AUSTRALASIA. 



fil 



PORT MORESBY. NEW GUINEA. 



was: Ministerialists. 42: Opposition, 6: Labor. '24: 

 and Independents. 4. The former Liberals and 

 rvatives were united in support of the Gov- 

 ernment and individualistic theories of society, 

 while the Labor members form the regular opposi- 

 tion. The history of the Labor movement in 

 Queensland is interesting, because of the peculiar 

 socialistic conditions of that colony and the extreme 

 socialistic tendencies of the party. With an area 

 equal to that of France, Germany, and Austria, the 

 colony has one fourth of its population concen- 

 trated at Brisbane, in the southeastern corner, while 

 on the vast pastoral lands of the west, not more 

 than a dozen persons are permanently employed on 

 a sheep run covering hundreds of square miles. Tt 

 is only at shearing time that labor is employed, 

 when large numbers of men are engaged for a few 

 weeks and paid by contract. When the price of 

 wool fell, and many of the sheep-raising squatters, 

 or pastoralists. as they call themselves, were put to 

 straits to pay interest on advances and rent to the 

 nonresident land owners (in many cases financial 

 institutions), conflicts over wages arose between 

 them and the shearers, who had formed a compact 

 labor union. For self-preservation the pastoralists 

 organized in their turn, and as they were firmly 

 supported by the Government, and an inexhaustible 

 supply of free labor could be imported, the strikes 

 of 1891 and 1894 ended in disaster to the laborers. 

 The action of the Government turned the atten- 

 tion of the labor unions to politics and led them to 

 form the Labor party, now led by Mr. Cl;.- 

 The original founder and leader of the party. Wil- 

 liam Lane, who was a Utopian socialist, caused a 

 diversion by taking hundreds of his most enthu- 

 siastic followers in July, 1893. to found a commu- 

 nistic settlement in Paraguay, having persuaded 

 them that workingmen had no chance of happiness 

 in Australia, where the capitalists possessed the 

 money, the power, and the intelligence. The ex- 

 periment was a failure, and after a few months 



many of the colonists, their money spent, made their 

 way back to Australia as best they could. The 

 colony in Paraguay divided on the question of dis- 

 cipline, Lane seceding with 100 of the stricter 

 members to found a new settlement, which has 

 prospered tolerably, while those who remained on 

 the original lands ceded to them by the Paraguayan 

 Government suffered wretched poverty. In the 

 first election after the great strike, which occurred 

 a few weeks from the time when Lane and his 

 followers departed from Australia, the newly 

 founded Labor party returned 1? members to the 

 A <-mbly. The declared aim of this party is to at- 

 tain socialism in our time. Mr. Xelson promised 

 to promote facilities for the development of indi- 

 vidual enterprise, especially the extension of rail- 

 roads and the construction of harbors, the establish- 

 ment of cold-storage accommodation for perishable 

 produce, Government aid in extending markets and 

 preparing produce for home consumption, and aid to 

 miners in prospecting new fields and sinking deep 

 shafts on old fields. He was in favor of expending 

 public funds in an attempt to attract men of small 

 means, who are driven from the United Kingdom 

 by the agricultural depression and enable them to 

 settle profitably in Queensland. A revision of the 

 land laws with a view to facilitating the settlement 

 of small holdings was promi^-d. as well as the ex- 

 penditure of moderate sums upon the extension of 

 existing systems of communication. Although Eu- 

 ropean labor was gradually superseding alien labor 

 in northern Queensland, the sugar industry was 

 steadily expanding. 



The Cabinet was reconstructed in the beginning 

 of May. in accordance with the results of the gen- 

 eral election and the new combination of parties. 

 A. .T. Thynne, Postmaster-General, became also - 

 retary for Agriculture. Robert Philp resigned the 

 portfolio of Public Works, remaining Secretary for 

 Mines and Hallways : while D. II. Dalrymple be- 

 came Secretarv for Public Works and Secretarv of 



