The Australian Way of Life 9780231892049

Table of contents :
Foreword
Contents
List of Illustrations
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I The Australian Nation
CHAPTER II The Family
CHAPTER III The Educational System
CHAPTER IV Political Institutions and Aspirations
CHAPTER V Economic Institutions and Aspirations
CHAPTER VI Religious Institutions and Aspirations
CHAPTER VII The Australian People and the World

Citation preview

THE WAY OF LIFE

SERIES

(A Series of the International Studies Conference)

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY O F L I F E

A

S Y D N E Y STRF.F.T SCENE.

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

EDITED BY

GEORGE

CAIGER

under the auspices of the Australian Institute of International Affairs

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW Y O R K , 1953

PUBLISHED IN G R E A T BRITAIN, WILLIAM HEINEMANN

1953,

BY

LTD.

This volume of the Way of Life Series has been prepared under the auspices of the International Studies Conference, on the request and with the financial assistance of U.N.E.S.C.O. T h e opinions expressed are those of the authors and editors, who have been given complete freedom in this respect.

PRINTED IN ORKAT BRITAIN BY THE WHTTEFRIARS PRESS LTD. LONDON AND TONBRIDGE

Foreword by A. L. Irvine book on Australian Ideals and Values is the first to appear of an ambitious series planned by U.N.E.S.C.O. It is the work of several authors, well qualified to treat of their special subjects, as the biographical notes at the end of the chapters show. It tells the story of a vast island-continent whose history began, not auspiciously, a good deal less than two hundred years ago, and whose population in 1850 stood well below half a million, not one-third of the population of Sydney to-day. The symposium method has its dangers—of length, inequality, inconsistency and overlapping. On the first two counts the book is not beyond criticism. But there is no self-contradiction, and the avoidance of overlapping is noteworthy, seeing that the various authors could never meet for discussion. And it has the great merit of being thoroughly objective : the reader could not often say with confidence how in an election the writer would cast his vote. The Australian is believed not to welcome criticism from outside his own country. But here, from within it, there is criticism in plenty, some of it not lacking in severity. It will surprise no one to be told of ' the extraordinarily high average capacity of its citizens'; but it may surprise many to hear of them as ' painfully homogeneous in mental texture,' with a marked suspicion and dislike of really outstanding personality or intellect. That may possibly account for the absence—doubtless unconscious—of proper names where we might look for them most. T o those who think of politics as largely a clash of personalities—a Pitt and a Fox, a Gladstone and a Disraeli—it is astonishing to read a political chapter in which only three Australians are named, a professor and two Ministers of State. It detracts something from the human interest of an otherwise good and informative essay. The best chapter in the book, full of wisdom and good writing, is contributed by Sir Frederic Eggleston, a retired lawyer with a THIS

V

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FOREWORD

most distinguished record of service. Here is a specimen of his criticism: While Australia has always been keen to assert her national sovereignty, she has always felt that mere self-assertion is a sign of adolescence. A recognition of interdependence and a spirit of co-operation seems to bear the true stamp of maturity. The links of blood, history and language make this feeling altogether spontaneous, and the tragic experiences of recent years have strengthened these ties. Australians feel honoured to work with the people of Britain not merely because they speak the same language as Shakespeare and Milton spoke, but because they are kin to those who won the Battle of Britain in 1940 (p. 8). We read, and think not only of the stricken field, but of the endless flow of parcels that have brought good cheer to so many English homes. O r again : Australian political ideas are predominandy liberal, with a strong trades union bias when Labour is in power. Trades union parties who do not think generally gravitate towards nationalization. It is the line of least resistance to a sea of problems for which Labour has no answers. The Party has never thought out a rational policy of economic control in which the State can stand as the arbiter because it is not too deeply committed. The non-Labour parties stand on a traditional late-Victorian radical platform which seems unfitted to meet the unique problems of adjustment at present calling for solution. The intensity of the Australian political struggle has brought forward leaders of great skill and power, but no political scientist has ever adequately expounded the lessons which Australia's experience should teach (p. 12). O r take this, from another excellent chapter, that on religion : Australian literature is impoverished by its lack of the kind of inspiration that is essentially religious. No Australian heartsearching has appeared to compare with that done for South Africa by Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country. We have produced some wit, much excellent verbal photography, much subjective emotionalism glorifying the virtues of the frontier— but few books discussing real issues, or dramatizing spiritual conflicts, or asking fundamental questions. The major premise of life is shirked (p. 127).

FOREWORD

vii

O r lastly this, from the same chapter: The poverty of nearly all the clergy in Australia has had a mentally cramping and inhibiting effect on intellectual energy and adventure. There is no money for big books and little leisure for solid reading. In most cases, this poverty derives from convention rather than necessity. The laity have got into the way of regarding clerical poverty as a right and natural thing, not stopping to remember that it is the poor man with a family who has to think most about money, and that to influence widely a minister needs to think and to live widely. This convention-inflicted poverty is perhaps the most potent reason why, with a high standard of pastoral faithfulness, the standard of intellectual enterprise in Australian Church life is low (p. 129). Of the ' extraordinarily high average capacity' of the Australian people no one can doubt, nor that it takes practical rather than intellectual form. But we do not find here the word which might occur first to those who have fought beside them or played against them—the plain monosyllable, ' guts.' Yet efficiency and ' guts' are not enough. ' Nothing in history,' wrote a distinguished publicist recently, ' has proved more difficult than to induce democracies to look ahead and take long views.' And that this is as true in the Pacific as elsewhere the present book asserts in plain words. A. L. I R V I N E

Contents CHAP.

PAOB

v

FOREWORD INTRODUCTION I

THE

XIII

AUSTRALIAN NATION

.

.

Sir F. W . Eggleston

i

T h e Adjustment of M a n to Nature: Effect oo the Australian C h a r a c t e r : T h e Main Racial Strains: Self-government and Federation: Politics without Doctrines: T h e Search for Security: Industrialization and Cities: T h e Australian Way of L i f e : T h e Problem of Self-expression : Nationhood. II

THE

FAMILY

W . D . Borne

23

T h e Introduction : T h e Statistical Composition of the Family : T h e Extra-metropolitan Family : T h e Metropolitan Family : Social Policy and the Family : Some General Conclusions : Appendix : Statistics Relating to the Family. III

T H E EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

. D r . K . S. C u n n i n g h a m

45

General Achievement : Schools and Universities : Responsibility f o r National Education : Adult and Informal Education : Educational Broadcasting : U.N.E.S.C.O. : Adjustment to Individual Differences : Research in Education : Some Statistical Facts : A Selected T o u r : T h e Reverse Side : How It Came About : T h e Recent Past : Various Developments and Aspects : History versus Geography. IV

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AND ASPIRATIONS Prof. P. H . Partridge

68

T h e Working of Federalism : T h e Balance of Powers : Growing Commonwealth Powers : Judicial Interpretations of the Constitution : Causes of Change : Constitutional Amendment : Centralization or Decentralization : Revision of Constitution : T h e Machinery of Government : T h e ' Caucus System ' : T h e Party System : ' Socialism ' in Australia. V

ECONOMIC

INSTITUTIONS AND ASPIRATIONS Prof. G . L . W o o d

T h e Social and Political Background : T h e Evolution of Labour Attitudes in Australia : Development of Economic Control in the Second World War : T h e Post-war Pattern of Economic Control. ix

94

X

CONTENTS

CHAP.

VI

PAOE

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND ASPIRATIONS Rev. K . T . Henderson

114

Race and Religion: Response to Environment: Historical Notes: Inter-church Relations: The Intellectual Atmosphere: Religion in Social Development VII

THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE AND THE WORLD Prof. F. Alexander Forms of Australian Feeling: Australian and Imperial Interests: Pre-occupation with Local Problems: Geographical Isolation: Immigration Policy: Increased Sense of World Community: Impact of the Depression: T h e Shock of W a r : More Realistic Attitude: Reaction towards Parochialism.

141

List of Illustrations PLATE

I Sydney Street Scene

Frontispiece

II A. The Flying Doctor Service—a Base near Broken Hill B. Homes of well-to-do Sydney People on the southern side of the Harbour III A. Coogee Beach B. Australian Aborigines

32 32 33 33

IV A. Perth: the Hackett Memorial Building of the University of Western Australia B. Adelaide: The University and other cultural buildings on North Terrace V A. Newcastle : the Broken Hill Pty. Steelworks

Facing Page

.

.

48 48 49

B. Cutting Sugarcane in Queensland

49

VI A. The House in Session, Canberra

80

B. Parliament House, Canberra

80

VII Sydney Harbour Bridge

81

VIII A. Sheep Drovers stop for a Meal 112 B. Gundagai: a Township on the banks of the Murrumbidgee 112 IX A. Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales, an Important Dairying District 113 B. Droving Cattle on a Country Road in New South Wales 113 X A. St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Sydney . 128 B. Newcasde : the State High School for Girls . XI The Royal Easter Show, Sydney

.

.128 129

Introduction THE Australian Institute of International Affairs has been pleased to co-operate with the International Studies Conference in their series of studies on ' national ideals and values.' Within the framework suggested each contributor has been free to express his own views. As, constitutionally, the Australian Institute of International Affairs is precluded from expressing any opinion, it should be understood that the opinions are those of the authors themselves. The process of compilation deserves mention because it is typical of Australia. At the outset, three of the contributors were in Melbourne, two in Sydney, one in Perth and one in England, engaged on research : he later returned to Sydney. At no time was it possible to bring the contributors together for verbal discussion. Owing to the distances, most of the arrangements had to be made by correspondence. Some of the authors exchanged drafts for comment, but each was already familiar with the outlook of the others. This is one mark of a far-flung community such as ours. Though they have not said so, we believe that the authors, all busy men, accepted the invitation to contribute a chapter because they realized the timeliness of such a cultural stocktaking. The fact that the question, ' Is there an Australian way of life ? ' still provokes discussion among Australians shows that our ways have not yet hardened into clearly recognizable patterns. Nice distinctions are required to isolate the characteristics which go to make up ' Australianity.' In the first chapter the contributor was invited to describe the cultural unity of Australia, how Australians see themselves and the kind of people they wish to be. Sir Frederic Eggleston has approached this task in a spirit of detachment, tempered by irony. Some Australians may complain that he does not show the country in a uniformly favourable light, but the purpose of the study is to show important facets of Australian life as reflected by the minds of those well fitted for the task—to mirror, not to glorify. xii

xiv

INTRODUCTION

If any chapter is controversial, surely that mirrors the state of the nation, in that our national ideals and values have not yet been absolutely established and universally accepted? Australia, we are constantly assured, is a youthful, growing nation, Australians are a people engaged in remoulding an inherited tradition in a fresh environment. The contrast between this more obviously dynamic process, and the behaviour patterns of those whose ideals and values have matured for centuries in the same environment, should in itself be illuminating. In the second chapter Mr. Borrie takes up the theme of readjustment in a new environment from the aspect of the family. This is a subject which has not yet received the analytical attention it merits. The author comes to the conclusion that there is no typical Australian family, but several types of Australian families. Analysis of the more distinctive types brings out the conditions of environment which have given rise to the differences, so that from the social aspect we get a sharply focused picture of life in Australia with the contrast between the concentration of population in the State capitals and the thinlypeopled rural areas. In the great cities, society is stratified by the separation of economic classes through residence rather than by any considerations of caste. Throughout the nation the way of life makes heavy domestic demands upon the womenfolk. Families face the new problems of delimiting responsibility for the upbringing of children between the State and the family. The third chapter, on education, follows with a factual survey of the field of State and private activities. Here again we find adaptations of older ways to local conditions, influenced in this case by the example of the United States. Notable is the postwar growth of adult and informal education, accelerated by wartime experience and the need for efficiency. This has also heightened the tendency to emphasize technical education at the expense of the humanities. There has likewise been an increase in the provisions for secondary education, with its three streams, secular State, secular private and Roman Catholic, meeting on the tertiary level. Dr. Cunningham adduces several examples of the ways in which educationists are seeking solutions to problems posed by the scattered nature of the population, such as greater use of transport, by broadcasting, by the development of corre-

INTRODUCTION

XV

spondence schools, and the foundation of a new National University. A brief historical review helps to set successes and failures in proper perspective. The author of Chapter IV shows how characteristically our economic institutions are developing, as in the delegation of economic functions by Parliament to various authorities of its own creation. He traces the interplay of movements which began in the isolation of Australian conditions with the pressures exerted by forces from outside. Since Federation, the social relations characteristic of Australian wage-earners have been permanently affected by two World Wars and the intervening world depression. The war of 1939-45 hastened the march towards a managed economy. Many have been won to support planning for social justice, for community welfare ; others are concerned over what strikes them as a confusion between ends and means. This may be described as Australian variations on a more general theme of evolution towards statism, but it is just the Australian variations, in seven aspects of our life, that are the concern of this study. Looming large in the discussion is the expansion of domestic manufacture as a means of promoting economic independence of overseas countries. Here, as in the following chapter from the political angle, we come up against the conflicting spheres of influence as between the States and the Federal Government. Since the war, in several of the newly nationalist countries, leaders are seeking a solution to their political problems in Federation. Because of the growing interest in this form of government, an up-to-date account of the working of federalism in a country which has practised it for fifty years should command a wide audience. Professor P. H. Partridge brings out the change in the outlook of Australians, who, during the last few years, have come to give more attention to the Federal Parliament at Canberra than to their State Parliaments. Broadcasting of the sessions from Canberra, since July 1946, has probably influenced this change of outlook. Kenneth Henderson's experience has equipped him to write with detachment on the working of religion in the creation,

xvi

INTRODUCTION

inspiration and control of the Australian way of life. The care of religious broadcasting for the Australian Broadcasting Commission has brought him into daily contact with men of all denominations. He defines himself as an Anglican liberal. As himself a champion of change in many phases of religious life, he confesses that he has had to watch a tendency to overestimate the influence of the dynamic elements in Australian religion. He pictures a people longing for greatness, but frustrated in its achievement by their own insistence on equality and uniformity. The pitfalls of generalization lurk everywhere in a study of this kind. The contributors have to generalize, but in so doing they lay themselves open to misunderstanding and criticism. Professor F. Alexander, by means of footnotes, has shown readers where they can find more detailed discussions of the points he has to sum up briefly. In the final chapter Professor Alexander was asked to describe how Australians feel about their relationship with the world community. This chapter rounds out the general picture by touching on the persistence of the close association between Australia and the United Kingdom, and adverse influences ; the growth of nationalism ; the development of a kind of goodhumoured casualness towards other peoples except where economic interests are affected. In the general problem of readjustment of inherited oudook to our new environment international affairs have been crowded into the background. As a people, he concludes that we have been chiefly absorbed in our domestic problems, though from time to time outside events have briefly shocked the community into a realization of the interdependence of the world in the 20th century. The study as a whole shows Australia in the world, but hardly of it. Only recently, in an age of air transport and food shortage, are we finding our place in the world community. GEORGE

CAIGER

C H A P T E R

I

The Australian Nation SIR F R E D E R I C W. The Adjustment

EGGLESTON

of Man to Nature

A NATION grows when a people pursuing a common way of life develops a well-defined territory and lives through a long historical experience. Such a community will be very much what the minds and wills of its members determine it shall be, but there are certain definite laws of growth. Geography sets limits to what the nation can do with its soil, but the quality of the people is tested by the use they make of the resources available to them. Their historical experience defines their aspirations and ideas and enables them to build the institutions appropriate to the way of life they have chosen. The Australian people have done very well with the soil on which they have been placed. Australia is an island, the most isolated of all the continents. For ages it was almost untouched in the dispersal of peoples. It is a dry, brown and dusty piece of earth lying athwart the desert belt of the Southern Hemisphere. More than one-third of the continent is desert; that is to say, it has a rainfall of ten inches or less. Less than one-third has a rainfall of between ten and twenty inches and is thus classified as semi-arid. Only a small proportion has a rainfall of over thirty inches. A green belt of great beauty lies along the eastern coast where a long mountain range rising to 7,000 feet at its highest point follows the sea at an average distance of about fifty miles. A much smaller green belt fills the southwestern corner of the continent. The rest grades to a dead heart at the centre. There are beauties, of course, in all deserts, but the arid part of Australia is old, dreary and intensely hot. When the British first landed they regarded their new home with some disfavour. They sensed nothing but discomfort, heat, A.W.L.

2

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

dust and flies. Adam Lindsay Gordon, who did not love this country, expressed the mood when he said: In lands where bright blossoms are scentless, And songless bright birds ; Where, with fire and fierce drought on her tresses, Insatiable Summer oppresses Sere woodlands and sad wildernesses, And faint flocks and herds. Later generations, however, found that Gordon was absurdly mistaken about the flowers and the birds, and they no longer feared but loved the sun. The modern Australian sings with Dorothea Mackellar: I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains; I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror— The wide brown land for me! This accommodation—the adjustment of man to Nature in Australia—has been a long and interesting story. Parts of the world with a similar climate are usually inhabited by tribesmen and nomads picking from the land a meagre sustenance. The Australians came to make their fortune, and for that purpose used the methods of the scientist and the business man. In this they were assisted by two factors. Being an old land, the soil was highly mineralized and, in the second place, it was suitable for animals to range, and a way of utilizing it was found far better than that of the nomad. It proved to be uniquely suitable for the Merino sheep, and the intelligent and well-advised pastoralist soon found how to use the land, how to conserve the scanty resources of water and how to destroy the noxious weeds and pests, though he has never been able to conquer the rabbit. To-day, sheep-farming is profitable even in areas which are so dry that fifty acres are required to keep each sheep alive. The pastoralist has not only improved the breed of the Merino sheep so that it now produces, on the average, nine pounds of wool per sheep, but he has successfully worked large-scale methods by

3

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

means of mechanism and low labour costs. A pastoral property of 300,000 acres may feed 180,000 sheep, and may be ran by a labour force of less than thirty hands. This development has been costly and has taxed the ingenuity and skill of the Government and people. Settlement in the interior has been possible only by the sinking of wells and water conservation, while, on the fringe between ' the desert and the sown,' extensive irrigation has been necessary to extend cultivation. Similar large-scale methods have been adopted for agriculture in certain suitable cases. A large proportion of Australian wheat is grown in the semi-arid areas, and a farm of from 900 to 1,200 acres can be managed by the labour of the farmer and his family, provided he has mechanical assistance, such as six-furrow ploughs and harvesters. If the soil is suitable, wheat is grown wherever the rainfall is over twelve inches. Australia is now one of the four great wheat-exporting countries of the world. There is, however, no cultivation whatever beyond a distance of 300 miles from the coast, and even in this cultivated area a farmer must expect one bad season in three, a drought every seven years and a bad drought extending over twelve months every fourteen years. In these arid areas water must be supplied for domestic and stock consumption, and this water must be obtained from storages in that small proportion of the Continent which has a rainfall of over thirty inches. Effect on the Australian Character This struggle with Nature which, with a good many vicissitudes, has been highly successful, has left its mark on the character of the people engaged. The life on large holdings is necessarily lonely and the amenities are few. In a State settlement scheme the young farmer may be given a 1,000-acre block with a shack of corrugated iron and two io,ooo-gallon tanks. He is expected to build better after his first prosperous season. When this comes, however, he often sells out and moves to a more settled district and, after years of intense effort and numerous moves, he very likely settles down in a suburb of one of the great cities with savings raised not so much from farming as from reaping the unearned increment of the value of his land. B 3

4

THE AUSTRALIAN W A V OF LIFE

His children take jobs in the city, while he lives on the interest of his Government bonds, cultivates his garden and spends his afternoons on the bowling green. Such a life makes the Australian keen and intelligent, ready for anything. He has been subject to great strains, but these have been psychological rather than physical. He has a grim sense of humour and is a realist rather than a romantic. He treats farming not as a way of life but as a business. He has no particular love of the soil. The pioneering spirit is still very much alive, but it is not evoked by the lure of the vast open spaces but rather by the nature of the job to be done, and interesting work will be undertaken whether it be in the city or in the country. This vast continent was setded by the British as a penal setdement in 1788. The establishment of a gaol seems a somewhat simple matter, but never was so little intelligence or foresight shown in the establishment of a new community. At one stage, rum had to be used as currency. All the problems of Australian development have been worked out by Australians, though it must be conceded that the colonial reformer school of Buller and Gibbon Wakefield contributed some fertile, though not always workable, ideas. The early character of the settlement was soon submerged in the tide of free setders who arrived in two waves. The first wave consisted of the gentlemen farmers and yeomen of England who, when it was found that wool-growing was a profitable industry, came to live the pastoral life to which they were accustomed. This migration took place between the years 1820 and 1840. Setdement was easy, for the sheep could walk out to the desired location. O n the whole it was profitable, though there were extreme fluctuations, due in some instances to drought and in others to markets. The gentleman farmer did not stand up very well to these strains and was often superseded by the Scotch crofter or the Irish peasant, who was inured to poverty and could withstand the ups and downs of the new life. The second wave of migration took place in the fifties with the discovery of gold. The population at this stage rose from 465,000 in 1850 to 2,231,000 in 1880. This migration entirely altered the composition of the population. The British migrants

THE AUSTRALIAN

NATION

5

were mainly city dwellers, many of them disappointed Chartists, and they gave a radical tone to Australian politics. Gold-mining was, of course, a gamble and metals wasting assets. Fluctuations were just as marked a feature of the mining age as of the pastoral age, and in time it became evident that the economy of the country must be changed if those who came here to mine and their families were to be found employment. When this stage arrived eyes were turned to the vast open spaces where it was found that the pastoralist was in occupation. British Governors had fought a fine but not altogether successful battle to prevent the semi-nomadic pastoralist from securing permanent ownership of the land which he occupied, but even when the freehold was not his the land was locked up in long leases. For years the land question was the burning issue of Australian politics. The miner, however, wanted the land for the purpose of cultivation. The move was an experiment, but with the discovery of suitable fertilizers, refrigeration, the establishment of irrigation and the use of mechanized aids, agriculture eventually become prosperous. Setdement was, of course, extensive. A contributory reason for the large farms was the shortage of labour. As the market within Australia grew, and as a reservoir of skilled men was accumulated by the 1860's, the idea that the future of Australia depended on manufacturing industries gathered strength. This meant a protective tariff and a breach of the British preconception of colonial setdement, viz., that the colonies would provide Britain with raw materials and would take her manufactured goods. With characteristic generosity on the part of the British, this idea was not pressed, and Victoria embarked on an industrial policy with a tariff. This was followed by other States and was eventually adopted by the Federal Government when established. The future development of the Australian way of life hinged on this decision. Industrialization meant a diversified economy, more scope for the different aptitudes of an educated people. It meant a proletariat and, as it was inaugurated many years before it was economically justified, the whole population dependent upon it was subject to great fluctuations of prosperity and depression.

6

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

The Main Racial Strains The community which settled the continent was composed of three main racial strains, the English, the Irish and the Scots. There was some migration of Germans to South Australia in the middle of the 19th century and some migration of Italians in the 20th century, but as factors in the composition of the people these two strains are negligible. The community thus contains a mixture of Celts and Anglo-Saxons.1 As can be imagined, the English were by far the least vocal and the most persistent of these three strains. Australia is a British community loyal to the English Crown and following the English way of life. It has adopted English political institutions, the English financial system and English common law. The English pattern as a whole fits the community best. England is ' Home.' The Australian indeed is more comfortable with the Scots and Irish. He finds them more open and friendly. The English appear cold and difficult to know; but, in fact, the Scots and Irish are catalysts which makes the English elements more active. In saying this, I do not depreciate the role of the other two races, who have had more than their share of leadership in Australia. The Scots have led in business and have supplied some political leaders, but the Irish have had a far larger share in politics than their numbers would lead one to expect. The assimilation of the Scots has always been more complete than that of the Irish. The latter have tenacious memories and the fact that they are fundamentally Catholic has led to their regarding themselves as an unpopular minority. Many of them belong to the proletariat, and their clannishness has been turned to great advantage in politics. It cannot be said that this has produced any deleterious effect on the harmony of the community. At one time the religious feud between the Catholics from Southern Ireland and the Protestants from Northern Ireland, called Orangemen, was strong. The Catholics trailed their coats on St. Patrick's Day, while the Orangemen celebrated in procession the anniversary of the Batde of the Boyne. This feud, however, is now almost as cleanly forgotten as that unhappy far-off event which the Orangemen celebrated. 1 T h e post-war migration has brought large numbers of eastern and southern Europeans, and the ' New Australians ' may bring some changes in the character of the population (see Table II, p. 32).

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

7

The assimilation of the Irish follows to some extent the pattern set by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy who, when he landed, proclaimed himself ' an Irish rebel to the backbone and spinal marrow.' Irishmen take to local politics with keen zest, attain office and retire with honours bestowed by the British Crown. Unfortunately, it cannot be said that the Irish have added to the gaiety of Australia. There seems, in the 20th century, to be a steady decay of the Irish sense of humour. In Australia they are grim, purposeful, and successful in most walks of life—not conspicuously Celtic, not a people of poets and orators, but of organizers, politicians, union officials, publicans and public servants. But they have leavened Australian life. The one-third Irish blood in the community gives the people a character definitely different from that of the British—more logical, more ideological, given to faction and resistant to authority. Self-government

and

Federation

The Australian people, having occupied a land which evoked their best efforts but which also set limits to their achievements, had also to build their house—the institution in which they could accomplish their national purpose. The development of the political institutions of Australia will be described in another chapter. It is sufficient to say here that, in time, the six areas of colonial settlement in the continent all obtained self-governing institutions with responsible government based on the English model. Later, as other nations moved into the Pacific, a Federal Constitution was inaugurated on 26 January, 1901. This Constitution is a worthy house for the Australian nation. It follows the British system of responsible government under the Crown, but adopts the American device of leaving the States sovereign in their own sphere. It is an apt expression of the genius of the people: the unity of the national purpose on the one hand and its strong objection to centralized and concentrated power on the other. The Federal power is strong, but the States are protected by legal safeguards. The advanced radical policy which is dominant in Australia can be realized satisfactorily only by Federal legislation, and therefore the centralizing pressures are strong. The position of the States is vulnerable in one area— finance—but encroachment on this for party purposes is resented.

8

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LITE

The system can only work if there is adequate co-operation, and, notwithstanding a good deal of bickering, this has not failed. The creation of a federal unit enabled the Australian people to take their part in the development of the British Commonwealth of Nations which started at the close of the first World War. Logic has not been overworked in the arrangement of these relations. The Commonwealth coheres because the members have developed, in a common historical experience, common ideas about the democratic way of life, but two of these members, Australia and New Zealand, have the additional reason that they are homogeneous British communities. Moreover, the isolated position of Australia has led to a widespread appreciation of the protection afforded by the British Navy and, in turn, to a desire to play a part when the Empire is in danger. While Australia has always been keen to assert her national sovereignty, she has always felt that mere self-assertion is a sign of adolescence. A recognition of interdependence and a spirit of co-operation seems to bear the true stamp of maturity. The links of blood, history and language make this feeling altogether spontaneous, and the tragic experiences of recent years have strengthened these ties. Australians feel honoured to work with the people of Britain not merely because they speak the same language as Shakespeare and Milton spoke, but because they are the kin of those who won the Battle of Britain in 1940. With the establishment of Federation, Australia entered upon her life as a nation with three and a half million people enjoying free institutions and a high standard of living. It was a fine achievement. The people had tamed an unpromising continent and had built up the structure of a modern community. They had faced the difficult financial and economic problems of development, and they worked the free political institutions which they had adopted from the British model with singular success. Their leaders displayed parliamentary qualities of a very high order and the constructive ability shown in the framing of the Federal Constitution has elicited praise from great authorities. This achievement, it must be noted, was made from scratch by a people who had inherited ideas and a way of life, but who had to apply them in a new environment and who insisted on doing so on their own initiative, without tutelage from overseas,

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

9

without a ruling class. It was an effort of the common man. A deep consciousness of this fact has always been present. A t the inauguration of Federation, Mr. Bernard O'Dowd, the greatest of Australian poets, put the deep question which is at the back of the mind of every thinking Australian in the following sonnet: AUSTRALIA

Last sea-thing dredged by sailor Time from space, Are you a drift Sargasso, where the West In halcyon calm rebuilds her fatal nest? Or Delos of a coming Sun-God's race ? Are you for Light, and trimmed, with oil in place, Or but a Will o' Wisp on marshy quest ? A new demesne for Mammon to infest ? Or lurks millennial Eden 'neath your face ? The cenotaphs of species dead elsewhere That in your limits leap and swim and fly, Or trail uncanny harp-strings from your trees, Mix omens with the auguries that dare To plant the Cross upon your forehead sky, A virgin helpmate Ocean at your knees. Since 1901 the world has been faced with a series of problems of ever-increasing difficulty, and Australia has faced these in the same way as she faced the problems of her early development. Droughts, variations in markets and difficulties of growth had inured the people to economic fluctuations. They knew that these causes were beyond their control and that they must be met by political and economic adjustments. The British system of responsible government proved well-fitted to enable Australia to pursue such a policy together with advanced social objectives. In the 1890's the community had already been hit by a financial blizzard through which the industrial proletariat suffered severe unemployment, culminating in widespread strikes. When these were unsuccessful the workers' leaders decided that the remedy must be sought in the political field. They were not alone in their resolve to find a cure for social ills, and it was a Victorian Liberal Government which made the first attack on ' sweat shops ' by introducing a code for factories and a minimum wage.

