chapter 24

(Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, 1907)._

See, also, (in this Volume) Labor Organization: Australia.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1905-1906. Mr. Deakin’s precarious ministry. Power of the Labor Party without responsibility. Its principles and its "Fighting Platform." Important legislation of 1905. The Federal Capital question. General election of 1906.

Mr. Reid, the Free Trade Premier, had taken office on an agreement with Mr. Deakin, the Protectionist leader, that the tariff question should not be opened during the term of the existing Parliament. But the truce became broken early in 1905, each party attributing the breach to the other, and the Reid Ministry, beaten on an amendment to the address replying to the Governor-General’s speech, resigned. The Protectionists, in provisional alliance with the Labor Party, then came back to power, with Mr. Deakin at their head.

Of the political situation in 1905 it was said by a writer in one of the English reviews: "The Labour Party can dictate terms to the Ministry, and ensure that its own policy is carried out by others. It is strongest whilst it sits on the cross benches. During the few months it was in office it was at the mercy of Parliament; it left most of the planks of its platform severely alone, and it had, during that time, less real power than it has had either before or since. It is not likely again to take office, unless it can command an absolute majority of its own members to give effect to its own ideas, and, indeed, it perhaps would be better for Australia that it had responsibility as well as power, rather than as at present power without responsibility. However, if not at the next general election, the party is bound ere long to get the clear Parliamentary majority it seeks. Under these circumstances, great importance attaches to its aims and organisation. …

"To quote from the official report of the decisions of the last Triennial Conference of the Political Labour organisations of the Commonwealth, which sat in Melbourne last July, the objective of the Federal Labour party is as follows:

"(a) The cultivation of an Australian sentiment, based upon the maintenance of racial purity, and the development in Australia of an enlightened and self-reliant community, (b) The security of the full results of their industry to all producers by the collective ownership of monopolies, and the extension of the industrial and economic functions of the State and Municipality. The Labour party seek to achieve this objective by means of a policy that they invariably refer to as their platform. The planks of what is called the ‘Fighting Platform’ are as follows:

"(1) The maintenance of a white Australia. (2) The nationalisation of monopolies. (3) Old age pensions. (4) A tariff referendum. (5) A progressive tax on unimproved land values. (6) The restriction of public borrowing. (7) Navigation laws. (8) A citizen defence force. (9) Arbitration amendment."

_J. W. Kirwan, The Australian Labour Party (Nineteenth Century, November, 1905)._

A strike in one of the coal mines of New South Wales during 1905 brought the Arbitration Act of that province to an unsatisfactory test. The dispute, concerning wages, went to the Arbitration Court and was decided against the miners. They refused to accept the decision, abandoning work, and the court, when appealed to by the employers, found itself powerless to enforce the decision it had made. The judge resigned in consequence, and there was difficulty in finding another to take his seat.

The Labor Party secured the passage of an Act which gives the trades-union label the force of a trade mark. Another important Act of 1905 modified the Immigration Restriction Act, so far as to admit Asiatic and other alien students and merchants, whose stay in the country was not likely to be permanent, and which, furthermore, permitted the introduction of white labor under contract, subject to conditions that were expected to prevent any lowering of standard wages.

The location of a federal capital became a subject of positive quarrel between the Government of the Commonwealth and that of New South Wales. By agreements which preceded the federation, the Commonwealth capital was to be in New South Wales, but not less than a hundred miles from Sydney. This hundred-mile avoidance of Sydney was considerably exceeded by the Federal Government when it chose a site, to be called Dalgety, about equidistant from Sydney and Melbourne. New South Wales objected to the site and objected to the extent of territory demanded for it. Mr. Deakin proposed a survey of 900 square miles for the Federal District. New South Wales saw no reason for federal jurisdiction over more than 100 square miles.

Ultimately Dalgety was rejected and a site named Yass-Canberra, or Canberra, was agreed upon and the choice confirmed by legislation. It is in the Murray district, about 200 miles southwest of Sydney.

A general election in the Commonwealth, near the close of 1906, gave the Protectionists a small increase of strength in Parliament, and the Labor Party gained one seat, raising its representation from 25 to 26. The losers were the so-called Free Traders, or opponents of protective tariff-making. Their leader, Mr. Reid, in the canvass, dropped the tariff issue and made war on the State Socialism of the Labor Party. He held in the new Parliament a considerably larger following than the Protectionist Premier, Mr. Deakin, could muster, but it contained more Protectionists than Free Traders.

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AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1906. Developing the water supply.

See (in this Volume) CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES: AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1907. The "New Protection," under the Tariff Excise Act.

See (in this Volume) LABOR REMUNERATION: THE "NEW PROTECTION."

