459,119 tons, foreign. The total number cleared was 3,263, of 3,455,061 tons, of which 2,933, of 2,994,250 tons, were British or colonial, and 330, of 460,811 tons, were foreign. The merchant fleet of the colony consisted of 488 sailing vessels, of 52,948 tons, and 494 steamers, of 68,331 tons. The number of vessels entered at Victorian ports was 2,008, of 2,472,745 tons, of which 378, of 895,384 tons, were British, and 1,498, of 1,274,958 tons, were colonial. The total number cleared was 2,043, of 2,483,992 tons, of which 832, of 900,703 tons, were British and 1,531, of 1,278,668 tons, were colonial. The merchant shipping of the colony comprised 250 sailing vessels, of 39,715 tons, and 149 steamers, of 61,967 tons. In Queensland 615 vessels, of 602,006 tons, were entered, and 598, of 596,313 tons, were cleared, in 1898. The number entered from the United Kingdom was 58, of 95,702 tons; from Australasian ports, 420, of, 400,741 tons. In the coasting trade 6,588 vessels, of 3,524,904 tons, were entered. The registered shipping of the colony in 1898 comprised 149 sailing vessels, of 10,075 tons, and 91 steamers, of 12,943 tons. In South Australian ports 1,068 vessels, of 1,722,358 tons, were entered and 1,083, of 1,760,167 tons, were cleared during 1898. The shipping of the colony consisted of 107 sailing vessels, of 28,413 tons, and 222 steamers, of 22,573 tons. In the ports of Western Australia during 1898 there were 633 vessels, of 1,199,894 tons, entered and 631, of 1,189,732 tons, cleared. The shipping of the colony consisted of 133 sailing vessels, of 5,799 tons, and 28 steamers, of 5,551 tons. In New Zealand 233 vessels, of 293,873 tons, were entered and 210, of 218,990 tons, cleared at Auckland in 1898, and at Wellington, the other principal port, 153, of 263,774 tons, were entered and 138, of 268,312 tons, cleared. Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. In the Australian_colonies the railroads and telegraphs are public property, as well as the wharves and docks, the tramways in cities, the waterworks and irrigation works, and the land also, excepting the relatively small areas that have been sold to agricultural settlers. The railroads of New South Wales, on June 30, 1899, had a total length of 2,707_miles. The capital expenditure was £37, 992,276; gross earnings for 1899, £3,145,273; working expenses, £1,690,442. The railroads in operation in Victoria at the end of 1898 had a total length of 3,123 miles, built at a cost of £38,602,304. The receipts for the fiscal year were £2,608,896, and expenses £1,646,054. The net profits were 2.49 per cent. on the cost and 2.71 per cent. on the borrowed capital, while the average rate of interest paid by the Government is 3.90 per cent. About £9,000,000 has been paid out of the revenue in the course of a series of years to meet deficits in the railroad accounts. There were 43,090,749 passengers and 2,408,665 tons of freight carried in 1898. In Queensland there 2,742 miles of railroads in operation in 1898, which had cost the Government £18,545,631 to build. The receipts for 1898 were £1,263,153; expenses, £728,161. Including the expenses of raising loans, etc., the total expenditure, including that on 58 miles not yet opened, was £20,215,894. South Australia had 1,870 miles of railroad open to traffic at the close of 1898. In Western Australia there were 1,850 miles of railroad in operation on June 30, 1899, including 495 miles of private line. The railroads of New Zealand had a length of 2,257 miles on March 31, 1899, including 167 miles of private lines. The receipts of the Government railroad were £1,469,665 and the expenses £929,737. There were 4,955,553 passengers and 2,744,441 tons of freight carried. The total capital expenditure up to that date had been £ 17,190,967. The number of letters carried in the mails of New South Wales during the year ending June 30, 1898, was 75,650,065 ; postal cards, 1,331,630 ; newspapers, 42,570,850; packets, 16,497,334; money orders, 410,772, for £1,432,373; postal notes, £ 420,113. The post office in Victoria showed for 1898 receipts amounting to £531,367, including telegraph and telephone receipts, and £498,192 of expenditure. The Queensland post office in 1898 carried 19,723,905 letters, 11,647,822 newspapers, 5,130,733 packets, and 238,240 parcels; receipts, £182,207. In South Australia the postal traffic for 1898 was 19,391,816 letters, 1,501,802 packets, and 8,803,194 newspapers. The post office of Western Australia carried 13,132,988 letters, 296,712 postal cards, 7,390,294 newspapers, and 3,261,436 packets in 1898. The New Zealand post office in 1898 forwarded 34,737,316 letters, 917,631 letter cards, 1,479,964 postal cards, 16,822,704 books and parcels, and 15,095,487 newspapers, and issued 318,370 and paid 229,720 money orders. The receipts of the postal and telegraph department for the year ending March 31, 1899, were £445,770, and expenses £390,197. New South Wales had 13,242 miles of telegraph lines, with 35,630 miles of wire, at the beginning of 1899. The capital cost was £989,423. The number of telegrams dispatched in 1898 was 