II.

THE CENTENARY OF AUSTRALIA.

ONE hundred years ago-on the 26th of January 1788-the first European settlement in Australia was formally founded on the shores of Port Jackson by Captain Arthur Phillip, the first and one of the ablest Governors of New South Wales. The success of the American War of Independence had closed Virginia as a depôt for the criminals of England; and the colonization of Australia arose out of the necessity for providing another dust-heap on which to throw the refuse of the English population. It was, indeed, with a cargo of a thousand convicts that Governor Phillip set sail on his memorable enterprise, which was destined to be the beginning of the history of a great nation, and to open up for England a second new world as if in compensation for the one she had just thrown away. A contrast of the small and discouraging beginning of Australian colonization with the magnificent sum of achievement now presented by Australia, will sharply set before the mind one of the most marvellous passages in the world's history. To trace step by step the development of the British Empire in the Southern Seas would overtask our time and space; and a sort of bird's-eye view will be at once more picturesque and more intelligible.

The only object aimed at by the British Government in settling Australia was to get rid of the convicts. One can scarcely believe even that it was expected the convicts should do more than drag out a brief and miserable existence, under the rigours of a rule designed rather to hasten than prolong their end. The arrangements under which Governor Phillip was despatched did not contain a single element of permanence. Not the least startling part in connection with this point is, that of the total number of 1,030 persons who landed from the vessels of the expedition, only 135 were women. The other "live stock" consisted of five horses, eleven cows, one bull, and twelve sheep; while the expedition was so badly provisioned that from the very moment of landing starvation began to stare the settlers in the face. To redress the balance of the sexes, the British Government, in a despatch, of

which a copy may be seen to this day in the Record Office, authorised the Governor to send a transport to one of the neighbouring Friendly Islands, and kidnap two hundred native women as wives for the unprovided males in the colony! This gives a good idea of the views which the British Government of that day held as to the future of Australia. But badly off as the settlers were at the first, their condition speedly became worse. One characteristic misfortune, and its sequel, may be mentioned. To the distress of the little community, it was found one day that the bull and four of the cows had escaped from the enclosure. Search parties were sent out, but in vain. Several years passed by, and then rumours reached the settlement that a herd of cattle had been seen about forty miles in the interior. Again parties were sent out in search, and, to the joy of the people, they discovered the lost cattle, now increased to several hundred. The place where the herd were grazing is now called the Cow Pastures. This story is enshrined in the most cherished traditions of the colony; it is not for me to cast doubt on its authenticity.

Here, then, was the ugly duckling out of which the swan of the Southern Seas was to grow. Branded from the first with the stain of convictism; settled by the scum of the criminal classes of England, who would seem to have been equipped rather with the hope that they would fail than that they would succeed; regarded by the home Government as an almost uninhabitable and altogether useless country, save as a convenient hole into which to throw human refuse,-Australia has risen to a commanding height of prosperity and influence, thanks to her natural resources, to the industry of the race she has so generously nurtured, but mainly to the extraordinary genius, energy, and forethought of an unbroken succession of great men, who, in politics, in exploration, in philanthropy, in industry, and in commerce, have steadily built up undying reputations for themselves and unequalled prosperity for their country.

Governor Phillip's employers thought only of founding a prison; Governor Phillip himself set to work to found an empire. History has never yet done justice to the genius and the worthiness of that great man. Neglected by the home Government, beset by difficulties in Australia, he toiled on, ever with an eye to the future which loomed visibly before him. Happily for Australia, he was armed with ampler powers than any other Governor has ever been entrusted with before or since. Practically he was omnipotent; and he used his power wisely. He had enemies even among his own officers, and not the least noteworthy incident of those early days is that a despatch was sent to Whitehall begging that Governor Phillip should be recalled, and the settlement broken up,

"for," adds the writer, "it would be cheaper for your lordships to feed the prisoners on turkey and venison in Fleet Street than keeping up this barren settlement." One trembles to think of the consequences that would have followed upon the adoption of this advice! Governor Phillip's services to the infant colony were of incalculable value. He established a stable government, securing to everyone his just rights, conferring upon all such individual liberty as was consistent with the general welfare, and causing the law to be not only feared but respected. He established law among a community of outlaws. He stimulated industry, directed the energies of his subjects, and encouraged by his kindness those whose natural tendencies he sometimes repressed by terrible severity. When, after five years' service, he left Australia, he was able to look upon a colony still, of course, in its infancy, but an infancy strong, healthy, and full of promise.