IO

T H E AUSTRALIAN WAY O F L I F E

Different States adopted different methods of obtaining social justice and, since the Federal Government was established, a system of compulsory arbitration for the settlement of industrial disputes has practically superseded the previous methods; and under this system an elaborate code designed to provide fair conditions and a living wage has been developed. Politics without Doctrines This system has had a profound effect on the mores of the Australian people. In the first place the organization of the Australian worker has developed round the system. His organizers and leaders have taken charge of the whole of the worker's industrial interests. This organization has been exceedingly skilful and has given these leaders a great political advantage, so that the Labour Party is essentially a trades union party, most of whose members have received their training in the working of the trades unions. In the second place, it has tied the trades unions and the Labour Party to the capitalist system. Doctrinaire Socialism has had little appeal to the Australian. The predominant policy aims at serving union interests, readjusting conditions in an egalitarian direction by the redistribution of the national income through taxation, and thus providing social services for those who need them. The Australian is always critical of State activity and hates bureaucracy. If he is a trades union president or secretary, he sees a ladder of promotion before him, first to the State or Federal Parliament, then to Cabinet rank and ultimately perhaps to a diplomatic post abroad. He is essentially bourgeois. The Irish have played a large part in the trades union oiganization and in Labour politics. The Catholic Church opposes full-scale Socialism, but has a keen interest in the social policy of its adherents. Capitalists note with some satisfaction the relationship of the Church to the Party, and believe that its influence will prevent any serious advance towards Socialism. Finally, such a system has little room for the intellectual. His chances of entering the Labour movement are small, although if he is able to take the first step he may rise in the party. The radical who emerges from the university is, therefore, frustrated and sometimes turns to Communism and, so long as the Labour

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

II

Party remains primarily a trades union organization, Communist forces have some appeal. The official Labour Party rarely has a majority of votes and must depend for its power upon the votes which it can obtain from the rest of the community. There is thus never one solid party with the capacity to dominate the community. Agricultural interests are organized for political purposes into a party called the Country Party. There is a solidarity of country interests, because all are interested in high prices for their goods and low charges for services. The residual elements of the community, those forgotten people—the professional classes, white-collar workers, business men and capitalists—give varied support to a Liberal Party. These elements have no common interests and no common wants, and the party is constantly on the defensive. In Australia there is little respect for wealth as such and insufficient acknowledgment of the services rendered by business men in the organization of Australian industry. It is harder for an industrial magnate to enter politics than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. There are historical reasons for this. The wealthy classes have never provided leaders or shown the community any guidance in political matters. As political organizers, they are feeble. They rarely succeed as politicians. As business men, they are efficient but tend to be narrow specialists. The Victorian Liberal, George Higginbotham, coined the phrase ' the wealthy lower orders,' and it has stuck. This concept of politics without doctrines has its reverse side and its grave dangers. The feats of organization of the trades unions are remarkable. I know of no greater achievement in the history of the Labour movement than the association of country workers all over Australia in what is known as the Australian Workers' Union. Real success, however, depends on the values which trades unions seek and the intelligence displayed in the means they employ. These organizations wield immense power. The Marxian idea of working-class solidarity is axiomatic in the Party's slogans and is strong in the mind of the politicallyactive worker. This means compulsory unionism, and caucus methods are the rule. Usually, union officials concentrate on the job in hand and do not think much of the direction which they

12

THB AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

should take. They have never considered it necessary to think out their economic problems and the way to secure lasting success. A rise in the nominal wage is regarded as a success for the union leader irrespective of what happens to the real wage. The party has no service which provides scientific advice. It thus provides a machine which may be captured by an intelligent few using approved revolutionary techniques. The Search for Security The economic fluctuations to which Australia is subject have always led to waves of unemployment, and a determination on the part of the people to protect themselves from these dangers supplies a good deal of the dynamic of the movement. This unenlightened search for security tends to impart a rigidity to the economic structure which may become very britde under strain. The Australian worker, indeed, has bulwarks which few working classes enjoy. A large proportion of the workers own their own homes and have very substantial savings, while social services provide for old age, widowhood and childhood, and free health services are on a generous scale. The fact is that the average Australian, having left his interests in the hands of his leaders, does not take a great interest in the way in which they are managed. His values are unique. He does not want to be a capitalist. He is satisfied with a reasonable standard of living, with leisure to do what he likes. He does not often attend union meetings. If his vote is required, a stop-work meeting will be called because it seems a pity to waste his evenings. De Tocqueville remarked of the Americans that they were much attached to general ideas. This is emphatically untrue of the Australian. He has no Bill of Rights: he takes them for granted, and they are never queried. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence would move him less than the Gettysburg Address of Lincoln. Australian political ideas are predominantly liberal, with a strong trades union bias when Labour is in power. Trades union parties who do not think generally gravitate towards nationalization. It is the line of least resistance to a sea of problems for which Labour has no answers. The Party has never thought out a rational policy of economic control in which the

THE

AUSTRALIAN

NATION

13

State can stand as the arbiter because it is not too deeply committed. The non-Labour parties stand on a traditional lateVictorian radical platform which seems unfitted to meet the unique problems of adjustment at present calling for solution. The intensity of the Australian political struggle has brought forward political leaders of great skill and power, but no political scientist has ever adequately expounded the lessons which Australia's experience should teach. Industrialization and Cities The industrial character of the Australian polity involves concentration in large cities. About 50 per cent of the people live in the capital cities, about 17 per cent in provincial towns, and the remainder on the land. Judged by modern standards this urbanization is not excessive. The big cities with their suburbs cover immense areas and the people are well dispersed, living mainly in one-storey, detached houses on large allotments. Health in the cities compares favourably with that in the country areas. There are slums, but the slum population is not large. The average citizen of Melbourne or Sydney lives about six miles from the centre of the city, and when once in his home it is difficult to move him during his leisure hours. Mob psychology, which is supposed to be so characteristic of big cities, has never shown itself. The Press does not exercise a very big influence on politics, though its control of the news is used for that purpose. By the same token, ' movements ' are difficult to establish. The Australian is not a ' joiner ' and refuses to listen to lectures. An undue burden of Australian life has always fallen on the housewives who, as pioneers or city dwellers, have played a hard and important role in the development of Australian life and the overcoming of the country's problems. This role, however, has been unspectacular. The housewife has not the benefit of a minimum wage or minimum hours, sick pay or holidays. In this, as in other matters, Australian life is not dominated by doctrines. Feminism has never been strong, perhaps because women got the franchise very easily. Women's associations are usually headed by society leaders. The average Australian woman is generally satisfied if she is treated as the equal and the companion of the man. In most households men and women share what tasks can

14

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

be shared. Young and old help. The Australian housewife does more work but gets more fun than the housewife of most other parts of the world. Whatever interests Australians, they do well. As I have said, Australian trades union organization is magnificent. The same applies to the organization of sport. The Australian's love of sport is due to his passion for physical self-expression, an urge so keen that all his intelligence and skill are put into it. There are no inhibitions and very little difference in the keenness of the various sections of the community. Sporting organization is universal and covers nearly every form of sport. That is why Australia is in the front rank of so many sports to-day. There is no unhealthy professionalism, no over-training. Long hours of sunshine and fine weather give great opportunities for sport. Physical activity has created an admiration for physical beauty which is truly Greek. A parade of life-saving clubs on an Australian beach will provide a display of physical beauty which it would be difficult to match anywhere else in the world. The Australian talent for organization is also shown in racing, which is more of a business than a sport. Here, physical beauty and prowess are displayed only by the horse. Horse-racing has a traditional place in Australian life and must be accepted in the range of Australian values. A man's devotion to the turf is always noted in press obituaries. Vast sums of money are turned over in this occupation, and in the State lotteries which are carried on in four out of the six States. It probably does little economic damage for the dupe's money to be transferred to that master of mental arithmetic, the bookmaker, but it does seem rather a pity. The bookmaker and the brewer have considerable political influence and have friends in all parties. Australians are not heavy drinkers, though they do not hold their liquor well and their drinking habits are unsightly. Brewing is one of those trades in which the entrepreneur has been singularly grasping and unenlightened. Australian hotels, mosdy tied to the breweries, do not attract tourists. The Australian Way of Life So far I have pursued an analytical method which has isolated the salient points which I consider important and a

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

15

method of assessment which has been severely detached, but these methods may present a rather inadequate picture of the nation. The Australian people have tamed into production an arid continent, old and unpromising, and have done so with such skill that they have a high national income per head and a high standard of living. The current philosophy insists that this wealth shall be shared. Australia is a classless community. There is no one section with the traditional right to govern. There is litde respect for the man of wealth, but little envy of his riches. The Australian is an individualist with a consuming activity in pursuit of the ends he values. He works hard and he plays hard. He is no respecter of persons. He has no heroes and he will not be ordered about. He is too inclined to rely on his wits and does not display the reverence for education and knowledge which he should do. He is sceptical, even cynical, and his humour is sardonic. But he has few inhibitions. He is friendly, generous, hospitable, tolerant, and is rarely sentimental except over children. This people constitutes a normal modern community— healthy, happy and vigorous. Its keen interest in human problems acts as a tonic. Its industrial magnates may have little culture or breadth of view, but they are highly efficient as industrialists, and they are Australian. The view put forward in some quarters, that Australian industrial installations are controlled by British capitalists, is a particularly vicious piece of mendacity. The professional classes are keen and competent and maintain high ethical standards. The public services are honest and capable, free from the worst vices of bureaucracy. Public corporations operate a large proportion of the communal services at a minimum of cost. These services contain a large number of high-class experts, and the Australian politician is rarely too sophisticated to accept the guidance of the expert. The ' pillar of society,' so marked a feature of some communities, is absent from Australian life. There is no one with an accepted right to pontificate. The religious heads and scholars provide a degree of intellectual leadership. The community is not readily swayed and discusses important issues with keenness and detachment, and the common man is never afraid to express himself.

i6

T H E AUSTRALIAN W A Y O F

LIFE

The main point to be remembered is that this progress has been made in Australia by methods which are completely democratic without the benefit of settled traditions or the leadership of a ruling class. The common man has had his full share in forming the Australian ethos. He has been unsuggestible, resistant to authority, and has rejected convention. There are, as I have not failed to point out, certain defects and not a few dangers in this attitude, but on the whole it cannot be said that it has proved inadequate. What has served Australia has been the extraordinarily high average capacity of its citizens—their practicality, their common sense and adaptability, their initiative and their readiness to accept responsibility. There is a personal sense of dignity and self-respect which permeates all classes. One who can appreciate personality can find men and women of interest in every section of the community, persons from whom one can leam and with whom friendships can be made, on whom complete reliance can be placed. Australian life shows, I suggest, the value which these qualities have in promoting the stability and performance of a modern community. Australians firmly believe that their way of life is unique, and they are fanatically determined to protect it. They believe that it is based on the common mores of a homogeneous community and are therefore determined to prevent these norms from being broken down by the admission in large numbers of unassimilable elements. This is the reason for their immigration policy, but, as will be seen, Australia is filling up the continent as rapidly as is reasonably possible. Her population has been doubled in the last forty-eight years, and thus she believes that she is entitled to a selective immigration policy designed to determine a population capable of carrying on the way of life and the standards that she has adopted. Apart from this, Australia is racially tolerant and has no discriminations of any importance against foreigners. This, however, does not answer the question in Mr. O'Dowd's sonnet. Does Australia form an effective community? Does it produce the things of the spirit ? Has it a common will—a soul ? The Problem of Self-expression An answer to this question is difficult, because Australians have usually regarded themselves as part of a larger community,

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

»7

the British, and have felt that it is inevitable that a larger share in expressing the ethos of the whole will be taken by the British people, who have the advantage of long traditions, educational institutions, publishing houses and the like. A new country finds that it has no indigenous culture and that it has to develop one, and it has great difficulty in building up the machinery by which its culture can be expressed. In this respect the difficulties of the small community are increasing with modern inventions. The telegraph, the radio and the moving picture are giving a wider audience to the art produced in great centres of population and to that of the people of those great centres, and they tend to break down the local ethos and to narrow its scope. T o get a footing in these great markets one must speak in the idiom which is current there and forget his own. The ethos of a community is often summed up in its religion. Australia is a Christian society and the values it cherishes are Christian values, but theological orthodoxy is not one of them. The Catholic Church is uncompromising in supporting its dogmas and is holding its ground best, but Australia is more Protestant than Catholic, and Protestant churches are not as full as they have been. This means, however, that religion is not the convention it once was, and those who do support their Church are more serious than their predecessors who, in the main, attended from conventional motives. The attitude of the ordinary Australian to education is not encouraging. So many people have succeeded in life without education, in politics, in business and in the public service, that there is not the ' magic ' in education which exists in some countries. It is not regarded as a step to wealth or to a higher social grade. The Australian has a quick brain and a ready initiative and is always willing to accept responsibility. But he often lacks the necessary mental discipline and background which are essential for real success in the jobs he undertakes. In these circumstances the school-leaving age is low and the universities are intended for those who display exceptional ability. Their standards are high, but they tend to be regarded as technical schools for the professions. The sciences are strong, but the humanities are weak. The best students are always anxious to g e t ' the finishing touch ' abroad, and here their record is exceptionally good. A British A.W.L.

C

i8

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LITE

scientific authority once gave it as his opinion that the Australian student would always go further than any other with the same amount of brains. In the field of creative art the Australian record is also questionable. The continent being empty, there were no roots, no traditions from which art could grow naturally. Whether an egalitarian democracy provides a suitable field for literature, which has so far thriven on the glaring contrasts of the older countries and the pathos of poverty, remains to be seen. There is no inspiration derived from a long history, no monuments to stir the imagination. There have at times been signs of the development of an art and literature racy of the soil. Early architecture was original and beautiful, but it was swamped by mid-Victorian importations. The literature of Marcus Clarke, Tom Collins (Such is Life), Henry Lawson and others seems to have been swamped in a flood of imports from the larger markets. Australians should have found in their political life the material for a satirical novel, a vein peculiarly suitable to their mentality, but the opportunity has never been grasped. Curiously enough, caricature in black and white has had some remarkable exponents. There is a considerable amount of competitive writing, but this does not strike any fresh note, and having nothing new to say it is perhaps to the credit of the Australian writer that he is relatively reticent. There is much successful literature in older countries devoid of content. The authors have a market at hand to which they whisper witty nothings and it buys their books. In painting, the Australian artist had a job to do and he has done it well. When the early artists came here they saw only English forms in the Australian landscape, but under the lead of Tom Roberts artists of the impressionist school revealed convincingly the beauty of the Australian light and distance. This was a notable achievement, but since the solution of the difficult problems of this transition Australian artists have become in the main conventional, leaving the adventurous spirit to experiment none too successfully in the modern style derived from abroad. Australia could have no folk music and no folk dancing. The unrhythmic roar of the football crowd and the raucous, unsyncopated cries of the bookmaker shouting the odds serve the

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

19

purpose badly. T h e Australian atmosphere, however, is good for the vocal chords. We have produced many fine vocalists and will produce many more artists, especially if, as we appear to be doing, we establish a national opera. Musical appreciation is extremely high and eminent musicians have assured me that they find the Australian audiences the most enthusiastic in the world. T h e theatre is, unfortunately, our worst bid in art, but in this respect I feel that the entrepreneur has let us down. It is unfortunate that the theatre, like the newspaper, must be organized by men of titanic energy, little education, and a protective mechanism against the lure of the aesthetic. Dramatic art in Australia finds its best expression in the little theatre. This artistic record does not, I feel, constitute an original or substantial contribution to the ethos of the British community, but I am not unhappy about the prospects. I believe that the values we cherish—our love of the sun, our leisure, our physical expression, our devotion to social justice, our scorn of convention and wealth—will mean the development of that surplus virility out of which great artistic achievement will grow. As the soul of man is released from the bondage of work and poverty, many will be content to earn their bread, many will play, but a few will devote themselves to philosophy, a few to science and a few we may hope to artistic achievement. Nationhood A new nation becomes conscious of itself when it passes through some deep tragic experience. It is usual to say that the birth of the Australian nation took place on 25 April, 1915, when Australian and New Zealand troops landed on Gallipoli and, for eight months, fought gallantly in the grim and glorious but unsuccessful struggle for that strategically irrelevant tongue of land. This view is, I think, correct, and the contributions by Australians in the two World Wars may be regarded as the expression of Australian nationhood. T h e achievements of the Anzacs and their successors were military successes of the highest order which vindicated the healthiness of Australian life and its evocation of individual virtues. But it was something more than that. It showed, for one thing, that Australians were always C 2

20

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF L I F E

determined to share the dangers and to preserve, so far as they could, the integrity of the British community, and that they recognized the obligation of a democratic community to fight for the cause on which free institutions depended. There has never been any hesitation on the part of Australians in recognizing the moral crisis of which these two World Wars were the outcome. Australian participation also vindicated the capacity of the community to sustain an immense collective effort. Experience showed that the leaders and soldiers had all the great military virtues. Those who landed at Gallipoli had had only a few months' training, but they fought like veterans. The discipline of the men was magnificent in battle, even if it was sometimes bad in billets. They showed an unfailing judgment of the character of their leaders, and if ' the old man ' at headquarters called on them they never failed him. Officers who failed through lack of character or brains were weeded out ruthlessly, and it was always possible to find men in the ranks capable of taking their places. The Australian Army worked in smooth co-operation with the British authorities. When the G.O.C. Australian Forces, Lord Birdwood, took over the Fifth Army, he took with him a large number of his Australian staff. After he left, an Australian general, Sir John Monash, led the Australian troops and won fame as one of the greatest Allied generals. Possibly one of the most pleasing phases of this great experience was its demonstration of the fact that, in spite of the extreme individualism of the Australian character, its apparent cynicism, its sardonic humour, and its resistance to authority, there was a feeling of solidarity, of loyalty to the corps and to one another, which made co-operation easy and successful. The Army's experiences showed that there was an Australian type— no essential difference between the Tasmanian and the Queenslander, or between the Victorian and the Western Australian. The most powerful elements in that character were common loyalty—mateship. At a late stage of the war, when the units were depleted by casualties, an effort was made to amalgamate units so that the companies in which the men had fought would disappear. They refused, however, to give up their badges and the units that had become dear to them, and they staged some-

THE AUSTRALIAN NATION

21

thing like a strike, carrying on under their N.C.O.'s until a modification was made. In these two wars, Australians fought in Egypt, Turkey, France, Belgium, Greece, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, New Guinea, the Philippines, China, the Pacific; and in Korea. I do not think there is a place in which they failed to earn the goodwill of the local inhabitants. Australia is now vindicating her intellectual status by her contributions to the cause of peace. She has no reason to be ashamed of her efforts in this respect and, in the United Nations and no less in the manifold activities of related international organs, her influence is strong. As I have said, Australians believe that what they have achieved has been due to the virtues of the common man, namely, comradeship, equality and security. The question still remains, however, whether such a devotion to the average makes us adequate to face the problems of the future. And so we recur to Mr. O'Dowd's question in another but not less eloquent verse: Yet she shall be as we, the Potter, mould : Altar or tomb, as we aspire, despair : What wine we bring shall she, the chalice, hold : What word we write shall she, the script, declare : Bandage our eyes, she shall be Memphis, Spain : Barter our souls, she shall be Tyre again : And if we pour on her the red oblation All o'er the world shall Asshur's buzzards throng : Love-lit, her Chaos shall become Creation : And dewed with dream, her silence flower in song. SIR F R E D E R I C EGGLESTON, Kt. cr., 1941 ; retired lawyer; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from Australia to China, 1941-4; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from Australia to the United States, 1944-6; educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, and Leys School, Cambridge, England; admitted as barrister and solicitor to bar of Victoria, 1897; served in A.I.F., 1916-19; on staff of Australian Delegation to the Peace Conference, Paris, 1919; Member of Legislative Assembly, Victoria, 1920-7; Minister for Water and Supply and Minister for Railways, 1924-6; Attorney-General and Solicitor-General, 1924-7, in Victorian State Governments; Chair-

22

T H E AUSTRALIAN W A Y

OF

LIFE

man of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, 1933-41; Chairman of the Committee to consider the amalgamation of Papua and New Guinea, 1939; member of the Commonwealth Advisory Board on Investments, 1939; Chairman, Australian delegations to I.P.R. Conferences, 1927, 1936; editor, The Australian Mandate for New Guinea (Melbourne, 1928); author with E. H. Sugden, Life of George Swinburne (Sydney, 1931); State Socialism in Victoria (London, 1932); Search for a Social Philosophy (Melbourne, 1924). APPENDIX TABLE NET

MIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA

1939-52

13.891 — 2,629 — >5.>48 10,611 55>>>5 150,001 152,505 >>>.433 94.032

>939 >945 >946 1947 >94« >949 >950 >95 > >952

TABLE NET

I

II

MIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA

BY

Number*

NATIONALITY

Fer cent of Total gain or loa

Nationality 3.133 72,508 32,250 68,706 18,839 5.744 23,950 42,492

Total

43.'»8

569,811

lOO-O

3.478

7.650

i,6oo

1

4°.426

1947-52

81

17-7

H 196

Includes E s t h o n i a n and L i t h u a n i a n .

C H A P T E R

II

The Family w. D. BORRIE Introduction THE family 1 is a subject which still awaits serious study in Australia. It has never been the object of thorough research in Australian universities, which have no chair of Sociology and only one chair of Anthropology; their departments of history and economics have been more concerned with international relations and the country's economic development than with social growth. In short, the family has just been taken for granted. Yet Australia's history has an abundance of fascinating material for such studies—the abnormalities of the convict colonies, the story of the pioneering families, the mushroom growth of sprawling metropolises, the development of an urban society. Such rapid change in the brief span of 160 years has required a series of adjustments—social and psychological as well as economic—by a major part of each generation. Australian social history is essentially the story of movement and adaptation. The great majority of Australian families to-day are descended from British stock, and much of Australian social structure bears the stamp of British origin. But it should also be observed that even two generations ago four-fifths of the population were Australian-born, and that these four-fifths were influenced more by Australian environment than by British. If a detailed study were made of the social relationships of the members of the family one with another, and of the functions of the family in the wider society, it would undoubtedly be found that these are as different in Australia and Britain as the Australian workman's cottage is from the British workman's tenement house, or as 1 Unless otherwise indicated, ' the family' in this article refers to the group consisting of parents and their children.

»s

24

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LITE

London is from Sydney or Melbourne. In Britain, tradition plays a more important role in family and social relationships than in Australia. Change there has been in the former, but at a less rapid pace. In Britain, social change cannot entirely free itself from roots centuries o l d : in Australia, the problem has frequently been to find roots. The Statistical Composition of the Family Superficially, of course, the changes which have occurred in the Australian family have been similar to those in Britain, or for that matter in almost any western industrialized community. This is clearly revealed in a statistical analysis of the composition 1 of the family. Here, as elsewhere, we have the picture of a decrease in family size. The trend, which began in Australia in the seventies of last century, has been of sufficient magnitude to halve the average issue expected from women according to current levels of fertility. 2 This reduction has been primarily due to a decrease in the number of children born to fertile married women. In the eighties only approximately 25 per cent of the children born belonged to families of one, two and three children : in 1936-40, the figure was 50 per cent. This, and not changes in the average age of first marriage, or in the proportion of women marrying, or even in the tendency towards increased sterility, has been the most significant change in the composition of the family. These latter factors have, of course, exercised short-term influences. For example, trade cycle movements have had the effect of raising or reducing the average age of marriage of both men and women. During times of economic depression (and particularly in the great depression of the thirties) there has been a tendency for parents to postpone the birth of the first child and thereby to reduce the size of the completed family because of reduced fecundity. There has also been a tendency towards an increase in sterility during the last half-century, from approximately 12 to 18 per cent of marriages of all ages. But these phenomena are incidental to, and do not account for, the 1 I.e., the physical nature of the family, such as the number of children, their ages, etc. In this article the structure of the family is taken to refer to the social relationships of its members. * For example, a gross reproduction rate of 1881 implied an issue of 5-5 children to all women by the age of 50. In 1941 the figure was 3-6.

THE

FAMILY

«5

main fact of the reduction in the average size of the completed family from about six children sixty years ago to three children to-day. This statistical outline is broadly similar to the story which has been told of the composition of the family in New Zealand, Britain, the United States of America, the Scandinavian countries, and generally in the majority of western countries, with high material standards of life and advanced education.1 Moreover, the similarity remains when we break the statistics down further and consider differentials by economic and social class, and by urban and rural areas. A Royal Commission which inquired into the birth-rate in New South Wales in 1904s found that the professional classes displayed a lower fertility than the manual labourers, and that the families of parents who lived in Sydney were smaller than those of rural dwellers. With the substantial decrease in fertility since the beginning of the century, there appears to have been no marked change in this pattern of differentials, except that there are signs that the size of family is slighdy larger amongst the high income groups than amongst professional men and white-collar workers in what may be broadly called the middle income groups. Indeed, the generalization may be justified that in our modern society the middle classes (i.e., the lower-paid professional groups, white-collar wage-earners, etc.) are now dependent for their survival upon recruitment from the larger families of manual workers.1 This differential between economic and social groups exists both in metropolitan areas and in smaller cities and towns. In the metropolitan areas, however, the difference in family size between rich and poor is checked to some extent by the much higher infant mortality among the latter. Congested low-income areas of Sydney and Melbourne have infant mortality rates vary1 There are, of course, exceptions to the general rule; for example, France, where the small family has been the custom for almost a century, and Holland, where fertility is still much higher than in the countries outlined above. 2 N.S.W. Legislative Assembly, Royal Commission on the Decline of the Birth Rate in New South Wales. T h e report of the Commission provides, among other things, an interesting study of the changing moral codes of family life in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. * See the statistical summary in the appendix for differentials in Australian fertility.

26

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

ing from forty to as high as sixty deaths under one year per 1,000 live births, which are twice as high as those in the spacious suburbs of the economically prosperous.1 But while malnutrition, infant disease, and lack of knowledge of the fundamentals of child care help to check the size of the family amongst the low-income groups, it is still less effective than the artificial controls resorted to by the more prosperous in order to keep the size of the family within what they themselves consider to be desirable limits. T h e mere elaboration of statistical data does not provide us with a teleological explanation of the nature of family structure in Australia, but it does at least point to some significant aspects of it, for the conclusions we have stated suggest that family structure to-day is the product of a set of economic, social, religious and psychological factors markedly different from that of two generations ago. Nevertheless it is difficult, in the present state of knowledge, to assess with any certainty the relative importance of each of these factors in the history and contemporary structure of the Australian family. Statistical analysis does, at least, suggest that economic forces have exerted an important influence upon the composition of the family (i.e. the number of children born, interval between births, etc.). The reduction in family size has followed revolutionary changes in the economic structure of Australian society. Australia has never directly experienced an ' industrial revolution': throughout most of its history it has existed fundamentally by the sale of its primary products, and the purchase of that vast range of consumer goods which typify modern ' western ' society. T h e result has been that, almost contemporaneously with similar developments in Britain and other western countries, Australian society has assumed many of the characteristics of an industrial society. Yet until the last quarter of the 19th century Australia was primarily, judged by place of residence, a rural society. In 1881 only one-third of the population resided in metropolitan areas, and outside these State capitals there were few towns which could not be classed as 1 The differences are due primarily to the higher rate of mortality in lowincome areas after the first month of life, and in a considerable measure may be attributed to environmental rather than to physical factors.

THE

FAMILY

27

rural. Nevertheless, economic conditions were not entirely favourable to an uncontrolled fertility. Farming was capitalistic; the many goods consumed by the family were not produced on the property, but were bought from the proceeds of a limited range of products, such as wool, meat, butter and fruit; the comparative infertility of much of the soil and the nature of farming practices (e.g., grazing of animals for wool, mutton and beef) tended to set strict limits, particularly in the 20th century, to the economic feasibility of the subdivision of properties amongst male heirs. In addition, wretched economic conditions, the result of a marked fall in the prices of primary products in the eighties and nineties, increased the economic disadvantages of a large family. The lifting of the depression by the end of the century and the relative prosperity of the next two decades did not change the nature of farming or remove the other factors militating against the large family. Indeed, economic developments of the 20th century encouraged the trend towards family limitation. The drift towards the capital cities became more marked, particularly after 1911. The census of that year revealed that 38 per cent of the population lived in the six State capitals; by 1921 the figure was 43 per cent; and by 1953 50 per cent. Now half the people of Australia, and considerably more than half the families, reside in these metropolitan areas. No study has been made of migration to the Australian cities, but the probable conclusion of such a study would be that the people who have moved there have been the younger sons of rural families who could not secure or did not want an economic share of the family estate, daughters of rural families seeking employment in shops and offices, and immigrants from overseas. But whatever its nature, it is the fact of the movement which is important here, because the economic circumstances which drew these people to the cities brought them into an environment which in both its economic and social aspects tended to become increasingly unfavourable to an uncontrolled fertility. The environmental differences between rural and urban areas, as well as the complex patterns of differentials in fertility, indicate the difficulty of writing about the Australian family, for these differentials show that we cannot write of an average

28

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

family. The gradations in the size of the completed family amongst various residential areas, income groups and social classes suggest that the patterns of family relationships, the psychological attitudes of parents to children, and the relations of the family to the social groups in which they move, are extremely diverse. There is no Australian family, but there are many Australian families. The Extra-metropolitan

Family

The largest single group about which a generalization may be possible is the non-metropolitan family. Gradations of fertility patterns exist here, too, of course, as they must in other aspects of family structure. The decline in the fertility of the extrametropolitan family appears to have been as substantial as that of the capital cities, and evidence in Australia and overseas suggests that the long-term trend is for the former to gravitate towards the lower rates of the latter. This is not a matter for surprise, because in modern society the whole pattern of life is being conditioned increasingly by the spread of ideas, through the media of the film, wireless, motor car, aeroplane, etc., outwards from the metropolis. Nevertheless, the spread of urban habits and ideas, and the ' mechanization ' of the home, have probably had a less revolutionary effect upon the rural population than upon that of the capital cities. The density of population in a considerable portion of rural Australia is extremely low, and consequently the opportunities for community life are still restricted, despite the fact that a high proportion of Australian families are equipped with a motor vehicle. Much of the entertainment and social intercourse of the family must still be provided in the house. But for a musical evening the medium is more likely to be the metropolitan wireless station than the family piano; the topics of conversation are more likely to be influenced by the metropolitan radio and press than by reading from the family library; and the week-end is probably, on the average, almost as secular in its recreations as that of the city family. In a sense, the mobility of ideas through the technique of our modern civilization is breaking down the isolation of the Australian rural family, but has not yet destroyed it as a social and cultural unit.

THE

FAMILY

29

There are factors, however, which tend to break family ties earlier in rural Australia than elsewhere. In the hinterland the holdings are large and isolated from schools; children are not infrequently sent to boarding schools before their teens, and the opportunity for secondary education usually means virtual separation from the home from the age of thirteen or fourteen. In less remote areas a secondary education can usually be acquired as a day pupil of a school in a neighbouring country town. University education still usually means residence in one of the State capitals.1 In any case, few of those who have the opportunity for higher education, even at the secondary level, return to their rural homes. In most instances the courses they take are essentially vocational and lead to urban residence, unless they are only or elder sons, or daughters who marry a farmer. What has been said of essentially rural areas is also largely true of extra-metropolitan towns. One of the notable features of the Australian urban ' spread' is the comparatively small number of large or middle-sized towns outside the capital cities.2 The majority of them are essentially country towns, small enough to be a single community. These provide opportunities for social intercourse, entertainment and recreation, not only for the urban families themselves but also for rural families from the district. But even here the home must provide a substantial part of the family's leisure enjoyment. All towns have their cinemas, local dances, and some creditable libraries, and perhaps a local repertory society. But these provide limited scope. The informal habit of dropping in to a neighbour's or a friend's house is still common, although almost certainly less so than in earlier generations. The families of the country towns are tending, as in the city, to seek a wider range of recreational activities outside the home, but few towns have yet the institutions to meet this demand. Many towns, indeed, have hardly changed in size or 1 There are in existence only two university colleges outside the capital cities: the University College of Canberra, which is a college of the University of Melbourne, and in which degrees may be taken in Arts and Economics; and the New England University College, a college of Sydney University, which, besides Arts and Economics, also gives courses in Science, and is developing courses in Veterinary Science and Rural Economics. * The most significant exception is Newcastle in New South Wales with a population of 127,000.

30

T H E AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

pattern for a generation; they have neither drawn new population from the country (from which the migration tends to be direct to the metropolis) nor held all the children born to local residents. They have been by-passed in the internal migratory movement. This lack of infusion of new blood has tended to encourage an attitude of complacence, which in turn has probably exerted an influence upon youths and girls seeking careers more attractive than their locality has been able to offer. But while the social environment of Australian country towns and rural areas may encourage the relatively early severance of family ties, because of the lack of educational facilities, or because of the tendency for some of the children to migrate, neither of these factors is a bar to a fertility ratio markedly higher, on average, than that of the capital cities. The physical environment of extra-metropolitan areas is still more favourable to the rearing of children than that of the capital cities. The cost of living is considerably lower than in the former; less is spent upon travel to and from work; meals are mostly taken at home; there is more co-operative assistance in the running of the home, and the family is a more closely-knit unit. Few areas have not adequate medical services available; most towns have a baby health centre; and through various women's organizations the mother is able to obtain a sound knowledge of infant care. Further, there is probably some truth in the oft-stated assertion that those who remain in the country and small towns are the less ambitious. If ' less ambitious' is interpreted to mean those for whom the more complex existence, the more varied culture, the noise and bustle of metropolitan life have no attraction, it is probably sound reasoning to deduce that these are also the people for whom home and children have the greatest attraction. These factors rather than lack of knowledge of modem contraceptive methods provide the explanation of the larger extrametropolitan family. They tend to create an environment in which the relationship of parents and children is still more stable and harmonious than in the cities, and in which more family activities still take place within the home or within a comparatively narrow circle of acquaintances. On the other hand, however, it cannot be said that these patterns have been stable. Just as the size of the extra-metropolitan family has been reduced,

THE

FAMILY

31

so the ideals that have inspired family life have changed. Formal religion has lost some of its hold, except perhaps amongst the adherents of the Roman Catholic faith. There is less formality in the relationship between parents and children. While the father is still legally the head of the family, the influence of the mother has increased. The women in rural Australia and in country towns are still compelled by circumstances to devote most of their time to the running of their own home, for the house with servants is the exception and not the rule. But they have also considerable influence in extra-mural affairs. Many know intimately the facts of the husband's economic affairs, and have a considerable knowledge of farming practice, so that they can take an intelligent part in the discussions upon these matters. In addition, many of them find a surprising amount of time for activities outside the home, e.g. in church organizations, in political groups, as members of country women's associations and school committees. Participation in such activities by the mother helps to keep the family in touch with a wider circle than the family group or farm, and to give the mother interest in common with her husband and children. The Metropolitan Family When we turn to discuss the metropolitan1 family we have an even more difficult problem. Here the stratification of society is sharper. The interests of different income and social groups are more diverse, and the patterns of family relationship are more complex. Australians pride themselves upon their lack of class consciousness, but while it may be true that the social differentiation between rich and poor, employer and employee, is less in evidence than in England, the fact remains that there is differentiation. Sydney and Melbourne particularly, and to a less marked degree Brisbane and Adelaide, provide excellent illustrations of the separation of economic classes through residence. The capacity to pay for property, or to meet the higher 1 ' Metropolitan ' refers to the State capitals and their suburbs, the populations of which were estimated at 31st Dec. 1951 as : Sydney, 1,610,580 ; Melbourne, 1,360,200 ; Brisbane, 453,660 ; Adelaide, 443,500 ; Perth, 331,000 ; Hobart, 86,940. The observations which follow are applicable to the five larger cities, rather than to Hobart.

32

T H E AUSTRALIAN W A Y O F

LIFE

rentals in desirable outer suburbs, leads to, and indeed almost compels, social intercouse with a fragment of the total metropolitan society. Moreover, the areas in which the economically successful live arc essentially ' dormitory suburbs.' In these areas the bread-winners, who are usually of the employer, professional or white-collar classes, have their business contacts in the city, but their families tend to move only amongst members of their own economic class: consequendy from the social and family aspects social class tends to be synonymous with economic class. Furthermore, the isolation of the economically successful from the congested and relatively poor industrial suburbs is encouraged by the strength of the private school system. These schools tend to be situated in or near the high income areas, and their rolls include a substantial proportion of the children of parents of the middle and upper classes. Moreover, the children attend these schools, for the most part, as day pupils for at least their secondary education, and not infrequendy for the whole of their school years. 1 T h e full extent of the social stratification of Australian metropolitan society, and the effect of this upon the family, has not been analysed, but it is undoubtedly greater than most Australians realize. Facts such as we have mentioned suggest that the emphasis which is often placed upon the egalitarian nature of Australian society is not altogether justified. Social stratification, which has probably been increasing with the rapid growth of the major cities, is clearly in evidence, and is marked enough to-day to render as impossible a discussion of the metropolitan family as of the Australian family. T h e simplest and most satisfactory classification of family types for the purposes of this paper would appear to be by fertility ratios. W h a t does appear clear is that there is a marked difference in number between the family of the manual worker, on the one hand, and the white-collar classes on the other. The difference between these two broad categories appears to be 1 In 1933, 394,994, or approximately 20 per cent of those receiving instruction, including the universities and home-study pupils, attended private schools. Amongst children attending only government and private schools, 24 per cent of those aged 6 to 14, and 74 per cent of those aged 15 and over, attended private schools. T h e majority of the private schools are controlled by the churches, with the Roman Catholic establishments predominating.

PLATE II

•

A.

TUF.

FI.YINC;

DOCTOR

SERVICE

- A

BASE

NEAR

BROKEN

HII.I..

-fere m e d i c a i c a l l s a r c r e c e i v e d b y r a d i o , a n d t h e d o c t o r m a k e s his p r e l i m i n iry d i a g n o s e s a n d a d v i s e s o n t r e a t m e n t p e n d i n g his a r r i v a l i f a visit is necessary.

B.

HOMES

OE

WELL-TO-DO

SYDNEY THE

PEOPLE

ON

THE

SOUTHERN

SIDE

OK

[To focc

pag

HARBOI'R.

A.

P L A T E

III

COOGEF.

BEACH.

\ f a v o u r i t e ocean-surf b e a c h , only a few miles f r o m t h e c e n t r e of Sydney.

B.

