sions in the Pacific area (roughly about 90,000 sq.m.) does not,strictly speaking, make any change in the area of the Australian Commonwealth since these "mandated" territories are not annexed.
Papua.—The suitableness of Papua for various forms of tropical agriculture is undoubted, but there is a "labour difficulty" in the way of progress. The Papuan, like most South Sea Islanders, has an aversion to steady work. In Fiji, a British colony in the S. Pacific, a position similar to that existing in Papua has been met by the importing of industrious coolies from India to develop the sugar plantations. The Australian Government, however, is determined to keep Papua for the Papuans. It was proposed in 1908 that the Papuan should be forced to do a certain amount of work, either for himself, for private planters, or for the Government, the argument being advanced that since nature was so bountiful as to keep him in reasonable comfort without, work, he would never be driven to labour by necessity, and must, therefore, be brought under some other form of compulsion. The Australian Government vetoed the proposal. In 1918, however, a Native Taxes Ordinance was passed authorizing a tax not exceeding £1 per head on all natives except those in Government employ, or unfit for work, or having four or more living children. The proceeds of the tax will be applied to the benefit of the natives; its effect is designed to stimulate industry on their part. In 1919 about 13,000 natives were engaged in some form of contract labour. The Native Labour Ordinances safeguard strictly the interests of the native workers.
There are about 58,513 ac. under cultivation, mostly planted with coco-nut trees. Rubber, cotton, sisal, and coffee are also grown and mining and pearl-shelling are considerable industries. The system of land tenure is by leasehold; freeholds are not granted; the conditions of leasing are not onerous (see New Guinea).
The Federal Territory and Federal Capital Site.—The constitution having provided that the capital of the Commonwealth should be within the state of New South Wales, at least 100 m. from Sydney, the New South Wales Government in 1909 surrendered to the Commonwealth Government some 900 sq.m. of territory around Yass-Canberra, and also an area of 2 sq.m. on the shores of Jervis Bay for the construction of a Federal port; and with these areas went the right to construct a railway from this port to the Federal Territory.
In 1910 the Federal Government took possession of the Territory. It established there in 1911 a military college and later a naval college at Jervis Bay. In 1913 the work of constructing the Federal city was formally begun. A railway connecting the site with the main line was opened in 1914. The World War seriously interfered with further progress and work on the Federal city was still in abeyance in 1921. About £1,000,000 had been spent.
The Northern Territory.—With an area of 523,620 sq.m. (more than one-sixth of the continent), having some very fertile land, and with a better river system than most other parts of Australia, the Northern Territory is almost empty and undeveloped. The total pop. (other than aborigines) was 4,706 in 1919. The backwardness of the Territory as compared with the rest of Australia is due chiefly to political causes. When the Australian colonies first set up separate households it was convenient to none of them to include the Territory, and it was left in the hands of the Imperial Government. In 1863 South Australia took over the responsibility for the Territory, intending to connect it with Adelaide by a north-to-south trans-continental railway. With such a railway it would have been brought within the ambit of South Australian development. Without that railway it was actually more remote from communication with South Australia than with any other of the states. The railway was begun. It reached Pine Creek from Port Darwin at the N. end, and Oodnadatta from Adelaide at the S. end; then hope of its completion was abandoned. When the Commonwealth came into existence it sought a transfer of the Northern Territory from South Australia. But it was not until Jan. 11911 that the final stage of the negotiations was reached and the Territory assumed by the Commonwealth. The terms of transfer were that all the past deficits incurred by South Australia in the administration of the Territory should be taken over by the Commonwealth, and that the trans-continental railway should be completed from Port Darwin in the N. to Port Augusta (near Adelaide) in the S. The Commonwealth purchased the existing state railway from Port Augusta to Oodnadatta. It has not yet been found possible to go on with this railway project, but, the east-to-west trans-continental railway being completed, the north-to-south in 1921 was being seriously discussed.
