"A few good men": Public sector audit in the Swan River Colony, 1828-1835

The appointment of the Auditor General to undertake public sector audit is the primary instrument used to safeguard public finances in most contemporary Westminster-based democracies. It is axiomatic that the independence of the Auditor General from executive government is a critical element in ensuring the effectiveness of the role, yet this separation is a relatively recent phenomenon. Those responsible for nineteenth century public sector audit in the Australian colonies operated in what would today be considered an unacceptable environment, with little, if any, independence from the executive arm of government. Yet, while several other Australian colonies suffered from the mismanagement of government finances, there is nothing to show that the Swan River Colony experienced much more than clerical errors and minor administrative oversights. In this article, we explore the extent to which satisfactory public financial management in the Swan River Colony occurred as a result of both good financial management systems (in the context of the era) and the appointment of competent and ethical administrators – “a few good men”

Arctic Ocean, climate change and great powers rivalry

Praca rozważa znaczenie Arktyki w obecnej rywalizacji Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki i Chin, a także rolę Rosji w tym konflikcie. Sytuacja geopolityczna Arktyki uwzględnia jej status prawny, istniejące tam zasoby, możliwość wykorzystania szlaków morskich w obliczu redukcji pokrywy lodowej, zwłaszcza Północnej Drogi Morskiej, a także znaczenie strategiczne wynikające z położenia między Ameryką Północną, Azją Wschodnią i Europą. Rola Federacji Rosyjskiej w obecnej rywalizacji między Stanami Zjednoczonymi a Chinami przedstawiona została w kontekście analizy porównawczej faktów i koncepcji geopolitycznych. Autor wskazał ponadto na analogie między obecnym konfliktem a wojnami napoleońskimi, z naciskiem na rolę Rosji na początku XIX stulecia. Mocarstwo to rozstrzygnęło wówczas rywalizację francusko-brytyjską na korzyść mocarstwa morskiego. Obecnie może ono również wpłynąć na losy konfliktu, udostępniając Chinom Północną Drogę Morską w przypadku ewentualnej blokady Morza Południowochińskiego przez marynarkę Stanów Zjednoczonych.The paper examines the importance of the Arctic in the current US-China rivalry, as well as Russia's role in this conflict. The geopolitical situation of the Arctic takes into account its legal status, existing resources, the possibility of using sea routes in the circumstances of reducing the ice cover, especially the Northern Sea Route, as well as the strategic importance resulting from the location between North America, East Asia and Europe. The role of the Russian Federation in the current rivalry between the United States and China has been presented in the context of a comparative analysis of current events and geopolitical concepts. The author also pointed to the analogies between the present conflict and the Napoleonic wars, with an emphasis on the role of Russia in the early nineteenth century. This power then resolved the Franco-British rivalry in favor of the maritime power. At present, Russia can contribute to the resolution of the conflict by offering China the possibility of using the Northern Sea in the event of a possible blockade of the South China Sea by the US Navy

De tempore or per occasionem? The new year’s cantata by Friedrich C hristian Mohrheim and its typological peculiarity.

The article describes the cantata entitled Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn by Friedrich Christian Mohrheim, who was the Kapellmeister at St. Mary’s Church in Gdańsk in the years 1764–1780, and raises a question regarding its affiliation to the group of occasional musical compositions (per occasionem) and compositions connected with liturgical year (de tempore). On the basis of annotation of cantata’s manuscript marked Ms. Joh. 60, which is kept at the Polish Academy of Science Gdańsk Library, one may say that the work was created in 1762. The author of the libretto was Barthold Brockes, Hamburg councillor, and it was published in the fi nal version in 1724 in the first volume of the work Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott… (2nd edition). The poem, glorifying the new year 1717, was republished 17 years later in Harmonische Himmels=Lust im Irdischen… This time Brockes proceeded the libretto by new year’s excerpt from Ovid’s Fasti and added information that music to the poem was composed by George Philipp Telemann. From lections which were then presented during new year’s service in Lutheran Church, only the excerpt of Gospel about circumcision of Jesus and giving him the name (Lk 2,21) had its refl ection in the text of this composition, however, still only allusively in glorifying of God and his name for all good that happened in the previous year. The dramatic events, whose description one may fi nd in the text of the cantata for the new year 1717, seem to concern the tragedy of the Great Northern War which took place in the times of Brockes. By using the text from over 40 years ago, the Kapellmeister from Gdańsk put it in different context, namely in his current times of the Seven Years’ War events which were widely commented in those times in Gdańsk. The fact that the described events from society’s life, so up-to-date to his times, (celebration of the beginning of calendar year and referring to the Seven Years’ War) were added to the composition destined to the ceremony resulting from the liturgical year, allows to state that one may fi nd here a unique hybrid: the cantata per occasionem and the cantata de tempore

Jak po chrześcijańsku dom dyscyplinować, czyli rzecz o zapomnianym gdańskim poradniku Christliche Haußzucht… Joachima Löisentina z 1655 roku

Celem artykułu jest przybliżenie zapomnianego dzieła Joachima Löisentina pt. Christliche Haußzucht…, które po 31 latach zostało opublikowane w 1655 r. przez Davida Friedricha Rhetego w Gdańsku. Zbiór ten, stanowiący połączenie modlitewnika, kancjonału oraz podręcznika wiary, przedstawiono jako komplementarny poradnik służący systematycznej i metodycznej katechizacji w duchu luterańskim w zaciszu domowym.The aim of the article is to present the forgotten work by Joachim Löisentin, titled Christliche Haußzucht..., published in Gdańsk in 1655, that is 31 years after its inception, by David Friedrich Rhete. This collection, a combination of a prayer book, a hymnal, and a religious handbook, was presented as a complementary guide for systematic and methodical catechisation, in the Lutheran spirit, in the comfort of one’s own home

The Oxford history of Australia

No abstract availabl

'Smarten up the Parents': Whose agendas are we serving? Governing parents and children through the Smart Population Foundation Initiative in Australia

This article critiques the Smart Population Foundation Initiative (SPFI), which was established to ‘bring parenting information and the science of child development to Australian parents and carers’ (Smart Population Foundation, 2006) and to satisfy the need for a credible and easily accessible source of information for parents. The article draws on the notion of modern governance developed by Rose and analyses the Initiative as a deeply political project. It looks at the Initiative from a critical distance created by the context of governmentality. The authors argue that the discourses produced by the Initiative constitute a particular notion of parent as ‘smart’ (lifelong learner, responsible and informed). These discourses govern parents through ‘ethopolitics’ to take up a certain art of parenting as their supposed free choice. Through standardising and sanctioning a particular way of acting as a parent, the SPFI translates governmental objectives into parents’ own values and practices. As a result, the discourse the SPFI constitutes about parenting effectively ‘shuts down’ multiple understandings of being a ‘good’ parent. Hence, parents’ conscious formation of their parenting practices are inhibited and with that, the ethical debates around this contentious issue are silenced