AUSTRALIA 65 
governor. Should they obtain the desired interview they 
demand work es a right, referring to the many public works 
tt will be necessary to construct in the future, and suggest- 
ing that some of these works be constructed at once, the 
cost of same, of course, to be met with borrowed money. 
These unemployed of the cities contrast very unfavorably 
with the unemployed of the bush, who. bravely shoulder 
their swags and tramp off in search of the work they never 
think of demanding from the State. Having referred to 
borrowed moneys it may be instructive to refer to 
Australia’s national financial methods. The railways and 
other public works have all been constructed with money 
borrowed from the British investor, and these loans involve 
the payment of a sum of more than 49,000,000 each year 
ininterest alone. As Jate as 1905 there was no attempt made 
to have the interest or any of the principal paid out of the 
earnings of the railways. ‘The policy has been to work 
them for the immediate benefit of the people and for the 
purpose of developing the resources of the country. Each 
new enterprise means an addition to the debt of the 
country, already enormous, and it cannot be disputed that 
the people who enjoy the convenience and cheapness of 
State-owned railways in a land that is but sparsely popu- 
lated, are piling up for the:r descendents a burden of 
frightful magnitude that must some day be met. The 
extreme State ownership which prevails in Australia, with 
the evils which follow in its train, should, I submit, lead 
the governments of Canada, both Federal and Provincial, 
to be very cautious about going exclusively into State 
owvership. Our admiration, too, for the Australian’s 
liberal and humane provision for the aged is very much 
tempered by the very great discounting of the future which 
this provision involves. 
In the same spirit of humanity, Australia has experi- 
mented with legislation designed to settle the differences 
between capital and labor, and preventing the occurrence 