AUSTRALIAN

ABORIGINES. [ 7 a fact

page

33

THE FAMILY

greater than that amongst sub-groups within each of them. This result is not surprising. Amongst members of the former category social ambition is not strong. They tend to conglomerate in residential areas where social intercourse is primarily amongst their own economic class, or at least amongst this and the lower-paid white-collar workers. In these areas there is a more virile community life, and more co-operative assistance than amongst the well-to-do residential suburbs. A small income in the former probably does not provide the same incentive for controlled fertility as a considerably higher income in the latter, because social ambition is less apparent. A smaller proportion plan a secondary or tertiary education for their children, and the majority accept the fact that the public education service will provide adequately for their children. This is not to say that higher education is closed to the children of the manual workers. Certainly this is not true of the postwar world, when financial assistance is available to children of the lower income groups; nor was it true before the war, when there were numerous cases of the able child achieving high educational status through scholarships—and, at times, by the financial sacrifice of parents. But it is probably true to say that a small proportion of the manual workers anticipate the costs of higher education when they are planning their families, and that if they do so, their estimate of the costs to be met is considerably lower than in the case of the white-collar and professional classes. Finally, there is the factor that knowledge of contraceptive methods is probably less thorough and widespread among the former classes than the latter. In the second category of metropolitan society, in which we include those classes generally accepted as ' middle' and ' upper,' we can do litde more than attempt a few further generalizations. We know that the average family size is small, but we can as yet only guess at the full sociological explanation of this. The generalization that social ambition is stronger in these classes than amongst manual workers is probably justified. Further, for the most part they move slowly to their maximum earnings, and the anticipation of better things in the future probably engenders a cautious attitude towards the present. Further, the income of many white-collar workers when they 4.W.L.

D

34

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF L I F E

reach marriageable age is little above that of the manual classes, but their conception of what constitutes the minimum of a civilized life is considerably different. They tend to migrate to the more expensive residential suburbs, they tend to weigh the social advantages of a private school education, they tend generally (once white-collar status is achieved) to set their aim towards higher social and economic standards. Social capillarity is as active in urban society to-day as it was when Arsene Dumont first stated his thesis almost two generations ago, particularly amongst the white-collar classes. No substantial research has been undertaken in Australia to study patterns of expenditure in the white-collar classes at different income levels. It is probable, however, that amongst the lower-income brackets of these classes, such as those engaged in clerical trades and shop assistants, the amounts spent on children would not be markedly higher than among the manual workers. The government school, rather than the private, would be the channel of education. Rents, clothing and household equipment would, however, tend to be higher. In the professional and managerial classes the cost of rearing children would mount, because these are the supporters of the private schools. Further, they are the owners of motor cars, the members of clubs and the more exclusive societies, and the owners of the larger houses or the lessees of homes and flats in the high-income areas. Because of the social standards they set themselves, it is questionable whether the well-to-do consider they have a greater proportion of income available for raising a family than those in the lowerincome groups. Put very simply, it is the old question of keeping up with the Joneses: and keeping up with the Joneses means primarily, in Australian metropolitan society, maintaining the family income : for social distinction in essentially not a hereditary matter. There are, of course, both in cities and rural areas, family names which are respected because of their notable association with Australian history; but generally social promotion has been, and still is, the product of economic success within a lifetime or within two or three generations. There is much of Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class which can be applied to Australian metropolitan society, with

THE

35

FAMILY

the important difference that the attainment of an ample income does not mean a conspicuous increase in the amount of leisure. As in the country, most married women run their own homes, few with the assistance of more than part-time servants, and most assume personally the major part of the responsibilities for the nurture of their children during the pre-school years. These tasks, indeed, most of them must still perform, whether they be of the upper, middle or working classes, because the Australian cities are still not highly organized with communal services. Mutual aid is more difficult to organize than in many continental cities. For one thing, the majority of Australian families live in separate dwellings. At the date of the 1947 census there were in metropolitan areas 740,000 private houses each occupied by one family, but only 95,000 flats and 35,000 tenement houses.1 There is nothing in Australia resembling the massive blocks of flats of continental cities, or even of some of the new housing estates in England, and the idea of neighbourhood units has not yet been developed to any marked degree. The most significant development has been the expansion of nursery schools and kindergartens, which have usually originated through private effort, but are now subsidized by state or local authority. These, however, are used more by the families of middle and upper classes than by those of manual workers. Indeed, they are in a measure the natural concomitant of the spread of the small family habit, because they provide children with opportunities for social development which were earlier available in the home. The preoccupation of women of all classes with the running of the homes necessarily limits the time at their disposal for cultural activities. Neither is there any clear evidence that such activities are the monopoly of any particular class of males. The comparative absence of hereditary wealth and the fact that economic success is generally the prerequisite of social prestige, mean that the majority of white-collar fathers (particularly in such professional classes as doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants) are so preoccupied with the business of earning the family income that they have little time for leisure or cultural activities. The appreciation of music, art and literature may be more in evidence in white-collar homes than in those of manual workers, 1

Since 1947, 354,000 houses and 9,200 flats have been completed. D

a

36

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

but in the homes of all classes a considerable percentage of the leisure time available is consumed in pursuing (often vicariously) outdoor sports, absorbing the voluminous Sunday newspapers, and listening to variety programmes on the radio. Cultural differentiation is almost certainly less in evidence than economic differentiation. Social Policy and the Family This emphasis upon social stratification and its effects upon family structure should not be taken to imply that legally and politically Australia is not in a very real sense a democracy. Further, the admission of women to the franchise within a year of the foundation of the Commonwealth1 probably helped to keep the attention of governments, whether Labour or not, upon the needs of the family. State policy regarding the family has concentrated more upon its economic needs than upon ecological factors.2 For example, the arguments for the establishment of a basic wage, which was first declared by a Court in Australia in 1907, had as one of their essential bases the principle that the national floor of wages had to be sufficient not merely for a single worker, but also for the married man with a family. The first basic wage rate was calculated to provide a decent minimum of subsistence for a ' family of about five.' The relationship between the declared wage and the size of the family to which it referred was never clarified in later years; but a judgment in 1941 specifically stated that the current wage was insufficient for a family unit of more than three persons. Almost simultaneously the principle of an endowment for second and later children was accepted by the Commonwealth Parliament. The rate of endowment was first fixed (1941) at five shillings per week for each child after the first under 16 years of age, and it was available to all families. Since then the endowment has been twice raised and now stands at ten shillings per week. In addition, a number of other services 1 Women had received the franchise in South Australia in 1894. Western Australia followed in 1899, N.S.W. in 1903, Tasmania in 1904, Queensland in 1905, and Victoria in 1909. The Commonwealth instituted the practice in »90a. ' Education, which is the subject of another chapter in this volume is deliberately omitted here.

THE

FAMILY

37

of benefit to the family have been introduced. As early as 1912, mothers, whether married or unmarried, and irrespective of means, became entitled to a maternity grant of £ 5 . During the years of economic depression in the thirties a means test was introduced, but this was again abolished in 1943, when the amount was greatly increased. In all, a mother is now entided to a grant of £ 1 5 for the first child, £ 1 6 for the second, and £ 17 1 os. for the third and each subsequent child. This and the hospital subsidy of twelve shillings per day, which is available also for the period of confinement, mean that a not inconsiderable proportion of the actual costs relating to the birth of a child (medical and hospital fees, layette, etc.) are covered at the public cost. The Hospital and Medical Benefits schemes, introduced on a contributory basis in July 1953, raise the hospital subsidy by another six shillings a day for members of registered organizations and provide for government contributions to medical and surgical expenses. Pharmaceutical benefits (Sept. 1950) cover free prescription of basic life-saving drugs. Endowments, maternity grants, hospital and medical subsidies constitute the main ' cash' social services for the family. In addition there are in country towns and most rural areas, as well as in the capital cities, a fairly complete coverage of clinics for preand post-natal care, and medical inspection of primary schoolchildren. The provision of these services, liberal as they are, does not mean that Australia has a ' family policy' in the sense of, say, France or Sweden. Indeed, social theory in Australia (where it has been in evidence) has tended to militate against the extension of communal services for the family. The State's responsibility, the argument has run, is to ensure that every family has the guarantee of an adequate floor of wages, by means of the basic wage and child endowment, and to ensure that every child has the opportunity for an adequate education. For the rest, the raising of children is essentially a family and not a community matter. Some General Conclusions The mere outline of these institutional changes relating to the care of children does not, however, reveal the full extent of the

38

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LIFE

change which has occurred in the psychological and social attitude of the parents and community to the family. This change is the product of many factors, some of which need only be enumerated here—for example, the revolution in the technical aspects of civilized life, in the distribution of population, and in the nature of the physical development of cities; the emancipation of women, the destruction of the family as an economic unit, the decline of the influence of religion, and the growth of the cult of hedonism. Such factors have not, of course, had a uniform influence upon the families of all sections of the Australian community, as we have indicated in our analysis of differential family size. Nor have they exerted equal influence at each stage of family development. One of the stable features of family composition has been the age at marriage and the number who marry, but this does not imply lack of change in the attitude towards marriage. The decision of young people to marry or not to marry is now strictly their own affair. In the majority of cases it is not dependent upon the sanction of the fiancee's father. His permission may be sought, but he is probably wise enough to recognize the de facto situation. Approximately 92 per cent of marriages are solemnized by a minister of religion, but a much smaller percentage are influenced after the ceremony by the tenets of the faith to which they often only nominally adhere. Indeed, at least 7 per cent of brides are pregnant before they accept the Church's blessing. With the important exception of the majority of the adherents of the Roman Catholic faith (who comprise approximately one-fifth of the total population), the decision regarding the number of children which shall follow the marriage, and when they will follow, is becoming increasingly a secular matter. It should be emphasized, too, that the majority of Protestant sects have no longer any clear policy of opposition to the practice of family planning through contraception. Divorce trends also indicate the decrease in the sanctity of the marriage vows. Although divorce in Australia is much less frequent than in the United States of America, there has been a marked upward trend during the past decade. In 1938 divorces granted and petitions filed numbered some 3,100, compared with 7,106 (or approximately 10 per cent of marriages) in 1952.

THE

FAMILY

39

Divorce is most frequent amongst adherents of the Protestant sects. In 1947 only one-ninth of the divorced persons aged fifteen and over were Roman Catholics, although adherents to that faith comprised one-fifth of the population. It is also most common amongst childless couples and fertile marriages with less than two children, in marriages of less than seven years' duration, and is more in evidence in the cities than in rural areas. It cannot be concluded from these facts that divorce threatens the destruction of the family life in Australia. The figures for 1952 (7,106) are lower than those of 1947 (8,791) and a further decline will probably follow as the effects of the war are eliminated. The same applies to juvenile delinquency. Comparable figures for all states are not available, but it is significant that probation cases before courts in New South Wales and Victoria were fewer in the decade 1927-36 than they were in 1938-47. Here again the cities (and particularly the low-income congested areas) provide the main problem. In New South Wales for the year ending June 1952, cases before the Sydney courts totalled 3,022, and the ratio of boys to girls was approximately 4 : 1 -1 The significance of these figures is that the majority of Australian couples who marry still remain together to rear their children, and that despite the rapidly changing environment in which they live, particularly in cities, they appear to be essentially in control of their offspring—at least so far as the law is concerned. There are few statistics, whether they relate to infant mortality, morbidity or juvenile delinquency, to indicate that the modern generation of parents is not doing its duty as well and perhaps better than their ancestors. True, they may be assisted by the growing awareness of the community of its responsibility towards children, by the financial aids of maternity grants and child endowment, by such services as infant welfare clinics, by nursery schools and kindergartens, and by an educational system which assumes much of the responsibility for the welfare of the child, both mental and physical, between the ages of five and fifteen, and even beyond that age through secondary school and university. But home and family are still probably the most precious possession of all but a small minority of parents. 1

The latest figures available for country courts are for June, 1948 : 404.

40

T H E AUSTRALIAN WAY O F

LITE

It is also true that, despite these institutional aids which modern society offers in the rearing of children, more married couples than in the past have no children or limit their families to two or three. Whether or not this is to be interpreted as selfishness depends upon the standpoint from which one views the matter. One may see in such trends merely a change in the factor controlling the size of families: birth control now performs the same function as death control did a century ago. Or one may see in these trends the laudable desire of modern parents to maintain the standards which society now demands of them, and this can only be done by ensuring that the size of their family does not exceed their capacity to provide their children with decent health, decent education, and a fair start along life's path. On the other hand, from the standpoint of what may be termed the 19th century ethical code, the modern family may appear degenerate. It must be left for a future generation to decide whether or not this is so. At the moment it is difficult to see where the balance lies. That the modern Australian family has lost some of the graciousness of their Victorian forbears may be granted. Children may show less respect for their parents than of yore, but to counter that there is probably a more healthy companionship. The father has been forced to give up his position as the parental head responsible for imbuing his children with a fear of God and of himself: instead, he shares the responsibility of running the home (including very often many of the household tasks) with his wife. His wife is no longer merely the bearer of his children, but is a participating member of society; and if the husband does not agree to this, she may find grounds for divorcing him. Their children are no longer compelled to work at a tender age, but instead are required by the State to enjoy the privilege of full-time education until they are almost grown men and women. The picture drawn here may be somewhat idealized. In practice there are many Australian women who spend far the greatest part of their lives in their own homes. Surveys in England and the United States of America of the number of hours of leisure enjoyed by the average housewife reveals that they are very few —a sixty-six-hour week is not uncommon. The same conclusion

THE FAMILY

41

would undoubtedly be the result of an Australian survey. But, class for class, women are probably better off to-day than were their forbears. Nor should it be concluded that because the vast majority of married women in Australia do not enter employment outside the home, they are not emancipated. The married woman's place may still be the home in Australia, but it is questionable whether she would give up this status, which she probably regards as a privilege and not a penalty, even if the opportunities were provided for her to institutionalize her family and to seek employment. Of the other less tangible aspects of modern family life it is difficult to speak with any authority, because no one has yet pried into them. There have undoubtedly been revolutionary changes in ethical codes amongst all classes. T w o of the most notable changes have probably been the decrease in the formality of relationships within the family, and the secularizing of family life, particularly amongst the Protestant sects. At each census over 90 per cent of the people declare themselves adherents of one of the Christian sects, but for many of these any connection with institutional religion is extremely remote. The majority of fathers (particularly in the cities) find their week-end recreation at the racecourse, dog-track, watching football, playing golf, at the beach, or just gardening. More mothers than fathers attend public worship, but they too are a minority. As for the adolescent children, they tend to go out-of-doors at the week-end, cycling, bush-walking, surfing, or playing football or cricket in a climate which is admirably suited to such activities. During the week there are few families (in country towns as well as cities) of which at least one member will not have attended one film, and special matinées for children on Saturday afternoon attract more than the Sunday schools and Bible classes on the following day. The manner in which evening leisure is spent in the homes is largely an unknown quantity. What is certain is that the radio plays a prominent part, and that variety programmes are much more popular than classical music or educational talks. In many homes considerable time must be spent discussing the week-end sport, both in retrospect and prospect, but what proportion devote themselves to serious reading or discussion it is impossible to say.

42

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LITE

It is doubtful if in the majority of homes there is any longer deliberate inculcation of children with an ethical code. Parents do not lack concern for the moral welfare of their children, but the hedonistic spirit is strong, and spiritual matters are almost certainly the subject of serious instruction in only a minority of homes. Without perhaps conscious shirking of their responsibilities, parents are tending to leave to the school an increasing share of the task of moral training. In the home, life tends to be accepted rather as a matter of fact than as the subject for metaphysical speculation, and the first concern of many parents to-day is the physical welfare of the young. Nevertheless, family ties are still strong. The growing informality of relationships between parents and children tends to make many homes centres of frank discussion and to focus there the extra-familial social habits and associations of its members. This may be a powerful influence for good, for by precept and example parents may encourage habits of honesty, fair play, chivalry, an appreciation of the democratic principles of government, and respect for the law. But, equally, this informality may have the reverse effect, where there is a conflict between the moral standards practised in the home and those acquired in the school. The fact that the home has given up many of its functions in training children does not necessarily lessen its influence upon them; indeed it emphasizes the necessity for a greater awareness by parents of the relationship between the family and the wider society. However, if Australian parents are not aware of such problems they will probably be reminded of the fact by their children. W. D. BORRIE, M.A. Research Fellow, Social Science School, Australian National University; Born N.Z., 1913; Trained in history in New Zealand and Cambridge; Ross Research Fellow, Knox College, Dunedin, 1937-8; British Council Scholar for New Zealand, 1931; Research Fellow, Department of Economics, Sydney University 1942-4; Lecturer in Social History, Department of Social Studies, 1944-6, and Senior Lecturer, 1946-7; Social Science Research Fellow of the Australian National University, 1947-8. Now preparing a demographic history of Australia. Author of Population Trends and Policies and contributor to a number of journals.

THE FAMILY

43

APPENDIX STATISTICS RELATING TO THE FAMILY TABLE Year

•871-75 1881-85 •89>-95 1901-05 1911-15 1921-25 1926-30 •931-35 1936-40 '941-45 1946-50 •951 •952

I

Crude Mamage Rate (a)

Crude Birth Rate (a)

Infant Mortality Rate (b)

716 8-11 6-53 710 8 86 804 752 716 9 35 995 9'77 9'7 858

37-01 35 "9 32 38 2635 2778 2386 2098 1694 •7 5» 20-28 2338 2293 2332

119-28 12507 • 08-53 9691 70-32 5788 5 ' 99 41-27 388t 35 24 26-98 25-24 23 79

Net Reproduction Rate M Jbej^Qnniff qumquamhim i 88 ••73 • 39 1-421 ••313 1-271 1-039 0967 •°53 1-328 —

(a) Marriages and births per 1,000 of population, (b) Deaths of children under 1 year per 1,000 live births. TABLE GROSS REPRODUCTION RATES

II

AUSTRALIAN URBAN AREAS, 1 9 3 3

A l l Metropolitan Extra Metropolitan :

0.792

Towns over 45,000 ... ... „ 5,000-45,000 „ U n d e r 5,000 and rural areas TABLE

0.977 1.171 1.376

III

AVERAGE SIZE OF FAMILY OF HUSBANDS AGED 5O-54 BY SELECTED INDUSTRY ORDERS

Primary : Agricultural . . Pastoral . . . M i n i n g and Quarrying

. .

. .

. .

Secondary : Industrial . . . . . Transport and Communication . Public Administration and Professional

191 I & 192 I 1 1911

1921

5'99 5-83 5-66

4-98 4-80

5-4° 4-48 4'33

4"94 4'37 4'39 3-67

A comparable table from the 1933 census data cannot be given because of a change in the census schedules. Data from the 1947 census will, when available, provide figures comparable with 1911 and 1921. 1

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LIFE TABLE

IV

DIVORCES GRANTED AND PETITIONS AUSTRALIA

FILED,

I938-52

Year

Number

Year

Number

I938 I939

3.074

I946

3.145

I947

7,¡226 8,802

I94O

3,180

I94I I942 I943 '944 I945

3,312 3.575

4,682 5,681 7.199

I948

I949 I95O I95I I952

7,255 6,630 7.425 7.327 7,106

CHAPTER

III

The Educational System K . S. General

CUNNINGHAM

Achievement

THE most revealing brief commentary on Australian education to-day is the fact that it stands prepared to be judged by the current standards of the rest of the English-speaking world. There are naturally no ancient seats of learning like Oxford or Cambridge; there are brandies of research and specialization in U.S.A. which Australia cannot match; but in general, and in spite of weak points, achievement has been considerable for a small population which, after an inauspicious start as a penal colony, has had the task over the past 150 years of subduing a continental area which presented many difficult features to the new arrivals. Schools and Universities Surveying the field to-day one finds examples of all the typical educational methods and institutions: pre-school centres and nursery schools for children from 3 to 5 years; general primary education to 11 or 12 years 1 ; a variety of secondary institutions usually with a technical, rural or academic bias; six general universities and three university colleges; a new technical university in New South Wales, and a number of technical colleges. In general the Australian student with ability and enterprise can select from a wide range of institutions and studies. Australians who have gone abroad for post-graduate work have won an excellent reputation. The proposal for a National University at Canberra, now in process of establishment, has 1 In Tasmania, education is compulsory up to 16 years ; in New South Wales up to 15 years; the remaining States, except Queensland, have passed enabling legislation and all have announced their intention of raising the age from 14 to at least 15 years when the present shortage of buildings and teachers is overcome. 43

46

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LIFE

attracted much attention. There will be research divisions in medicine, nuclear physics, social science and Pacific studies. Former Australians with world-wide reputations are being secured as principals of the various faculties. There has been no clearer case of a ' made-to-order' university. Responsibility for National Education The adoption of a Federal Constitution did not remove education from the control of the States. Thus Australia has six autonomous state educational authorities. Each of these maintains a full system of primary and secondary schools, in addition to some tertiary institutions, particularly on the technical side. The States also give substantial grants to their respective universities. The Commonwealth Government has, however, accepted increasing educational responsibility, especially in connection with the re-training of ex-servicemen. These activities, together with grants for research, administration of education in the mandated territories, and so on, involved a total expenditure of about £18,000,000 in the financial year 1947-8, the peak year of expenditure. Adult and Informal Education It is only possible to make passing reference to this field. There are many youth agencies of a voluntary kind and a wellorganized National Fitness Movement. All States have adult education activities. These developed on the pattern of the Workers' Educational Association movement originally established in England. Under this scheme the university extension or tutorial department worked in association with the W.E.A. The pattern has not quite disappeared, but is changing. In Perth the University itself conducts ' down-town ' operations and has run a notable series of summer schools. In Queensland adult education is now the responsibility of a committee of which the State Director-General of Education is chairman. In Victoria a new Council of Adult Education has been given an annual state grant of £25,000. The Council, though a statutory body, has only two government nominees in its twenty members. Very successful summer schools have been held and musical and dramatic tours organized extensively in country districts.

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

47

In general the highly successful work of the Education service in the Australian Army accelerated the movement towards a broader and more realistic conception of adult education. T h e Office of Education, established by the Commonwealth Government in 1945 to co-ordinate its educational functions, includes in its activities the production of widely used discussional material, for example its Current Affairs Bulletin,1 which is a direct descendant of the army publication of the same name. This fortnighdy pamphlet, designed to provide essential information and guidance for discussion on live topics of the day, has acquired 30,000 regular subscribers in eighteen months. Visual methods have expanded rapidly both in formal and informal education. The establishment of a National Film Board in 1945 has resulted in the production of Australian documentary and informational films. With a total staff of about seventy persons it produces approximately thirty-five films a year. Local documentary film committees organize and supervise the distribution of overseas and Australian films. The Victorian State Film Centre, for example, provides documentary films for audiences which in total exceeds 275,000 persons a month. Educational

Broadcasting

The broadcasting services of Australia are provided by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and by commercial broadcasting agencies. Thus Australia is intermediate between England with its purely national system and the United States with its purely commercial system. A special department of the A.B.C. provides school broadcasting services which are adapted as far as possible to the school curricula of the various States. In June 1953, there were approximately 7,682 ' listening ' schools — 7 6 per cent of all schools. Some pioneering work has been done in linking broadcasts with specially prepared film strips which have been shown to listening classes. Interest has also been aroused abroad by special sessions for young children known as ' The Kindergarten of the Air ' and ' Education through Movement.' The ordinary fee for wireless receivers is now remitted in the case of schools. 1

Taken over by the Tutorial Classes Department of Sydney University, 1952.

4

8

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

U.N.E.S.C.O. Australia has participated actively and effectively from the outset in the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. The work is efficiently organized on behalf of the Federal Government by the Commonwealth Office of Education. Twelve national co-operating bodies cover all aspects of educational and cultural life in the country and bring together representatives of all associations which operate on a national basis. Australian delegations to the U.N.E.S.C.O conferences have acquired a high reputation for hard work, initiative and practicalmindedness. Adjustment to Individual Differences A modern education system must take account of the findings of psychology and of scientific techniques for assessing intelligence, special aptitudes and scholastic attainment. In Australia the last ten or fifteen years have seen a rapid development in these matters. The Australian Council for Educational Research, the main centre for construction of standardized tests, now supplies over a million copies of standardized tests annually to schools, to guidance agencies and to educational authorities. In the matter of establishing separate ' streams' within a school or, later on, separate schools according to learning capacity, Australia falls somewhere between England, where emphasis is placed on selection of the individual for an appropriate grouping or institution, and the United States, where the emphasis is on guidance for the individual within a common framework. All Australian States make some provision for the mentally handicapped child; one State has classes for very bright children; there are several schools for the physically handicapped, and special attention has been given in one city recently to the problem of the spastic child. Education has long been provided in schools for the blind and deaf, but of more recent establishment is a sight-saving school. Clinics for problem cases and facilities for treating speech disorders are available in most of the larger cities. A good deal remains to be done in extending such facilities, so that all cases needing attention may be dealt with. Australia has proceeded as far as almost any country in the

PLATE

IV

\ . PERTH: T h e H a r k e t t M e m o r i a l Building of t h e U n i v e r s i t y of W e s t e r n Australia.

5. ADELAIDE:

The

University and other cultural Tcrrace.

buildings on

North

[To face pa,

P L A T E

A.

NI.WCASTI.F.:

TIIF.

B. C u i l I M i Australia is t h e o n l y

BROKEN

V

HIM.

PTY.

STF.F.I.WORKS.

S l I J A R C . W E IX Ql'EKNsI.AND.

country

to c u l t i v a t e s u g a r c a n e labour.

entirely

by

white

I To fail

puzt

THE EDUCATIONAL

49

SYSTEM

use of vocational guidance procedures. Several States now have well-established services. The New South Wales Education Department has a staff of about sixty professionally trained school counsellors, each attending to a group of schools and cooperating with the school guidance officer. Placement and guidance services are also provided by the Youth Welfare Section of the Department of Labour and Industry. The Commonwealth Government has also established an employment service which includes among its activities the provision of vocational guidance. Research

in

Education

For its population Australia is well served in this matter. Most of the six State Education Departments have research officers or sections; the Commonwealth Office of Education has research as one of its functions; the Australian Council for Educational Research was established in 1930 as the result of an endowment from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and, without loss of autonomy, now receives grants from all Australian governments; finally, investigations are conducted by students working for degrees in Education at the Universities. Some Statistical

Facts

The following table is based on a careful examination of official reports and on supplementary information supplied by courtesy of the State Education Departments. It sets out the overall picture of Australian education as accurately as is possible in the present state of educational statistics. The Australian States have made some progress in the direction of uniformity of presentation, but any attempt to combine or compare figures still encounters variations in terminology and gaps in information. In particular there is an absence in most States of accurate statistics relating to private schools. Although it will be seen that there are more estimated than directly reported figures, the estimates may in most cases be taken as involving not more than 10 per cent of inaccuracy. Both estimates and other figures have, where appropriate, been given in round numbers. Examining Column 2 in Section A, we see that the ten years between 1936 and 1946 have brought a definite increase in the A.W.L.

E

50

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LIFE

provisions for secondary education and that the private school has apparendy held its own in this increase. The fact that 1946 enrolments in private schools were considerably smaller than in the state secondary schools combined, although the actual number of schools was greater, points to the existence of a number of small private schools. It will be noted, however, that if we limit attention to institutions of academic type, pupils in private secondary schools considerably outnumber pupils in the state high schools. Although this is the overall situation it does not apply to all States. The relative numerical strength of the two types varies considerably as we pass from State to State. No corresponding increase is found in comparing the number of primary schools at the two dates. The surprising drop in oneteacher schools can be traced partly to the use of other forms of education, especially that by correspondence, in the case of very small schools during the war period, and also to the rapid development of schemes for closing small schools and conveying the pupils to larger centres. It will be noted that for about every sixty pupils in primary schools in Australia there is one child receiving education by correspondence. The increased use of transportation for school pupils is illustrated by the fact that Victoria in 1938 spent about £14,000 in providing such services, whereas the corresponding figure for 1952-3 was about £1,181,388. In spite of the decrease in one-teacher schools it will be noted that the state services taken together still have over twice as many such schools as they have schools with two or more teachers. This clearly illustrates the very scattered nature of much of the population to be served and the difficulty of providing an adequate range of secondary school facilities for children in rural areas. Section B of the table gives some indication of the proportion of young people under instruction at different ages. The figure given in Column C is the estimate derived from census returns of the total numbers in the age groups in question. Of young people between 6 and 14 over 99 per cent are at school. For those from 14 to 18 years the proportion drops to about 33 per cent. For the next three years, the figure appears to remain about the same or even to increase in proportion to population,

T H E EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS

OF

SCHOOLS,

STUDENTS

AUSTRALIA, SECTION

TEACHERS,

A D

No. of Schools

No. of Student» 1

No. of Teaches* *

1946

>95°

Primary: (a) O n e - t e a c h e r Schools ( 6 , 7 8 0 ) (b) O t h e r Schools : 17.432 (i) S t a t e (2.470) 1 (ii) Private (1.7IO) (1.700) 6 (c) C o r r e s p o n d e n c e 6 1

'9

(328) (608)

Tertiary: (a) Universities (b) University Colleges . (c) T e c h n i c a l Colleges

AND

1950

c

1936

Secondary : (a) S t a t e H i g h (b) S t a t e T e c h . & O t h e r Types (c) P r i v a t e

Öl

B

A

Type of School

SYSTEM

6

(90)

I9JO

^•827,000 (522,000) (186,000) 13,000

16,700 (6,760)

358

8 2 146

(iOI.OOO)

(4.350)

(90,000)

(94,000)

25.300 452

30,056«

(130,000)

j " 25.435 (6.830) 530

(3.610) 182,000

551 (75«)

1950

5.570

(137,000)

(66,700)

203

1946

574*

(166,000)

(4,100)

1.797' 43 5.675

j-7,8i4 (4>'55) 2,281* 107 (6,500)

(Figures in brackets a r e estimates or involve t h e c o m b i n a t i o n of estimates f r o m some States with a c t u a l figures f r o m o t h e r States.) SECTION

B

A

B

C

AGE-GROUP

NUMBERS IN ATTENDANCE

POPULATION

6-14 14-18 18-21

1,054,000 270,000 195,000', •

1,066,000 491,000 367,000

NOTES: 1

Includes denominational schools. * E x c e p t where otherwise i n d i c a t e d , includes only t h e n e t e n r o l m e n t of full-time students. * Includes all full-time teachers o t h e r t h a n student-trainees, monitors, etc. 4 Includes p a r t as well as f u l l - t i m e students. * Includes p a r t as well as f u l l - t i m e staff. N . S . W . U n i v e r s i t y of T e c h n o l o g y included a l t h o u g h only c o m i n g i n t o full o p e r a t i o n in 1951. * I n some States t h e figures used represent s t u d e n t s a t t e n d i n g tertiary institutions, a n d thus include some below a n d some a b o v e t h e limits of t h e 18-21 y e a r group. x 3

52

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

but this is deceptive, owing to the large proportion of part-time students and to the unavoidable inclusion of some pupils outside the age-range. For particular States more detailed and more accurate figures could be given. Reverting to the first part of the table, we find that in primary schools other than one-teacher and correspondence schools the ratio of pupils to teachers is about 31 to 1 for state schools and 27 to 1 for private schools. The real figures for average size of classes would be higher than this, because head teachers and specialists would not in all cases have charge of a particular class of pupils. The figures do support other evidence that classes tend to be larger in state than in private schools. Teachers' salaries in Australia have not been high, but have recently shown a sharp upward tendency in the attempt to overcome shortage of teaching staff. Each State has its own scale based in most cases on an award by a tribunal or by the arbitration court. The following table shows the maximum and minimum rates in the various States in August 1953. A full comparison would, of course, involve a study of the number of teachers on each salary range, but this information is not available. SALARIES OF TEACHERS IN AUSTRALIAN STATE SCHOOLS

Minimum

Sute New South Wales Victoria Queensland South Australia Western Australia Tasmania

M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F.

£ 793 674 784 637 651

596

729

571

782 626

799

644

1

Maximum 1.713 I>4'3

'.734 ( + 25 if graduate)

',367 1.477 1,217

M93 1,318 1,602 1,141

1,539 1,164

The above figures include for most States a ' cost-of-living ' adjustment which now varies from £60 to £100 a year. The minimum salaries shown above are those paid to a teacher on first appointment after training. Advancement after this is by annual increment up to a point which usually falls less than 1

T h e figures which follow are all in £A.

THE EDUCATIONAL

53

SYSTEM

halfway between minimum and maximum.

Almost all teachers

advance below the lowest classification and receive a new series of increments, but only a minority can reach the highest classification before retiring age. It is impossible to establish accurate comparisons with other professions, but certain studies made b y the Melbourne University Appointments Board indicate that the average starting salary received by engineers with a degree is £ 9 1 1 . completing

articles,

commence

at

£848.

Lawyers, after

The

commencing

salaries of commerce graduates are £ 8 1 7 , of physicists £ 8 1 8 , of chemists £ 7 8 0 , of bacteriologists £ 7 2 8 , and of agricultural scientists £ 8 7 7 . From such figures it appears as though the traditional g a p between the salaries of teachers and of other professional groups has largely closed.

A Selected

Tour

Let us be bold and, ignoring distances, take an imaginary professional visitor to specific places.

First to several one-teacher

schools in any one of the six States.

Here, perhaps thirty miles

from the nearest railway station, he would find from 8 to 30 children, of all school ages and stages, being taught by a teacher specially

trained for such

work.

By

skilful use of

prepared

assignments and by using some of the older pupils to assist the younger, the standard of work compares favourably with that of the city schools. T h e chances are that, on appropriate occasions, the school tunes in to a state-wide educational broadcast. It m a y even use a projector and a film strip specially prepared to illustrate the talk.

In the city we would take the visitor to a model

school of the same kind associated with the teachers' college, maybe occupying a single classroom in a large school.

So good

is the reputation of these one-teacher schools that there is no difficulty in persuading city parents to send their children to them in preference to the ordinary classes. A day at one of the Lady Gowrie Pre-school Child Centres in any of the six capital

cities would

reveal buildings

methods for young children equal to any in the world.

and

These

demonstration centres were established during the war years by the Commonwealth Government.

