PREJUDICE AGAINST AUSTRALIANS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 87, 11 April 1906, Page 8

PREJUDICE AGAINST AUSTRALIANS.

(To the Editor.) . Sir,—lt was with no small amount of •; interest, but with much more amuse-' ment, that T read the letters of your Australian correspondents on the above subject. The funny part of it is that they teem with the very thing they condemn in the Australian, "prejudice." A more self-conceited, ignorant, vain-glori-ous class of people I never came across than the Australians. I write as one who is quite neutral, being myself a Scotchman, but having resided many years both here and in Australia. The real trouble seems to be the inferior class of Australian who comes to these shores. Some few years ago I travelled by steamer here from Sydney, and my fellow travellers were the very scum of Australian life, broken down selectors, discredited jockeys, and sucli like, who probably had not any of them a £5 note to bless himself with. Why should the New Zealander receive with open arms such a class of colonists ? Rather would I impose a poll tax on them. Talk about prejudice, why no people in the worid show a greater repugnauoa to those of another race than the Australians do. Being myself an educated man, I managed to rise to an important and responsible position in the Civil Service of New South Wales, but many of my less fortunate fellow-countrymen went down in the battle for existence, many through the same prejudice, which kept them under. As to the Australian's self-sufficiency and gross ignorance, the following instance will show the self-conceit of the man: A young Australian friend of mine took a six months' trip to England, and on his return I asked him what he thought of London. "Oh," he replied, "I saw nothing worth looking at in London." What a wonderful lad, London, the hub of the Universe, bad nothing worth looking at. i Why even your Premier, Mr. Seddon, was insulted by the people and the press on his visit to Sydney with one of the contingents. Let not the Australian talk about prejudice, but let him first take the mote out of his own eye.—l am, etc., JAMES W. TAYLOR, MA.