cution, the Pilgrim Fathers possessed the solidarity favourable to successful cooperation; but there was none of the outside pressure of industrial necessity which moulded the more divergent elements of Australian settlement into combined effort In each case the best available road to successful settlement was selected. The methods differed, not because of any change in the national temperament, but because the conditions were altered.
In old countries the barrier of established custom, the ties of tradition, and the friction of vested interests, offer a serious resistance to every innovation; to strike out any new line of action in the face of such obstacles presents difficulties similar to those encountered in laying out a new thoroughfare in a crowded city. Here and there a monument of antiquity must be preserved and worked into the scheme, and the plan has to be modified accordingly. In young countries, where the ground is comparatively unencumbered, no such intricate problems occur, and convenience alone has to be studied. Under these simpler conditions the self-governing Colonies have acted as pioneers in the introduction of many measures which have subsequently been adopted, or appear likely to be adopted, in the Mother Country. Australia is the home of the Ballot and the Real Property Act The system of graduated death duties was established in Australia long before its introduction in the United Kingdom.
Old-age pensions, so frequently advocated in the Mother Country, have already been several years in operation in New South Wales and Victoria, and doubtless before long will be general throughout the Commonwealth. The franchise enjoyed since 1894 by the women of South Australia, and more recently by those of West Australia and New South Wales, has been extended to all women for both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament. The Referendum, so often cited favourably by Mr. Chamberlain as a means of lifting great national questions above the fog of party,
