UNITED AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10865, 15 January 1901, Page 5

UNITED AUSTRALIA.

IN A MAELSTROM OF GAIETY

NEW ZEALANDKRS' SPLENDID SHARE

" A SAVAGE IN A BELL-TOPPER." THE LANDING OF CAPTAIN COOK. (l-O- OXTIt SPECIAL CORH--SPON*I>EHT.) SYDNEY, January 9. The great wave of Commonwealth enthusiam has swept over the city and left it washed out and weary. The celebrations which began a week ago with hymns of praise and the roaring of cannon, ended last night with a banquet to the press. The city, choked with its population, was in a continual roar of excitement during those seven splendid days, and tire- gaiety has left the peopl-e dasa'c-d and bewildered. What will live longest in the memory of such a glorious function will be rths cheerful, loving spirit of the people who took part in it. It was just a .glorious banquet of friendship never to be forgotten no matter what parting may come. An astonished American gen-tleman declared "that this is a great and glorious people and there ain't no power on airt-li can keep them "back. They are about as jokey a lot of civilised high rollers as are fidgeTting about the planet. You Britishers ought to fail proud of your colonial families. I am proud to own up to belonging to what you people call one of the greatest nations on airth, but you vigorous, bright Colonials are an *ye opener to mc. and although I ain't much in the phophet business, I will put up some obllars that you will make a noise in the world's history." Visitors have simply whirled round in a maelstrom of gaiety, military parades and processions in the morning, picnics and sports in the afternoon, theatre parties, and brilliant illuminations at night. T_e variety arid rapidity of the demonstrations has b?en too much for some of them, especially the poor, quiet New Zealander, wl.o g'ts his gaiety in the same proportion as angels' visits. I asked a New Zealand member of Parliament the other day where "He spent yesterday?"' "Oh, yesterday—let mc see where was I? Oh, I

•ma—mb-jr"—and he resledj off a list of "sights ha had seen yesterday,"' which, as a matter of fact, he hud taken five days to see. I assured him that these symptoms would disappear when the weather cooled. Sydney hasn't got a cheer left, and the people cannot oven be stored to applaud. A case in point—7Go soldiers from the war r.turned this morning, and, although a distinctly imperial tone was given to the proceedings by ths presence, of the British Fusilier regiments and the glitteriugly uniformed Oriental warriors, there was an enlire absenoo of enthusiasm on the part• of the people. Hei'e 'and there a faint cheer or round of applause, but that was all. They have got "that tired feeling." There ;:s a tired look ribout the u'ecoration too; the colour has gone out of (the flags, the brightness out of the foliage, and the freshness out of everything. All that i'Ls left is thi grand movement of the unity of the Australian people erected a week vago. "THE GREAT COUNTRY." New Zealand can be well satisfied with the share its representatives—military, political, and native—have taken in the demonstration. They have created great interest wherever they have gone, and it is quite the thing to hear speakers introduce the colony's representatives as the "distinguished So-and-so from the great country of New Zealand." They have undoubtedly attracted more public attention than the visitors from any other colony. You notice this pai-ticu-larly when a New ZeaL_der gets up to speak; everybody wants to hear him. From the sentimental point of view the two colonial people-.-? have been brought closer together, but from the practical view point there does not appear to be much advance made in regard to ths consummation of a complete federation. It can almost; be predicted, even at this distance, that the report of the Federal Commission will not favour the union, at least not yet. Australia, it must be remembered', has made a leap almost in the dark, and wise, indeed, is the man who can forei—3 where it is going to land for the first ten years. The one thing of all others that is making the New Zealandeis very chary on the subject just now is that of Federal finance. As a practical person he wants to see how that is going to pan out before he takes shares in the Commonwealth claim. MYSTIFIED MAORIS. The mystification of the Maori chiefs cannot be expressed. They gaze at the illuminations, fireworks, and other dazzlingly brilliant sights with an amazement which seems to f:\erwhelm. Sometimes the triumvirate look on for hours in dead silence. Through Mr A. L. D. Fraser, M.H.R., who is acting as interpreter, I asked Ratana what he thought of it all. The reply was that the native chieftain could not find words to express himself adequately. It was too great for him, but they would return to their native country with great love in their hearts for the "people who had been so kind to them. The great ships, the enormous buildings, the people, the noise—all amazed them. °As to the fireworks, it seemed to him as if the heavens had cast their lights upon the waters. The people everywhere are much struck with the calm dignity of these chiefs. Tlieir meeting with the aborigines of Queensland, who took part in the farcical representation of the landing of Captain Cook, was a distinctly interesting one. The Australians were decorated in the most fantastic wav with red and white r.cbre. There was "a design about all tins personal ornamentation, and it was quite different to the style adopted by the MaSris. They were •equipped with their native weapons, boomerangs, nulla-nulb-s, blade- headed spears, and earned shed—S***but there is not the slightest resemblance in anyone of them to the ancient war weapons of the Maori. Whatftitonished tlie native mind and other New 2ealanders wa3 the excellent English spoken by the Australians. " They beat us there," observed Mr Carroll. The three Maori chiefs stood off a •Tittle and in silence eyed the aboriginals. What they really thought no man knows. Asked what they thought they answered, " Very good." and expressed admiration /or tlie " iphysique of the aboriginals. Some of them" were oy*r six feet and very why looking. What did the Australian "think -of his Maori brother? In plain English one of them said i\e was no gocd. His stomach was too big. and this showed he drank too much beer. The Australian native has a contempt for a largebellied person. Besides, the get-up of the •Maori puzzled him. A brother savage in a, bell-topper and frock co — was too much for him. and this. a<——-5 to the corpulence, settled th? Maoris' claim to respectability in the Queensland natives' eyes. As enriositie.'. one oi the 31 a oris wanted to buy two of the aboriginal-s and take them back with him to Nevr"ZejJand. THE PAST AND THE PRESENT. The Nctv Zealand visitors had one of their best outdoor entertainments at Kurnell, Botany Bay. on Monday, when they witnessed the representation of the landing of Captan Cook." They were in Teat force, and tne -Mao*—landers included Mr. Mrs, and Miss Seddon. Mr Carroll, Major Steward, Mr and-Mrs Napier; Massrs Graham, Fraser, Withe-ford, Mr and Mrs Field. Mr Justice Edwards and the native chiefs. The ceremony had an -especial interest for New Zealanders. and to none more than Mr Givroll. as representing the district in New Zealand -where the great navigator first setfoot on j-hc-re in New Zealand. It was a glorious day. with a beautifully cool breeze coming from the sea. Before the farce began, it cannot be called anything ebe. there was a luncheon, and the excellence of it, and the liberality of it caused om of the party to remark "that the New South Wales Government were seeing it through in royal iashion to the end, and were not stinting anything. The champagne did flow!" 3lr. Seddon. dressed up in his Baratonga uniform, wm in raraiorm, and he made one

