WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 286, 17 August 1926, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

South Africa wants independence under the British Crown—but not, judging from recent events, under the British flag.

Australia’s bush capital which the Duke of York is to open, or inaugurate, or whatever is the appropriate word for starting a new city, has hung fire for a good many years. Throughout the ten years of Federation Conferences that brought the Commonwealth into being the capital was a very vexed problem. Proposals that it should be' at Sydney or even in some unspecified spot in New South Wales were turned down with a thud with great regularity, and the same fate befell any suggestion that Victoria should have the capital. Proposals that the capital should be anywhere else were killed dead on the spot by the united opposition of both Sydney and Melbourne. • ♦ * In the Federation referendum of 1898 the electors of New South Wales rejected the whole scheme mainly because Sydney was not specified as the capital. As all the other States had' voted for Federation it looked as if the Mother State was to be out of the picture, and strenuous efforts were made to avert this disaster. Melbourne, however, flatly and finally refused to listen to any proposal for swelling the heads of the vainglorious Sydnev-siders bv making that city the capital. Finally a compromise was fixed up. The capital was to be in New South Wales, but it must not be within a hundred miles of Sydney, and until it came into being the Commonwealth Parliament was to meet at Melbourne. • . •. * It was this bargain that made the Commonwealth possible. Melbourne promptly turned its State Parliament out of its handsome Parliament House. In this the Commonwealth Parliament was installed, and the State Parliament retired into the old Exhibition Building along with the aquarium with the trained seals and other side-shows. This all happened in 1901, and it is not in the least Melbourne’s fault that the Federal Legislature at long last, after a lapse of quarter of a century, is pulling out into its new home in the bush. New South Wales, of course, was keen to have the capital site selected without delay, but despite a long series of political picnic tonrs to view a score or two of sites, the operation took eight years. The New South Wales idea was a site just on the hundred mile limit from Sydney, and so situated as to be an appanage to that city. The Melbourne idea was that if the site- could not actually be in Victoria it ought to be on the border or as near as might be. This long tussle of pull-devil pull-baker resulted in the selection of Dalgety well down towards the south-eastern corner of New South Wales, but subsequent revision moved it a little north to Canberra Finally, suspicious Victorians demanded that the Federal territory must have guaranteed access to the sea, presumably so that Victorian members could get in and out of it without any beg-par-dons by-your-leave to New South Wales. a * » Having selected the site, the next thing was to get a plan for the city that was to be. Competitive design# were invited and three prizes of £1750, £7so,'and £5OO offered. The board set up to judge the 149 designs received failed to agree, two members favouring one set, and the third member picking out three other designs that his colleagues would not place at all. In the end the Government awarded first prize to Mr. W. B. Griffin, a Chicago architect, while a Finn got second place, and a French professor third place, the native-born being nowhere. Mr. Griffin, the successful competitor, afterwards moved out from Chicago to Melbourne. • • * These preliminaries over, Melbourne finally had the bitter pill of seeing the foundation stone of the bush capital laid on March 12, 1913.. At this ceremony Lady Denman, wife of the Gov-ernor-General , announced that—Australia having no Washington to name its city after—the new city was to bear the entirely non-contentious name of Canberra, the original designation of the locality. Since then four miles of railway have been made to link the capital up with the branch line from Gonlburn to Queanbeyan, and last year there were nearly five thousand residents in the terirtory, who were rather tost, however, among the 132,400 sheep It was grazing, i The Parliament * House which the Duke of York is to open at Canberra is severely a plain “provisional” building. This is the result of a decision taken after the war, when it was resolved that ornate buildings should be postponed until later on. However, it has been resolved to erect a full-fledged permanent building for the Commonwealth administrative departments, but this will not be ready until 1930, and in the meantime temporary quarters are being found for the accommodation of the beads ot departments who have to be on hand to prime up Ministers with answers to questions when Parliament sits. *.* . . * There is a plain provisional Govern-or-General’s residence that will house the Duke and Duchess of York, but if loyal Australians desire to be present in large numbers at the birth of the new bush capital they will have to camp out. Of the three hotels in the fledgling citv, one will accommodate 200 guests, the second 80 persons, and the third about the same number. The resident populace is to be accommodated in a hundred and fifty brick cottages for a start. The latest published statistics show that about two and three-quarter millions have been spent on the Federal territory, of which sum about £200,000 has gone in the erection of buildings. “Mother,” said Bobbie, bursting into the house, “the grocer’s wife has got a little babv girl, and he’s had a “boy wanted” notice in his window for a week. PIERROT AT FIFTY. “Where is vour mandolin, Pierrot?” “I gave it to a youngster long ago. Finger-tips grown stiff are clumsy things To wake the poem sleeping in the strings. Heigh-ho I I gave it to a youngster long ago.” “Where’s vour yellow ruff, Pierrot ? K “It went into the rag-bag long ago. A ruff should rise to meet a beardless chin, And flower round a throat with music in. Heigh-ho! It went into the rag-bag long ago.” “But where are all your song#, Pierrot?” "I gave them to a lady long ago. There were roses and a cross upon her breast, And T hid my broken songs among the rest. Heigh-ho! I gave them to a lady long ago.” —Theodosia Geinsojo.