Page:Speech by Sir John Forrest - Western Australia - 1900.pdf/6

 in favour of Federation at St. George's Hall, in Perth; and in my introductory remarks on that occasion I said:

"Now, before I go any further, I should like to inform you and the people of this colony that the idea of Federation which has been and is at the present time so prominent, and which, during the last year, has come into the region of practical politics, is not a new idea with me. The views I express to-night are not just obtained out of the street, or formed during the last few days, because I will read to you from a book, of which I am fortunate to have a copy, my views on this question, expressed at the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held in the city of Sydney on the 30th August, 1888. The views I then expressed—a long time ago, when I did not occupy and perhaps had very little thought of occupying, a prominent public position in this colony under Responsible Government, are almost identical, in fact, I think I may say are identical with the view I hold to-night. The above are the words I said two years ago. I will now tell you what I said 12 years ago in Sydney, and my words are recorded in the Proceedings of the Australian Science Association.

"The question of Federation must occur to everyone who thinks of the future of Australia, and the problem we have to face is how far we are to regard ourselves as the people of one or of different countries. One of the charms of visiting the United States or Canada is the feeling that you are under one flag and one law, and after visiting those countries, as I have recently, the fact that Australia is divided into five divisions is forcibly brought before me. Our tariffs wage war against one another, and even our laws are dissimilar, and in many respects we are to one another but as the people of foreign nations. No doubt there are great difficulties and great prejudices to be overcome before Federation takes place, for the different colonies and the different Governments will lose their prominence, and the Dominion Government will alone be known in the world. This is a very serious obstacle to the ambitions of each colony and will play an important part in preventing the Federation of Australia. For instance, we may all know who are the President and Ministers of the United States, or the Governor-General and Ministers of Canada, but how few of us know anything of the local Governments of the State of California, or of the Province of British Columbia? The State and Provinces are merged in the central Government and Legislature, and it will be difficult to convince the colonies of Australia that it is desirable to sink their individual prominence, and become merely a factor in the central Government. Yet, if we can overcome these selfish or ambitious feelings we will, I think, be convinced that to be federated will be to our material advantage. If Australia could speak with one voice, how much more important would she be. If her tariffs were identical, what a market within herself for free competition would there be. If Australia were federated, how long would the different colonies remain separated for want of railway communication? We should have a railway from west to east, and from south to north; we would be able to enter a railway carriage at Fremantle and in a few days step out of the same carriage at Sydney, in the same way as you may enter a carriage on every Tuesday at Montreal and at midday next Tuesday step out of the same carriage on the shore of the Pacific at Vancouver. But a few years ago it was not considered as practicable that the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean would be connected by the iron road; but in these few years a number of routes have been opened by which you may cross from New York to San Francisco. Again, the Canadian-Pacific railway, connecting as it does the Eastern and Western provinces of Canada, was for a long time looked upon as impracticable, but it is now completed, and has resulted in the federation of Canada, the Western State of British Columbia only entering into the Dominion on the condition that daily railway