In 1912 the Commonwealth Government appointed an administrator for the Northern Territory and took preliminary steps for its development and colonization. As to the possibilities of a white population flourishing in this tropical part of the continent the evidence is reassuring. There is very little malaria, and other specific tropical diseases are absent. The land is generally considered to be suitable for cattle-grazing (there are great herds of wild buffalo) and tropical farming on the coast ; for sheep-farming and dairy-farming on the tablelands. There is said to be mineral wealth, but mining results in the past have usually been disappointing. In its policy of development the Australian Government does not propose to allow any further complete alienation of Crown lands. All titles will be leasehold, but the leases will be in perpetuity, with reappraisement of rent every 14 years in the case of town lands, every 21 years in the case of agricultural and pastoral lands. Up to the present the Northern Territory has not proved a profitable acquisition for the Commonwealth. The year's accounts 1918–9 showed a deficit of £357,760 on an expenditure of £497,301. The administration has been disturbed by troubles similar in character to those which the Mother Country had with the Australian colonists in the early days of Australian settlement.
The Commonwealth
The Federal Act of July 1900 (see 2.966) united in an indissoluble Australian Commonwealth six self-governing colonies, organized as British settlements between 1770 and 1859, which retain their individuality and, for certain purposes, their independence. The federating states, New South Wales (see 19.537 et seq.), Victoria (see 28.37 et seq.), Queensland (see 22.732 et seq.), South Australia (see 25.492 et seq.), Western Australia (see 28.539 et seq.) and Tasmania (see 26.438 et seq.), were left with certain self-governing powers and preserved their own political institutions. Separate notes are added later as to certain details in the internal affairs of the individual states, but in the following account Australia will be considered substantially as a whole, in its aspect of a single national unit.
Population.—Public opinion in Australia has at different times condemned as unsatisfactory the rate of growth of the population both by natural increase and by immigration. The feeling that the natural increase of the population was not sufficient led in New South Wales to the appointment of the Birth Rate Royal Commission (1903). An outgrowth of that commission was a Federal Royal Commission on Secret Drugs and Cures which reported in 1907 and devoted much attention to the matter of artificial limitation of families. It was established fairly clearly by the first of these commissions that there was no natural cause predisposing to sterility in Australia, but that the desire for comfort conduced to a somewhat general artificial limitation of families. As a consequence of this commission some public opinion against the tendency to "race suicide" was aroused; and certain administrative measures were adopted by the Customs and Police departments which sought to lessen the facilities for artificial limitation of families. It is a coincidence, if not a case of cause and effect, that from 1903 "the natural increase" of population in the Commonwealth steadily improved until 1914 when, as a consequence of the World War, there was a very marked decline. Possibly a healthier public opinion following on the report of the Birth Rate Commission was in part responsible. Other possible contributory causes were a great increase in material prosperity following upon federation, and an influx of immigrants from lands where artificial limitation of families was not so much practised. The natural increase per 1,000 of mean population in 1906–10 was 15·93, which was higher than that of any European country, except The Netherlands and Bulgaria, and compared with 11·58 for England and Wales. But in 1915–9 it had fallen to 14·99. Australia has a low birth-rate and a very low death-rate. Taking a pre- war year the Australian death-rate of 10·4 compared with 14·5 for England and Wales, 30·0 for Russia and 19·3 for France.
In regard to immigration Australian public opinion has undergone a marked change, due in the main to a fuller appreciation of the danger of leaving the lonely outpost of the Empire in the South Pacific so bare of population. There was for many years a desire on the part of the exceedingly prosperous working people of Australia to keep out immigrants as much as possible, lest a rush of population should cause a reduction in the wage rate or a lowering of the conditions of life. That desire survives in some quarters, and is still a force to be reckoned with in a country where the Labour voters have the controlling power in politics. But it is being recognized, by Labour leaders as well as others, that a great access of population is necessary to the safety of the country and need not affect the general prosperity of a continent which has a little over 5,000,000, and has room, at a low estimate, for 100,000,000 people. In the beginning of Australian colonization state-aided immigration brought a great influx of people to Australia who otherwise would never have been able to afford the expenses of the long journey from Europe. Since 1906 the policy of state-aided immigration has been reëstablished in Australia, and was afterwards, though interrupted by the war, revived under Commonwealth direction.
On April 3 1911 the decennial census was taken in Australia, and the population ascertained to be 4,455,005, showing a rate of increase for the Federal decennium of 18·05% as against a rate of increase of 18·88 for the previous decennium. But whilst the annual rate of increase from 1901–6 was only 1·39% the annual rate of increase 1906–11 was 2·03. The year 1911 showed a total increase of 143,624, to which natural increase contributed 74,324 and immigration 69,300, exceeding in one year by over 50% the total immigration gains of the previous ten years. Australia had thus "turned the corner" in regard to immigration, but the World War came as a