The daily sentinel., 1906-08-22
TO BUILD NEW CAPITAL

The Australian commonwealth, talk
ing a leaf from the history of the
United States. has decided to build a
new capital which shall be free from
the influences of either of the great
sections. 1t viii build the capital lit
orally from the ground up and has
selected a site not far from the pretty
village of Dalgety. on the Snowy river.
Dalgety might have slumbered in pas
toral obscurlty for the next hundre I'd
years but for the assumed necessity
of Australia to have a capital in a
place which nature had designed for
village 1t is thirty miles from the
nearest railroad station and even
when that distance is spanned by the
iron way still further connections
must be built to link 1t with the main
Victorian system. Henry Stead in the
Independent estimates that cost of
the railroad construction antailed
will be SS.3OO,0OO and that waSer sup
ply. public buildings and land pur-
chase will carry the total Of the ex.
penditures for the new capital up to
s2s.OOO.0OO After the city is built it
will be a purely artificial capital. just
as W danluS lDu 10 bhl II Will nave d
very much smaller population. the as
sumption being that it will not ex-
ceed $4,000.
An artificial capital, one created by
fiat as a result of compromise be-
tween rival sections or decreed by
assumed political necessity is an ex-
pertinent under the best circum-
stances and usually falls short of be-
ing a metropolis. Washington and st.
Petersburg are examples. Washing
ton is simply the seat of the federal
government; nothing more. 1t has
disappointed the expectations of its
founders that it would become an en-
porium. a busy mart. a port. city
that should be an Illustration in it.
self of all the activities of great
and busy country. Beauty it has. but
business it has not. In population It
wont to think of as in our second or
possibly our third class.
st. Petersburg, on the other hand.
has far outstripped the old capital in
population, having 1913. 800 inhabi-
tants to Moscow's ,O92. 800 by the lat
est census. st. Petersburg is really
great port, commanding heavy
seaboard trade. but, in fact, 1t only
divides the honors of the capital with
Moscow. The latter has the greater
hold on the affections and traditions
of Russia. 1t has a prestige which
Peter the Great could not undermine.
It is the capital of the Russian
heart. Napoleon was right when he
held that Moscow was the capital to
be struck by an invader of Russia.
Australia has one advantage which
neither the United States nor Russia
enjoyed when they created their arti-
fetal capitals. It's area is fixed and
determined. The capital will always
bear some geographical relation to
every Australian region that 1t will
have in the beginning. In this coun-
try the capital is conveniently situat-
ed to only very small section. The
United States have expanded into re-
gions that the founders of Washing.
ton thought would be wildernesses
for many generations to come. Simi-
larly Russia has grown so far and so
fast that st. Petersburg is in cor
ner very remote to provinces that
are populous and progressive in re-
gions that were not even Russian
when Peter the Great btsan to drive
the piles for the foundations of his
capitalization Transcript.