AUSTRALIA IN BLACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIA IN BLACK.

Mr. R. H. Milford has a "grouch" against all things Australian. His "Australia's Backyards" (Macquarie Head) is written with extreme bitterness. Australian women are adulturesses ; the men are drunkards; the blacks are treacherous; the officials are "refuse" from other countries, and live on "graft." The author, in short, hates the men, women, officials, and galvanised iron. In a few months of motor travelling he visited all the best known towns and townships, and only here and there had a good word for anybody or anything-. If he tells a story it is of evil, if he describes a person or a place, lie sees them with an eye for every ugly feature. After six years in Darwin he abuses everybody there, their amusements, trade, social life and surroundings. Adelaide and Portli have Ids approval,, but the very goodness of the former annoyed him. He sees in politics nothing but licensed selfishness and grasping greed. There is, of course, too much greed, immorality, and galvanised iron in Australia (as possibly in other places, too), and too much bad alcohol and tinned food, but there is also much courage, helpfulness and warm hospitality; the last less than it was years ago, because unworthy travellers took undue advantage of it. Mr. Milford must be a very unhappy man. i