For the worthy and industrious poor, above all others, Australia and New Zealand offer unequalled inducements in the way of a new home. The climate is admirable, not liable to extremes, and constantly reminding one of the south of France or the shores of the Mediterranean. Statistics exhibiting the death-rates of the several colonies were a surprise to us, showing that Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania were healthier even than London, which is well known to be remarkable in this respect. Owing to the purity and elasticity of the atmosphere, which is proven to contain an unusual amount of ozone, the same degree of heat is not realized so much as it is elsewhere. The thermometer while we were in Sydney showed a mean of 60° Fahrenheit in the shade, in the month of June, which answers to our month of December in America. The death-rate of the New England cities is perhaps safely put at twenty-one per thousand, while that of Australia is shown to be seventeen per thousand,--a statement equally applicable to New Zealand and Tasmania. So far as we could learn by careful inquiry, malarial fevers are there quite unknown.
While in Sydney, we heard much relative to the proposed federation of the several colonies; that is, the adoption of one parliament for and a recognized union of all the provinces, following as a model the general idea of the Canadian organization. At present each section of the country--namely, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia, and Tasmania--is under a separate government, carried on without any unity of interest as regards the whole. Indeed the bitterest rivalry seemed to exist between them, a petty jealousy being fostered which is entirely unworthy of an intelligent and liberal people. Doubtless the world at large can see that the best interests of Australia would be served by a consummation of this purpose of federation, but it is not universally popular among the colonists. New South Wales, we were told, decidedly holds back from such a plan, her individual interest inclining her to maintain isolation; but, so far as one might judge, the other colonies favor it. It has been said that New South Wales is more loyal to the Queen than are her own English subjects at home; and as shrewd judges surmise that a complete federation of these colonies would ultimately lead to a declaration of independence of the mother country, they partly oppose the idea upon this ground. Undoubtedly it would be a step in that direction.