AUSTRALIA ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL STUDIES By Various Writers Edited by MEREDITH ATKINSON Melbourne: HEAD OFFICE: LONDON 1920 PREFACE Probably no country in the world has been more forward in social experiment than Australia, and none so backward in contributing to the world stream of sociological thought. The reasons for this anomaly will, we hope, be found in the present volume. Many a young scholar, coming from Great Britain to take up an academic appointment in Australia, has dreamed of producing some comprehensive work of research into the sociology of this courageous and virile young nation. But, alas! the majority of us have found our energies almost wholly absorbed by the excessive teaching demands which University conditions in Australia impose. The success of certain composite works published during the war suggested to the Editor of this book the possibility of co-operation between experts, as a practical alternative to a sociological work by any single hand. With very slight exceptions, his original plan has been carried out, and we believe the result to be the first comprehensive and authoritative work on the sociological and economic conditions of Australia yet to be published. The writers are representative of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Almost equal proportions of them were born in Australia and in the United Kingdom. All have had many years of intimate experience with life in the Commonwealth, and can claim to be regarded as experts in their several subjects. Considerable delay in the publication of the book has been experienced, owing to a succession of serious industrial disputes, following the close of |