54

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY OF LIFE

Next wc go to a high school in a country town, say Horsham, Victoria. Here we should find a comprehensive type of secondary school providing a wide range of technical and academic instruction. If our visitor were English, he would gain much from seeing the result of twenty years' activity of a type of school which is the subject of vigorous debate in England at the present time and which some authorities are now establishing. The Englishman would feel thoroughly at home at the Geelong Church of England Grammar School. Here he would find much of the atmosphere of the English public school, but would see it operating in a new-world setting with magnificent buildings and equipment for the teaching of music, art and crafts, and with courses adapted to the needs and capacities of individual pupils. He would find the school inculcating a civic spirit, not merely by study of current affairs, but also by actual jobs of work undertaken in the city a few miles away. He might by chance visit it on the day it was acting as host to pupils from the main boys' high school in Melbourne in a practical effort to avoid or to bridge ' social distance.' Let us next go to a great city technical college. In Melbourne we should find an enrolment of 13,700 part-time and 1,250 full-time students doing one or more of some 500 courses. In Sydney the numbers are even larger. A considerable number are evening students who work at their jobs during the day. Others are apprentices, while others again are full-time students doing five-year diploma courses. These advanced courses are at a high level, and in Sydney some of them are now degree courses in the Technical University. For the most comprehensive university studies and the chief aggregations of scholars, we should go to Sydney with its 10,700 students, or Melbourne with its 9,600.' For the university which seems to be most closely integrated with the community it serves, we would go to the beautiful university in Perth—the only free university in Australia. In Sydney let us visit the Enmore Activity School. Here the Education Department has set up a unique school for children who, while not mentally deficient, fail to be suited to bookish 1

These are the figures for the post-war peak (1949) when large numbers of reconstruction trainees were doing courses. In 1952 there were 7,380 students at Sydney and 7,330 at Melbourne.

THE EDUCATIONAL

SYSTEM

55

studies. Their interests are aroused through a wide range of practical activities and hobbies. We must include two of the fifteen area schools of Tasmania let us say the one at Huonville and the one at Hagley. One would be insufficient, because each of the area schools has its own characteristic adaptation to the activities of its district. The closing of small country schools and conveyance of children to a larger centre by buses is a common feature in the United States and is advancing rapidly in suitable districts in the various Australian States. The area schools have, however, introduced a new type of curriculum in which something like half the school time is devoted to practical activities and projects which are genuinely relevant to the after-school life of the rural child. No schools anywhere have succeeded better in the standing problem of linking the school with life. We should call in, too, at the recendy established community school in a beautiful estate on the outskirts of Launceston. Here an interesting attempt is being made to give to city children experiences equivalent in interest and value to those provided for rural children in the area schools. And what about a ' school' with many teachers, but no visible scholars ? Our visitor would be fascinated by a day at the correspondence school in any of the six capital cities. Here is a true romance in education and Australia's main contribution to educational method. Correspondence tuition for adults and literates is of long standing, but it had always been assumed that a child could not commence his education without attending school or having a personal tutor. Starting in a small way independently in Victoria and New South Wales about 1914, the new method expanded until to-day the total enrolment of isolated, itinerant or incapacitated children receiving primary education by correspondence amounts to about 15,000. If we called, for example, at the Perth correspondence school we should find in the primary section thirty-two teachers busily engaged in correcting assignments for 1,370 pupils, some of them over a thousand miles away. By friendly encouragement and exchange of news excellent relations are established between teacher and child and, indeed, family as well. The secret of success is partly this matter of helpful attitudes and partly skilful

T H E AUSTRALIAN WAY O F LIFE 56 technique in planning work for the pupil and instructions for the guidance of the parent who supervises it. It would be worth our visitor's while to spend a day at a junior technical school—let us say the one at Brunswick, a suburb of Melbourne. Here he would find a well-established type of school resembling in function and outlook the recendy established English modern school. It is not a trades school, but gives a combination of general and pre-vocational courses for pupils from about 12 to 16. Workshop facilities are such that pupils get a real introduction to the main tools and generalized processes of industry. Time is about evenly divided between practical and cultural subjects. Let us include in our visits the Gatton Agricultural College in Queensland. Here is an unusual institution which combines university teaching in agriculture with an agricultural high school. A recent development has been the holding of summer schools for ' young farmers ' from different parts of the state. We should finally look in at the Sydney Tcachers' College. Here a highly qualified staff provides a variety of courses for future teachers in a building containing much fine artistic material and an excellent library. An unusual feature is a permanent ' camp' in the country, where students go for several weeks each year to get some of their practical training by travelling in buses to the rural schools in the neighbourhood. We have not by any means exhausted the possibilities, but have shown that in spite of—perhaps because of—its newness Australia provides a wide range of educational activities and institutions, some of them without counterpart elsewhere.

The Reverse Side Of course the picture is not all bright. Funds for schools have had to compete with the cost of other developments in a new country. At times of depression there have been serious setbacks, which might have been avoided if there had been a firmer belief in the supreme importance of education, or even if there had been some way of securing a direct expression of the wishes of the people. Many city children are taught in buildings erected last century and now recognized as quite unsuitable for modern education. Playing space in some of these schools is tragically

THE EDUCATIONAL

SYSTEM

57

small. With little excuse—except that it involved breaking with tradition—the country of ample space reproduced schools of the type found in crowded cities of the older parts of the world. No Australian government, nor for that matter any government anywhere, has been able to face the cost of abolishing its historical handicaps in the way of old school buildings. In other respects shortage of funds has prevented full scale adoption of measures accepted in principle. Medical inspection and dental care of children are found in all States, but the staff available is not always sufficient to provide a full service. Special education for special types of children, such as the mentally defective, is recognized, but facilities are not always adequate. Such education is expensive, because the ratio of teachers to pupils is higher than for ordinary schools. Australian schools in general have too many large classes, but the present shortage of teachers makes reduction difficult. Teacher's salaries are being raised to levels fairly comparable with those, say, in England, but it is too early yet to say whether enough recruits will be attracted. School equipment and supplies are not as generous as in some overseas countries, but here again one must refer to the general spread and the absence of the very backward areas which can be found abroad. Australia fell behind badly in the matter of school libraries. Considerable progress has been made in recent years, though there is still a good way to go. A professional critic from England or the United States would find fault with the uniformity of school courses over wide areas, and might be inclined to criticize the system of examination and inspection. He would, however, find attempts to encourage flexibility and professional initiative. An American visitor might be disturbed by the social and economic differentiation arising from the existence, side by side, of a strong system of fee-charging schools—usually church schools—and a new system of State high schools. An Englishman might not be happy about the dichotomy, but would be in no way surprised, because the Australian situation closely resembles that in his own country. It is indeed direcdy inherited from it, though differing in detail. A further division arises from the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has felt itself unable to accept the secular state systems and, without any state aid, has

58

THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y O F LIFE

provided its own schools at both primary and secondary levels. W e can indeed speak of three separate systems of education. Fortunately all three streams meet again at the tertiary level. According to taste there are other features which the individual critic could select. The most fundamental issues relate to the effects of centralization of authority in each of the state systems. It may be that a good deal is lost through the absence of local control and of the informed public opinion on education which can arise therefrom. Public service conditions restrict full freedom of publicity by professional officers. T h e uncertainties of direct Parliamentary control with changing Ministers seem at times to have prevented the drawing up of long-term plans. No system has been freer from nepotism or political patronage, but since the government is responsible for educational policy, it may at times intrude into what should be regarded as purely professional matters. Australian education has been criticized as lacking in any clear-cut formulation of goals and purposes. It has had no recognized spokesman such as England has had in Norwood, Adams or Nunn, still less anyone as influential as John Dewey in America. This may be partly accidental, but may be partly due to the fact that her culture is derived rather than original. All the foregoing writers have helped to mould Australian educational theory. As we shall see, the present situation is challenging and may call forth a philosopher worthy of the times. How It Came About The growth and achievements of Australian education can be understood only in the light of ideas and events of the Western European civilization of which it is an offshoot. What was the situation when the new colony was founded ? Captain Phillip's expedition, consisting of 778 convicts and 695 officers, marines and sailors, reached Botany Bay in 1788. This was twenty-six years after Rousseau had published his Social Contract and his Emile; twelve years after the American Declaration of Independence; and one year before the beginning of the French Revolution. These and similar milestones in the enunciation of a new view of human rights led finally to the establishment of universal and compulsory education supported

THE EDUCATIONAL

SYSTEM

59

from public funds and controlled by the State itself. Indeed in some European countries and in some of the new American colonies the first steps had been taken in the recognition of state responsibility for education before the close of the 18th century. But the full working out of the new movement occupied most of the i gth century. Before it was completed, the Australian States were sufficiently developed to adapt the new concepts to their own needs and even to make contributions of their own. A t the time of the first Australian settlements, and for many years afterwards, the prevailing view in England was that the provision of education for the masses should be left to the Church and to various voluntary societies which arose at this period. Any suggestion of compulsion was vigorously resisted. It is, therefore, not surprising to find that no teachers were included in the first contingent, and that for some years such voluntary schools as were established received no aid from public funds. Similarly, an Act in 1834 for a free setdement in South Australia made no provision for public education. The need for systematic educational facilities in the new settlements impressed various observers. Governor Hunter wrote from Sydney in 1796 that 'finer nor more neglected children could not be found anywhere in the world.' A committee formed in 1835 to establish in Sydney a branch of the British and Foreign School Society found that out of about 3,700 children under twelve years in that city, at least 1,500 who were old enough to go to school were receiving no education. T h e situation in country districts was much worse. Conditions in general were such that it became necessary for civil authority to abandon its laisser-faire attitude at an earlier stage than in England itself. The first efforts naturally took the form of subsidies to church schools. For example, capitation grants were made to supplement the fees which teachers could collect from parents. In general the remuneration of teachers was miserably low. But grants to church schools introduced many difficulties and disputes. There was no established Church in Australia, and much bitterness was aroused by early schemes which gave a virtual monopoly of public grants for education to the Church of England. However, the extension of grants to other denominations resulted in overlapping and rivalry, and it finally became

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evident that voluntary effort could not cope with the situation. The next period saw the development of a dual system of denominational schools, both in receipt of public funds. A precedent for non-sectarian schools had already been established in Ireland. It provided for the reading of selected passages from the Scriptures by teachers, and for visits by clergy of the several denominations to give doctrinal instruction to their own flocks. This, in the main, was the pattern followed by the first national schools in Australia, in spite of bitter hostility from the supporters of denominational schools. In New South Wales for almost twenty years from 1848 there were two separate Boards of Education to administer the two systems. A similar dual system operated for about the same length of time in Victoria. By the middle of the century the character of Australian settlement had changed. There were now strong and virile communities of free settlers. In response to popular demands transportation from England ceased in 1840 (though it continued to Van Diemen's Land for another thirteen years). The Constitution Act of 1842 practically gave self-government to New South Wales. Victoria was separated from New South Wales and granted its own government in 1850. The same Act foreshadowed the separation of Queensland. The South Australian settlement, which had increased in twenty-one years from 546 migrants to 100,000 persons, also received its charter of self-government at this time. Van Diemen's Land became Tasmania and was given representative government in 1855. Perth was founded in 1828, but a local legislature was deferred until 1870. The second half of the century was marked by rapid expansion in which new lands were opened up. A valuable wool industry developed. Hardy pioneers faced loneliness, drought and bush fires to establish a living for themselves and their children. Discoveries of gold brought rushes of new settlers, often men with a strong spirit of independence. The six autonomous States developed along much the same political and social lines. They were all offshoots of the same parent culture, they faced many problems in common and they tended to imitate each other's solutions. The feeling of common destiny brought them together in Federation by the end of the century.

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The new sense of Australian nationalism had in it a strong feeling of the rights of the common man and a belief that it was necessary for all children to receive at least an elementary education. The dual systems referred to above were not found to be satisfactory. Sir Henry Parkes in 1866, as Colonial Secretary in New South Wales, secured the passage of a Public Schools Act which marked a new epoch. In supporting it he pointed out that of 150,845 children under fourteen years in that State 97,393 were receiving no education at all. The State was being put to unnecessary expense in subsidizing several small schools in some localities where there was scope for one only. The dual Boards were abolished and a Council of Education was established under Ministerial control, but without creating a new government department. The Council had power to appoint teachers and inspectors and to train teachers. It could establish public schools where there was an assured attendance of twentyfive pupils, and in still more sparsely populated places education was to be provided by provisional and half-time schools and itinerant teachers. Assistance was to be available in the form of board and lodging for children who could receive education only by living away from home. Subject to inspection for their secular instruction denominational schools were still to be statesupported. All schools were to be staffed by the State. Any clergyman was to have the right to attend the public schools for a certain period daily to instruct in religious doctrine. A training school for teachers was to be set up. Teachers were to be paid a fixed salary so as to be independent of school fees. Exemption from fees was to be granted for children whose parents could not afford to pay. The work of Sir Henry Parkes did much to establish the future shape of Australian education. Victoria had abolished the dual system even earlier in an Act passed in 1862. This Act set up a Board of Education which had power to make grants to efficient schools and to close redundant ones. It sought to avoid religious difficulties by stipulating that members of the Board were to be of different denominations. A good deal of power was left to local committees of management, which were expected to raise half the cost of building and equipping schools. The failure of this schepie led tQ the final stage in determining

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the form of educational administration. Districts struggling to get on their feet could not provide their portion of the funds needed to establish schools. Victoria therefore passed in 1872 an Act which set up a central State Education Department under a Cabinet Minister. The other States passed similar legislation between that date and 1893. In general terms these Acts and subsequent developments involved the following changes:—the abandonment of early attempts to use some system of local management, thus giving the six Australian systems a degree of centralization not found elsewhere in the world; the cessation of direct grants to denominational schools; the establishment of compulsory attendance between six and fourteen years for children living within a reasonable distance of a school and not otherwise under efficient instruction; the abolition of fees for the period of compulsory attendance; some form of direct or indirect supervision of denominational and private schools to ensure efficiency in their secular instruction; the establishment of state teachers' training colleges; permanent tenure and public service status for teachers; provision for religious instruction by visiting clergy and in some states for Bible readings by teachers. Most of the foregoing features were established by the end of the century and gave Australia its six systems of ' free, compulsory and secular ' education. Some beginnings had been made by the States in secondary education, but the large-scale establishment of high schools and technical schools came later. Secondary education in the main was still provided chiefly by private and church schools. The systems described above had very great advantages, especially in a new country. In the United States, even to-day, there are disturbing differences between the educational facilities provided by different districts. In the main, rural areas are served by teachers who cannot get the more highly paid city posts. Australia had solved this problem by the beginning of the century, though, as we shall see, she created others in doing so. In any area where there is an assured attendance, which in some States is as low as ten children, the State Education Department concerned will erect and furnish a school and appoint and pay a trained teacher. There is no charge whatever to the local community. T h e same applies in the case of the largest of cities.

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Local funds are frequently raised for 'extras,' but literally all essential costs of state education are met by annual vote in parliament from general revenue (there are no special educational taxes or loans) on the basis of estimates prepared by the permanent professional officers. In an hierarchical system much depends on the officer at the top. Fortunately each Australian State decided in favour of placing a professional director of education in charge of its service. Mr. Frank Tate, who held office as Director of Education in Victoria from 1902 to 1928, and Mr. Peter Board, who held the corresponding office in New South Wales from 1905 to 1922, are the two outstanding figures that Australian education has produced. There was steady progress under their inspired leadership. We have traced the general evolution of what came to be known locally as ' the best system of education in the world.' It is true that during the first decade or two of this century Australia did anticipate features now common in national systems of education. However, the very complacency reflected in the phrase used above was partly responsible for the fact that expenditure on schools from about 1920 did not increase as fast as did those of most other English-speaking countries. For the last ten or fifteen years neither the public nor the profession has had any illusions that Australia had nothing to learn. The Recent Past The second World War had a profound influence on educational thought and practice. It made Australia realize as never before the importance of a high level of efficiency. Man-power was so short for all the tasks that had to be carried out that no individual could be regarded as unimportant. A t the same time recruitment for the services revealed a higher proportion of illiterates and semi-literates than had been suspected. The seriousness of the threat to security and the experience of community effort led to a deeper appreciation of the vital social importance of education—as witness the springing up of movements for the establishment of community centres in many places. With the passing of the threat some of the enthusiasm has gone, but there have been permanent effects. So far as the

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regular schools are concerned, advancement is difficult at the moment because of the priority in building which must be given to housing, and because of the difficulty of obtaining sufficient teachers. At the primary school level the acquisition of fundamental skills is still regarded as the chief aim, but the older methods of learning by rote are being modified through encouragement of spontaneity and the use of projects and local interest. In the secondary schools no radical changes in curriculum have taken place, but on the vexed question of organization at this level opinion seems to be developing in favour of the comprehensive type of school. At all levels teaching is probably moving away from rather than towards authoritarianism. The increased use of an approach by discussion and the employment of broadcasts, films and libraries all assist in the provision of a proper background for the formation of opinion rather than the mere acceptance of dictum. Everything depends, of course, on how these agencies are used. Although the structure of Australian State education is not of the type usually found in a democratic country, the important thing appears to be the general attitude of the community towards freedom of thought and expression. If there is any element of regimentation in the state services, it is only that involved in the working of any public service machine. It is probably less to-day than ever. The existence of a strong body of private schools is also a guarantee against authoritarianism. Freedom of teaching is particularly important at the university level. In spite of one or two danger signs this has been fully maintained. In order to maintain essential training during the war qualified students were directed into ' reserved faculties' and given financial assistance by the Commonwealth. This has been followed by more general assistance schemes and by a large reconstruction training programme for ex-servicemen at universities and technical colleges. Of 20,678 full-time undergraduate students at Australian universities in 1948 practically 38 per cent were reconstruction trainees. The Commonwealth Government, too, makes research grants to the universities, and enters into a variety of other specific activities, such as the conducting of schools of instruction for non-English-speaking migrants.

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These various activities are conducted through the Office of Education. Primary and secondary education remain the responsibility of the States, since education was not specifically named as falling within Commonwealth powers when the Constitution was framed. The institution of uniform taxation during the war abolished the power of the States to raise revenues without reference to the common pool, and the greatly enhanced powers and revenues of the Commonwealth seem to raise doubts whether the states under the present system can provide adequately for the increased cost of social services, specifically for education. It appears as though some solution of this problem must be found in the next few years. The universities too are state institutions, in the sense that they are dependent to a large extent on state grants for their general revenues.

Various Developments and Aspects New South Wales and Queensland have recently appointed regional directors of education in certain areas. It is too early to say how far this movement towards decentralization will go or what its effects will be. The two States cover an enormous area (Queensland with its 670,500 square miles is more than twentyfive times the size of Tasmania), and the steps which have been taken may be connected with the movements in some regions against government from a distance. The state systems are ' secular' in the sense defined earlier, though even then there are variations from one State to another. Although no major changes are to be expected, there are signs of an increasing opinion in favour of the use of some simple form of non-denominational service. In some schools in certain States this occurs even now. There has been no clear pronouncement of official policy on co-education. Almost without exception the church schools are for boys or girls separately. The only notable exception is the Friends' High School, Hobart. Some private schools are coeducational. State schools are co-educational at the primary level and frequently at the secondary as well. The large city high schools are usually separate. An A.C.E.R. survey of A.W.L.

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opinions of teachers with experience in both types found a majority in favour of co-education. Women teachers in the state departments have had to resign on marriage, but with the shortages of recent years many have returned on a temporary basis. New South Wales has recently changed its regulations so that resignation is not required. Women's salaries are usually about 90 per cent of those paid to men in corresponding positions. T h e teachers' union advocate equal pay. The state teachers' unions are strong bodies which, in addition to seeking improvements in teaching conditions and salaries, form a channel for the formation and expression of professional opinion. The relationships between the unions and the administrative officers are normally cordial. The administrators have invariably come up through the teaching ranks and understand the problems with which the teachers are faced. Each State has a superannuation scheme. In the early days teachers' salaries were determined by Parliament. In all or most States they are now fixed by the Arbitration Court or a special tribunal. In only one State is the union affiliated with the general trade union movement. The state teachers' unions are affiliated into the Australian Teachers' Federation. This holds an annual conference which meets in rotation in the capital cities. Its main campaign in recent years has been the advocacy of federal control of education and a federal grant of £100,000,000. There is no corresponding association of teachers in private schools, but there are various state or local bodies. The headmasters of the leading schools (to which the English term ' public school' is commonly applied) form a body which, like the corresponding body in England, is known as the Headmasters' Conference. A n interesting sign of the times was a recent meeting at which the members of this conference spent several days in residence at a boarding school discussing common problems in education with representative head teachers of state schools. History Versus Geography As we have seen, Australia has derived her educational tradi-

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tion mainly f r o m the British Isles, but has m a d e m a n y adaptations to suit her special conditions. T h e influence of the United States has also been considerable. Most of the adaptations have been administrative, and most of the A m e r i c a n borrowings h a v e related to classroom methods. W h e n w e come to school curricula w e necessarily find a considerable amount of local colour. But the gradual adaptations which have been made have called for no radical questioning of educational concepts and values such as has occurred in the United States, where n o single educational tradition could be used as a socializing agency for the mixture of cultures. It has remained, and still remains, important for the Australian child to learn something of the origin of his institutions and civic freedoms. T h i s looking backwards has not always been skilful or effective. But in any case it has been possible for Australia to ignore the fact that half the earth's circumference separated her from the parent culture. In the last f e w years the situation has changed dramatically and, as a speaker recently said, geography has caught up with history. It has become a m a j o r task to prepare the future Australian citizen for understanding the people of neighbouring countries, for thinking more in terms of the Pacific and Indian O c e a n s than in terms of Europe. Australia cannot abandon completely the historical past, but neither c a n she continue to ignore the geographical present. K . S. C U N N I N G H A M , Ph.D., Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research since 1930; M.A., Dip. Ed. (Melbourne); Ph.D. (Columbia); member American Educational Research Association; Chairman, Social Science Research Committee, Australian National Research Council; Honorary Fellow, Australian Institute of Librarians; Lecturer, Melbourne Teachers' College, 1920-30; editor, Education for Complete Living, being the report of the New Education Fellowship Conference in Australia (1937-38); author of The Measurement of Early Levels of Intelligence (1937), Primary Education by Correspondence (1931), Educational Observations and Reflections (1934); contributor to the Year Book of Education (England) and the Year Book of the International Institute (United States), etc. r a

CHAPTER

IV

Political Institutions and Aspirations P R O F E S S O R P. H. P A R T R I D G E The Working of Federalism THE Australian system of government combines federalism with responsible cabinet government of the British sort. It is as an example of the working of federalism under contemporary economic and social conditions that Australian government is most interesting; this is the aspect of Australian government which has received most attention from Australian students and which arouses most controversy. There has been, in comparison, little controversy about parliamentary institutions; what there has been has turned mainly around the constitution of the Upper Chambers in the Commonwealth and State parliaments. But almost all Australians take parliamentary government as a matter of course. Nor is there much in the working of Australian parliaments to attract the attention of the student of British government. There are, of course, a number of variations from the British model produced by history, by the influence of local conditions, by the character of Australian political parties, and by other circumstances. The Commonwealth Parliament which sits in Canberra is, when compared with .the Parliament at Westminster, a very new parliament and a very small one. Both of these differences produce peculiarities which will be noticed later in this chapter. But these divergences are not of the greatest importance. Furthermore, the main developments which are occurring in the practice of parliamentary government in this country are similar to those which are occurring in Britain. The complaint that the power of the Executive is growing, that there is more government by regulation, that Parliament is a less efficient watchdog over the Government, that it is less thorough in its scrutiny and discussion of new legislation, that party 66

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discipline is making parliamentary debate a matter of f o r m — these complaints are heard frequently in Australia, but no more frequendy than they are heard in Britain. O n the whole, the most difficult institutional problems are those which have arisen from the operation of the federal system; it is within the federal structure that the most significant changes are taking place; the character of the federal constitution is at this moment one of the most acute issues between the major political parties. Therefore, in this chapter most attention will be given to the working of federal government in Australia and to the existing stresses within it. The federal constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia was adopted in 1900 by six colonies, the majority of which had more than half a century's experience of colonial selfgovernment. A number of considerations had induced the colonies to conquer the inertia and the suspicion of federation that had persisted until the nineties of the last century: the desire for a common organization for defence; the fear of foreign penetration into the islands of the Pacific; a growing appreciation of the inconvenience of divergent tariff policies (of the two strongest colonies, Victoria followed a protectionist policy and New South Wales a free-trade); a concern at the influx of Asiatic, especially Chinese immigrants and a wish to achieve a uniform immigration policy for all the colonies. These seem to be the most important factors making for the federation of the colonies; perhaps some weight should also be given to a growing sentiment of Australian nationalism among groups most active in campaigning for federation, producing the desire for political union as a means of realizing Australian nationhood. The Balance of Powers But, in 1900, there could be no question of the adoption of a unitary state for the whole of Australia. There were numerous and powerful interests concerned to see that the existing state governments should not be shorn too drastically of their political power. ' I hold it to be a basic principle of this federation,' one of the delegates declared in the constitutional convention of 1891, ' that we should take no power from the States which they could better exercise themselves; we should place no power in

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the federation which is not absolutely necessary for carrying out its purposes.' M a n y other speeches to the same effect could be quoted from the proceedings of the conventions of 1891 and 1897-8; we should be justified in saying that this was predominandy the frame of mind in which Australians entered the Commonwealth in 1901. It would be a very difficult task to trace the various influences which together were responsible for the exact balance of power between federal and state governments which was written into the Constitution. Political and economic rivalry among the colonies was strong enough to prevent the granting to the new central government of any but those powers which it seemed desirable should be exercised uniformly throughout the Commonwealth. There was the fear in the less populous and economically developed colonies (Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania) that a unified economic policy might prove wholly to the advantage of New South Wales and Victoria, the States which were by far the strongest politically and economically. There were Conservatives who saw that the creation of a central government with wide powers might be a threat to the survival of their ' economic freedom.' In general, we may say that those interests within the States which, for half a century or more, had been successful in giving effect to their demands through the existing state governments were wary of ceding powers to a new Commonwealth government which they might not be able to control. The Australian Constitution, following that of the U.S.A., defines the powers which may be exercised by the Commonwealth Parliament; the residual powers are reserved to the States. O n a few matters the Commonwealth Parliament has exclusive power to legislate: e.g., defence, customs and excise, currency and coinage, posts and telegraphs, external affairs. T h e other powers of the Commonwealth enumerated in the Constitution are enjoyed concurrendy with the States, though the constitution also provides that where legislation conflicts within the fields occupied concurrendy by Commonwealth and States, that of the Commonwealth prevails over that of a State. Thus the power to levy income tax is one possessed concurrendy by Commonwealth and States, and this has proved to be important in the working out of the balance between the two. Most of the

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powers assigned either exclusively to the Commonwealth or concurrently with the States relate to matters on which it seemed clearly desirable to the constitution makers that it should be possible to legislate uniformly for the whole continent. Most of the controversies concerning the division of powers between central and state governments which have subsequently developed have been concerned, not with the question whether the former has been given powers that it ought not to have, but whether it has been denied powers that contemporary social and economic conditions make it desirable for it to have. Proposed amendments to the Constitution since the beginning of federation have dealt almost invariably with suggestions for enlarging Commonwealth powers. Growing Commonwealth

Powers

The six States retain power over such matters as education, police, local government, public health, roads and transport within the state boundaries, agriculture, public lands, intra-state trade, industry and industrial relations within the State. As we have said, attacks on the constitution and proposals for its amendment usually relate to the widening or strengthening of Commonwealth powers. At one time or another, leaders of all the main political parties have expressed dissatisfaction with the powers assigned to the Commonwealth. But the Labour party has been the main force agitating for greater powers for the central government. It is now the view of the Labour party that the Constitution does not give to the Commonwealth the powers necessary either to meet the abnormal economic conditions arising from the war or to put into effect the anti-depression, full-employment policies which are part of its programme, while, so it is argued, these are matters which by their nature, cannot be dealt with separately by the several states. Thus it is complained that the Commonwealth cannot legislate direcdy concerning conditions within industry (though it can, and has, set up machinery for arbitration and conciliation in industrial disputes extending beyond the border of a single State); it is prevented by earlier judicial interpretations from legislating for certain forms of organized marketing; in peace time, when it can no longer employ its ' defence power ' for the purpose, it cannot

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ration commodities or control prices; as a result of recent decisions by the Australian High Court and the Privy Council, it would appear that the Commonwealth's power to nationalize industries is narrowly limited; while it now regulates civil aviation, it does not control the main railway systems which are owned by the States and under their control. Thus it is strongly contended by the greater part of the Labour movement, and by most thinkers of the ' Left ' that the distribution of legislative powers between Commonwealth and States which semed good to the fathers of the Constitution in 1900, is no longer in accord with contemporary social and economic requirements. Yet in spite of this discontent with existing limitations on Commonwealth powers, the trend since federation was adopted has been strongly towards the expansion of Commonwealth activity and influence at the expense of the States. And this has occurred despite the safeguards to state independence written into the Constitution (e.g. the establishment of a Commonwealth Senate, modelled on the American Senate, which was intended to function as a ' States' House '), and in spite of the extreme reluctance of the Australian electorate to approve by referendum proposed revisions of the constitution. Writing in 1929 Professor Hancock could say that ' the average citizen looks more frequently to the government which sits in Adelaide or Melbourne than to the government which sits in Canberra. It is this close, more intimate government which protects him from the wicked, which educates him, watches over his health, develops roads and railways and water supplies . . . . regulates his local trade conditions, inspects his factory—performs in short all those functions which seem to affect most nearly his economic and social wellbeing . . . State government is the instrument with which Australian democracy has fashioned its experimental socialism.' It is very doubtful whether the Australian citizen to-day is more conscious of the working of the government of his state than of the government of the Commonwealth ; it is likely that it is to the government which sits in Canberra that he gives most of the attention which he can spare for politics. It is not that the States have ceased to carry out any of the functions enumerated by Professor Hancock. Nor is it that the formal constitutional powers of the Commonwealth have been added to, except in two

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or three instances. Nevertheless, in the last twenty years the Commonwealth government has enormously expanded its activities. Since 1939 at least, state politics have become steadily more humdrum, less dramatic; it is unquestionable that the Commonwealth is now the predominant partner and, probably, is now the government which the majority of Australians consider to be mainly responsible for their social and economic destinies. Judicial Interpretations of the Constitution Thus the history of federation in this country, particularly in the last twenty years, has been marked by a steady shift of initiative from States to Commonwealth. As has been mentioned, it is a shift which has come about for the most part without actual amendment of the constitution. A number of factors have contributed to the process, and it has come about in a number of ways. First, it has been assisted by judicial interpretation. A number of important decisions by the High Court (which, like the American Supreme Court, has the function of construing the constitution and deciding the validity of disputed Commonwealth and state legislation) have led to expansions of Commonwealth control. Until 1920 the High Court took the view that it was interpreting a federal compact, and thus, in order to protect the status of Commonwealth and States as independent governments, employed the American doctrine of ' implied prohibitions.' But in the ' Engineers' Case ' o f 1920 the court reviewed and deliberately rejected this doctrine; and the general effect of its abandonment has been to concede to the Commonwealth a quite pre-eminent position in many important fields of legislation. Thus through the work of the Commonwealth Court of Arbitration and Conciliation, the Commonwealth—assisted by generous judicial interpretation—has become the main authority regulating wages and conditions of labour in Australia, though the States still retain arbitration and conciliation machinery of their own. In the ' Uniform T a x Case ' the court upheld an arrangement whereby the Commonwealth, in 1942, became the only government collecting income tax. And, to take a third example, the court has interpreted the range of the Commonwealth's ' defence power' in war-time in such a way as to permit the Commonwealth to exercise the far-reaching

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and detailed organization and control of the economy which is necessary, or is claimed to be necessary, for the waging of modern war. But, before leaving this question of judicial interpretation of the Constitution, two points should be added. The court has interpreted Section 92 of the Constitution (which provides that ' . . . customs, trade, commerce and intercourse among the States, whether by means of internal carriage or ocean navigation, shall be absolutely free') in such a way as to prevent the Commonwealth, as well as the States, from regulating trade for the purpose of effecting certain forms of organized marketing; more recently, the section has been held to exclude the nationalization of the trading banks by the Commonwealth government. And, secondly, there is some evidence that in the last two or three years the court has retreated somewhat from the position taken up in the ' Uniform Tax Case ' and is more concerned than it was for some years after 1920 with the impact of Commonwealth legislation upon the position of the States within a federal system. It should be emphasized that there is in Australia, as in the United States, a great deal of controversy about the influence of judicial decisions on Australia's political and economic development. Whether one believes (as some do) that the High Court has failed to preserve the proper balance of the federal constitution, or (as others maintain) that it has hindered the natural adaptation of the constitution to contemporary social and economic conditions, will depend in part on what one takes to be the social and economic needs of the time. What can hardly be denied is that there have been important judicial decisions which have assisted that growing Commonwealth power which, as we have said, has been a continuous trend since the beginning of federation in Australia. Probably the main factor responsible for the growth of the power and activity of the Commonwealth has been its financial superiority. At federation the States lost their most important source of revenue, customs and excise, but the constitution contained a number of provisions designed to safeguard their financial position. These have not been effective. Almost from the outset the states have been waging a losing battle with the Commonwealth to preserve a satisfactory financial arrangement,

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and almost from the outset have been to some degree dependent on the Commonwealth's goodwill. In its attitude towards the States on finance the Commonwealth has never been overindulgent; and especially in recent years (while the strongly centralist federal Labour party remained in office in Canberra) it has shown itself disposed to use its financial mastery to extend the field of its legislation and administration. Two incidents in the growth of Commonwealth financial control may be mentioned in order to illustrate the way things have gone. One is the adoption in 1927 of the 'Financial Agreement' between the Commonwealth and the States (which, incidentally, involved one of the four constitutional amendments which the electorate has been willing to endorse since federation) under which the Commonwealth assumed responsibility for the loan indebtedness of the States. The States in return surrendered to the Australian Loan Council (composed of representatives of Commonwealth and States, each State having one vote and the Commonwealth two, plus a casting vote) control of future borrowing and management of the debt. Although the Commonwealth equally with the States yielded to the Loan Council control over borrowing, the effect of the agreement has been generally to strengthen the financial position of the Commonwealth as against the States. The second incident is the adoption in 1942 of the system of ' uniform taxation.' The taxation power is concurrent; thus the Commonwealth could, if it chose, by taxing to the limit force the States from the field. The States have been persuaded or compelled to surrender the field of income tax to the Commonwealth; and, in place of the revenue thus lost to them, they receive from the Commonwealth an annual grant. With uniform taxation, as in the case of the financial agreement, there is some difference of opinion whether the States are better off than they would have been if earlier financial arrangements had been continued. But in any case the result of this arrangement is that the financial position of the States, and thus their governmental activities, are dependent to a considerable extent on the justice and generosity of the Commonwealth. There are some who argue that this development has given the coup de grâce to Australian federalism; others that it is subversive of all maxims of good government that one authority is responsible for the

