Australian Federation History Primary SourcesEarly views on federation:(1) Official letters are primary sources.
Some method will also be devised for enabling the various
legislatures of the several Australian colonies to co-operate with each
other in the enactment of such laws as may be necessary for regulating
the interests common to those possessions collectively; such, for example,
are the imposition of duties of import and export, the conveyance of
letters, and the formation of roads, railways, or other internal communications
traversing any two or more of such colonies. (2) Records of decisions taken by governments are primary
sources.
. . . this Council cannot acquiesce in any plan for an
inter-colonial assembly in which the superior wealth and population
of New South Wales, as compared with the other colonies of the Australian
group, both individually and collectively, shall not be fully recognized
as the basis of representation. Inter-colonial rivalry:(1) Books written about events at the time can be considered
primary sources.
At Wodonga, the first station within the Victorian frontier,
an episode took place. We were searched for contraband and transferred
to another train. "Why the transfer?" we ask. The intelligent officials
inform us that the gauge of the New South Welsh is 44 inches wide, that
of Victoria 51. Was ever such inconsistency, when presumably these railways
were meant to meet each other? Not so quick, my good friend. They didn't
care about meeting each other so much as preventing one from stealing
a march on the other by . . . carrying off the other's produce to his
capital. Victorian enterprise at first shot its line northwards so quickly,
that before Sydney knew what was going on, they had begun to tap the
rich districts of New South Wales called the Riverina, the trade of
which, having so long gone to Melbourne, is only by degrees returning
to its own metropolis. (2)
Each side of the river has its customs-house, with active officers, who are careful that no smuggling takes place on the dividing line. A. Garran (ed), Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, Sydney, 1886 (3) Cartoons of the day are also primary sources:
Father Sydney Master Melbourne a 19th century cartoon highlighting the lack of cooperation between New South Wales and Victoria when their railway lines met at Albury in 1883. Parkes on foreign affairs:Turning from that field to the field of the South Sea Islands, I have no doubt whatever in my mind that if there had been a central government in Australia--if Australia could have spoken with one voice in the year 1883, New Guinea would have belonged to Australia. . . . those great armed powers of Europe which are shut
in from the sea are not only wanting more earth for their multitudes
to live upon, but are wanting the earth which fronts the ocean in any
part of the world.... Now, Australia ought to be mistress of the Southern
seas. The trade, the commerce, and the intercourse of those groups of
rich islands ought to centre in our ports, and with these advantages
we ought to hold the mastery of the hemisphere. That is our destiny,
and it will come. But why should we not let it come with the least pains
and penalties, with the least delays, and with the least possible loss
of time and opportunities These are two very great objects which can
only be properly attained, properly promoted, by a Federal Government. Federating the armed forces:A common system of defence can only be carried out by
a federation of the military forces of the Colonies, each State agreeing
to organise its forces on the same system, although they may continue
to pay and maintain them separately. An officer of the rank of Lieutenant-General
should be appointed to inspect the forces in peace, and command the
whole in war. lf the Colonies had had the advice and assistance of such
an officer during the last few years, their forces would be more efficient
than they now are, and they would have been spared much unnecessary
expense. Results of the Premiers' Conference 1890Undoubtedly the Conference recently held in Melbourne
has brought the subject of Australian federation prominently to the
front. The result is that New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and
Tasmania favour federation; South Australia and Western Australia hold
aloof for the present; and New Zealand thinks that its geographical
position prevents it from obtaining any advantages -- and in that respect
probably it would be followed by Fiji, which was not represented at
all.
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