Before leaving the subject of the Australian Colonies a few observations
on the state of the labour market, and upon the social condition of the
people, may be interesting.
In most of the Australian colonies Free Trade practically prevails, the
exception being Victoria. In this colony the system of Protection is to
be found in its most pronounced form, almost every imported article of
manufacture being the subject of a heavy duty.
The avowed object of this system is to encourage immigration by offering
a premium upon the manufacture of every article in considerable demand in
the Colony. I do not know how far this object has been attained as
concerns immigration, but it is an admitted fact, and one which is
causing Victorian politicians much anxiety, that the colony fails to
retain its population. One result about which there can be no question
is that this fiscal policy is concentrating the population about the
large towns, the city of Melbourne presenting the appearance of the chief
town of an old and populous State. A ride in any direction into the
country, however, soon discloses the real nakedness of the land as
regards inhabitants, the fact being that a very small proportion of the
immigrants ever get beyond the towns. An obvious consequence is that the
natural resources of the country are greatly neglected, and the evil of
this state of things will be apprehended when it is seen that the
manufacturing population is increasing in a vastly greater ratio than the
constituency upon which its trade depends. Under such conditions the
dangers of the situation are seriously augmented when depression of trade
occurs. Such a state of things arose before the building of the late
Exhibition in Melbourne. The building trade and the mechanical
industries in the city being in a stagnant state, large numbers of people
found themselves out of employment, their attitude causing the Government
some anxiety. The Exhibition was decided upon in the hope that its
erection would provide employment until trade should revive. I asked one
of the Commissioners of the Exhibition what would happen if trade did not
revive on the completion of the building? He replied, "Oh, they shall
take it down again, for it will be useless after the Exhibition is over."
Surely a notable instance of the dog subsisting by eating its own tail.
A natural result of all this is to produce in the minds of the working
classes a feeling that the Legislature ought to secure to them a constant
supply of work at high rates of wages, altogether leaving out of
consideration the inevitable effect of such a course in checking demand.
Naturally, each class expects to receive the benefit of this policy, and
it is not surprising that the example of the manufacturers in demanding
Protection should be followed, and even bettered, by the working men.
A curious example of this occurred when I was in Australia. The streets
of Melbourne, being very wide and long, are peculiarly well adapted for
the introduction of tramways. A Bill was introduced into the House
authorising the construction of an experimental line, but it had to be
abandoned in consequence of the determined opposition of the cab drivers,
the majority of whom own the vehicles which they drive. These men
argued, naturally enough, that as manufacturing trades were protected
against foreigners, their business also should be protected against
competition in the only form in which it could arise. Doubtless this
resistance will eventually be overcome, but not without leaving a sense
of injustice.
While each class seeks to have the benefit of Protection for its own
manufactures, it also seeks to obtain the benefits of Free Trade for the
raw material and smaller accessories used in their production. At the
time I am referring to, a Tariff Revision Commission was in session, and
representatives of the various manufacturing trades were examined with
the view of ascertaining whether any changes were desirable. In almost
every case extensive additions to the duty were demanded, eliciting from
some of the members of the Commission a reminder that on previous
occasions the representatives of protected industries declared they only
required the tax to be levied for a limited time in order to enable them
to establish their business.
The Protectionist newspapers used every means to stir up the various
trades to avail themselves of the opportunity the Commission afforded of
making fresh claims.
It so happens that most of the materials used for newspaper printing are
admitted duty free. The _Argus_, the leading journal in Victoria, and a
consistent advocate of Free Trade, took this opportunity of suggesting
that the proprietors of the Protectionist journals should prove the
sincerity of their expressed opinions by appearing before the Commission
and demanding the imposition of a tax upon newspaper materials in the
interests of "native industry." Of course the suggestion was not
adopted, perhaps for this reason, also suggested by the _Argus_, that the
struggle for existence was already sufficiently severe.
The operative printers also demanded of the Commission that printed books
should be more heavily taxed, one of their delegates remarking that
"there was sufficient talent in Victoria to produce their own books,"
while a manufacturer, with great candour, asked for a little increase
upon his special productions on the plea that his profit was not "quite
enough!"
