AUSTRALIA 687 



Government and Politics. Under the Federal Constitution the Commonwealth 

 is governed by a Governor General appointed by the British Crown and acting on the 

 advice :of a Cabinet which is responsible to an Australian Parliament of two Houses. 

 The Senate represents the states and is composed of six members from each state, 

 elected for six years by the adults of the state voting en masse every three years to return 

 three Senators; the House of Representatives is about double the Senate in numbers 

 (75), represents the people numerically, and is elected every three years by the adults 

 of Australia voting in single-member electorates, which are approximately equal in 

 population. The number from each state varies with the growth of population. The 

 Australian Parliament can only act within the powers set forth in the Constitution. 

 The High Court is the final interpreter of that Constitution and may veto any legisla- 

 tion, either of the states or of the Commonwealth which is ultra vires. 



It was not until the election of the fourth Parliament in 1910 that the political 



system of the Commonwealth of Australia began to have an aspect of permanency, 



and it is necessary to refer back to 1901 to understand fully the position 



plrs * of 1:912. At the outset there 'had been some promise that the early years 



Parliament, e J, T , . ,, , , , , , ,. J -. . 



1901-03. * the Union would have been marked by a truce among all political 

 ; parties, during which the machinery of the new Government would be 

 established firmly. .This promise had been illustrated in the choice of the first Ministry. 

 The first Governor General of the Commonwealth (the late Marquis of Linlithgow), 

 in a situation which offered him. the guidance of no precedent, had followed a sound 

 constitutional course ; by " sending, for " the Premier of the senior of the Federating 

 states, Sir Wm. Lyne. But public opinion did not endorse the choice. Sir William 

 Lyne (born in Tasmania in 1844) was a type of the politician who had served well in 

 the days of the states. He had been the first champion of a Protective tariff in New 

 South Wales, had risen to be her Premier, and had marked his term of office by a pro- 

 gramme of social reform which .had endeared him to the powerful Labour Party. But 

 he had not been ^enthusiastic for Federation: rather otherwise. Public opinion de- 

 manded that the first government of the Union should be formed by its champion Sir 

 Edmund (then Mr.) Barton (born in New South Wales in 1849). Mr. Barton had 

 never been at home in state politics, though he had early devoted himself to a Parlia- 

 mentary career, entering the New South Wales Assembly as member for the University 

 of Sydney in 1879. His enthusiasm waited for the cause of the Federation of Australia. 

 After the death of Sir Henry Parkes he assumed the leadership of the Federal move- 

 ment, having for his chief lieutenants Mr. Alfred Deakin in Victoria, Sir Samuel 

 Griffith in Queensland, Mr. B. R. Wise in New South Wales, and the late Mr. Kingston 

 in South Australia. The Convention which framed the Federal Constitution had recog- 

 nised Mr. Barton's services by electing him as its leader. Now there was such an un- 

 mistakable demand that he should be Federal Prime Minister that Sir William Lyne 

 was unable to form a Government and advised that Mr. Barton should be " sent for." 

 The latter called to his side all the Premiers of all the Federating states; with one 

 exception they responded, and this Ministry of "all the talents" appealed to the 

 people for support on a non-party platform. 



But this fair promise at the outset was not fulfilled. Party warfare broke out at 

 the first elections with great violence. Sir George (then Mr.) Reid led one opposition 

 party. He had been the chief opponent of Federation. Born in Scotland in 1845, 

 he went to Australia as a boy with his father, a Presbyterian clergyman, entered the 

 Civil Service, ventured on a political career somewhat late in life, and entered the 

 New South Wales Parliament as a champion of Free Trade, which was just then being 

 attacked in its last Australian stronghold. Federation was to him anathema, for he 

 saw that it would be fatal to Free Trade in New South Wales. But he finally rec- 

 ognised that the movement for Union was too strong, and as Premier of New South 

 Wales he had convened the Federal Convention of 1899 which framed the Common- 

 wealth Constitution. Now that Federation was achieved, he went to the polls in a 

 Free Trade attack upon the Barton administration. 