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1907. Statistics of state schools.

See EDUCATION: AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1907 (April-May). Imperial Conference at London.

See BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1908 (December). Population of the Commonwealth.

According to a letter to the London _Times_, from Sydney, "the population of Australia on December 31, 1908, was estimated at 4,275,304 (exclusive of full-blooded blacks), showing an increase of 509,965, or of 13.5 per cent. in the eight years of federation. That," said the writer, "is not a satisfactory expansion, and we should have fared better. New South Wales gained 231,367, or 17 per cent. and Western Australia 87,143, or 48.4 per cent. but all the other States fared indifferently. There is reason to hope that in the change of fashion, Australia will again grow into some favour with the emigrant from home."

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1908. Change of Ministry.

Late in the year, the Ministry of Mr. Deakin lost the provisional support of the Labor party, which had kept it in control of the Government for nearly four years, and suffered a defeat in Parliament which threw it out. For the second time a short-lived Labor Ministry was formed, under Mr. Andrew Fisher.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1908. The Governor-Generalship.

After five years of service as Governor-General, Lord Northcote returned to England in the fall of 1908 and was succeeded by Lord Dudley.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909. Attitude of the people toward immigration. Land-locking against settlement.

See (in this Volume) Immigration: AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909. A summary of sixty years of growth and progress.

Sir John Forrest, Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia, in his Budget Speech to the Federal House of Representatives, in August, 1909, surveyed the position of Australia as part of the British nation,—a continent, he observed, containing two billion acres, with a coast line of 12,000 miles, no other nation having right or title to any part of this splendid heritage of the Southern Hemisphere, which was another home for the British race. Sixty years ago, said Sir John, the population of Australia was 400,000 and there were no railways. Now the inhabitants numbered nearly four-and-a-half millions, of whom 96 per cent were British. They had £112,000,000 deposited in banks and deposits in savings banks to the amount of over £46,000,000, the depositors in these being one-third of the entire population. They had produced minerals to the value of £713,000,000. Ten million acres were under crop. During last year Australia had produced 62,000,000 bushels of wheat. It had exported butter of the value of £2,387,000 and wool of the value of £23,000,000. Australia had 90,000,000 sheep, 10,000,000 cattle, and 2,000,000 horses. The oversea trade in 1908 represented £114,000,000.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909. Proposed federalization of state debts.

On the 8th of September, 1909, the Government introduced a Bill in the House of Representatives for the amendment of the Constitution so as to enable the Commonwealth to federalize the State debts incurred since the inauguration of the Commonwealth, in addition to those then existing. The Premier urged that if the agreement was carried out the Commonwealth would be freed financially, and if the debts were taken over the per capita payments would be appropriated to meet the interest on the debts, the States making up any deficiency. The Bill was passed by the House on the 7th of October.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909. Federal acquisition of the Northern Territory.

A Bill providing for the transfer to the Commonwealth of the vast unpopulated Northern Territory of the Australian Continent was before the Parliament of the Commonwealth during the last summer. In advocating its passage, the Minister for External Affairs explained that "the area to be transferred under the Bill was equal to France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy together. Port Darwin was nearer to Hongkong than to Sydney, and while the Northern Territory remained unpeopled it was a perpetual menace to Australia. The military authorities, Sir George Le Hunte, formerly Governor of South Australia, and Lord Northcote, formerly Governor-General of the Commonwealth, had all strongly urged its effective occupation, and Mr. Roosevelt had advised the Commonwealth to fill its ‘empty north.’

"By the terms of the agreement the Commonwealth would assume responsibility for the debt of the territory, amounting to £2,725,000, and the accumulated deficit of the past administration, amounting to £600,000. The measure provided for the taking over of the Port Augusta-Oodnadatta Railway at a price of £2,240,000, and for the Commonwealth to undertake the construction of a trans continental line connecting the territory with South Australia, at an estimated cost of £4,500,000. The latest reports showed that the interior of the territory was a fertile and well-watered white man’s country, the healthiest in the tropical world, and that it was capable of carrying a large population."

_Despatch from Melbourne to The Times, London._

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909 (May-June). Opening of the session of Parliament. Programme of business proposed. The political situation. Coalition under Mr. Deakin against the ministry. Its success. Resignation of Premier Fisher and Cabinet. Return of Mr. Deakin to power. His programme.

The Federal Parliament was opened at Melbourne on the 26th of May. In the speech of the Governor-General, Lord Dudley, as reported to the English Press, he stated that "notwithstanding a decrease in the Customs and postal revenue, arrangements had been made to pay old-age pensions from July 1. Large financial obligations would be incurred in the near future and would demand careful attention. Parliament would be invited to consider the financial relations between the Commonwealth and the States, with a view to an equitable adjustment of them. Proposals would be submitted for the establishment of a Commonwealth silver and paper currency.

