Photograph from Lieut. W. K. Harris 



FAIRY DELL FALLS, IN THF BLUE MOUNTAINS OF NEW SOUTH WALES 



We are accustomed to associate glaciers and perpetual snows with mountain ranges, but 

 in all the mountains of Australia there is no such thing as a peak capped with perpetual 

 snow, and there is not one single glacier in all the land. 



merits is that their formation originated 

 with the people, and that they are popular 

 governments ; that while the framework 

 of each was the subject of discussion 

 with the home ministry in Great Britain, 

 Parliament did not pass the acts which 

 gave them legal life until they had the 

 full consent of the people of each of these 

 nations — for nations they are. 



No pressure was brought by the mother 

 country to amend in any substantial way 

 the constitutions suggested. A practi- 

 cally complete autonomy has been recog- 

 nized and encouraged by the home gov- 

 ernment in all these New Englands. 



The union of the separate States into 

 these federations has reduced the powers 

 of interference or control of the home 

 government which it had with the sepa- 

 rate States which were being federated. 

 Indeed, those powers have been mini- 

 mized quite beyond the recommendations 

 of the Earl of Durham. 



The foreign trade of these New Eng- 

 lands is for their independent judgment. 

 Protective tariffs are permitted even 

 against England, and separate reciprocity 

 agreements with other countries have 

 been put in force. Y\ nile the mother 

 country must in the nature of things re- 

 tain some control over their foreign rela- 

 tions, the practice has been in all diplo- 

 matic negotiations which concern them to 

 allow them a representative in the nego- 

 tiations. This was the case in the Joint 

 High Commission to consider the differ- 

 ences between England and the United 

 States growing out of the Civil War, in 

 1871, when Sir John MacDonald was 

 one of England's representatives, and the 

 practice has continued ever since. 



There have been times in the history 

 of Canada when there was a decided bent 

 on the part of some elements in the pop- 

 ulation toward annexation to the United 

 States or independence. With the ex- 



251 



