The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-06
ADVANCE, AUSTRALIA!


 Strong from the outdoor life they lead and from contention with the diff ficult conditions that have confronted them, the Australians as a people have become tall and straight like the gum trees, broad -shouldered deep-chested and wiry. They are clear of eyes and skin, of remarkable soundness and whiteness in their teeth, of luXuriant, fine-textured hair, Bertllon says: When you see these characteristics generally marked you may know you are in the presence of a great people.
 Magnificent distances stand before them, wherever they travel within their own country, and the long travel develops endurance and calm power against adversities, as well as the gift to laugh at the similar difficulties and embarrassments of everyday life. The G40,000, ,O00 worth of products which the country exports annually to England comes chiefly from the vast interior, and there hundreds and hundreds of men dwell in stations separated by days of journeylng. There, in lonely isolation among millions of gum trees, they tend flocl1s of sheap numbering upward in 100000 per flock. There among the stretching hills and noun tans they round up ranges bearing b. 900 to 3000O head of cattle. And the life that these men lead leaves it's lm- press upon the nation,
 Men who dwell in the interior of Australia are ever in the presence of valleys, plains and gorges stretching in all directions, with mountains push ing upon mountains till, in the hazy distance, they are lost in the sky line no mans land, desolate, untenated; theirs if they want it, only most of them already have more than they know what to do with, The immenslty, the colossal expansion presided over by an almost awe-inspiring stiffness, be- come either nladdening of sublime, &C., cording to the temperament Curiously enough, it is usually the subimity that prevails. ..s44
 Another effect, and one which plays equally strong in shaping the qualities of the nation has arisen from con- tact with the wilderness, The Austra- Hans that lived in great solitudes could not afford to be exclusive. They felt out for hand. Their hospitality was eager. The bush was open house. Thus his environment forced away inherited excIusiveness and the Australian be- came a different man from the Briton- broader, franlSer and more unself1sh. He has outgrown repression and the sense of superiority. He has had enough experience to give him a wholesome sense of humor. He has worked hard enough to appreciate relaxation. He has borne into the new land the liking of his home country for sport, but he has followed it on broader scale. He has his horse races, as in England but he has his kangaroo hunts, which make the hart hunting of England seem like schoolboy's play,
 Life to the Australian is as his con- tinent There have been times when both life and the continent were hard to hold, but the probation period is passed Australia for Australians has become an unchanging impulse of all the people The inhabitants have come to realize that the power to grow, to spread their influences beyond the country's borders-in other words, to |
 Aspirations above mere moneymak- ing have been generated Australians feel the desire to rub against the people of other countries and to test the gifts and acuuirements of their long strug gle in the redemption of the continent. Tn other words, political ambition has arisen. The federation is the means chosen to realize that ambition.
 The people of Australia love the home government, and presumably never will separate from it. But they have be- come sufficiently important to possess the autonomy and the practical par ticipation in governing which belong to q state that is an integral part of any central government. Prior to the fed eration their governors were appointed in Downing street. Their legislators had no personal voice in parliament. They themselves had no equality or intercourse with the great political center of the world. All these develop ing. responsibilities were cut off from them-responsibl which, above all other things, are needed to awaken in to action the highest intellect and the strongest judgment of people The Australians aspired to become a factor in the decision of world problems,
 Turn to the picture of Australia as she Is to-day. The land which these men opened in size is nearly five -siXths the area of the United States, contain ing 2,97S, ,000 square miles, against the 3,6O2 900 square miles of our country. Bat while in extent Australia stands as twenty nine is to thirty-six, in popula- ton she is only as four to seventy-siX. Of her four million inhabitants only two hundred thousand are aboriglnes, whose number has been steadily de- clining, not because of hostility on the part of the settlers, but as if by inner ent degeneracy in the face of the new conditions. Moreover there are four thousand Chiramen and haif-cast Chi nese and in recent years restrictive measures have been adopted to prevent the ingress of Eindoos and other Asia tic immigrants. The bulk of her peo- pie. of course, are colonists from Eng land
 Two thirds of the Australian contf- pent is q desert and vet her prOduc-