ot his spirited orations at the banquet. Some Victorian wag tried to draw "Dick" on the question of Federation, but. as a Sydney politician remarked afterwards, "He U not having any." If Captain Cook landed amongst a mass of policemen, photographers, and politicians, and a populace who mude personal remarks about tha length of his sailors' hair, then it was a splendid show ; as an attempt to carry the imagination back over a century, and depict the historic scene of the navigator's landing it was a failure. Certainly, the twenty-rive "daubed aboriginals gave a little air of reality to the scene, but even that disappeared when the audience began to tickle tlie "darkies." But it was a splendid success as an outing, and that is the point in which the New Zealandeis, at all events, looked at it. THE MAORIS AND LORD HOPETOUN. Mr Seddon, Mr Carroll, and Mr A. L. D. Frasver, who seems to be informally sworn in as interpreter, visited ths Trades' Union and' Fri—idly Societies' Demonstration on the Cricket Ground, and here the natives were introduced to Lord Hopetoun by Sir Wm. Lyne. The health of Mr Seddon and the native chiefs was proposed by Sir Wm. Lyne, and in responding the New Zealand Premier congratulated the labour people on their enormous demonstration. Tamahau, who replied first for the natives, thanked his Excellency and Sir Wm. Lyne, and ex-pi-essed their great pleasure at the recovery of Lord Hopetoun, w'k>, they had heard, had been dangerously ill. The natives also expressed their great loyalty to the Queen. Ratnur. followed in a similar key. The natives concluded with '"Kia ora, "kia tau, te atawhai a te ariki ki o koe, mc tohoa wahine." Translated, this means, "Long life and happiness to you; may the blessing of the Spirit be with you and your loving associate' - (meaning the Countess). His Excelltncy, in extending a hearty welcome to the natives to Australia, said that one day he would visit them in their native home. Lord Hopetoun has largely shared in the very great interest that has been taken in the three Maori representatives. THE PRESS BANQUET. Tlie army of Pressmen which bad gathered in Sydney—there was 200*"or 300 of them— have been well looked after. The Government got up a fine rGom for them, and arranged a picnic on the Hawkesbury, and gave a banquet to them on the last night of the celebrations. The picnic to the Hawkesbury was seme compensation for the labour of the week. About 150 attended, and New Zealand rai represented by Messrs J. L. Kelly (Wellington), A. M. Ferguson (Auck: land), A. J. Fraser, W. C. Marter, and F. Archer, an old New Zealander. Captain Murray, who claims to have had charge of tho first steamer which travelled on the Clutha, commanded the old-fashioned sternwheeler in which the trip was made. Prime Ministers are often right, and Sir Wm. Lyne was not far out in declaring thatsuch a "splendid ceremonial as Sydney had witnessed would not- bo complete without a banquet to the Press. There was a gathering of about 500 people connected in some way with the Press, and it was declared that it was one of the largest gatherings ot" newspapsr men ever seen in tho world. The principal toast—"The Press of the Empire" - -was responded to for New Zealand by Mr J. L. Kelly. When he concluded there was a Maori yell from a hotbed of New Zealanders. macb up of Mcas— J. Carroll, A. L. D. Frae:r. Wiiitel-sy King, W. -pps, A. Cohen, and S. Hoben. NAVAL AND MILITARY SPORTS. Yesterday (January 7th) and to-day's big events -were the Naval and Military Sports (for Imperial and colonial soldiers), held at the Royal Agricultural Society's Grounds. There were no less than 40,000 people in the grounds. Notwithstanding the gorgeous uniforms of the Indians, their wild battle cries, and the tremendous "side" displayed by them in the "field," they were easily vanquished at