AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21314, 6 November 1934, Page 11

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

j ■ —♦- | AN AMERICAN'S IMPRESSIONS DOMINION BETTER FOK ; TOURISTS j When Mr Ralph lMunn, director ;cf the Carnegie Library of PWs- ! burg, toured Australia and New i Zealand a few months ago to survey ' the library situation for the Carjnegie Corporation of New York, he i made a careful study of both coun- : tries and of their people. Now he ,is back in America, and besides 1 filling 250 type-written pages about : libraries, he" has told the American : people, through the Carnegie Magazine, what he thinks of New Zealanders and Australians and their countries. Mr Munn says that New Zealand is far ahead 'of Australia from * sightseer's viewpoint. He thinks the ! Commonwealth is not unlike America. ] "To me there was a slight feeling i of disappointment in finding life in i Australia so much like our own. ■ Days in port in the Samoan and i Fijian Islands had given us a /XJt ■ for the unusual and oxoti.-. but a ; few mors days of sailing brought i us to Sydney, and except for slight i superficial differences it might easily ; be mistaken for Detroit, or at least | Toronto. ■ "From the sightseer's viewpoint ! New Zealand ranks far ahead of ! Australia. Its two islands, 1040 miles I from end to end and about 150 miles ' wide, are filled with scenic wonders. ! Glaciers, fjords, volcanoes, geysers, thermal springs, high mountains, inland lakes, forests, and beautifully rolling farming and pastoral land ! delight the eye. Rotorua, centre of the Maori native life and the thermal regions, is of great interest, and Waitomo Cave, lighted by the glowworms, won the highest praise from George Bernard Shaw. Learning to pronounce the Maori place names which abound throughout the North I Island is an interesting diversion. j "New Zealand has the natural I wonders, but go to Australia for marvellous cities. Sydney, with weil over a million'inhabitants, is dynamic and mode-.'n . ■ . . " Real Living " "No American can visit Australia and New Zealand without wondering if the people of those countries have not come closer to the secret of real living than we. In an Australian novel there appears the sentence, 'Well, suppose we don't get it done now, there's a whole new v/eek starting next Sunday.' This is both fiction and a gross exaggeration, yet it points toward a philosophy of living which includes more than a slavish attention to business. It is this belief in living as they go which results in business men | stopping their work for a cup of j tea, and a Saturday afternoon elos- ; ing which is so nearly complete that : one must hunt for a meal or a pack- ; age of cigarettes .... ; "Impeccable courtesy on the part ' of everyone, from hotel porters to Ministers of the Crown, and a fair degree of cordiality did not entirely allay the suspicion that Americans have failed to win complete approval in Australia and New Zealand. Enquiries about the course of the depression in the United States seemed to carry the innuendo that we had been too prosperous previous to 1929, and are now reaping our just deserts. The political corruption in our large cities, the helplessness of the police in combating ■ gangsterism, our widespread lack of respect for. the law, and Babe Ruth's fabulous salary are all mani- : festations of American life which | are quite beyond the understanding i of the people of those countries. . . . Buy British Programme i "With the rise of economic nation- ; alism it is difficult for the people of any country to be thoroughly liked in another. Australia is committed to the 'Buy British' programme of the Ottawa Conference, but, to quote from an Australian source, 'The Australian's attitude towards films is like that which he displays towards motor-cars: a decided sentimental preference for British, but an actual choice of the best value for the money.' This actual choice leads to an American motor-car, and perhaps less happily to an American film, for the Australian and New Zealander do not know how much to discount the gangster and night-club life which they see portrayed. "Any American who visits the Antipodes will miss many of the comforts to which he is accustomed. With the reversal of the seasons May. June, and July become winter months, and south of Sydney winter brings a real bite to the traveller who is ushered into an unheated bedroom. We found only two hotels —one in Wellington and one in Mel- ; bourne—which arc sufficiently mod- ■ srn to offer both steam heat and pri- ;. vato baths. Hot-water bottles arc : standard equipment in most hotel ; rooms, for th n . fireplace in the : ground floor lounge does not arid noticeably to the warmth of the. : bedroom two floors above. Trains : are also unhested, except for hot--1 water tanks which are used as foot : warmers, and the seasoned traveller goes well equipped with steamer ■ vugs. In the smaller cities theatres are usually unheated, and the movie-bound families arc easilv i Identified by the rugs which they ; carry' over their arms.'' ! ARTIFICIAL HEARTS o UKI'OKTKI) DISCOVERY lN r IU'SSM LONDON', NnvnuhH' \ Thr Moscow corresponripnt of ih"! ''Daily Sketch ' says: "Research workers have perfected an artificial heart for putting life into dead ar.;mal~. There have been sever?; cases of an artificial heart beint' t'.sed in human beings, while successful operations have been performed on natural hearts."