Brief Introduction to Governance of Australia 澳洲治國略論

Brief Introduction to Governance of Australia

澳洲治國略論

We used to hear that “the people are the foundation of a nation and a solid foundation will bring the nation peace and stability” 國以民為本，本固則邦寜. This indicates that it is a nation’s absolute priority to gain support from its people, and the development of suitable and practical methods for governing the people would particularly be an even weightier matter. We have seen the often diverse governance methods adopted by China and foreign countries (yang 洋). Speaking of that in the New South Wales province, studies of arts are the most prioritised followed by religious studies, as it is believed that proficiency in these two areas will be helpful in mastering skills of all the other kinds. For this reason, the Sydney Technical College will be discussed here first. The College was founded on Harris Street, with eleven branches established outside Sydney as well as 38 branches within the city, totalling nearly half of a hundred and all aiming at teaching technical skills. The majority of the students at the College are involved in a long-term apprenticeship, and anyone under the age of sixteen will be rejected for admission. The areas of teaching offered by the College will now be listed below.

• Heat engine operators and electricians.Those wishing to enrol in a course related to these two professions are required to take the entrance examination held once a year in January in the British calendar, with their apprenticeship being granted once their writings meet the prescribed length of words. The daytime courses are offered for full-time learning, requiring students to attend classes for three consecutive years. In comparison, those part-time students are free to choose whether to receive training in the daytime or evening at the College;

• Agriculture is classified into the following fields which are all administered in the agricultural workshops: farming, ranching, vegetables, introduction to quality of local crops, armouring horses and treating illness of horses;

• Sheep and Wool Training is divided into the studies of shearing, wool sorting and sheep sorting;

• Mechanical Engineering trains students in the following aspects: mechanical drawing, modelling of mechanical systems, adjusting sizes of machines, mechanical skills, wood carving, forging iron, making marine boilers, forging other types of metal as well as polishing thick metal chunks and mounting them onto the machine based on their sizes;

• Electrical Engineering focuses on the following aspects: electrical measuring, automatic electric machines, electric generators, electric lights, electric power transmission and conducting electrical wiring for power transmission on the streets;

• Engineering involving water or gas supplyis specifically taught in another building, with learning to design a bathroom drainage system being one main discipline area and the comparative study of water and gas supply;

• Properties of Medicine should be studied wholeheartedly as well as Pharmacy through a wide reference to academic literature, but they are essentially two separate branches. Although both rely on medication to test methods of extracting gold or silver, their experiments are conducted in different manners;

• Architectural drawing is taught, along with the construction of houses. The latter requires students to know how the balance between the weights of all building components and their pressure against one another generated from the process of building construction could be best struck from foundation to roofing. In addition, students will also be trained in the following aspects: bricklaying, land surveying, carpentry, making furniture, building stair rooms and staircases, building guard rails either for the staircases or housetop as well as the columns and pillars of a carriage and pattern carving techniques;

• For Art and Mathematics,students will be trained in measuring the size of small pieces of an object or a solid object, drawing with stone casting and moulding as a technique that must be learned concurrently, freehand drawing, portraying human faces and bodies, making clay statues, drawing or painting on the tiling of jars made of glass and porcelain, landscape painting, drawing on the white paper using a Bird Pencil as well as depicting flowers, animals and trees;

• Work involving manual labour covers the following areas: house painting, hand-painted signage for advertising, home renovation, lighting layout plans for homes, floor plans;

• Geography includes the studies of lands, rivers and seas, detecting the metal, jewel and sulphur buried underground, mineral identification, the way of issuing mining technology stocks and establishing a mining company, brief introduction to the metal in □;

• The course teaching human bioluminescence will educate students on how human bodies operate, the light and warmth essential for humans, electricity in human bodies, discussion of magnets;

• Home economics includes housekeeping, cookery, tailoring and dressmaking,making women’s hats, clothes washing and ironing.

