AUSTRALASIA. 



59 



The |>ostal traffic of the colonies in 1889 was as follows : 



oounra. 



UtUn. 



ia 



. 



BMTljMO 



i::.n7iMi^< 



4BMjeO 



trllat 



tvZMknd. 



'.VI-.VTII 



L1M,OM 



10,721,016 



TJMMM 







IM.6N 



51,706 



M8MM 



MMJM 



S10,lb6 



UMag 



HI . r, ., 



618.1 '. 



MM IM 



222,978 



44,288 



* Including telegraph service. 



All the Australian colonies in 1891 signified 

 their accession to the Postal Union, securing 

 thereby the uniform letter-postage rate of 2^ a. 

 to nil the principal commercial nations. By a 

 iph convention they also obtained a reduc- 

 tion in tlu- rates for cablegrams to Europe. 



The length of telegraphs in the several col- 

 on i.--. and the extent of the traffic in 1889, can be 

 set n in tin- following table : 



* Net loss. 



Federation. A federal council was empow- 

 ered by an act of the British Parliament passed 

 in 1885 to legislate on matters connected with 

 the relations of Australasia and the islands of 

 the Pacific, fisheries outside territorial limits, 

 civil jurisdiction and the enforcement of judg- 

 ments beyond the limits of the several colonies, 

 and common measures pertaining to defense, 

 quarantine, copyright, patent rights, commer- 

 cial law, marriage and divorce, naturalization, 

 and other matters in which uniformity or com- 

 munity of action might be desirable. The Fed- 

 eral Council met in 1886,^1888, and 1889. New 

 South Wales and New Zealand declined to enter 

 the union of which this body was the organ, and 

 South Australia first joined in 1889. In 1890, 

 instead of a meeting of the council, a conference 

 of representatives of all the self-governing col- 

 onies met in Melbourne, in February, to consider 

 a plan of confederation and a scheme of defense. 

 This conference decided in favor of a national 

 Australasian convention, composed of not more 

 than seven delegates from each self-governing 

 colony and four from each Crown colony, to 

 meet "early in 1801, at the invitation of the Pre- 

 mier of Victoria, for the purpose of framing a 

 1-Yileral constitution. The New Zealand dele- 

 gates could not promise that their colony would 

 enter the proposed federation, and at his in- 

 stance the resolution moved by Sir Henry Parkes, 

 the Premier of New South Wales, declaring it to 

 be the opinion of the conference that " the best 

 interests and the future prosperity of the colonies 

 will bo promoted by an early uiiion under the 

 Crown, was confined to the continent of Aus- 

 tralia, with a proviso that the remoter colonies 

 of Australasia should be entitled to admission at 

 such times and under such conditions as might 

 be agreed upon. The main resolution expressed 

 recognition of the services of the convention of 



t!887. 



1883, which founded the Federal Council, but 

 set forth that subsequent years had developed 

 the national life of Australia in population, in 

 wealth, in the discovery of resources, and in self- 

 governing capacity, to an extent which justified 

 " the higher act, at all times contemplated, of the 

 union of these colonies under one legislative and 

 executive government." The New Zealanders 

 held aloof, not only on account of their remote- 

 ness from the center of government of the future 

 confederation and their unwillingness to share in 

 the expense of a system of defense that could not 

 give them the same degree of protection as the 

 other colonies, but for the reason that they 

 feared that a political union of the Australian 

 colonies would pave the way for national inde- 

 pendence ; for the sentiment of loyalty to the 

 British Crown, which is dying out in Australia, 

 and is supplanted among the native Australians 

 by a national spirit hostile to the British connec- 

 tion, is still strong in the more recently colonized 

 New Zealand. In view of the prospect that New 

 Zealand might join the federation in the future, 

 its delegates in the conference voted for Sir 

 Henry Parkes's resolution, and the colonial Legis- 

 lature, after a spirited debate, voted to send rep- 

 resentatives to the Federation Convention. In 

 the Australian colonies the federation proposals 

 met with the opposition of the high Protection- 

 ists in Victoria and of some of the leading Free 

 Traders in New South Wales. The legislative 

 assemblies finally agreed to them, and selected 

 as delegates the leaders of the Government and 

 of the Opposition and eminent jurists from each 

 colony. Only James Service, the originator of 

 the Federal Council, predicted the failure of Sir 

 Henry Parkes's scheme of complete federation, 

 and declined to serve as a delegate from Victoria. 

 The Federal Council met at Hobart. Tasmania, 

 on Jan. 20, 1891, only Victoria, Queensland, and 

 Tasmania being represented. South Australia 

 had .formally withdrawn. The Council passed a 

 bill declaring an order of lunacy issued by the 

 Supreme Court of one colony valid in the others, 

 and adopted an address to the Queen respecting 

 the acquisition of land in the New Hebrides, and 

 praying that restrictions on trade with the na- 

 tive's should ppply equally to all nationalities. 



The Federation Convention was convened at 

 Sydney, New South Wales, on March 2. Sir 

 Henry Parkes was elected president. There was 

 a general agreement that the Federal Govern- 

 ment should be carried on by a governor-gen- 

 eral, a responsible ministry, and two legislative 

 houses, a senate in which each colony should 

 have equal representation, and a lower house 

 elected on the basis of population ; and in regard 

 to intercolonial free trade, a Federal judiciary, 

 and the necessity of federating for defense, there 



