The same period that saw this legislation adopted was also marked by the establishment of old age pensions in the three eastern states, and also in the Commonwealth. By the Federal Act, passed in the session of 1908, a pension of ten shillings Old age pensions. a week was granted to persons of either sex over sixty-five years of age, or to persons over sixty who are incapacitated from earning a living. The Commonwealth legislation thus made provision for the aged poor in the three states which up to 1908 had not accepted the principle of old age pensions, and also for those who, owing to their having resided in more than one state, were debarred from receiving pension in any.
An important work of the Commonwealth parliament was the passing of a uniform tariff to supersede the six separate tariffs in force at the establishment of the Commonwealth, but many other important measures were considered Tariff. and some passed into law. During the first six years of federation there were five ministries; the tenure of office under the three-yearly system was naturally uncertain, and this uncertainty was reflected in the proposals of whatever ministry was in office. The great task of adjusting the financial business of the Commonwealth on a permanent basis was one of very great difficulty, as the apparent interests of the states and of the Commonwealth were opposed. Up till 1908 it had been generally assumed that the constitution required the treasurer of the Commonwealth to hand over to the states month by month whatever surplus funds remained in his hands. But in July 1908 a Surplus Revenue Act was passed which was based on a different interpretation of the constitution. Under this act the appropriation of these surplus funds to certain trust purposes in the Federal treasury is held to be equivalent to payment to the states. The money thus obtained was appropriated in part to naval defence and harbours, and in part to the provision of old age pensions under the Federal Old Age Pension Act of 1908. The act was strongly opposed by the government of Queensland, and the question was raised as to whether it was based on a true interpretation of the constitution. The chief external interest, however, of the new financial policy of the Commonwealth lay in its relation towards the empire as a whole. At the Imperial Conference in London in 1907 Mr Deakin, the Commonwealth premier, was the leading advocate of colonial preference with a view to imperial commercial union; and though no reciprocal arrangement was favoured by the Liberal cabinet, who temporarily spoke for the United Kingdom, the colonial representatives were all agreed in urging such a policy, and found the Opposition (the Unionist party) in England prepared to adopt it as part of Mr Chamberlain’s tariff reform movement. In spite of the official rebuff received from the mother-country, the Australian ministry, in drawing up the new Federal tariff, gave a substantial preference to British imports, and thus showed their willingness to go farther. (See the article [British Empire].)
(R. J. M.)
General Bibliography.—For Physical Geography: Barton, Australian Physiography (Brisbane, 1895); Wall, Physical Geography of Australia (Melbourne, 1883); Taylor, Geography of New South Wales (Sydney, 1898); Saville Kent, The Great Barrier Reef of Australia (London, 1893); A. Agassiz, Visit to the Barrier Reef (Cambridge, Mass., 1899); J.P. Thomson, The Physical Geography of Australia (Smithsonian Report, Washington, 1898); J.W. Gregory, The Dead Heart of Australia. For Flora: Maiden, Useful Native Plants of Australia (Sydney, 1889); Bentham and Mueller, Flora Australiensis (London, 1863-1878); Fitzgerald, Australian Orchids (Sydney, 1870-1890); Mueller, Census of Australian Plants (Melbourne, 1889). For Fauna: Forbes, “The Chatham Islands; their Relation to a former Southern Continent,” Geographical Journal, vol. ii. (1893); Hedley, “Surviving Refugees in Austral Lands of Ancient Antarctic Life,” Royal Society N.S. Wales, 1895; “The Relation of the Fauna and Flora of Australia to those of New Zealand,” Nat. Science (1893); Tenison-Woods, The Fish and Fisheries of New South Wales (Sydney, 1883); Ogilvy, Catalogue of Australian Mammals (Sydney, 1892); Aflalo, Natural History of Australia (London, 1896); Flower and Lydekker, Mammals, Living and Extinct (London, 1891); J. Douglas Ogilby, Catalogue of the Fishes of New South Wales, 4to (Sydney, 1886). For Statistics and Miscellanea: T.A. Coghlan, A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia, 8vo (Sydney, 1904); G. Collingridge, The Discovery of Australia (Sydney, 1895); W. Epps, The Land Systems of Australia, 8vo (London, 1894); Ernest Favenc, The History of Australasian Exploration, royal 8vo (Sydney, 1885); R.R. Garraa, The Coming Commonwealth: a Handbook of Federal Government (Sydney, 1897); George William Rusden, History of Australia, 3 vols. 8vo (London, 1883); K. Schmeisser, The Goldfields of Australasia, 2 vols. (London, 1899); G.F. Scott, The Romance of Australian Exploring (London, 1899); H. de R. Walker, Australasian Democracy (London, 1897); William Westgarth, Half a Century of Australian Progress (London, 1899); T.A. Coghlan and T.T. Ewing, Progress of Australia in the 19th Century; G.P. Tregarthen, Commonwealth of Australia; Ida Lee, Early Days of Australia; W.P. Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand; A. Metin, La Socialisme sans doctrine.
[1] The literature of the geology of Australia is enumerated, to 1884, in the bibliography by Etheridge and Jack. A general summary of the stratigraphical geology was given by R. Tate, Rep. Austral. Assoc. Adv. Sci. vol. v. (1893), pp. 1-69. References to the chief sources of information regarding the states is given under each of them. A geological map of the whole continent, on the scale of 50 m. to the inch, was compiled by A. Everett, and issued in 1887 in six sheets, by the Geological Survey of Victoria.
[2] The statistical portion of this article includes Tasmania, which is a member of the Australian Commonwealth.
[3] In his Discoveries in Central Australia, E.T. Eyre has ingeniously attempted to reconstruct the routes taken by the Australians in their advance across the continent. He has relied, however, in his efforts to link the tribes together, too much on the prevalence or absence of such customs as circumcision—always very treacherous evidences—to allow of his hypothetical distribution being regarded very seriously. The migrations must have always been dependent upon physical difficulties, such as waterless tracts or mountain barriers. They were probably not definite massed movements, such as would permit of the survival of distinctive lines of custom between tribe and tribe; but rather spasmodic movements, sometimes of tribes or of groups, sometimes only of families or even couples, the first caused by tribal wars, the second to escape punishment for some offence against tribal law, such as the defiance of the rules as to clan-marriages.
[4] The Languages of India (1875).
[5] The existence of “Group Marriage” is a much-controverted point. This custom, which has been defined as the invasion of actual marriage by allotting permanent paramours, is confined to a special set of tribes.