In addition, there are teachers specialising in teaching self-protection and time-saving strategies, just as how typesetting and offset printing are taught in the study of coal mining to replace slate engraving. Studies in other areas including mine measurement, shorthand, calligraphy, book-keeping, fitness and mental health, public speaking, sewing, as well as the French or German language are all taught at the College on Harris Street. Hundreds of students attend evening classes every day. Anyone who studies a course and attends for one night per week will pay their teacher eight shillings per quarter as their tuition fees, with sixteen shillings per quarter for two nights of study per week and one pound per quarter for three nights of study per week accordingly. Moreover, anyone under the age of twenty is regarded as a minor and is eligible for half of the fees, together with other specified groups including women. Furthermore, minors under the age of eighteen who regret having no skills and attend College are only required to pay one-fourth of the fees, meaning that they can simply pay two out of eight pennies per week compared with those at the age of eighteen to twenty who should pay 6 pennies per week. Likewise, those who live in remote areas outside Sydney and come to the College by train can travel at half fare on all trains. These policies are all for motivating students.

The College also has a huge library comprising more than ten thousand volumes covering a wide range of discipline areas, allowing access for either lecturers (zhangjiao 掌教) or students of both genders and all ages at any time. The top priority in state governance is given to the education of technical skills first and arts second. Apart from the College, there is also a school of arts located between Sydney and Newtown. Aside from its specialisation in teaching laws and properties of medicine as well as training dentists and preachers, the school also covers a variety of other discipline areas where each of the students will pay a sum of tuition fees and follow a variety of conventions and regulations. However, we feel sorry to inform our readers that this will not be elaborated upon again, as further details have all been recorded in the previous volumes.

There are one hundred seventy public educational institutions located within Sydney in total, with the number of libraries in private institutions and churches for the purpose of charity or education exceeding three hundred as well. Clearly, education is prioritised in the Australian method of governing its people, hence explaining why the overall number of all educational institutions and churches that can make significant contributions to the management of state affairs exceeds three hundred.

The chief governor (Zongxian 總憲) of the federal government, to whom all six provinces in Australia currently report, is called Northcote. He is also a general of St Michael and St George in Britain, a general of India, as well as and the supreme commander who has the power to dominate over all six provinces. The ranks mentioned above all belong to him. Northcote is usually accompanied by a secretary and guarded by military officers. Likewise, there are currently nine people assisting Northcote in governing the six provinces, with the chief officer among them being Alfred Deakin, who is the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia as well as the Prime Minister of the six provinces. The other eight officials are Ernest, Attorney-General of all six provinces; Sir William Lyne, the incumbent Minister for Trade and Customs; Sir John Forrest, Treasurer of Australia; Austin Chapman, Postmaster-General; Thomas Playford, Minister for Defence; Ewing, Minister for home affairs; Thomas Ewing, Member of Parliament; John Keating, chief of the miscellaneous work. The nine people all assist the Prime Minister in regulating laws in the Parliament. The federal government is currently located in Melbourne and comprises the Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate constitutes a total of thirty-six members who establish laws and regulations to be obeyed by all six provinces, with six senators elected from each of the six provinces. In comparison, the House of Representatives constitutes twenty-four members from New South Wales, twenty-two members from Victoria, nine members from Queensland, seven members from South Australia, five members from Western Australia and five members from Tasmania. They are responsible for drafting and submitting federal bills to the Senate for review. Alfred Deakin is in charge of external affairs while Keating governs home affairs. Other significant official ranks include Chief Justice, as well as Chief Judge and Deputy Judge who hear cases associated with money and debt. Likewise, there also exists a Principal Registrar, Deputy Registrar, Chief Clerk, security officers, three Judge’s associates and solicitors. The officers mentioned above are all employed in the federal court on an annual basis.

The officers in New South Wales subject to the capital of the six provinces are as follows. The Deputy Postmaster-General of Sydney is in charge of postal communication in general, with the Chief Clerk dealing with money orders and arranging the wiring for the post office. The shopkeeper (zhanggui 掌櫃) manages the postal parcels. The Chief Inquiry Officer is assisted by the inquiry officers at the third level. There is also the deputy manager for managing local parcels, correspondence, registration and transcription, handling miscellaneous affairs and selling money orders. Moreover, the chief electrical engineers and electrical engineers at lower levels also fall under the regulation of the capital, along with the bookkeepers, officers in charge of □ wires or civil engineers in charge of the railways. These are all fixed positions every year and are assisted by over one thousand ordinary workers.

