TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Issue 11564, 22 April 1903, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Ethel Turner, in a recent . Australian interview, gives a curious Girl-writers. verditti on tbe Australian girl. Far from being . merely the charming, frivolous, out-door young peroon she is; usually represented, it appears she cherishes great aspiratiqns tos to literature, Ethel Turner's work has brought her into touch with an extraordinary number of ludding authors. "I ' find quite a remarkable tendency among Australian girls to write, and believe there is more done in that direction by tlie average Australian girl than by any, unless, perhaps, the American girl. Taking jiris from about seventeen to twenty, eight out of ten, I should think, write a novel about that time." This, however, only confirms an interesting note made by Mrs Praed in her Australian reminiscences as to the intense absorption in literary study and composition found in many bush, families, far removed I'rom any bookish atmosphere. Miss Turner notices, too, the reacrdng-out after the glamour of distance *nd the unknown. "Curiously enough. they don't write with a distinctively Australian flavour. It is invariably about English baronial halls, lords and earls, •ad so on; and they seem quite disappointed when one tells them to look around and write about what is familiar." So does genius unsym]»athetically scout its own beginnings—for ]liss Ethel Turner's fitst big work was a "Spanish Tragedy," although publishers and printers would perversely prefer the purely local and less imposing "Seven Little Australians." Mrs Hodgson Burnett has herself described the first story seat by an utterly insignificant ,'ittle girl in the mountains of East Tennessee to an editor in a princely official upartmesit in Philadelphia or New York, with the vory straightforward aud business-like remark, "My object is Remuneration." it was quite a respectable, but not at all striking, story - "of love, estrangement, and reconciliation between a Stately marvel of English young-lady beauty and good breeding, and the stalwart, brave and masculine British officer, who suffered with her in high-bred dignity and fine endurance—an evident, though thoroughly Unconscious, echo of like stories in 'CornhilT and 'Temple Bar' and 'London Society.' " (We must reidly protest against the association of the two first-named magazines with th« thinl.) It took time and growth to develop tho power over local colour shown in "Louisiana." Miss Turner regrets, for th» sake of the Australian girl*, tliat Australia is not a very promising field for writers. Her own success will- probably weigh with them, j however, as anything but a discouraging

example. Her publishers compute that so far a quarter of a million of her books have been sold, and there are translations now in Dutch, Danish, German, and Swedish.

Daring her six months' stay Good-bye in these colonies Madame for Ever. Melba sang at nearly a hundred concerts, and travelled some ten thousand miles by road, rail, and boat, aud she left Melbourne last Wednesday, we are told, •'satisfied, but somewhat weary." For the satisfaction she had good cause, for not only did she enjoy almost royal progresses through the Australian SUUts and New Zealand, but she mado a not inconsiderable sum of money. "I did not come out here to make it," Bhe told an "Argus" interviewer, "but I have done so, and 1 am rather pleased that I have." The opportunity to get Melba to give her view* on Australia from a musical point of view was too good to be lost. Tlie prima donna proved to have gained a very favourable impression of the prospects of her country in this respect. In the sixteen years that have passed since she left Melbourne she found that enormous progress had been made. "After visiting every part of Australia I must say that this is a very musical country. <It reminds me of Italy and Fiance, in this respect. All sections of the community appear to be naturally musical, from the cultured centres in tlie cities to the rouseubouts in the backblocks, who have no more than a battered concertina with which to express the instinct that is part and parcel of themselves." "Music, heavenly maid," is, however, very young in Australia, and is only just beginning to receive the attention that is her due. But time and the careful cultivation of a natural impulse may enable the abundant raw material to found a national school. Melba has, of course, heard a number of young singers during her colonial tour, among them were some beautiful voices, and she has advised several to go Home. "Residents of Melbourne or Sydney'/" asked the 'interviewer. "Oh, bother that inter-State feeling," was the diva's energetic reply, accompanied with an expressive snap of the fingers. "They are Australians, and I think their voices are well worth training." Melba confessed to having enjoyed her visit immensely, but she added, dn on indignant tone, that many sayings and actions had been attributed to her, and she wanted Australians who had treated her ao generously to know that they were not true. Just at the last she mentioned that she was leaving next day for England. "But it is 'au ravoir,' is it not?" she was asked- "No," she replied, "I am going for ever. It is too far out here to come again. I dread the voyage too much. lam leaving my nafivo land, I am parting from my family, and from my father. It is heartbreaking." One would have thought that if it was so painful Madame Melba would have held out some hope that she would return. Bishop Stone-Wigg, of An Audience New Guinea, has just wih the King, returned to 'Australia from a visit to England, the cable tells us to-day, with the pleasant knowledge that during his travels at Home he has collected £12,000 for the purposes of his wild diocese. That was the main object of his visit, but evidently one of the brightest recollections of a singularly successful collecting tour is that of his audience with the King. The description of the audience that he gives in a Melbourne paper is chiefly striking because of the informality of the whole affair. A few days before he left London he happened to mention to a naval officer that for various reasons he had been unable to see the King during his long stay. "My little darkie friends in Papua," he says, "had been writing letters to me, and asking, 'Have you seen our King?' How could Igo back ajnd say I bad not? For to the Papuan mind'vast London has but one street like our little township of Samarai, and King Edward walks up and down it every day— in his crown, of course! To say I had not seen him would be to imply that I had not been to London." Through the good offices of the naval friend and the Colonial Office, the Bishop three days later received a note to the effect that the King would see him at noon on March 4th. "It was part of the 1 delightful cosuainess of the whole affair," remarks the Bishop, "that no mention was made of the place where the audience was to be granted, no card or ticket sent me for presentation." However, be tried Buckingham, Palace' with success, and the absence of a card or ticket did not interfere with bis admission. A scarlet-clad footman took charge of him, and. at the appointed hour ushered him into the presence of the King. "A pleasant elderly gentleman at once rose from his writing-table and advanced to meet me. Greeting me with outstretched , hand, he bade me sit down, and putting me at once at my ease, asked me how long I had been in New Guinea, inquired about his 'subjects in that outpost of the empire." He was kept busy answering the King's many questions,- and naively remarks that he therefore had not much time to look about him, but he brought away a good mental picture of his Majesty. "I expected to find him short and somewhat stout, but no such impression was left on my mind. The only physical peculiarity that I noticed was the scmewhat prominent lips, which the moustache did not completely cover and hide; the appearance was of oue in the very best of health, and the bright, kindly .smile was pleasant to gee." Growing bold, the Bishop asked the King for a message to his distant and dusky subjects, but kings are the slaves of precedent. Without in the least snubbing his visitor his Majesty said he thought the request should come before the Colonial Office first—"They might regard it as an awkward precedent. At all events," he added, "you can tell the |x»ople of New Guinea that you have sfen me." When the interview came to an end with another cordial shake of the hand, the Bishop picked up his hat and coat where he had left them and let himself out of the palace door as if he lived there. There had not been a single flunkey in sight, and the remarkably simplicity of the the whole affair and the ease with which it was brought about will probably* make a number of patriotic Australians try to secure audiences with his Majesty the next time they* visit London.