A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 225, 19 June 1936, Page 9

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Australian Government

.Mr. C. J. Cerutty, former Cowiuvuwealth Auditor-General, has suggested tlie abolition of State political boundaries, and the appointment of a Government for the whole of Australia by tlie judges of the High Court. When Captain Cook discovered Australia m 1770 he gave tlie name New South Wales to tlie whole of the eastern part of the Continent. Tlie lirst settlement was made in 1788, and responsible go'eminent was established in 1856. Queensland was separated from New South Wales on December 10, 18o'J, and became a separate colony. Ds population was then 25,000. South Australia was settled in December, 183 b, and responsible government granted in 1856. Convicts were landed in Victoria in 1788, and the first permanent settlement was established on November W--1834. The territory was separated from New South Wales on July 1, 1851, and created a separate colony. In 1826 th c New South Wales Government sent 20 convicts and a detachment of soldiers to Western Australia and formed a settlement at. JiTederickstown. Hcsponsible government was granted in 1800. Tlie Northern Territory was lirst settled iu 1824, and incorporated in New Sou Mi Wales. In 1863 it was annexed to South Australia, and in 1011 transferred to thc Commonwealth Government. Tasmania, discovered in 1642, und known down to 1853 as Van Diemen’s Land, was not known to be an island until 1708. Formally taken possession of by England in 1803, it was made an auxiliary penal settlement of Botany Bay, from which it Mas separated iu 1825. Thc first free immigrants arrived in 1816, and. the last convicts in 1853. Responsible Government was introduced in 1856. After years of discussion tlie States agreed to the formation of a federal constitution, the States reserving to themselves considerable powers of local government. On January 1, 1901, therefore, the Commonwealth of Australia came into being. Commonwealth Act.

Tlie leading features of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution are: Thc Parliament consists of the King, a Senate and a Douse of Representatives. The Governor-General acts for the King. Tlie Senate consists of six members from each State. Senators are chosen for six years. The House of Representatives has approximately twice as many members as the Senate, and the number of members in each State is in proportion to the population, but: not less than live for any State. Tlie House of Representatives may continue to exist for three years, but. may be dissolved sooner. The principal powers of thc Commonwealth Parliament include legislating for trade, taxation, postal services, customs, naval and military, banking, marriage, immigration,, currency. There must be free trade between the States. Heligoland. Heligoland, which the Germans aie reported to be fortifying, lies about 20 miles off tlie German mainland. It was ceded to Germany iu 1890 by the British Government when Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister. Its cession caused some slight irritation in England. Iu 1890, by au Anglo-German agreement. Uganda became British, and it was by way of reconciling thc German people io the renunciation of this territory, and the retirement from all territory south of one degree south of the equator, and the establishment of an English protectorate over the island of Zanzibar, that Heligoland was ceded to them. The people of Heligoland, about 2000, mainly Frisian fishermen and pilots, were deeply incensed at being "given away like a cat or a dog.'' About a niile in length, and rising at its highest point to about 190 feet. Heligoland is about three miles in circumference and one-fifth of a square mile in area. Its limestone and sandstone cliffs rise sheer from the sea on all sides, except tlie south-east, where there is a fiat bank of sand called the Unterland. The Germans transferred the inhabitants to the mainland, and then set about fortifying the island. Artificial cliffs were constructed and the area of the island increased by dredging the Elbe and depositing on Heligoland tlie material obtained. Enormous gun emplacements Merc erected, harbours were made for warships and airship sheds were built: also a lighthouse with a 40,000,000 candle-power light. The dismantling of the fortifications and removal of all guns after tlie Great War was carried out by German labour under the supervision of an iuter-Allied naval and military mission. Syria and Lebanon. It is reported that France may. be shortly giving up her mandate over Syria and Lebanon. Syria, which includes the State of Lebanon, has au area of 60,000 square miles. At least three-quarters of its territory is inhabited by a nomadic population of the pastoral type. Only 6000 square miles of tlie total area i.< effectively cropped in normal years. 'The cities and agricultural lands lie chielly in a belt frotr 50 to 100 miles wide, inland from tin Mediterranean. The population numbers about 3,000.000: two-thirds are Moslems. Christians (mainly in Lebanon) number about 500,000. Damascus and Aleppo arc the two largest cities, and Beirut is the leading port. Syria is an agricultural country, cereals predominating. Wheat and barley are the leading products, though neither is produced in sufficient quantities to meet tlie home demand. There are few industries, and no mineral resources of consequence. Most Syrians speak Arabic and are of Semitic family with large admixtures of Arabic blood. League of Nations Reform. Scuor de Madariaga has devised a plan for the reform of the League of Nations. It includes the elimination of Articles 10 and 16 from the'present Covenant- Article 10 reads: "The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League. . . . "Article 16 says: "Should any member of the League resort to war in disregard to its covenants [under the League] it shall ipso facto be deemed to have committed au act of war against all other members of the League, which hereby undertake immediately to subject it re the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals of the Covenant-breaking State, and the prevention of all financial. commercial or personal intercourse between the nationals of the covenantbreaking State and.the nationals of any other State, whether a membet of the League or not. . . .”