CHAPTER LXIV. CONCLUSION.
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CONCLUSION.
CHAPTER LXIV.
CONCLUSION.
I HAVE now finished my task, and have very little, I may almost say nothing, to add in a final chapter. My ideas as to the general condition of the colonies I have given in the introduction; and I have, I hope, told plainly, --have certainly told at full length, --the impressions which I received of each of them as I went on. I am aware, indeed, that I have endeavoured to tell too much; and that in a work which from its nature must necessarily be desultory and hurried, --conditions which are obligatory on a writer who desires to produce his descriptions fresh by writing them as he goes, --I have been tempted to details, the value of which depends on their accuracy. I have striven to be accurate, but I know that I must often have failed. I think, however, that the general result of the figures which I have given will be found to be correct.
The phenomenon in regard to the Australian colonies which most powerfully strikes the observer is the intensity of the feeling of separate interest which divides one from another. There is at present very little tendency among them to that combination which seems to me to be essential to their future greatness. That they will at some time combine themselves I look upon as certain. When the leading politicians of the colonies are "colonial born" there will rise up among them a feeling of Australian patriotism, --rivalling, and at last exceeding, that British patriotism which is at present felt as a passion among the people. Regard for the country of their birth will lead them to look for Australian greatness, and the way to that condition can be found only in Federation. And, as certainly, Federation will lead to ultimate Separation from the mother country. Here, in these few last words, I will not trouble the
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reader by repeating what I have already said on this tender subject. I will not again argue that they who love Great Britain well, may, without offence to her or her Colonial Empire, look forward with satisfaction to the future separation of Australasia. But I agree with those who think that the day for such a step has not yet come, and that much has yet to be done before it can arrive. Holding this view I can see with less regret that present fashion among the colonies of holding themselves aloof from each other of which I have spoken.
But there is a step which I regard as precursive of Federation which I think should be taken at once, and as to which I would hope that action might be commenced in aid of it by our Colonial Office in Downing Street. The immediate prosperity of the colonies is greatly injured, and their career impeded by the want of a customs union among them. They cannot consume the produce one of another, and therefore cannot lay themselves out for the productions for which they are best qualified, because prohibitory customs duties exist among them. Sugar from Queensland, wine from New South Wales, flour from South Australia, and fruit and hops from Tasmania cannot reach the Victorian consumers without a customs duty, --and consequently the producers of those articles, each in his own colony, are restricted in their work of producing. Consequently also the people of Victoria are restricted in their consumption. My first immediate wish for the colonies is that they should join in establishing a customs union.
Here, in England, we naturally regard the colonies chiefly as the recipients of our redundant population. In that respect they are invaluable to us. We may probably be justified in saying that our great increase of people has been given to us in order that we might populate such lands. But we have much redundant population for which they are not fitted. The penniless young man who wants a genteel position, and who bases his claim to that condition of things on his education, will not generally find his claim allowed. If he go out with his position assured to him by interest it may be well with him, otherwise he will descend into the lowest grade of servitude, and will probably find himself a shepherd. The same fate in a different form will be the fate of ladies who emigrate hoping to earn by their talents and acquirements that bread which a too crowded market makes it difficult for them to find here. For their wares, excellent as they are, the market is also crowded there. Such are not the emigrants that Great Britain should be most urgent to send.
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But for men who can and will work with their hands, for women who can cook and be generally useful about a household, for girls who are ready to learn to cook and to be generally useful, these colonies are a paradise. They will find the whole condition of life changed for them. The slight estimation in which labour is held here will be changed for a general respect. The humbleness, the hat-touching, the servility which is still incidental to such work as theirs in this old country, and which is hardly compatible with exalted manhood, has found no footing there. I regard such manhood among the masses of the people as the highest sign of prosperity which a country can give.
