SOME FACTORS OF FEDERATION. 
701 
This is probably a necessary provision, in view of the extreme local 
jealousy and provincialism which at present exist. But it is just as 
well that those who will be called upon to deliberate on these great 
questions, when once Federation has become an accomplished fact, 
should even now begin to study the problems of the future. The 
federal tariff must be the first great question of the Commonwealth 
Parliament, but there is no doubt to my mind that the next great 
question should be the complete alteration in the territorial lines 
of the present States, and the formation of a number of territories 
admitted to political privileges under special provisions, especially 
in the vast interior, which forms probably one-half of the area of all 
Australia. 
While not desiring to reduce for one moment the governing 
powers of the provinces to the status of what is known as local or 
county government, I think it cannot be too strongly insisted upon 
that each State should be strictly confined to an area of such dimen- 
sions as to prevent the undue preponderance of one or of several 
becoming a menace to the liberty of the others, or a cause of future 
disintegration. But when all this is done, it still leaves untouched the 
great question which must sooner or later be an absorbing one in the 
colony where this paper is being read — 1 mean the delimitation of the 
tropical part of Australia and its special labour conditions, as con- 
trasted with the other portion, in which it is acknowledged that there 
is no necessity for any alien intermixture. In the Commonwealth 
Bill, in section 52, Chapter I., Part V., in the list which enumerates 
the “ Powers of the Parliament,” we have “ Naturalisation and Aliens,” 
and in section 53, under the head of “ Exclusive powers of the Parlia- 
ment,” subsection I., we have the following : — u To make laws for the 
affairs of people of any race, with respect to whom it is deemed neces- 
sary to make special laws not applicable to the general community.” 
Now, this opens out a very interesting and vitally important question 
with regard to the whole of that vast territory which forms the 
Northern portion of Queensland, South Australia, and Western 
Australia — the question of the development of the commercial, in- 
dustrial, and social life of the inhabitants of that region. I think 
it may be taken for granted by every sane person that there 
would not be much difficulty in drawing a line from east to west, 
north of which it is quite impossible to develop the various resources 
of that great territory by the aid of European labour. We have 
to decide wdiether it must be left for all time to be occupied by 
the white man for the sake of a few scattered goldfields where 
the lust for wealth will allure large spasmodic populations for a 
briefpenod.no matter how appalJing the mortality; or whether, on 
the other hand, it shall be, under properly regulated labour, one of the 
richest and most beueficent sources of man’s wealth and comfort 
known on the habitable globe. But the growth of population in these 
territories must be comparatively slow, and the proportion of white 
population must always be small as compared with the States enjoying 
the more salubrious climates of the South. To those in the North, 
the climate practically fixes the conditions of their industrial and social 
life, and these conditions must more or less reflect upon the political 
ideas of the people, giving them a more conservative tinge in contrast 
with the essentially democratic principles of the South. From this it 