2,866,570; receipts, £428,995; net revenue, 158, 062. The telegraph lines of Victoria had a length of 6,599 miles, with 14,729 miles of wire, in 1898. The number of messages sent in that year was 1,806,184. The receipts were £97,565. Queensland had 10,088 miles of telegraph lines, with 18,565 miles of wire. The number of private messages was 1,061,068, besides 151,967 foreign messages received. The receipts were £88,727. The telegraphs of South Australia had a length of 5,874 miles, including telephone lines; the length of wire was 14,858 miles. The length of telegraph lines in Western Australia at the end of 1898 was 5,886 miles, with 8,650 miles of wire. The number of dispatches sent during the year was 1,178,928; revenue, £79,754. A cable is to be laid from Freemantle to Cape Colony. The telegraph lines of New Zealand on March 31, 1899, had a total length of 6,736 miles, with 18,746 miles of wire. The number of messages for the year was 2,960,738. The telephones as well as the telegraphs belong to the Government, and the receipts from both were £ 145,295. Australia Australian Federation. — When was first settled the seat of government was in the original colony of New South Wales, established in 1788, until Van Dieman's Land, now Tasmania, set up an independent administration in 1825. This example was followed successively by Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, and lastly Queensland. Before the Victorian Government was founded in the Port Philip Settlement, which took place in 1850, Earl Grey said that a central authority to decide questions of interest to Australia collectively was necessary, and in 1856 he introduced proposals for constituung such a central authority; but at that time they met with no general support. From the time of the establishment of the Dominion of Canada, in 1867, Sir Henry Parkes labored to bring about a AUSTRALASIA. union of the Australasian colonies, but the activity of Germany and France in the Pacific in 1883 first impressed the idea on the Australians and led to the establishment of the Federal Council as an experimental step. visory body, with neither legislative nor executive This was simply an adauthority. New South Wales refused to join in its deliberations from the first, and South Australia subsequently withdrew. The Russian scare in 1890 gave a fresh impetus to the movement for federation. A conference was held in Melbourne, followed by a convention in Sydney in 1891, at which the first commonwealth bill was drafted. This was submitted to the colonial Parliaments, but the popular demand for federation was not strong enough to secure its adoption. The Federal League was then founded to enlighten the Australian people regarding the benefits of federation, and so successful was this educational movement that in 1895 the Premiers in a conference agreed to bring forward enabling bills in their several Parliaments for providing a convention of delegates which should be instructed and empowered to frame a constitution. This constitution was to be submitted to the separate Parliaments sitting in grand committee; the amendments made by the several Parliaments were then to be referred back to the convention, and after they had been considered a final draft was to be made and submitted to the people of the several colonies to be voted on in a general referendum. The convention was held at Adelaide in March, 1897. Queensland was not represented, its Government having refused to pass an enabling bill. The constitution drafted at that meeting was based on the one drawn up in 1891, of which Sir Samuel Griffith and Edmund Barton were the principal authors. The convention met again at Sydney before the close of 1897 to consider and digest the amendments made by the several Parliaments, adjourned to Melbourne in 1898, and the final draft was submitted to popular vote in the several colonies. Queensland, as well as Western Australia, abstained from voting on the bill. There were 219,000 votes cast for, and 108,000 against, the bill, but in New South Wales it failed to secure the 80,000 votes that had been fixed as the minimum majority required to secure its adoption. The Government of New South Wales then proposed amendments, which were substantially adopted. Another referendum was proposed and agreed to. The people of Queensland voted this time, and the results were 377,600 votes for the bill and 141,500 against. Western Australia did not take part in this decision, but pressed for further amendments, which the other colonies declined to consider, the Premiers deciding that it was too late to change the constitution to which the people of five colonies had given the seal of their approval. In this form it was then forwarded for the sanction of the Imperial Parliament, accompanied by a bill authorizing the federation of the colonies under this palladium. The draft bill for the federation of the Australian colonies embodying the Federal Constitution was presented to the British Government for the sanction of the Imperial Parliament before the beginning of the session of 1900. It was the result of many years' discussion, and