The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-02-23 00:00:00

THE AUSTRALASIAN DOMINION.

At the last meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute,
at St. James'rehall, London, a paper on the " Austra-
laeian Dominion" was read by Mr. R. Murray
Smith. Australian colonists, he said, were prone to
complain of the indifference with which they and
their proceedings were regarded in the mpther
country. It was, however, a singular, but undeni-
able, proposition that their material success seipplied
one potent cause for the scant notice which they had
generally received. Prosperity, it was well mid,
made but a dull story. What had they to tell in
Australia but that the sun had shone, the grass had
grown, their flocks and herds had increased, their
harvests had ripened, that Australian men and women
had grown and thriven, and had pushed out further
into the untrodden lands of the continent? They
had no enemies to subdue, cave kangaroos and rah-
bite, and no need for the presence of British soldiers
or the expenditure of Imperial funds; nor, he
believed, did they entail any special expenditure on
the Imperial Exchequer. Their connection, indeed,
with the British capitalist they assiduously culti-
vated. They borrowed his money with admirable
regularity—too freely, Mr. Smith thought, for their
own convenience, but not at all too much for the
safety or, apparently, the wishes of their English
creditors. They understood that the money which they
borrowed was expended, not on war and waste, but
an remunerative industrial enterprises. For many
years federation had been in the air, and various
attempts had been made by Australian statesmen to
bring the subject within the range of practical politics.
Treating this question historically from 1849, when
the expediency of creating some authority competent
to act for all the colonies jointly was pointed out in
the report of the Committee of the Privy ;Council,
the author enlarged upon the many and great obstacles
which had weakened the farce and impeded the pro-
gress of the federal tendency. The immediate cause of
the recent movement in connexion with federal action
might, he said, be found in the conduct of Queensland
annexing a considerable portion of the island of New
Guinea. In conclusion, the author remarked that two
paths were open before the statesmen of Great Britain
—one leading to federation, the other to, what should
he call it, disintegration. If they selected the latter,
their country, in the narrowest sense, might, although
he doubted it, be prosperous, it might even be
happy ; but he feared it would not be great; it would
not be England as it had been; its glory and history
would be of the past, and it would he not a small
State among other small States, but a small State
among great States. But if they choose the former
path, " she may renew her youth like the eagles,"
she might hold an empire in her grasp, justly,
gloriously, and safely. And what achievement of
domestic legislation could equal in importance and
ugefulness the blending together of all the component
parts of Great and Greater Britain, in one harmonious,
loyal, and lasting federation.