all labourers whose competition, through the stress of necessity, may
tend to reduce wages. The indigent Italian or German is equally
undesirable, as are indigent Englishmen, who alone, among Europeans,
are likely to arrive in large numbers. Some of them, it is known, have
been assisted to emigrate, by philanthropic agencies or otherwise,
because they were unable to earn a livelihood at home. South
Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, and New Zealand seek to exclude paupers
by the provision that the owner or master of a ship bringing persons
who are likely to become a charge upon the public or any charitable
institution, may be called upon to execute a bond to pay all expenses
incurred within five years for the maintenance or support of such
persons. But the workman reserves his strongest condemnation for the
proposal {295} that he should be compelled to contribute, through
taxation or Custom duties, to State-aided immigration, which increases
the number of his competitors. Herein is seen the cloven foot of the
capitalist, which must be concealed, except in Queensland, where
capital and labour are in open antagonism and the former is at present
in the ascendant.
The ultimate development of protective ideas is found in the annual tax
levied on foreign commercial travellers in New Zealand and in the
desire to subject immigrants to physical as well as pecuniary and
racial tests. In New Zealand the Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion
Bill, and the equally unsuccessful Public Health Bill of 1896, forbade
masters of ships, under a heavy penalty, to introduce persons who are
consumptive into the Provinces. Consumption, it is known, has proved
deadly to the Maoris, and, to an even greater extent, to half-castes.
It is not my intention to discuss the wisdom of the measures by which
Australians seek to keep out Asiatics, indigent Europeans, criminals,
and persons in ill-health. The Imperial Government, of course, can
have no objection to the imposition of pecuniary disqualifications
which, being of general application, do not conflict with treaty
obligations, though the policy is diametrically opposed to that which
has prevailed hitherto in England. I merely wish to point out the
strength of Australasian opposition to unrestricted competition, and to
express {296} considerable sympathy with workmen who, having seen, or
having learnt from their parents, how much misery and pauperism are to
be found in older countries, are inhospitable to strangers and will do
all in their power to prevent a fall to a similar level. Many of them
have noted the existence of destitution in Sydney and Melbourne, and
dread the operation of any cause which would be likely to intensify it.
It cannot be denied that, as England is the principal competitor with
native manufactures, and the only European country from which
immigration on a large scale is likely to arise, some of the working
men entertain a feeling of hostility towards the Mother Country.
Ill-feeling is also promoted by the condition of financial dependence.
Australians are inclined to complain, however unreasonably, that, had
it not been for the temptations to which they were exposed by British
capitalists, their Provinces could not have incurred the extravagant
expenditure under which they are suffering and must continue to suffer.
Australia, it has been said, owes to England merely the gratitude of
the poor man toward his pawnbroker. I should not have mentioned the
existence of these views, which are confined to a small section of the
community, were it not that they seem ominous for the future, when we
remember the principal cause of the estrangement between the Eastern
and Western States of America. In spite of inquiries and {297}
observation, I have been unable to form an opinion as to the general
attitude, which is being modified year by year by the increase in the
proportion of native-born Australians. At one extreme of the social
scale are those who bask in the sunshine of titled vice-royalty, at the
other those in whom the continual struggle for existence precludes the
possibility of national, not to mention Imperial, ideals. The large
intermediate classes, which will control the future, appear to be
animated by great sympathy with the English people. I am led to
believe that the boisterous loyalty of the past has been replaced by a
deeper feeling of kinship, which was displayed in marked fashion on the
occasion of the German Emperor's telegram after the Transvaal raid. On
the other hand, the growing independence of a young nation and the
sentimental, but none the less real, objection to the term "Colonial,"
which is regarded as a mark of inferiority, have convinced some
Imperialistic Australians that the shortest road to Federation lies
through separation. Others, I have been surprised to note, do not
consider that permanence of friendly relations necessarily implies
