I am neither a journalist nor a philosopher, I have attempted no more than to convey to the reader how Australia, on the eve of Federation, impressed a chance traveller; as an exporter, especially, of raw produce, as a possible home and outlet for our surplus population, as a field for the observation of political experiments, and as a member, generally, of the Imperial body-politic. Much may be learnt from Colonial legislation: if we only learn, sometimes, what to avoid. Local option, old-age pensions, payment of members, the referendum, all the panaceas of the demagogue, are in full operation in one or another of these practically republican (but very English) States. One and a half millions they spend by the year on education, as against our ten millions in England. Yet the output of their State schools, as we shall see, is not a whit more satisfactory than that of our Board schools, perhaps in some ways even less. Pensions ranging as high as 26s. 3d. weekly are proposed in at least one colony for persons over 55, to be provided by a tax on bread. (See Appendix E: Old-age Pensions, N.S.W.) On the whole, Australia offers, perhaps intentionally, but small encouragement to our emigrants now. Of the fourteen thousand visitors who arrive annually from Europe, barely the lesser half remain as settlers. Yet Queensland and New Zealand have reverted of late to assisted immigration; and there are openings everywhere and at all times for the suitable newcomer—lawyer, farmer, doctor, artizan, or domestic servant. But it must be remembered that all trades profess themselves over-manned; that the producer has the only real certainty; that production in a new country is a very rough business; and that unskilled energy can only command a success which is likely to be moderate, at the price of unmitigated hardship. The best craftsman, in agriculture as in other