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raising of revenue which others spend. It is hardly to be expected that there will be a return to ' double taxation.' But there has been very litde public discussion of how, in the light of this very drastic amendment of the financial structure of the Australian system of government, the powers and functions of Commonwealth and States may be redefined; and it is not yet possible to predict how the financial pre-eminence of the central government may ultimately affect the initiative and independence of the States as governments in their own right. Before turning from the question of Commonwealth-State financial relations, it is worth noting that the Commonwealth has power under the Constitution to make grants to the States for special purposes. For many years the central government has made grants to three States (South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania) which suffer from special economic and financial disabilities, and which claim to have been penalized by federation —particularly because of the protectionist policies which the Commonwealth has followed from the beginning. Since 1933 these grants to the three 1 claimant States' have been made by the Commonwealth on the advice of a Grants Commission. In addition the Commonwealth has made grants to all States for particular purposes, e.g. to help in the construction of roads and the improvement of health services. This is another way (and an increasingly important one in view of the happy financial position of the Commonwealth government) in which the Commonwealth can take the lead in promoting policies, or in communicating an impulse to the States even in fields of public policy where it has no constitutional power to legislate direcdy itself. Thus, within the last few years, the Commonwealth government has in co-operation with the States interested itself in the improvemfent of public health services. Causes of Change But financial superiority of course is not the only reason for the leading position which within the last decade or so the Commonwealth government has assumed. That position could not have been gained without its financial power; but the causes of the change are rather to be sought in the economic and social development of the country as a whole. For example, the nation-

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wide development of much Australian commerce and industry, and the corresponding nation-wide organization of the trade union movement, have assured to the Commonwealth, with its constitutional power to legislate in respect of arbitration and conciliation in inter-state industrial disputes, the position of leading authority in the regulation of industrial relations. But the war of 1939-45 has certainly been the main event since federation in hastening the growth of centralized governmental control. The war would have forced the central government, with its exclusive power, to legislate for the defence of the Commonwealth, to undertake economic development and regulation on a scale hitherto inconceivable in Australia. But to this it must be added nearly ten years of Labour Government in Canberra since 1941. The Labour party has always stood for an expansion of the State's economic functions; and, since about the end of the first World War, it has stood for the strengthening of the powers of the central government in Australia. The necessities and opportunities of the war situation inspired the Commonwealth Labour Government to new measures of a social-democratic kind; they have given a strong impulse to centralized social and economic planning which has not yet been exhausted. The conjunction of war and a Labour Government in power in the Commonwealth has had a permanent and far-reaching impact on the balance of Australian federalism. A few examples of Commonwealth measures during the last decade will illustrate the trend of development. There have been important extensions of the field of Commonwealth government enterprise: e.g., the Government has established a national airline (an attempt to create a government monopoly of inter-state air transport was frustrated by a decision of the High Court), and it has instituted a Commonwealth shipping line. The Commonwealth has extended its already very considerable functions in connection with industrial relations. For instance, by agreement with the State of New South Wales, where most of the Australian coal deposits are found, it has established an agency (the Joint Coal Board) to improve conditions in the coal industry. For years the Commonwealth has operated a national broadcasting system, and the Government has recently announced that it will develop television in Australia entirely

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under Commonwealth ownership. The Commonwealth attempted to nationalize the trading banks by an Act which has, however, been held to be invalid by the High Court and the Privy Council. It has introduced, or is in process of introducing, a comprehensive scheme of social benefits which include, in addition to long-established old-age and other pensions, childhood endowment, maternity and pharmaceutical benefits, a national health scheme. In the Snowy River project it has just begun (in this case under its ' defence power ') a very large water conservation, hydro-electric and irrigation scheme. There are other activities, too, which are increasing the authority of the Commonwealth and causing it to become, as we have argued, the government to which most attention is given by the Australian public. The late Government had gone far beyond any of its predecessors since federation in trying to develop an active and independent foreign policy; there is now, perhaps for the first time, a wide understanding of the fact that the problems of Australia's external relations, political and economic, are very important, and this has helped to increase the authority and prestige of the Commonwealth. And, finally, the Commonwealth has more and more tended to concern itself even in matters where the States alone have the constitutional power to legislate. We have already referred to the assistance given by the Commonwealth to the States in public health. Education is another important example. The Commonwealth has recently created a new research university, the Australian National University, and a Commonwealth Office of Education, which, in collaboration with State Departments of Education, will certainly have a considerable influence on educational policy throughout the Commonwealth. It is probably true to say that an increasing proportion of Australians are coming to look to the Commonwealth either for the initiative or at least for assistance in many fields of public policy. It is notable, for instance, that although under the constitution education is a matter for the States, the Commonwealth has not only made itself active in education, but there are also large numbers of people who now look to the Commonwealth for financial aid for education, and even some who maintain that the Commonwealth should become primarily responsible for education throughout the continent. In

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summarizing the course of development, it might not be far off the mark to say that the tendency is for the primacy or leadership of the Commonwealth to be taken for granted in the thinking of a very large number of Australians about their system of government Constitutional

Amendment

However, this question of the attitude of Australians to their federal system, and to the shift in the balance of power that is taking place, is a complicated one and needs more careful discussion. The constitution provides that a Bill to amend the constitution must be submitted at a referendum, and must be approved by a majority of the electors voting in the country as a whole, and by a majority in a majority of the states. Although a referendum has been held on twelve occasions (and at some of them a number of separate amendments have been proposed to the electors), only four amendments have received the prescribed majorities, and only two of these have been of any constitutional significance. The Labour Commonwealth Government made determined efforts to secure amendments in 1944, 1946 and 1947; but, except for gaining power to legislate with respect to social services, was unsuccessful. It is not easy to interpret, or to generalize about, this caution or obstinacy or perspicacity (federalists and anti-federalists have their own names for it) of the electors. Suggested amendments almost invariably propose an extension of Commonwealth powers; thus it is a refusal to give more power to the Commonwealth. Yet it would be rash to argue that because the electorate votes ' No ' so consistently, it shows its determination to resist the encroachment of the central government and to protect the full authority and independence of the States. There is no evidence to show that, if they were consulted, the electors would reject uniform taxation now that is an accomplished fact; yet that has done as much as anything in recent years to establish the primacy of the Commonwealth. O r again, with the exception of the atempted nationalization of banking, there is no evidence yet to show that the majority of electors would recoil from the major pieces of social-democratic legislation which have been enacted by the Commonwealth Labour Government since 1941. O n the

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contrary, election results since 1941 have confirmed the Government in its course. It seems, in short, that the electorate is willing to endorse policies which have produced a quite considerable shift in the balance between Commonwealth and States; with rare exceptions, it has shied away from proposals to change the letter of the constitution. It is not that there exists, among any substantial body of Australians, that superstitious regard for their constitution that one finds in many Americans. For one thing, the Australian constitution entirely lacks that concern with the higher law, the rights of man, a content and tradition which the 18th century American constitution possesses. (Since, fortunately, there has never been an Australian revolution, there are, fortunately, no Daughters of the Australian Revolution.) But in Australia a constitutional referendum almost invariably develops into a struggle between the main political parties: it is the Government of the day which is usually the initiator of the proposed amendment, and Her Majesty's Opposition usually takes it to be its duty to oppose. This makes it difficult for constitutional proposals to be considered on their merits; in these circumstances it is comparatively easy to play upon the distrust, even the contempt, for politicians which is rather prevalent in Australia. It is true that there does not exist in this country the same hard core of resistance to government ' meddling,' or quite the same stiff-necked individualism, that one finds in the United States. O n the contrary, historical and geographical conditions have produced in Australia a climate very favourable to the growth of state enterprise and state intervention, and of paternalistic government—as the success of the Labour party since 1900 shows. But there is still great force in the common feeling that the ' government which is enthroned in Canberra' is more remote, more to be suspected, more difficult to control, than the governments of the States. And there are many Australians who expect their governments to follow positive or paternalistic policies, who do not object to what they see of the concrete exercise of governmental power, but who look askance at any government which asks in a general way to be given more ' power.' However this may be, it seems that there are a large number of people who do not resist the Commonwealth's increasing power and expanding

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range of activities as this is actually occurring, but who are not willing to approve any formal re-sharing of powers between central and state governments. Within the last few years the question of Commonwealth powers has become one of the most acute political issues. It is a little difficult to define the attitude of the main parties to the problem. As we have seen, the Australian Labour party has become since 1941 increasingly dissatisfied with the present distribution of powers and tried three times between 1944 and 1948 to secure constitutional changes. And its discontent has increased since the High Court has interpreted Section 92 (which was put into the constitution to prevent the imposition of duties on goods crossing state borders) in a way that gives it a function similar to the ' due process of law ' provisions of the American constitution. Most members of the Labour party now argue that, as the constitution now stands, a Labour government in office in the Commonwealth could not develop a really effective antidepression or full-employment policy, still less a coherent socialist programme, while, in the nature of things, such policies or such a programme could not be carried out by the action of the several States. Thus, for the Labour movement and its intellectual supporters, the inadequacy of a federal system, the restrictive working of a rigid constitution, and the arbitrary and irresponsible aspects of the system of judicial review, are favourite themes. Centralization or Decentralization ? But these generalizations have to be qualified by two other points: first, that in Australia, as in the United States, the parties tend to be more perturbed by the inadequacy of Commonwealth powers when they are in office in the Commonwealth and more tender about state rights when they are in opposition; secondly, that while ostensibly the Labour party stands for the strengthening of central powers, many Labour politicians entrenched in the state party machines or in state Labour governments give lukewarm support, or none at all, to the movement for more Commonwealth power. And, within the last few years, there have been several clashes between the Commonwealth Labour Government and the Labour GovernA.WJ.

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mcnt in office in New South Wales—e.g. on the matter of the state's share of revenue from income tax. There is the same conflict within the main anti-Labour party—the Liberal party. Nevertheless, one result of the vigorous policy of the recent Commonwealth Government (particularly of its attempt to nationalize the trading banks) has been that the defence of the federal system has become, perhaps more clearly during these few past years than at any time since federation, an important part of the tactics of Conservatism. Anti-Labour and antisocialist groups have been insisting on states' rights, on defending the balance of the constitution, as a protection against the spread of socialism throughout the Commonwealth. This has led to a revival of the movement for the creation of new States by detaching suitable regions from the existing large States of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Of course, there is nothing new in this practice of fighting out issues of party policy and ideology in constitutional terms: it has been exemplified in the history of American federalism, and it was prominent throughout the debates of the Australian constitutional conventions in the nineties. But the post-war thrust of the Commonwealth Labour Government brought it again to the fore. But it would be an oversimplification to say that the controversy about Australian federalism, or about the proper balance between Commonwealth and States, coincides with the argument between socialists and anti-socialists. There are many, apart from the defenders of private enterprise, who believe that only a federal system can be efficient in a country which is so large and with a hinterland so sparsely populated. In such circumstances, it is argued, highly centralized administration could produce only poor and unpopular government, more especially since in Australia local government has always been a very weak link in the chain of government. The local authorities in this country possess nothing like the range of functions, or the responsibility and independence, of similar authorities in Britain. They have no responsibility for education, for police, for hospitals, to mention three important functions of local authorities in some other countries; within each of the Australian States administration is very highly centralized. For this reason, those who link democratic government with decentralization, with the ' nearness' of

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government to the governed, usually are opposed to the flow of power to the Commonwealth, whether or not they are also strongly opposed to socialism. And, in spite of the remarkable social, economic and cultural homogeneity of the six Australian States, there are some regional resistances to too great Commonwealth control. This is obvious, e.g. in Northern Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. Revision

of Constitution

?

It is not easy to foretell how the constitutional debate which has been proceeding vigorously since 1941 will end. It is true that the Labour party in particular has put to the Australian people some questions that deserve consideration; there is clearly a case for a re-examination of the federal structure. Australians are being invited to consider whether it is true, as many publicists of the Left contend, that because of the existing constitutional arrangement no Australian government can employ the financial and economic controls which contemporary conditions and problems demand. And they might consider, too, where ' uniform taxation ' is to lead. Should the ever-growing financial superiority of the Commonwealth mean that that government must be direcdy responsible for areas of public policy (education, for instance) which are still in the charge of the States? There are persons and circumstances which are pressing the Commonwealth to follow this route. Or should the Commonwealth in some of these areas of policy content itself with the more modest role of revenue-collecting agent in the service of the States? These are examples of the issues which have been opened up by the development of Australian federalism during the last decade. In the circumstances of Australian political life it is not easy to have such issues confronted squarely. For it is perhaps the most important fact in the whole situation that the problem of constitutional revision is subordinated to tactical considerations in the struggle between the political parties; and, more especially, that the notorious timidity or irresolution of the people in constitutional matters is always exploited by the party in opposition in order to score against the party in office. This is particularly the case when (as during this late period) the party in office is a social-democratic party O2

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and the party in opposition the champion of private enterprise and economic liberty. We have given so much space to current Australian discussion of the federal system because federalism is the most controversial element in the government structure. In the Commonwealth and in each of the States the system of responsible government differs only in minor ways from the British. One difference, of course, is in the character of the Second Chamber. Queensland has a unicameral legislature; and the second Chamber of the Commonwealth Parliament, the Senate, is copied from the American Senate. T h e Australian Senate also was intended as a States' House; each of the States voting as a single constituency elect ten senators, who sit for six years (the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, is renewed triennially); one-half of the senators retire every three years. 1 T h e Senate has not been an effective part of the Commonwealth parliament: it has not been a States' House because the well-organized, usually welldisciplined, national political parties have seen to it that the Senate, like the other House, is controlled by the majority party. And since the Cabinet, like the British Cabinet, is directly responsible to the House of Representatives and not to the Senate, the latter body cannot play anything like the role of its American counterpart. In New South Wales the second chamber, the Legislative Council, is now indirectly elected by the members for the time being of the two Houses. Until 1934 it was a nominee chamber. In the other States, except Queensland, the Legislative Councils are elected on a restricted franchise in which property qualifications are the most important though not the only qualifications. These Legislative Councils with their special and restricted franchises derive from colonial days. They have, naturally, on innumerable occasions been an embarrassment to Labour Governments in the several States. But sometimes because of the intricacy of the constitutional safeguards, sometimes because of the difficulty of arousing the electorate on constitutional issues, 1 In 1948, the House of Representatives was enlarged from 75 to 123 members (2 members representing the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital territory not possessing a vote) and the Senate from 36 to 60 members.

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the Labour movement has not been successful, except in Queensland, in democratizing them or in sweeping them away. The Machinery of Government In general, Australians appear to be little interested in the machinery of government. The party system, adult franchise, parliament, ministerial responsibility and the other essential elements of parliamentary government of the British sort almost all Australians take for granted; it is the only form of government the majority know anything about or are able to conceive. But parliamentary institutions probably evoke no strong traditional or emotional response in Australia; the essentials of the system are not associated, as they are in Britain, with a long history of political and constitutional struggle which stirred the depths. As we noted, few Australians are interested in constitutional or political forms; they tend to be interested exclusively in the results, and mainly in the economic results, of the political process. Litde has been written about Australian politics by thinkers, except for discussions of the working of federalism; there has been very little detached and coherent thought about political life; no political theory of any originality; political journalism has always been of a very partisan sort; only very recently indeed has the study of Australian political institutions and movements begun to grow within the universities. It might even be said that political writing was more liberal, more speculative, generally on a higher level during the last forty years of the last century than at any time during the present one. In any case, national politics have been given less attention in the intellectual or cultural life of Australia than in Britain and the United States; the somewhat contemptuous or patronizing attitudes towards politics and politicians which have already been mentioned are pervasive and, until recently at least, have affected even writers, scholars and thinkers. In consequence, the tendency has been for political thinking and publicizing to be left too much to the politicians, the parties, and the other groups immersed in the struggle in pursuit of immediate political gains. It is doubtful whether Australian parliaments fulfil very well some of the functions attributed by text-book writers to the

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' Mother of Parliaments'—the grand inquest of the nation, the focus of the nation's political debate, and so on; even the Commonwealth Parliament in Canberra is hardly the force in the nation's political life that Congress or the House of Commons is. Perhaps this is due in small measure to the dispersion of political interest which the existence of seven parliaments produces— though it is true that the proceedings of the national parliament take, at the expense of the state parliaments, an increasingly prominent place in the national consciousness. It is due more to the smallness of the national parliament. When, from a Lower House of only 75 members (before 1949), almost 20 are drawn from the majority party for the Cabinet, there are not left enough private members with sufficient personal force and mastery of some field of public policy to make the parliamentary life of the Ministry as strenuous as it ought to be. Moreover, the smallness of the parliamentary parties, as well as the caucus system introduced into Australian parliaments by the Labour party, makes it easier to preserve party discipline and unanimity. It has also been frequently argued that the smallness of the legislature means that there are never enough members with the knowledge of affairs and the administrative experience and capacity to constitute a strong Cabinet team. The smallness of the parliaments may also be a reason why committees have not been used as frequently or as effectively as they are by the Imperial Parliament. Thus, the enlargement of the Commonwealth Parliament which has been mentioned can be strongly supported on several grounds. The ' Caucus System ' One other feature of parliamentary government in Australia deserves comment. It is often argued that the ' caucus system ' which the Australian Labour party has developed, both in the Commonwealth and in the States, has produced a grave change in the practice and the conventions of parliamentary government. ' Caucus,' as the term is employed in Australia, refers to all Labour members of parliament, both in the Lower and the Upper Chamber. Right from the beginning of its career the Australian Labour party took precautions to safeguard the solidarity of the party in Parliament, and to ensure also that the parliamentary leaders should be loyal to the will of the party.

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Thus Labour candidates for parliament pledge themselves that, on matters affecting the party platform, they will vote in the House as the majority of Caucus decides; bills which a Labour government proposes to introduce arc submitted beforehand to Caucus and require its approval. And Caucus itself chooses those members who are to be included in the Cabinet, the leader being left only with the task of assigning portfolios to the members thus chosen. It is frequently contended that the caucus system subjects Parliament, when Labour is in office, to party dictatorship; that it subjects the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to the control of a party majority (in this way destroying Cabinet responsibility for its administration); that it destroys the independence of the private member, and causes him to be a delegate or mere mouthpiece of the party rather than a representative of his constituents. Those who argue in this way would deny that differences between British and Australian parliamentary government are only secondary, but would rather contend that the form of party solidarity and supremacy which the Australian Labour party insists on has given rise to a fundamentally different form of government. It is true that this system leads to differences of spirit and practice. For instance, an Australian Labour Prime Minister will often not have the same control over his Cabinet as a British Prime Minister has or a non-Labour Prime Minister in Australia. Labour ministers hold their position by grace of Caucus, not by grace of the Prime Minister; thus, it is perhaps commoner in Australian Labour Cabinets than in any British administration for a restless minister to make public statements known to be at variance with the views of his leader and of the rest of his colleagues. Hence, Caucus control may help to weaken the British convention of collective responsibility. And, of course, Caucus is not the only authority that a Labour administration has to give heed to. In Australia, as in Britain, the general party conference is the supreme governing body of the Labour party; formally it determines the programme of the whole party, and a Labour government, therefore, cannot rely solely on its own judgment in shaping its course but must act in consultation with the authoritative extra-parliamentary organs of the party. Thus when Mr. Curtin in the middle of the war wished to introduce conscription

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for service outside Australia (a departure from the established policy of his party), he had first to have his proposal endorsed by the extra-parliamentary leaders of his organization. Critics of the Labour party point to this as one of many illustrations of the fact that a Labour Prime Minister or Government cannot govern in its own right but is rather the agent or instrument of the ' machine.' There could be a great deal of argument about the political effects of Australian Labour's insistence upon the solidarity and the authority of the party as a whole. There is the question whether government by the party is really less democratic, provides less for popular control, than a system which gives greater discretion to a parliamentary leader or small group of leaders. There is the question, too, whether the critics of Australian Labour do not exaggerate the degree to which Labour administrations are under the thumb of Caucus or of the extraparliamentary organs of the party. Much depends on the personality of the leader and of his chief lieutenants; much depends also on the state of the party at any given time—whether, for instance, there are deep conflicts and disaffected elements within Caucus. But it would be difficult to argue generally that an Australian Labour government is less dependent upon the force and the gifts of a strong leader than other governments normally are. A Labour Prime Minister and perhaps his three or four most important colleagues are often men of considerable (if temporary) national prestige; the party may depend very heavily on them as electoral assets, in much the same ways as the American Democrats thought that they were helpless without President Roosevelt. Thus a Labour Prime Minister in Australia can have just as strong an influence over the rest of his party as any other political leader. No one who watched Mr. Curtin leading his party during the war, or Dr. Evatt developing for the first time a positive foreign policy for his party, could believe that the senior ministers of a Labour Government are nothing more than the agents either of the party Caucus or the greater party outside parliament. Because of the claims made by the party as such, and by Caucus, the role of the Labour leader is admittedly much more difficult. But, generally speaking, it might be argued that Australian Labour's attempt to legislate for party solidarity,

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and to safeguard the supreme authority of the whole party, has had less effect on the principles and practice of parliamentary government than might have been expected. The Party System Australia possesses what is virtually a two-party system. During the first few years of the life of the Commonwealth Parliament there were three parties—Protectionist, Freetrade, and a Labour Party holding the balance between them, and usually employing the tactics of Labour's early years, ' support in return for concessions.' Long before the beginning of the first World War Protection had become the established policy of the Commonwealth, and, to resist the advance of Labour, Protectionists and Freetraders fused to form the Liberal party: after a number of changes it returned to its original label of ' Liberal' in 1945. Thus, for more than forty years Commonwealth politics has been a fairly clear-cut struggle between Labour and anti-Labour. A new party, the Country party, was formed at the end of the first World War to represent the interests of pastoralists and other rural groups: it was contended that both the major parties were dominated by urban interests. But this party, though it has ever since been a force in Commonwealth politics and in the politics of most of the States, has not greatly complicated the clear-cut party struggle. It does not aspire to be a national party as the other two do; it runs candidates only in a few constituencies; it appeals frankly to sectional interests confined to certain rural regions. Both in parliament and in the electorates it has usually worked with the other main anti-Labour party (this applies especially to the Commonwealth and New South Wales—the position is rather more complicated in Victoria and some other States). In Canberra and Sydney it has often held the balance of power; in relation to the Liberal party it has in fact applied something very like Labour's own early policy of support at a price. In describing the non-Labour parties as ' anti-Labour,' or, in Professor Hancock's phrase, ' the parties of resistance,' some Australian writers have intended to convey not only that the struggle between Capital and Labour is the substance of party politics in Australia, but also that the Labour party has been the

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initiating or driving force in Australia politics, the other parties being characterized less by a positive doctrine and programme than by their efforts to check the spread of Labour and trade union influence. Such a view would be an oversimplification. But it is true that in the Commonwealth and in some of the States (especially in New South Wales and Queensland) the Labour party has most influenced the course of social legislation. Unlike the British Labour party, it did not have to spend long years of political frustration, but was able to shape legislation within a few years of its birth and right from the inauguration of the Commonwealth. By the outbreak of the first World War it had put into effect, either directly or as the price of its support for another party, many of its ideas concerning immigration, industrial arbitration, protection, old age pensions, graduated land tax, the establishment of a Commonwealth Eank. In 1917 it fell from office as the result of the break-up of the party on the issue of conscription; it did not fully regain power (i.e. in the Commonwealth) until 1941. Since then, as we have seen, it has been again responsible for much important legislation of a social-democratic sort. The Labour party was formed out of the trade union movement and it is based on the trade unions. Much of its policy reflects its origin and its social base : it stands for the strengthening of trade union organization and the protection of trade union rights, for the maintenance of a minimum wage, for the protection of working-class standards against competition by immigrant labour and by the imported products of countries with lower industrial standards—in short, its doctrine and programme have been strongly coloured by the demands that naturally flourish within the trade union movement. But it is not only a party of industrial unionists: it relies also on the electoral support of other elements, many teachers and other public servants, professional men, small business men and farmers. And it is not merely that the party, in shaping its policy and its course when in office, must consider the feelings of small middle-class men who are often not well disposed towards the activities of powerful unions. It is not merely that it has to cast its net to catch other than trade union votes. The Labour party has been so powerful a force in Australian political life, a genuinely national move-

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ment, because it has given a clearer expression than any other party to attitudes or sentiments which are deeply rooted in Australian social life. Thus it has expressed the prevalent egalitarianism (which includes a suspicion of all social pretensions, of claims to any sort of social and intellectual superiority); Australian nationalism (which often includes a parochial feeling of superiority towards ' foreigners' and ' foreign ' ways of life, and till very recently, at least, some suspicion of the imperial tie); it has done much to develop the popular stereotype of Australia as a laboratory for social experiment, insulated against external influences and occupied by means of benevolent social legislation in creating ever higher standards of living. Australian Labour has been more than a party or political machine, more than a political programme; it is a movement which has reflected so many of the ' instincts ' of the populace. T h a t is why students of Australian society find the Labour movement so important and revealing a subject. f

Socialism ' in Australia

Since 1921 the party has been pledged to socialism; in that year the socialization of the means of production, distribution and exchange was incorporated in its ' platform.' W e should misunderstand the party if we were to take its socialism too seriously. For one thing, it is not at all notable for earnestness or inspiration in matters of theory: it is on the whole an unintellectual party—it could sometimes be accused of being antiintellectual. There is nothing in the Australian Labour movement to compare with the theoretical labours of the English Fabians, certainly nothing to compare with the systematic theorizing of Marxism. It is not really guided or animated by a coherent vision of a new socialist society. Its ideology is mainly meliorist; protecting the ' weak ' and helping the ' small man ' by state action is more strongly suggested by its record than any constructive working out of a socialist order. Its lack of seriousness towards its own socialist objective is partly explained by the character of the public opinion to which it has to appeal. There are many electors who will support Labour in prosperous times because of the economic benefits that thereby ensue, and because of their distrust of ' Big Business.' But many of those w h o recoil

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from ' Big Business' are hardly more sympathetic to ' Big Unionism '; and Labour in office, despite its professed support for strong and independent trade unions, is often unable to conceal the acute political embarrassment caused to it by union militancy. And there are many, also, who will support Labour because of its espousal of the cause of the ' weak ' and the ' small,' or because of its more energetic concern with ' social welfare,' but who shy away from anything that looks too much like socialism in earnest, and who do not like to see governments growing too ambitious and too powerful. The reaction to the attempt to nationalize banking, and the fate of the attempts to enlarge Commonwealth powers, might be taken as evidence for this conclusion. The activities of the anti-Labour parties since the end of the war seems to support the view that they are predominandy parties of resistance. They have directed their fire mainly at two targets. Firsdy, against the ' socialistic ' trends of the Commonwealth Labour Government: that is, against the steps which have been taken since 1945 to centralize and extend government control. Secondly, against militancy in the trade unions. This is, in part, a campaign against the Communist party, since members of that party occupy the executive offices in a number of the most powerful unions indirectly, it is a campaign against the Labour party as well, since it is argued that the Labour party, which rests so heavily on the trade union movement, cannot effectively discipline the unions. But the opposition parties have proposed measures which would restrict the freedom of action which unions at present enjoy: e.g. the buttressing with stronger sanctions of the system of compulsory arbitration, the enforcement of compulsory secret ballot within the unions for the election of officers and in decisions about the calling of strikes. Both of these lines of attack are directed against what are considered to be particularly vulnerable points in the administration of the Commonwealth Labour Government in the last few years. Although they were in opposition in the Commonwealth for eight years, the anti-Labour parties, unlike the British Conservatives, did not try to expound a more positive and coherent policy as an alternative to Labour administration. 1 Secret ballots conducted by the Commonwealth Electoral Office in 1952-53 have resulted in the decisive defeat of Communists in several key unions.

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A t this moment it is not easy to foresee what, during the next decade, the main issues between the parties will prove to be. It seems clear that, during the last decade, the position of the Labour party has developed. It is not only that the opportunities and impetus created by the w a r and by post-war problems have encouraged Labour in the Commonwealth sphere'to increase the range of its activities, by the establishment of new government enterprises, the extension of social services, the undertaking of great public works, the stimulation of governmental activities by the States. It is apparent also that Labour has been influenced by the experience of the great depression and by economic conceptions, some of them perhaps of Keynesian origin, which followed the depression. One hears more now from Labour spokesmen of the control of investment, of anti-cyclical policies generally. No doubt, controversies associated with the idea of economic planning, of the managed economy, will constitute a large part of the contest between the political parties in Australia as in other countries. P. H. P A R T R I D G E . M A.; Professor of Government and Public Administration in the University of Sydney; Dean of the Faculty of Economics, 1948-9; Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Sydney, 1934-40; Senior Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy, University of Sydney, 1940-6; Senior Lecturer in Charge of the Department of Political Science, University of Melbourne, 1947-8; Member of the Public Service Examinations Committee, N.S.W.; Editor of Public Administration; the Journal of the Australian Regional Groups of the Institute of Public Administration. Contributor to learned journals.

CHAPTER

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Economic Institutions and Aspirations PROFESSOR G. L. W O O D The Social and Political Background AN institution, in the sense in which it is here used, is an authority appointed by a legislature to perform a function as set out in specific terms of reference. The authority which is charged with the duty of formulating rules relating to some economic function, and administering them, constitutes the body which is called an ' economic institution.' Economic institutions are nearly always a product of the political climate; they spring from an ancestral soil, i.e., from the legislative and administrative system to which the people concerned have been habituated; they grow in the atmosphere of political struggle for economic right, e.g., the right to work, the right to a fair reward, or the right to fair conditions of work; they ripen in economic discontent; and seed as administrative acts which are usually compromises intended to stave off disorder and possible threat to the existing regime.1 In the cold and hostile air of injustice and repression, the aspirations of the under-privileged do not wilt and die, but rather develop strength and endurance. Such developments have been accelerated during the last century or more by rapid change in the industrial system brought about by power machinery, mass production, centralization of industry and social concentration. In their resistance to effects of these changes, such as urban congestion, monotonous work and 1 A colleague, Mr. J . Cairns, has pointed out that the causes of state intervention, i.e. the development of economic institutions, are the action of humanitarians, expediency, i.e. ad hoc attempts to inhibit social revolt, and economic need, i.e. the growth of organic society.

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impersonal relations, wage-earners' organizations have compelled the State to take notice of the economic insecurity of employees and to bring down legislation to improve their conditions. In the Australian 'colonies,' as they were before 1901, this struggle for greater security first becomes plain after the financial collapse and crisis of unemployment following 1890. Small, separate and disunited colonial governments lacked the ability to counteract such a catastrophe, and it was not till the Act of Federation that power to take national action in such an emergency existed. Not that such action became immediately feasible; much adversity had to be experienced and much embittered controversy endured before the first tests of national action came with the outbreak of the first World War, and with the onset of the world depression of 1930 and the following years. Still later, the need for economic regulation and control in the duress of total war of 1939-45, and the requirements of postwar planning to maintain stability and to prevent disorganization when wartime controls were relaxed, developed the ability of governments to ' manage' the economy. If confidence in their ability was at first hesitantly expressed, it can at least be said that, as emergency followed emergency, governments went into action with greater experience and achieved a growing measure of success in economic planning. The demand that election promises should be translated into realities by legislative action only partly explains the genesis of economic institutions. In the march towards a managed economy the administration itself must first be convinced about the kind of action required and then must carry the community along with it; prevention of economic crisis requires that the community be educated for co-operation. In the process of this education it is borne in upon many that neither crisis nor recovery is possible in isolation, that prosperity and slump are the result of both internal and external pressures, and that whatever degree of security is possible is to be found in international co-operation more than in merely national preventives. Other types of economic institutions are not based on such high and long-term policies, and spring from pressures brought to bear upon governments by both altruistic and self-seeking sections. They develop from the realization by pressure groups,

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often opposed politically, that they have a common interest in preserving a market, maintaining employment or protecting an industry. They arise from agitation to maintain or enlarge an existing standard of consumption, from interest in moulding trade policy, in setting the pattern of industry or from the need for enlarging the volume or variety of employment generally. It is often scarcely an ' invisible ' hand that thus identifies sectional and national interest, but such joint action, if sustained, sometimes achieves the establishment of a new economic institution. The paramount interest of a settled society is to maintain its economy as a going concern. Even when social or economic discontents achieve a change in the existing order, the first necessity of reconstruction must still be the reorganization of industry, the conservation of resources and the administration of rewards. Normally, however, industrial evolution is the result of popular demand for a more ample share of the benefits made possible by invention, by scientific discovery, by expanded production and by enlarged leisure. The tempo of such change is also largely affected by the character of the people. Australia has now experienced more than a century and a half of immigration, mainly of Europeans, who brought into the country their inherited ideas and ingrained prejudices. This migration of ideas, as well as of people, transplanted to this continent most of the political and economic controversies of the United Kingdom in the 19th century. In particular, the contentious campaign of Labour for political representation, entirely justifiable and progressive, was imported along with a great deal of less worthy agitation. This was the period marked by the campaign to secure legal status for trade unions, by the injection of collectivist ideology into Labour thought, and by a successful assault upon the bourgeois system of privilege, private enterprise and the ownership of national resources. With very litde delay, Labour moves in Britain for political organization were faithfully reproduced in Australia. The separation of capitalist and labour forces into politically warring camps became clearer as the old Whig and Tory pattern of British politics became blurred, and as the structure of commercial imperialism hardened. Necessarily, the remoteness of Westminster, and the urgency of economic and financial issues

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in a cluster of dispersed colonies were responsible for differences in the Labour outlook in Australia as compared with that in the United Kingdom. But, although differences in objectives can be discerned in the two countries, the basic issues and the collectivist method remain unaltered. T h e experiences following world depression and financial collapse after 1890 mainly affected the eastern industrial colonies, and stunned Australian unionism into quiescence for a number of years. With the passing of the crisis, however, and a gradual if grinding economic recovery, unionism recovered heart, revived its resolution and set out after its objectives with determination. T h e next phase of Labour development began with the drive for federation, and took political shape with the emergence of the Labour Party in state and federal politics. As the political wing of Labour took the offensive, it gradually became the most dynamic force in Australian politics. Once on the Treasury benches, and seasoned by the economic and political experiences of a second world depression after 1929, sandwiched between two world wars, the Labour movement undertook the march, interrupted by defeats, towards the managed economy. Between the advent of federation (1901) and the present time (1953), a great deal of social and industrial evolution is compressed. T h e structure of economic institutions has taken shape, and the delegation of economic functions by Parliament to various authorities of its own creation set the framework within which the Australian economy now largely functions. The evolution of a commonwealth, however, is essentially a process of gradualness and compromise. The federal ' bargain ' is usually a collection of safeguards and escape clauses. In the Australian case these were devices to protect ' State rights' from what was ostensibly primus inter pares, but was potentially a superior government; but they become obstructions in the march towards a managed economy. In every emergency the measures necessary to maintain the economy as a going concern, and to enable efficient local responses to be made to international conditions, were hindered and delayed by provisions of the Constitution. T o many the Constitution had not become what a distinguished American jurist, Marshall C.J., declared it should be, ' a highway and not a barrier to progress.' T o others the existJLW.L.

