Australia has always been regarded with interest as one of the most important of the self-governing Colonies of the Empire, but this interest is now transcended by that which attaches to her position as one of the continents of the Pacific. Formerly the uttermost part of the earth, she may now at any time be brought into the very vortex of affairs. Eventually the Antipodes may become the apex. As one of the keys of the Pacific—as a battery for the reinforcement of British power in that region—everything that touches the welfare of Australia is of paramount importance to the whole Empire.
In estimating the outlook, the main fact should be borne in mind that Australia, like New Zealand, is essentially British—more British than any other Colony of the Empire; more British than even the heart of the Empire itself. Ninety-five per cent. of the whole population are British born or of British descent, and their characteristics indubitably proclaim their parentage. They have inherited the same practical, hard-headed common-sense which characterized their ancestors, the same faculty for making elbow-room, the same disdain of abstract theory, the same predilection for empirical methods, as opposed to the systems and generalizations of Latin races, which brought Great Britain to the front rank of nations; not precisely the qualities which have become fashionable during the recent age of laissez faire, when, having attained first place and distanced all rivals. Great Britain has been content with maintaining the status quo, but the qualities which marked the British race in the making—qualities which will have again to be cultivated when Great Britain ceases to rest upon past achievement, and once more gives way with a will in order to regain the lead lost through indifference, and through the habit of letting things pass in what was to her for a time the best of all possible worlds.
Australia, although a continent covering about a third of the area of the whole Empire, is also an island,
