Page:The Australian Commonwealth and her relation to the British Empire.djvu/6

 you must recollect that the Mother Country has never tried to suppress the nationality of the French Canadians; the Mother Country has never tried, by insidious or indirect means, to sap their national character and traditions. If there is a people on the face of the globe who ought to be loyal to the British Crown it is the French Canadian people, (applause). They are a loyal people. (Hear, hear, and applause.) They are a generous and enlightened people. It must be a source of deep satisfaction to them that the traditional hatreds, antagonisms and wars, which used to prevail between the people of the Mother Country and the people of France, have disappeared forever, (applause), and that they stand together in the face of the world firm friends, and, although there is no formal compact, I think I may also say, true and staunch allies. (Applause.)

Now, Australia. It is a larger country than the United States; so that you see it has got a large space upon the face of the globe. Canada and Australia together represent seven-twelfths of the whole vast area of the British Empire.

Now, climate. We have hot times there (laughter); but we are never put under the snow for six months in the year. (Laughter.) As I said at a Canadian dinner in London, you all thank God for that, and we Australians thank God you have (laughter) but we also thank God we have not. (Laughter.) Australia is one of the healthiest countries on the face of the globe. New Zealand and Australia have together the lowest death-rate of all. Our rainfall is not as plentiful as we would like, but there is a space in Australia which has a rainfall of over twenty inches a year, as large as Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Portugal and Belgium, combined, and you can grow wheat out in Australia with a rainfall of from 12 to 15 inches.

Then, I think Australia is one of the greatest landowners in the world. Ninety-three per cent, of her three million square miles still belong to the people. (Applause.) Then I want you to remember this: We have only 4,600,000 men, women and children. Canada has nearly eight millions of people; so that you must make some allowances for us. We have 4,600,000 men, women and children spread over that vast continent of three million square miles.