PUBLIC LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18264, 24 December 1924, Page 14

PUBLIC LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.

(nou oua erne cotaxao*r>tn) SYDNEY, December 16. A rare battle of words has juat been fougU by the State Treasurer (Sir Arthur Cocks) and tho Bcv. D. Y. Brandt, a prominent Tresbyterian minister. Mr Brandt earned a certain modicum of fame a rear or so ago by uneonrentionally doffing clerical garb to inspect the inside working of a twoup school. Ho is never a mincer oi' ■words and at the speech day of one of our great public schools, he canclidlv gave his opinion of the low level of public life. "Never/' ho said, in effect, "has civic and Parliamentary life reached such a level as at tho present time. It is almost a farce and it seems practically impossible to rouse public opinion to secure reforms." f>lr Arthur Cocks entered the lists in defence of his brother politicians, oxpressing indignation that "baseless attacks should be roado upon public men." "Ho regrettod that rash, untrue and unfounded statements relative to men holding public positions should .bo broadcast among the community." The 90 members of the NewSouth "Wales Parliament lie described us being above the average of the people they represented and said such statoments as Mr Brandt's had a lowering and degrading effect upon the morality of tho people. A fighter like Mr Brandt, of course, had to respond. He delightfully alluded to Sir Arthur's defenco as a "political stunt," and added coals of firo by telling Sir Arthur that he did not realiso civic and political life needed an uplift, because he was like a niun who lived in a "stuffy" room and was not aware of its "stuffiness."