A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES.
Early in the year 1900 the Hon. B. R. Wise, then Attorney-General of
New South Wales, suggested a campaign for effective voting in the
mother State, with the object of educating the people, so that
effective voting might be applied for the first Federal elections. Mrs.
Young and I left Adelaide on May 10 of that year to inaugurate the
movement in New South Wales. During the few hours spent in Melbourne
Professor Nanson, the Victorian leader of the reform, with another
earnest worker (Mr. Bowditch), called on us, and we had a pleasant talk
over the proposed campaign. The power of The Age had already been felt,
when, at the convention election, the 10 successful candidates were
nominees of that paper, and at that time it was a sturdy opponent of
proportional representation. The Argus, on the other hand, had done
yeoman service in the advocacy of the reform from the time that
Tasmania had so successfully experimented with the system. As we were
going straight through to Sydney, we were able only to suggest
arrangements for a possible campaign on our return. Our Sydney visit
lasted eight weeks, during which time we addressed between 20 and 30
public meetings. Our welcome to the harbour city was most enthusiastic,
and our first meeting, held in the Protestant Hall, on the Wednesday
after our arrival, with the Attorney-General in the chair, was packed.
The greatest interest was shown in the counting of the 387 votes taken
at the meeting. Miss Rose Scott, however, had paved the way for the
successful public meeting by a reception at her house on the previous
Monday, at which we met Mr. Wise, Sir William McMillan, Mr. (afterwards
Sr. Walker), Mr. (now Sir A. J.) Gould, Mr. Bruce Smith, Mr. W. Holman,
and several other prominent citizens. The reform was taken up earnestly
by most of these gentlemen. Sir William McMillan was appointed the
first President of the league, which was formed before we left Sydney.
During the first week of our visit we dined with Dr. and Mrs. Garran,
who, with their son (Mr. Robert Garran, C.M.G., afterwards the
collaborateur of Sir John Quick in the compilation of the "Annotated
Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth"), were keen supporters of
effective voting. Among the host of well-known people who came after
dinner to meet us was Mr. (now Sir) George Reid, with whom we had an
interesting talk over the much-discussed "Yes-No" Policy. We had both
opposed the Bill on its first appeal to the people, and seized the
occasion to thank Mr. Reid for his share in delaying the measure. "You
think the Bill as amended an improvement?" he asked. "Probably,"
replied Mrs. Young, "but as I didn't think the improvement great
enough, I voted against it both times." But I had not done so, and my
vote on the second occasion was in favour of the Bill.
But, as Mr. Reid admitted, the dislike of most reformers for federation
was natural enough, for it was only to be expected that "reforms would
be difficult to get with such a huge, unwieldy mass" to be moved before
they could be won. And experience has proved the correctness of the
view expressed. Anything in the nature of a real reform, judging from
the experience of the past, will take a long time to bring about. I am
convinced that had not South Australia already adopted the principle of
the all-round land tax, the progressive form would have been the only
one suggested or heard of from either party. Politicians are so apt to
take the line of least resistance, and when thousands of votes of small
landowners are to be won through the advocacy of an exemption,
exemptions there will be. The whole system of taxation is wrong, it
seems to me, and though, as a matter of expediency, sometimes from
conviction, many people advocate the opposite course, I have long felt
that taxation should not be imposed according to the ability to pay so
much as according to benefits received from the State. We are
frequently warned against expecting too much from Federation during its
earlier stages, but experience teaches us that, as with human beings,
so with nations, a wrong or a right beginning is responsible to a great
extent for right or wrong development. I have the strongest hopes for
the future of Australia, but the people must never be allowed to forget
that eternal vigilance, as in the past, must still in the future be the
price we must pay for our liberty. Later, Mr. Reid presided at our
Parliament House meeting, and afterwards entertained us at afternoon
tea. But one of our pleasantest memories was of a day spent with the
great freetrader and Mrs. Reid at their Strathfield home. I was anxious
to hear Mr. Reid speak, and was glad when the opportunity arose on the
occasion of a no-confidence debate. But he was by no means at his best,
and it was not until I heard him in his famous freetrade speech on his
first visit to Adelaide that I realized how great an orator he was. At
the close of the no-confidence debate the triumphant remark of an
admirer that "Adelaide couldn't produce a speaker like that" showed me
that a prophet sometimes hath honour, even in his own country.
Mr. Wise was a brilliant speaker, and a most cultured man, and a
delightful talker. Of Mrs. Parkes, then President of the Women's
Liberal League, I saw much. She was a fine speaker, and a very
clear-headed thinker. Her organizing faculty was remarkable, and her
death a year or two ago was a distinct loss to her party. Her home life
was a standing example of the fallacy of the old idea that a woman who
takes up public work must necessarily neglect her family. Mrs. Barbara
Baynton was a woman of a quite different type, clever and emotional, as
one would expect the author of the brilliant but tragic "Bush Studies"
to be. She was strongly opposed to Federation, as, indeed were large
numbers of clever people in New South Wales. Frank Fox (afterwards
connected with The Lone Hand), Bertram Stevens (author of "An Anthology
of Australian Verse"), Judge Backhouse (who was probably the only
Socialist Judge on the Australian Bench), were frequent visitors at
Miss Scott's, and were all interesting people. An afternoon meeting on
effective voting was arranged at the Sydney University, I think, by Dr.
Anderson Stuart. We were charmed with the university and its beautiful
surroundings. Among the visitors that afternoon was Mrs. David, a
charming and well-read woman, whose book describing an expedition to
Funafuti, is delightful. We afterwards dined with her and Professor
David, and spent a pleasant hour with them.