And now, after a hundred years, what do we see? The white population of the Australasian colonies, of all of which the settlement of Sydney was the germ, is close upon four millions; and the stain of convictism has been so completely removed that not a trace of it remains. There is less crime in Australia than in England. The people are more highly educated than in England. Public health and public morals are of a higher standard than in England. The material resources of the country have been developed to an amazing extent. Australia possesses ninety millions of sheep, ten millions of cattle, a million and a quarter of horses, and seven million acres of land under crops. Her imports. amount to sixty millions, and her exports to nearly fifty millions sterling per annum. Her public revenue is not less than twenty five millions a year, about a fourth of the revenue of the United Kingdom, with a population of only one-ninth. Her banks hold assets to the value of one hundred and forty millions sterling, representing £35 for every man, woman, and child in the country; and this is exclusive of twelve millions sterling, deposited in Government savings banks by half a million depositors. Every eighth person in Australia has money, to the average amount of twenty-five pounds per head, in the Government banks. There are ten thousand miles of railway open, or in course of construction. There is unbroken railway communication between the four chief capitals, from Brisbane, through Sydney and Melbourne to Adelaide, a distance of fifteen hundred miles. There are nearly eighty thousand miles of telegraphs.

If we survey the period of Australia's most marked development the spectacle becomes almost overwhelming. During the past thirty years, gold to the value of three hundred and fifty millions sterling has been won from the still gleaming mines of Australia.

Add to this the wool shorn from countless millions of sheep, the other raw products to the value of more than fifty millions a year, and the mind becomes bewildered in the effort to comprehend quantities and values far beyond its grasp. And the miracle becomes even more incredible when we remember that practically it is only in the latter half of these hundred years that this progress has been made. For years and years the principal article of traffic was rum. If a convict escaped, the reward for his recapture was thirty gallons of rum. The building of the largest hospital in Sydney was paid for in thirty thousand gallons of rum, and to this day it is popularly known as the "Rum Hospital." Rum was in a large measure the currency of the country, and even when it ceased to be used for this purpose, its place was taken only by a Spanish coin, from which the centre was punched out in order to form a coin of lower denomination, the original coin being then punningly styled the "holy dollar," and the punched out piece a "dump." Those who may visit the Grand Theatre in Sydney on this centenary occasion, will learn, with interest, that when the original building was opened the price of admission was generally paid in Indian corn or kangaroo meat; and where, I may mention incidentally, was spoken the celebrated prologue, attributed to George Barrington, the notorious pickpocket, in which occur the lines :—

From distant climes, o'er widespread seas we come,

Though not with much éclat, or beat of drum;

True patriots all, for, be it understood,

We left our country for our country's good;

No private views disgraced our generous zeal,
What urg'd our travels was our country's weal.

Again, as showing the comparatively recent date of Australia's greatest development, it may be mentioned that down to 1813 only the land immediately along the coast was available for cultivation. The interior was guarded by a huge barrier of mountains-the Blue Mountains-which prevented the settlement from extending. Repeated attempts to break through this barrier ended uniformly in failure, until, in 1813, three gallant young fellows-Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson, and Charles Wentworth, two of them natives of Kent and one an Australian born-surmounted the difficulty, and revealed to the delighted colony a vast expanse of glorious country, watered by magnificent rivers. That gave the greater impetus to the extended occupation which has gone on ever since. I shall have occasion presently to speak of other explorations; this one is mentioned now on account of its special bearing on the point in hand. Then, once more, the first great discovery of gold was not made until thirty years ago; and it was at about the same time that wool in appreciable quantities began to be exported.

Another view of the extraordinary position acquired by Australia

is afforded by the contemplation of her stately cities, with their magnificent churches, universities, schools, Government buildings, and private mansions, with their broad and busy streets, their shops filled with every necessary of life and every luxury, their orderly and prosperous citizens. Look at her noble harbours, the colossal ships which come and go like willing messengers between her and the older world, the factories and mills wherein the raw products of the country are manufactured by machinery as perfect and labour as skilful as any to be found in Europe. Look at the results of that enlightened policy which, by founding without stint of money schools and universities, is rapidly making the Australian people the best educated in the world. Sydney University alone has £320,000 invested in the funds, chiefly benefactions given for the purpose of founding professorships and scholarships, and the high emoluments attract to it and to the other Australian universities the best teaching talent that England produces. Industrial and technical schools are being founded everywhere. Education is, throughout the colonies-generally speaking-free and compulsory. The Australian Governments spend on the six hundred thousand children who attend the public schools about £5 per head per annum, or £2 more than is spent on the children who attend the Board Schools in England. Numerous technical schools have also been established; and all these facilities for education, not only in the elements of knowledge, but in literature, science, art, and industry, are open to the poorest. How closely the development of culture has gone hand in hand with material progress has been shown by the great success of the art sections organized in connection with the recent Exhibitions in Adelaide and Melbourne.

Here our survey of the Australia of to-day, at the close of its first century of existence, might fittingly end. But it would not be becoming to close the record without gratefully recalling the names of some of those to whom this full measure of achievement is mainly due-the statesmen, explorers, philanthropists, and poets of Australia. The mention of poets may excite surprise; but who knows how much Australia is indebted to their inspiring lines, fired with the spark of genius, and dowered with the gift of prophecy? What Australian is there who has not felt within his own breast that hope which Erasmus Darwin personified as standing on a rock, and surveying the matchless glories of Sydney Harbour, uttering the prediction which now, nearly a hundred years later, we see literally fulfilled?

There shall broad streets their stately walls extend,

The circus widen, and the crescent bend;

There, ray'd from cities, o'er the cultur'd land,

Shall bright canals, and solid roads expand;