ENGLISH AND COLONIAL MEN. A CONTRAST.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 128, 26 November 1907, Page 3

ENGLISH AND COLONIAL MEN. A CONTRAST.

(FROM OUE OWN COBKESFONDENT.} LONDON, 18th October. In a London paper a colonial has been bestowing some criticism upon the Eng- ' lish and colonial- men. He says : —"Take the young Britisher in a train, travelling, Siiy, a 150 mile journey. It is seldom there is any conversation started up, and we nearly all stick on our seats like 'wooden dolls.' John Bull's insularity, you will say, but „ let it be so, it is a bad trait, as so much " education is lost through lack of pleasant conversation. Many people speak of. tha workman as if he were an ammal apart, although I -will grant the average British workman is not very remarkable for tha thinking power of his brains. P-erhapa your dull climate- -and longer hernwi of working make him more of -a macJrbj© than he thinks, he is. Wo hear so much about John Bull going 'down' the hil^ that I was prepared to t see the Homeland going 'under' rapidly. ' I am glad to ba ' fible to say I don't see 'any evidences of it. Freetradc may be good — I doubt it — but at Leith, Hull, Grimsby, and. London, and also at Dublin and Belfast, I saw steamers discharging at these ports goods from the Continent, and' in tha manufactured form whijeh I am sure could have and should have been made in Britain. It certainly strikes all colonial! who visit Britain as queer that those i?* authority keep other nations going and let your own workpeople want, and tell them to emigrate. . ' "Something is wrong, and you can bet we colonials are not at the same game. We may be called selfish, and it, appeal* that everyone Who looks after himself is selfish in 1 - the- eyes of Freetrade, but w» 'down under' believe in our own peopla first, our , homeland, which is ...Britain, second, and the foreigner last notice tha£ Germany, isv exercised a, little <>ver Australia's; now , tariff , and "talks of* retaliating. Well, let her retaliate. \Sh.o only buys raw materials from us, .suoh as wool, ores, etc. IFshe .taxes these^ she 1 can and she will cut her own nose^but I when, we pivs Britain preference, be it only a little, it shows where our hearts are, and if Britain stretches out'; her hand and shakes with us we will maka it ' more. Old England wipes the .floor _ with us in the matter of through trains. In' none of the colonies are our raiVsavs so good as yours, with, perhaps, ths ex* ception of the Sydney-Melbourne exgresa. Your cheap excursions beat ours hollow* and I'aitt surprised that more.BritiJhera do not travel on the Continent." -* Replying to this, ' Mr. J?. V. Wilson " writes : — "Might I ask him why I should talk to my companions even on a 150 mile train journey? I found this one of the most tiying " of colonial traits'; no matter if the journey was .of -the shortest duration, the colpnial would . persist in attempting to start a conversation, j^ell, I trust T am not. unduly- conopited,* but personally I find my own company^rery good' company, and although I sjftmld most certainly answeT any. questions?* put to me in a courteous manner, or render any assistance in my power to anj£ ona in difficulties, ' I most certainly do" not wish to engage in desultory conversation with' eveiy Dick, Tom, or Harrys who happens to be making the same jottrney as myself. But (and a capital B, phase) tho thing I did! both admire and appre^ ciate very much indeed was the gejiuina hospitality extended to an 1 Utter etrtngeY which I found one of the leading colonial traits. There is nothing like it iri"thii country, and should it be my unfejippj' lot nev&r to visit those beautiful countries again I shall always look back 'with very great pleasure on the happy, dayt .spent in enjoying the hospitality of the' most hospitable of peoples." ' On the other hand, several visiting colonists declare . that nothing iff; tha • colonies can surpass the hospitality ■• and \ kindness which they have met' with in the Mother Country.