FEDERATION, 341 



various Colonies of tlie Australasian group, however, have become 

 closely allied to eacli other througli the circumstances of their isolated 

 geographical position, common speech, and similar institutions, so that 

 they are better prepared for union than the Provinces (jf Ontario and 

 Quebec, whose people when federating had to contend against different 

 languages, customs, and currency. 



The idea of Australian federation is as old as the fact of Australian 

 subdivision. The territory of New South Wales once comprised every- 

 thing east of the 129th meridian of longitude, including the whole 

 present extent of Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Austra- 

 lia. Out of this enormous territory, the province of South Australia, 

 which had never yet been permanently settled, was carved in iHoO. 

 The Port Phillip and Moreton Bay districts were settled from Sydney, 

 and continued to form part of New South Wales until the urgent 

 demands of the settlers for local self-government led to the separation 

 of Victoria in 1851 and of Queensland in 1859. 



The agitations in the southern and northern portions of New South 

 Wales for separation only proved successful owing to the importance of 

 the settlements in which Melbourne and Brisbane formed commercial 

 centres, and the difficulty then experienced of securing effective repre- 

 sentation of local wants at a distant seat of government. Notwith- 

 standing", however, the vastly increased means of internal and external 

 communication now available, a proposal for Victoria to re-enter 

 partnership with New South Wales — made in 1894 by Sir George 

 Dibbs in a letter to the late Sir James Patterson — had but little 

 support in either Colony, as the great majority of their peoples, 

 although favourable to a federation of the various State Govern- 

 ments, are not prepared for amalgamation or unification under one 

 Government. 



Probably the subdivision of the Australian Colonies has not yet 

 reached its limit. There is at present an agitation for separation in 

 Central and Northern Queensland ; the Northern Territory of South 

 Australia is obviously destined to form a separate Colony ; and the 

 great size of Western Australia makes further subdivision probable. 

 But the multiplication of states need not interfere with the question 

 of federation, and may even make some of its problems easier to 

 solve. 



From the very beginning, however, of the separation epoch states- 

 men, both in England and Australia, whilst recognising the need for 

 subdivision, foresaw the need of partial union for purposes of common 

 concern, and especially for the establishment of a connnon tariff. In 

 1849 a Committee of the Privy Council had, at the instance of Karl 

 Grey, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, inquired into the 

 government of the Australian Colonies, and had recommended that 

 Victoria should be erected into a separate Colony with a separate 

 legislature; but that to provide for certain common purposes there 

 should also be a central authority consisting of a Governor-General of 

 Australia and a General Assembly to legislate on specified subjects of 

 intercolonial interest. These recommendations were embodied in a 

 Bill introduced into the Imperial Parliament in 1850; but the clauses 

 relating to the establishment of a Federal Legislature, though actually 

 carried in both Houses, caused so much opposition that they were 



