AUSTRALIA 6B 
She Australian answers truly to Aristotle's description 
of man as ‘‘a political animal,’ and his interest in politics 
is the inevitable result of the intimate relations between the 
people and the State. ‘ihe choice of his rulers is a matter 
of deepest concern as he encounters the results of their 
administration at every turn, and as the tendency in 
Australia is to increase rather than diminish the functions 
of the State, his political: opinions are based tpon the 
events of his every day life in a most intimate way. Those 
who dwell in the bush have the State for landlord, and can, 
in bad seasons, obtain the remittance of rent or postpone- 
ment of its collection. The State owns the railways which 
carry the people’s produce to the seaports, and, by an 
increase or reduction of freights, may materially affect their 
prosperity. The State undertakes the education of their 
children, establishing the schools and maintaining the 
teachers, while grants of money for the construction of 
roads aud bridges may also be obtained from the State. 
To the same source they look for police protection and 
postal and telegraphic service, and for help and supervision 
in the establishment of new industries. After bad seasons 
the State supphes them with seed wheat aud sometimes 
advances money to tide them over the next harvest. 
For the artisans and miners the State does even more. 
It regulates the conditions under which they work and their 
hours of labor, and even fixes their rate of wages. It 
decides industrial disputes between labor and capital, 
enforces the closing of shops at certain hours, and super- 
vises the workshops and factories. It buys the miner’s 
gold and opens up markets for the producer in foreign 
countries. In one Australian province the State has turned 
publican and retails beer and spirits of the best quality at 
the smallest percentage of profit. When the workman be- 
comes too old to toil any longer, it pensions him. These 
functions of the State still differ in the various political 
divisions of the commonwealth, and the statements above 
