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.—The Writer claims for the S.A. Literary Societies' Union the honor of having been the means of securing the first printed constitution for a Federated Australia, having in 1888 offered a prize for that purpose. The Judges were the late Sir John Bray, Sir Langdon Bonython, and F. W. Pennefather, Esq., and the President of the Union for that year being His Excellency the Governor, the Right Hon. Earl of Kintore, G.C.M.G.

.—In 1889 the total population of Australia and New Zealand was 3,551,755, and on January 1st, 1901. the date of Proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth, 4,476,955, being an increase of 925,203.

The population in Federated Australia on January 1st 1901, was as follows:—New South Wales, 1,346,240; Victoria, 1,175,463; Queensland, 498,523; South Australia, 367,800; Tasmania, 177,340; West Australia, 168,129. Total population in the Australian Commonwealth, 3,733,495. New Zealand, with a population of 743,463, not in the Union.

.—From 1892 Federal Councils and Conventions were held at Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne, and Adelaide, at which the Constitution was finally adopted. The Parliaments of the several States considered the great question after which the Referendum was used—a large majority of the people deciding in favor of Federation.

Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen gave her assent to the Bill on July 9, 1900. The declaration of the Commonwealth was made at Sydney on January 1st, 1901, by Lord Hopetoun, the Governor General, and the opening of the first Federal Parliament in Melbourne on May 9th, 1901, was declared by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cornwall and York by desire of His Majesty, the King of Great Britain, thus more closely uniting Greater Britain to the British Empire.

ALFRED ODGERS,

Hon. Secretary.

Federation League S.A. Adelaide,
 * July 9th, 1901.