Australasian Democracy. Henry de Rosenbach Walker
than that on the second and third, thousands who had voted affirmatively upon the first must have considered that they had thereby returned a negative reply to the others and should be reckoned as additional opponents of religious instruction and of the capitation grant. It is also noteworthy that, contrary to the general expectation, the country districts gave a considerably higher percentage of votes in favour of the present system than the seven constituencies which include Adelaide and its immediate neighbourhood. The advocates of religious instruction have announced that they intend to continue their efforts to win over the majority to their views; in the meanwhile, they will realise that the process must be slow and will stir up the various agencies of the churches to increased activity in a sphere which is particularly their own.
The secular character of State education, which dates from 1851, cannot be shown to have had evil effects upon the conduct of the working classes, who almost universally respect and obey the law and have an air of confident independence which has been fostered by manhood suffrage, high wages and a high standard of comfort. South Australia was fortunate in her original settlers, and has always attracted a good class of immigrants. At present great benefit is accruing from the rapid development of Western Australia, which has relieved the pressure upon the labour market and increased the demand for South Australian goods. The latest Savings Bank returns give the total amount deposited as £2,713,000 and the number of depositors as 88,876, a very satisfactory rate for a population of about 320,000, especially when it is considered that the working classes also have large investments in Friendly and Building Societies. In conclusion, the visitor cannot but be struck by the entire absence of squalid poverty and of overcrowding in tenements and by the orderliness of the people and the high average of prosperity.
II
DEMOCRACY AND ITS SAFEGUARDS IN NEW SOUTH WALES
The necessity for safeguards against financial extravagance and political pressure—The Crown Lands Act—The appointment of independent Railway Commissioners—The Standing Committee on Public Works—The Public Service Board—The unemployed, their numbers and treatment—The democratisation of the constitution—The Labour Party, its history, successes and aspirations.
The inhabitants of New South Wales, as of several other Australian Provinces, lived for many years in a fool's paradise. They had received a magnificent inheritance in the land and were able, owing to the proved mineral resources of the country, to draw upon a practically inexhaustible fund in the willing advances of British capitalists. All classes vied with one another, especially in Victoria, in the extravagant loans and expenditure which caused the crisis of 1893, the greatest blessing, as many think, that has ever befallen Australia. Regardless of the burdens it was imposing upon future generations, the Parliament of New South Wales, with which I shall be dealing principally in the present chapter, constructed unnecessary public works, allowed the Civil Service to be packed with the friends and relations of those in power, and authorised roads and bridges almost at the whim of each individual member. This condition of things could not continue indefinitely: on the one side, a rapidly increasing debt, on the other, an enormous army of civil servants, aspirants for employment on public works and local claimants for a share of the expenditure of loan funds, who were able, on account of the wideness of the franchise and the numerous functions undertaken by the Government, to bring pressure to bear upon the Ministry through their representatives in the Assembly. It was essential that the power to borrow should be curtailed; essential also that the possibilities of political pressure should greatly be diminished. The former object could only be achieved at the cost of a comparative loss of credit, the latter by a wise recognition on the part of the electorate of the dangers of unfettered State action under a democratic constitution.
The rapid growth of indebtedness cannot justly be laid solely to the charge of the popular representatives, as, though the Legislative Council has occasionally resisted Loan Bills, it does not appear to have realised the dangers of the proposed expenditure. Nor was it in human nature that it should have opposed the construction of railways by which its members, mostly landholders, would enormously be benefited. Were their lands to be resumed by the Government, they would obtain an enhanced price for them; in any case, many of them would gain a large unearned increment. The members of the Council who are nominated for life, similarly with Labour members, lawyers, and others who represent particular sections in Parliament, have been active mainly where their own interests have been concerned. In pursuance of their right to reject measures of taxation, they threw out Sir George Dibbs' Income-Tax Bill in 1893 and, two years later, Mr. Reid's Land and Income-Tax Assessment Bill. As landholders they objected to a land tax, and to an income tax as representatives of the wealth of the community. Nor has the extravagance been due to payment of members, which is regarded by some as the cause of all the evils of Australia, as it was not inaugurated until after the greater part of the indebtedness had been incurred; but the necessity for political safeguards has been accentuated by the entrance into Parliament of men who, owing to their pecuniary circumstances, are less able to resist the demands of their electors, are deeply interested in the postponement of dissolutions, and are more dependent upon their re-election. It would be equally false to attach any blame to the Labour Party, which did not make its appearance in the Assembly until 1891.
While the great diminution of borrowing and consequently of the construction of public works has lessened the opportunities for undue political influence, many still exist, and the number would have been far greater in the absence of recent legislation. How numerous these opportunities might be, may be gauged from the fact that, exclusive of some 10,000 railway employés, 20,000 persons were formerly in the service of the State at an annual salary of £2,600,000; that many thousands are tenants of the Crown, liable to be propitiated by the reduction of their rent; that nearly half the population live in unincorporated districts, in which the local expenditure is met out of national funds, and that the unemployed continually clamour for rations and employment upon relief works, the receipt of which, under the existing law, does not entail political disfranchisement.
The first legislative recognition of this danger is seen in the Crown Lands Act of 1884, which constituted Local Land Boards, consisting of not more than three members to be appointed by the Governor in Council, which were to consider all applications for land, insure the due fulfilment of the conditions, residential or other, which are attached to different forms of tenure, and appraise the rents of pastoral leases and the rate of compensation for improvements. The practice of the Ministry has been to appoint as chairman of a Board some experienced official of the Crown Lands Department and, as his colleagues, persons recommended by the residents in the district. I am assured that this system of Land Boards, whose decisions are subject to an appeal to the Land Court, has worked satisfactorily and that confidence has been promoted by the publicity of the proceedings. A full statement is published periodically, for each district, of the areas still open for settlement and of the conditions under which they can be taken up: the Land Boards have to inquire into the bonâ fides of the applicants. The question of the remission or suspension of the payment of rent is one of great difficulty in countries in which the Crown is the largest landholder. If a discretionary power is given to the Ministry, political pressure can be brought to bear upon them by tenants through their Parliamentary representatives; if it be withheld, great hardship may ensue. This is particularly the case in Australia, where the value of a property may greatly be reduced by the devastations of rabbits or other pests and the consequent deterioration in the grazing capability of the land, or by a fall in the price which can be obtained for stock or wool. The Land Acts of New South Wales recognise either of the above causes as sufficient to entitle a pastoral lessee to a reappraisement of his rent by a Land Board, and permit the suspension of annual payments for one year in the case of holders of land under conditional purchase who reside upon it, but compel the vast majority of tenants of the Crown to abide strictly by the conditions of their agreements, under pain of the forfeiture of their holdings. Cases of individual hardship, which would engage the attentions of a private landlord, are, in the avoidance of a greater evil, left without redress.
In 1888 two further measures were passed with a similar object, the Government Railways and Public Works Acts. In a book recently published by authority of the Government,1 to which I have to acknowledge my indebtedness, it is stated that the re-organisation of the railway administration was rendered necessary by the excess
"New South Wales; the Mother Colony of the Australias."