The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday, 2 October 1896, p. 5
THE FEDERATION OF THE COLONIES: ADDRESS BY THE HON. J.
DOUGLAS, C.M.G.
Last evening the Hon. John Douglas, C.M.G., of Queensland,
who is the Government Resident at Thursday Island, delivered an address on
“United Australia,” under the auspices of the Australasian Federation League,
in the vestibule of the Town Hall. The chair was taken by Alderman I. E. Ives
(Mayor of Sydney), who is ex officio president of the league, and there was a
large audience, which included a number of ladies, present. The following
gentlemen were accommodated with seats on the platform:—Sir W. P. Manning, the
Hons. R. E. O’Connor and W. P. Cullen, Ms.L.C., Mr. J. M. Chanter, M.L.A., the
Rev. Dr. Lawes (New Guinea), the Rev. Canon Matthews (Queensland), Messrs. E.
Barton, Q.C., A. P. Canaway, Edward Dowling, B. B. Nicoll, J. T. Walker, J.
Williamson, W. M. Burns, W. S. Buzzacott, H. Chapman, J. Nobbs, William Robson,
J. S. Murray-White, J. W. Withers, R. Scott Ross, J. P. Burns, W. Ives, and G.
H. Russell.
The Mayor, in introducing the Hon. J. Douglas, said that
gentleman for the last 45 years had taken an active interest in matters
connected with the welfare of the colonies generally, and in the many important
official positions he had held he had been given opportunities of making
himself fully conversant with the subject upon which he proposed to address the
meeting.
Mr. Douglas, on rising, was given a hearty reception. He
said he was reminded by the welcome that had been extended to him, and, indeed,
by everything he saw around him, of the old days when Sydney and New South
Wales were household words to him, and when he had the privilege of sitting in
the Legislature of this colony. At that time Eastern Australia stretched
undivided from Cape Howe to Cape York. Provision might at one time have been
made by which the reunion of the subdivided colonies of Australia might have
been secured, and, indeed, it was known from the early history of the
Australian Constitution that this was provided for, although it was never
persisted in. But they had to deal now not with what might have been, but with
what existed. After conferences and conventions they were approaching a time
when words must find expression in definite action, and when the whole of the
colonies might become one people.
In some sense they were already one people, for they were
all lovers of the country which they had made their own. This was a good
sentiment, and there was nothing better than a good sentiment, for it belonged
to the soul of things and to the essence of patriotism. (Cheers.) They were all
firmly knit together by the hopes of making this country worthy of the race
from which they had come, but they wanted something more than that, and that
was a united government. That was what was now being aimed at, and the
convention that would shortly meet would, it was hoped, go a long way to
accomplish that object. It was encouraging to find that so far there had been
so much unanimity. Victoria and New South Wales had passed bills for the
purpose that were almost identical, and this fact seemed to presage a final
victory. (Hear, hear.)
When those two colonies led the way he could not think the
others would lag far behind. The late Sir Henry Parkes used to say that all he
asked for in the first instance was that Victoria, New South Wales, and South
Australia should become united; but he used to add that the climate of
Queensland and the character of her industrial avocations indicated a career
distinct from that of her elder sisters. But he (Mr. Douglas) had always
differed with Sir Henry Parkes on that point, and used to tell him that Queensland
had no desire to give expression to a national existence distinct from that
which might be imparted to the southern colonies—(cheers)—and what he said then
he said now. (Renewed cheering.)
He was an old—almost pre-historic—Queenslander, and he knew
the colony from Mount Lindsay to Bellenden Ker, and thence to the shores of New
Guinea, and he could assure his hearers that the people of Queensland had no
thought for any other national existence than that which, when the fateful hour
arrived, would find expression for itself in a United Australia. (Applause.)
They were just as loyal, too, as other colonists to the great country and
continent they had made their own. (Hear, hear.)
They were Australians within the British Empire under the
sovereignty of her Majesty the Queen. (Cheers.) When the convention had once
met it might be asked, what would be the form of the constitution adopted, and
whether Queensland would be represented. At present there was an unfortunate
hitch, and the omens, so far as the representation of Queensland was concerned,
were not very propitious; but a convention without Queensland would have to own
to a big gap, and might, indeed, justify some adjournment.
The people of the Southern colonies were naturally anxious
to lose as little time as possible in the elaboration of their constitutional
campaign, but, on the other hand, it was to be remembered that the Constitution
that was to be devised would have to be framed, not for to-day or to-morrow,
but for some generations ahead. The foundations must be broad and deep if they
were to bear the structure which it was hoped would rise to attest the skill of
its artificers, and the very nature of the work was such as to indicate that
they must hasten slowly.
