358 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION E. 



If Australia could speak with one voice, how much more im- 

 portant would she be ? If her tariffs were identical what a 

 market within herself for free competition would there be 1 If 

 Australia were federated how long would the different colonies 

 i^emain separated for want of railway communication 1 We 

 should have a railway from west to east and from south to north, 

 we would be able to enter a railway carriage at Fremantle and in 

 a few days step out of the same carriage at Sydney, in the same 

 way as you may enter a carriage on every Tuesday evening at 

 Montreal, and at midday next Tuesday step out of the same car- 

 riage on the shores of the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver. 



But a few years ago it was not considered as practicable that 

 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would be connected by the iron 

 road, but in these few years a large number of routes have been 

 opened by which you may cross from New York to San Francisco. 



Again, the Canadian Pacific Railway, connecting as it does the 

 eastern and western provinces of Canada, was for a long time 

 looked upon as impracticable, but it is now completed, and has 

 resulted in the federation of Canada, the Western State of British 

 Columbia only entering into the Dominion, on the condition that 

 daily railway communication should be established between the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In a similar manner federation in 

 Australia would require, as an indispensable condition, daily com- 

 munication by railway between the colonies of the continent. To 

 be an Australian will then be a prouder title than to be a New 

 South Welshman, a Queenslander, a Victorian, a South Aus- 

 tralian, or a West Australian, and so much is this even now felt 

 that it is becoming the practice for persons hailing from any of the 

 colonies to call themselves Australians, feeling no doubt that the 

 title of continental Australia sinks all other minor divisions. 



If we are to become a nation, to be the great power in the 

 southern hemisphere, it can only be by being federated, to be 

 allied to one another, not only by the ties of nationality and 

 kindred, but also by all those material bonds which operate so 

 strongly in our dealings with one another. 



Our aim should be to make Australia another Britain, another 

 home for the Anglo-Saxon race. 



In our prosperity, however, I trust we will never forget the 

 land of our fathers, the dear old mother country, to which we owe 

 our existence as a people, from which we derive our laws and our 

 liberties, and from which we have a right to a glorious heritage. 



In conclusion I may express a hope that this Association, which 

 has made a good beginning, may continue and prosper, and may 

 follow in the paths of its great progenitor, the British Association. 

 We may be certain of receiving every encouragement from the 

 learned societies at home and abroad, and we have before us a 

 srreat work and a great future. 



