702 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
is clear that in any Federation of the future which can hope to be of a 
durable character, there must be large concessions made by the 
democratic spirit of the South to the very different social and political 
ideas which must of necessity dominate the North. It is obvious, 
therefore, if my argument is a sound one, that, with regard to the new 
Federal Constitution, there are two all-important and essential 
conditions which should be carefully weighed by the people of 
Queensland : — 
1st. The reconstruction of the boundary lines of the various 
colonies, together with their further subdivision ; and 
2nd. The question as to what extent, under what will practically 
be an unalterable and fundamental law, they will allow 
the votes of populations with whose industrial life they 
have nothing in common to dominate their whole future 
destiny. 
To me the careful consideratiqn of the future durability of the 
Commonwealth as a whole is of much greater moment than any feeling 
of affection for New South Wales or any other of its component parts. 
Of two things I am perfectly certain— that if the present lines of 
territory are not materially altered, the excessive provincial strength 
of one or two States, with corresponding jealousy and distrust on the 
part of the others, will rend the fairest constitutional fabric to atoms ; 
and I am further convinced that if there is any undue attempt in this 
fundamental law r of the Constitution, by the democracies of the South, 
to apply their own rigid rules of industrial life to the great and 
undeveloped conditions of the North, there must be sooner or later 
such a superhuman strain that no Central Government will be able 
to maintain the Union. With all the circumstances in our favour, 
separated from outside influences through our island character, and 
inhabited by essentially the same race, there are still in many respects 
more dangers of future disintegration, even after the federal idea has 
been achieved, than probably either in the case of the United States 
or Canada. There are many other factors connected with the future 
problems of Federation to which I should have liked to refer, but the 
pressure of business and politics prevents me. 
I would just like to mention three things, which I trust will 
engage the immediate attention of the Commonwealth Parliament as 
a means of cementing the commercial and social life of the various 
peoples. 
First, a railway connecting the present Queensland system with 
the great harbour of Port Darwin, which must ultimately dominate 
the North as the key to the commerce of the East, as Sydney now 
dominates the East as the key to the future commerce with America. 
Secondly, a line of railway connecting the system of South 
Australia with the capital of Western Australia; and 
Lastly, a Federal Naval School for the training of boys both for 
the commercial marine and the Eoyal Navy, so as to preserve, or I 
might rather say revive, that spirit of marine enterprise which lies at 
the basis of all English pluck and adventure, which our kinsmen in 
the United States of America seem to have lost, and which we ourselwes 
will soon lose altogether, if we continue to depend upon aliens for the 
manning even of our coastal fleets. 