had been ratified by a referendum in the colonies that were ready to enter the federation as original states, viz., New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, and South Australia. desired a postponement until its people could also Western Australia decide by a referendum whether they would accept the Federal Constitution, but the other colonies were not willing to grant further delay. New Zealand still held aloof. The conference of Premiers, held at Sydney in January, 1900, voted unanimously that the bill should be passed withtralia had drawn up and the people had ratified by stitution which the statesmen and jurists of Ausout alteration. The principal clauses of the Cona large majority are given below. The commonwealth bill as finally adopted proin a Federal Parliament, consisting of the Queen, vided that the legislative power shall be vested Queen's representative being a Governor General, a Senate, and a House of Representatives, the appointed by the Crown and receiving a salary from the commonwealth of £10,000 until the Parliament shall sit once at least in the course of Parliament should otherwise decide its amount. a year. The Senate is to be composed of Senators for each state, directly chosen by the people of that state, and sitting for a term of six years. later. The House of Representatives is to contain The method of election was left to be defined twice the number of the Senate, and its members monwealth, the number of members provided by are to be elected by the people of the whole comeach state to be in proportion to the number of state there shall be at least five members apart the people in that state; but in each original from this consideration. The bill provided that the Queen should proclaim the union of the colonies adopting the Constitution, within a year of the passing of the act by the British Parliament, Commonwealth of Australia. The commonwealth in a federal commonwealth under the name of the act and all laws made by the Parliament of the binding on the courts, judges, and people of every commonwealth under the Constitution shall be withstanding anything in the laws of any state; state and of every part of the commonwealth, notand the laws of the commonwealth shall be in force on all British ships, except ships of war, whose first port of clearance and port of destinacommonwealth are such of the colonies of New tion are in the commonwealth. South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, TasStates of the mania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts tories as may be admitted into the commonwealth of the commonwealth, and such colonies and terriThe Parliament shall, subject to the Constitution, or established by the commonwealth as states. good government of the commonwealth with rehave power to make laws for the peace, order, and spect to trade and commerce with other countries and among the states; taxation, so as not to bounties on the production or export of goods, so discriminate between states or parts of states; that such bounties shall be uniform throughout the commonwealth; borrowing money on the public credit of the commonwealth; postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services; the naval and military defense of the commonwealth and of the several states, and the control of the commonwealth; lighthouses, light-ships, beacons, forces to execute and maintain the laws of the and buoys; astronomical and meteorological observations; quarantine; fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits; census and statistics; currency, coinage, and legal tender; banking other than state banking, also state banking beyond the limits of the state concerned, the incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper state insurance extending beyond the limits of the money; insurance other than state insurance, also exchange and promissory notes; bankruptcy and state concerned; weights and measures; bills of insolvency; copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and trade-marks; naturalization and aliens; foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the commonwealth; marriage; divorce and matrimonial causes, and in relation thereto parental rights and the custody and guardianship of infants; invalid and old-age pensions; the service and execution throughout the commonwealth of the civil and criminal process and judgments of the courts of the states; the recognition through out the commonwealth of the laws, the public acts and records, and the judicial proceedings of the states; the people of any race, other than the original race in any state, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws; immigration and emigration; the influx of criminals; external affairs; the relations of the commonwealth with the islands of the Pacific; the acquisition of property on just terms from any state or person for any purpose in respect of which the Parliament has power to make laws; the control of railways with respect to transport for the naval and military purposes of the commonwealth; the acquisition, with the consent of a state, of any railways of