tracts for service in Australia should be made in the country itself, where both parties can have the same knowledge of all the conditions. It is one of the many paradoxes of the Antipodes that British sentiment should have been aggrieved by this attempt on the part of Australia to protect British workmen against being made victims of an unfair bargain. Naturally, the grievance comes from a misunderstanding. An enterprising manufacturer of hats omitted to obtain a permit to land six operatives whom he had brought from England under contract. There was a question whether, as skilled artisans, they were not outside the Act; but, however that might be, he was officially advised of a means by which he could have remedied his oversight within a few hours. But our manufacturer was starting a new business, and the Sydney newspapers were looking for a stick with which to beat the Barton Government. No good business man could be expected to let slip so excellent an opportunity. Accordingly for five days the new hat factory monopolized public attention, while Australia rang with indignation against the Government. When a sufficient advertisement had been obtained, the permit was applied for and the men were landed. And they are all of them now members of the Labour Party, and one of them holds office in a branch! It is probable that the mythical accretions round this simple incident have done as much injury to Australian credit as the drought itself. The Petriana myth—that the shipwrecked crew of the barque Petriana were forbidden to land in Melbourne because of their colour!—is another story of the same kind, but fortunately this, although much more grizzly in its horrid details, was too shamelessly exploited at the General Election of 1904 to be of any further use for circulation in England!
The truth is, that in the application of the White Labour Policy, Australians have neither lost their heads nor forgotten their responsibilities towards the Empire. Realizing their dependence upon the sea-power of
