COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION BILL. [INTRODUCTION.] THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. J. CHAMBERLAIN, Birmingham, W.): I have no doubt there are many Members of the House who will be inclined to envy me the privilege that has fallen to my lot in introducing this Bill for the federation of some of our greatest colonies-a Bill which marks an era in the history of Australia, and is a great and important step towards the organisation of the British Empire. This Bill, which is the result of the careful and prolonged labours of the ablest statesin Australia, enables that great island continent to enter at once the of English-speaking widening circle nations. No longer will she be a congeries of States, each of them separate from and entirely independent of the others, a position which anyone will see might possibly in the future, through the natural consequences of competition, men an become a source of danger and lead, at any a common and a or also in our interest as well; we believe the | bearing on the interests of the Empire may be relations between ourselves and these colonies will be simplified, will be more frequent and unrestricted, and, if it be possible, though I hardly think it is, will be more cordial when we have to deal with a single central authority instead of having severally to consult six independent Governments. Whatever is good for Australia is good for the whole British Empire. Therefore, we all of us independently altogether of party, whether at home or in any other portion of the Empire--rejoice at this proposal, welcome the new birth of which we are witnesses, and anticipate for these great free and progressive communities a future even more prosperous than their past, and an honourable and important position in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race. I hope the House will not think I am taking up its time unnecessarily if, in a few brief words, I give some account of the history of this great movement. The House is aware that the first colonisation of Australia took place in New South Wales in 1788, and that for nearly a generation after that time, as other settlements were made at vast distances along the coast, they all came in some measure under the control of what I may call the central Administration which existed at Sydney. But it will be readily seen that, as these settlements gradually became more populous and of greater importance, the difficulty of such a system of central administration became almost intolerable; and accordingly in 1825 what was then known as Van Diemen's Land became a separate colony under the name of Tasmania, and the example of Tasmania was followed in succession by Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, and lastly by Queensland in 1859. Victoria, which was then known as the Port Philip Settlement, was separated from New South Wales by Act of Parliament in 1850, but in 1847, when giving assent to this proposal, Earl Grey, to whom we all must feel we owe most of the principles by which our colonial policy is guided, laid down the views then enter tained by him and Her Majesty's Government of the time in reference to the ultimate necessity for some central authority in Australia. He said "It is necessary while providing for local management of local interests we should not omit to provide for the central management of all interests not local. Questions having a left appropriately to the Imperial Parliament; but there are questions which though local to Australia collectively are not merely local in relation to one colony, though each may have part in a common interest, and in regard to which it may be essential to the welfare of all to have a single authority, and they may more appropriately and effectually be decided by a single authority in Australia than by the more remote, less accessible, and, in truth, less competent authority of Parliament.” It will be seen that Earl Grey foresaw that in the future, at any rate, this necessity would arise. He was a little before his time, for when, in 1850, he introduced proposals for constituting such central authority, his proposals met with no general support, and the Bill, when it became an Act, was confined to the establishment of the colony of Victoria, separating it from the older colony of New South Wales. But from this time, and continuously down to the present day, the subject of some closer union between the separate Australian provinces States has attracted the attention of all farseeing and patriotic statesmen, especially in Australia. And among those who laboured in this movement I think it would be ungrateful not to mention the name of Sir Henry Parkes. Sir Henry Parkes was certainly a most remarkable individuality; he had his peculiarities, as most of us have, but no one would deny that he was a man of great capacity, of great power of work, of great resource, and of intense local patriotism; and I think that to-day, when the consummation of the work for which he laboured so long is clearly within sight, we may well bear his memory in respectful regard. In 1867 the Dominion of Canada was established. This gave to Sir Henry Parkes an opportunity which he was not slow to seize, and, although he had raised the question before, he now again emphatically urged his fellow-Australians to follow the example of the Dominion of Canada. Still, however, no progres was made. A little later the somewhat sinister activity of certain foreign Power in the Pacific brought the matter home in a clearer degree to the majority of the Australian people; and in 1883, accordingly, a conference was called, again at the instance of Sir Henry Parkes, of all the colonies, which resulted in certain recommendations, in the adoption of certain general principles, which led almost immediately to the establishment of what is known as the Federal Council. The Federal Council, however, although very wisely designed as an experimental step at a time when there was still much to be done before the colonies themselves could see the necessity of a closer union-the Federal Council was not a very effective instrument; it had restricted legislative power, no executive power, it was neither more nor less than an advisory council, and under the circumstances it did not excite any warm popularity in Australia. The great colony of New South Wales refused from the first to attend its deliberations; South Australia subsequently withdrew from them; and now, having served its turn, this Federal Council will be abolished by the Bill which I am about to introduce. Then, again, after the establishment of the Federal Council, and coming down to 1890, a good deal of uneasiness, the result, I think, largely of what was known as the Russian scare, was felt in Australia as to the state of Australian defences, and accordingly another conference was then held in Melbourne. It was followed by a convention in Sydney in 1891, when the first great advance towards a federal union was at last made, because the convention of Sydney in 1891 produced a draft of a Commonwealth Bill which has been the foundation for all subsequent discussion. Those who are acquainted with this draft, which has, of course, very many points of resemblance with the present measure, will, I am sure, recognise the great constructive skill with which it was framed; and they may be interested to know that its great qualities are largely, if not chiefly, due to the labour given to it by Sir Samuel Griffith, the present Chief Justice of Queensland, and by Mr. Barton, who was then Attorney General in Sir George Dibbs' Government, and who is now the distinguished representative