continuance under one flag. Englishmen will be disappointed to learn
that there is little general appreciation, especially among native-born
Australians, of the benefits accruing from the protection of the
British fleet. Never having known the horrors of war and removed from
the area of great armaments, they are not aware of the dangers {298}
against which they are guarded. In fact, many of them grudge the
"contributions without representation" that are given towards the
maintenance of the Australian squadron. In foreign politics
Australians are strongly Imperialistic, and will respect Great Britain
as long as she maintains the dignity of her position. In domestic
affairs they resent the interference of the Colonial Office, rarely
though it be exercised, and do not take sufficient account of
international difficulties. They are satisfied, moreover, with
existing conditions, and do not manifest any desire for closer union
with Great Britain at present, though any proposals emanating from the
Imperial Government will be received with respectful attention and may
meet with theoretical approval; and, while the recent Presidential
election in the United States convinced them of the disadvantages of
Republican institutions, they are prepared to wait upon the natural
evolution of events, and believe that, in the meanwhile, we should
strive, through the press, travel, and otherwise, to become better
acquainted with each other's ideas and aspirations, and to correct many
of the wrong impressions which prevail both in Australia and Great
Britain. This policy is not heroic but practical, especially if it
could be accompanied by a greater identification of Australia with the
Empire. If a few hundred Australians could be recruited, in spite of
the lowness of the pay, for service in the Army and Navy, they would, I
am convinced, upon {299} their return, do much to broaden the minds of
their countrymen. Australia and New Zealand, it must be remembered,
are isolated from the rest of the world. Again, some of the vacancies
in the Indian Civil Service might be filled by examinations held in
Australia simultaneously with those in England. These suggestions,
which could be amplified and extended by men of greater experience, may
be regarded as trivial and unimportant, but I am confident that they
indicate the direction in which Englishmen can most effectually seek to
retain the affections of their Australasian kinsfolk. The problems of
Australian Federation will tax all the resources of statesmanship, and
must, in my opinion, be solved before there can be any profitable
discussion of modified and closer relations with the Mother Country.
It seems to me that the Victorian or Queenslander must realise that he
is an Australian before he can be expected to appreciate the meaning of
the words, "Civis Britannicus Sum."
The subject of Australian Federation has been discussed at length in a
preceding chapter. I need only point out that politicians are bound to
recognise three lines of severance: the artificial boundaries between
one Province and another, the diversity of opinions engendered by
differences of climate, as exemplified principally in the attitude in
regard to Polynesian labour, and the divergence of development between
the denizens of towns and {300} the more settled areas and those who
are struggling against the inclemencies of nature in the back country.
I felt, and others have chronicled a similar impression, that I had
entered into a different country when I travelled in the Western Downs
of Queensland. I found myself, if I may generalise from a limited
experience of shearers, among a class of men who are thoroughly honest
but absolutely narrow-minded and interested only in matters which
concern their means of livelihood. They form their opinions from an
advanced organ of labour, which is their principal, if not only,
literature, and even such of them as are emigrants from Great Britain
have little knowledge of the leading events of recent years.
The urban population, of course, is in a different position, and is
kept by the newspapers in touch with local and Imperial affairs. Apart
from the causes of the aggregation of large centres which have been
discussed in the opening pages of this chapter, and may be supplemented
by the observations of Sir Charles Dilke,[12] it may be noted, as a
subsidiary influence, that a high standard of comfort makes people
unwilling to face the hardship of the bush, that squatters are inclined
to place their sons in urban professions, and that education turns out
clerks rather than manual labourers. But the dwellers in towns are, on
the whole, comfortably situated; even Melbourne and Sydney do not {301}
show an average of more than 2.73 and 4.87 persons to the acre; but
these figures include the suburbs, and must be amended if the
metropolis proper is solely regarded.
