Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/278

 by manhood and womanhood suffrage. The Legislative Council or Upper Chamber has a continuous existence. It is interesting to note to what extent the Australian Second Chambers have acted as a retarding influence on the democratic legislation of the Assemblies. A well-known Australian writer observes that: "Designed as Conservative bodies, the Councils have certainly fulfilled the retarding function of a Second Chamber. Nearly every measure which is claimed as democratic and progressive has had to pass the ordeal of several rejections The resistance of the Councils to drastic schemes for breaking up the large pastoral holdings, and to land taxation, and the brake they apply to 'Socialistic legislation,' have driven many if not into the ranks, at any rate to the support of the Labour Party, and have been the main cause of the zeal of that Party for enlarging the powers of the Commonwealth Government, in whose constitution a forward policy has to encounter no such obstacle."[A]

The promoters of the Colony in these early days had little idea how rapid would be its growth or how great its material prosperity. Very little was known of that vast area, and its

[Footnote A: W. Harrison Moore, Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne.]