in the family of nations, which it never can attain while it is split up into separate colonies with antagonistic laws and with hardly anything in common.
I regret to say, Mr. President, that my strength is not such as will enable me to keep on my feet many minutes longer. I have submitted these resolutions—perhaps it is all the better—without any great effort in their support. I trust I have indicated with a clearness sufficient what the great object we aim at must be, and the means by which alone we can hope to accomplish it. I do not doubt that the gentlemen present will each of them address themselves to the subject, which, I think, the resolutions have the merit of fairly launching, in a spirit of patriotism, always keeping in view the welfare, the prosperity, the united strength, and the ultimate glory of our common country.
March 13th. I am aware that outside these walls, at any rate, there is a feeling that we ought to wait; that the time has not yet come. I can only repeat what I have said in other places. If we miss this particular opportunity, every year that rolls over us will make the difficulties greater; these difficulties which our separate existence have imposed will go on increasing. They can only have one crop of fruit; they can only produce antipathy, disunion, aggression, reprisal, wide-spread discontent, and, if they are suffered to go on, civil war. That is a prospect which no man of just mind can contemplate—that these colonies, sprung from the same stock, possessing the same great inheritance of equal laws and all the riches of science which have been achieved and stored up for us in the mother country—that we, side by side, instead of living in brotherhood and amity, should live in constant irritation and hostility. Either we must join hands, or we must hold out our hands in defiance of each other. In the very nature of things we cannot be divided and be one. In the very nature of things we cannot submit to causes of irritation, causes of infliction, causes of dissatisfaction, causes of exasperation, and still live in brotherhood. It is only by joining hands in good faith as the people of one kindred; it is only by giving and taking—by entertaining compromise as far as compromise can be entertained without deadly injury to principle—it is only by doing that, we can hope to found this union. If we unfortunately miss this great occasion, and leave the work undone, it will be done in a few years hence, and it will be done by younger hands, who will gain the credit of having effected this bond of union, which will be in itself, if rightly effected, of more value than any other achievement in the history of this continent.
This is no time for glowing periods; it is no time for rhetorical flights; but it is a time for hard and steady work in trying to do what we are called here to do, and I would ask the honourable members to do their utmost by a calm self-suppression, by a close attention to the object which has brought us here, by mutual respect, mutual forbearance, and disposition to compromise where compromise is possible, to assist each other in bringing about this great work; and I would say that if we do seize the occasion and succeed in doing the work, we shall have, not now so vividly as hereafter, the blessing of this and succeeding generations in what we have accomplished.
THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Source.—The Melbourne Argus, 10 May 1901
OPENING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT
Ten years after the great conference of 1891, the work of Sir Henry Parkes and his fellow federationists reached its culmination. The first truly Australian Parliament was opened by the Duke of Cornwall and York (King George V).
By the hand of royalty, in the presence of the greatest concourse of people that Australia has seen in one building, and with splendid pomp and ceremonial, the legislative machinery of the Commonwealth was yesterday set in motion. The day was full of smiles and tears, the smiles predominating. Rising gloomily, the dispersing clouds allowed the bright sun to peep through, and when the great ceremony was in progress in the Exhibition-building, the atmosphere was radiant, and illuminated the vast spaces of the building and the great sea of faces with a bright Australian glow.