But, in spite of this consideration, the working classes of Australasia
have little to complain of. Destitution exists, as is inevitable under
present conditions, but many workers, especially in Victoria, are
owners of their homes, and all the younger men have had the benefit of
a general system of national education and of the favourable situation
of their class. This is due partly to the position attained, and not
subsequently lost, when the rush of men to the goldfields produced a
scarcity of labour; partly to the fact which has already been noted,
that the men who emigrated from Great Britain were imbued with the
spirit which qualified them to assert themselves. Hitherto they have
not proved themselves unworthy of their nationality. They are
uniformly courteous, in my experience, to those who are civil to them,
and do not expect the servility of older countries, and are the most
law-abiding people in the world. On a Saturday night in Coolgardie I
found things to be as quiet as in a small country town in England. The
larrikinism of Melbourne and Sydney has been much exaggerated, and does
not extend beyond the capitals; in the former city, at the annual
festival which marks the recurrence of the Melbourne Cup, the behaviour
of the crowd is such {302} as would be a credit to any country. But
Australians and New Zealanders, as any visitor cannot but note, take
their pleasures sadly, and have transplanted the seriousness of a
Northern land to a climate which should lend itself to merriment and
laughter. How far their character has been modified I am not prepared
to say: on the one hand, employment is not subject to seasonal
interruptions; on the other, the pressure of cold upon industry is
entirely wanting. The climate has, however, in spite of the
denunciations of the Prohibitionists, undoubtedly conduced to temperate
habits. Time after time did I notice, during my travels, that all the
company were drinking tea, and I have been assured that shearers and
other labourers no longer waste their earnings upon drink. The
temperance of the younger generation has also been promoted by the
spread of education and by the love of athletics; which necessitates
physical soundness. Speaking generally and responsibly, the working
classes, which form the backbone of every country, though they pay high
rent, earn high wages, and, as they do not pay high prices for their
food or clothing, are enabled to become self-respecting members of a
self-respecting community.
[1] August 8, 1896.
[2] 1893, vol. ii. pp. 456, 457.
[3] July 25, 1896.
[4] "A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia,
1895-6," by T. A. Coghlan, p. 345.
[5] _Ibid._, p. 359.
[6] "A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia,
1895-6," p. 357.
[7] Victorian Year Book, 1894, p. 648.
[8] Parliamentary Debates of New Zealand, vol. 96, p. 901.
[9] _New Zealand Times_, January I, 1897.
[10] _Australasian Review of Reviews_, September, 1896.
[11] _Australasian Review of Reviews_, August 20, 1894.
[12] "Problems of Greater Britain," vol. ii. pp. 246-8.
{303}
XI
_A VISIT TO THE COOLGARDIE GOLDFIELDS IN MARCH_, 1896.
I sailed from Marseilles for Australia by one of the large steamers of
the Messageries Maritimes Company. Among my fellow travellers was a
mining expert, bound for the Western Australian goldfields, who
proposed that I should accompany him, and said that, as he knew the
leading people on the fields, he would be able to render my trip
agreeable. I gladly accepted his offer, and have since had cause to
consider that I was most fortunate, as I believe that some such
introduction as mine is indispensable.
The large mail steamers all touch Western Australia at Albany, distant
340 miles from Perth and 570 miles from Coolgardie. The Government are
carrying out very extensive harbour works at Fremantle, the port of
Perth, in the hope of inducing the mail steamers to call there, and
they believe that, when a railway line has been constructed between
{304} Perth and Adelaide, a line which must eventually be built, though
perhaps not for many years, Fremantle will become a place of great
importance, as, beyond being the shipping port for the produce of the
Coolgardie goldfields, it will be the point of arrival and departure of
the mails between Great Britain and all the Australian Provinces.
