Re: Happy Birthday To Oz (was HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

On Mon, 1 Jan 2001 21:56:48 +1100, "Alan and Carmel Brain"
<aebrain@dynamite.com.au> wrote:

>FWIW Australia is 100 today.

Congratulations on your centennial! 

>The first time a nation had been created by a referendum of its
inhabitants,
>by the Ballot not the Bullet.

It may have been the first time a referendum created a nation, but not
the
first time that a ballot and negotiated settlement created a nation.
Canada
beat you to THAT by 33 and a half years. *S* (While Canada didn't have a
referendum for Confederation, the elections leading up to Confederation
resulted in pro-Confederation politicians getting voted in, and they
--in turn
-- sent delegates to Britain. )

But I didn't realize that Australia was created by plebecite! Way cool.
Once
again, congratulations!

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"