A BUSH ICONOCLAST.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11244, 9 April 1902, Page 6

A BUSH ICONOCLAST.

Nothing has been more amusing in the English references to tfie colonial contingents, than the frequent and confident assumption that because the men are oo£onMs they are all splendid horsemen and unerring shots, and that'their "free out- " door life on the great plains and ranges," •to quote one eulogist, fits them peculiarly for tihe rough life of soldiering in South Africa, for finding their unguided way across veldt and mountain, and generally for doing everything that the accomplished bus&man of Australia at backwoodsman of Canada has ever need "to do. We, who know something of *he composition of our own and the Australian contingents, know that Chsy are not entiref.y made up of boundary riders, shepherds, and stockmen, and thaJt some of tihe men were neither very good riders nor shots when they leftKnowing al /that, we are all the more proud itfbait they have done.so well. But the shattering of the illusion held generally at Home woiid be a great shock to many worthy, if mistaten, people. Illusions, however, are not a monopoly of .our English relations. Wβ ihave our own share, and I Mr Ernest Favenc, Australian explorer and! litterateur, points a cynical finger at some of them. The Australian believes, for in- , stance, that "coo-ec!" is a signal cry of the aboriginal blackfellow. ilr Favenc has known the unadulterated Wackfellow, hay- j ing taken jjart in tihe first pastoral settlement of great parts of remoter Australia, and he has (never heard the "coo-ec," except when used by white people or by b».acks who had learned it from the whites. The universal cry of the blackfeUow seems, h,e says, to ba a prolongation of the word "cow,"—"oow-w-w-w!" —without the final "cc." !N<evart!h€iless It is an effective and distinctive call wiben properly uttered, even if it cannoit dJaim aboriginal parentage. Mr Faveuc aiLso derides the Australian claim to the Southern Cross. It is somewhat ridiculous to speak, or sing, for poets are the woislfc offenders, of Australasia being the "Land of the Southern Cross," when half the world has as much right to the constellation as we have. Mark Twain descrilbed tihe cluster as a kite, and it does rather "give one the idea of a constellation "that started with the best intentions but " for Jack of material could not carry out ! " the contract properly." But Mr Faveno goes furtiher, and caste douibfc on the authenticity of the Southern Cross. Considering that there are other crosses in the sky, and better ones at tfhat, wQiat ground, we are asked, have we for presuming that the constellation named ithe-Southern Cross by Magellan is the one w.e know by that title? A most upsetting person, tikis Mr Favenc.. The existence of the mirage, in the form in which it appears in the story 'books has .beem- so often exploded tinat it can hardly he retained as an illusion by many people. The Australian mirage is more eucoessfril in imitating and distorting rocks and trees 43nan in flashing visions of clear cool. lakes before the eyes of the parched traveller. Our Australian's opinions of .the horse, "the faithful steed" of fiction, as an illusion may rank with the views of an English writer <on the "great dog myth," in which he tore to pieces the pretensions of the dog to be considered the friend of man. ' The faithful steed wiH not, ail .story books XKrtwithstQnding, bring his lost master 'home in safety in a dark night, he will probably go in any direction but tfhat of Srome. The stockwhip illusion, which; consists of a belief on the part ,, pi young Australians that simply because they are Australians they can crack a stock-whip at the first try, is soon disposed of. It disappears when the novice flacks his ear. with ,*he 2esh, and wonders how much of his head remains .on his shouMere. Mr Favenc (protests mildJy against the illusion of weather signs and forecasts 'based on native beliefs. If anything unusual in the. habits of the wild life in a district is noticed the oldest local blackfellow is approached as if he were the Delphic oracle, and he probably announces that there is to be a heavy flood, though a great drought is a useful variant. We have the same sort of thing here, and the number of times tihat Maori seasonal forecasts, based on the early blooming of the flax or some other phenomena of nature, have not been fulfilled, never seems to shake the belief of some people in the next prediction. In the matter of illusions colonial Beliefs stall afford some work for the iconoclast. * -