The importance of political safeguards is accentuated not only by the accelerated movement in the direction of constitutional change, but by the increasing belief in the efficacy of State control and state interference. During the session of 1896 the Government brought forward measures dealing with the conservation of water, the public health, adulteration, and the regulation of coal mines and of factories and workshops, the passage of which would necessitate a considerable increase in the number of State officials; and the Labour Party, the transference of whose support would place the Ministry in danger of defeat, have shown, by their votes in the past, { 53} their conviction that all new public works which are in the nature of a monopoly, should be constructed and owned by the State.
The scope of my inquiries in New South Wales led me in directions which have caused me to emphasise the darker sides of political life; but I wish to guard against the inference that similar shadows could not have been found elsewhere, and have touched upon the subject in my general observations upon Australasian tendencies. In fact, I may add, I was drawn into my particular line of study at Sydney by the knowledge that New South Wales had taken especial precautions, except in regard to the unemployed, against the evils which I have here sought to summarise. The predominant note in that Province is one of hopefulness: the vast pastoral, mineral, agricultural, and other resources of the country, the harbour at Sydney which renders it the natural centre of the foreign trade of the Continent, and the rapidity of the recovery from the crisis of 1893, are calculated to inspire confidence in the future; as are the high average wages of the working classes, the low cost of living, and the short hours of labour. But the most impressive sign of a healthy national life is the readiness of the democracy to recognise the dangers inherent in its rule, and to divest itself voluntarily of some of its powers, in the interests of pure and upright government.
[1] "New South Wales; the Mother Colony of the Australias."
The agitation of Central and Northern Queensland for separation from the South--The "Kanaka" traffic--White and coloured labour on the plantations--The Sugar Works Guarantee Act--The irregularity of employment in the sugar and pastoral industries--The conditions and opinions of the shearers--Assistance to dairymen and producers of frozen meat--The Labour Party, its history and prospects--Criticisms of the Government--The principles of State action.