which should afterwards be submitted by some process of referendum to the verdict of each Colony. A Bill was afterwards drafted, which formed the basis of the various enabling Acts passed in all the Colonies. By making the measure to depend upon popular support at both ends, first in the popular election of the delegates, and then by the measure being submitted to the electors for their approval or disapproval, the question was rescued from the grip of parliamentary routine and brought distinctly home to the mind and sympathies of the electors. A Conference of Premiers, held at Hobart in January, 1895, endorsed the proposals of the Australian Natives Association. The draft Bill, embodying them, provided that the Convention, after provisionally framing a Constitution, should then adjourn for sixty days before its final consideration. The Australian Legislatures would thus be able to express their opinions on the measure. In the winter of 1895-6 enabling Acts were passed in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. In Queensland it excited opposition on a side issue, and had to be withdrawn; and in Western Australia the delegates were to be chosen, not by the people, but by the two Houses of the Legislature sitting together. Moreover, in this Colony the Constitution, as framed by the Convention, was only to be submitted to the people if approved by Parliament.

In March, 1897, the election was held for the members of the Convention in the four Colonies, and the Western Australian Parliament elected its representatives. Each Colony was represented by ten members, so that the Convention in the absence of Queensland consisted of fifty members. The first meeting took place on March 23rd, 1897, at Adelaide. Mr. Barton, a New South Wales delegate, who had made a special study of the subject of federation, undertook the duties of 'leader of the Convention'. It was thought necessary to start the discussion de novo with a long debate on general resolutions, which occupies

some four hundred pages of a double-columned volume. But assuredly the time was not wasted. The speeches showed a closer grip of the difficulties to be surmounted and a clearer recognition of the necessity for compromise.

The speech of Mr. Deakin rose to a level of eloquence not easy to surpass. Is it possible', he said, 'when the Australian people for the first time have emerged as an Australian people, represented in an Australian Assembly to draft an Australian Constitution, that its great promise should disappear unfulfilled?... The Constitution we seek to prepare is worthy of any and every proposed sacrifice, for it is no ordinary measure, and must exercise no shortlived influence, since it preludes the advent of a nation. . . . We are the trustees for posterity, for the unborn millions, unknown and unnumbered, whose aspirations we may help them to fulfil, and whose destinies we may assist to determine.' The proceedings at Adelaide lasted a little more than a month, and at the end a Bill had been settled, which, though it did not represent the unanimous voice of the delegates, at least bore witness to a gradual rapprochement among them, which promised well for the future. It was soon apparent that the question of the tariff was no longer a lion in the way; the main difficulty being over the question of the Senate and its relations to money bills, and over the financial provisions. Suggestions were thrown out in committee foreshadowing the arrangement afterwards made to avoid deadlocks, but the Bill at this stage contained no such provision. In spite of the acute ȧropíaι of Sir Richard Baker, it was recognized that the system of responsible government was inevitable, and members of the Executive Council were obliged to become members of Parliament within three months of taking office. The clauses with regard to the distribution of the surplus revenue from customs duties were still in a form far from satisfactory to the smaller Colonies.

The reception of the Bill by the various Australian Parlia

ments seemed to show that the lesson of the need of compromise had hardly yet become sufficiently taken to heart if federation was to become an accomplished fact. However, the delegates entered the adjourned session at Sydney in September, 1897, with good hopes of final success. During the sitting at Sydney some progress was made towards the solution of the relations of the two Houses. The necessity of some safety-valve was affirmed, and the principle approved of a joint sitting after a simultaneous dissolution; but under the amendment which was carried a three-fifths majority at the joint sitting was necessary.

The Convention again adjourned to Melbourne, where from January 20th to March 17th, 1898, the sittings were held from which the Bill emerged in its final shape. The subject of the control of the navigable rivers proved one of great difficulty, South Australia desiring and New South Wales opposing the federal control not only of navigation but of irrigation and of water conservation generally. The difficulty of forbidding railway preferential rates without interfering with legitimate competition, was met by entrusting the decision of such questions to the Interstate Railway Commission established by the Bill. The solution arrived at with regard to deadlocks by the Sydney Convention was, with some slight modifications, again approved. With regard to the financial clauses, the Convention in substance returned to the solution of the Bill of 1891, coupled with what was known as the Braddon Clause, under which not more than one-fourth of the net revenue of the Commonwealth from duties of customs and excise should be applied annually by the Commonwealth towards its expenditure.

The main points of difference between the Bill of 1898 and the Bill of 1891 were that under the latter the senators were to be elected by the legislatures of the States. Under the former, they were to be elected by the people. Under the latter, equal representation in the Senate was given to all States absolutely. Under the former, it was only the

original States that were of necessity to be equally represented in the Senate. In the Bill of 1891, the suffrage for the House of Representatives was left to the decision of the various States. In the Bill of 1898, it might be controlled by a uniform law made by the Parliament. Under the Bill of 1891, the qualification of senators was the attainment of the age of thirty years and a five years' residence in the Commonwealth. Under the Bill of 1898, it was the same for both Houses of Parliament, namely the attainment of the age of twenty-one years and a three years' residence. Under the Bill of 1891, the division of electorates for the House of Representatives rested with the States. Under the Bill of 1898, that power was subject to revision by the Parliament of the federation. In the later Bill the power to legislate with regard to insurance, invalid and old age pensions, alien races such as the Chinese, the acquisition or extension of State railways with the consent of the State in question, and lastly, the appointment of Courts of Conciliation and of Arbitration in industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of one State, were added to the powers of the Federal Legislature. The provision with regard to deadlocks between the two Houses was also first found in the later Bill.

In the Bill of 1898, Ministers were compelled to sit in Parliament, a provision which was not contained in the earlier measure. Again, in the later Bill the interpretation of the Constitution by the High Court was made final. It was thought 'right and fit that the highest Court in Australia should be left as the guardian of the expressions of the people, and the sole body to determine finally what the people meant when they used those expressions'. Under the Braddon Clause of the Bill of 1898, one-fourth only of the net revenue of the Commonwealth was allowed to be expended by the Commonwealth. While both Bills made the Federal Parliament the authority to grant bounties, that of 1898 allowed the States to give bounties for pro

duction and export, with the consent of the two Houses of the Federal Parliament expressed by resolution. Lastly, the later measure substituted a referendum for State Conventions as the means by which alterations should be made in the Constitution.

But though the Bill of 1898 represented the laborious and honest efforts of the ablest of Australian public men, victory was not yet; and, when the popular vote was taken in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia, it proved that in New South Wales the Bill had not obtained in its favour the statutory number of eighty thousand votes. In Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia the cause of federation was successful; but it was impossible further without New South Wales.

to

go

At a meeting of Premiers held at Melbourne in January, 1899, which was attended by the Queensland Prime Minister, a unanimous decision was arrived at on the points in dispute. The requirement of a three-fifths majority at the joint sittings of the Senate and House of Representatives was struck out. The Braddon Clause was only to take effect for a period of ten years after the establishment of the Commonwealth, and thereafter until the Parliament otherwise provided; and a new clause was added empowering the Parliament, during the same period, to grant financial assistance to any State (sec. 96). It was also decided that the federal capital should be in New South Wales, but not within a hundred miles of Sydney. Until the new capital was decided upon, Melbourne was to be the seat of Government. The wishes of the individual States were further safeguarded with regard to the alteration of boundaries.

A new clause was also added, which had the support of the Labour Party, enabling the Constitution to be amended after a referendum, at which such alteration was approved by a majority of all the electors voting, and by a majority of the electors voting in a majority of the States.