forwardness, I may fairly put the one against the other and leave you to say on which side the testimony lies. Let me say what pleasure it must have given us all to hear the cheery, ringing utterances of his Lordship. However, in reply to Mr. Chapman, who I am sure did not mean to impugn my personal accuracy, I will ask you to consider just one or two illustrative facts. A few years ago, for instance, dairy cattle were selling at an average of about £2 to £3 a head. Since the introduction of the dairying industry, and the application of co-operative principles, dairy cattle are now worth in many localities £9 to £15 a head. Sheep in New Zealand a few years ago were worth a few shillings a head; last year they were fetching from 18s. to 22s. in many cases. Of course, in some parts of the country where communication is not very advanced, the prices are not so high; but in the Illawarra district, since the introduction of the new system, dairy cows formerly worth from £2 to £3 now average from £9 to sometimes £12. So it is in other parts of Australia. Mr. Chapman also took exception to my estimate-which is a matter of individual opinion, after all-of the value of the forest lands. Well, I am perfectly certain I am well within the mark when I said the great red-gum forests of the Darling and Murray basin, the cedar lands of the northern coast, the iron bark, stringy bark, and other hard woods of the interior uplands-that in these, with the jarrah and other hard wood forests of Western and Southern Australia, not to speak of our pine, kauri and blue-gum forests, the Colonies had an asset which would more than pay twice over the whole national debt of Australasia. I should be glad to get them for the money, and I think I should make a very good thing out of it. Then, Mr. Chapman showed the bent of his mind when he used one adjective in regard to the recent coal discovery under Sydney Harbour. He spoke of this "imaginary" find of coal. That is very suggestive. It shows the general trend of his mind. I can only say, if he wants ocular demonstration of the fact, I shall be very glad to give him my card and if he will go down with that to Sir Saul Samuel's office, I think he will find evidence that will satisfy him in the shape of the actual core of coal over ten feet long. The scope of my paper, it should be remembered, was recent discoveries and developments. I was not seeking to decry the marvellous wealth of the coalfields of other parts. I desired to show what these recent developments were, and I have no doubt before long we shall have even more astounding developments still to chronicle, showing the wealth of New South Wales to be really inexhaustible. As to the unemployed, I would refer my friend to the fact that more than 10,000 of the so-called

Y

15s. and tucker." That is the style

unemployed have found remunerative employment in the last twelve months from the city of Sydney alone. The men remaining number, I believe, from 2,000 to 3,000, and they largely consist of men who in any country, and at any time, would be unemployed. Many of them are, without dispute, just that class of "gangrel bodies," sorners, and loafers-idle parasites on the body politic-we find in all countries, and if you were to search the great cities of England, you would find them in even greater numbers. I will give you an illustration of the class I mean. A man came up to a friend of mine who was riding over his run, and wanted work.. My friend said: "Well, our shed will open in a few weeks "--the man said he was a shearer-"in the meantime I can give you some light work, cutting down thistles on the run." "All right, what will you give me?" "Well," my friend said, "it is only light work; I will give you 15s. and your tucker." I would not like to repeat verbatim et literatim the reply of the unemployed, but holding up his heavy, well-shod hoof he said: "Do you see that there boot, sir? Well, I would rather tramp off that there - boot off that there foot before I would take your of many of the unemployed we have-loafers about the city, who don't want work, who won't work, and never will work. I myself think we might well introduce the German system of employment into the Colonies, and I think that will be done before long. Where men are willing to work for a reasonable wage, there is any amount of work in Australia. As to my friend from South Australia, I think he will, on reflection, be of opinion that his remarks were, perhaps, scarcely up to the level of the occasion. I have tried to strike the idea that we are not going to perpetuate these petty divisions, that we aspire to be a United Australia under the federal flag, and that what makes for the good of New South Wales will make for the good of South Australia. If a man thinks he can do better in New South Wales than in South Australia, there will be others, in a migratory population like ours, who will think they can do better in South Australia than in New South Wales; and perhaps they will find one. Colony just as good as the other. If I was unfortunate in selecting this extract, I am sorry; because I have the highest regard for South Australia, and believe she has a future before her not less promising than that of any other of the Australian Colonies. As regards Mr. Dangar, it did one good to hear that honoured name again mentioned in such an assembly as this. There are no finer pioneers who have ever come to Australia than the Dangars; their name is synonymous with all that is straightforward,

