Science and Colonial Development 



though largely unjustified, proves it to have been 

 carried out injudiciously. There has been no 

 desire to exclude white persons unless they arrived 

 under contract to work at a rate of wages below 

 the current standard, or to take the place of 

 strikers in an industrial dispute. The feeling, 

 however, as to coloured immigrants does amount 

 to a desire for their exclusion, which, it is hoped, 

 under legislation now before the Parliament of the 

 Commonwealth, will be arranged for in such a 

 manner as not to give offence in any quarter. 



But, if such persons are to be kept out, others 

 must take their place. The governments of Wes- 

 tern Australia and Queensland have for some 

 years been advertising the resources of their re- 

 spective States ; but it is now felt that commen- 

 surate results can only be obtained by corporate 

 effort. There is, however, the difficulty that the 

 ownership of the crown lands, carrying with it 

 entire control over the policy and methods of 

 alienation, is vested in the individual States. It 

 would, therefore, seem to be advisable that the 

 several Land Acts should be brought to some 

 degree of uniformity, and that the authorities of 

 the Commonwealth and of the States should 

 then agree upon a joint scheme of action. They 

 should be encouraged by the example of Canada. 

 Every one knows about the North-West which 

 the Dominion Government, as owning the crown 

 lands, keeps constantly before the public atten- 

 tion. On the other hand, although some of the 

 older Provinces, which control their crown lands, 



