43° 



The Review of Reviews 



Xorember 1, 1906. 



the Government, or by Friendly Societies for the 

 benefiting of their own members. The progress of 

 the scheme will be watched with the keenest in- 

 terest. 



Tasmania is considering the ques- 

 Tasmanian tion of a reduction of her members 

 Advances. of Parliament. The second read- 



ing of the Bill to amend the Con- 

 stitution Act and to provide for the reduction of the 

 number of members of the Legislative Council from 

 1 8 to 15, and of the Assembly from 35 to 30, has 

 passed its second reading. It is also proposed that 

 proportionate representation should be introduced 

 for the Assembly, although so far no indication has 

 been given of the exact method by which this will 

 be accomplished. It is thought in some quarters 

 that the "Hare " system will be adopted. We are 

 clearly making progress. Little by little political 

 reform questions are creeping forward in the States, 

 and by-and-bye we may hope to have Parliaments 

 which represent majorities of the people, and Exe- 

 cutives which represent majorities in the House. 



Some little time ago a deputation 

 Where Our from the Child Study Association 

 Population Goes, waited upon the Xew South Wales 

 Chief Secretary. The information 

 they gave him just shows how many social and 

 economic tragedies there may be amongst us. but 

 which we utterly fail to realise. They told him 

 that in New South Wales every year there died 4000 

 children of 12 months and under, and 16,000 just 

 over and under five years. This is a fact suffi- 

 ciently hair-raising to rouse the communitv into 

 something like action. We should hail with delight 

 the influx every year of 20,000 people to a State, 

 and the saving of these young lives would be an 

 equivalent. Think of the material prosperity which 

 they would bring to the State, and they are Aus- 

 tralians too, and some of the legislation of our 

 country conveys the idea that such are superior to 

 imported human beings. However that mav be, 

 they are our own, and there certainlv is an added 

 advantage in the fact that every one of these voung 

 lives could be trained up to Australian ideals. But 

 Apart from all that, there must be something radi- 

 cally wrong when in a population of a little over a 

 million this appalling loss of life takes place. The 

 Association held that ignorance of the proper con- 

 ditions for treating children was primarily respon- 

 sible for the alarming death rate, and they unhesi- ■ 

 tatingly condemned both the milk and bread sup- 

 plies to the poor. Whatever may be the causes, it 

 certainly demands a most searching inquiry. It 

 would be interesting to find the proportionate death 

 rate in the other States, and should it be anvthing 

 like that supplied by the Xew South Wales Child 

 Association it ought to be sufficient to rouse the 

 country to something like an indignant enthusiasm. 



i[f-lhour7lc Punc}i.'\ 



Preferential Trade (?). 



Alfred : " Ifs a little gift from Australia, John. I hope 

 you'll like it. as we are making it at a great sacrifice just 

 to show the respect in which we hold you." 



.Joseph Chambeelais ; " Bah I merely a bag of wind. I'm 

 afraid Deakin's more deferential than preferential. " 



A provision in the British Prefer- 



"4 Wh't " ^''*'^ ^'"' *'^'^'' ^^^ goods in respect 

 I e tean. ^^ which preference is granted must 



not only be carried in British ships, 

 but in British ships manned exclusively by white 

 seamen, and which has been accepted by both 

 Houses of Parliament, is one that creates a feeling 

 of regret. There is a great deal to be said in favour 

 of trying to preserve a young country like Aus- 

 tralia from many of the difficulties that must follow 

 the introduction of child races, but this is carrving 

 the principle to an extreme which is unreasonable 

 and unjust, and one cannot but agree with Mr. 

 Reid in his criticism upon the subject. He said : — 



A deplorable issue has been raised. I appealed to th& 

 Prime Minister to give the House another opportunity to 

 consider the matter, aa the division was such a small one, 

 only 45 members (counting pairs) taking piirt out of a 

 House of 75. The tendency of such a provision is to set 

 the whole world against us. Instead of being a har- 

 binger of peace, it carries a bitter racial war to extremes, 

 which simply shock the common intelligence of humanity. 

 With this proposal, if there were 50 white sailors and one. 

 cabin-boy. who was coloured, the vessel becomes a plague 

 ship, so far as preferential tr.ide is concerned. To offer 

 to Great Britain, with her vast empire, containing an 

 enormous number of coloured people, this miserable pit- 

 tance, with such a miserable condition attached, will raise 

 the strongest indignation in the mother country. While 

 the principle of a white Australia is a vital and rational 



