The restriction of the immigration of coloured races--Betting and lotteries--The adoption of a modification of Hare's System of Voting--Conflicts between the two Houses of Parliament--Finance and Taxation--Land Grant Railways . . . . 170 VIII. _FEMALE SUFFRAGE_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 IX. _THE EVOLUTION OF A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT_ . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 X. _SALIENT FEATURES OF THE AUSTRALASIAN DEMOCRACY._ Indirect effects of the discovery of gold--Causes of the financial crisis--The origin and extent of State Socialism--The thriftiness of the working classes--Labour Representation in Parliament--Parliamentary Government--Direct Taxation--Conciliation and Arbitration in Industrial disputes--Protection and its corollaries--The feeling towards Great Britain--General conclusions . . . . . . . . . . 244 XI. _A VISIT TO THE COOLGARDIE GOLDFIELDS IN MARCH, 1896_ . . . . . 303 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 {1} I _LIBERALISM AND LABOUR IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA_ Contrast between Western Australia and the Eastern Provinces--The Constitution of South Australia--The alliance between Liberalism and Labour--Joint action in the face of financial depression: Village Settlements, Progressive Taxation, the direct encouragement of production--The advocacy of an Elective Executive--The State and Religious Instruction. The traveller who visited Western Australia in 1896 saw a country which was enjoying, owing to its goldfields, a phenomenally rapid development, with all its attendant advantages of a large increase in population, an expanding revenue, and abundance of employment. As he passed to the Eastern Provinces he found himself in the midst of communities which had been shaken to their foundations by the fall in the value of their staple products and the collapse of many banking institutions, and were putting forth strenuous efforts to restore the equilibrium between revenue and expenditure and to make a fresh start upon the path of prosperity. These efforts, varying in detail in different Provinces, have included the imposition {2} of additional taxation, provision for the unemployed, and, in some cases, direct encouragement of production. The policy pursued by South Australia is of particular interest as her Constitution gives the freest play to democratic influences.