OUR LITERARY CORNER.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12849, 6 July 1907, Page 7

OUR LITERARY CORNER.

THE NEW ZEALANDER IN SYDNEY. 4 (BHCIAI.I.Y WniITKN F0« " TBE rr.ESS.") J!. A somewhat- nin-NiiM;tr;l feeling of smites ihe Maorilander on the other «>i<]r- ol the Tiioiiian So.a. Ho v.ill prohnbly not only i omit for less than ht ,!,.,s at h"iii". l> ,!t '"' Wlll !( ' cl tliar }n jl lev. Sydney—Creator .Sydney — cbiins iiH'-'it .JL'VOOO inhabitants, an I tln> romi'!i:'.'itiv<! viLitnew of the place pmUct liiiii t<» whom it is unusual think In -x little hup Moiilil bo missed, and hi.v swiftly nml utterly one would sink w< re oiif- pocket empty and ones credit crone. li his pipers at home, tho Svw Zcalati'ler i< accustomed to see rlnilv v jir.od deal about Australia, anrl ho is «t:irtlo(l to find, day after day, hew litlle this is reciprocated in tho Australian Press. Onr« a week, perj, ; ,ps. he may see half an inch about his if lands, uiid even that half iiu-h apt to lofcr to it crime, a scandal, on earthquake, or a firo. 'Hie real Zcalandia if, not prewiited to tho public, and has therefore little interest for thorn. Tho average Australian who hae not visite-l our shores, knows that wo have eomo fine efpnery, and that Mr Seddon is <lead. Ho may iwk a few questions, hihl suffer you to answer them, but hi* interest soon flags, and ho changes tho topic to hie own State. By tho way, it v remarkable how readily and com pletely tho Australians took to thie now word, State. Tho writer hoard it hundreds of times. Tho word colony war* nerer once used, even by a slip of tho tongue—except in relation to Now Zealand. This was as true in tho first year of tho adoption of tho new namo aa it is now. Like a newly-married lady. they were too pleased with the to forget it for a moment. Tliis may Ik , taken to indicate that tho term '•colony" is felt to imply .some want of dignity, conic implication of primitive! condition, not compatible with tho growing sciiso of nationhood. Great populations produce types of Ijt'o peculiar to thomselves, just as the deeper seas have forms unknown to tho shallower waters. Tho vast majority of peoplo seen in tho Sydney streets are well dressed and well fed, "but on Saturday night at "Pflddy's Market" one sees crowds of a totally different typo. This market covers two blocks, and accommodates some hundreds of stalls. There is endless variety in the goods offered, but they aro all of the cheapest, and intended for the emallest investors. Th 6 penny is here the standard coin. Tor it you can shoot, test your strength, your weight, your lung capacity, or peep at various shows of "unrivalled" Works of art. You can get endless soft drinks, squashes, coffees, milks, and icecreams for tho sumo coin; also plates of Kiup, pease puddings, green peas, or potato flakes. A large area is devoted to this kind of catering, and the striking thing about it is crowds of ehabby, barefooted, ill-washed feeders. Boys i are hero in throngs for their Saturday night's blow-out. Men and women, and apparently whole families, sit on forms and rovel, with undisguised enjoyment, In tho fare that is dished up by eharp-eyed, dirty, hard-faced, for-eign-looking caterors. The revellers appear to be quite wanting in that •onso of privacy which afflicts people who are better off. They care not a jot for tho surging crowd. Who looks en is a matter of perfect indifference to them. They must bb brazed to street life, or want of privacy in their homes. Drinks are sorved by little children, who do not trouble to wash or wipe tho glasses botween customers, nor do the customers ask such superfluous niceness. Many caterers have the whole family, even tho baby, in the stall. A favourito penn'oth is the potato flakes. These are boiled on the spot in cauldrons of fat. lifted out with a strainer, when browned, and shot into a box on the counter. Tho man does this. Two or three deft women aro kept going curling up slips of newspaper and putting a handtul of the flakes into each? handing them over and taking tho penny. At this stall lade shout each other, and the youth treats his best girl. Now and then some bloated capitalist will take twopenn'oth. Far away from the market you may meet spoony couples taking chips, turn about, from a potato packet. « .. j Furtnor on. there are frmte and Tcgetabke. - In this department there appear to be more Chinese than thoro wflro a few y«ars ago. The commodities offered' aro, in many cases, good. Potatoes of undoubted quality *•*»'■ 141b for Gd'. but some of the fruits, such as pears, looked' as if it was necessary to sell thorn before Monday. Tho fruit and lolly vendors, though among tJie loudest in commending their wares, appeared to uo least bußin«». But the family bag, or basket was in evidence around the vegetables. Perhaps the fruits and the sweets were luxuries. Meat of aJJ kinds ie offered, beef, mutton and bacon being cut into junks, and offered ut 6d the piece. There was poultry alive, andi dead, and rabbits at 3d a |iuir. Tho man in the stall chopped otf head and foM, and ripped off the. ekin " while you waited,' but tb,o hpectaclo was not appetising, for tho heap of heads and feet was ghastly. In tho next block you find hardware, tools, Brummagem jewellery, books, and endless nwe of clothing on Btalls and lines. Most of tho Brummag<>m is sold , by foreigners. Greeks. Hyrians, and the like. Often tho whole stock could only amount to a few shillings. Hound tho book stalls the trade was in tattered eixpennies, and. you hoard , felloivß asking just for something t) road on Sundnyl Tho clothing was largely second-hand, and the prices loft little excuse for sans coulottee. Many Btallholdors sit listless and half asleep, and would uppear to thrive accordingly. Others agnin nro loud and argumentative, and ?omo utter on© monotonous cry. On tho whole, ono wonders how some of tlhcm exist. The largest takings cannot amount to a great deal, tlio transactions being mostly so small. Yet grout energy is displayed in getting ready. From five to eight on Saturday morning the market is in a whirl of wholesome business, and hundreds of carts block the neighbouring streets. Tho pavements aro littered with, cabbage leaves, and odds and ends dropped by hurried throngs of rn<?a> engaged in sluftkig vast (fiinntities of produce. Hero will '»t« found women and children gleaning, picking up troddeu leaves or dropped fruit. If you cume agiiin soon α-fter midday, all this litter, and the stacke 'if wholesale men, have vanished, and tho swanuintr r<'t:iilors art. , in jwiivosfiuii. Their good* uro displayed and their customers . are going from stall