of New South Wales among the delegates who have recently been our guests. Well, this draft was then submitted to the local Parliaments, but still, although quiet progress had been made, there was not sufficient popular force behind the movement to secure the Bill being brought into operation; and it was evident to those who were interested in the movement, and particularly I think to my hon. friend Mr. Barton, that the next step must be to educate the people of Australia themselves to the necessity and the importance of this movement. Accordingly, I believe it is to him that we owe the formation of what is known as the Federal League, which went up and down the country throughout Australia informing the people of the nature of their proposal, explaining the draft, and urging the desirability of its adoption. And so successful was this educational movement that in 1895 the Premiers, meeting again, agreed to bring forward enabling Bills in their several Parliaments for providing a convention of delegates which should be instructed and empowered to frame a constitution. This constitution was then to be submitted to the separate Parliaments sitting in Grand Committee-in Committee of the whole House--and the amendments which might be made in the several Parliaments were then to be referred back to another meeting of the convention and considered by them, and a final draft after such consideration was then to be submitted to the people of the several States in the shape of a general referendum. The convention, accordingly, was held at Adelaide in March, 1897; and certainly, I think, anyone who reads the history of the debates which took place then will agree with me that it would have been absolutely impossible to have collected together more capable, more able, more efficient representatives of Australian feeling than met in that convention. I say that, but I must make one exception. Owing to circumstances on which I need not dwell, the Government of Queensland refused to pass an enabling Bill, and consequently at this convention Queensland was not represented, but the other colonies were all present. The convention went to work in that businesslike spirit which we flatter ourselves distinguishes British proceedings throughout the world. In the first instance they considered and passed resolutions settling the principle upon which they would proceed; then these resolutions were divided amongst number of committees, and considered by them, and the result was afterwards discussed and finally settled in the whole convention. The draft so prepared went to the different Parliaments, and was returned by them to the Sydney convention in 1897 with their amendments. That convention adjourned to Melbourne in 1898, and the final draft as it was submitted to Her Majesty's Government the other day by the Parliaments of the five colonies who may be described as the federating colonies-the draft as then a The submitted was finally passed by the con- provision has been made for any such vention. It had still to go through amendment in the Bill itself; and, conthe ordeal of a referendum. The sidering the magnitude and the variety first referendum showed 219,000 votes of the interests that we are to deal with, for and 108,000 against the Bill. the intricacy and the importance of the Unfortunately, or as it may be considered subjects with which the Bill has to deal, fortunately, the New South Wales I think that no praise can be too high for majority, although there was a majority those whose moderation, patience, skill, in favour of the Bill, did not reach the mutual consideration, and patriotism have amount of 80,000 votes which had been been able to produce so great a result. fixed as the minimum to justify the It would be absolutely impossible for me, adoption of the measure. Accordingly within anything like a reasonable time, on that occasion the Bill was not passed to refer to the multifarious details of this by that colony. New South Wales then great measure, nor do I think it necessary took the opportunity of proposing further to do so, because I cannot conceive that amendments. These amendments were the House will be inclined to discuss these considered in a friendly spirit by another details in any critical spirit; but I might meeting of the Premiers, and they were be allowed, and it would interest the to some extent adopted, the proceedings House, I think, if I call attention to the being, perhaps, rather in the nature of a general scope of the measure and to some compromise. But still I think in sub- of its most striking features. I think it stance the wishes of New South Wales is true to say that, on the whole, this new were complied with, and arrangements Constitution, although it is in important were then made for a second referendum. respects unlike every other constitution On this occasion the referendum took at present existing, still in the main, and place in the five colonies-I should have more than any other, follows the Constisaid that previous to the first referendum tution of the United States of America. taking place there were only four colonies, But it would be, perhaps, more interesting Queensland and Western Australia being to us to contrast it with the Constitution excluded-but in the second and last of our own colony of Canada. referendum Queensland took part for the differences between the Constitution of first time, and the results were 377,600 the Dominion and the Constitution of votes for the Bill and 141,500 against. the new Commonwealth are, I think, to Western Australia did not join in this be explained in a certain fundamental decision, but pressed for certain further diversity in the position of the two amendments, which, however, the Premiers colonies, and also in the methods by decided it was too late for them to con- which the Constitution has been brought sider. And so the Bill is presented to us. into existence. In the case of Canada, It comes with the authority behind it of the delegates came here and the Constitufive federating colonies, and it is this tion was settled here in conference with Bill, with a few alterations, but substan- Her Majesty's Government, and was the tially this Bill, with 128 clauses, and result, to some extent at any rate, of dealing with a vast number, probably their advice and suggestion. In the case with hundreds, or even thousands, of Australia, the people of Australia, of separate propositions of the greatest through their representatives, have importance, which I have to ask worked alone, without either inviting or leave to introduce. I think it will be desiring any assistance from outside. In admitted that this Bill is a Bill worthy Australia, it must also be remembered, of all the care and the labour which has the separate States have enjoyed for a much been bestowed upon it. I think I may longer period than had the provinces of describe it as, and it certainly is, a monu- Canada complete independent self-government of legislative competency. Of ing existence, and, accordingly, while in course, the framers of the Bill themselves Canada the people had before them at are perfectly ready to admit that it may the time that the Constitution was decided not be perfect, that amendments may upon the warning, I might almost say, ultimately be required in it, and that ex- afforded by the civil war in America of perience may show that something has the danger of exaggerating State rights, been omitted, or that something has been and while the special provinces had no placed within its four corners which might desire to put forward those rights in too with advantage have been left out. But emphatic a manner, in Australia there |