60 



AUSTRALASIA. 



the protectorate into a sovereignty, involving 

 the provision of effective jurisdiction over na- 

 tives and foreigners, the establishment of courts, 

 and machinery for civil administration. The 

 Colonial governments were invited to consult 

 with Gen. Scratchley with regard to the extent 

 of territory inland to be annexed, and to settle 

 the probable annual cost and the contributions 

 they proposed to pay. The proclamation of 

 sovereignty was postponed until the financial 

 arrangements were concluded. The high com- 

 missioner proposed to maintain his headquar- 

 ters on the water, and asked the Colonial Gov- 

 ernments to advance, in the form of a loan, 

 20,000 to provide a steamer and 5,000 to 

 build two stations on shore, at Port Moresby 

 and South Cape, if these were found to be 

 suitable localities. The annual expenses he es- 

 timated at 20,000, including 8,000 for staff, 

 deputy commissioners, and police, 8,000 for 

 manning the steamer and patrol-boats, 1,000 

 for coal, and 3,000 for exploration, surveys, 

 and mails. 



Australian Military and Naval Defenses. Since 

 volunteering began in Australia, upward of 

 80,000 men have been trained in the art of 

 war. The total number of males between the 

 ages of twenty and forty years was, in 1881, 

 451,700. Not less than 8,000,000 sterling 

 lias been expended by the colonies on their 

 defenses. Volunteering was encouraged by 

 liberal land-grant orders given to men who 

 served five years or longer. In 1879 there 

 were over 16,000 volunteers in active service. 

 In the year 1877 the British Government sent 

 out Sir William Jervois and Col. Scratchley to 

 advise the colonial authorities upon the de- 

 fenses. In accordance with their recommen- 

 dations forts have been constructed, cannon 

 imported, a trained artillery force established, 

 and a nucleus of a standing army formed in 

 several colonies, around which the volunteer 

 forces can rally. The number of trained men 

 or regulars in Australia, including the artillery, 

 militia, and torpedo corps, exceeds 2,500. 



The question of colonial defense enters prom- 

 inently into the federation movement. Three 

 distinct views are held upon the subject in 

 Australia. One party, the advocates of colonial 

 federation, is in favor of a local defense-union 

 between the colonies, with a common budget 

 and a central administration for military and 

 naval affairs. Another party, representing the 

 idea of Imperial federation, desires to merge 

 the colonial forces into the British army and 

 navy, and to assess upon the colonies a pro- 

 portional share of the cost of the entire estab- 

 lishment. This would be a return in practice 

 to the system that existed before the with- 

 drawal of the Imperial troops in 1865, with 

 the important difference that the British tax- 

 payer, instead of feeling burdened with the 

 expense and responsibility of defending help- 

 less and dependent colonies, would look upon 

 the population and wealth of the colonies as 

 an augmentation of the military resources of 



the Empire. A third party approves of an 

 inter-colonial union for land defense, and the 

 creation of an Australian army, the beginnings 

 of which have been made in the separate colo- 

 nies, but would leave naval defenses in charge 

 of the Imperial authorities, the colonies con- 

 tributing a fair share of the cost. 



In the British House of Lords Viscount Sid- 

 mouth proposed that help should be granted 

 the colonies in the form of a number of naval 

 officers authorized to train their sailors and 

 organize a navy, and especially a torpedo force, 

 which would at least constitute their first line 

 of defense. Lord Northbrook replied that 

 many officers would be glad to go out as in- 

 structors. He publicly invited from the agents- 

 general the formulation of a scheme for the 

 organization of local naval defenses for the 

 colonies. The Conservative Government issued 

 in the beginning of July a circular dispatch on 

 the subject of Australian naval defenses, and 

 especially the defense of Albany, in Western 

 Australia. Sir Napier Broome, while in Eng- 

 land, called attention to the danger of leaving 

 King George's Sound, on which is the town of 

 Albany, open to seizure by an enemy, who 

 from so convenient a base could do damage to 

 British commerce in a few weeks to the extent 

 of millions sterling. Important works for the 

 protection of Port Philip and Melbourne were 

 constructed on the responsibility of the Vic- 

 toria ministry during the parliamentary vaca- 

 tion, when war seemed imminent. When the 

 sessions opened the Government was not criti- 

 cised for building the fortifications, but was 

 attacked for awarding contracts to colonial 

 manufacturers when the materials could be 

 obtained more cheaply from England. 



The military forces maintained under arms 

 in New South Wales number a little over 2,000 

 men, costing 85,000 a year. Victoria has 

 about 3,500, including 400 in the navy. When 

 her re-organization is complete she will possess 

 thirteen war vessels, including four cruisers 

 and three torpedo-boats. New Zealand keeps 

 up a large military force, not less than 6,000 

 men, on account of the Maoris. This colony has 

 lately purchased four torpedo-boats. Queens- 

 land has over 500 volunteers, two gunboats, 

 and one torpedo-boat. South Australia is build- 

 ing a cruiser. Tasmania has a rifle corps and 

 an artillery corps, numbering together 550 men. 

 Western Australia has a volunteer force of 

 about the same number. 



The Australian Contingent in the Soudan. The 

 Australian people took but a slight interest in 

 the earlier Egyptian campaigns, which were 

 supposed to be the sequels of an interference 

 in Egypt on behalf of the bondholders. The 

 Khartoum relief expedition, however, they fol- 

 lowed with watchful attention. When tidings 

 came that the heroic Gordon was slain, the 

 shock and grief gave rise to a sympathetic im- 

 pulse to help the mother-country to wipe out 

 the blot on British honor. This feeling was 

 strongest in New South Wales, where there 



