4th Tune.
A stripy of the political conditions in the great self-governing colonies which form so large a part of the British Empire cannot but be interesting to all who have any love for or admiration of the free institutions of a free people, a freedom proved by the variations upon the methods and procedure of the mother land. Co-'Tonial Parliaments are British Parlia-; ments with a difference. There is no slavish imitation. Whatever has proved of sound value, whatever could readily and usefully be adapted to the requirements of the new land have been adopted, but there have been grafts which the slow-going mother land has not yet thought fit to join to the parent tree. Particulnaly has New Zealand been the scene of daring political experiments. She has a responsible ministry and two houses, the House of the Representatives being elected triennially. With her educated population suffrage has been on the whole a success, Residence for only one year makes aman a voter, anda woman as well, for New Zealand has led the world in having, since September, 1893, given the parliamentary franchise to the gentler sex. Advanced experiments in other directions in sociology have been made, but it is as yet a little premature to pass judgment upon their results.
The Australian Colonies have, after an honourable existence as separate states, at last brought about their great Confederation and the flag of the United States of the Southern Cross will inevitably. fly over a nation ever increasing in importance, in numbers, and in wealth. Its House of Representatives is elected directly by the vote of the people—women included, in some of the colonies, and is as nearly as dssible double the Senate in size.
all but name Australia is now an entirely independent notion, and for its slight sacrifice in this respect—if sacrifice it be—it has the advantage of being under the mis of Great Britain and the honour of being part and parcel of the Empire on which the sun never sets, It is too early to discuss the form into which the political parties of the new Federal Parliament will shape themselves, Protection and free trade have already had tussles of some determination, and there are naturally in a new country of such promise, various matters upon which opinions widely differ. But the whole hearted Imperialism upon which the Southern Cross looks down in all the territories under its benignant light is sufficient to ensure for Australasia a future as glorious and successful as the past of its great parent in the other hemisphere.
Canada has had the advantage of her southern sister in that her consolidation was achieved years ago. She therefore has had time to settle down into steady political stride, so steady that at one time it threatened to be rather more of the humdrum type than might have been expected from so vigorous and enterprising a people. Modeled on those of the home land, the political parties of Canada were known by the old names, though it must be remembered that "Conservative" and "Liberal" in the land of the Lady of the Snows meant somewhat different things from what they do at Westminster. It was in 1867 that the Dominion Confederation was completed, and from that date till 1896, with short interval of five years
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.