The officers in the Customs House in Sydney are listed as follows. The title of the officer in charge is “Chief Commissioner of Taxation” which suggests that he collects taxes on behalf of the British Emperor. There is also the Deputy Commissioner, assistants at the second and third levels, two staff members in charge of bonded warehouses, chief shopkeepers, bookkeepers, seven clerks, seventy-eight deputy clerks, three accountants, and one chief inquiry officer. The anti-smuggling team inside the Customs House is led by one chief anti-smuggling officer, who is superior to another thirteen second-level and sixteen third-level officers as well as nineteen assistants. The team is in charge of the foreign ships arriving in Sydney, searching through packages of freight and ships as well. Workers are also categorised into the first and the second classes, with each numbering fourteen and twenty five respectively. Another fifty-one general labourers work as assistants there. Additionally, there are two members in the patrol for seizing smugglers, one cleaner, one lift manager, fourteen messengers, two operators of the offset printing machines, two oarsmen and two officers responsible for night security. The customhouses near the province include three located in Newcastle Port, □ and □, Eden Harbour and areas around the □ River, Port Stewart, Kiama Harbour, Port Kembla, the Albury wharf which is on the side of Victoria, as well as □ respectively. Likewise, there also exist tax officers in charge of wineries, sugar factories and tobacco plug factories.

Playford is the head of the barracks in New South Wales, with Sir John Forrest being the treasurer. The military leaders are as follows. The Department of Defence consists of one Chief of Army, Chief of Navy and one Chief of Defence Intelligence as well as five councillors and four deputy councillors. A variety of other duties including managing canons and commanding troops are all regulated by Melbourne. However, there is probably no need to give the details of those general affairs, for this Department never seems to reportedly have had any communications with Chinese people. The doctors and personnel responsible for expenditure and revenue also wear military uniforms and are deemed actual military officers. Any decision made by the three institutions mentioned above, namely the post offices, customhouses and barracks must be scrutinised by Melbourne before they can be implemented, even though they are all located in Sydney. There should be three reasons for this. Firstly, the affairs post offices deal with on a daily basis would always involve many other provinces, and its operation therefore has been adhering to the authority of the capital since the six provinces united. Secondly, customhouses will become a main area of focus if the six provinces are to liaise with each other and make concerted efforts to seek wealth in hopes of sustaining the entire state, therefore explaining why customhouses in the six provinces are all governed by the capital. Thirdly, barracks are important for national defence, and therefore Melbourne has full control over the military powers in all six provinces.

The officer representing the British Emperor in New South Wales is titled a Governor, currently held by Sir Harry Rawson. His office comprises one secretary, two military officers, one clerk, one messenger, three gatekeepers who work shifts and also servants, with the costs of hiring all these people covered by the national treasury. The Governor heads the Parliament of New South Wales which also includes the Vice-President, Premier, Colonial Secretary, Attorney-General, Secretary for Lands, Secretary for Public Works, Minister of Public Instruction, Secretary for Mines as well as two members of the Legislative Council. Thus, a total of ten people in power currently govern the state.

The Legislative Council consists of sixty-two members who do not receive any salaries and all voluntarily devote themselves to state affairs. In comparison, there are ninety-one members of the Legislative Assembly, and each one of them receives three hundred pounds per year. Any law will first be proposed as a bill by the House before being introduced to and reviewed by the Council. Once the Council agrees to pass the bill, it will be forwarded to the members of Parliament for their further scrutiny, and Royal Assent will always be given by the Governor to enable the bill to become an Act if it is agreed to by all three Houses. The Council includes the Chief Clerk, Deputy Clerk, and Usher of the Black Rod, along with other clerks at lower levels. In addition, there exists a Table Office which also includes the Chief and Deputy Clerks who will record every utterance during the entire meeting of the Council in shorthand. Their notes will be compiled into books which will then be kept as historical records forever, and the books are available to any reader at any time. This is exactly the same as how our newspaper aims to please our readers by informing them about all the news. This is because we have never charged them even one cent for more than ten years since the newspaper was founded, although we receive tasks on a frequent basis. There are also the Chief and Deputy Clerks and Clerk-Assistants of the Assembly, together with the Serjeant-at-Arms tasked with keeping order in the chamber, registrars, Government Printers, reviewers of newspapers to spot potential libels about the political situation as well as clerks transcribing various other texts. This makes a total of twelve people in power in the Assembly. Likewise, the five officers in charge of the mint on Macquarie Street are also regulated by Britain.

