orship would bring forth many aspirants for the honour, but,
fortunately for Australia, every Colony has men who stand head and
shoulders above their fellows, that when a minute examination of the
necessary qualifications was held there would be no difficulty in
selecting the proper man for the position.

In order to point out the contrast between the Local and English
Governors, let us consider the action of each at an imaginary meeting
called to discuss the most important phase in Australian history, viz:
Federation.

The present system will be dealt with first.

As the Governors of to-day are recognised only as figure-heads, they
would not be invited to attend, consequently the whole onus of the
undertaking would fall on the Premiers and their Parliamentary
colleagues.

Every Parliament may be divided into three distinct classes, the
Government, the Opposition, and the Labour Party, consequently the
leaders of all three parties would be required to assist in the
movement. They might fairly be said to represent the Colony, but would
it be likely that the Opposition, who have perhaps lately been thrown
out of power, would assist their opponents to complete what is to be the
most important step in Australian history? No, most decidedly not, for
they would recognise that the party in power would take the sole credit
for having brought it about. Shewing how eager the Premiers of the
Colonies are to personally bring about that most important step, it may
be mentioned that the last three Premiers of New South Wales have each
made overtures to the other Colonies, and yet were they to meet in
convention their opinions would be divided, with the result that
Federation would be just as far off as ever it was, and under the
existing regime it will never be brought to a head.

Now, supposing that a Local Governor was at the head of the Colony how
different things would be, for he would have no political or party
feelings, he would be the friend of all, and were a convention to be
called, he, a man of ability and integrity, with his whole interests in
the Colony, would meet men of the same calibre from the other Colonies;
he would be accompanied by his able ministers and leaders of the
different parties; all party strife would be put aside, for on his
shoulders would fall the credit of such an undertaking, and the parties,
glad to choose a medium by which their opponents would not succeed over
them, would gladly consent to t