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ence of legal obstruction to a politically planned society seemed both healthy and fortunate. The Evolution of Labour Attitudes in Australia In tracing the development of attitudes towards the industrial contract which are characteristic of Australian Labour, account must be taken of typical social influences and economic conditions which were peculiar to this country. The nature of the land, the character of the climate, the pattern of administration in the early days, and the constituent elements of the population all have a bearing on the collective behaviour of the community, and on the responses of various sections to the economic and social conditions of the time. As a prelude to the analysis of economic institutions, each of these features of the physical and social environment deserves further attention. The country itself was a startling contrast to everything which the migrants had known in their European homelands. T h e soils, the seasons, the vegetation were all unexpected, unfamiliar, and in some respects repellent. T h e experiences of drought and of recurrent shortages of supplies inevitably affected the psychology of the community. The feeling of remoteness and isolation, indeed of exile, was responsible for a continuous uneasiness which was productive of irresponsibility at times approaching recklessness. The immigrants themselves were a collection of incompatible types. It was not surprising that their views of life and law and order were discordant, and that a wide gap existed between the executive clique, the land-owners and the remainder of the community. The garrison troops, the convicts, the political exiles, the ' ticket of leave ' men, the free settlers and the seafaring elements composed at best a difficult, and at worst a lawless congeries. The administrative difficulties of the early Governors, their task in welding such a community, and the resistances encountered in the development of sound social traditions seem, in retrospect, almost insuperable. The disunity of the population and the difficulties of administration were, however, made somewhat easier by the very hazards of a country which was new and little understood. Even common dangers, however, proved an ineffective cement There

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is no doubt that a sense of social disparity bred in the colonists a resentment of class distinction, which was unfortunate in such an unusual and experimental settlement; and it was even more unfortunate that it persisted after the cessation of transportation and the advent of self-government. Social discrimination engendered a morose and universal distrust of almost every agency of administration, and this was provocative of hostility where cooperation and tolerance were prerequisites of successful establishment. Moreover, resentment of legal codes which had cruelly abused and brutalized so many of the newcomers, inhibited any attempt on their part to understand the problems of government or the difficulties of development. These conditions, and the almost total absence of incentives, damped the initiative so necessary in the pioneering stages of setdement, and confined enterprise to the small circle of the military, the civil administrative officers and the free setders. The ' lower orders ' and the ' debased ' elements had been tutored in the school of hard knocks and unsympathetic treatment: but they were now required to become disciplined in the code of endurance and suffering associated with developing a harsh unbroken land. Small wonder that the settlers, free and unfree, acquired some of the characteristics of their physical and climatic environment. No miracle that feelings of inferiority on the one side, and a display of arrogant conduct on the other, should have paved the way for an uncompromising approach to the disabilities, hardships and economic problems which have embarrassed both the employers and employees of succeeding generations. The gamble of the seasons, the hazards of cultivation, the problems of transport and of markets, the routine of regulation and the consequent reliance upon the government for direction and relief in every crisis, left their mark deep on every colony. Both the centralized administration and the systems of selection and ownership of land laid foundations for later trouble with unpropertied people in the towns and cities. It is not surprising that, as earlier governments failed in crisis after crisis, a new urge for security and a hardening sense that governments were neglectful of the wage-earners should make their appearance. It is in these basic social relations, rather than in the conditions of employment or the hardships of industry, that an explanation H 2

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has to be sought for anything that is peculiarly characteristic of the Australian wage-earner. The broad phases of industrial development leading to the present pattern of economic institutions must be kept in mind. The first stages of pastoral land use, the thinly veiled piracy of the squatters, the dependence upon Britain for capital loans for industrial development, the wild and exciting era of the gold episode and its collapse, the dispersion of many new settlers through the country, the intensification of agriculture, the first stages of factory industry, the changes in land use consequent upon the extension of railways, the discovery of refrigeration and the development of tropical agriculture form a series of essays in enterprise which were, of course, common to most of the colonial developments of the 19th century. By 1900 the main framework of land use had been set, largely by methods of trial and error and by painfully acquired local experience and special skill. Up to 1900, secondary industry was confined almost entirely to production for domestic needs and to processes which were technically simple. The growing volume and value of overseas trade, the cumulative mass of overseas borrowing, and the great enlargement of productive capacity made possible by the consequent imports of capital goods—from locomotives and other machinery to highly fabricated consumer goods—had, by the end of the century, set the stage for a new surge forward, which took two main directions. O n the one hand, with the coming of federation there was growing conviction that the policies of rural development and settlement should be co-ordinated, and that land use should be intensified by means of discoveries of modern agricultural science. On the other hand, the protectionist objectives which were a basic feature of the Federal Constitution clearly presupposed a determined development of factory industries and a gradual displacement of many types of imports by home manufactures. It is now possible to see in retrospect the main phases in the expansion of primary and secondary industries, with their social and economic implications. The period between 1900 and 1914 is marked by steady but unspectacular expansion in both types of industry. The emergencies of the first World War, concerned broadly with Empire needs for food and raw materials, but

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aggravated by shortage of shipping and the growing extent to which the Commonwealth was forced to rely upon local factories for many manufactures formerly imported, threw the people of the Commonwealth upon their own resources of materials, of labour and of technical knowledge. After the war the achievements in the fields both of primary and secondary industry were subjected to intensive scrutiny and audit, and the confidence bred of wartime production stimulated further ambitious programmes and expansion of technical knowledge. In this period several economic institutions were set up to improve methods of land use and to regulate imports with the object of providing greater variety and greater volume of employment. The most important of these were the Institute of Science and Industry (1920), afterwards the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, later (1949) the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization; the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (1904, 1921); and the Tariff Board (1921). This period, necessarily, was marked by concentration upon industrial relations, and upon methods of arbitration to preserve a balance between the purchasing power of wages and the rising cost of home-produced commodities owing to the operation of the tariff. This broad history of development, although very inadequate, will, it is hoped, make intelligible the needs which produced policies of regulation and government control over certain aspects of economic life. It was not, however, until after massive inflation had brought about world economic collapse, depression and widespread unemployment that the need for a planned recovery—the Australian New Deal, in short—led the Commonwealth towards the first phase of a managed economy. Scarcely had recovery been achieved before the outbreak of the second World War called for a rigidly controlled financial and economic system. During the war years, 1939-45, a steady intensification and expansion of authoritarian control by government agencies completed the framework of economic warfare as it applied to Australia. After the cessation of hostilities the problems of reconstruction meant the transformation of wartime control activities into Federal agencies for reconverting the economy for the needs of peacetime. The objectives became those of an expanding economy, and of co-ordination of public and private enterprise

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for providing full employment on the one hand, and on the other for co-operation with other countries to prevent another world depression following the tremendous inflationary episode associated with the war itself. In addition to the economic institutions, other institutions were set up from time to time by the State Governments, such as wages boards, marketing boards, tribunals to deal with public service and various other bodies. The work of many of these was important, but in the course of time tended to become subsidiary to the Commonwealth authorities in the various fields covered. Development

of Economic Control in the Second World

War

The main purpose of this survey is not only to set out a catalogue of economic institutions in Australia and to discuss their functions, but to examine how they are ' geared ' to determine the tempo of economic activity, and ' meshed ' in order to bring about the measure and type of control which will achieve the objectives of government policy. Primarily, over-all policy will be concerned with the level of national income and with its allocation to the normal needs of the nation. The requirements for consumption, administration, savings, public enterprises and private investment will determine the amount of revenue required to carry out the government's economic policy, and the ways and means of raising that revenue. Government agencies will then decide the amount which can be raised by taxation and loans, and the size of the gap which will have to be bridged by credit creation. In this task of monetary and financial planning at the highest level, the difficulties of definition previously considered immediately become apparent. Cabinet itself, as the manager of the national economy, must be regarded as the topmost economic institution; but, in the emergency of diversion of resources to war and the scarcely less urgent emergency of reconversion of resources to post-war needs, the prime duty of the government may be taken to be the shaping of economic policy, i.e., the setting of targets and the creation and directing of agencies to achieve those targets. From the outbreak of the second World War, and in larger measure as it gathered momentum, the economic insti-

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tutions already existing for fiscal purposes were remodelled, strengthened and co-ordinated to ensure efficiency of control. Upon the Commonwealth Treasury devolved the principal task of directing the financial policy, of devising the methods by which the effort was made, and of securing the co-ordination of States in the total war effort. Here, then, was the major economic institution, and the pivot of the whole structure of financial and economic policy. Only less important in relation to the totally planned economy was the role of the Central Bank. The co-ordination of financial purpose and, in particular, the ' bridging of the budgetary gap ' by means of credit creation, meant that Treasury and Commonwealth Bank in co-operation became the joint dictator of the national effort as expressed in finance and expenditure. Existing institutions under this joint direction were required to assist the main function, but new controls were also set up. For instance, the Loan Council, a yearly conference of Commonwealth and State Treasurers to allot the amount of available loan funds, continued to divide this amount by some mysterious method of agreement. The demands of private enterprise for new capital could not, however, be allowed to compete with governmental needs, and a new authority charged with the duty of rationing private investment—the Capital Issues Advisory Committee—was set up as an auxiliary to the Commonwealth Bank. Co-ordination of the operations of trading banks, savings banks and major financial institutions with national policy also bccame necessary; but, since this was both contentious and delicate, the control was mainly exercised by means of conferences or by special legislation such as that which compelled trading banks to maintain ' special accounts ' with the Commonwealth Bank. These arrangements could not cover all the problems of co-ordination, and other committees representative of the Treasury and the Bank were appointed from time to time for special purposes. The relationship between inflationary monetary policy on the one hand, and prices on the other, presented problems of great significance to the cost of the war effort. If prices and costs were allowed to rise with an expansion of credit, the efficiency of the war effort would be reduced, and strong pressure to raise wage

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levels would continue as long as the war lasted, and beyond. Control of prices, however, increased the accumulation of deposits in trading and savings banks, especially if it was associated with vigorous rationing of consumer goods. It was judged that the risk of a steep rise in prices and costs could not be faced ; and two economic institutions were set up to neutralize the danger—the Prices Commission and the Rationing Commission, both under wartime powers. Since some imports (such as petrol, cotton and tea) were essential to the economy, retail prices and the wage levels could not be completely stabilized. The Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, however, effectively regulated wages, by means of its system of wage awards, without additional assistance other than the official figures of the Bureau of Census and Statistics. Rigidity of economic controls as part of the structure of a national war effort, and especially the ' pegging ' of prices and wages early in the war, narrowed the functions of the Court in both its aspects as conciliator and arbitrator. This was, however, only a temporary phase; and, with the ending of wartime regulations, the Court's work, as will be shown in the following section, assumed greater importance than ever. A further problem of a protectionist economy is the regulation of imports to limit the competition of imported goods with home manufactures, to regulate the establishment of unnecessary industries, and to prohibit imports of unessential goods. This was scarcely a special problem during the years between 1940 and 1945, since all countries were devoting their efforts to war production rather than to competitive trade. In any case, the Tariff Board had been set up in 1921 and had functioned with marked efficiency, except in a few cases when its advice had been ignored or had not even been sought. During the war the Tariff Board classified all industries into essential war industries not permanently desirable, those required as a permanent part of the industrial establishment, and those which were unessential in war or peace. The method of public inquiry was, moreover, inadvisable and unnecessary during war, and a more rapid means of import control was applied by means of an import licensing system under the Department of Trade and Customs. This general control, of course, required co-ordination with Lend

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Lease operations and procedures. This array of economic institutions covered most of the wartime field, including rural production, but with modified controls. The Department of Commerce and Agriculture appointed a series of marketing boards to cover every aspect of Australian production and its distribution, and was empowered to make price and volume agreements for the wartime disposal of primary products. The War Organization of Industry was set up to control, under wartime regulations, every aspect of industry, with particular reference to essential uses of labour and materials. The Post-war

Pattern

of Economic

Control

We must now turn back to developments in planning which were taking shape before the war began. Australia emerged from the economic depression following 1930 with changed attitudes towards national economics. The policy of ' equality of sacrifice' as a means of restoring stability to the national economy, the controversies concerning both the justice and the effects of such a policy, particularly with reference to wageearners, and the appreciation of the need for a positive policy for preventing the complex losses and miseries of unemployment, cleared the ground for a new approach to the problems of fluctuating prosperity. The struggle for national survival in the second World War not only altered Australian ideas about economic values in general, but increased notably the willingness of the community to accept purposeful direction for national ends. The experience of national disorganization of a new and thoroughgoing kind brought one great gain—suffering kneaded the people into a tougher and more sophisticated body and convinced it that, if a national effort could defeat physical enemies by planning, it could also win the fight against the more insidious but no less deadly enemies of social justice. The change from war to peace conditions, however, demanded the maintenance of most of the economic controls of wartime, even though national objectives had undergone a fundamental change. The demand for a planned economy was made now, not for military efficiency, but for community welfare. Sustained action to develop national unity, to achieve economic efficiency by ensuring high employment, and to co-operate with other

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countries to raise standards of living and freedom, became the new objectives of national effort. This policy was not merely one of defensive economic control, but was a positive plan of social engineering. The managed economy was in sight, but with many reefs and shallows between the ship and the desired haven. It is, of course, not true that all sections of the people in Australia were unanimous in accepting the implications of total economic planning. The great majority believed that a free society could only be preserved by some degree of governmental management; but an economically powerful minority was violently opposed to the whole concept and its inevitable compulsions. A much larger proportion accepted the general idea of a managed economy, but was uneasy about the principles which might govern the appointment of the managers. In these respects Australia was not very different from any other of the democratic countries. However, as the reconversion to a peace-time economy progressed, it became clear that the larger, long-term objectives of social planning would have to be deferred in order to overcome persistent problems of production. Shortages of essential supplies, including labour, a revived liking for leisure, and the generally relaxed national effort, all helped to frustrate the official desire to distribute inadequate supplies as fairly as possible. Economic control in peace-time was clearly not a mere modification of that appropriate to the waging of a total war. It was, admittedly, ' purposive intervention of the State to achieve certain economic ends'; but these ends were a faint shadow of the complete structure of a managed economy, and the means employed in many cases were defective instruments of policy. T h e effective tests of efficient planning in the purely economic sense are a steadily rising volume of real national income, a more even spread of that real income throughout the community, and a progressive ability to reduce the fluctuations in general prosperity. In production, the achievements of national planning in Australia since the second World War ended have not been impressive : the level of real national income has risen only slightly compared with the needs of the nation, the spread of available goods and services through the community is still

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unevenly and ineffectively accomplished, and the efficacy of plans to maintain full employment has still to be tested. Despite inability to give all or even part of the credit for overfull employment in Australia to economic planning, or even to assert that Australia could take action to avoid the consequences of a world economic crisis, it must be admitted that government policy has purposefully directed its activities to those objectives. Further, the economic institutions now operating have been forged into a powerful instrument for changing the national economy by bringing about greater equalization of individual incomes, dependence upon public expenditure, and permissive use of financial resources. The Commonwealth Treasury and the Commonwealth Bank in collaboration now constitute a paramount engine of economic control. Nearly all governments now use taxation as a means for transferring wealth from the highincome to the low-income groups, mainly through social services of various kinds, and in the process to concentrate in the hands of the government very large financial resources. There is little doubt that, skilfully and consistently used, these resources can enable governments to influence the national economy even if they cannot wholly ensure stability. This can be done by accumulating financial reserves for purposes of enlarged public expenditure when economic recession occurs. Up to that point, control by means of taxation, and ability to acquire financial reserves for use in emergency, have already been achieved by co-operation of Treasury and Commonwealth Bank. General control of price-cost equilibrium is another aspect of government management in which important developments have taken place. Monetary policy, and the resulting effects on incentives to produce, largely determine the level of prices. These in turn effect changes in the purchasing power of the currency and variations in real wages. Maintenance of the purchasing power of wages has, in a comprehensive assignment, been made the function of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration since 1904. In the preceding section of this survey, reference was made to the effect of wartime regulation of priccs and wage rates in reducing the significance of the work of the Arbitration Court. The efficient controls exercised by the Prices Commission, the

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' Paging ' wages by wartime regulation, and the operations of the Rationing Commission, were all vital parts of the general machinery for minimizing inflation while war lasted. In the stabilization of wages and in the determination of inevitable variations in awards arising from wartime changes in the industrial pattern, the Court had still many important duties to perform. The enlargement of purchasing power throughout the community, however, was not prevented; it was merely accumulating as bank deposits and private hoarding, and it was realized that, as soon as wartime controls over wages and prices were abandoned and discouragement of spending became ineffective, repressed inflation would unbalance the economy. The conditions of precarious transition which were expected became a reality after 1945. The pressure of deferred maintenance, the reconversion of industry to production for civilian needs, voluntary unemployment, especially of women and ageing wage-earners, the shortage of both capital and consumption goods, and competition among industries for the available manpower, all contributed to an acute lack of labour. An ' unofficial' but rapid rise in earnings became general, which was both an effect and further cause of a pronounced increase in the cost of living. Wage-earners began to fear, not unjustifiably, that standdards of living were threatened, and industrial unrest became widespread. Clearly, as far as the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration was concerned, a new state of emergency existed. As a consequence both of its enabling act and of its principles and methods the Court in such a situation assumes, second only to monetary policy, the most important of post-war economic controls. It is responsible for determining the rate of change in the incomes of most wage and salary earners, and its decisions are based on its informed judgment of the 1 capacity of industry to p a y ' — o r to survive. The price-cost equilibrium is in its hands; it is equally open to the attacks of employees (who resent the effect of the time lags in retarding awards), and of employers (who dislike intensely dislocation of factory operations and distraction of staff), and of exporters (who fear the loss of comparative advantage in production caused by rising wages). T h e Court's function, however, must be carried out in com-

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pletc detachment from the making of Treasury-Central Bank policy; but it is a matter for speculation whether such a degree of independence does not frustrate in large measure the efficiency of the Court by denying it, so far as can be ascertained, any foreknowledge of either the short-term or the long-term policy of the instruments controlling monetary policy. This is not in any way a reflection on the Court, which has carried out its duties with courage, wisdom and foresight; but only the members of the Court could say how far it has been hampered in performing its functions by inadequate knowledge of monetary policy. It is fair, at this point, to make reference to the ' bridging ' functions of the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics in this regard, even though it is a post hoc function. The dependence of planning upon adequate and skilfully interpreted statistics is significant in all phases of national planning, and especially in tracing the effects of monetary policy upon prices and national income. The services of the Bureau have played a vital part in enabling prices and wages to be kept approximately in step; and, although criticisms have not been lacking, the statistics compiled by the Bureau comprise an invaluable chart for economic control in Australia. Of the third necessity of state planning in the economic sphere —control of capital—litde can be said outside the general monetary control. There is some general agreement among economists that a highly industrialized economy can only be efficiently maintained if something of the order of 15 per cent of the national income is invested yearly. Whether the Capital Issues Advisory Committee—an auxiliary of the Commonwealth Bank—operates in accordance with such a principle, or whether its decisions are dictated by expediency, and by the hope that their general effect upon applicants for permission to invite subscriptions of new capital will be cautionary, cannot be determined. It has a place, even if its authority is too narrow for a high degree of effectiveness, in the general pattern of co-ordinated economic policy. Planning, however, must concentrate on tasks which are more immediately practical, and must take into account matters of high policy related to production, especially primary production and overseas trade. Intervention in this field is both delicate and

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detailed. Most governments are attempting to control the volume and to direct the character of primary production. This policy is directed in the main towards securing a favourable balance of payments at the highest possible level, consistent with the maintenance of soil fertility and the efficiency of rural labour. In addition, any Australian government is committed, both by the desires of the people and by the necessity for maintaining traditional markets, to co-operation with the Government of the United Kingdom. The economic institution which shapes this aspect of national policy, and also operates the necessary machinery, is the Department of Commerce and Agriculture. Production policy is recommended to the Government by the Agricultural Council, but Cabinet makes decisions concerning bulk purchases at guaranteed prices, the structure of marketing control, and the administration of the subordinate instrumentalities involved, such as marketing boards. In Australia, government policy for more than half a century has been deeply involved in the expansion of domestic manufacture as a means of promoting economic independence of overseas countries. This aspect of policy falls within the administrative field of the Department of Trade and Customs. Internal pressures in Australia derive from : (a) the necessity for a greater volume and variety of employment opportunities as population expands; (b) the falling percentage of Australia's wage-earning population employed on the land because of the extension of mechanical methods in rural industry; (,c) considerations of the balance of payments, i.e., the policy of reducing the ratio of imported to domestic manufactures. In order to face the criticism of Australian importers, on the one hand, and overseas manufacturers, especially in the United Kingdom, on the other, decisions in this contentious field are the responsibility of the Tariff Board. It is endowed with wide powers, is responsible for taking evidence in public upon all applications for permits to set up new factory industries in Australia, and for recommending the amount of duty required to allow approved new industries to compete on an equal basis with overseas manufactures. Over the years the Tariff Board has performed a difficult

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function with notable efficiency and fairness, and it plays a major part in shaping the pattern and regulating the tempo of factory development in the Commonwealth. The dividing lines between the work of the Board and the work of the Division of Secondary Industry, on the one hand, and of the Capital Issues Advisory Committee, on the other, are more than a little obscure; but, in total, there can be litde doubt that government policy, as interpreted by legislation, is very closely guided by the recommendations and decisions of these three economic institutions. Finally, in the major group of institutions, attention should be directed to the role of reconversion to peace played by the Department of Post-war Reconstruction. All matters of regional research, ex-service land settlement, rehabilitation training of exmembers of the services and a host of other matters have economic significance for the availability of labour and for assisting technical training of every kind. The nature of administrative control exercised by this department is likely to alter greatly, and it will not be necessary to analyse its work any further. Two other economic institutions call for comment—the Loan Council and the Commonwealth Grants Commission. The Loan Council is a body consisting of the Commonwealth and State Treasurers, set up to determine the allocation of available loan funds to the States each year. Its main function is to decide the division of available loan funds among the States, but there are reasons for believing that the allocation of loan funds is made on a basis which is less in accordance with needs than it is proportionate to the political power of each of the States. The Commonwealth Grants Commission, on the other hand, has been charged with the responsibility of recommending financial assistance to those States which are unable to provide their citizens with normal services at the Australian level, and which have made application for such assistance. The Commission is a semi-judicial body which operates on principles designed to assess the indispensable needs of the claimant States at an Australian average, calculated from the budgetary experience of the three non-claimant States. The Australian ' standard ' has been determined in recent years as the amount necessary to enable the claimant States to balance their budgets. For the

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claimant States the Grants Commission is an economic institution of high significance, but, since its recommendations have in the year 1952-3 amounted to £15,934,000, it is a relatively small factor in the distribution of a national income approaching £3,750,000,000 in 1952-3. This discussion is selective rather than exhaustive. The aim has been to sketch, by way of the history of setdement and of the ethnological composition of the people, the social and political tensions so far as they influence economic objectives in Australia. Such a programme is at once too wide and too narrow—too wide, because minor aspects of state intervention are ignored, too narrow, because ' unofficial' economic institutions tend to be excluded by definition. In the main the treatment, for the purpose intended, suffers litde by such a process; but at least one organization, which is so far unmentioned, can lay claim to such wide acceptance as to be reckoned an institution, and to be so devoted to standards of welfare as a primary purpose that its function is mainly economic. If the Federal Treasury satisfies the definition, so also should the Trade Union organization. For at least half a century trade unions have been recognized as legitimate associations; for the Australian people the Trades Hall and what it symbolizes is recognized as an established agency, friendly or hostile as the case may be; for every department of government, State or Federal, the influence of ' the Movement' upon hours and conditions of work, upon tariff policy, upon immigration, even upon monetary and taxation policies, is so powerful that to disregard it as an economic institution-—albeit a non-governmental one—would seem anomalous. It is representative, authoritarian (less so, perhaps, than a decade ago), wields power (but is outside the Constitution), and is the main social dynamic in the Australian society. The final comment upon the implements of a managed economy concern, of course, the central objective of planning. In the Australian as in the British case, the twin targets of a Welfare State and an ' expanding economy' are the core of planning. This is the objective which determines the administrative controls and devices which will provide, it is hoped, a large measure of social justice and stable economic welfare. It remains for the people whose standards will be most affected to demon-

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ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS AND ASPIRATIONS

II3

strate whether these two objectives are compatible or not. In all democracies organized labour has one basic a i m : ' An everimproving standard of living for all workers everywhere . . . Full employment, full production, fair wages and fair hours are but the means of achieving our goal of decent homes, adequate diets and improved health for the families of America, and better educational opportunities for children' (Phillip Murray, President of C.I.O.). While these objectives may not be socialistic, in the end they will achieve much the same result; and it may be impossible for any type of government in a democracy to escape, even if it wished, the evolution towards Statism. Whether the steady erosion of private enterprise and individual initiative, and the displacement of the more individualistic freedom of the past by the managed economy, will achieve ever-normal and equalized material rewards cannot be predicted. If it is to be achieved, the economic institutions in the Australian executive structure are now almost adequate for its every function and purpose. The next step is to discover, explore and define the limits and frontiers of the Social Service State, to measure the sense of social responsibility of the ordinary citizen and to gauge the capacity of humanity to retain its genetic and economic productivity under the sole stimulus of a conviction that planned living is superior to freedom as a method of enlarging national income. PROF. G. L. W O O D , M.A., D.Litt., Melbourne; Professor of Commerce, University of Melbourne, since 1944; Central Panel (Victoria) War Damage Commission, 1942. Born 1890, Launceston; Ed. Hobart and University of Tasmania; entered Tasmanian Education Department; Grad. University of Tasmania, 1912; Master St. Peter's College, Adelaide, 1919; Fellow Rockefeller Foundation; Harbison Higginbotham Prize, 1930; Assoc. Prof, of Commerce, University of Melbourne, 1931; Member Commonwealth Grants Commission since 1936. Publications, Tasmanian Environment, The Pacific Basin, Borrowing and Business in Australia, Land Utilization in Australia (with S. M. Wadham). Died 1953.

A.W.L.

I

CHAPTER

VI

Religious Institutions and Aspirations REV. K. T. HENDERSON Race and Religion ' AMONG a people singularly independent in thought, restless in action, and impatient of restraint, who had broken away from home and home associations, it was your work to stand upon the old paths, in a new world to rear up the ancient time-honoured church of the old country.' So ran the tribute to the first Bishop of Melbourne, Charles Perry, which went with the presentation made to him in 1873 on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his consecration. With certain considerable qualifications, I believe that seventy-five-year-old testimonial still, positively and negatively, sums up the main achievement not only of the Church of Bishop Perry, but of institutional Christianity as a whole in Australia. The back of the Australian mind is still derivative, and in most Australians religion dwells there. In the world of ideas, Australians have ' changed their sky but not their minds.' In the mental attitudes, habits and qualities that belong to the world of common action and social intercourse, Australians have evolved a new and distinctive working personality; but their cultural life—using the word in its narrower sense—remains derivative and conservative, monotonous, thin and devitalized. Racially, the Australian people is almost entirely a mixture of the four peoples of the British Isles—English, Scots, Welsh and Irish. But whereas in the homeland these stocks live distinct in their habitations, and preserve in considerable degree their several characteristics, culture and traditions, in Australia they have been thoroughly mingled. The Irish, it is true, by the tenacious loyalty of most of them to their Church, and by consequent intermarriage, and some measure of separate social life, have remained more of a distinctive community than the others. "4

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Indeed, most people of predominandy Scottish, Welsh or Irish derivation remain proud of their ' blood' and conscious of their origins. Religious traditions and church life help to keep alive this racial sentiment The Irish remain Roman Catholic and look to Ireland as their spiritual motherland, though of repent years, since the first World War, that Church has followed a definite policy of ' Australianization,' and appointments to the episcopate have been almost invariably made from young men of Australian birth. The Presbyterian Church is that to which the Scots go, or from which they stay away. The English in origin are more difficult to generalize about, as they form too large a proportion of the population for their Englishness to constitute much of a tie between them, and few of them worry about these things. But in Australia the traditional religious divisions of English religious life between the Church of England and the Nonconformist communities is reproduced, though the social distinction has faded. The 1947 census returned the following figures and proportions of church membership for the larger denominations. Church of England Roman Catholic Methodist Presbyterian Baptist Church of Christ Congregationalist No admitted affiliation

39 per cent 20.7 »•5 9-8 '•5 o-95 0.8 10.9 » ))

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The 7 per cent of the population not accounted for in these figures is made up of eleven small Christian denominations, plus the 100,000 who describes themselves generally as ' Protestants ' or ' Christian.' Included also are 32,293 Jews, of whom 14,910 were in Victoria and 13,194 in New South Wales. Those who professed Oriental religions numbered 1,265. Differences in the distribution of the major denominations are not very significant, but the fact that the Presbyterian proportion of the religious population of Victoria is 50 per cent higher than the Australian average for Presbyterianism, and the Methodist proportion in South Australia more than double the Australian average, is, I think, reflected in a subtle distinctiveness of ethos 1*

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THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LIFE

or atmosphere in Melbourne and Adelaide. The Lutherans are per cent of the religious population of South Australia. Comparing census figures and percentages of 1933 and 1947, one finds that the proportion of people who refuse to admit any religious affiliation has fallen by 2.8 per cent. Contrary to the expectation of those who thought that the influence of depression and war would have quickened the drift from organized Christianity, these figures, shown in the only voluntary section of the census, indicate some decline in the proportion of people who repudiate association with Christian communities. There has certainly been no marked increase in churchgoing since 1933, but the census result has encouraged Church leaders in Australia to believe that there are considerable numbers of people still passively professing adherence to the churches of their fathers who would respond positively to some fresh and vital presentation of Christianity. The census figures encourage preparations towards a new effort of evangelism now stirring in the larger denominations. The second interesting fact disclosed by the 1947 census is the disproportionate gain made by the Methodist Church, a fact which is of more than denominational interest, for it is a pointer to certain characteristics in Australian temperament that condition the religious situation. The total increase in the Australian population between the census of 1933 and that of 1947 was 14.3 per cent. The Methodist increase was 27.4; Roman Catholic 21.8; Church of England 15.3; Presbyterian 4.2. This Methodist increase has been diagnosed by a prominent Methodist spokesman, the Rev. Alan Walker, as due to four factors : (a) The intensive development of youth work; (b) the Home Mission system whereby strong parishes are linked with weak and embryonic ones; (c) the strongly developed social conscience of the Methodists which gives their leaders a strong voice in those questions of public morality in which the Australian conscience is most responsive to religious leadership; (d) the ' mateyness' or sense of fellowship which characterizes Methodist groups. It is this quality that counts for most within the ' frontier' atmosphere which still envelops Australian culture. Anglicanism, to which 40 per cent of the Australian people trace their spiritual ancestry, has helped to keep alive, under

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these new skies, an appreciation of dignity, reticence and beauty —a feeling which normally dwells at the back of the Australian mind, but can become surprisingly firm and active in popular judgments of art, conduct and persons. This Anglican leaven may help to account for the marked difference between Australian and American mentality. The census figures outline a picture of great religious diversity among a people painfully homogeneous in mental texture, obvious characteristics and attitudes to life. The contrast between this diversity of religious tradition on the one hand, and homogeneity of temperament on the other, is not hard to account for. In their day's work, which is their new ' setting in life,' the component stocks from which the Australian people derive have been fused into a new mental amalgam, and this amalgam owes its very well-marked properties to the uses for which it has come into being rather than to the mental characteristics and traditional attitudes of these component stocks. Religious affiliations have remained ancestral and constant, while the national temperament has been forming. The new compound is something quite other than the sum of its English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh ingredients. The Australian ' setting in life,' so to say, has produced a stew in which the original materials can hardly be distinguished. A new Australian ' character' has come and is coming into being to do the day's work in Australian conditions. It would be broadly true that the racial groupings preserved their distinctiveness until about the turn of the century. In this century tendencies towards a nationalism of racial fusion in all its aspects have been tremendously stimulated by two world wars. Response

to

Environment

The forming of this new working ' personality ' is the response to the unceasing demand for adaptability in Australia's working life. There is not a single animal or plant by which we live that is native to Australia. Everything has had to be acclimatized, and rebred into the soil and climate. From the beginning, thousands of new equations between life and nature have had to be urgendy worked out. Australia is a ' tough ' country. Every farm is, or should be, a scientific experiment, a problem in soil chemistry and animal- and plant-breeding and nutrition. Not