The agencies mentioned above constitute the main body of Australia’s governance system, and the branches of civil servants are listed as follows. Responsibilities or positions in, the Colonial Secretary’s Department include census and statistics; head of police administration; the Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum; the Chief Medical Officer; Surgeons to the Lunatic Asylum; Registration including that of literary or artistic copyrights and trademarks; immigration regulation; management of charitable institutions; management of botanic gardens; Chief Clerk of Parliament; registration of births, deaths, and properties; regulation of officers outside the province; regulation of the guild halls (huiguan 會館) of different political parties; office comprising compradors (maiban 買辦) of foods and goods for the state and its military forces, as well as officers arranging construction procurement for government offices; regulation of fisheries within the province; head of the fire brigades; the Board for the Protection of Aborigines. Owners of the National and Centennial Parks are also governed by the Chief Secretary. Each of these officers is assisted by a chief clerk and a dozen deputy clerks, and their offices usually contain personnel of either several or tens of general staff members. Thus, there is surely no need to list out every one of these common positions.

The New South Wales Treasury and the businesses in the province are run by the treasurer, and the civil servants working for the Treasury are listed as follows. The agency includes offices for the sales of stamp duties, land and income taxes, collection of revenues and coffers, Government Printing Office, and property acquisition. Moreover, there are also officers responsible for the management of powder magazines, shipping, navigation, vehicle and railway taxes, weights and measures, public debts, superannuation, public libraries, port and harbour regulations and the management of external and internal information, with the Agent-General for New South Wales in London being affiliated with the Treasury as well. The offices and positions listed above all report to the Treasury.

The Public Works Department of New South Wales also regulates the Department of Public Instruction which is in charge of the following institutions: training schools for children, a training ship called Sobraon acting as a reformatory for children, Parramatta Gaol for Women and children’s prisons where carpentry is taught. These three facilities are all managed by the Secretary because the juvenile offenders regularly receive training while being kept in custody. Other officers and institutions that fall under the regulation of the Secretary include a museum which allows those wishing to learn about the operation of the exhibits to witness this process with their own eyes, the Mechanics’ Institute and the Technological Museum, astronomers and planetariums, galleries, the Sydney Law and Medicine Schools, the Sydney Grammar School, grounds for training scouts, and lastly comprehensive schools.

The administration of the Department of Mines and Agriculture covers the following institutions and responsibilities: any state-owned or privately owned agricultural lands, mining, land surveying, patrols at coal mines, regulation of the mining progress, mines rescue, fresh fruit and vegetable inspection and pest control, the control of fake wine produced with toxic chemicals, the National Agricultural College with an office for planting new native crops on a trial basis, import of livestock into Australia, registration offices for animals branded with a piece of red-hot iron pressed against their hides, registration offices for the transit of livestock through Australia, export of livestock, and treatment for diseases of native livestock.

The entities, areas and officers in relation to the government construction regulated by the Public Works Department of New South Wales are listed as follows: railway construction both within and outside Sydney, Government Architects, construction of bridges and roads, sewerage for public reservoirs and groundwater extraction, maintenance and repairs of harbours and rivers, supply of fresh drinking water available to the public as well as drainage and other works, the valuation of any Crown lands, civil and employment services, Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage, the Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Boards, Government Dockyards, cable ferries for public use, dredging service for shallow rivers within the harbours, maintenance and repairs of channels and drainage systems both inside and outside Sydney, highland water sources in Sydney for agricultural irrigation, Chief Commissioner of Railways and Tramways of New South Wales as well as his two assistants. Those mentioned above all fall under the regulation of the Public Works Department.

The Attorney General is also known as one of the Law Officers of the Crown, with his Department being titled the Department of Justice as well. The other officers, agencies or areas that fall under the Attorney General’s Department of New south Wales are now listed as follows: Chief Justice of New South Wales, judges responsible for monetary or debt cases, the Commercial Court Division, the Equity Division, courts of insolvency, security officers, judges of succession and probate, judges’ schedule for traveling around towns or regions in the province to handle major cases, courts of criminal offenses at various jurisdictional levels and across multiple towns or regions in the province, advisors on the nuances of state regulations, judges and solicitors prosecuting on behalf of the state, officers tasked with arranging government affairs, Chairman of Judges of the District Court, District Court, judges of the District Court, financial clerks at district levels, coroners, as well as prisons at various levels except for children’s prisons which are managed by the Department of public Instruction under the Public Works Department. Likewise, the Attorney General’s Department also holds authority over matters of pardons, penalties and sentences, the management of court buildings, the courts for reconciling disputes within the Labour Party, and courts dealing with cases related to lottery affairs. This Department is located on Macquarie Street in Sydney. In addition, the incumbent Vice-President of the Executive Council of New South Wales is surnamed Hughes, who assists the Governor in various legal affairs and is a member of the Legislative Council at the same time.