tent-pegging by the Imperial and colonial soldiers. A great surprise fell upon the spectators when the Singleton Squadron of ths New South Wales Lancers completely vanquished tlie Imperial soldiers at cavalry sword exercise. Ihe "dressing" of tho colonials was faultless, but the Imperial men made a rather poor effort in every portion of t'he exercise. The Colonials apre.ired to be beyond reproach. The Si-n'deton men wet's the cause of still anothfr surprise on the s>£cond day, when they completely "downed"' the famous 21st Lancers in the "Balaclava Melee," and in m-os-'t of the other events on horseback the colonials (especially the New South Wales Lancers) p-Mve-d supericr to their visitors. The Royal Engineers, however, by their exhibitions of the laying of field telegraphs and war ballooning "proved that -in some respects colonials had something to learn. The speed and accuracy with which lines of telegraph were laid to" an imaginary firing line, instruments connected and messages despatched and received by the officers, and tha U.O.C- was quite a revelation. Their balloon exhibition was a novelty which the colonial audience thought much of. Tlie representation of Inlian frontier warfare was, in the opinion of all the officers present, the best ever seen, even in India. vSIR ROBERT STOUT'S ORATORY. The best oratorical effort by any of the New Zealand visitors -was made by Sir Robert Stout at the naval and military banquet—one of the greatest service gatherings ever held in the Empire. There were 62 Indian officers present, and every state in tho Commonwealth was represented in addition to New Zealand. 'Mr Barton, in responding to 'the toast of the Commonwealth, showed signs of we'arfhiss begotten of the week, and failed to reach the standard of the proposer, .Sir Robert Stout, who struck a very hig.h note. Mr. Barton, in responding referred to the lofty tone of Sir Robert Stout's sp?ech. Sir Robert's central idea wa3 that it was not merely external evidences which iwculd make tbe Commonwealth of Australia a great nation, but high ideals and ri-ght conduct. (MAJOR STEWARD -INTERVIEWED. I had a chat with. Major Steward, who said he considered the procession the finest spectacle there has been south of the line. "The banquet in the Town Hall." he continued, "was a great scene, but it is not a good building to speak in. Much of the disturbance was caused through the inability to hear the speakers, and not through any want of courtesy. After watching a man in dumb show for three-quarters of an hour, it was not surprising that the men got up a conversation. "Do you wish to say anything as to the pro—.L>Jity of New Zealand" federating with Australia?"

"Well, no: for the simple reason that I am .placed on the Commission of Enquiry into the subject. One thing, however, is quite clear, even if there is no federation, that the interests of New Zealand and the Commonwealth will lie in the direction of reciprocity on the most liberal and friendly ternis. I don't see any serious difficulty in bringing this about. There is a perfectly friendly feeling between New Zealand and Australia, and even if New Zealand does not come in. I don't think they will find it on indissoluble problem, to live in amity with one another, and assist each other in many resnects."

The whole of the New Zealand Contingent (including the soldiers returned from South Africa), and the representative New Zealanders in Sydney, were invited by Mr Witheford to his temporary residence, "Gibraltar," at Blue's Point, a position with extensive water frontage, and a commanding view of the hnrbour of Port Jackson. A large number of the officers and men of the New Zealand portion of the troops which returned en the Bth inst. from South Africa by the st»araer Orient, were banouetted in the evening by Mr Witheford, M.H.R., in the Hotel Australia.