Any Australian who knows of the poverty of the early settlers in the first few years following the arrival of Captain Arthur Phillip with his "first fleet" at Botany Bay must feel proud of the progress that has been made in the 174 years that have elapsed since that momentous occasionG For all its attractive appearance as reported by Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks, the shores of Botany Bay and of Port Jackson proved most ,inhospitable, and the accessible country surrounding them anything but suitable for sustaining the life of the small settlement. It is well known that during the first 15 or 20 years the hardy colonists and un- tfortunate convicts were close to starvation on several occasions and were only saved by the arrival of supply ships, which were dependent on the vagaries of wind and current, and the hazards of the uncharted seas they had to -navigate-._x000D_
When Australia was little more than a miserable penal settlement, Great Britain was one of the great-powers of the world, and the U,.S.A. was an independent nation with a growing degree of prosperity that even then gave promise of its mighty awakening to become, as it has, a e.olossus of industry and commerce,-and the. leader in living standards of the world to-day._x000D_
Australia, from such a shaky, and comparatively recent start, has risen to a position in which its living standards rank very high in comparison with those of most of the nations of Europe and America. Exact com- parisons are hard to fix because of the wide variety of factors involved .but the Institute of Pab?Lic Affairs .(Victoria) places Australia fifth in the world, excelled only by the U.S.A., Canada, Sweden and Switzerland._x000D_
The next best after Australia are the United Kingdom, West Germany and France._x000D_
How we achieved such a high standard of living is a vast subject for study but some of the economic aspects of our climb from abject poverty to a position of near affluence can readily be identified.