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED MATTER. NOTES ON BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

to stall looking for bargains. Dur'mg the. afternoon' there arc fewer people, ■hut perhaps more bueinct-e than at nijht. Adults predominate, and many foreigners aro noticed. Troops of lascars and tho like wander about chattering and prying. But at night the o.uwd comes, and the boys and girla. It is the crowd and ite ttneoEßcioniiness of publicity that most strikes the visitor and makes him thankful that his citieo arc not so largo. Another of tho products of the great c\ty is tho Sunday afternooni meeting in tho Park, or moro etrictry speaking, in the Outer Domain. The epot rhc.y,on is between the Art Gallery and tho Technological Museum, and alorojc the road from Hyde Park past St. Mary's Cathedral to the Botanical Giinlon*. Here many thousands pass t<i and fro. Ono is struck by the icwjioss of the visitors to the beautiful gardens. You may walk through them, visit tho ferneries and orchid houses, tho agricultural museum and the aviarifs, and not meet a dozen p-ecple. Tho Art Gallery is well patronised; but the crowd appears to come to attomd tho meetings, or to walk about among them chatting and smoking. The people here are .mostly well-clad' working men, with a sprinkling of n-aman and sightseers. Thb chief meetings were of tha Lahour versus Capital type. There is a atriko of coal lumpers somowhore, and the crowd is boing exhorted to support tho strikers, who are "fighting your battle, as well as their own." Collecting boxes aro being rattled in your face at every turn. The crowd is too large for ono orator, and two or three others start on tho outskirts. Thoy are all or a talo. Ono impeaches the Courts. A man was summoned for some grievous offence and did not appear. His lawyer said there was good cause, and the caso wes postponed. This happened a second time, and on tho third occasion the cat got out of tho bag. Tho man of law explained that hia client was serving the community by doing a little coal heaving (during, the strike) and could not safely attend tho Court. Caso indefinitely postponed. Was that justice? Anothor orator had done more talking for nothing than any man in the State. He wanted to raise £o for the oppressed, not to get some himself. Most of those who talked to them wanted to got into ofßco. When they got there they lived on pork and sausages, and didn't caro a d—. Another challenged any capitalist to got on the box and dofttid himself. Would any meeting of capitalists give him such a show? Not they.

