NA TURE 



49 



THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1908. 



OF 



HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY 



AUSTRALASIA. 



Geogrciphy of flic British Colonics. 



Australasia. By J. D. Rog-ers. Pp. 



(Oxford : Clarendon Press, igoy.) Price 



Hislorical 

 Vol. vi, 

 xii +440. 

 ys. 6d. 



ALTHOUGH the geocentric idea of the structure 

 and movements of the universe was abandoned 

 ages ago, mother earth must always remain as much 

 the focus of interest to the dwellers on the globe as 

 if it were still regarded as the point from which the 

 heavens radiate and round which everything revolves. 

 It is not surprising, therefore, that geography is 

 assuming the position of the mother science, and 

 tends to include, not only the physical features of the 

 earth, but all the events which have takVir place 

 upon it. 



Sir Charles Lucas appropriately names the series 

 in which he describes the Britains beyond the sea a 

 " Historical Geography of the British Colonies." 

 Viewed in the modern manner, geographv becomes 

 invested with a human interest, and each country 

 is dealt with as an organic entity. Dry bones are 

 thus made to live. The study of the science is, as it 

 were, transferred from the anatomical museum to the 

 biological laboratory. Disconnected gazetteer para- 

 graphs no longer suffice even for text-books, and 

 for a volume with any pretensions some degree of 

 style is now demanded; nevertheless, it is not often 

 that we open the pages of a geography compiled 

 with such artistic skill and clothed in such literary 

 garb as "Australasia," vol. vi. of the series. 

 Here we have an enormous mass of closely-packed 

 information which would defy assimilation were it 

 not traversed and lightened by veins of fancy in the 

 form of apt similes and ingenious images which at 

 once arrest the attention and fix the memory. 



The volume deals \\ith the most significant of 

 modern developments, the transformation of the 

 mystery of the old Pacific into the modern problem 

 which confronts the civilised world. The story opens 

 witli a graphic account of the quest of the great 

 South land of which the ancients dreamed. Eager 

 was the search ;. Spain, Portugal, Holland and 

 England panted in the chase. The privateering 

 enterprise of England's sea dogs vied with expedi- 

 tions equipped with all the resources of the mighty 

 State of Spain. Every human motive was enlisted in 

 the pursuit. The great unknown was adventured for 

 the glory of God, for lust of conquest, for greed of 

 gold, and for prospects of trade. The adventurers 

 sought as saints, as soldiers, as misers, as bag-men. 

 Human lives were as dust in the balance compared 

 with the laying up of treasure here or hereafter. 

 Quires, a Spaniard, landing on one of the New 

 Hebrides, imagined he had gained the goal, and 

 called the island .'Xustralia del Espiritu Santo; this 

 is the first mention of the term afterwards applied 

 lo the great island continent which emerged out of 

 turmoil of hope and disappointment. 

 NO. 2012. VOL. ~Sl 



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The actual discovery of .Australia was made from 

 the Dutch East Indies, hence the name New Holland. 

 The best part of Australia, the east coast, guarded 

 towards the north by the Barrier Reef, remained a 

 sealed book until the detailed investigation narrowed 

 down into a rivalry between France and England. 

 But though the ships of these two great colonising 

 nations haunted and pursued one another as shadow 

 and substance, the sincerity and high-mindedness of 

 the commanders led to mutual aid and admiration, 

 and not to conflict. As La Perouse remarked, all 

 Europeans are compatriots so far from the home land. 

 The history of the Pacific had hitherto been regarded 

 as an inseparable whole ; henceforth this homo- 

 geneit\- becomes particulate. In accordance with the 

 laws of evolution, the New Pacific advanced towards 

 organisation by a separation into parts. 

 ' The political history of .Australia falls within three 

 epoch's. The first epoch was undiluted socialism. In 

 the beginning was the State which fed, clothed, and 

 employed every man ; but as wealth increased private 

 enterprise grew. The .State, which at that time meant 

 England, gradually became a total abstainer from 

 production and industry; then, as under increasing 

 autonomy, the State became identical with the Colony, 

 private enterprise was fostered by grants in aid; im- 

 portant works, such as railways and waterworks, 

 being undertaken by ■ governments, which extended 

 their activity in many other directions, so that since 

 iSgo State socialism has been reintroduced in a way 

 which vividly recalls that of the first epoch. 



This aspect of State action alternating with indi- 

 vidual action is both interesting and instructive as 

 bearing on the much-vexed question of socialism. 

 Evolution advances at one time by the impulse that 

 makes for difference, and at another by that which 

 induces agreement ; the first shows itself in the diver- 

 sified activities of the individual, the second in the 

 corporate action of the municipality or State. Thus 

 difference in agreement becomes harmony. Both ten- 

 dencies are essential, and the individuals who de- 

 nounce socialism as altogether evil are no more 

 enlightened than those socialists who seek to mini- 

 mise the importance of individual initiative. 



Mr. Rogers deals with the pioneer laws of .Aus- 

 tralia and New Zealand in the matter of industrial 

 arbitration. The wages boards, which, originating in 

 Victoria, have done so much to stamp out sweating, 

 are of special interest at the present moment, when 

 it seems likely that the mother country will, in this 

 as in so manv other cases, follow the lead of the 

 daughter States. In an appendix to the first portion 

 of the volume a graphic account is given of the con- 

 stitution of the Australian Commonwealth. 



The second portion of the volume is devoted to 

 geography pure and simple, and here the method of 

 the first, or historical, portion is reversed, for whereas 

 the history began with continents and ends with 

 islets, the geography, in accordance with modern 

 custom, proceeds from the local to the general; " the 

 wayside flower will be examined before the garden 

 and the garden before the forest." The book is a 

 living entity which cannot be dealt with after the 