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LITE

only in the countryside but in the towns have the multitudinous processes of adaptability to operate. During the second World War the industrialization of Australia increased by 40 per cent, and the finest of precision workmanship was achieved by men and women learning on the job. Education has been slower to yield to the process of adaptation, but with a steady thrust technology has ousted the humanities from serious consideration in the later years of most children's secondary education. In Australia the humanities have put up a weaker resistance than in Britain, France and the United States. Throughout the country's commercial life, as in her industry, a great proportion of Australia's business is new business. It is the struggle for ' survival plus' that has conditioned Australian mentality, and fashioned the working ethics and spiritual values of her people. The result is a limited and peremptory realism. A theory, principle or idea must stand to the short-term question, ' What difference does it make?' The Australian must relate himself directly and personally to the working out of the ideals which he accepts. His approach to religion at present is personal and experimental rather than corporate or traditional. He asks the same question as he asks of other claims on his energies: ' What do I get out of it? ' The unlocking question, ' What have I got to give ? ' is not in the air. Organized Christianity in Australia faces the need to begin re-conversion at the beginning. In 1933 I wrote ' It will be through her efforts to develop a personality in response to the needs of the national life, and not through the tenacity of her memory, that God will redeem His Church in Australia.' This critical, impatient and limited realism is, I believe, the most distinctive trait in our Australian character. We can trace its working through the demand for comradeship and in the quality of personal leadership that it evokes, and in its attitude to creed-making and worship. The Australian values comradeship above all other virtues in his daily life, and most Australians are nQt at home in any church or congregation in which they do not make friends. If they do not find fellowship, they write off the faith that they are offered as unreal. In this still pervasive atmosphere of the frontier, the denominations and congregations that offer warmth

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND ASPIRATIONS

Iig

and brotherhood undoubtedly do best in maintaining their members and increasing their numbers. We have noted that the surprising proportional gains made by Methodism in the last census are greatly due to this. With the fading of religious memory, the dimming of culture and the lapse of history into the unconscious, Australians have, for the most part, lost veneration for institutions and traditional beliefs as such. In religious and cultural observances, habit is melting at the edges. This is far less true of the Roman Catholic Church than of other religious bodies. They are held together by the dogmatic system, the church schools, and the consciousness of being a distinctive minority, with a specific characteristic outlook in which religion is vocal in all the major interests of life —amusements included. And yet discipline is not so strict and generally accepted as in Ireland. Outside the Roman Catholic Church, religious authority is to most Australians who practise Christianity a matter of personal allegiance. They have litde or no sense of the majesty of institutions. Where personal ascendancy is established, the leader may lead anywhere. There must be a certain obviousness about the personal quality of a religious leader, a warmth, practicality, and common touch. ' The thinker in the Australian Church must, necessarily, be unrecognized, because there is wanting the constituency to recognize him; but because his Church is faced with new beginnings rather than with the carrying on of accustomed methods, he is the more indispensable.' My youthful judgment of 1923 still stands. There is, I believe, in this country an appreciation of new initiatives, a response to the man who plays forward to new conditions, a hearing for candour in religious, as in other, thinking, and a respect for the man who takes his message into the presence of the enemy. But creative response to the challenges of a ' Time of Troubles' is difficult for many church people, who see in the impatience, narrowness and explosiveness of the current moods of secular idealism only threats to beloved traditions that enshrine all that they know of truth, goodness and beauty. These traditions convey assurance and enjoyment; they bless personal integrity, kindness and public spirit; but they do not question the forms of belief in which these blessings are embodied, nor do

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THE AUSTRALIAN W A Y OF LIFE

they make those beliefs more penetrating and far-reaching; nor do they challenge the framework of custom within which the day's living is earned. All the current tendencies of Australian life are running against the institutional and traditional. These current tendencies are indeed setting up new conventions and shibboleths of their own, and bigotry to-day, I would say, is less noticeable among the godly than among their foes. Historic churches, set amidst the new vitalities and inertias of a ' young ' country, are by their nature in a dilemma. They are more or less committed to look backward for their thinking and they must look forward to their doing. Historical Notes Christianity in Australia got off to the worst possible start. Its constituency consisted of convicts policed by soldiers. No Mayflower pilgrims sent their message down the centuries. Regard for religion in this scheme of things was typified by the treatment of the unfortunate chaplain to the first setdement (1788) in Sydney, who was given neither church nor chance to affirm Christianity effectively in that environment. His offhand treatment was typical of the early official attitude to religion. T h e Church of England, though not given much encouragement or opportunity, had a virtual monopoly of the religious field—a very stony one—during the first troubled and angry generation of the colony's life, and thus came in for some of the unpopularity directed against the administration by the incoming free setders, who had no love for privilege in any form. The Church of England was also direcdy attacked for its privileges by incoming members of the Nonconformist denominations, the fiery Dr. Dunmore Lang being a leader, and the angry split that broke in the Christian front was to cost religion its hold on the education of the young democracy. In 1816 other Protestant denominations were recognized, and in 1821 Roman Catholicism was officially allowed to establish itself. The incoming tides of Irish immigrants from 1848 onwards included many people of reforming type, such as Gavan D u f f y and Peter Lalor, who in their beginnings had some relish for ' the pulling down of strongholds.' The association of the

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Irish with the rising Labour Party began before the latter's birth. T h e infant struggles of the new movement were given some protective encouragement by Cardinal Moran of Sydney, who in the nineties played a part somewhat analogous to that of Cardinal Manning in the London dock strike. The Cardinal gave a then critically important air of responsibility to a movement which many good people thought to presage ' red ruin and the breaking-up of laws.' Education was first entrusted to the Church of England, which, all things considered, made a fairly good job of it. But naturally this monopoly provoked a fiery stream of protest, and in 1834, under Governor Bourke, all denominations were placed on an equal footing, and were given state grants to assist them in establishing and running their own schools. The forces of secularism continuously protested against this religious monopoly. In 1848 a state system was established to run parallel with the denominational system. Between i860 and 1880 the secular agitation intensified. The irritable divisions among the churches did not help their cause. T h e process of secularizing education went on, step by step, in the several States until it became complete, in 1880, when the Premier of New South Wales, Sir Henry Parkes, withdrew all state aid from church schools. This decision is undoubtedly the most important and far-reaching ever made for the development of Australian national character. In an age of decline in churchgoing the churches, other than the Roman Catholic Church, with their thinly staffed parish systems, have not been able to keep contact with the children in crowded cities or thinlypeopled countryside during the period at which fundamental life-attitudes take shape. ' Some will agree with me . . . that year by year Australia knows less and less of our Lord Christ,' wrote Bishop Long of Bathurst in a foreword to a little book of mine, Christian Tradition and Australian Outlook, published in 1923. T h e Churches made a fighting reply to the secularizing of education. The Roman Catholic Church has established a complete educational system of its own, supported by the voluntary contributions of church members. There are 225,000 children in her 1,300 schools, which are staffed by 11,000 women and 1,500 men, nearly all belonging to religious orders. They are trained

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in the ways provided by the system of teacher-training in each State. For a community numbering about 1,250,000, or 20 per cent of the population, this is a remarkable achievement. The Roman Catholic authorities have never ceased to agitate for state aid equal in amount to the sum saved to the state governments by the taking of so many children off their hands. But this, as generally admitted, would establish the claim of any denomination for state grants in aid of the running of its schools, and lead again to parallel educational systems—secular and denominational. Protestant sentiment has always strongly opposed the Roman Catholic claim, and the Protestant churches, lacking the help of religious orders, have felt unequal to maintaining non-paying schools. They have, however, built up a network of secondary schools which provide for the children of middle-class parents who can afford to pay fees which, more or less, cover running costs. There are about 75,000 children in these schools. The number of children in non-departmental religiously-controlled schools is about one-third of the total school population. The capital charges are met by church members, and debts often function as endowments. These schools are run on lines greatly influenced by the English Public Schools as Arnold's influence has made them. These Australian nondepartmental schools have steadily increased in popularity and prestige. Outside the state system, the churches have gained a virtual monopoly in the school field. The demand for this type of education, conditioned by religion, exceeds the supply, which is now limited by lack of building facilities and shortage of staff. At the university level, the larger denominations have established colleges affiliated with the universities. Again building difficulties restrict expansion. This dual educational system has made for freedom, variety and fertility in educational aims and achievements. T o some degree, the churches have managed to infiltrate Christian teaching into the state schools. Under regulations differing somewhat in different States, clergy and voluntary workers are permitted to teach children belonging to their own flocks for certain periods in the week. Conditions, however, make effective teaching difficult. These voluntary workers are often lacking in training and teaching ability, and they are

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usually called on to teach large classes in which the age of the children covers so wide a span that lessons suited for one agegroup cannot hold the interest of others, and, of course, discipline is always a problem for the visiting teacher. At present there is beginning in New South Wales some provision for the training of state school teachers willing to undertake it, in the teaching of religion, and educational organizations are being formed by the non-Roman bodies to teach agreed syllabuses in schools. In New South Wales there is provision for Bible teaching without comment in the regular curriculum. But, on the whole, the need for religious teaching is becoming more widely acknowledged. The recent attempts of the churches to do the work better are beginning to be appreciated and encouraged by state authorities. Inter-church Relations The development of this continent within the framework of six states, whose main centres of population are separated by hundreds of miles, has fragmented all Australian history and given its outstanding figures comparatively small communities to influence and issues very local to decide. Australian church history preserves the memories of many famous men, colourful, courageous, and leaders among a pioneering people. These have not been great among theologians or innovators in church life, but leaders in the daily details of a struggle for an heroic ubiquity and the creation of educational strongholds. Broadly speaking, organized Christianity in Australia is a fabric woven by many men who have no memorial other than the anonymous threads that they wrought into the pattern. Almost every little Australian township of more than a thousand or so inhabitants has a complete set of the larger Australian religious communities —Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian—and, in many cases, one or two more. Each of the ministers who serve these nuclei drives out in an ancient car to hold services in three or four tiny centres within a radius of forty to a hundred miles, and on week-days he makes the round of widely distant schools for religious instruction. Of recent years there has been some tendency on the part of the non-episcopal churches to combine their forces in certain country areas under pressure of necessity. By camel and correspondence, motor van and aeroplane,

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church societies have brought pastors, doctors and nurses, circulating libraries, and other services of body and soul to the dwellers in Australia's vast outback. The most impressive of these benefits is the Flying Doctor Service, pioneered by the Very Rev. John Flynn of the Australian Inland Mission, which is an activity of the Presbyterian Church. This flying service, with its accompaniment of pedal wireless in homes, is now taken over by the State. In charitable activities the Christian churches in Australia have done a good deal of pioneering in advance of the social conscience—in the care of the aged, the reform of juvenile delinquents by modern methods, the building of intermediate hospitals, care of those suffering from venereal disease, and in marriage counsel. Here the note of pride may be fairly struck. There is official recognition by such bodies as the Victorian Charities Board that for the charge of institutions where the care of character is the primary aim—children's homes, for example— the churches succeed better than the State in recruiting men and women effectively by virtue of dedicated purpose. The volume of work done in education and charity by the churches is astonishing, considering the comparatively small proportion of the people who are regular church members. Generally speaking, sectarianism is little apparent. Ministers of religion, especially leaders, are in constant personal contact. The Roman Catholic Church is willing to co-operate on issues on which it feels strongly. There is a spirit of brotherhood in the Ministers' Fraternals, and in country towns the people of the several denominations good-naturedly ' take in each others' washing,' and help each other to raise money to carry on. But church groups which can afford to maintain their separateness of organization, continue to do so. There is no state assistance to religion in Australia, no established church, and all religious bodies maintain themselves by voluntary contributions from their members. Hitherto no firm lead towards organic unity has come from the parent bodies in the Old Country, and though in Australia sustained and thorough discussions between small groups of theologians outside the Roman Catholic Church have achieved measures of agreement that, if carried into effect, would mightily

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transform the Australian situation, yet among the rank and file there has been lacking the concentrated emotional heat necessary to melt the divisions of habit, and the theological energy necessary to achieve common assent to fresh unifying definitions of a common faith. Yet in Australia the omens are good for a larger measure of fellowship and co-operation, though there is no visible prospect of organic reunion on a large scale. As we have noted, the class distinctions which have hardened and embittered the theological disagreements between the Church of England and Nonconformity in England have faded in Australia. The theological controversies—except on the question of ordination of ministers —no longer run on denominational lines. In the higher theological education of the clergy there has been much pooling of teaching power, and university students of all non-Roman bodies find close and enthusiastic fellowship in the two Student Christian organizations. Wide prospects are opening for the newlyformed World Council of Churches in its Australian incarnation. The Intellectual Atmosphere In Australia there is little need for T. S. Eliot's warning, given in his Notes towards a Definition of Culture, that we must not identify religion with culture. There is more need for his second warning—that we cannot separate religion and culture and regard them as two distinct forces acting externally on each other. For good and evil the visible separation of religion from art, literature, journalism, as well as business, industry, politics and entertainment has been proceeding apace. The writer can produce no tangible proof, but he feels that the robust and eager self-confidence, the-rejoicing-in-itself, has died out of Australian secularism, and—given the artists and thinkers to mediate—a reconciliation in Australian life, between secular and spiritual idealists, and religious inspiration and the creative arts, is not so unthinkable as it would have been between the wars. There are, as it were, currents now running across the Australian ' atmosphere ' that would now carry the Word, if the Word were spoken on certain wave lengths. Even at present it is evident, I think, that at the sub-articulate levels there is more religious influence within cultural activities than appears on the surface.

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Wc may inquire into the interaction of religious thinking and Australian culture under the direction of two questions, using the word ' culture' in a different sense in each. Using the word as T. S. Eliot uses it in the book just named, we can ask what influence religion has upon Australian culture in the narrower sense—how does it work within the reflective and emotional activities that seek to find and express the meanings in life, and to utter our reactions to them—i.e., the different forms of literature, music, painting, philosophy and political thinking. Then, using the word ' culture ' as Christoper Dawson uses it in his book Religion and Culture, we can ask what effect on religion, and particularly religious thinking, has been exercised by Australian culture, anthropologically regarded as ' an oiganized way of life based on a common tradition, and conditioned by a common environment.' For, as Dawson points out, changes in culture— in the system of daily reliances, and human relations, in current motives, values, habits of ordering life—will bring about changes in religion, as they set men in new vantage points from which to see and interpret what is fundamentally going on. Changes in the data that life brings us to judge on must to some extent change our judgments. Changes in what is going on bring changes in our theology—that is, in our interpretations of what is fundamentally going on. Thus, in popular and very laigely in professional theology, this Australian change of mental scene has weakened, blurred, and taken most of the hardness out of denominational and theological differences that in the Old Country were associated with racial and class differences. It has also weakened the reflective and aesthetic energies within religion. And it has strengthened the emphasis on practical charity and good works, opportunist compassion and public morality. Changes in religious belief, viewed in historical perspective, have also wrought profound changes in society. In Australia this process may be seen working negatively, but powerfully. Christianity, as the attempt to open the way for the Eternal to take flesh in individuals and institutions and dwell among us, is being replaced by what some would regard as another religion—the Cult of the Passing Moment, within which what finally matters to people is adapting themselves comfortably to the passing moment. This flexible surrender to the present situation con-

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tains no conviction or energy outside the historical situation that enables Australians to rise out of and transform the present historical situation. To return from our second to our first question :—What kind of converse is there between religion and other reflective activities finding expression in art, music, literature, and in the ordinary man's pursuit of truth, meaning, beauty and goodness ? Australian literature is impoverished by its lack of the kind of inspiration that is essentially religious. No Australian heartsearching has appeared to compare with that done for South Africa by Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country. We have produced some wit, much excellent verbal photography, much subjective emotionalism glorifying the virtues of the frontier—but few books discussing real issues, or dramatizing spiritual conflicts, or asking fundamental questions. The major premise of life is shirked. There are no Australian counterparts to Graham Greene, Bruce Marshall, Georges Bernanos, François Mauriac, or the new crop of Italian novelists. Henry Handel Richardson, if she be regarded as an Australian writer, comes closest. Perhaps the fact that, despite two world wars, the Australian way of life has always been a sheltered way, accounts in part for this lack of agonia for fundamental truth and values. Intrinsic factors have much to do with it. The withering of the humanities within the educational system has reduced the public for serious literary work. But to say that philosophy and religion have hardly begun to work within Australian culture is to repeat the statement already made—that ' on the job,' in the day's work, the Australian has proved himself strongly adaptable and creative, orderly and good-tempered, but in reflecting on the day's work and its meaning—that is in religious and humanist culture—he tends to be conservative, traditional and derivative—that is, plain lazy. Australia is a country hard on prophets. The man who wishes to Make a Difference within his group, whether the group be sacred or secular, arouses a kind of opposition and resentment, sometimes subconscious, independent of his views and their merits or demerits. ' Who is this man to teach us ?' Of course, this mentality is in no wise peculiar to Australia, but the national feeling for equality and uniformity is very strong, and the

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gregariousness and sense of ' mateyness ' so highly valued make of the exceptional person an 'outsider.' This resentment of distinction in her own sons is Australia's central tragedy. It refuses the prospects of that greatness for which her people really long. But every native-born Australian who distinguishes himself abroad must be reduced to scale on coming home, and pace Kipling, it is as a rule neither wonderfully good for the prophet nor for the country in its present stage of cultural development. It is, indeed, enormously wasteful of intellect and spirit. This resentment of inequality is rife in Church as in State. In the Anglican Church, for example, no Australian has ever been appointed to one of the metropolitan dioceses or occupied one of the four archbishoprics. T h e outstanding Australian personalities among Anglicans have done their work as country bishops. Even in business the national inferiority complex works, and large concerns, which welcome brilliance in subordinates, seem to feel safer when competent mediocrity is in charge. A distrust of our own critical capacity, a feeling that we have no sure grip of criteria dividing the seer from the crank—the man who sees far from the man who sees crooked—blends with the ache for equality and unanimity to produce this devastating cult of mediocrity. Of course, it is not only in Australia that the deep and long-term references and influences of the real thinker do pass beyond the present-day perceptions of the mass of his contemporaries, but the tragedy of thinker without audience is with us particularly unrelieved. T o the limited realism, the imperative short-term ' so what?' of Australia's working temperament, neither religion nor culture in the present state seems able to make vital and convincing reply. As to the intellectual prestige of Christianity it may be said that in Australia, as throughout the world, the authority of Christian tradition has been shaken by successive eruptions of hostile philosophic dogma, withering established beliefs with the fiery breath of scientific prestige. Darwinism, Marxism, Biblical criticism began as almost simultaneous revolutions in the mid19th century; Freud and his followers have worked mightily in the 20th. To-day, the detached observer may note impartially that each of these movements has established a working body of facts and probabilities growing, testing and transforming them-

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selves. These bodies of fact-and-opinion have enormously altered man's picture of himself and his world—pictures within which the beliefs that mediated his Christianity were expressed. The letter of Christian dogma was broken. On the other hand, to the eye of detachment, the antiChristian dogmas, which certain followers of these pioneers distilled from the first hypotheses, have not been established. But the earthquake shocks to faith reached Australia's shores, and released a flood of contempt for Christian doctrine in the minds of that large class of people which has uncharitably been described as the ' active-minded half-baked,' who gained the impression that man was committed by his nature to ruthless competition and enslaved to economic motive, and that the claim of the Bible to declare otherwise with the voice of Reality had been proved a mere figment. On the other hand, the discriminating analysis and criticism that tell against these over-confident anti-religious dogmas have been heard only in selective circles. There has been in Australian church life a shortage of frank and competent public discussion of these issues. For the critical halfcentury the front pew was occupied by the conservatives, and the front pew has been more powerful than the study. The poverty of nearly all the clergy in Australia has had a mentally cramping and inhibiting effect on intellectual energy and adventure. There is no money for big books and little leisure for solid reading. In most cases this poverty derives from convention rather than necessity. The laity have got into the way of regirding clerical poverty as a right and natural thing, not stopping to remember that it is the poor man with a family who has to think most about money, and that to influence widely a minister needs to think and live widely. This conventioninflicted poverty is perhaps the most potent reason why, with a high standard of pastoral faithfulness, the standard of intellectual enterprise in Australian Church life is low. Another reason for this lack of intellectual energy is to be found in the insufficient theological education of die clergy. Training of high intellectual quality is to be had at some centre^ but there are all too many small one-teacher theological college) where the challenges of the secular and religious world outside are dimly heard. A.W.L.

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Religion in Social Development T o the superficial glance the influence of religion in Australia's political, industrial and social life may appear negligible. Current political issues seem nothing more than incidents in a struggle for power over the direction and distribution of material possessions. They are material questions. A hard-boiled temper dominates politics and industry, though this does not exclude personalities of dignity, nor silence constant appeals to reason and morality. But, generally speaking, the human noise made by industry and politics is power-conflict made vocal rather than debate. Class conflict of the traditional bilateral type is, in my view, in course of passing into group conflict, a development in which Australia is in the van—the irreverent might say ' in the cart.' The community is made up of groups constituted by special skills which are interlocked to produce the goods and services whereby the community lives. Any group may back its demands for a larger proportion of the national income, or other advantages, at the expense of other groups, by withholding its skill. This act of passive violence usually inflicts far greater short-term loss on the community than would be the cost of granting the demands in dispute. The State has become the arbiter of disputes, the guarantor of economic continuity, the final authority in directing activities and distributing incomes. Pressure group warfare is directly an attempt to coerce the State. Loyalty and personal responsibility, intense within the group, tend to stop at its frontiers. Group conflicts are not necessarily struggles between ' Haves' and ' Have Nots,' for groups may be of the ' capitalistic ' sort— dairy farmers, doctors, bankers, wheat-growers, as well as trade unions. Those who would thrust in with idealistic solutions or pleas for fresh moral orientations come up against the fact that combatants, while in the midst of conflict, are conservative as regards weapons, strategy and war aims. They do not want to lay open their motives to question or challenge. They are not prepared to be told how to manage the fightings and affairs of their own world by men of religion who live in another world and use another vocabulary and set of ideas. There is not, and there is no likelihood of there being in

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Australia, any specific political party calling itself ' Christian.' Where, then, does religion come in? All cultures have religion in their origin. Has religion died away with the Australian culture ? The answer is' No.' As soon as we stop using the rather meaningless word religion, and speak of Christianity, we can see more clearly what has been going on. Especially in a country where the forms of Christianity are so diversified, people who engage in public activities from Christian motives must make those motives anonymous to make fellowship ' on the job ' easier. Religiously inspired motives and values can quite happily work in anonymity, and Christianity has helped into being a social spirit and moral commonsense that, though heavily battered, can stand, for a while at any rate, on its own feet. The Christian has no difficulty in recognizing that in the organized political and working life of the community God does His work anonymously. Despite what has been said of the ' hard-boiled' temper of Australia's conflicts, and their cost in moral and material values, it remains true that Australians form an orderly community of people most of whom are sensible, kindly and honest in their personal relationships, and that, running through their political life for the past half-century, there has been a strong motive of benevolence. The remarkable orderliness and individual good temper which prevail in Australia, even in the midst of sharp political and industrial conflict, are not sufficiendy realized abroad. This has never been so clearly manifested as in the recent coal strike, when troops were working mines and closelylinked unions were on opposing sides. It can, I think, be argued that events would not have peacefully taken their course except in a moral climate pervaded by Christian tradition. The higher material standard of living for all has been a secular religion—a limited but not an ignoble one. The development of law in Australia is away from the external bond of private contract, which favoured the stronger party, towards care for the well-being of individuals. Australia is carrying a very large load of social services. We can get a glimpse of Australia's development in moral responsibility and social sympathy by noting the successive roles which the State has ocupied in Australian social life. K

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First it emerged as the Curber of Privilege and the Protector of the Poor. It was government that fought the battle of the released convict, giving him a chance to acquire property and status. Government helped the incoming free settlers—the ' small man'—who were soon at odds with the squatters whose flocks occupied the best land. The next stage emerged when it became evident that Australia, with its shortage of water, its permanent soil deficiencies, the need of large areas to make a living, the consequent problem of transport, was too tough a country to be developed by unaided private enterprise. So we find the State becoming the Provider of basic services—railways and irrigation, notably—and, when industries begin, the Protector of capital investment and living standards by tariffs and regulations. The fierce industrial struggles beginning in the nineties brought the State into action as the Arbiter of Disputes—a role given a powerful moral inspiration by Mr. Justice Higgins, the major prophet of ' A New Province of Law and Order'—himself a disciple of Bishop Gore. The basic wage principle was established—the principle being that a wage sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a man, his wife and two children should be the minimum wage of the unskilled worker. The Great Depression, which has left wounds far deeper and more disturbing than either or both wars, brought another functional responsibility. The State became in aim Resolver of Economic Discord, and the Guarantor of Personal Livelihood. The second World War, despite a referendum unfavourable to the extension of federal powers, left the State with another group of powers. It has become the Distributor of Income by heavy taxation and its means of controlling industry, and the Director of Economic Energies by its control of licences, materials, and banking policy, and the Administrator of Basic Industries through boards such as those directing coal, wharf-labouring, etc. Now it remains to be seen whether the State is to become the Owner of Fundamental Property—coal mines, steel works and banks. So far, within this framework of State supervision, private enterprise has continued to operate with vigour never exceeded. Controls have also acted as guarantees. A further development towards social integration has come in the postwar years which have witnessed a great expansion of social

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services. There is no denying that a strong ethical motive, an enthusiasm for humanity, real though limited in scope, runs through Australian development. I think we find here the inspiration of the Christian tradition taking the form proper to its normal political activity—that of anonymity. However onesided their thinking, to most Australians politics are ethics. The lack of direct and explicit church influence in Australia's politics and organized social activities may be attributed (a) to the general and world-wide decline in the direct authority of Christian belief and strength of organized Christianity; (b) to the local fact that Australian society is a definite break with British feudalism, so that the partial fusion of religion and culture in England, originating in the place of the Church in the English village, has not survived time or distance; and (c) that, broadly speaking, Australia's political development during the past halfcentury has been in the direction congenial to socially-minded Christians, whether they inherit the reformist tendencies set in motion by the Wesleys and the Evangelical Revival, or the ' incarnational' view of community life preached by the early Christian socialists and their Anglo-Catholic successors. To this view, all life is an extension of the Incarnation whereby the Life of God becomes realized in the life of man. The dominant conception of the State as the fount of benevolence, and the sure response of public opinion to any gap in the social services— such as the mentally ill—leaves the churches little scope for militant agitation. This generalization concerning the lack of direct impact of the churches in Australian politics must be qualified in two important ways. Religious influence has undoubtedly influenced the middle-class towards readiness to accept the widening of social responsibility, and, within the large swinging vote which decides all Australian elections, there is a considerable number of people who are consciously influenced by Christian principles in making political judgments. Second, there is a traditional affiliation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Australian Labour Party. This originated mainly in the fact that most Irish immigrants belonged to the poorer classes, and took readily to the kind of politics that tended to enlarge their opportunities and break

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down the strongholds of privilege. There is some symbolic truth in the story of the Irishman who landed with the words, ' If there's a Government here I'm agin it.' Irish warmth of feeling, power of speech and clan sentiment have given Australian Labour a great many of its leaders, and the prevalent notion that the Roman Catholic candidates tend to attract a number of votes outside the trade union movement has helped them in getting nominated. T o a far greater extent than the non-Roman communities, the Roman Catholic Church has kept its hold on its working-class adherents. The church authorities attribute this mainly to the system of church schools, sustained by voluntary contributions, and this is unquestionably the primary cause. It is helped by the ' siege mentality' and the sense of solidarity fostered in a welldisciplined, highly organized minority, accustomed to look to the church for guidance on all the main issues of life on the principle that all life belongs to God. There is not evident any explicit bargaining between Labour and the Roman Catholic Church. No Labour government, whatever its proportion of Roman Catholic leaders, has ventured to give the Roman Catholic Church anything of that one political concession which it ceaselessly demands—state aid in consideration of the 220,000 children of which it relieves the state education departments. Two causes of tension have recently appeared between the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the official Labour Party. In their anxiety to prevent an open split in the Party, the leaders of the Australian Labour Party have shown a degree of toleration to the Communists that the hierarchy has disapproved. The Coal Strike of 1949 threw into relief the use which the Communists have made of this tolerance, and has brought about a sharp reversal of attitude on the part of the Australian Labour Party. Second, the late Federal Government, notably in its legislation, invalidated by High Court and Privy Council, to take over the trading banks, had shown a tendency towards socialism that goes beyond the political philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church recendy given clear and careful statement by the bishops. In general principle this is the philosophy of distributivism. The central aim is to sustain the dignity and welfare of the individual in spiritual and, relatively speaking, material independence of

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the State. ' The small man,' it is maintained, should have the chance to become in some measure a capitalist, and the Church favours any development that increases the worker's real income and power to save, and thereby to free himself from the danger of subservience to the State and the possible pressure of a materialistic totalitarianism. On the other hand, the Church assents to such measure of the State's control of industry and ownership of basic services as will preserve the ' little man ' from being oppressed or swallowed up by Big Business. There is some division of opinion among Roman Catholic spokesmen on which side of the line the banking legislation falls. There has never been any formal solidarity in Roman Catholic support of Labour, and always a number of Catholics vote for the other parties. Nearly all the leaders of the Protestant Churches have been careful to preserve a political neutrality, though radical sympathies are by no means unknown among them. The membership of their communities is predominandy middle-class—not many ' rich ' or ' working class.' Most of these middle-class church members think politically according to the habits of their class, on balance conservatively, but without the reactionary hardness of American or Continental ' Rightism.' This churchgoing minority contains a considerable proportion of people who can think with some detachment and fairness, and it contributes to the not inconsiderable body of middle-class radicalism particularly noticeable in New South Wales. The most interesting aspect of Christianity's social influence in Australia is its future. The vital needs of the Australian society themselves are preparing the next chapter in the history of religion and cultural relations. The nation is aching and agonizing for social reconciliation. It is clear now that no over-all type of economic and social organization—capitalism, socialism or communism—can of itself reconcile the conflict of groups within Australian life. Nationalization will not do it. Social services multiplied will not do it. With Australian society composed as it is—the hierarchical organization of all modern industry, the managerial class increasing between employer and artisan, the large number of small businesses and farms, neither extreme Right nor extreme Left has

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any chance of establishing its ascendancy. Communism, though powerful to disturb, could rule this essentially bourgeois society only by becoming the violent Fascism of a clique. Experiments in nationalization and in swift, efficient, high-motived, compulsory arbitration have not brought industrial peace, though the latter, as a means of rallying and defining public opinion, has proved a powerful if not always victorious weapon against the disturbers of the peace. In a mental climate pervaded by a realism which assumes that only selfishness can make a difference in group relations, there can be no peace. No changes that occur in the distribution or method of distributing goods and power can bring peace. To any one kind of realism, any other kind of realism seems unreal. To people dwelling within a culture in which the specific influence of religion is becoming indistinguishable, the notion of a culture vitalized by religion will seem fantastic. Yet all historic cultures owe their lives to the infusing of religion's values, sanctions and inspiration into the organized energies whereby men serve each other's needs of body and spirit. A culture without religion would have seemed just as incredible and impossible to our forefathers, primitive or civilized, as a culture fused with religion seems to the ' average, sensual man' in Australia to-day. As Christopher Dawson points out, the fading out of a religion transcending the present facts makes way for a substitute for religion, which is an idolatrous worship of the present situation. This idolatry is a subservience to the present situation for selfish interests. It deprives us of the power of getting above the present situation, or transforming it, or seeing anything but it. In Australia the realism of group conflict encloses tightly and presses hard. And it stands between Australia and the brightest prospects that have ever challenged a young community—prospects not only of economic prosperity but of creative spiritual leadership and brotherhood throughout the Pacific, the awakening half of the world. Who shall deliver us from this body of death? Surely only another kind of realism. Substitutes—good substitutes—have been tried. Even the counsels of enlightened compromise given through our arbitral machinery cannot restore creative intercourse between the people of groups accustomed to use their

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specialized skills as weapons against other groups; whose very necessity to the community is their weapon against the community. A realism of reconciliation must have its origin beyond the fact that it heals. This emphasis on reconciliation is the new form which the preaching of the social gospel is beginning to take in Australia. In the youth groups, and other fellowships of social interest, which pioneer the social conscience of their parent communities, the tendency hitherto has been a leftist inclination to preach fairer distribution to the Right. Of recent years power and income have shifted by way of government towards the Left. The Welfare State has arrived without bringing peace. Religious idealists, who have been preaching the social gospel in the form of a leftward distribution of life's good things, feel that most of the wind has been taken out of their sails. Many of them are forming the impression that this kind of work—or the material part of it—can now be safely left to governments who should know best how to regulate pace and detail. But they see clearly that a society slashed by group conflicts, and with its living standards lowered by a falling vitality in its day's work, stands more than ever in need of the revitalizing and reconciling influences of Christianity. Many religious reformers are puzzled and hesitant at the new turn of events, and the technical terms of social quarrels hold them unwillingly aloof. But others are beginning to work out a Christian philosophy of social reconciliation and responsibility. It is, I think, clear that in Australia this lead points the course of Christian social idealism into the immediate future. The hour, Australian time, is ripe for such advance. The way that hard facts work suggests that social reconciliation must be religious in origin. Within the fighting groups themselves the habitual attitudes of hardened bellicosity can be broken up only by irruptions and explosions of responsibility and mutual consideration. But these irruptions and explosions of the Universal into the Particular must take the form of heroic personalities trying to create a new situation out of apparently nothing. We Australians, to come out of our typical group troubles, must turn from the cultivation of gregariousness to the development of personality.