The hesitation of Queenslanders to join in this convention
was a reluctance to commit themselves to all the details of the Commonwealth
Bill, which it was believed would be the basis of the Constitution to be
drafted by the convention. Although he regarded the bill as a most admirable
instrument of law, he believed it attempted and accomplished too much—more,
indeed, than any one of the existing Parliaments would have accepted.
Time alone could tell whether the convention, commissioned
as it would be by the people themselves, would succeed in educating present or
future Parliaments into a perception of the advantages of the Commonwealth
Bill. But it at any rate seemed probable that the convention would raise the
question of federation to a much higher level than it had hitherto reached, and
that it would make it a matter of life or death to every Ministry throughout
the length and breadth of Australia. (Loud applause.)
For his own part, he had always regarded the self-governing
colonies of Australia as great autonomous States, which exercised very nearly
the largest amount of liberty that was consistent with their allegiance to the
great mother of young nations. (Hear, hear.) They had made no demand to share
by any potential or constitutional voice in the affairs of the empire; that
would mean that they were anxious to share in an imperial federation, which he
thought was never contemplated seriously.
Would it be possible, however, for the colonies without
yielding any of their autonomous rights to so enlarge the bounds of their
freedom so as to give them a larger life within the confines of the empire?
Might not the reserved rights of the Crown which were at present administered
through the Colonial Office be transferred in their plenitude to a local
initiation exercised in the name of her Majesty by her Majesty’s representative
as the executive head of a united government of Australia? Would it not be
possible to create a senate or revising body to which might be committed these
great powers represented in the exercise of the Prerogative, without the
intervention of the Colonial Office?
He believed such a body might be created—a single chamber
composed of members elected either by the people or the Parliaments of
Australia which would secure uniformity of legislation without requiring any
surrender of existing privileges by our Parliaments. This would give the force
of concentration to our existing system without subtracting one iota from the
existing powers of the Legislatures, and therein it seemed to him that he could
see some space for the contemplation of a United Australia.
He knew his hearers had sounded the depths of this subject,
and that the Commonwealth Bill of 1891 was the nearest approach they had made
to the solution of the problem. It was most desirable that the people should be
educated up to a thorough understanding of that bill. He submitted very
deferentially what he had said as to the administration of the Royal
Prerogative as the highest and most supreme authority that could be created in
connection with a united Australia.
He did not think his proposal would, as might be suggested,
amount practically to independence, but he took it to mean that her Majesty
would in truth become the Queen of United Australia. The colonies owed their
legislative existence to the beneficence of the British Parliament, and until
they claimed the full rights of their adolescence, they would remain
dependencies of the British Parliament. It would therefore appear that the
first duty of a united Australia would be to assert its rights to a full
measure of its ancestral patrimony. The more they loved their country the more
they would desire it to become united for all the nobler purposes of
nationality, and they would thus to the best purpose carry out the great cause
of ordered freedom to which the British Empire of to-day and the sovereignty of
her Majesty bore such triumphant testimony. (Cheers.)
The hon. gentleman then proceeded to deal with the question
of New Guinea in relation to a united Australia. He said that at one time it
was desired that Great Britain should annex all the islands of the Western
Pacific, but he thought it wise that such comprehensive annexation was not gone
in for. In these days no nation could remain entirely isolated, and he was not
at all sorry to see that their friends the Germans had got a portion of the
island, for he was satisfied that Great Britain had all that he needed and all
that was essential.
There was no doubt the great experiment of administering a
savage nation had been wonderfully well carried out in New Guinea—it was really
the experiment of bringing a people who were living in the “stone age” into
contact with our nineteenth century civilisation; and now no one recognised the
advantages of the British suzerainty so fully as the natives themselves, for
there was a security for life and property there never was before. He held that
they must carefully guard against any attempt to bring natives from New Guinea
to Queensland, for that would be destructive of the whole social conditions
that had been built up within the last few years. (Hear, hear.)
Speaking of Thursday Island, Mr. Douglas explained at some
length the condition of the fortifications there, and expressed the opinion
that even before federation was obtained there should be a federal force of at
least 3000 men established of all arms—engineers, artillery, and infantry—which
should be under the command of one officer, and should be capable of being
moved about to any part of the colonies. After the naval agreement expired it
should be allowed to drop, for the money would be far better expended in the
maintenance of a force such as he suggested—a federal force worthy of the name.
(Applause.)
A cordial vote of thanks, moved by Mr. E. Barton Q.C., seconded by the Hon. R. E. O’Connor, and supported by the Rev. Dr. Lawes and Canon Matthews (Queensland), was passed to Mr. Douglas, and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chairman.