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"The Governor-General went on to refer to the coming Imperial Defence Conference and the establishment of a General Staff for the Empire. Engagements had, he said, been entered into for the building of three destroyers, and Parliament would be asked to approve a policy of naval construction including the building of similar vessels in Australia and the training of the necessary crews. A measure providing for an effective citizens’ defence force would be introduced at an early stage.

"It being recognized that the effective defence of Australia required a vast increase in the population, it was proposed to introduce a measure of progressive taxation on unimproved land values, leading to a subdivision of large estates, so as to offer immigrants the inducement necessary to attract them in large numbers.

"Proposals would be submitted for the amendment of the Constitution, so as to enable Parliament to protect the interests of the consumer while ensuring a fair and reasonable wage to every worker to extend the jurisdiction of Parliament in regard to trusts and combinations, and to provide for the nationalization of monopolies."

See (in this Volume), LABOR REMUNERATION: THE ‘NEW PROTECTION’.

In an editorial article on the situation at this juncture in Australia, which was, it remarked, "as interesting as it is obscure," the London _Times_ rehearsed the main facts of it as follows:

"It will be remembered that towards the close of last year the withdrawal of its support by the Labour party led somewhat unexpectedly to the defeat and resignation of Mr. Deakin’s Cabinet. A Labour Ministry was subsequently formed, and was enabled by Mr. Deakin’s refusal to combine with the Opposition against it to prorogue Parliament and get into recess. It has since elaborated a programme, announced by Mr. Fisher, the Prime Minister, to his constituents at Gympie, a few weeks ago, and recapitulated yesterday in the Governor-General's speech, which strongly resembles in most particulars the national policy advocated by Mr. Deakin when in power, and includes besides one or two additional proposals, such as ‘the nationalization of monopolies,’ more exclusively the property of the Labour party itself. These latter aspirations are probably more pious than practical, and are certainly not the issues on which the Labour Ministry is now to stand or fall. It will stand or fall by its proposals for the readjustment of the financial relations between the Commonwealth and the States, the establishment of a local flotilla designed for coastal defence, the creation of a citizen army based on universal training, and the imposition of a progressive land tax calculated to bring about the subdivision of large estates.

"This latter proposal is the only one in which the Labour party cannot claim to be carrying out the spirit, if not the letter, of Mr. Deakin’s own programme; but, curiously enough, it does not seem to be the question on which Mr. Deakin has taken immediate issue with them. He is taking issue, we gather, first and foremost on the question of defence. The Labour Ministry is to be censured for refusing to make the offer of the Australian Dreadnought in the name of the Commonwealth. In taking this line Mr. Deakin has already made it clear that he has not in any way modified his previous views on the necessity of providing immediately for the creation of an Australian flotilla, but he considers that this necessity should in no way prevent Australia from adding in emergency to the strength of the British fleet. Speaking at Sydney last month, he said: ‘Our defence needs not only our own flotilla but a fleet on the high seas as well. It is for us to recognize that by joining New Zealand and making our offer of a Dreadnought for the Imperial Navy … the Commonwealth must do its share to prove the reality of Australia’s federal unity, to prove the unity of the Empire, to stand beside the stock from which we came.’

"On this point there is no obscurity. It presents a clear difference of view dividing Mr. Deakin and the two sections of the Opposition with which he has now coalesced from the policy of the Ministry in power. But while it provides a rallying ground from which the coalition may defeat the Ministry, it provides no subsequent line of united advance. The terms on which the coalition has been formed seem indeed to contemplate no definite policy at all."

The coalition against the Ministry of Mr. Fisher, referred to in the above, accomplished its purpose on the day after the opening of Parliament, by carrying a vote of adjournment which the Ministry accepted as a vote of want of confidence, and resigned. The former Premier, Mr. Deakin, then resumed the reins of Government, with a following that does not seem to have been expected to hold together very long. On the reassembling of Parliament, June 23, the Prime Minister made a statement of the business to be submitted to the House, including along with other measures the following: "A Bill would be introduced establishing an inter-State commission which, in addition to the powers conferred by the Constitution, would undertake many of the functions of the British Board of Trade. It would also undertake the duties of a Federal Labour Bureau, which would comprise the study of the question of unemployment and a scheme for insurance against unemployment. The commission would also assist in the supervision of the working of the existing Customs tariff. … An active policy of immigration would be undertaken, it was hoped with the cooperation of all the States. … The appointment of a High Commissioner in London with a well-equipped office was necessary to take charge of the financial interests of the Commonwealth, to supervise immigration, and to foster trade and commerce. … The Old Age Pensions Act was to be amended in the direction of simplifying the conditions for obtaining the pensions. … The policy of the Government in the matter of land defence would be founded on universal training, commencing in youth and continuing towards manhood. A military college, a school of musketry, and probably a primary naval college would be established to train officers. The counsel of one of the most experienced commanders of the British Army would be sought for with regard to the general development and disposition of Australia’s adult citizen soldiers.

