of our advanced politicians are desirous of forcing on the United Kingdom.

Although the great continent of Australia is now in point of time only one month distant from England, people here are strangely ignorant of almost everything in connection with it, except that it is a great wool and gold producing country, where about 33 per cent. can be obtained on Government loans. As to the system of government, on which the security of their money practically rests, they are content to remain in ignorance. The late bank failures, which brought distress and ruin to so many thousands in the United Kingdom who had been tempted by the promise of high interest to deposit their savings in Australian financial institutions, will doubtless cause the general public to be more careful about sending money to that country; but surely the condition of affairs in that part of the world ought to create some deeper interest than merely a distrust of colonial investments, many of which are just as sound as any gilt-edged security in England.

Inquiry is certainly necessary to ascertain the original cause or reasons which have brought about such catastrophes. Those whose interest it is to suppress inquiry will at once say that over-trading (which is a politic expression for bogus trading in land booms and such like) is the cause, and that this in time will right itself; but any one who will take the trouble to investigate the matter for himself will see that the disease from which the colonies are suffering is far more deeply seated than the English public is aware of, and that the political system of State Socialism towards which the colonies are steadily drifting is destroying their commercial vitality.

Payment of members of Parliament has generated the professional politician, who must vote as he is ordered, or lose his seat and salary. One need only glance at the debates of the different Parliaments to see how unblushingly this is now admitted. The following examples are in themselves sufficient to show the social status and ideas of a large and increasing number of legislators in the different colonies, and how unfit they are to be trusted with the work for which they have been elected. In Queensland, for instance, owing to shrinking revenue, immense public debt, and general fall in prices, retrenchment in every branch of the public service was being carried out with almost ruthless severity; but members of the Lower House were of opinion that, although every one else should be retrenched, they ought not to be, and they passed a resolution raising their pay from 150l. to 300l. Now, considering that the House only sits for five months, and that certain expenses are granted as well as pay, the original amount was more than ample. This resolution to increase their own salaries was carried by thirty-two votes against twentytwo, but was eventually annulled through the action of the Upper House. Previously to this the Queensland Parliament had given a

strange but instructive example of what things paid members can be capable of. In 1888 members were elected on the basis of a certain payment for each sitting-viz. two guineas per day; but shortly after the House got to work, the members raised their own salaries to 300l., and then when dissolution was in sight, and there might have been some inconvenient heckling on the subject at the elections, they reduced the salaries (of their successors) to 150l. per annum. In South Australia, when retrenchment was also being carried out to its utmost limit, a clause was inserted in the Public Salaries Bill deducting 21. 10s. per annum from the salary of each member. The Upper House proposed that the reduction should be 10l., whereupon a member of the Lower House gave the following information. 'Previous representatives had taught his constituents to cadge and beg; no less than ten times in one week he had been called out of the House for the price of a meal or for a small loan, and, though he was an honest man before he came into the House, his honesty would scarcely survive if he were further retrenched. Labour members had special expenses in having to dress decently and dine in dignity. If the reductions were carried out he would have to hawk oranges in Rudle Street, or, sinking to a lower depth, would have to bring his lunch into the House itself and boil his billy in the lobby.' The Lower House rejected the proposed retrenchment of 71. 108. In the words of the Melbourne Argus (the 24th of August 1894), the labour members of the South Australian Parliament are prepared to starve the hospitals, reduce the municipal grants, abandon the defences, cut down the governor's household, and perform surgical feats of retrenchment on the whole Civil Service; but they unanimously refuse to abridge their own salaries by more than 21. 10s. per annum.'

The

In New Zealand the Government seems to be of much the same calibre as that of the impecunious members in Australia. Minister for Labour last year brought in a bill to restrict immigration. No emigrant was to enter New Zealand unless he had 201. in money, married men 30l., with 10l. for each child. Tourists were only to be allowed passes for six months, with a possible extension for another six months. Before any one landed, a strict medical examination was to be enforced, similar to that for an army recruit. Invalids who might wish to come to New Zealand on account of their lungs were to be most rigidly excluded. Captains of ships were to be held responsible for the wealth, health, and previous history of every person they brought to New Zealand; it was also proposed that if any person, tourist or emigrant, should within one year apply for aid to any public institution, the owner of the ship from which such person landed shall forthwith take him to the port whence he came, and shall pay to the emigration office the cost of his maintenance which has been borne by any public institution, and any expenses incurred

6

by the general Government.'

For certain breaches of the Act, the vessel itself is liable to be seized and condemned as a forfeit to the State.

Sorely pressed as the colony of Victoria has been for the last three years, the Lower House there might have been expected to rise to the occasion and acquiesce in a large reduction of members' salaries, as proposed by the Government which had just come into office to save the credit of the colony. Unfortunately the living of too many of the members would seem to have been dependent on their salaries; and, notwithstanding the promises made at the elections, the Ministerial proposal to reduce salaries from 270l. to 200l. per annum was defeated. A compromise to take off 30l. was, however, accepted; otherwise another appeal to the ballot boxes might have been necessary, and possibly some of these members would not have been again returned to Parliament. In August last a proposal was brought forward in the New South Wales Lower House to stop the payment of members entirely; but with so many professional politicians the motion was defeated: the support, however, given to the proposal was much greater than was expected.