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Buber says that the conflict of good and evil in the modern world must take form in the behaviour of individuals within their groups. These individuals must be capable of giving to their groups a loyalty that is independent of group emotion, a loyalty that can make the group creative by charging it with the wider loyalties. Among a people so opportunist and practical as Australians, conditioned to adjust themselves to the immediate situation without envisaging any other, these small societies and fellowships, religious and secular, who are trying to put the thoughts of tomorrow into working shape, tend to become disheartened by the fewness of their numbers and the difficulty of getting their ideas taken seriously. The realism of reconciliation—practical, necessary and inevitable as it appears to anyone who pauses for the long view or the inquiry in depth—must begin with certain initiatives. The tide-turning changes of attitude that are required feel unreal in the Australian atmosphere. Loving at long range includes them all—using love in its practical, unsentimental, New Testament sense. Love, as the begetter of policies, includes respect, imaginative sympathy and the desire to help. But even those who have the will to love in this dynamic sense, when they try to act with goodwill towards people, distant and unresponsive, to break down hostility by constructive forgiveness of enemies, to fight long, losing batdes, feel out of touch with reality in a land so occupied with the immediate reactions of the present. Here, as in other lands, the spiritual pioneering involved must be the work of an elite, who break new ground in the development of a civilization or culture. To preach that the future of Australia and the world depends on pre-reciprocated good will may be rational and necessary; its endeavours are hard to begin. The voice of the prophet, whether sacred or secular, has a restricted range, for the Australian press and the commercial agents of publicity are not hospitable to ideas. So our idealists are thrown back on their creeds and visions, and tend to live within their own fellowships. But when we look at the local situation in historical perspective, we see that so it has always been. As in the days of Isaiah, so in Australia to-day it is the ' Suffering Servant,' the ' faithful remnant' that must save the people. In secular terms, modern

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sociologists and social psychologists are saying the same thing in their emphasis on the necessity of the élite in carrying a culture through its crisis and making to-morrow out of to-day. But every ideal must survive its own characteristic crisis of disappointment. In one sense, Australia's moral crisis is a local incident in the crisis of Western civilization, every surge of which, with a certain time-lag, reaches her shores. This is first a crisis of belief, an agony for central conviction, for no religion, however desperately necessary, can work except in men convinced of its truth. Theology is becoming the dominant interest of the active-minded among Australian clergy, who are equipping themselves for this crisis of reconstruction. But inseparable from it is the crisis of reconciliation which must begin its work of faith, hope and charity, if ordered and creative life is still to be possible on earth. Each of these aspects of crisis must be met on Australian ground in situations and atmospheres distinctively Australian. ' Every age is present to God in its uniqueness,' says von Ranke. ' God is present to every generation in its characteristic ideals.' To nations, as to ages, God is present in their individuality of life and circumstance. Australia's prophets are beginning to say that out of herself, from the innate qualities of the peoples which constitute her people, from her opening opportunities of wealth and power, from the abilities and deficiencies developed by her history, Australia must ask her own practical questions of God. And in struggling to overcome the divisions and tensions between her citizens, in choosing her terms of living with her awakened Asiatic neighbours, in her distinctive standards and values of personal and public conduct, Australia must accept or reject His answers. The resulting embodiment of Meaning in Achievement will constitute her culture, her common life, her destiny. Wrestling with this enormous problem like Jacob with the Angel, the Australian people, as the struggle develops them, will come to realize that they are wrestling with Reality for His Blessing. The REV. K. T. HENDERSON, M.A., Dip.Ed. (Melb.), B.Litt. (Oxon). Born 1891. Grad. Trinity College, Melbourne University; Lecturer in Philosophy, St. Paul's College, University of Sydney, 1913; English Master and Asst. Chaplain, Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, 1914-6; active service as Chaplain,

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A.I.F., 1916-8; Dublin Prize, 1919; Chaplain, St. Peter's College, Adelaide, 1913-23; Hertford College, Oxford, 1923-5; journalist, The Argus, Melbourne, 1925-7; leader writer West Australian, Perth, 1928-41; Editor of Special Talks, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1941; now Talks Officer (Religious) in charge of Religious Broadcasting, A.B.C.; President of Australian Institute of Sociology, 1944-6. Books. Khaki and Cassock, 1919; Christian Tradition and Australian Outlook, 1923; Prayers of Citizenship, 1940; Thoughts for To-day, 1944.

C H A P T E R

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The Australian People and the World P R O F E S S O R F. A L E X A N D E R Forms of Australian Feeling D I S C U S S I O N of the forms taken by national feeling among the Australian people and, in particular, of their attitude towards peoples of other countries may properly begin with the oftquoted statistical calculation that Australians are 98 per cent British. Due allowance should be made for the fact that this calculation includes the Australian-born children of non-British migrants and for the further consideration that the intermarriage of English, Irish and Scots migrants, or of their offspring, has produced in Australia a hybrid ' British' people whose outlook may well be expected to differ from that of either English or Irish or Scots ancestors. Regional and economic considerations may place differing emphases upon the individual Australian's views. The peculiarly Australian version of the British outlook also owes something to climate (too frequently conducive to apathy and indifference) and to geography (particularly in more recent years). O n the whole, however, the history of the Australian people has reinforced their original Anglo-Saxon racial outlook.

Emotional and traditional influences must also be reckoned with. The persistence of the close association between Australia and the United Kingdom (highlighted by the exploits of Australian servicemen overseas three times in half a century and continually strengthened by the value of the British market to Australian primary producers) sometimes finds expression in an uncritical, sentimental pro-British feeling. This is often more reminiscent of Henry Parkes' 19th century ' crimson thread of 141

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kinship than indicative of a calculated Australian nationalism conscious of the economic and strategic significance of the British association. The sentimental attachment is probably stronger on the right than on the left of Australian politics and has revealed itself upon occasion in the regretful sighs of a conservative Leader of the Opposition at the passing of the day when the British Commonwealth was an Empire of like-minded British peoples.2 It nevertheless affects all sections of the Australian people, particularly when the historic association is symbolized by a Royal dignitary or by a British minister with a powerful personality, like Sir Winston Churchill. For these and other reasons it would over-simplify a complex relationship to emphasize an economic or ' class' line of differentiation between pro-British, 'capitalist' employers, on the one hand, and nationally self-conscious ' Australian' workers, whether isolationist or more broadly international in outlook, on the other. A casual reading of Australian history might nevertheless suggest such an interpretation. There have been times when the Australian Labour Party was isolationist in oudook and the mid-20th century Labour movement contained a small group of internationally minded intellectuals and an equally small but active group of extreme left-wingers whose internationalism was freely attributed to external influences and had at times important international consequences. The Australian worker has also been less directly affected than some of his fellow citizens by the social trappings of a ' Common Crown' and of its hierarchical representatives in Australian capital cities. The rank and file of the Australian Labour Party in inter-Imperial and international relations certainly contributed to the emergence of a distinctively Australian national attitude. In doing so, however, Labour supporters formed only part of a substantially larger section of the 1 Sir Henry Parkes (1815-96), born in England in very humble circumstances, migrated in 1839 to New South Wales, where he won recognition as a mid-century champion of Australian democracy. As Premier of New South Wales he was the inspiring leader in the earlier stages of the movement for the federation of the Australian colonies. See The Australian Encyclopedia (Sydney, 1926), Vol. 11, and Lyne, C. E., life of Sir Henry Parkes (London and Sydney, 1897). * E.g. ' Australians, if allowed to speak, would repudiate the new Empire Constitution, which has reduced the Crown from a pulsing reality to a heartless lawyer's document.' Rt. Hon. R. G. Menzies, M.H.R., in an Empire Day address, Melbourne, May 94th, 1949.

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Australian people which included many in anti-Labour political movements, though the latter had become less noticeable among the older age-groups by the middle of the 20th century. Australian and Imperial Interests Politicians, moreover, whether Labour or otherwise, who shaped Australia's official attitude to the outside world, also reflected an ill-defined but widely felt national sentiment. The sentiment was revealed in Australian literature in the years immediately before and after Federation—in the ' mateship' of Henry Lawson (1869-1922), the 'offensive Australianism' of Joseph Furphy (1843-1919), in the poetry of Bernard O'Dowd (b. 1866), and indeed throughout the weekly pages of the widely read Sydney Bulletin.1 An ' Englishman Australianate' could well declare from a Sydney University Chair, in 1917, that ' the fundamental reason of this claim to independent power was not geographical remoteness but national character.' 2 The writers at the turn of the century might express a nationalism more strident than their political leaders at the time accepted. Their influence may nevertheless be detected in some active Labour politicians, such as Frank Anstey (1865-1940), whose isolationism was not merely incidental to domestic issues but a positive hostility to a potentially contaminating association with the older European world, similar in some respects to the attitude adopted by some isolationists in the United States. This Australian national attitude, while in its official expression not unfriendly to the United Kingdom nor unmindful of the value to Australia of the British connection, had practical results long before the creation of the Australian Commonwealth in 1901, in independent fiscal and immigration policies and in a vigorous and critical interest in British policy in the Pacific. It helped to make the history of Australian foreign policy what one distinguished Australian observer has called ' the consistent formulation of a view of Australian interests by Australian 1 Stephemen, P. R., Foundations of Culture in Australia (Sydney, 1936), pp. 66-71 and passim; see also Hancock, W. K., Australia (London, 1930), Ch. X I V and ei Grattan, C. H., Australia (University of California, 1947), Ch. X X . 1 Wood, G. A., ' Australian and Imperial Politics ' in td. Atkinson, M., Australian Economic and Political Studies (Melbourne, 1920).

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experts within the framework of Imperial co-operation.'1 In the half-century following federation each of the Australian political parties made its own particular contribution to the shaping of the Australian national policy. Non-Labour parties on the whole laid less stress than their political opponents on the distinctively Australian interests and, in public, tended to emphasize the importance of the Imperial framework. When they desired to press Australian interests they generally preferred to do this through the machinery for confidential, inter-government consultation (as when the Lyons Government pressed its view of a Pacific Pact at the 1937 Imperial Conference) rather than by independent public action.2 The Labour Party's attitude at times seemed more sharply insistent on Australian interests than on the framework of Imperial co-operation. In this, no doubt, the Labour contribution was influenced to some extent by the peculiarly Australian association of Irish Roman Catholics with the moderate Left. The Australian Irish, though warmly sympathetic with the aspirations of their kinsmen in Ireland, on the whole supported the development of Australian nationalism within the British Commonwealth, for reasons not entirely different from those which have influenced French Canadians. The Labour attitude was also expressed, upon occasion, in terms emotionally acceptable to domestic supporters—as when Imperial Federation was denounced because it would involve the presence in London of ' a toadying, top-hatted delegation bartering away the birthright of our children.'3 In general, too, Labour leaders were colder and more cautious than their political opponents in accepting advance commitments on Imperial issues, as distinct from joint action when the crisis actually came. Even in this, however, their attitude reflected a widely prevalent, if curiously inverted, form of the traditional English foreign policy of limited liability in a new geographical setting.4 It also revealed the strength and the ramifications of domestic political rivalry in Australia. Sir Frederic Eggleston, ' Foreign Policy,' Ch. I X in ed. Grattan, C. H. op cit. * Cf. on this and many other opinions expressed below, Hasluck, P., The Government and the People, Canberra, 1952. * The Australian Worker, June 26th, 1918, quoted Hall, H. D., British Commonwealth of Nations (London, igao), p. 215. * The emotional complexity involved here is well illustrated by the behaviour of the central character in Henry Handel Richardson's best-known novel, The 1

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Preoccupation with Local Problems Clarification of the Australian attitude to countries overseas has, indeed, been seriously retarded by divisions in Australian domestic politics and by the too frequent concentration of both parties and people upon developments at home. Thus the splitting of the Australian Labour Party on the issue of conscription during the first World War confused the thinking of Labour politicians for more than a decade after the Peace Conference at Paris. Again, the Labour Party's opposition to sanctions in the Italo-Ethiopian dispute was as much influenced by Australian domestic politics as by ignorance about, or absence of profound conviction upon, basic principles of international politics. Similarly, critical appraisal of Australian foreign policy after 1945 was hindered by Liberal and Country Party criticism of the Labour Minister for External Affairs, Dr. H. V. Evatt, on grounds often personal and partisan. Though all Australians have much common ground in their views on intra-Commonwealth and international questions, Australian politicians haveas yet shown few signs of following recent American political practice and moving towards a bi-partisan policy in foreign affairs.1 The Australian attitude towards world affairs is even less affected by major regional differences than it is by clear-cut divergence of interests between employers and organized labour in the cities or between political parties in Parliament. Some differences of outlook are traceable to regional peculiarities. The isolated West Australian community, for example, is reputedly more British in oudook and sympathy than the more densely populated Eastern States and, particularly, than the towns on the eastern seaboard.2 The views of Queenslanders on southern Fortunes of Richard Mahony (London, 1930). Mahony, though anxious to behave as a gentleman in Australia after his financial success and impatient with some of the crudities of colonial life, nevertheless finds return to residence in England unsatisfying because of the strength of his unconsciously acquired Australian characteristics. 1 For a vigorous statement of the need to remove Australian foreign policy from domestic party politics, by the then Federal President of the Liberal Party of Australia, see the Chapter ' Australia's Place in the World,' in Casey, R . G . , Double or Quit (Melbourne and London, 1949), p. 97. • The point is often illustrated by Western Australia's ' Yes ' vote at the conscription referendum of 1916 and that of 1917. See Cambridge History of the British Empire, Vol. V I I , Pt. 1, pp. 579, 582. A.W.L.

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Europeans are probably sharper than those of any other regional group in Australia. Foreign visitors, however, seeking to discover the Australian attitude on current international questions, usually find difficulty in distinguishing between the points of view of people living in different States. Where differences occur, these are usually explicable less in terms of State than of occupation. Urban industrialist and worker alike have tended to concentrate upon the home market under the double protection of high tariffs and Arbitration Court awards. The less politically influential rural communities have been variously affected in their international outlook. Economically powerful but dispersed pastoralists have remained highly sensitive to changes in world markets, while small farmers in more settled areas, catering partly for local markets, have too often reinforced the egocentric tendencies of urban groups. Moreover, in so far as Australian rural life remained in or near the pioneering stage, some of the national and consolidating influences characteristic of frontier life in North America have tended to counteract the effect of regional influences upon the attitude of the Australian people to the outside world. The peculiarly dispersed character of Australian rural life and the presence of a ' big man's frontier ' in Australia rather than the ' small man's frontier ' in the United States has also had the effect of qualifying the sturdy individualism and resourcefulness of the Australian pioneer. He has been prone to demand and accept Government intervention in the solution of economic and social problems and has carried over this attitude into the field of international relations in a way which helps to explain the readiness of too many Australians, in times of peace, to leave foreign affairs to the Government. When due allowance has been made for occupational and minor regional differences as well as for the persistence in slightly different forms of the traditionally close British association stressed in the opening paragraph of this chapter, two characteristics of the Australian people must be considered as conditioning their attitude to the outside world. Provincialism and superficial knowledge, economically inspired racial prejudice, were common among all sections of the Australian people, urban as well as rural, with some notable exceptions. On the whole, these characteristics helped to reinforce the

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sentimental ties with Great Britain and to retard closer relations with non-British peoples, particularly in the years prior to the first World War, and, to a lesser extent, in the inter-war decades. They made easier of acceptance the general trend of Australian foreign and defence policies in the first thirty years of the 20th century, in which dependence upon the Royal Navy and other resources of the British Empire was combined with what has been rationalized as ' a geographical policy of security,'1 but was often, with many Australians, litde more than reliance upon geographical isolation for security. Geographical

Isolation ?

This geographical factor should not be exaggerated, but it cannot be ignored. Even in the 19th century, Australian nationalism had responded to the sense of insecurity resulting from the intervention of foreign powers in the South and South-West Pacific areas. As a result, even before federation the Australian colonies showed an active interest in New Guinea, which persisted through the first World War and ultimately brought German New Guinea, as well as Papua, under Australian administration. The common sensitiveness to the danger of the domination of adjacent islands by foreign powers helped to bring about the federation of the Australian colonies at the turn of the century and forced reluctant agreement by the British Admiralty to the formation of a Royal Australian Navy a few years before the outbreak of the first World War. Nevertheless, provincialism and preoccupation with local problems of economic and social development, the pro-British sentiment and the economically inspired prejudice against foreign immigrants persisted. Together, they were strong enough to prevent considerations of geographical security from forcing upon the Australian people a distinctively Australian foreign policy. Some gropings in this direction had taken place, but it required a second World War, with a major oriental power as enemy instead of ally, to arouse the Australian people to a full realization of the dangers as well as the opportunities of their geographical position. Even the substantial contribution of Australian administration in Papua by men like MacGregor and Hubert Murray owed very litde to 1

Hancock, W. K . , op. cit., p. 240.

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unofficial stimulus or constructive criticism from the mainland, where indeed it was not widely" appreciated. In the years immediately after the second World War the official policy of the Australian Government reflected a belated national realization of the significant pattern of Australia's immediate geographic environment. Notable illustrations are the prominent part taken by Dr. Evatt in having the Indonesian dispute referred to the Security Council of the United Nations; the earlier negotiation of the Australian-New Zealand Pact by the Curtin Labour Government in 1944; and the inclusion of Australia in the A N Z U S agreement by the Menzies Liberal-Country Party, despite the doubts and fears of many of the Administration's suporters as well as of its political opponents. It may be doubted, however, whether the Australian nation as such had moved very far away from the parochialism of the pre-war years, or whether many Australians had as yet gready increased their knowledge of or contacts with their northern neighbours. Immigration Policy No student of Australian affairs, however sympathetic, may deny the presence of parochialism or the prevailing ignorance about neighbouring peoples. The narrowness of oudook of many Australians springs partly from geographical isolation, partly from preoccupation with problems of local development, and partly from Anglo-Saxon homogeneity. These influences serve to strengthen the economically inspired (or, as some would argue,1 economically rationalized) policy of immigration restriction popularly known as ' The White Australian Policy,' but have not engendered among Australians an active hostility to non-British races. Asians who are resident in Australia do not suffer the political, economic and social disabilities of which they complain in certain other parts of the British Commonwealth. Asian students in Australian universities, of whom there has been an increasing number in the post-war years—735 were enrolled at the six State universities in 1952—are well received and play 1 A well-informed Australian observer who read this chapter in draft disagreed with the argument of this paragraph and insisted that to emphasize the economic motive is to ignore the racial prejudice among Australians, which he regards as a form of Anglo-Saxon racial superiority in a peculiar economic and geographic letting.

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an active part in ordinary university life. There was even a certain unselfish humanitarian motive among the influences which contributed to the formulation of the White Australian Policy, as revealed in the strong criticism of the exploitation of South Sea islanders in Queensland.1 Again, there is no very marked antiSemitism in Australia. The existing policy of immigration restriction is accepted in principle by all politcal parties, but the Australian people in their actual dealings with foreign-bom peoples are not conscious of traditional national antipathies. In so far as xenophobia exists among Australians, it is not normally translated into hostility to the individual foreigner. Even the terms ' Pommy,' ' Dago,' ' Chow ' are used by many Australians with a certain casualness, and at times with a perhaps perverted sense of humour rather than with deep feeling—except where the peoples referred to have come into active economic conflict with the interests of Australians born and bred in the country. This fear of economic conflict is the basic explanation of Australian Labour's traditional suspicion of assisted immigration schemes. Too often, in the years after the first World War, such schemes resulted in the introduction of English ' Pommies' and other migrants who tended to swell the ranks of unskilled labour in the towns and to sharpen unemployment in times of economic difficulty. Australians of all economic groups are, however, opposed to the migration of foreigners who would wish to settle as distinct racial groups instead of as individuals capable of being absorbed into the Australian community—an opposition strengthened by experience with Italians in Queensland and with some Southern Europeans elsewhere. The ability of a Labour Government after the second World War to undertake a considerable scheme for the immigration of displaced persons from Europe 1 confirms the view of the preceding paragraphs. The Government's post-war European immigration policy has been accepted by the rank and file of Australian Labour except where it appeared that the European migrants might compete with Australian-born labour, or threaten standards of living. 1 For the history of the Kanakas in Australia see Cambridge History of the British Empire, loc. cit., pp. 309-13 and passim. ' A Reuter message from Geneva on July 28th, 1949, announced that the fifty-thousandth displaced person to emigrate to Australia had embarked in the I.R.O. ship Fair Sea.

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It should also be noted that, while no political party has been prepared to sponsor amendment of the Immigration Restriction Acts to replace the dictation test by some form of quota system which might lessen the hostility aroused by that legislation in Asiatic countries, there was considerable protest at what many Australians considered needlessly vigorous application of the Immigration Restriction Acts in the early post-war years. This opposition to the insistence of Mr. A. Calwell, Minister for Immigration, upon enforcing the return of Asians who had been given shelter in Australia during the war years and who had subsequendy conducted themselves as desirable residents, is partly explicable in terms of domestic party politics, but it illustrates the Australian's sense of fair play and the absence in him of deep-seated racial prejudice. It should also be accepted as one symptom of a new consciousness among some Australians of the need to consider more carefully the repercussions of Australia's policy, domestic and foreign, upon countries to her ' Near North,' if not also elsewhere. Increased Sense of World

Community

This new critical attitude towards the Australian immigration restriction policy, however limited in its over-all political influence, may indeed be cited as one illustration of a certain increase in a sense of world community among sections of the Australian people as the result of the second World War. This is a subject upon which generalization is difficult and on which opinions differ considerably, but it follows from the argument in the opening paragraphs of this chapter that litde sense of world community was displayed in Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For most Australians the outbreak of war in i g r 4 was the first sharp challenge to preoccupation with local development and to excessive reliance on British policy shaped and directed in London.1 Service on European battlefields gave the right to participation in the councils of peace, but domestic politics in the early post-war years continued to throw organized Labour into an isolationist mood, while the prevailing policy of 1 This is not to deny earlier Australian criticism of British policy in certain directions, notably in the Pacific, or the vigorous part played by Australian representatives, such as Alfred Deakin, at Imperial Conferences prior to the first World War.

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non-Labour governments in the twenties could be summed up in the phrase of Mr. S. M. Bruce when Prime Minister, that' when one part of the Empire is at war, the whole Empire is at war.' Lip-service was given by Australian politicians to membership of the League of Nations, but the role of Mr. W. M. Hughes, the wartime Prime Minister, at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 made it clear that Australian participation in international conferences would be governed primarily, if not exclusively, by service of Australian objectives. Delegations to the Assembly of the League of Nations and similar international gatherings were poorly supported by technical advisers. The Department of External Affairs was understaffed at home and without the support of effective separate diplomatic representation abroad, in regard to which Canadian, Irish Free State and South African initiative was deprecated by Australian governments long after the end of the first World War. The cause of international cooperation was warmly championed by small groups of members of the Australian League of Nations Union and of similar bodies in each of the capital cities, but such movements were not broadly based. They had litde support from organized labour, and they were given little encouragement by officials or by the Press. The Australian people remained substantially ignorant of and largely indifferent to the major issues of the League of Nations in the first ten years of its history. Impact

of the

Depression

The impact of the economic depression of the late twenties gave Australians a sharp reminder of the extent to which their well-being was bound up with conditions overseas. In the early thirties a certain quickening of interest among rural exporting groups was discerned by advocates of international organizations, but this failed to have any appreciable effect in producing an independent Australian policy in favour of vigorous international action, whether over Manchuria or Ethiopia. On the former occasion Australian public opinion, in so far as it realized the importance of Japanese aggression, was inclined to satisfaction that the Japanese were turning westward rather than southward.1 1 There were some Australians who, while recognizing the gravity of the issue, accepted the official British Foreign Office view that vigorous action was precluded by paucity of naval strength in the Pacific.

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In 1935-6 the Australian Government approved economic sanctions against Italy more in support of British policy than from international conviction, and then only with a clear determination that economic sanctions should not lead to war. The Labour Opposition of the mid-thirties did not hesitate to make domestic political capital out of the incident, and opposed sanctions against Italy, though there is good reason to believe that some of those who helped to influence the Labour decision had at first the haziest ideas as to what economic sanctions meant. It was also suggested a little later that Australian Roman Catholics' fears of becoming embroiled with General Franco in Spain affected Labour policy regarding collective security.1 The Shock of War

In the years immediately preceding the second World War, as the diplomatic situation in Europe deteriorated, there was an eleventh-hour strengthening of the unofficial movement in favour of stronger international obligations. The more extreme left-wing minority and a certain section of the official Labour movement threw their weight for the time behind Viscount Cecil's International Peace Campaign and the I.P.C. programme of collective security. This also drew adherents from the Australian League of Nations Union and from Protestant churches and allied organizations. There was some Australian support for antiFascist movements in Spain and elsewhere. The prevailing Australian attitude, official and unofficial, in 1937 and 1938, nevertheless remained one of uncritical, if uneasy, acceptance of appeasement policies.2 The outbreak of war in 1939 found the Australian people very little more advanced in their sense of world community than they had been at the close of hostilities in 1918. Support of the United Kingdom in its declaration of war upon Germany was spontaneous and had nation-wide backing, but it could not be said to have expressed any strong sense of international community. Nor did the Australian public, when entering upon this second war, realize the markedly changed conditions of world strategy in which they would be called upon to fight. 1

Cf. Professor G . V . Portus and Dr. Lloyd Ross in td. Duncan, W. G. K . , Australian Foreign Polity (Sydney, 1936), pp. 33-4. 1 For detailed and more sympathetic analysis of the Lyons Government's policy in these years, see Hasluek, op. cit., ch. 2 passim.

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During its years of pre-war opposition the Labour Party, it is true, had urged increasing use of air forces as part of a more regional Australian defence policy. In general, however, the Party gave litde support to the Government's revived defence programmes, which, indeed, commanded relatively little public attention. There was no general appreciation of the extent to which the armed strength of the United Kingdom had become inadequate to meet the double strain of a modern war in Europe and the defence of the overseas Empire and Commonwealth. The end of the ' phoney war' in the middle of 1940, and the rapid sequence of events from the attack on Pearl Harbour to the fall of Singapore thus came as a rude shock to the complacency of most Australians. The shock first expressed itself in a somewhat naive appeal from one English-speaking power to another. Australian Labour, now in office, appeared to turn its back upon the Indian Occan and Mediterranean. Looking across the Pacific, the Government, through its Prime Minister, Mr. John Curtin, called upon its ' Anglo-Saxon ' cousins in America to come to Australia's aid in the horn- of peril in terms which caused some dismay in London and at home. History records how the call was answered and how troops of another nation which had been shocked out of its traditional isolation and false sense of security were sent to use Australia as a base for operations in the South-West and North-West Pacific. The presence of American troops and the active participation of many Australians in the defensive and, later, offensive fighting in the Pacific Islands, both independently and in association with American forces, had a strange effect upon the Australian international oudook. The arrival in Australia of American troops produced a mild form of hysteria among many Australians who hitherto had shown little interest in or knowledge of American affairs, who had received American culture via Hollywood,1 and had been content to regard the American people as the undiluted descendants of prolific Pilgrim Fathers. The first feelings of semi-hysterical relief gave way to surprise, sometimes shocked surprise, at discovery of the differences in outlook, 1 For fuller analysis of Australian-American relations down to the outbreak of war in the Pacific, see the present writer's Australia and the Umttd Statu (Boston, 1941), especially pp. 1 1 - 1 4 .

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in manners, even in racial composition between Australians and Americans. It certainly was a shock for Australians (many of whose fathers had enjoyed the advantage of serving in France and Belgium during the first World War at higher rates of pay than their English or French allies) to experience the feeling of living at a lower standard than the members of a well-paid foreign, if friendly, army. On the whole, however, the period of American ' occupation ' of Australian towns passed without major consequences. When the campaign against Japan entered upon its offensive stage, and both Australian and American troops moved northward, the Australian people were able to take a saner view of their relations with both the United States and the United Kingdom. Emotional considerations apart, the Australian people gradually came to realize that they could not in future rely upon assured support and security from either United States or United Kingdom resources. There was a consequential challenge to at least the more politically conscious Australians to devise a relationship to the outside world which would be consistent with the economic and strategic resources of their own country, of the United Kingdom in its difficult post-war situation, of the other members of the British Commonwealth, and of foreign Powers generally, among which pride of place was naturally given in Australian thinking to the United States. A More Realistic Attitude

During the later war years a new, more realistic and less emotional approach to questions of international relations began to show itself amongst the rank and file of Australians. This was particularly marked amongst younger men and women in the Services. Officers of the Australian Army Education Service, for example, during the long period before the Pacific offensive began, had opportunities for educational work with trained troops located in different parts of Australia awaiting an enemy who did not come. Reports trickled through from Army Education staffs, in New Guinea as well as on the mainland, of a quickening interest displayed by troops in discussion on international policy. There was a confident expectation that the end of hostilities would find the Australian people more mindful of

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their peculiar geographical situation, and more ready to work out the requirements of a distinctively Australian foreign policy. These expectations were realized in part only during the early post-war years. By its activity at San Francisco and at international conferences after the cessation of hostilities, the Australian Government invited its people to demand recognition for Australia, not as a small, but as a middle Power which was entided to a full voice in major international decisions and was especially interested in problems of the Pacific. The personal prominence of the Australian Minister for External Affairs in post-war diplomacy underlined this policy and gained for it much publicity abroad. A t home, however, a reaction was setting in. There was, indeed, a certain reversion to type in the internal political life of Australia from 1946 onwards. The Labour Government's active foreign policy, whether in the general work of the United Nations or in particular developments in the Pacific, such as the Indonesian question, was criticized by the anti-Labour Opposition as a policy personal to Dr. Evatt and even hostile to the British connection. The determination of the Prime Minister, Mr. Chifley, to press on with socialistic legislation, including provision for the nationalization of banking, led to a sharp intensification of domestic Party conflict. The boycott of Dutch shipping by the powerful Waterside Workers' Federation not only led to the charge that the Government was allowing the direction of Australian foreign policy to pass out of its hands, but also strengthened the tendency of Opposition leaders to extend the range of partisan conflict from domestic to foreign issues. This produced a revival in Liberal and Country Party circles of the older emotional pro-British sentiment of pre-war years. Reaction Towards Parochialism Among Australians generally, moreover, the problems of economic and social readjustment in a country which had escaped invasion and maintained a relatively high degree of prosperity during the war years, proved more absorbing than issues of international politics. Ex-servicemen, who during their wartime years of close corporate life in areas far removed from normal amenities had responded readily to discussion on inter-

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national questions, appeared to find most of their interests and energies absorbed in family and local affairs. When challenged on international questions, they often revealed a certain disillusionment and a sense of frustration. By contrast with the apathy and indifference of the years following the first World War, there was a recognition that Australia would be deeply affected by major developments overseas, but the deterioration of world politics after 1946 and the sharpening of the conflict between the Soviet Union and the Western Powers left many Australians unconvinced that they could make any substantially effective contribution towards the larger issues of world affairs, as long as economic and military strength remained concentrated in the hands of two, or at the most three, major Powers. Thus both Colombo Plan and armed intervention in Korea were sponsored by the new Menzies Government and accepted by the majority of the Australian people as well as by the Chifley Labour Party, now in opposition following elections of December, 1949. But the Australian public of 1950 could not be said to entertain high hopes of the result of economic aid to non-Communist Asia and they were to show a mixture of detachment and, at times, irresponsible criticism in their attitude to the fortunes of Australian troops fighting with United Nations forces in Korea. The unofficial organization of facilities for the growth of a stronger and better-informed sense of world community among the Australian people made some progress in the early post-war years. A number of special bodies, such as the AustralianAmerican Association, Australia-India and Australia-China societies, varying in strength and purpose from State to State, gave form and some encouragement to a new geographical emphasis in Australian thought on current questions. One or two state governments and, to a very limited extent, the Commonwealth Government, showed some signs of recognizing the extent to which the Australian nation lagged behind some other Dominions in the provision of library and other organized adult education facilities essential to nation-wide, informed understanding of international issues. Despite newsprint difficulties, substantial daily press and radio services of news and comment from overseas countries, including North America, were also available to the Australian citizen who cared to follow the day-

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to-day trend of world affairs. In the early post-war years the Australian Institute of International Affairs extended its activities to all States. The Labour Government, as befitted its emphasis on Australia's role in international affairs, not only increased greatly the strength of its diplomatic staffs in Canberra and abroad 1 and improved the quality of technical advisers at international conferences, but also gave encouragement to the organization of unofficial bodies designed to keep the public informed on the work of^the United Nations. An increased Commonwealth subsidy was given to the United Nations Association of Australia (successor to the Australian League of Nations Union), and when this body failed to make the progress desired, or to conduct itself in sufficient conformity with departmental views, Government initiative produced a body to some extent parallel in purpose, organized on the lines of national U N R R A committees, with group but no individual membership—the Australian National Committee for the United Nations. ' A N C U N , ' established in 1948, was responsible for the very successful organization in Australia of the United Nations Appeal for Children and was eventually merged in a new Australian Association for the United Nations, comprising both individual and corporate members, with limited financial assistance from the Commonwealth Government. None of these post-war organizations, however, gave clear promise of ability to counteract the tendency of the Australian people to drift back into pre-occupation with local problems and partisan conflict on domestic issues. Meanwhile, full employment prevailed; inflationist tendencies were held in check during the first five post-war years by the retention of some of the highly successful wartime price controls; Australian stomachs were reasonably well-filled even after inflationist forces broke through in 1950; the Australian sun continued to shine on the beaches, in suburban householders' gardens, on playing fields and tennis courts; beer supplies were adequate, if sometimes rationed; and the pervasive racing industry continued to thrive among an Australian people most of whom welcomed the 1 In 1951 the overseas diplomatic staffs of Australia (locally engaged persons excluded) totalled one hundred and forty-two officers, eighty of whom were serving in twenty-nine missions overseas. Re-organization of the Department of External Affairs was begun by non-Labour governments before the outbreak of war.

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additional leisure of a forty-hour week, f o r the constructive use of which they h a d litde training, limited experience and relatively f e w facilities. P R O F . F. A L E X A N D E R , M . A . Professor of Modern History, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Director of Adult Education, University of W . A . ; born 1899; ed. Melbourne High School, Trinity College, University of Melbourne, and Balliol College, Oxford; President, League of Nations Union, W . A . Branch; Australian Alternate Delegate to Thirteenth Assembly, League of Nations, 1932; Rockefeller Fellow in Social Science, U.S.A., 1939-40; temporarily attached to Australian Legation, Washington, D.C., as personal assistant to Minister, 1940; Dep. Assistant Adjutant-General (Education), Western Command, rank of M a j o r 1941-45; Carnegie Travelling Fellow, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States, 1949-50 ; Chairman, Library Board of Western Australia since 1952; Chairman, Australian and New Zealand Advisory Committee on Rockefeller Fellowships in Social Science since 1953; publications, From Paris to Locarno and After, London, 1928; 'Australia since the W a r ' (Chapter in Cambridge History of the British Empire), Cambridge, 1933; Australia and the United States, Boston, 1941; Australia at War, Part I; Australia's War Effort, in The British Commonwealth at War, New York, 1943; Moving Frontiers, An American Theme and its application to Australian History, Melbourne, 1947; The Commonwealth Story, London and Nottingham, 1952-