If profits are not enough prices are certainly sufficiently high, as the
following instance will abundantly show. At the close of 1882 one
hundred locomotives were required by the Government of Victoria, and
although the needs of the country were most urgent--complaints of the
inefficiency of the service coming in from all sides--the Protectionist
party in the House demanded that the whole number should be made in the
Colony, although there was only one firm who could undertake their
manufacture, and that firm was unable to deliver the first engine under a
period of ten months, and in addition to this, the total price demanded
for the contract was 66,000 more than the engines could have been
procured for without delay in England. It is admitted that the
locomotives made in the Colony are much inferior to those imported, while
in addition to the excess in first cost, the expense of maintaining the
colonial engines is vastly greater. I was assured by competent
authorities on the railways that the colonial engines are frequently
under repair, and that their life is much shorter than that of their
English rivals. The same evil principle is applied to the purchase of
the miscellaneous stores supplied to the railways, thereby greatly
enhancing the cost of working. Instances might be multiplied of the
mischievous effects of a vicious fiscal policy in a young and undeveloped
Colony. It is notorious that the great want of the Colonies is a larger
population, and the Government in various ways--notably by making grants
in aid of immigration--offer inducements to bring this result about. The
manufacturers also require a larger field for their productions; but the
working-class element is jealous of this very increase lest it should
subject labour to competition, unmindful of the fact that there is ample
room for an infinitely larger population.
Neither the agricultural nor the mining industries of the Colony are
protected. As regards the former, public opinion would not permit the
taxation of food; whilst, in the latter case, the minerals raised are,
for the most part, exported, there being scarcely any demand for them in
the Colony. But, while these industries receive no benefit from the
fiscal policy of the Colony, they are heavily taxed in support of the
revenue, for not only are all the machinery and materials used in their
development subject to more than 25 per cent. import duty, but the cost
of labour is greatly enhanced by the high wages, which become necessary
when the purchasing power of money is diminished by Protection. Every
year witnesses a considerable expansion of the industries in question;
and every year the cry becomes louder against the injustice and
inequality of a system which places the natural resources of the country
under so great a disadvantage. In consequence of the urgency of these
complaints there is now some prospect of a reduction of the duty on
agricultural and mining machinery.
I have met with men who were always ready to descant upon the advantages
of Protection, but who, almost in the same breath, have told me they have
never hesitated to evade the laws when they could do so to advantage, or
even to break them when it suited their convenience and they could do so
without much risk, justifying their conduct by saying that it was "quite
right to cheat the Government when they could, because the Government
were always ready to cheat them." In order to circumvent the practices
of such men as these, the Legislature has been compelled to institute a
complicated system of accounts in connection with the importation of
goods, harassing in the last degree to those who have been accustomed to
do business in a country where trade is unshackled.
In spite of the boasted advantages of Protection, it is evident that some
manufacturers are not happy under it, as is shown by the fact of my
having some time ago received from an important manufacturing firm in
Victoria an application for my business agency in the Colony. In their
application, the firm stated that the workpeople in the Colony were so
very independent and so uncertain that they (the firm in question) would
rather at any time sell imported articles at a smaller profit than
manufacture them in their own works.
I have stated that the avowed objects of Protection were the attraction
of a larger population and the fostering of "native industry." Now, with
these very objects in view, the public men of New South Wales have from
the first adopted and persisted in a policy diametrically opposed to that
which has for years past been in force in the neighbouring Colony of
Victoria. If the principles of Protection be sound, we should expect to
find in the Free Trade Colony of New South Wales a state of things even
much worse than I have shown to exist in Victoria. But what do we find?
A constantly increasing population; abundance of employment; a vast and
continually expanding railway system; shipping considerably greater than
that of the Port of London one hundred years ago; an import and export
trade greater than that of Great Britain at the same period; in short,
every evidence of great and enduring prosperity.
As in America, "where acres are many and men are few," the manufacture of
agricultural machinery has been brought to greater perfection than in
almost any other country, so in Australia the same conditions have
developed a flourishing manufacture of special machinery used in
mining--one of the staple industries of the country. A demand for this
improved machinery has recently sprung up in other countries, a
considerable order having been received from India by an Australian firm
while I was there.
In Sydney--not in spite of, but because of, Free Trade--the largest
manufacturing concern in the Australian Colonies has grown up. The
founders of this large business had the sagacity at the outset to
recognise that there were certain articles which must of necessity be
better and more cheaply made in the Colony than they could be imported.
They put down steam saw-mills for supplying planking, which before had
been imported; they next proceeded to make such articles as
window-sashes, doors, frames, etc., for house-building, choosing such as
could be manufactured almost entirely by machinery, which they obtained
from England and America. By such natural means, and altogether free
from legislative interference, they have built up the enormous business
known as Hudson Brothers, Limited, railway rolling-stock manufacturers.
It is clear that with the most improved machinery, purchased in the
cheapest markets and imported duty free, and having inexhaustible
supplies of native timber, not only cheaper but much better adapted to
the climate than that hitherto imported, the opening for a perfectly
legitimate business presented itself; in fact, they created a genuine
"native industry." But Messrs. Hudson, recognising, as already pointed
out, that other countries have also special advantages for the production
of certain articles, wisely abstain from attempting a hopeless
competition. For this reason they import such portions of the
rolling-stock as wheels, axles, springs, carriage-furniture, etc.
