president's address. 357 



under difierent laws, to be pestered by diflferent tariffs, and to be 

 made antagonistic to one another by having a dilierent govern- 

 ment ? Tlie same may be said of Victoria and the southern part 

 of South Australia, and of New South Wales and the southern 

 portion of Queensland, and to some lesser extent of the southern 

 portions of South and Western Australia, though in this last case 

 they are at present divided by a considerable extent of unoccupied 

 country. When we come to Northern, or tropical Australia, the 

 case is more unreasonable still. Is it likely that Northern 

 Queensland, Northern South Australia, and Northern Western 

 Australia, all of which have the same climate, and are suitable to 

 the same productions and industries, are for long to be content to 

 be divided from one another by lines tixed in a haphazard manner, 

 by different laws, dilierent tariffs, and different governments, with 

 but little if any voice in their local self-government ? And this 

 brings me to another subject of great importance, viz., the question 

 of the Federation of the Australian Colonies, 



The question of federation must occur to every one who thinks 

 of the future of Australia, and the problem we have to face is, 

 how far we are to regard ourselves as the people of one, or of 

 different countries. 



One of the charms of visiting the United States, or Canada, is 

 the feeling that you are under one flag and one law, and after 

 visiting those countries, as I have recently, the fact that Australia 

 is divided into five divisions is forcibly brought before me. Our 

 tariff's wage war against one another, and even our laws are 

 dissimilar, and in many respects we ai'e to one another but as the 

 people of foreign nations. 



No doubt there are great difficulties and great prejudices to be 

 overcome Ijefore federation takes place, for the difierent colonies 

 and their difierent governments will lose their prominence, and 

 the Dominion Government will alone be known in the world. 

 This is a vei-y serious obstacle to the ambitions of each colony, 

 and will play an important part in preventing the federation of 

 Australia. 



For instance, we may all know who is the President and 

 Ministers of the United States, or the Governor-General and 

 Ministers of Canada, but how few of us know anything, for 

 instance, of the local governments of the State of California, or 

 of the Province of British Columbia ? The states and provinces 

 are merged in the Central Government and Legislature, and it 

 will be difiicult to convince the colonies of Australia that it is 

 desirable to sink their individual prominence and become merely 

 a facter in the central government. Yet if we can overcome 

 these selfish or ambitious feelings we will, I think, be convinced 

 that to be federated will be to our material advantage. 



