AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1194, 1 August 1911, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

"THIS AWFUL CONDITION." A JUDGE ON PARENTAL NEGLECT. Speaking on Tuesday last at tho annual meeting of the Victorian Neglected Children's Aid Societv, Melbourne, thfl Chief Justice, Sir John Jladdcn, soid such pitiful enses as the society was caring for should not be found anywhere in a country like that. They w< a growing body of rascals whose lack ot morality was inconceivable. There was n great and lamentable body of tho community who brought children into tno world without the least vestige of parental regard, and with no desire to givo them aitcction-if it were possible tor such to possess that cinotioii—or any help whatever. These people would rather heli> a favourite dog than one of thoir own children. A large body was growing up which was developing the grossest indifference to its duty to the community. He spoke- as a Judge, and it was impossible for one to sit day by day in a ccurt and watch the march of battalions of wrong-doers who came up for punishment, and not deplore that nothing was being done to get at the cause ot this awful condition. Tho evil was extremely and rapidly growing. In 1805 there were in Victoria -ISI3 of this class ot children dependent upon either tho Mate or institutions .well as theirs. In IDOJ thero were 6110?. These figures told a story that m.nircd thinking over by economists, politicians, cud all who thought at nil. Iα uddition to those children, thero were on December 31, IMS, no fewer than G221 in reformatories. They should not then stop at approving the work done there, but go further into the larger question. In a country where wages were high and ample opportunities existed for oncoming citizens to bo gpod citizens this state of things I should not be. Thero must be some remedy. A NEW SAW. The term "Mad as a Hatter," says tno "Sydney Herald," will in the near future, judging by evidence given before the I Labour Commission, bo displaced by "Mad as a Hat Manufacturer." The evidence of Mr. Langley, a Sydney and Melbourne manufacturer, summed up, is that he has put £10,000 into his Sydney business, and that his connection with it thereabouts ends. The union does tho rest. To worry the details is to discover tho method of the hatter's madness. It costs a hatter coming from England £20 to join (the union here. And he can only join provided he has got a clearance from tho union on the other side. .If the employer attempts to take him on before these preliminary trifles have been settled, the other hatters put on their hats and walk out, declining to manufacture further huts meanwhile. These local hatters have done the thing so well, according to "Mr. Langley, that tho smart man makes <£S a week, and tho slowest man £i a. week. They also control tho employment of the-girls.necessary to the factory. "I have nothing to do with th.iV said the.- witness. "There is never any shortage, of-girls. Tho men see to that. ,If the girls could not be got the men would have to stop work themselves." The question was asked, 'Do your men ever work short time?" And the ready reply was given: "If they do it is big heads." The Commissioner ventured the question, "Is it a healthy occupation?" Again came a ready answer: "It's very healthy, I never see any hatters dying." After explaining that by an arrangement with the union no hoped to keep two-thirds of his plant going, the witness said: "So-and-so started a factory two months back. God help ' him. I don't know how he is going to get on."

ABSENCE OF MIND. Tho sublimation of absence of mind was exhibited on July 2 at St. Kilda (Melbourne) Court, where, in the course of a bigamy prosecution, a deluded young woman, who was the second person that the defendant had token to the altar, tearfully handed iu her marriage certificate as proof that ho was a bigamist. ..This document, having been docketed as "exhibit B," was allowed to pass out of mind until the Court rose,, wheu the clerk in an anxious tone announced that it was missing... All present were asked had they seen it—policemen, reporters, spectators— but without result. It is to be feared the defendant's solicitor, who had left the building, had come under suspicion of having got away with the certificate, when it occurred to a fellow magistrate to hold an inquest on a neat heap of torn up paper left by Mr. D. V. Hennessy, J.P., on the bench, when ho excused himself from further attendance earlier in tho morning. In this the certificate was found in nearly a score of irregularly shaped pieces, which Inspector Hewitt and. Detective Coonan afterwards, for the sorrowful owner's benefit, gummed together in a neat mosaic. Mr- Hcnnossy, of course, had been under tho impression when he did the damago that ho was merely tearing up his own notes of the case or a casually drawn caricature. LAND FOR TWELVE'MILLION SHEEP. Mr. John. Warrington Rogers, one of the' best authorities on pastoral matters in the Territory, recently made a trip across from the \ r ictoria River to Camooweal, in Queensland, and writes in glowing .terms of the capabilities of tho country for carrying sheep, and the urgent need for extending the railway line at least as far as Newcastle Waters. Ho writes:—

"I was greatly impressed with tho country from Newcastle Waters to Camooweal. I had been over it 2G years ago, but had forgotten a good deal. It is a great deal better than I expected. The whole country from Newcastle Waters to Camooweal, extending Dorth, south, cast, and west a long way, is sheep country. I consider there is enough country in this part of the Territory, if properly developed, to carry 12,000,000 sheep. Subartesian water can be got all over the area at under 300 ft., according to tests already made. I feel more than ever convinced that if the Territory is to progiees, she must push her line on to Newcastle. For sheep you must havo a railway with-in reasonable distance." OPIUM DOOMED. European residents of tho East who from timo to timo reach Australia tell reassuring stories of the doom of opium in China, the fast-declining cultivation of the poppy, and tho probability that in o few years opiuir; will bs an unknown quantity in. tho great Empire. Mr. J. \V. Webster, a returned Australian missionary, states that tho poppy fields of China aro fast disappearing and tho decrease in opium has been surprising, >so much so that in three years there was a falling-off of 70 per cent, in production. "It is now," ho Wd a "Sun" reporter, ''a punishablo offence te produce, sell, or smoke opium in China, and the authorities have gone so.far as to behead many of tho cultivators who persisted in producing tho poppy. Tho Chinese Government is sincere in its endeavour to rid the country of opium, for in tho threo years already elapsed tho decrease has been JO per cent, greater than anticipated. It seems that the British Government is determined to help tho Chinese Government in the matter, for continuous evidence is being obtained by British officials that the diminution is being carried out, and this is sue of the great reforms that is being worked by tho Young China party, which is fast gaining ground, and will, in the courso of a very few years, be a great power throughout tho Empire."