the state on terms arranged between the commonwealth and the state; railway construction and extension in any state with the consent of that state; conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one state; matters in respect of which this Constitution makes provision until the Parliament otherwise provides; matters referred to the Parliament of the commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any state or states, but so that the law shall extend only to states by whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterward adopt the law; the exercise within the commonwealth, at the request or with the concurrence of the Parliaments of all the states directly concerned, of any power which may at the establishment of this Constitution be exercised only by the Parliament of the United Kingdom or by the Federal Council of Australasia; matters incidental to the execution of any power vested by this constitution in the Parliament or either house thereof, or in the Government of the commonwealth, or in the Federal judicature, or in any department or officer of the commonwealth. The executive powers transferred to the commonwealth comprise the departments of posts, telegraphs, and telephones; naval and military defense; lighthouses, light-ships, beacons, and buoys; and quarantine. These can be taken over at any date after the establishment of the commonwealth. The chief command of the naval and military forces is vested, however, in the Governor General. The bill provided that the judicial power of the commonwealth should be vested in a Federal supreme court, to be called the High Court of Australia, and in such other Federal courts as the Parliament might create and such other courts as it might invest with Federal jurisdiction, the High Court to consist of a chief justice and so many other justices, not less than two, as the Parliament should prescribe. The justices of the High Court and the other courts to be created by the Parliament were to be appointed by the Governor General in Council, and not to be removed except by the Governor General in Council on an address from both houses of Parliament in the same session praying for their removal on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity. They should receive such remuneration as the Parliament fixed, but it was not to be changed during their continuance in office. The High Court should have jurisdiction, subject to such exceptions and regulations as the Parliament prescribed, to hear and determine appeals from judg ments, decrees, orders, and sentences of any justice or justices exercising the original jurisdiction of the High Court, of any other Federal court or court exercising Federal jurisdiction, or of the Supreme Court of any state or any other state court from which an appeal lies to the Queen in Council, or as to questions of law of the Interstate Commission. No exception or regulation of the Parliament should prevent the High Court from hearing and determining appeals from the Supreme Court of a state in any matter in which at the establishment of the commonwealth an appeal lies to the Queen in Council, and the same conditions and restrictions on appeals to the Queen in Council should be applicable to appeals to the High Court unless the Parliament otherwise provides. No appeal should be permitted to the Queen in Council in any matter involving the interpretation of the commonwealth Constitution or the constitution of a state unless the public interests of some other part of the imperial dominions are involved. The royal prerogative to grant appeal from the High Court to the Privy Council would not be impaired except so far as the provisions of the Constitution limit it, but the Parliament would have power to impose further limitations. In matters arising under any treaty, affecting consuls or other representatives of other countries, in which the commonwealth is a party, between states or residents of different states, or in mandamus or injunction proceedings against officers of the commonwealth, the High Court should have original jurisdiction, and the Parliament might confer original jurisdiction in any matter arising under the Constitution or involving its interpretation, arising under any laws made by the Parliament, of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, relating to the same subject matter claimed under the laws of different states. admiralty and maritime jurisdiction or to conflicts in the laws of different states as to the same subject matter the Parliament could make laws defining the jurisdiction of any other Federal court than the High Court and defining the extent to which such jurisdiction should be exclusive of that which belongs to or is vested in the state courts, also investing any state court with Federal jurisdiction. Parliament may make laws conferring rights to proceed against the commonwealth or a state. The Federal jurisdiction of any court may be exercised by such number of judges as the Parliament prescribes. Trial of any offense against any law of the commonwealth shall be by jury, and every trial shall be held in the