The areas managed by the Department of Lands are as follows: land surveying and determinations of boundaries for localities, the sale of Crown lands, resolutions of land disputes, and also the management of trees and lands in various locations.

Naval forces in all six provinces are administered by the British Admiralty. However, Australia must pay a tribute of two hundred thousand pounds to Britain every year to cover the expense of the military support from Britain. The Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief, Australian Station, are neither regulated by Australia. The former has full authority over civil and military affairs on lands, while the latter governs those in relation to waters. However, both are considered representatives of the British emperor who hold the highest ranks of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

The Commander-in-Chief, Australian Station is styled Vice Admiral, with the current holder of this position being Sir Fawkes. This title is also referred to as a Governor as in the “Governor of the Waters” by Australians. The RAN currently oversees the following fields or officers: the Chief of Navy, the Royal Dock at Sydney Harbour, the Head of Navy Engineering, and the office responsible for providing food and rations. Other key roles in RAN include dockyard engineers, as well as officers in charge of depots, victualling, naval architecture, assistance in victualling, assistance in managing depots, carpentry, and guns respectively. All of the above is subject to the authority of the Commander-in-Chief. This means that addressing any inquiry, unjust accusation, or legal infraction that occurred in the RAN falls under the duties of the Commander-in-Chief, although the officers mentioned previously will otherwise focus on their own duties normally. The aforementioned officers also constitute the Naval Court, and they are also tasked with overseeing the management of ships arriving in Australia. The Commander-in-Chief often simply enjoys his high rank and salary and is essentially more nominal.

Ships that have currently been assigned to the Australian Station are listed as follows:

• Powerful displaces fourteen thousand and two hundred long tonnes of water, with twenty-five thousand horsepower. Equipped with eighteen guns inside, she is the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief. By contrast, the HMS Royal Arthur, the flagship four years ago, was less than half the size of Powerful;

• Challenger displaces one thousand and eight hundred long tonnes of water and generates one thousand and two hundred fifty horsepower. Other second-class protected cruisers weigh one thousand and four hundred twenty tonnes, with their horsepower reaching one thousand and five hundred. Additionally, there are ten other ships, with some lighter than one thousand tonnes as large as one-third of the size of the ships travelling to and from China;

• A deluge of shock and concerns in Australia immediately arose upon Japan’s victory in military conflicts. As a result, Australia has paid two hundred thousand pounds to Britain this year for these ships, more than double the previous eighty thousand pounds, aiming to reinforce the navy as well as expand the naval force for the purpose of national defence. Accordingly, the displacement of third-class protected cruisers has also reached four thousand and three hundred sixty long tonnes. Their horsepower is seven thousand, with eleven guns installed inside each;

• Encounter has reached five thousand eight hundred long tonnes in displacement and is fitted with twelve thousand and five hundred horsepower engines. She is equipped with eleven cannons;

• Torch displaces nine hundred sixty long tonnes of water and has one thousand and one hundred horsepower, with six cannons installed;

• Psyche has a displacement of two thousand and six hundred fifty long tonnes and a propulsion of five thousand horsepower, with eight cannons installed inside.

All of the ships above assist Australia in deterring the yellow race from entering the state.

Apart from Northcote, the Governor-General, the incumbent Governors of each province are as follows: Sir Harry Rawson as the Governor of New South Wales; Talbot as the Governor of Victoria; Thesiger as the Governor of Queensland; Strickland as the Governor of Tasmania; Sir George Hunte as the Governor of South Australia; Bedford as the Governor of both Western Australia and New Zealand; lastly Sir Everard im Thurn as the Governor of Fiji. All of the officials above are currently engaging in the governance of Australia.