honourable, manly, and courageous in the development of Australia. I am inclined to agree that the single tax is impracticable; at the same time, if taxation has to be resorted to, the land is a fair source from which we ought to get a portion of it at least, especially as the State expenditure has done so much in many cases to increase its value. In regard to my ultra-British friend Mr. Beetham, he says let us "emulate the Old Country, and not eclipse her." Well, I have an ambition to be even a better man than my father. I say let us emulate the Old Country in everything that is good-let us eclipse her, if possible, in all that is good, and let us hope she will not be ashamed to take a hint from her children at any time, when they are going in the path of everything that is truly noble and wisely progressive. I thank you for the reception you have given me to-night. I am exceedingly pleased to have had the opportunity of seeing so many who evidently take a deep interest in the welfare and prosperity of our Colonies. I have tried to strike a high key note, and I shall be sorry if I have failed. My object was not to speak of any one Colony or any one interest in particular, but to impress on your imaginations the enormous development which is taking place in profitable industry all over the Colonies. In conclusion, I wish to move a hearty vote of thanks to our Chairman, the oldest Agent-General of the Colonies at the present time, and one who has borne the heat and burden of the day in all sorts of worthy enterprise, not only material, but intellectual, moral, and political. The name of Sir Saul Samuel is one that not only stands high in the respect, but lies deep in the affections, of all those who know what has been the progress of the Colonies within the last 30 or 40 years; and I ask you, therefore, to give him a hearty vote of thanks, encouraging him in his noble work, and showing we honour and respect him for the good qualities of heart and brain which have made his name such an honoured name amongst us.

The CHAIRMAN having replied, the Meeting terminated.

324

SEVENTH ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.

THE Seventh Ordinary General Meeting of the Session was held at the Whitehall Rooms, Hôtel Métropole, on Tuesday, May 8, 1894, when Sir Charles Tupper, Bart., G.C.M.G., C.B., read a Paper on "Canada in Relation to the Unity of the Empire.'

The Right Hon. the Marquis of Lorne, K.T., G.C.M.G., a VicePresident of the Institute, presided.

The Minutes of the last Ordinary General Meeting were read and confirmed, and it was announced that since that Meeting 23 Fellows had been elected, viz., 7 Resident and 16 Non-Resident.

Resident Fellows:

Richard O. Backhouse, Frederick Carter, Alexander Douglas, Frederick William Fry, George Stanley Harris, Lawrence A. Wallace, A.M.Inst.C.E., George Wood.

Non-Resident Fellows:

Alexander Carrick (New Zealand), Alcide Des Mazures, Rev. R. Gresley Douglas, M.A. (Cape Colony), Joseph R. Dyer (Transvaal), Harry M. Elliott (Transvaal), Major Patrick W. Forbes (Matabeleland), William John Garnett (Victoria), Dr. Henry E. Garrett (New South Wales), William Ingall, M.C.P. (British Guiana), Hon. C. J. Johnston, M.L.C. (New Zealand), James Malcolm (New South Wales), Capt. R. G. Murray (R.M.S. "Himalaya"), Dr. Walter F. Oakeshott (Transvaal), George F. Perrins (Transvaal), Edward Sheilds (Cape Colony), Edmund T. Somerset (Transvaal).

It was also announced that donations to the Library of books, maps, &c., had been received from the various Governments of the Colonies and India, Societies, and public bodies both in the United Kingdom and the Colonies, and from Fellows of the Institute and others.

The CHAIRMAN: Comparisons are odious, and you will not think I am comparing one Colony with another if I venture to say that in one respect Canada is most remarkable-namely, in the steadfastness with which she allows Ministries to remain in office; for it may be in your recollection, when you consider the politics of States on the continent of Europe and elsewhere, that in some, at all events, of those States, Ministries are changed almost with the changing of the moon. As against that-as I cannot help thinking-evil example we see, if we turn to Canada, that for five years since

Confederation one party was in office, and with the exception of those five years another party has been constantly in power by the suffrages of the Canadian people. We shall have the great happiness to-night of hearing a Paper from one of the fathers of the Canadian Confederation, who has had the good fortune to be of the party which has been so constantly and steadfastly in office ever since the formation of that great Dominion; and as we know that the Confederation has had an almost unexampled success amongst the federal systems of the world, Sir Charles Tupper, in speaking of Canadian wishes and aspirations and the conditions of the country, will be able to tell you, with the utmost authority, what those desires are, he himself knowing well their very spring and sources. Sir CHARLES TUPPER then read his Paper on

CANADA IN RELATION TO THE UNITY OF
THE EMPIRE.

THE most important event of recent years conducive to the unity of the British Empire was, in my opinion, the Confederation of Canada. Down to that period British North America was composed of five isolated provinces, and the great Rupert's Land was a howling wilderness, occupied by 25,000 savages, and the home of the buffalo. The provinces were separated by hostile tariffs, with no common interests and no means of intercommunication by railway. The Great North-West, declared by Lord Dufferin to be capable of providing happy homes for 40 millions of people, was separated from the older provinces by a thousand miles of wilderness, and by the Rocky Mountains from the Province of British Columbia. All this has been changed. These isolated provinces, separated from the Republic to the south by an invisible line of from 3,000 to 4,000 miles in extent, have been united under one strong Federal Government, and bound together by a great transcontinental railway from Halifax on the Atlantic Ocean to Vancouver on the Pacific.

Another important event conducing to the unity of the Empire is about to take place. A Conference is to be held at Ottawa, on June 21 next, which will be attended by representatives of the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, and of the Imperial Government, and possibly of the South African Governments, for the purpose of considering the best means of drawing these great outlying possessions of the Crown into closer trade relations with each other and with Great Britain. A deputation of the representatives of Australasia, South Africa, and Canada recently had the