Our welcome to the harbour city was most enthusiastic, and our first meeting, held in the Protestant Hall, on the Wednesday after our arrival, with the Attorney-General in the chair, was packed.  The greatest interest was shown in the counting of the 387 votes taken at the meeting.  Miss Rose Scott, however, had paved the way for the successful public meeting by a reception at her house on the previous Monday, at which we met Mr. Wise, Sir William McMillan, Mr. (afterwards Sr.  Walker), Mr. (now Sir A. J.) Gould, Mr. Bruce Smith, Mr. W. Holman, and several other prominent citizens.  The reform was taken up earnestly by most of these gentlemen.  Sir William McMillan was appointed the first President of the league, which was formed before we left Sydney.  During the first week of our visit we dined with Dr. and Mrs. Garran, who. with their son (Mr. Robert Garran, C.M.G., afterwards the collaborateur of Sir John Quick in the compilation of the “Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth"), were keen supporters of effective voting.  Among the host of well-known people who came after dinner to meet us was Mr. (now Sir) George Reid, with whom we had an interesting talk over the much-discussed “Yes-No” Policy.  We had both opposed the Bill on its first appeal to the people, and seized the occasion to thank Mr. Reid for his share in delaying the measure.  “You think the Bill as amended an improvement?” he asked.  “Probably,” replied Mrs. Young, “but as I didn’t think the improvement great enough, I voted against it both times.”  But I had not done so, and my vote on the second occasion was in favour of the Bill.

But, as Mr. Reid admitted, the dislike of most reformers for federation was natural enough, for it was only to be expected that “reforms would be difficult to get with such a huge, unwieldy mass” to be moved before they could be won.  And experience has proved the correctness of the view expressed.  Anything in the nature of a real reform, judging from the experience of the past, will take a long time to bring about.  I am convinced that had not South Australia already adopted the principle of the all-round land tax, the progressive form would have been the only one suggested or heard of from either party.  Politicians are so apt to take the line of least resistance, and when thousands of votes of small landowners are to be won through the advocacy of an exemption, exemptions there will be.  The whole system of taxation is wrong, it seems to me, and though, as a matter of expediency, sometimes from conviction, many people advocate the opposite course, I have long felt that taxation should not be imposed according to the ability to pay so much as according to benefits received from the State.  We are frequently warned against expecting too much from Federation during its earlier stages, but experience teaches us that, as with human beings, so with nations, a wrong or a right beginning is responsible to a great extent for right or wrong development.