state where the offense was committed, but when it is not committed within a state the Parliament may prescribe the place of trial. In The The Federal Constitution provides for a uniform postal and telegraph service, and at some time in the future a single control over railroad communications. Everything connected with the external relations of the six federating colonies will be a matter for the commonwealth and not for the state governments. A common tariff will be established for all the colonies, and at the same time there will be intercolonial free trade. national defenses will be under one control. Constitution is modeled more closely after that of the United States than that of any other country. State rights have throughout been jealously preserved. Whereas in Canada everything not expressly given to the provinces went to the central Government, in Australia the central Government has power only in matters that are distinctly de The fined in the Constitution. The Australian Senate consists of six members from each of the states, elected at the same election as the members of the lower house, but by all the electors of each state voting as one constituency except in Queensland, which is divided into two constituencies. The Representatives, elected in separate districts, will be kept down to double the numbers of the Senate. Members of both houses will be paid and will receive the same salary. Ministers in taking office do not vacate their seats, as in England. A measure that the House of Representatives has passed may be rejected by the Senate, and if brought before it in the succeeding session may be rejected again, after which the Government may dissolve both houses and order new elections. If the newly elected House of Representatives passes the same measure and the Senate again rejects it, then there is to be a joint session of both houses, in which the decision is made by a simple majority vote. A constitutional amendment must first be passed by an absolute majority of both houses of Parliament, and then in not less than two or not more than six months be submitted in each state to the electors qualified to vote for members of the House of Representatives. If one of the houses of Parliament fails to pass the proposed amendment or makes an amendment to it to which the other will not agree, and if it is again passed by the former after three months in the same or the next session and it is again rejected by the other, the Governor General may submit it to the popular vote either with or without any amendments subsequently agreed to by both houses. The people shall vote in such manner as the Parliament prescribes; but until the qualification of electors becomes uniform throughout the commonwealth only half the votes shall be counted in states in which adult suffrage prevails. If in a majority of the states a majority of the electors approve of the proposed law, and if a majority of all the electors voting also approve, the proposed law shall be presented to the Governor General for the Queen's assent. No alteration diminishing the proportionate representation of any state in either house of the Parliament, or the minimum number of representatives of a state in the House of Representatives, or increasing, diminishing, or otherwise altering the limits of the state, or in any manner affecting the provisions of the Constitution in relation thereto, shall become law unless the majority of the electors voting in that state approve the proposed law. Western Australia held out when the other colonies voted to join the federation, in the hope of securing special amendments in view of its undeveloped condition, such as differential railroad rates in favor of Western Australian coal and protective duties against the other colonies. After agreeing to railroad connection with South Australia without differential freight rates, the Western Australian Government still asked for the right to impose tariff duties, not to exceed the existing duties. The bill provided that the colony might tax imports from other colonies temporarily, the duties to be reduced by 20 per cent. a year until in five years they would disappear. Sir John Forrest, the Premier of Western Australia, asked for fiscal freedom for the five years, the other colonies to be equally free to tax Western Australian goods. To this the other Premiers would not agree, fearing that it might open the door for other amendments. The British Government, through which the request was presented to the Premiers, urged Western Australia to reconsider its attitude and take steps to enter the federation as an original state. This Western Australia decided to do, and made arrangements to have a referendum taken previous to the proclamation of the commonwealth. The Parliament, summoned to a special session on May 17, decided to submit the bill as amended by the conference of Premiers to the people of Western Australia. The bill was passed on June 7, and the date of the referendum was fixed for Aug. 7. There were 44,704 affirmative and 19,691 negative votes. New Zealand sent a delegate to London to seek through the