AUSTRALIA 681 



transfer of the Northern Territory from South Australia. But it was not until January i, 

 1911 that the final stage of the negotiations was reached and the Territory assumed by the 

 Commonwealth. The terms of transfer were that all the past deficits incurred by South 

 Australia in the administration of the Territory should be taken over by the Commonwealth, 

 and that the trans-continental railway should be completed from Port Darwin in the north 

 to Port Augusta (near Adelaide) in the south. The Commonwealth purchased the existing 

 state railway from Port Augusta to Oodnadatta. 



In 1912 the Commonwealth Government appointed an administrator for the Northern 

 Territory and took preliminary steps for its development and colonisation. A scientific 

 inquiry as to the possibilities of a white population flourishing in this tropical part of the 

 continent is proceeding, and, so far, the evidence on that point is reassuring. There is very 

 little malaria in the Northern Territory, and other specific tropical diseases are absent. 

 The land is generally considered to be suitable for cattle-grazing (there are great herds of 

 wild buffalo) and tropical farming on the coast, for sheep farming and dairy-farming on the 

 tablelands. There are said to be possibilities of mineral wealth, but mining results in the 

 past have been usually disappointing. In its policy of development the Australian Govern- 

 ment does not propose to allow any further complete alienation of Crown lands. (There 

 have passed into private hands already 473,990 acr^s.) In future all titles will be leasehold, 

 but the leases will be in perpetuity, with reappraisement every 14 years in the case of town 

 lands, every 21 years in the case of agricultural and pastoral lands. Political difficulties 

 stand in the way of. pushing on boldly with the north-to-south trans-continental railway, 

 which is the chief need of the Territory. Some favour a direct route, some a route deviat- 

 ing so as to cross Western Queensland and New South Wales. 



The Federal Act of July 1900 (see E. B. ii, 966) united in an indissoluble 

 Australian Commonwealth six self-governing colonies, organised as British settle- 

 ments between 1770 and 1859, which retain their individuality and, for certain pur- 

 poses, their independence. The federating States, New South Wales (E. B. xix, 

 537 et seq.}, Victoria (E. B. xxviii, 37 el seq.), Queensland (E. B. xxii, 732 el seq.), 

 South Australia (E. B. xxv, 492 et seq.), Western Australia (E. B. xxviii, 539 

 et seq.) and Tasmania (E. B. xxvi, 438 et seq.), were left with certain self-governing 

 powers and preserved their own political institutions. Separate notes are added 

 later as to certain details in the internal affairs of the individual states, but in the 

 following account Australia will be considered substantially as a whole, in its aspect 

 of a single national unit. 



Population. Public opinion in Australia has at different times condemned as 

 unsatisfactory the rate of growth of the population both by natural increase and by 

 immigration. The feeling that the natural increase of the population was not suffi- 

 cient led in New South Wales to the appointment of the Birth Rate Royal Commission 

 (1903). An outgrowth of that Commission was a Federal Royal Commission on Secret 

 Drugs and Cures which reported in 1907 and devoted much attention to the matter of 

 artificial limitation of families. It was established fairly clearly by the first of these 

 Commissions that there was no natural cause predisposing to sterility in Australia, 

 but that the desire for comfort conduced to a fairly general artificial limitation of 

 families. As a consequence of this Commission some public opinion against the ten- 

 dency to " race suicide " was aroused; and certain administrative measures were 

 adopted by the Customs and Police Departments which sought to lessen the facilities 

 for artificial limitation of families. It is a coincidence, if not a case of cause and effect, 

 that since 1903 " the natural increase " of population in the Commonwealth has steadily 

 improved. Possibly a healthier public opinion following on the report of the Birth 

 Rate Commission was in part responsible. Other possible contributory causes were a 

 great increase in material prosperity following upon Federation, and an influx of im- 

 migrants from lands where artificial limitation of families was not so much practiced. 

 The natural increase per 1,000 of mean population in 1906-10 was 15.93, which was 

 higher than that of any European countries, except the Netherlands and Bulgaria, and 

 compared with 11.58 for England and Wales. A natural increase which is almost the 

 highest in the world must be accounted fairly satisfactory even though the " crude 

 birth rate " (number of births per 1,000 of mean population) is rather low (26.7 as 



