viduals like their forefathers, and nothing would have been more congenial to their proclivities than to adhere to the old belief that public weal is best advanced by private action. In the modern world of industry, however, the isolated individual counts for little. At the outset there were in private hands no stores of capital sufficient to furnish the means necessary for organized effort on a large scale. In endeavouring to provide the first necessity of civilization—railway communication—it was found that private enterprise was wholly unequal to the task. In New South Wales, between 1846 and 1854, unsuccessful attempts were made, but the Government had to step in and complete the work. Similar results were experienced elsewhere; and it came to be recognised that railroads and other great engineering works should be constructed by the State, for the simple reason that there was no other means of getting them carried out.
State enterprise, adopted perforce in the first instance as the plan on which the industry and activity of the Australian Colonies ranged themselves, was retained because it was found that an adequate and immediate reward to individual effort was afforded by that system. It is true that there were in Australia some public men of philosophic cast of mind who, observing the advantages of governmental action, deliberately set themselves to enlarge its scope in every possible direction, and their efforts found reinforcements in every rank. The essays issued by the Fabian Society attracted much attention, and made converts not only of many of the Labour party, but also of some of the wealthiest, most cultivated, and most influential members of society. But these influences were almost negligible; the mam body of public opinion moved towards material and immediate ends, unconscious of any predetermined destination.
The magnitude of her public debt in proportion to the Australian population is due to the fact that it has been advantageous for the State to perform many public
