Excerpt from A History of the Tariff Relations of the Australian Colonies

The history of the tariff relations of the Australian colonies, it must be confessed, is a sorry record of intercolonial jealousy and strife. The pas sage oi the Australian Colonies Government Act of 1850 marked the emanei patiou of the colonies from the bondage of Downing Street. The colonies were free to work out their own destinies. But they were far from pre pared as yet to take on a national status. They were but small, isolated communities in the pioneer stage of social and political organization. They knew and cared little for what was going on in the outside world. The process of social and economic unification was but slowly worked out. The scattered colonists, like the Children of Israel, were doomed [by a narrow provincialism to wander for forty years in the wilderness before they were ready to enter into their national heritage.

The student who endeavors to follow the course of Australian history during this period soon finds that he has ventured into a region as dry and unpromising as the great central wastes of the inland continent he is study ing. The trail is difficult to follow; the way is long and devious. He ap pears to get no farther forward. Time after time the crosses and recrosses his own path as the trail doubles back and forth. Year after year there are the same petty disputes, the same tiresome negotiations, the same dismal fail ures to be recorded. But the journey is not all so dreary. Sometimes he is led up into a high mountain where he gains a vision of a great and united Aus tralia. Here and there an oasis is to be found in the desert. For a time the relations of the colonies become much more cordial; differences are ad justed; a spirit of common nationality makes its appearance; the dawn of a higher destiny seems at hand. The desert begins to blossom like a rose. But alas, the wells of friendship soon dry up; the drought of provinciali-sm settles down again upon the land. The face of nature appears harder than ever before. And so after several years of apparently aimless wandering the weary student finds himself back again within sight of the starting point. The desert is still uncrossed. But the quest perhaps has not been fruitless. The trail at least has been discovered, the heart of the wilderness has been penetrated and a portion of the tortuous path mapped out for some future historian of the economic development of the Australian colonies.

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