268 Australian Life 



home market for their consumption. That is to 

 say, an endeavour, not wholly unsuccessful, was 

 made to create local manufactures and an artisan 

 class by the imposition of heavy customs duties on 

 imported manufactures. Harrison attacked the 

 problem from another point of view. He tried 

 to find some way of getting these perishable pro- 

 ducts to the empty markets of the Old World 

 without impairing their freshness and value. 

 Among his clever inventions was one for making 

 ice cheaply and in large quantities, and he, too, 

 evolved the idea of the refrigerating chamber. 

 An attempt to put his invention to practical use 

 involved him in financial ruin, but it established 

 the possibility of success. 



Harrison failed in the pecuniary sense, and 

 ended his life as a hard-working journalist. But 

 his idea, to which, let it be said, he gave prac- 

 tical form, has meant the salvation of Australia. 

 The Commonwealth has at last found markets 

 for the goods that are most readily produced 

 there, and they are markets without any limit. 

 In 1904, Australia sold ^20,000,000 worth of pro- 

 ducts in excess of her purchases. Whatever the 

 political economist of Great Britain may have to 

 say to this credit balance, in Australia it is re- 

 garded as highly satisfactory. A large propor- 

 tion of the money was received for products that 

 could only leave Australia in the refrigerating 

 chamber. Cold storage has even shown a solu- 

 tion of the rabbit problem, so long the nightmare 



