FOR AND AGAINST: Regional Differences
Document 3

Some Queenslanders in rural areas wanted the colony to be divided into three separate colonies because they felt that Brisbane was not looking after their interests.

Focus question
FerQ3 What are some reasons why different Queenslanders might have different opinions about Federation?

EVERY NORTHERN VOTE SHOULD BE CAST IN FAVOUR (NORTHERN QUEENSLAND)

SEPTEMBER 2nd (Referendum Day) falls on Saturday next and as it is necessary that every Northern vote should be cast in favor of the Bill in order to counteract the big Southern adverse vote, the Post proposes to clearly enunciate the advantages which will accrue to the North through Queensland throwing in her lot with a Federated Australia ... It is to the interest of the South, and especially of Brisbane to prevent the endorsement of the Commonwealth Bill, because under the present conditions Brisbane has practically a monopoly of the trade of the North – a monopoly which exists by reason of the tariffs which a Southern Parliament has imposed. Let us make this matter clear and plain so that he who runs may read. Northern and Southern Queensland have separate and distinct interests owing to the different climatic and other conditions which exist. In the North, manufacturing industries are few and likely to remain so, as with our immense natural resources and scanty population it pays just now to supply raw products and leave the manufacturing to more thickly settled portions of Australia, where fuel is handier and cheaper and the labor conditions more favorable. Brisbane wants those raw products at as cheap a price as possible and so long as Queensland stands out of the Federation she will get them at her own price because of the heavy duties which New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania will impose on all goods outside of the Federation. It also means that we have to pay heavily on all the necessaries and luxuries of life which are manufactured, or produced outside of Queensland, so that if the Commonwealth Bill is negatived on Saturday next, North Queensland will continue to burn the candle at both ends and to labor under the difficulties inseparable from a restricted market for her raw products. This view of the case is one which should impel every loyal Northerner to vote in favor of the Bill on Saturday next, apart from the broader view of a united Australia with a grander and wider destiny than can ever be possible under the present provisional conditions.

SEPARATION V. FEDERATION.

Hon. W. O. Hodgkinson once described Queensland as "bounded on the North by Separation, on the South by Federation, on the West by Starvation, and on the East by Navigation." At that time the Federal movement was in the early stages of initiation, while the Separation cry rang throughout the North. Although that cry has now sunk to a feeble whisper, Northern Queensland is just as anxious for Separation to-day as it was ten years ago, only, we have realised the truth of the saying that "Hope long deferred, maketh the heart sick." The South has always bitterly opposed the proposal of the North to separate from her, for reasons given in the beginning of this article, and just so long as those reasons operate, so long will Brisbane and the spoon-fed southern districts continue their opposition to Separation. One or two ardent Separationists in this district urge that Separation should take place before Federation, because the Commonwealth Bill provides that a State may be divided into two or more separate States only with the sanction of the State Parliament. Such a provision does exist in the Bill, but we fail to see how that particular clause will alter the present state of affairs. Northern Queensland has tried time and again to obtain Separation, but on every occasion has been informed by Downing Street that such a thing was impossible without the consent of the Queensland Parliament. The position is therefore this:-Without Federation the North cannot separate from the South unless with the consent of a Southern Parliament, and under Federation the same conditions will prevail. The obvious remedy is to remove the inducement to Southern members to oppose the North in her efforts to secure autonomy and the Bill provides this remedy inasmuch as it places Brisbane on the same trading footing as the rest of Australia. Under Federation our products will be admitted duty free to the markets of Australia, instead of to Brisbane only, and our imports being admitted duty free will enable us to secure the best goods in the best market at considerably less cost than at present. Once the present Intercolonial tariffs are removed, the South can have nothing to gain from holding the North in bondage, and the inducement to do so having been removed, there is infinitely more chance of the State agreeing to Separation than if the inducement is allowed to remain. The simile of a farmer with a good milch cow applies. So long as the cow continues to give a large supply of milk, the farmer is less likely to part with her than if she suddenly and permanently became dry. All Northerners who believe that Separation spells Salvation for the North should work hard for the Bill and vote straight next Saturday ...

Morning Post, Cairns, 31 August 1899, cited in Scott Bennett (ed.), Federation, Cassell Australia, North Melbourne, 1975, pp. 202-3.