904 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
No. 7.—AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
By Sir R. C. Baker, K.C.M.G., President, Legislative 
Council, South Australia. 
(Read Wednesday, 12 January, 1898.) 
No. 8.—THE FEDERATION OF BRITISH AUSTRAL- 
ASIA: A SKETCH FROM A POLITICAL AND AN 
ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW. 
By J. T. Waker, Fellow of the Institute of Bankers (London). 
(Read Wednesday, 12 January, 1898.) 
[ Abstract. | 
Sucu was the title of a paper by Mr. J. T. Walker, which, in his 
unavoidable absence, was read on his behalf by Mr. R. Teece, 
F.I.A., before the Economic Section of the Australasian Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science on the above date. 
A distinction having been drawn between Australasia and 
British Australasia, it was taken for granted that sooner or later 
a federation of the British territories in Australasia will become 
an accomplished fact, and aspirations in that direction, therefore, 
surely deserve encouragement. The Dominion of Canada was 
instanced as exemplifying the greater influence exercised by 
federated colonies over that which belonged to the same colonies 
prior to federation, and it was predicted that a similar experience 
awaited British Australasia. Federation was politically con- 
sidered from three points of view—the Australasian or Colonial, 
the British or Imperial, and the Foreign. Each was enlarged on : 
thus, from the Colonial, federation should abolish artificial border- 
lines as regards duties, extend commercial intercourse between 
the colonies, institute a uniform Customs tariff, amalgamate the 
defence forces, the Postal and Telegraphic Departments, intro- 
duce a uniform system of quarantine, and attract emigration from 
Europe, besides superseding provincialism by a growing sentiment 
of nationhood. From the Imperial point of view, Federation 
symbolised the unity of the empire, and lessened the danger of 
friction between the Home and the Colonial Governments, as 
official communications, other than through the Governor-General, 
would go through one channel, the High Commissioner, in place 
