National Life in Australia 233 



in the history of the world, but Australia has 

 furnished a unique example of the length to which 

 these unreasoning jealousies can be carried. Lest 

 the products of one division of a State should find 

 their natural outlet at the seaport of a neighbour, 

 the construction of a long and expensive railway 

 would be undertaken, and an annual loss incurred 

 in its working and maintenance. Indeed, the 

 railways of Australia remain as a standing illus- 

 tration of the injurious results of this provincial- 

 ism. The traveller from New South Wales to 

 Victoria must leave his train on the border line, 

 and enter another, because the railway lines of 

 the two states have different gauges. Another 

 break of gauge occurs at the boundary between 

 Victoria and South Australia; and as a result of 

 this failure in co-operation, a huge sum will have 

 to be spent at some time in standardising the 

 railway gauges. If a reason be sought for the 

 neglect in conserving the waters of the river 

 Murray for purposes of irrigation, it will be found 

 in the fact that this river, the most important in 

 all Australia, forms the boundary between two 

 states, and finds its outlet in a third. Instances 

 could be multiplied to show how state jealousies 

 have retarded Australian progress. 



In the days when this provincialism was at its 

 worst, there nevertheless existed aspirations for a 

 wider national life. Societies were formed with 

 the object of fostering a national spirit, and one 

 of these organisations exercises no small influence 