We reached Albany, which is 200 miles further from Coolgardie than
Fremantle, late in the evening, and, having missed by a few hours the
direct train which runs three times a week to Perth, we spent the night
at a third-rate hotel, unable to sleep owing to the attacks of the
mosquitoes, and left by train the next morning after a breakfast
consisting of coarse meat and impossible eggs. We soon lost sight of
the bay of Albany, and, plunging into the bush, travelled through it
the whole day. The heat was overpowering, as we were still almost at
the height of summer. In the afternoon a stranger came into the
compartment and enlivened us with anecdotes of his experiences at an
outlying station. In several stories he referred to actions which
showed him to have behaved in the most ruthlessly cruel manner towards
the aborigines. To quote one among many: A young native servant in his
employment came to believe that, owing to some unintentional
contravention of the religious observances of his people, he was doomed
to die within three days; so he lay on his back and refused to take
food. As he was a good workman, {305} his master first tried to induce
him to rise, then thrashed him with all his might, and afterwards had
him dragged along the ground by his hair until he was so exhausted that
he came unconscious. It is needless to add that, on his recovery, the
man had been cured of his obstinacy. Such conduct, I am convinced, is
most exceptional. All the Australasian Governments are actuated by a
sincere desire to protect the aborigines, as are the vast majority of
the inhabitants. But, as long as many districts are sparsely settled,
isolated cases of barbarous cruelty must continue to occur.
After thirteen hours of travel we reached Beverley, where we were
obliged to spend the night, and again suffered from bad accommodation,
indifferent food, and mosquitoes. A journey of five hours on the
following morning took us to Perth, where we proposed to spend a few
days. My companion noticed a great difference in the appearance of the
town; a few years ago, he told me, it was lifeless and dull, strangers
rarely arrived, trade was stagnant, and the whole place wore an air of
listlessness. The rapid change must be put down entirely to the
success of the goldfields, even allowing full credit to the Government
for their efforts to develop all the resources of the country. The
population of the Province has doubled during the last five years; the
population of Perth has more than doubled, and large business firms
have established branches there. But great though its progress has
been, it is hard to {306} realise that this place, which is not larger
than an English country town, is the capital and seat of government of
a Province of nearly a million square miles, which possesses 1,200
miles of railway and goldfields of enormous extent, which seem likely
to take rank among the most productive of the world. Perth is
picturesquely situated on the Swan River, and should increase largely
beyond its present dimensions. Handsome brick buildings alternate even
in the principal thoroughfares with miserable shanties which are bound
soon to disappear. In the evening the streets present a scene of great
animation, as hundreds of people may be seen walking up and down,
eagerly discussing the mining news, which always presents some feature
of interest. Men gather together in small groups, whispering weighty
secrets which may or may not be intended for the benefit of their
hearers, for in Perth, as elsewhere, we hear that large fortunes have
been made through the credulity and folly of the too eager investor.
At Perth I made several purchases, all of which were of use to me: a
pair of dark blue spectacles with perforated sides, as a protection
against the dust and sun, a fly-net and a water-bag. The latter, made
of canvas, in order that its contents may be cooled by evaporation, is
carried by all travellers who distrust the quality of the water which
they are likely to obtain at wayside stations.
At the time of my visit to the goldfields, the {307} railway terminated
at Bullabulling, some eighteen miles from Coolgardie. The journey from
Perth to Coolgardie was a matter of twenty-eight hours. Leaving in the
afternoon, we arrived the next morning at Southern Cross, the centre of
a mining district which has been eclipsed by those further east. We
had breakfast at an unpretentious little hotel, the landlady of which
harrowed us by accounts of the amount of typhoid fever prevalent in the
place. Her own servant was ill, several deaths had recently occurred,
and she had heard the undertaker in the early morning again at work
upon a coffin. We continued our journey by the contractor's train,
covering one hundred miles in seven hours and passing through scenery
which became terribly wearisome from its dreary monotony. So far we
had travelled comfortably enough, but the last eighteen miles by coach
were more tiring than the whole of the rest of the journey. The road
was inches deep in dust and full of holes, and we ploughed our way
along it at the rate of five miles an hour, a pace which was not
maintained when darkness set in and the driver could no longer pick his
way in the best track, but continually jolted us in the deep ruts and
bumped the coach against tree stumps. Upon our arrival at Coolgardie,
we found a difficulty in obtaining rooms; at the principal hotel no
accommodation of any kind was to be had; at another all the rooms were
occupied, but we were offered a shake-down which we thought {308} it
wise to accept. We learnt the next day that twenty-three extra beds
had been made up, in the drawing-room, on the balcony, in fact at every
available spot, and that the rush had continued for more than a year.
