FOR AND AGAINST: Different Agendas
Document 2

The Australian Natives' Association (ANA) was formed in 1871 for men who were born in Australia of British descent. The ANA was a nationalist organisation and actively promoted the Federation movement. The following extract comes from one of the speeches made at the closing banquet of the ANA Conference at the Shamrock Hotel in Bendigo on 15 March 1898.

ANA WILL BRING ABOUT FEDERATION

… Mr. J. L. Purves, Q.C., proposed "United Australia." He said that for the last 26 years the Australian Natives' Association, of which he was one of the founders, had been agitating for United Australia, which meant in other words Federated Australia. … In a comparatively few years the association had grown and possessed more power than Governments, politicians of statesmen, and it had the power to force this bill through and make it law. (Cheers.) The association had succeeded in toning down vast enmities and in bringing together all the colonies, showing them that it was in the purest spirit of patriotism that they were approached. (Cheers.) … He thought the time was not far distant when they would propose the toast "Federated Australia," and it would have been obtained by the aims, energy and industry of the Natives' Association. Mr. Purves concluded as follows:- Shall federation die? (Cries of No.) Shall Australian unity die? (Cries of No.) If it does, 50,000 native born will know the reason why. (Loud cheers.)

Mr J L Purves, reported in the Bendigo Advertiser, March 16 1898, p. 3.