Farm and Factory 151 



volved with the question of coloured labour, 

 against the employment of which Australia has 

 definitely decided, at least, for the present. The 

 experiment, described in another chapter, of de- 

 porting the Kanaka labourers from the sugar 

 fields, and substituting white labourers in their 

 place, will be watched with the keenest interest 

 throughout Australia. Should it succeed, it will 

 be argued that cotton and other products can be 

 cultivated without the coolie labour for want of 

 which, according to the advocates of coloured 

 labour, these industries are at present neglected. 

 There are other possibilities, however, which 

 long ago commended themselves to the notice of 

 Australian politicians. The position assigned to 

 the Colonies in the present scheme of the British 

 Empire would appear to be that of producers of 

 raw material, and consumers of the manufactured 

 articles of the Motherland. Proposals for strength- 

 ening the links of Empire on the basis of trade 

 are founded on these relations, and, without the 

 principle having been accepted, have encountered 

 obstacles arising from the unwillingness of the 

 Colonies to accept the minor part thus assigned to 

 them. If the use of the word "colony " implies 

 a place entirely given up to the primary indus- 

 tries, then " Once a colony, always a colony " is 

 an axiom that must not be too readily accepted. 

 If the United States of America were still an in- 

 tegral part of the British Empire, it would hardly 

 be possible to refer to them in their present stage 



