1052 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [paRTYV 
land revenues were handed over a half used to be applied 
by the Imperial Government towards the cost of immigra- 
tion, and stress is laid upon the danger to the Empire and 
to the Commonwealth alike of the presence of a vast territory 
which is quite undefended against any serious attack, as 
the forces available, however well trained, would be unable 
to protect it if any enemy could get control of the sea. 
Nor indeed is there any doubt that in population lies the 
strength of nations, or that a completely trained Australian 
population would yet be useless if the sea fell under the 
command of another nation. 
On the other hand, the facts are very simple. It was 
contemplated, in the negotiations which led up to the transfer 
of Western Australia to responsible government, that the 
northern part of the territory should be put apart and the 
proceeds of the land there kept for the benefit of a future 
new colony.! But as the Governor pointed out, the proceeds 
were inadequate to cover the cost of such administration as 
there was, and therefore there could be no saving them for a 
future colony. In fact the lands were the only source from 
which revenues for the development of the colony could 
obviously be obtained, and if a colony had not been granted 
the lands it would have required, as the Canadian Provinces 
which had no lands required, grants from the central 
exchequer to keep them going. But such grants were ob- 
viously, as has been time after time asserted in the most 
emphatic terms by the Imperial Government, entirely 
opposed to the principle of the existence of self-government, 
and therefore self-government could not have been accorded 
without giving the control of the land revenue which the 
Crown possessed. And again, it is very doubtful whether 
it would ever have been possible to manage Colonial land 
successfully, even had the question of revenue come in, by 
means of a Government which was not the Government for 
local matters of the Colony. In a Colony it is difficult to 
imagine effective legislation which did not touch land 
interests, and if land were to be regulated the Imperial 
! Parl. Pap., C. 5743, 5752, 5919, and 5919 1.