AUSTRALIA TO-DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 106, 6 May 1915, Page 4

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY

NEWS AND NOTES THE TROOPS AT RABAUL AN ENQUIRY WANTED. (PROW OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, 30th April. Questions asked and allegations made by members of th 6 Federal Parliament from their places of privilege Jn the House in connection with the Australian troops who went to Rabaul have left a disagreeable impression on the public mind, and caused a strong demand for a searching enquiry. Mr. Anstey, one of the: Victorian Labour members, set the lead, and with impassioned eloquence put forward what was in effect the allegation that, while privates had been sentenced to terms of from three to five years' imprisonment at Eabaul for looting, officers who had also helped themselves to loot had not been impeached and had, in fact, been allowed to figure in the role of accusers of the punished privates. Ministers in their replites said an investigation was already proceeding at Sydney in regard to the matters mentioned by Mt. Anstey, and that Mr. Anstey had really not said anything of which Ministers had not heard previously. However, the House heard admit that they were not at all satisfied with the very slow course of the enquiry in progress at Sydney, and that unless there was much greater expedition the investigation would be taken out of the hands in which it rested at present. We are also told in an official way that it will be found that there is no ground for some of the very 'freely-made assertions about happenings at Rabaul, and that it will be shown that none of the officers alleged to have been guilty themselves of the offence of looting sat on the courts-martial which condemned the privates. The statements about looting I have been followed by a demand for j enquiry into allegations about improper feeding of soldiers at Rabaul when adequate supplies of good food had been supplied by the authorities, and about the diversion of comforts and clothing sent from here by kind-hearted people as gifts for soldiers who did not, however, get therthirigs or had to pay somebody for them. 1 . WOMAN'S SCOPE. Of late^here have been remarkable incursions by women into spheres of employment hitherto considered to be practically the monopoly of men, in Australia aj, -any rate. Some of these instances have already been roported in these weekly notes. At latest we learn of a movement at Adelaide for the appointment of women "policemen." It has its origin with churches and other organisations and' is based on the contention that there ought to be women for cases which specially affect members of their own sex. The Chief Secretary, Mr.' Styles, whom a deputation approached on the matter, said in his reply that he agreed that some alteration was desirable as regarded police methods in relation to women and girls, but until he had gone further into the matter he could not/ promise compliance with the desire f or the. appointment of women to do police work. In Victoria considerable attention has been given to the first case of an application by a woman to become a student at an agricultural college. The council of the poolde Agricultural College- has opened its portals to this applicant, and arrangements are being , made for the reception of other Svomen s^udent-s who are expected to come along <Very shortly. The pioneer woman i 1 student announces that she intends' to "take the full course, and to follow the .pkwgh like any male student. These extensions of the sphere of woman's work are reducing the number of reasons for which some "men excuse themselves for hot offering to go to the front as soldiers. '• SCHOOLS REPLACE GAOLS. Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, one of the best known and formerly most used of the penal establishments in Australia, is being converted into a high school for girls. The New South Wales Government is very proud of this fact, and advertises it liberally as a telling proof of the contention that a good system of education means a diminution of crime, and as a notable step in the carrying forward of this State's sound system. Something similar is intended to be done shortly in Victoria. The large gaol in the city of Melbourne is steadily losing its usefulness. At present the number of persons confined there is only 163, which means that at least two-trnrds of the place is unoccupied. The site is a valuable one. The Working Men's College alongside is growing at even a, faster rate than that at which the gaol is declining in the matter of occupants. So it is intended to distribute amongst other establishments the prisoners now quartered in the gaol and to make the gaol site available for the college. It is pleasing to be able to tell of things like this. TOO MANY LAW-MAKERS. It will not be surprising if the com- ' pulsory economy which is following in the train of ,war and drought does not lead to _ some striking money-saving changes in Governmental and administrative affairs. Without doubt it costs an extravagant amount to keep up our public institutions in their multiplied forms in the various States. Even in times of high prosperity folks have declaimed loudly about tho absurdity of a comparative handful of people like those of Australia indulging in the expensive luxury of seven Parliaments, to say nothing of seven separate Vice-regal establishments. Australia boasts of 662 legislators, or one for every 7000 persons of the population. England has only one for 30,000 persons, while even in America, where there is no lack at all of law-makers, the proportion is one to every_ 13,000. The Australian Natives' Association seems to be taking this matter up as one of peculiar national importance at this period. Representatives of the Association have already put before the Premier of South Australia (Mr. Vaughan) a plea for reduction, which has received a good deal of public attention. As Mr. Vaughan has only just come through a very keenly-contested general election, it is perhaps only natural that he does not at present show any frantic enthusiasm about the cuttingdown of State Parliaments. However, he spoke like a true Labour man when he told the Natives' deputation that he would be only too happy to reduce the number of legislators by wiping out the Upper House. He added that it would please him to see the site of the Upper House taken for a children's playground. There are indications that Mr. Vatighan and the other State Premiers may goon have to deal very seriously with popular demands for a thorough all-round reduction in the number, of our 'aw-makers. ! " FOLLOW THE KING." j It. has been noticed that at public functions attended by them during the week the Governor-General (Sir Ronald Munro- Ferguson), and the Governors | of New South Wales (Sir Gerald Strickland), Victoria (Sir Arthur Stanley), and South Australia (Sir Henry Galway) have abstained from taking intoxicants at table. The reason, it has been learned, ie that Their Excellencies have resolved, to foilo.w the example of ,

tho King by refraining from tho personal and household use of liquor during the period of the war. The Governor of Western Australia (Sir Harry Barron) is said to be doing the same. That Their Excellencies regard observance of tho conditions which the King has laid down for himself as a personal and not an official matter is indicated by the fact that both the GovernorGeneral and Sir Gerald Strickland have declined invitations to be present at meetings organised in connection with the public "Follow-the-King" campaign. Like the Governors, many people who are actually following the King's lead do not seek any advertisement of the fact, but enough has been learned to show that the movement is a very extensive one. Whole groups of more or less prominent people, as, for instance, the professorial staff of the Melbourne University, have joined the ranks of total abstainers for the duration of the war. In private life one encounters on all hands persons who are doing likewise. The fashion is already strongly established, although the public campaign, mainly promoted by the untiring Alliance people, is as yet only in the stage of preparation for big demonstrations. No wonder, then, that one hears daily of hotelkeepers trying to sell out. FISH SUPPLY. It seems strange, but is nevertheless a deplorable fact, that, , notwithstanding our extensive coast-line and the abundance of edible fish in Australian waters, fresh fish is almost a luxury even to the people in our large coastal cities. In continuation of its policy of looking 'closely after the matter of the people's food supply with a view to Socialistic enterprises, the New South Wales Government has decided to go into the trawling business. It has bought in Great Britain three trawlers, two of which have already arrived here and will soon be at work. Primai'ily, the catches made by the Government trawlers will be used to provide supplies of fish to hospitals' and other Government institutions, but it is expected that enough will remain to substantially meet the want from which the general public now suffers in the matter of fish food. It is a matter of common talk that at present the fish retailing business in the principal cities is in the hands of combines, which squeeze the catchers of fish at their own sweet will,' and regularly destroy large quantities of good fish rather than sell to the public at less than famine prices'. It has been clearly indicated by the New South Wales "Government that if the operations of the three first Government trawlers are as successful as is anticipated, the Government enterprise in this direction will be greatly extended, in order to put < an end to the unnatural fish famine which now prevails here.