the social problem, and many useful lessons may be picked up by the globe-trotting politician.
The Australian colonies are in the future sure to become more and more the scene of experimental legislation. Their government has practically been handed over to the labouring classes and small shopkeepers, who form the mass of the community. What is called the Radical section are almost everywhere in a majority. One colony is not prepared to learn from another, nor to allow an experiment to be made elsewhere, and accept or reject it according to its results after a reasonable trial. So far, there have been practically no foreign complications to interfere with free internal evolution, or to distract attention from the purely economic struggle. Everywhere the working man has full power, and a very hearty disposition, to try all conceivable or suggested means to better himself. The fact that there are Radical laws on the statute-book of one colony is the means of raising a clamour for the adoption of similar measures elsewhere. Only an extended trial can disclose what the result of any measure will be, but whatever legislation can do for the improvement of the position of the working classes in Australia will be done. In all the colonies there is a demand for rapid extension of the functions of the State. The railways are nearly everywhere the property of the State, and it is now claimed that the mines should be. The State is expected to find work for the unemployed, and to dictate a minimum wage to all its contractors. In all the colonies there is a demand for the provision of pensions for the aged poor. In New Zealand such a system has been adopted, and in some of the other colonies legislation is promised. In South Australia, as well as in New Zealand, there is a law by which the State intervenes in labour disputes, hears evidence, and makes an award. If the award be against the
