THE REFERENDUM IN AUSTRALIA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
San,—It seems to an Australian an extraordinary thing that, in the endless disquisitions in Great Britain on the subject of the Referendum, so much stress is laid on the example of Switzerland and so little on that of Australia. The people and Constitution of the former are so entirely different from that of Great Britain that it seems quite possible for a political institution of the one to fail to suit the other. There is no such difficulty in the case of Australia, which is British in race, language and ideals, from Brisbane to Fremantle, and from Hobart to Port Darwin. The names are significant. Now, the Commonwealth, or political union of the different colonies of Australia, was only rendered possible by a poll of the people, and since then the Referendum has been a per- manent feature of the Constitution, placed there by Imperial Parliament,. Is the House of Commons going to repudiate its child ? The House of Lords certainly appears more en- - lightened. On April 13th last we had the Federal elections
• for the Commonwealth Parliament, and, at the same time, a Referendum covering two questions. The poll was held on the same day and in the same polling-booth as the Parlia- mentary elections. Each elector—male or female—was given four ballot papers—white for the senatorial election, pink for the representative of the district, blue for the financial, and buff for States' Debts Referendum. All you had to do was to place a cross (X) opposite " Yes" or "No," according as you wished to vote for or against the proposals. In the case in question, the poll rejected the financial proposal by circa 660,000 "Noes " to 630,000 " Yes," and adopted the State Debts' law by circa 700,000 " Yes" to 570,000 " Noes." Mr. Deakin resigned, not because one of his financial proposals had been rejected and the other adopted, but because the Parliamentary election left his party in a minority. There is no reason in the world why Parliamentary government should not be carried on side by side with the Referendum—as in Australia—the British Weekly to the contrary notwithstanding.—I am,
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