58 



AUSTRALASIA. 



South Wales Parliament, and passed both houses in 

 January, 1896. It also became law in Victoria, 

 South Australia, and Tasmania. New Zealand, on 

 the other hand, although that colony had taken 

 part in the Melbourne conference of 1890, held 

 aloof from the new movement for unification in- 

 augurated by Mr. Reid. Western Australia also 

 withheld its consent. The bill was not brought be- 

 fore the Queensland Parliament till after the elec- 

 tions. The Enabling bill provided that the premiers 

 of the concurring colonies should summon a consti- 

 tutional convention in which each colony would be 

 represented by 10 delegates, elected by those persons 

 who possess the right to vote for the Legislative 

 Assemblies of the respective colonies. This conven- 

 lion was empowered to formulate a constitution for 

 the confederation, which was to be submitted for 

 ratification not to state conventions, but to a direct 

 vote of the people in each colony. The convention 

 was to assemble as soon as the delegates were elected 

 in three or more of the colonies. In framing the 

 draft constitution, it was expected that the conven- 

 tion would base its provisions on the draft constitu- 

 tion of the Sydney conference of 1891. When the 

 constitution has been passed there will be a long 

 adjournment for the purpose of allowing the draft 

 to be discussed and any amendments that are sug- 

 gested to be sent to the convention. The delegates 

 will then reassemble and make a final revision of 

 the constitution, which will then be sent to the 

 governor of each colony, who shall submit it to a 

 referendum of the whole body of voters. 



The Queensland Premier, Sir Hugh Nelson, hav- 

 ing vanquished the Labor party at the polls, did 

 not think it necessary or expedient to adhere strictly 

 to the democratic procedure of the bill to which he 

 had assented in the conference of premiers at Ho- 

 bart. For the purposes of the election, it was 

 deemed necessary to assign a proportion of the 10 

 representatives to each of the electoral divisions of 

 Queensland. Southern Queensland was to have 5, 

 Central Queensland 2, and Northern Queensland 3. 

 The bill submitted to the Parliament, instead of 

 providing for the direct election of the delegates by 

 the people of each district, proposed that the par- 

 liamentary representatives of the divisions should 

 choose the delegates from among the number 

 placed in nomination by the voters of the respective 

 division, each candidate requiring the names at 

 least of 20 voters to support his nomination. New 

 South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, and Tas- 

 mania protested to the Queensland Government 

 against the transfer of the election of delegates from 

 the people to Parliament. Nevertheless, the Ena- 

 bling bill was passed in the beginning of October 

 in the form proposed. 



Sir John Forrest, Premier of Western Australia, 

 who had objected chiefly to the democratic tenden- 

 cies of the federation movement, and announced at 

 Hobart that he would not countenance a proposal 

 to send popularly elected representatives to the 

 convention, forthwith introduced into the Western 

 Australian Assembly an enabling bill similar to the 

 one before the Queensland Parliament. It was ex- 

 pected that the elections to the federal convention 

 would be held in March, 1897, if the colonies were 

 allowed to follow each its chosen principles of rep- 

 resentation and methods of election. But there 

 was strong opposition to Queensland's action, espe- 

 cially in South Australia, whose Premier had pro- 

 posed at Ilobart that, for purposes of federation, 

 universal suffrage should be insisted upon in all the 

 colonies, and in New South Wales, where a motion 

 was made in the Assembly that delegates to the 

 convention from that colony should refuse to sit 

 with delegates not elected by the people. 



A conference of Australian premiers was held in 



Sydney early in March, 1896, to consider certain 

 federal questions. A month before the complica- 

 tions of the Imperial Government in China, Turkey, 

 Venezuela, and especially South Africa, had brought 

 the question of defense into the foreground, a mili- 

 tary conference of commandants had met in the 

 same city at the invitation of the Government of 

 New South Wales. This conference recommended 

 the immediate general adoption by the Australian 

 troops of a rifle of similar pattern to that used by 

 the imperial troops. The draft of a federal-defense 

 agreement, on the lines recommended by a military 

 conference in October, 1894, was revised and recom- 

 mended for adoption, and other details in connec- 

 tion with the creation of a federal-defense force 

 were adopted. It was proposed to form, in addi- 

 tion to the existing local forces, a special force 5,000 

 strong on a peace footing and 12,000 strong on a 

 war footing. At the conference of the premiers the 

 creation of this special force before federation was 

 not approved, nor was the adoption of the Lee- 

 Mctford rifle, which was regarded as too expensive 

 and not suitable for colonial troops. It was vir- 

 tually decided to retain the Martini with the Met- 

 ford barrel. The establishment of a cordite factory 

 in Australia was declared urgent. The conference 

 considered federation to be essential to any com- 

 plete system of Australian defense, and that mean- 

 while it was desirable to amend the military laws of 

 the colonies so as to allow the local forces to serve 

 in any part of Australia or Tasmania for defense 

 against foreign aggression; also that uniformity in 

 matters of control, discipline, equipment, and pay 

 during active service should be secured as soon as 

 possible. It was resolved that it was desirable to 

 extend without delay the provisions of the Chinese 

 exclusion act to all colored races. The Queensland 

 delegates supported the resolution with the proviso 

 that their colony should have the right to continue 

 for the present the provisions of its Pacific-island 

 laborers act. The members agreed to the establish- 

 ment of a federal quarantine on the lines recom- 

 mended by a recent intercolonial conference of the 

 boards of health. The main features of the plan 

 are the establishment of quarantine stations at Al- 

 bany, Thursday island, and Adelaide, with federal 

 medical officers and uniform regulations. On the 

 general question of federation, it was resolved that 

 the deliberations of the conference had made the 

 urgent necessity of the federation -of the colonies 

 more than ever apparent. 



Pacific Cable Project. A conference was held 

 in May to deliberate further on the project of a 

 submarine telegraph to connect the Australian col- 

 onies with Canada. A company was fonned for 

 this object in 1886. At the colonial conference of 

 1887 a resolution was passed in favor of a thorough 

 and exhaustive survey to determine the practicabil- 

 ity of the scheme. In consequence of this resolu- 

 tion the British naval vessels in the Pacific made 

 an examination of the southern part of the route. 

 In 1890 the realization of the project seemed so re- 

 mote that the Australian colonies, with the excep- 

 tion of Queensland, agreed to subscribe to a subsidy 

 for ten years to the Eastern cable, on condition that 

 the rate should be decreased from 9s. 4d. to 4s. a 

 word. After a year's trial, the colonial govern- 

 ments found the expense that they had undertaken 

 too heavy and agreed to raise the rate to 4s. $d. a 

 word. The project of a British Pacific cable was 

 revived again when a French company undertook, 

 in 1893, to construct a cable from Queensland to 

 Honolulu, which was to form one link of a line 

 connecting Australia with Honolulu and San Fran- 

 cisco. The Queensland Government, to the dismay 

 of the other colonies, agreed to subsidize this for- 

 eign company, which in a short time laid the sec- 



