Page:Federated Australia.djvu/7

 BY ALFRED ODGERS.

federation of the Australian Colonies is of national importance. It is not a new question, for "in 1849 Lord Grey advised this step." Had it been accomplished then, or even twenty years later, our population to-day would have been nearer five millions than its present number, viz., about three and a half millions. It is certainly the "coming question;" it is more, it is the coming reality. Of late, in dealing with it, some have sought to show that it will not be desirable nor beneficial, but others, with quite as much reason, have argued it will be both. More than that, some of our English and colonial statesmen "believe that the time is not far distant when all the Australian colonies will be federated." The whole question has now emerged from theory and sentiment into one of practical politics, and it is our pleasing task—Firstly, to propound a scheme; secondly, to affirm its practicability. A reference to the map of Australia will show the geographical position of the various colonies to be included in the Empire, and would assist in deciding as to which should be the Federal City. This is a very important and difficult question to deal with; yet it is not insurmountable. It can as easily be settled here as it was in Canada when the Dominion was formed.

The organic union, as now suggested, is to include the following colonies, viz., New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, but inasmuch as the geographical position of South Australia and her Northern Territory, and that of New South Wales and her Broken Hill and Wilcannia districts, places them at too great a distance from their respective capitals, provision must be made for the ultimate division of these two great colonies, thus giving two additional ones, making in all nine, such to form "our Colonial Empire." Fiji and British New Guinea are not yet of such importance as to claim a place in the Union, but eventually they and other islands will be included