CHAPTER XIX 



NATIONAL LIFE IN AUSTRALIA 



THE average Briton has always been content 

 to class Queenslanders and Tasmanians 

 alike as Australians, and more loosely to include 

 even a New Zealander in the same description, 

 owing to a natural confusion of the words Aus- 

 tralia and Australasia. He, therefore, finds ex- 

 treme difficulty in grasping the distinctions that 

 grew up in Australia with the granting of sepa- 

 rate constitutions to the various states, and the 

 consequent checks experienced by the statesmen 

 who undertook the task of welding them into a 

 Commonwealth. Even to indicate the whole of 

 these distinctions would be a noteworthy task, 

 but a significant feature of them was the tariff 

 retaliation brought about by differences in fiscal 

 policy. How far these differences injured the 

 progress of Australia was conclusively shown in 

 the first three years of the existence of the Com- 

 monwealth, by the expansion of inter-state trade 

 following the removal of the customs barriers. 



Instances of rivalry between neighbouring 

 communities of the same race are not uncommon 

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