Australia's Future 



The $545,000 loss in revenue was 

 more than covered by the $900,000 

 shrinkage in customs and excises. Evi- 

 dently Australia, like Canada, is losing 

 by her tariff preferential in favor of 

 Great Britain. 



The total expense to Australia of fed- 

 eration for the year was $1,485,000, or 

 34 cents per capita of the population. 

 That is just for running the federation 

 machine. 



The minister advises the taking over 

 by the federal government of all the 

 state debts, aggregating the enormous 

 (for so few people) sum of $1,170,000,- 

 000, or $275,000,000 more than the 

 United States interest-bearing debt. A t 

 first sight that looks like a big burden 

 for the federal government to assume, 

 but with the taking over of the debts 

 the federal government would not have 

 to continue the present unwieldy plan 

 of returning the revenues over and above 

 expenses to the various states. The 

 sum of $35,705,000 was so returned last 

 year. Further, any federal govern- 

 ment, to be able to do its best for its 

 constituents, should have entire control 

 of the national finances. Moreover, a 

 strong centralized government can bor- 

 row money at cheaper rates than can 

 individual states. Recent chronicles in 

 the English papers show how much 

 easier it was for Japan and other cen- 

 tralized governments to borrow money 

 in London and Europe than those Aus- 

 tralian states which were seeking loans. 

 Neither of those states has enough 

 people, nor is the sparse population suf- 

 ficiently evenly divided, to enable them 

 to stand alone. That is the main reason 

 why the total debts of the various states, 

 $1,485,000,000, is $297 per capita of the 

 total population. 



It would seem as if what the com- 

 monwealth of Australia needs is less 

 states' rights, less labor and other class 

 government, less politics for men and 

 more for country, more centralization 

 in and wider powers to the federal gov- 



ernment, before she can draw what is 

 her greatest need — more people. Just 

 as in the United States, get the people 

 there, and all else follows — money for 

 developing dormant resources, money 

 for building up manufactures, money 

 for railways, steam and electric, and 

 money for building operations. When 

 the people are there they must be fed, 

 clothed, and housed. That means work, 

 and it is by work, and work alone, that 

 nations are built up into prosperity. 



Walter J. Ballard. 



THE WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF GOLD* 



IT is not alone to the raisers of grain 

 that nature has been bountiful of 

 late. The mines of the world have been 

 yielding treasure as lavishly as have 

 our fields. In every day of this year, 

 1905, work days and feast days, holi- 

 days and Sundays, there will be drawn 

 from the ground a million dollars of 

 new gold. And then, when the total 

 is finally cast up, there will be a num- 

 ber of odd millions to spare above that 

 average. The mines of the world will 

 produce this year $375,000,000 of gold. 

 The final figures for the production of 

 gold in 1904 have recently been made, 

 and they footed $347,000,000. We 

 may reasonably look forward in the near 

 future to an annual average output of 

 $400,000,000 of new gold for at least a 

 considerable number of years. 



When we remember that in 1885 the 

 production of gold was but $1 15,000,000 

 we begin to get a comprehensive view of 

 the significance of this increase. W 7 hen 

 we remember further that the entire 

 monetary stock of gold in the world is 

 about $5,700,000,000, we can calculate 

 that the output from the mines in the 

 next fourteen years promises to equal 

 a total as great as the present monetary 

 stock of gold. These figures are start- 



*From an address to the American Bankers' 

 Convention, by F. A. Vanderlip, October 11,. 

 1905- 



