December 



3> 1914] 



nature: 



381 



can it be doubted that the subjects which they will 

 discuss will show as much advance in knowledge on 

 those with which we have been dealing during this 

 visit as the science of tlie present day transcends that 

 of the beginning of the nineteenth century? I think 

 that even if we had no other use for a future exist- 

 ence it would, at any rate, be interesting to our 

 ghosts to be able to follow the progress of human 

 knowledge and to observe how problems which 

 during their life on earth were regarded as insoluble 

 are ultimately solved by the labor et ingenium of 

 those who come after us — an occupation which would 

 I believe, be more congenial to most of them than 

 those employments to which, by the general con- 

 sensus of theologians, they are expected to devote 

 their infinity of leisure. In the meantime, it is for 

 us to lay our bricks well and truly, even although 

 the opportunitv" is given to very few of us to witness 

 a definite result of our labours. For we may be sure 

 that every addition to scientific knowledge will help 

 to promote the general happiness of mankind, and 

 will tend to dissipate that ignorance which, in spite 

 of the four intervening centuries, still remains as 

 much "'the curse of God" as ever it was in the days 

 of Shakespeare. 



Since this is the last general assemblage of the 

 association which is to be held in Australia, it will, I 

 trust, not be considered inappropriate for me to spend 

 the few minutes which remain in endeavouring to 

 formulate in the best manner I can — although the 

 best will, I am conscious, be but imperfect — the im- 

 pression which has been produced upon your visitors 

 from the mother countn.- by what they have seen and 

 heard, read and learned of this antipodean country, 

 its resources and inhabitants. To say that that im- 

 pression is profound seems a commonptace, but there 

 is no other word which can adequately express the 

 actual fact. Your splendid organisations flooded us 

 with information regarding the Commonwealth in 

 general and the individual States which compose it 

 in particular even before we started on our voyage 

 here ; and I suppose that we each and all of us have 

 utilised some of the time which on a passenger ship 

 is not occupied in eating and sleeping in taking in 

 and digesting a part, at any rate, of the mass of 

 statistics that the compilers of the volumes you have 

 presented us with have provided. We have in our 

 extensive joumeyings had an opportunity of seeing 

 some of the fine scenen,- which the country possesses. 

 We have become familiar with your principal cities 

 and with the magnificent streets and buildings which 

 they contain. We have been exhaustively informed 

 regarding the products of the countn.', both natural 

 and artificial. We know, or can know if we like, 

 the number of sheep, cattle, and horses which are 

 annually reared ; and although I have noticed that the 

 number of rodents has nowhere been recorded in the 

 literature with which we were provided, we may vet 

 live to see the manufacture of coney sealskin develop 

 into an important Australian industry'. We are, or 

 can be if we like, familiar with the output of gold 

 and copper, of coal and opals ; with the progress of 

 the timber trade ; with the development of the railway 

 system, of telegraphs, of posts. We have made the 

 acquaintance of your educational systems, and have 

 had the opportunity of closely observing your universi- 

 ties and other institutions for advanced studies. We 

 have seen something of the prosperity of your com- 

 merce and industries, and have been duly furnished 

 with interesting and valued information regarding 

 their growth and activity-. We have even had dangled 

 before our eyes statistics regarding the wages which 

 you pay to your employees, until some of us have 

 probably thought that it hiight be worth while to stay 

 in the countrv and become .Australian working-men, 



NO. 2353, VOL. 94] 



whose pay — with the possible exception of that of the 

 San Francisco bricklayer — appears to be pitched on 

 a higher scale than that of the same class anywhere 

 else in the world, and in some cases to touch, if it does 

 not even exceed, the salarj- of the average Eurof>ean 

 professor. We shall indeed — some of us — go home 

 knowing more about Australia than about our own 

 country^ and you may expect within a twelvemonth 

 or so a perfect shower of books and magazine articles 

 on Australia and the Australians ; for does not every 

 globe-trotter think he is capable of writing about the 

 countries he has visited, even when he is not furnished 

 with more information than is to be obtained in the 

 average guide-book? 



There is one phase of your development which can- 

 not fail to interest not only the visitors to your shores, 

 but the outside world in general, and that is the 

 experiments you are making in dealing with such 

 social problems as industrial disputes and the regula- 

 tion of trade and manufacture. Many of these ex- 

 periments are enough to make Adam Smith turn in 

 his grave; but the proof of the puddin' is in the 

 priein' o't, and if you are able to earn,- on your indus- 

 tries successfully to the contentment of employer and 

 employed, and without the constant threat of strikes 

 or lock-outs, you will find no lack of imitators on the 

 other side of the globe. 



A political experiment which, although not peculiar 



to this side of the world, may yet be said to occupy a 



more prominent position in it than in other parts 



; where it has been adopted is the referendum. As 



I you are probably aware, our politicians at home have 



I always made a fetish of Parliament — by which they 



\ mean the House of Commons — and one of the 



assumptions which underlies the British constitution 



; is that as long as a given Parliament exists — and it 



' may exist with us for half a dozen years — it repre- 



; sents the settled opinion of the country-, i.e. of a 



i majority of the electors. But everybody knows that 



i this opinion, so far from being settled, is often very 



I unsettled, and in any case it need scarcely be said 



! that questions may arise within the Parliamentary 



: period which have never been before the electors at 



i all. Whether for good or ill, we cannot but admit 



, that the adoption of the referendum at home would 



soon settle certain vexed questions which have been, 



I and still are, the source of a vast amount of political 



inquietude and even of grave social disturbance. 

 I Although the nature and character of the inhabi- 

 tants of a countiy is a question which is always 

 treated prominently by travellers who are narrating 

 their experiences, it is one which can scarcely be freely 

 discussed in the presence of so large an assembly of 

 the subjects of discussion. Nor has the difficulty 

 been reduced by the extraordinary kindness with 

 which we have been received by the inhabitants in 

 every place at which we have stopped. But this, at 

 any rate, can be said, viz., that — with the exception 

 of a greater amount of warmth and spontaneity.' than 

 we at home are accustomed to exhibit, combined with 

 a certain tone of personal independence which, in 

 the British Isles, is more common in the northern 

 parts than elsewhere — there is no obvious difference 

 in character between the man in the street here and 

 the man in the street at home. Any change that has 

 taken place is, at any rate, for. the better, as is 

 exemplified by the way in which your citizen^ of all 

 classes have come forward, even in time of peace, to 

 be trained for the defence of their country-. If our 

 responsible statesmen would imitate vours and give 

 the lead on this vital question of citizen-5er\'ice, in- 

 stead of waiting to see which way the electoral cat 

 is likely to iump, the people of Great Britain would 

 not be long in following the example which the 

 sense of patriotism of Australia has set them, and 