"In view of the approaching termination of the ten year period of the distribution of the Customs revenue provided for in the Constitution, a temporary arrangement was being prepared, pending a satisfactory permanent settlement of the financial relation between the State and the Commonwealth."

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AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909 (June). Federal High Court decision on Anti-Trust Law.

See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &c.: AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909 (July-September). The Imperial Defense Conference. Defense Bill in Parliament. Proposed compulsory military training.

See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: MILITARY AND NAVAL.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909 (September). Coal Miners strike in New South Wales. See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1905-1909.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1909 (September). Meeting at Sydney of Empire Congress of Chambers of Commerce.

See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (SEPTEMBER).

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1910. The last year of a troublesome Constitutional Requirement.

Article 87 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia (see in Volume VI. of this work), reads as follows:

"During a period of ten years after the establishment of the Commonwealth, and thereafter until the Parliament otherwise provides, of the net revenue of the Commonwealth from duties of custom and of excise not more than one fourth shall be applied annually by the Commonwealth towards its expenditure. The balance shall, in accordance with this Constitution, be paid to the several States, or applied toward the payment of interest on debts of the several States taken over by the Commonwealth." This, which has been known as the Braddon section, has imposed a serious handicap on the Federal Government. As its working was described recently by an English Press correspondent, "it made the Commonwealth raise four pounds whenever it wanted to spend one. It made the States begrudge the Commonwealth every penny it spent, even out of its own quarter—for every penny saved out of that quarter was an extra penny for the States. And it prevented every State Treasurer from knowing, until the Federal Treasurer had delivered his Budget speech, how much money he was likely to get from Federal sources for his own spending."

At the end of the year 1910 the requirement of the Article will cease to be obligatory, and the Federal Parliament will be free to make a different appropriation of the revenue from customs and excise. Meantime the subject is under discussion, and in August, 1909, it was announced that a conference of the State Governments had come to an agreement—subject to ratification by the Federal Government—which provides for the annual per capita payment of 25s. in lieu of the three-fourths of the Customs revenue which has hitherto been returned to them. Western Australia to receive a special extra contribution of £250,000, decreasing by £10,000 annually until it ceases. Until the arrangement becomes operative, the Commonwealth may deduct from the statutory payments to the States £600,000 annually towards the cost of old-age pensions.

The readjustment of State shares in the Customs revenue is said to involve an annual loss to New South Wales of £1,000,000. According to a London newspaper correspondent, "the main effects to the Commonwealth are the abolition of the book-keeping system between the States, the power to issue Australian stamps, telegrams, &c., and the securing of about £2,300,000 a year, or more, additional revenue. The States lose revenue to a similar amount, but there is a transfer of old-age pensions to the amount of nearly £1,000,000, of which they are relieved. In three of the States, all of which suffer little by the change, the pensions are new, and a considerable boon to the people. But more than half the money sacrifice falls upon New South Wales, and it goes to relieve her less prosperous neighbours. Well, that is true Federation! Naturally the Southern States would have nothing but a _per capita_ distribution from the Commonwealth, and the New South Wales Ministers agreed to it with their eyes open. At present the Commonwealth Government secures the further revenue needed. But whether this agreement will so distinctly suit that Government as the State populations grow is another matter."

A Bill for the required amendment of the Federal Constitution was introduced in the House of Representatives by the Prime Minister, Mr. Deakin, on the 8th of September. On the 4th of November, in opposition to the Government, an amendment to the Bill, limiting the duration of the agreement, instead of giving it force in perpetuity, was carried in committee of the whole by the casting vote of the chairman. On the 1st of December the Bill had its third reading in the Senate.

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----------AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: Start--------

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1870-1905. Increase of population compared with other European countries.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1870-1905.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1902 (June). Renewal of the Triple Alliance.

See (in this Volume) TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1902-1903. Notice by Austria of intention to end, in 1904, the Customs Union which formed part of the Ausgleich, or Federation Compact of 1867. Language struggle in Austria.

The difficulties between Austria and Hungary, concerning a renewal of the Ausgleich, or federation compact of 1867, which created the dual empire,—some account of which is given in