In every profession but politics, a man has to show that he has been educated and trained, before he is allowed to make a living out of his fellow-creatures; but for the most important position of all-that of a legislator-loquacity is apparently the first, and in some instances the only, requirement necessary; inability even to sign his name, as has actually occurred, does not prevent a man obtaining a seat in Parliament. On this subject it may be mentioned that it is amusing and instructive to listen to the popular agitator in the Park at Sydney on Sunday afternoons, getting himself into training for legislative duties. Occasionally a so-called labour member shows himself to be a man of natural ability, and although his education may have been deficient, he in course of time imbibes a certain amount of useful information, and eventually sees the folly of the wild theories professed when he first took to politics; but this experience is only acquired at the expense of the unfortunate colony to which the individual belongs. The fact must not be overlooked that these naturally able men are the exception, and when their eyes are opened to their previous mistakes and they have the moral courage to avow it, such action does not usually meet with the approbation of the electors. On the other hand, some labour members, whose facility of expression shows that they possess a certain amount of ability, are nevertheless content to remain talkers and nothing more, and are always doing their best to keep down their colleagues to their own ignorant level of everything connected with political economy.

If there is one thing more than another which is necessary when a colony is in great monetary difficulties, it is a return of what is

known as confidence in matters of finance, and yet what does one of the most influential of all the labour members, one of those who helped to bring the present Victorian Government into office, do, but propose a repudiation of a portion of the interest in the Harbour Trust Bonds of Melbourne, which are largely held out of the colony? Every landowner in Victoria is also threatened, the same member stating that in his opinion a freeholder only owns the land as far as the people may choose to permit, and that the people are always at liberty to take such portions of their estates from the occupiers as they deem expedient.

Another member of the same calibre, and unfortunately having an almost equal influence amongst his class, on being told that the selectors (small yeomen farmers, the backbone of the colony) would not be able to meet their rents during the present time of severe agricultural depression, if they had to pay the proposed new land tax, calmly answered, 'Then let them part with their land.' This land tax, which would have been the coup de grâce for Victoria, had been proposed by the present Government and was actually passed by the majority of the House of Assembly, but was fortunately thrown out by the Upper House.

When a colony like Victoria finds itself in the power of a class so little qualified for legislation, it may well cause Australians to think that the time has come to reform their political system and prevent the Lower House being monopolised by men such as those referred to. Payment of members has brought them into power, and cessation of payment is the only way to replace them by more capable men. With railways permeating the colonies in every direction, the original reason for paying members now no longer exists; free railway passes to country members to enable them to be present for the three days of attendance per week during the five months of the session would be all that was necessary as regards assistance from the State. This system is now being carried out in Western Australia. The framers of the constitution of that colony, which only became self-governing in 1890, were able to profit by the unfortunate experiences of the others.

That the social and educational status of members of Parliament in Australia has steadily deteriorated since the business and professional man has had to give place to the needy professional politician, and that the difficulty of finding men with statesmanlike ability, especially for matters connected with finance, has very greatly increased, more especially of recent years since the labour member came to the front, is undeniable; but in justice to this class it must be stated that it is not always the bona fide labour member whose proceedings the Australians are becoming so ashamed of. A few of these are earnest men whose only defect is want of education, but that, unfortunately for a legislator, is practically a fatal one. The following state

VOL. XXXVIII-No. 221

D

ment by a colonial judge with reference to the members of Parliament of a certain colony is instructive:

A gentleman, who was Premier and Treasurer . . . was an applicant for a certificate of discharge from his debts, amounting to 94,0667.; another gentleman, who had been Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, sought a discharge from debts amounting to 281,0867. Other cases of certificate applications by prominent members of Parliament might be mentioned. In several cases members of Parliament have secretly compounded for the payment of large sums of money. I take from the court records the liabilities of some members of Parliament who thus compounded with their creditors. The amounts are as follows: 27,0357.; 43,0967. (first composition); second composition of the same person, 73,5571.; 73,7351., 95,8897, 548,0287., 1,520,1757.; I need not mention the amount of the compositions.

That every one who owns property of any description is now most anxious for a change is also unquestionable; but King Demos having been placed in power it will be no easy matter to dethrone him, notwithstanding the fact, admitted by every one of any position in Australia, that the colonies are making rapid strides towards State Socialism, which can only be maintained on borrowed money or confiscated property, and that if a change does not take place their future must be anything but prosperous. It is possible that even now more than one colony in Australia would benefit by investigation on the part of English financial experts with reference to the 200,000,000l. public debt of 4,000,000 Australasians, a debt which is still being increased. Those financial syndicates in London are unquestionably greatly to blame for making this downward course of the colonies so easy. The bankers who lend the money can hardly be aware that in certain cases they are really supporting State Socialism. Certainly, when the end does come, and come it must in due time if this continuous borrowing is not put an end to, the syndicates will not be the sufferers. Taking the colony of Victoria, which has tried the system of paid members of Parliament longer than any other, let us see what the result now is at the present moment as stated in its own newspapers. The colony has a little over a million inhabitants, but the public debt now, in 1895, is 48,000,000l., with Municipal and Trust debts of at least another 5,000,000l.; there is an annual deficit which for the last four years totals up to 3,000,000l.; there is a falling revenue; deserted wharves; and a railway system so badly administered that it is losing upwards of 1,000l. per day; whilst the carriers find it pays to take all classes of goods up-country by the roads which actually run alongside the railways! Trade is so depressed, and there is such a want of confidence generally, that the banks are almost obliged to decline millions offered to be left on deposit for want of business, whilst in the lower classes there is such poverty and suffering that women are only too glad to get a chance of making shirts at 2s. 6d. per dozen.