There were many attentive listeners and barrackers. There- was a. majority, however, who kept up a hum*of conversation, and one lioard such things as this:—"lt's ell very well. They wouldn't let a man join their adjective union, but when they get into a great mess they want you to support them; not mo."

Over yonder are some people with an organ and a dozen hearers. There is the Salvation Army with a few score. Here is a larger throng listening to a woman, hard facod and old, but with tho chestnut hair of a girl hanging down her back. Her heed gear is peculiar and her American twang thoroughly 'down East.' She is discoursing fluently ami confidently oni all the mysteries of past and future. A thorough, going crank, close to the roadway, speaking mainly to the paseers-by, ie a man abueing parsons and churches, but preaching hie own ism between whiles. Under yonder tree is a phrenologist feeling heads at a bob each. That group further an is listening to a German who has walked 76,000 miles find ie telling, in a boot way, of His sufferings and trying to sell a pamphlet. A very noisy and profane fellow with a laughuw; crowd in the open, space there, ie defending gambling and denouncing the new law and its hypocritical promoter*. That man •with hareh voice and fifty hearers is a frank Anarchist excusing the dagger and tho bomb. Hie audienoo seems amijsod rather thaa stirred. Near the gardens is a negro discoursing wittiry on White Australia, to a Rood crowd. After hearing him several times and at intervale of years—for he ie a regular institution —the present writer has no hesitation, in him by far th-e best and most entertatiw'wg speaker in the Domain. Ho is reaffly supposed to be preaching;, but ho takes a very merry and lively course inj th* developing of his text. For example, he is showing how the Lord brin,gs to nought the understanding of tho prudent. "There's your White Australia, the wisdom or your prudent and chosen men. But tho Lord is against it. Can a white man, work in the tropics? You know they get pallid and fredkled. Did you ever see us get pallid and freckledP (with a broad arm). Then, they say black men will contaminate the race. Your 'prudent , men, when they want to get elected, tell the women how wise they are. They can judge the deepest matters. But on<>e elected they are afraid the black man's charms will steal away the dear little hearts of the women. The ladies dote on marWe brows, thin lipe and finolyeiiiselled noses. Now look at mc (extending his features as if to attack a monster slice of water melon). So you see how the understanding of the prudent is brought to nought." The domah* is a safety valve. Tt lets people talk, and the police keep away, and no harm comes of it. There aro evidently many people with a craring for publicity, and an egotistical mani.. for spouting. You see a man su<Menly bojrin to gesticulate and talk. The~a is nobody near him, but before he has walked tip and down three times he has a crowd come to sample him. His subject may be religion, socialwnn, temperance, or any one of a hundred crazes. He will keep on, as many of these orators do, hour after hour, till darknose disperses the people. Somatimes an argument will spring wp between two men. It speedily develops into a rambling debate. A ring is formed by tho spectators, and for hours on end they will, meander on dJ=cus3in.Z history, philosophy, science, a-rad reMgion as they undorstamd them. Altogether tho Domain on a fine afternoon ie a capital entertainment, and a revelation of character.