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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



money aid is extended, but mechanics 

 and miners, factory operatives and man- 

 ual laborers, and professional men, are 

 not received with open arms, and may 

 find difficulty in becoming established. 

 The carpenter calls for immigrants, but 

 not for more carpenters ; the mason sees 

 no need for immigrants skilled in stone 

 or brick work, and the pick-and-shovel 

 man thinks there are enough of his guild 

 already in the country. 



If 200,000 European immigrants, such 

 as land in New York, should arrive at 

 Sydney some year, planning to distribute 

 themselves among the skilled and un- 

 skilled trades, to open small shops, and 

 start market gardens, a special session of 

 Parliament might have to be called to 

 deal with the disaster ! And, when it is 

 remembered that Europeans desiring to 

 emigrate are in crowded industrial, rather 

 than agricultural communities, and know 

 little and care less for country life of 

 uncertain outcome, there is no occasion 

 for surprise that a call to the farm or to 

 domestic service receives feeble response. 

 Even Australians are drifting to the cities 

 (see pages 513 and 527). 



THE AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH 



As population increased and industries 

 and communications became established, 

 it was found that the interests of the 

 Australian States were not identical — in 

 fact, were in many respects antagonistic — 

 a condition readily understood when the 

 sites of the colonies are noted (see map, 

 pages 480-481). 



It is as if Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 

 Georgia, Arizona, and Oregon were small 

 contemporaneous colonies, each striving 

 to work out its local problems. It ap- 

 peared to be the duty of each State to 

 enlarge its power, regardless of the wel- 

 fare of its neighbor or of the continent 

 as a wbole. Even within the States dif- 

 ferences developed, and secession was 

 proposed by the tropical portion of 

 Queensland and the mining sections of 

 West Australia. 



New South Wales was a free-trade 

 State ; the others favored protection ; but 

 each State had its own tariff laws. Each 

 State also bad its own land laws and 

 rules governing copyright, and its own 



system of defense and of quarantine. 

 Each State developed its railways with- 

 out regard to interstate traffic, with a 

 gauge and type of rolling stock which 

 suited its needs, 



STATE RATE WARS 



The struggle was the most intense be- 

 tween the two most populous colonies, 

 New South Wales and Victoria — in real- 

 ity between the cities of Sydney and 

 Melbourne. Victoria built railroads to 

 and along the border of New South 

 Wales and agreed to carry wool and pro- 

 duce of New South Wales origin to Mel- 

 bourne at nominal cost. New South 

 Wales also made ridiculously low rates 

 for freight from Victoria points to 

 Sydney, and Queensland and South Aus- 

 tralia were likewise industriously engaged 

 in cutting their neighbors' throats at 

 public expense. 



The submergence of national to local 

 interests and the desire to build cheaply 

 and rapidly have resulted in a condition 

 of railway gauges which makes interstate 

 traffic impossible without reloading. New 

 South Wales has a gauge of 4 feet 

 &y 2 inches ; Victoria, 5 feet 3 inches ; 

 Queensland and West Australia, 3 feet 

 6 inches ; South Australia, 5 feet 3 

 inches, 4 feet B>)A inches, and 3 feet 6 

 inches. The gauge of the new transcon- 

 tinental railway is 4 feet & l / 2 inches. A 

 passenger landing at Brisbane, destined 

 for Perth, must change to a different type 

 of car five times, and even between the 

 two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne 

 (582 miles) — the distance from Omaha 

 to Denver — no through cars can be 

 operated. 



With such jealousies and antagonisms 

 it is not surprising that fifty years of 

 fruitless effort should have preceded 

 federation, or that the constitution 

 finally adopted should give large play to 

 the doctrine of State's rights. The model 

 chosen was, naturally, the Constitution 

 of the United States, in which the States 

 retain such powers as are not specifically 

 delegated to the Federal authorities. The 

 Canadian scheme, in Avhich Federal Par- 

 liament is supreme over the provinces, 

 and the South African Union, which is a 

 union only in name, were unacceptable. 



