Many Australians passionately believed that the British race, like British civilisation, was superior to all others. As Documents 6 and 7 show, one of the most powerful reasons for Federation was to create uniform laws that would prevent the immigration of 'other' races and thereby keep the British race 'pure'.

Focus question
RaQ10 What are the supposed strengths of the mixture of races in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales?

THE VARIED QUALITIES OF THE SEVERAL RACES

In England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, they are a peculiar mixture of the races known as the Constadt ... the varied qualities of the several races constituting this mixed people have made them the successful conquerors, colonisers, traders, navigators, and all else that has given them so wide an area on the world's surface to occupy and use, and so many distinct races and mixed peoples to govern ... It is curiously true that it is only the British people, and those from them, like the United States, Canada, and Australia – people who are able to found successful colonies, self-supporting and well governed, with all proper freedom; for the peoples of other types fail to do this, and, from various causes, the colonies they found are stagnant or retrogressive.

Science of Man: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society of Australia, Sydney, 21 April 1899, p. 41, cited in Raymond Evans et al., 1901 Our Future's Past Macmillan, Sydney, 1997, pp. 36-7.