sed by the Commonwealth and State Governments mainly
from customs duties at first and, when these slackened, as they did
later, from land taxation.

It seemed strange to find that the Socialist Governments had actually
handed over the Australian States to the oft'-maligned capitalist; and,
stranger still, the people did not complain. The fact of the matter was
that the people had found that socialistic theories were very fine for
platform platitudes, but not for practical politics.

Australia learnt over again the lesson she should have remembered from
an experiment of twenty years previously.

It was the old story of "New Australia": the story that taught the world
that ideal socialism is impossible whilst human nature is as it is. And
yet Australia had forgotten it! It is strange that people rarely profit
from past failures. Countries as well as peoples usually insist on
buying their own experience, and the history of the socialistic
experiment in Australia between 1910 and 1917 was simply a repetition of
the great failure of William Lane's ideal.

It is interesting, at this stage, to study the analogy.

In 1890, a brilliant-phrasing Socialist, named William Lane, set
Queensland workers' minds aflame with his Utopian dreams of the ideal
socialistic life that could be lived on a large tract of country
offered them in the heart of South America. Three years later 250
Australians, including 60 single men and many single girls, put all
their wealth into a common fund and sailed away from Australia in a
specially chartered ship.

It was a unique experiment in Socialism. The men were not the scum of
cities, but enthusiastic and hearty individuals; clean-thinking
Irishmen, for the most part, trained in the tasks of settlement. All
were equal, and the warmest comradeship existed between men and women.

Here was the first weakness of the Socialistic creed: by all
contributing to a common fund, Lane had provided for communism of goods;
by recognising all children as belonging to the State he had provided
for communism of children; but as a father and a husband he feared
communism of morals. Hence he framed a regulation aimed to preserve the
conventional relations between the sexes, especially on board ship. To
prevent "flirtations" he issued a decree forbidding women to appear on
deck after sunset!

The first dissension arose through the women objecting to remain in the
stuffy atmosphere of the ship's hold below the wa