I was not neglectful of other reforms while on this campaign, and found
time to interest myself in the State children's work with which my
friend, Mrs. Garran, was so intimately connected. We went to Liverpool
one day to visit the benevolent institution for men. There were some
hundreds of men there housed in a huge building reminiscent of the
early convict days. If not the whole, parts of it had been built by the
convicts, and the massive stone staircase suggested to our minds the
horrors of convict settlement. I have always resented the injury done
to this new country by the foundation of penal settlements, through
which Botany Bay lost its natural connotation as a habitat for
wonderful flora, and became known only as a place where convicts were
sent for three-quarters of a century. Barrington's couplet, written as
a prologue at the opening of the Playhouse, Sydney, in 1796, to a play
given by convicts--
True patriots we, for be it understood
We left our country for our country's good--
was clever, but untrue. All experience proves that while it is a
terrible injury to a new country to be settled by convicts, it is a
real injury also to the people from whom they are sent, to shovel out
of sight all their failures, and neither try to lessen their numbers
nor to reclaim them to orderly civil life. It was not till Australia
refused any longer to receive convicts, as Virginia had previously
done, that serious efforts were made to amend the criminal code of
England, or to use reformatory methods first with young and afterwards
with older offenders. Another pleasant trip was one we took to
Parramatta. The Government launch was courteously placed at our
disposal to visit the Parramatta Home for Women, where also we found
some comfortable homes for old couples. The separation of old people
who would prefer to spend the last years of their life together is I
consider, an outrage on society. One of my chief desires has been to
establish such homes for destitute couples in South Australia, and to
every woman who may be appointed as a member of the Destitute Board in
future I appeal to do her utmost to change our methods of treatment
with regard to old couples, so that to the curse of poverty may not be
added the cruelty of enforced separation. Women in New South Wales were
striving for the franchise at that time, and we had the pleasure of
speaking at one of their big meetings. And what fine public meetings
they had in Sydney! People there seemed to take a greater interest in
politics than here, and crowded attendances were frequent at political
meetings, even when there was no election to stir them up. It was a
Sydney lady who produced this amusing Limerick in my honour:--
There was a Grand Dame of Australia
Who proved the block system a failure.
She taught creatures in coats
What to do with their votes,
This Effective Grand Dame of Australia!
The third line will perhaps preclude the necessity for pointing out
that the author was an ardent suffragist! To an enlightened woman also
was probably due the retort to a gentleman's statement that "Miss
Spence was a good man lost," that, "On the contrary she thought she was
a good woman saved." "In what way?" he asked. "Saved for the benefit of
her country, instead of having her energies restricted to the
advantages of one home," was the reply. And for this I have sometimes
felt very thankful myself that I have been free to devote what gifts I
possess to what I consider best for the advantage and the uplifting of
humanity. Before leaving Sydney I tried once more to find a publisher
for "Gathered In," but was assured that the only novels worth
publishing in Australia were sporting or political novels.
I was in my seventy-fifth year at the time of this visit, but the joy
of being enabled to extend the influence of our reform to other States
was so great that the years rolled back and left me as full of life and
vigour and zeal as I had ever been. Our work had by no means been
confined to the city and suburbs, as we spoke at a few country towns as
well. At Albury, where we stopped on our way back to Victoria, we were
greeted by a crowded and enthusiastic audience in the fine hall of the
Mechanics' Institute. We had passed through a snowstorm just before
reaching Albury, and the country was very beautiful in the afternoon,
when our friends drove us through the district. The Murray was in
flood, and the "water, water everywhere" sparkling in the winter
sunshine, with the snowcapped Australian Alps in the background, made
an exquisite picture. Albury was the only town we visited in our
travels which still retained the old custom of the town crier. Sitting
in the room of the hotel after dinner, we were startled at hearing our
names and our mission proclaimed to the world at large, to the
accompaniment t of a clanging bell and introduced by the old-fashioned
formula, "Oyez! oyez! oyez!" Our work in Victoria was limited, but
included a delightful trip to Castlemaine. We were impressed with the
fine Mechanics' Hall of that town, in which we spoke to a large
audience. But a few years later the splendid building, with many others
in the town, was razed to the ground by a disastrous cyclone. Returning
from Castlemaine, we had an amusing experience in the train. I had laid
aside my knitting, which is the usual companion of my travels, to teach
Mrs. Young the game of "Patience," but at one of the stations a foreign
gentleman entered the carriage, when we immediately put aside the
cards. After chatting awhile, he expressed regret that he had been the
cause of the banishment of our cards, and "Would the ladies not kindly
tell him his fortune also?" He was as much amused as we were when we
explained that we were reformers and not fortune tellers. I have been a
great lover of card games all my life; patience in solitude, and
cribbage, whist, and bridge have been the almost invariable
accompaniments of my evenings spent at home or with my friends. Reading
and knitting were often indulged in, but patience was a change and a
rest and relief to the mind. I have always had the idea that card games
are an excellent incentive to the memory. We had an afternoon meeting
in the Melbourne Town Hall to inaugurate a league in Victoria, at which
Dr. Barrett, the Rev. Dr. Bevan, Professor Nanson, and I were the
principal speakers. Just recently I wrote to the Victorian Minister who
had charge of the Preferential Voting Bill in the Victorian Parliament
to ask him to consider the merits of effective voting; but, like most
other politicians, the Minister did not find the time opportune for
considering the question of electoral justice for all parties. I
remained in Victoria to spend a month with my family and friends after
Mrs. Young returned to Adelaide. The death of my dear brother John,
whose sympathy and help had always meant so much to me, shortly after
my return, followed by that of my brother William in New Zealand, left
me the sole survivor of the generation which had sailed from Scotland
in 1839.