The following morning I looked out upon a sandy track which represents
the main street of Coolgardie. It was already a scene of some
animation; camels, driven by Afghans, were carrying their heavy burdens
in and out of the town; aborigines, with their wives and children, in
all their degraded ugliness, were passing to and fro; and bustling
merchants and clerks were hurrying past on bicycles to their various
occupations. The houses of Coolgardie are built of a framework of
wood, covered with a sheeting of galvanised iron. The town is entirely
dependent for all its supplies on the outside world, as the country,
within a radius of at least one hundred miles, will produce food for
neither man nor beast. The question of water supply, even for domestic
purposes, was until recently a great difficulty; but several fresh
water wells have been sunk which, together with the output of numerous
condensers, give an ample supply for the town. The rainfall is very
small, and too irregular to be depended upon. The sky is often
overcast for weeks and rain threatens daily, but the clouds gradually
disperse and leave the land as parched as before.
Strolling out of the town we found ourselves {309} on the outskirts of
a mining district. As far as the eye could see, the country was
studded with tents, mining shafts, and condensers, and the soil was
everywhere raised in irregular heaps. For miles around every sod of
earth has been turned over and put through a blower in the search for
the alluvial gold which has been found there in great quantities. We
came upon an old man who said that the land upon which he was working
had not been thoroughly sifted, and showed us a few grains of gold
which he had obtained as the result of his labours. A little further
on we came to some mines, and my companion pointed out and explained to
me the machinery by which the gold is separated from the stone. A
return of an ounce of gold to a ton of quartz is, speaking generally,
regarded as satisfactory, but many other factors have to be weighed in
the consideration of the question whether a mine is likely to repay the
outlay upon it, such as the width and probable extent of the reef, and
the possibility of obtaining an adequate amount of water for working
the machinery. I gathered that there could be no doubt as to the
richness of the reefs on several of the goldfields of Western
Australia, but that, on most of them, the great difficulty has been,
and still is, the inadequacy of the water supply.
We did not remain long at Coolgardie, but continued our journey to
Kalgoorlie, a small township twenty-four miles from Coolgardie and
{310} the centre of the field where my companion had to do most of his
work as a mining expert. We travelled by coach in the early morning
and had a further experience of the discomforts of a rough and heavy
track. Kalgoorlie was a repetition of Coolgardie, on a smaller scale.
Both are the creation of the last few years and must not be judged by
too high a standard. The town authorities have done their best to
procure good sanitary conditions and have been aided by the Government,
who give, as a subsidy to municipalities, one pound for every pound
raised from general rates, and have also assisted them in the erection
and maintenance of hospitals; but the lack of funds has retarded
improvements which the authorities have been anxious to carry out. We
arrived at Kalgoorlie on a Sunday, and noticed that the inhabitants,
most of whom are adults, bachelors or married men separated from their
wives and families, were loitering about with every appearance of utter
boredom.
From the town we walked to one of the neighbouring camps where my
companion had acquaintances. These camps offer a much pleasanter life
than that in the towns. Each forms in itself a small settlement of
large canvas tents fitted up by the residents, who have a common mess
and every opportunity of leading a sociable life. At the camp which we
visited we found several of the men disporting themselves in hammocks
in an arbour made of {311} closely plaited branches of trees, which
kept off the heat of the sun and admitted a cool current of air. In
the course of conversation it was arranged that we should visit several
of the mines on the following day.