ATTACK ON AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 50, 22 November 1907, Page 5

ATTACK ON AUSTRALIA.

"A.DUMB AND" TJNINSPIRED PEOPLE." rS'nT- i&">*#- of emigration from Britain has, recent y been published, •lSinmTv e - *°-" h^ve toiallec S da: r «c«VeU-91;263,-' the- United States and; but i)92o,vent to Austal.a_and New. Zealand. Commenting., on the proportionate attractiveness' of. the several taL • a -f heSt °! an^r 'Win.V Ausm ■ T^ ■'■?■ hr6ci m attack upon us^unhappy,Australians/ lAustralia, according to this typical example of English pbpu-kr-journalismi "has grown effete without ever-hanng.had.-a,prime:" : Mat is-not bad Ml - • teg T ! i° ,ns 'w b , ut ; '■* ■■'?• nofcl »ng -to what folW>_ Thus: "Australia makes no'appeal to .the. imagination. It; has ceased to increase and multiply 'itself, and :jt wahts no increase from the external : world.. Its' attitude is. cod and'exclusive, and Sits popula-tion-j, only a thm.frmge of a 'vast continent,. Australians, further' "have' grown tOQ.BUddenly comfortablo, immersed too niuch in material, satisfaction,, wholly. indifferent to life which is the basic note of great and enduring States. It has produced no voice, no literature,'no art. It is a dumb Zll7ZT Cd Pe °? lo '" That at. least has the refreshing merit of vigour,, whatever it Tit ■ i th <? 7 7 -°. f curacy.. Nor. is it pojsrble to entirely withhold admiration of the imagmativeness; displayed in the argument from the particular to the general, by i>hich so appalhns a. picture' is fngeniouslr R l s fr ? m T ? «^, table of Btatiß.eics. Tho final summing up Was jearee y needed: "Australia '» 'a° without, a past; at present' it seems to be also.a country'without.-a ■future." From our critic's pomt o view the contingency last suggested would appear to. be the"most satisfactory solution for all concerned! Austra-lians.-in London, ofljcml'and otherwise are protesting ngorously in : reply, bufr-cui bono/ As .far as adequate knowledge of Austra m_ is concerned, this is a people that walk in darkness.—Australian Paper