Imperial Government amendments to the bill providing for immediate action in organizing the common defense, giving New Zealand the right to take part at once in the Federal High Court, and reserving the right to join the commonwealth as an original state at any time within seven years. To these propositions the Premiers could not agree, replying to the inquiries of the Colonial Office that they had no authority to consent to amendments. The British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, requested the several colonies to send delegates to explain and give assistance when the commonwealth bill should come before the Imperial Parliament. The Premiers agreed in conference that each colony should appoint a delegate, and that such delegates when appointed should represent all the federating colonies in unitedly urging the passage of the bill without amendment and in explaining any legal and constitutional questions that might arise. When the delegates arrived in London Mr. Chamberlain suggested several amendments to the draft constitution, in answer to which they signed a memorandum reciting their instructions to advocate the passage of the bill without amendment. Mr. Chamberlain, in dispatches to the several Australian governments, requested that the instructions be enlarged to enable the delegates to consider with the Colonial Secretary the form in which amendments might be made so as to render them acceptable to the Australian people. The Premiers declined to accept amendments, urging that the bill as it was embodied the Constitution desired by the Australian people, having been prepared by an elected convention and ratified by a referendum. The Secretary of State for the Colonies objected to the clause making the Federal High Court, instead of the Privy Council, the final court of appeal. He considered that an important link of empire would be impaired and divergency would spring up where in the general interests unity is most desirable. In interpreting the constitution and fixing the boundary between the powers of commonwealth and states the final decision, in his opinion, should lie with the highest tribunal of the empire, beyond suspicion of local bias or predilection. The Imperial Parliament could scarcely allow the Australian High Court to decide whether commonwealth laws, those affecting British shipping or laws on the fisheries, for instance, are ultra vires. Banking houses and commercial institutions that had investments in Australia had a strong feeling against the limitation to the right to appeal to the Privy Council. The objections to the existing imperial court of appeal would not hold against the new court which the Government proposed to create by amalgamating the judicial committee of the Privy Council with the House of Lords and providing for the adequate representation of the great colonies in the new court by calling into the House of Peers a number of colonial jurists. Another amendment upon which Mr. Chamberlain insisted was an express statement that the colonial laws validity act of 1865 will apply to laws of the commonwealth. 66 The question of the right of appeal from the Australian High Court to the Privy Council has been under discussion since the scheme of federation was discussed at the first meeting of the convention at Adelaide. When the Premiers visited England, on the occasion of the Queen's Jubilee in 1897, Mr. Chamberlain urged reconsideration. It was accordingly reconsidered at Melbourne, and finally the compromise contained in the bill was adopted. The Australians were unwilling to resign the right of having their Constitution interpreted by their own tribunal, and believed that by excepting cases in which the public interests of the United Kingdom or of other colonies were involved they conceded all that was necessary and right. But the term public interests seemed to the Colonial Secretary vague and indefinite. In the course of further discussion between the delegates and the Colonial Secretary, James R. Dickson, the Queensland delegate, separated himself from his colleagues and expressed himself in favor of accepting the proposed amendments in order to get the commonwealth bill passed as early as possible. Sir Julian Salomons, serving provisionally as delegate from New South Wales, approved the amendments for similar reasons. The Australian governments, however, contended that the right of deciding Australian constitutional questions should reside in the tribunals of Australia. After further conference Mr. Chamberlain arranged a compromise with the delegates, allowing the Executive Government to determine whether an appeal from the High Court to the Privy Council should be allowed. This proposal to confound executive and judicial powers was universally condemned in Australia. The Victorian delegate was superseded. The Government of Queensland asserted the right to leave to Parliament and people the decision whether they would accept a constitution into which such a principle was introduced. Further conferences between the delegates and the Secretary of State resulted in a new compromise, according to