SOME FACTORS OF FEDERATION. 
699 
Commonwealth Bill. This result, we trust, may fairly be considered as 
prophetic of the attitude of that Parliament which will be called into 
existence whenever the Constitution Bill is finally approved by all 
the people of Australia. 
But this very narrowness of view, which is still the great 
Stumbling-block in framing a Constitution, will also be, if not carefully 
surrounded by reasonable safeguards, an imminent danger during the 
earlier period of our new national life. 
A great deal of discussion has taken place upon many points of 
constitutional machinery which is inevitable, no matter what may be 
the exact details of the future Federal Gfovcrnment. These are 
matters upon which I do not intend to touch in this paper. 1 desire, 
however, to deal with some of those problems which will have to be 
considered sooner or later owing to the peculiar character of Australia 
as an island continent of vast dimensions, with every variety of 
climate from the extreme tropical to the extreme temperate; more 
especially as I consider this phase of the subject affects in a very far- 
reaching manner the future destiny of that colouy in whose metro- 
polis this paper will be read. Perhaps the best way of dealing with 
this question will be to contrast the exact conditions of Australia, 
geographically and topographically, with the conditions of the two 
great English-speaking countries from which, in this problem of 
Federation, we must draw a great deal of our political light — 1 mean, 
of course, the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada. 
The points of agreement are too obvious to mention. Let us first 
contrast the United States with the Dominion of Canada. The 
federation of both is in one important point similar, although not in 
the same degree. In each case there are two seaboards with not 
merely separate States on the littorals of both, but there are also 
intermediate States which form a congeries of States interdependent 
upon each other. Of course this aspect of the American Federation 
is much more accentuated, as it is divided into fifty States and 
territories apart from Alaska, whereas Canada at present is only 
divided into about eight different provinces. But here the points of 
likeness end. While Canada may have great extremes of climate, the 
whole of her vast territory is essentially favourable to the development 
of the European race. No colour question need ever enter into her 
politics, and she is thus altogether free from one of the disturbing 
factors of future civilisation. 
America, on the contrary, is divided, like Australia, into temperate 
and tropical, the latter having developed an industrial life essentially 
different from the former. But in America one great phase of the 
tropical question has been solved. The labour population is there, 
with equal rights and privileges, as the result of one of the bloodiest 
wars of history. The new difficulties which the evolution of the future 
will unfold with regard to this essentially alien race will be matters for 
another generation. 
Now let us turn to the main geographical features of Australia. 
There are, of course, two main divisions which determine to a large 
extent the habits and occupations of the people. First, there is that 
large portion within the direct influence of a seaboard extending over 
8,0(J0 miles ; and then there is that vast interior in which the rainfall 
is very limited, and in which the occupation of the people must be for 
