ORGANISATION OF INDUSTRY. 519 



the control of independent officials, with a constitution suffi- 

 ciently rigid to prevent the exercise of political influence. 



I believe that by some such means there may be a great 

 future for this Australian land — that here we may find the 

 amendment and reformation of political and social institu- 

 tions which other countries have been unable to accomplish. 

 We have the experience of the past to guide us ; we stand 

 kere in the foremost rank of progress ; it is not for us to bs 

 satisfied with the same achievements as the people of other 

 countries ; it is not for us to rest content with what they have 

 done — we must do better to do well. If we can partially 

 overcome the sphinx riddle, which not to answer is to be 

 destroyed, if we can ameliorate conditions, harmonise 

 employments, redress grievous wrong, should we be hindered 

 by the unsolved problems of overcrowded continents? We 

 possess a land bright and beautiful, endowed with all the 

 blessings which heaven bestows, a land of gold in its mineral 

 wealth, rich in those great primary factors of production, the 

 iron and the coal, — rich in the pastures and land, which give 

 the choicest of wool and the finest of wheat. We possess a 

 genial climate, in which men can breathe more freely than 

 under the heavy clouds of northern skies. The race of the 

 aboriginal has been run on our continent, the ocean depths 

 protect it against the aggressions of war, and it is free from 

 any embittered memories of civil strife. Here it may be 

 possible within the immediate future for larger numbers to 

 better conditions more successfully than in any country under 

 the sun ; here labour and capital may join hand in hand in 

 the proud work of Anglo-Saxon progress for the attain- 

 ment, under a more advanced development, of its higher and 

 its greater results. 



Appendix. 

 Particulars of Industry in European Countries. 



The following particulars are mainly extracts from Mulhall's 

 works : — 



In France the primary workers are 75 per cent. Of the 

 agricultural class, or, to be strictly correct, of the landowners 

 amongst whom the class are found, there are 1,134,000 land- 

 owners exempted from taxation on the plea of being paupers. 

 1,816,000, holding lands of an average under six acres, are 

 just able to make a living, but constantly tending downwards 

 by subdivision to the cottier class ; and the cottiers, about 



