National Life in Australia 237 



to-day, the year after next he may easily be a 

 Cabinet Minister. 



The intending member must declare that he 

 was born in Australia, or at sea en route to Aus- 

 tralia. The association has frequently been 

 assailed because it rigidly excludes all persons 

 born in other lands. "I came here of my own 

 free will," declared one who had been pronounced 

 without the pale. "Am I not therefore a better 

 lover of the country? I came by choice, not by 

 accident of birth." To which a prominent 

 "native" replied: "The prophet of old wor- 

 shipped with his windows open towards Jeru- 

 salem, and in Australia, when English, Scotch, 

 and Irish folk speak of 'home,' they mean some 

 part of the United Kingdom. They worship with 

 their windows open toward Jerusalem." 



The Australian Natives' Association method 

 of fostering a national spirit is therefore to deal 

 at first hand with the native-born, who have no 

 mental or emotional reservations in favour of 

 some green land across the sea. The title of the 

 organisation is so confusing that at least one 

 historian of Australia, writing from his chair in 

 the British Museum, allowed himself to comment 

 upon the enthusiasm of the Australian aborigines 

 in the cause of Australian unity. He was so far 

 right that the membership of the association is 

 not denied to the autochthonous Australian, but 

 diligent inquiry has failed to procure evidence of 

 even one aborigina-l member. 