The free importation of mining and agricultural machinery into New South
Wales has given these industries such a stimulus that they have been more
generally developed throughout that Colony than those of Victoria,
causing a continuous and increasing demand for labour. The immigration
into New South Wales is greatly in excess of that into Victoria; and, in
addition to this, large numbers of artisans and others are continually
crossing the border from the latter into the former Colony. In 1880,
forty-five thousand persons arrived in New South Wales from other than
Australian ports, and it is not too much to say that there is ample room
for four times their number every year.
Until a few years since the great shipping companies had their repairing
yards and shops in Victoria, but the extremely high cost of everything
required by them compelled them at last to remove their establishments to
her Free Trade neighbour, thereby effecting a very considerable saving.
The same causes have doubtless been influential in securing to New South
Wales the remarkable development of its shipping interests during the
last generation.
So little is known in England of what our friends in the Colonies are
doing, that probably many will be startled to learn that whereas in 1782
the total imports and exports of Great Britain amounted in value to about
23,850,000, in New South Wales, in 1881, the value was 27,650,000.
During the last thirty years the shipping annually arriving in Sydney has
increased from 90 vessels, with a tonnage of 48,776, to 1,389 vessels,
with a tonnage of 973,425; and the clearances in the same period
increased from 47 vessels, with a tonnage of 24,081, to 1,322 vessels,
with a tonnage of 941,895.
During the last ten years, too, the population of New South Wales has
increased 53 per cent., while that of Victoria has only increased 18 per
cent., and while the excess of immigration over emigration in the former
Colony has quadrupled, it has been almost stationary in the latter.
During the same period the Customs revenue in Victoria, notwithstanding
the high tariff, has remained almost stationary; while in New South
Wales, with a low tariff and smaller population, it has increased nearly
one-half. The imports, too, have increased 80 per cent., against 17 per
cent. in Victoria, and the exports 94 per cent. against 28 per cent.
These figures, taken from official papers in 1882, have never been dealt
with by Victorian Protectionists, but are full of meaning to all those
whom vested interests have not made blind. While it is true that
Australia presents, and will continue to present, a great field for the
surplus population of older countries, it is, in my opinion, a mistake to
suppose that the upper grades of English artisans improve their position
much by going there. Wages are higher it is true, and eight hours make
up a day's work; animal food also is cheaper, but almost everything else
is dearer than in England--house-rents, indeed, enormously so. An
artisan who in Birmingham would be well housed for 5s. to 6s. a week
would have to pay 1 for much inferior accommodation; this remark applies
generally in Australia, the principal cause being the great lack of
artisans in the building trade. Many too, may consider the higher wages
and shorter hours of labour as not too great a compensation for the
exhaustion induced by the heat and dust of the climate and the annoyance
from insect life. But for unskilled labour and for skilled agricultural
labour there can be only one opinion,--viz., that the Colonies present a
field where sobriety and industry are certain to bring a reward such as
is altogether unattainable at home.
The education of the people is admirably provided for by the Legislature,
every district being well supplied with first-rate schools, while the
means of intercommunication by rail, post, and telegraph are superior to
those of any country in the world, when the smallness of the population
and the immense distances to be covered are taken into consideration.
In Australia, especially in the southern Colonies, there is happily no
native question to absorb the attention of the people and to upset the
calculations of financiers, consequently the colonists are able to devote
all their energy to opening up the natural resources of the country. At
the present time many millions of money are set aside for the
construction of new railways and for the supply and storage of water, and
when these are completed vast areas of agricultural land will be opened
sufficient to accommodate all the spare population of England for many
years to come.
If "Young Australia," like his cousin in America, has an unbounded
confidence in the future of his country, he has even more in himself, as
is well illustrated by the following story told me by an old resident.
In one of the cities a number of young men had established a Debating
Society, which met every Wednesday evening in a room in a narrow street.
On the other side of the street was a church where service was held at
the same time. The weather being hot the windows of both buildings were
usually open, and the important deliberations of the young men were much
interrupted by the preaching and singing in the church. With a
delightful unconsciousness of what in slang phrase is called "cheek,"
they instructed their secretary to write to the minister of the church,
requesting him to hold his service upon some other evening of the week!
The people of Australia are possessed of vast energy and great
intelligence: and, having unlimited and well-grounded faith in their
capacity to conquer the many difficulties which lie before them, they
determined that their future career shall do no discredit to the great
country from which they have sprung, and of whose history they are so
proud.
[Picture: The Duck-Billed Platypus (Ornithorhyncus paradoxus)]