which interstate and constitutional questions shall be finally settled by the Federal High Court unless that tribunal rules that the question is one which ought to be settled by the Privy Council. Private litigants may carry their cases from the state Supreme Court either to the Federal High Court or to the Privy Council. If they desire to appeal from the decision of the High Court to the Privy Council they must obtain permission from the Privy Council. This amendment proved accept able in Australia and was adopted by the British Parliament, though New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia would have preferred the clause in the original draft, while Queensland and Western Australia objected to any restriction of the right to appeal to the imperial court, and New Zealand also desired the plenary right to appeal. The new clause runs as follows: No appeal shall be permitted to the Queen in Council from a decision of the High Court upon any question howsoever arising as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of the commonwealth and those of any state or states or as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of any two or more states, unless the High Court shall certify that the question is one which ought to be determined by her Majesty in Council. The position taken by Mr. Dickson was approved by his Government, which had opposed from the beginning the restricting of the right of appeal to the Privy Council. Newspapers and commercial bodies in the other colonies sustained the view of the Imperial Government, and so did the chief justices of all seven Australasian colonies. The Government of New Zealand protested against the transfer of the appellate jurisdiction from the metropolitan to the Australian authorities. The Premiers of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, while pleading for the passage of the bill as it stood, did not question the constitutional right of the British Parliament to alter its provisions. The bill was introduced in the British House of Commons by Mr. Chamberlain on May 15, with the amendments on which the Imperial Government insisted. The only alteration in the Constitution as drafted in Australia was the deletion of the entire clause restricting the right of appeal from the High Court to the Privy Council, and empowering the commonwealth Parliament to make further restrictions. The bill was altered so as to allow Western Australia to come into the federation as an original state, and an amendment was added which provides that, notwithstanding anything in the Constitution, the Queen's prerogative to grant special leave to appeal to the Privy Council may be exercised with respect to any judgment or order of the High Court of the commonwealth or the Supreme Court of any state. The Earl of Hopetoun, born Sept. 20, 1860, who was Governor of Australia from 1889 to 1895 and since Lord Chamberlain, was appointed to be the first Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia, and Jan. 1, 1901, was fixed for its proclamation, its inauguration to take place at Sydney, but the future capital to be determined by the Federal Parliament. The Federal Parliament, as is provided in the Constitution, will sit at Melbourne until the new seat of Government is fixed. It is to be placed within territory granted to or acquired by the commonwealth and vested in it, of not less than 100 square miles in area, situated in the state of New South Wales, but distant not less than 100 miles from Sydney. The representation in the Federal House of Representatives, as calculated for the five colonies that applied for federation, is as follows: New South Wales, 23 members; Victoria, 20; Queensland, 8; South Australia, 6; Tasmania, 5; total, 62 members. New South Wales.-The Legislative Council contains 69 members, who are nominated for life by the Governor. The Legislative Assembly has 125 members, elected in separate districts by all males of full age who are qualified by a residence of twelve months in the colony. At the election of July 27, 1898, the number of electors registered was 324,338, which was 24.28 per cent. of the population; the number who voted was 178,717, which was 56.41 per cent. of the number registered in contested districts. The Governor, appointed in January, 1899, is Earl Beauchamp. The ministry at the beginning of 1900 was composed as follows: Premier and Colonial Treasurer, Sir William John Lyne; Chief Secretary, John See; Attorney-General, Bernhard Ringrose Wise; Secretary for Lands, Thomas Henry Hassall: Secretary for Public Works, Edward William O'Sullivan; Minister of Public Instruction and of Industry and Labor, John Perry; Minister of Justice, William Herbert Wood; PostmasterGeneral, William Patrick Crick; Secretary for Mines and Agriculture, John Lionel Fegan; VicePresident of the Executive Council, James Alexander Kenneth Mackay. The new Cabinet has endeavored to show that the surpluses shown in G. H. Reid's budgets were fictitious, and that he left behind him an accumulated deficit of a million sterling. The expenditures are still increasing faster than the revenue, |