336 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



the spontaneous expression of a demand. They had to be worked 

 up by the usual political methods. An examination of the nature 

 of the population of Victoria in 1891 will throw some light on the 

 position. Of the 1,140,000 persons shown by the census of that 

 year, close upon 800,000 were of colonial birth, slightly over 

 300,000 were emigrants from Great Britain, the remainder were 

 foreigners, of whom only a few hundreds were naturalised. There 

 had recently grown up in Victoria a widely extended association 

 of the native-born population, originally formed for mutual benefit 

 purposes, combined with social and literary cultivation. Though 

 disclaiming any intention of interfering in party politics, they soon 

 began naturally to show a preference for the return of native-born 

 politicians. In the frequent elections to the Legislature they exer- 

 cised an influence which seemed to threaten the claims of the old 

 pioneers to public life. 



The Australian Natives' Association, as it was called, awakened 

 amongst its members the hitherto dormant sense of patriotism, and 

 they came to regard the petty intercolonial jealousies with a scorn- 

 ful dislike as savouring too much of parochialism. They early lent 

 their influence to union as against competition, and they largely 

 provided the national sentiment that was necessary to make it a 

 success. In 1894 this body organised a meeting at Corowa, a 

 small town on the Murray, and there it was resolved that Federa- 

 tion could only be brought about by the people taking up the 

 question themselves, and not relegating it to the various colonial 

 Ministries. To this end it was recommended that a convention 

 should be held of representatives of all the Colonies, not as hitherto 

 selected by Parliament from among its own members, but elected 

 by a direct vote of the whole adult male population. Other meet- 

 ings, organised by the same association, followed, and it soon be- 

 came apparent that a large section of the population was at length 

 in real earnest. Mr. G. H. Keid, who had succeeded Sir Henry 

 Parkes as Premier of New South Wales, was the first to note the 

 altered feeling, and he took definite action. Taking advantage of 

 the meeting of the Federal Council in Hobart in February, 1895, 

 he summoned a conference of all the Australian Premiers to meet 

 him there. The result was the adoption of a draft Federal Ena- 



