WHERE IS AUSTRALIA DRIFTING?

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 270, 31 October 1916, Page 6

WHERE IS AUSTRALIA DRIFTING?

(By JAMES HOLMES.' W hen 1 read the letter of Sir Douglas* Haig to tue Australian people urging trie necessity for the keeping up ot tneir reintotcements and pointing out tnat there were gaps not being idled, 1 thanked God New Zealand was spared sulti a humiliation. In view of the present opposition to conscription 1 suppose the authorities requested him to write the letter, it’s a siiameiul episode and should make every decent Australian's cheek blush. It is a tine •ornment on Mr Hughes’ visit to London, fie was out to maxe things hum, and there were a few pungent remarks he had to make to tiie statesmen at Home, old fogies like Mr. Asquith, SiA 1 Edward Grev, Mr. Balfour, Lord Kircher.er and others. The Northclifle Press received him with open arms, the bitterest Tories in the land opened their houses to him. anil he was thoroughly lionised. That kind of friendshin was bound to be fata! hail h“ hut known it. it was the “spider and fly’’ business, and out of it the fly always comes bad y. Mr. Hughes had verv little in common with that element and should have known it. The real statesmen in England, whatever their party, are big men and have been handling big questions in a big way for a long time, and it would not have hurt Mr. Hughes to have learnt a thing or two before he put up his brass plate as a teacher.

AVhen he came back, after ail his fireworks had been expended, he had to 'meet his masters, the leaders of the Labour party and the lAV AV. in particular, needless to say the meeting was not affectionate. Hence when ti.e results of those meetings were cabled to London tne old gibe rose on men i. lips, ••phv-ician heal tmseif. ’ tor many years the Australian Commonwealth seems to ha.e been at tne mercy of a class of men who have been keenly alive to their own rights rataer than the rights oral classes which go to make up a community. Justice and fair play are t.ie bed-rock upon whicn e.ery community must build the structure, that is, to withstand all tests. When Jesus Christ told that story of two men who built their houses, one on sand and the other on rock, He was talking sound sense, as He always did. He was reminding men of certain great laws that exist ano have to be obeyed by individuals and communities tiie wor d over, from time immemorial till now. and on to the end, if they hoped to bui.d enduringlv. A man may not hold the views 1 do on religion, and 1. have no quarrel with him on that score, but all history, go back to its earliest days, impresses this fact, that you can- 1 not build a solid and lasting condition of things on injustice. Hence, 1 find myse.f constantly asking where do these I.WAV. men hope to arrive by their present-day methods ot j murder, tiring of premises and cheers for the worst monarch and nation in history ? if they have been underpaid for their labour in the past, if tney have been badly housed, if the conditions of -ife hart been wrong, very well, these things were reprehensible; but in communities where every man has a vote, he can a’ter such conditions, as they have been altered in Australia and New Zealand. If it was wrong for capital to oppress labour, it is equally wrong for labour to oppress capital. A just and even balance between the two is the on y right thing. G hen either says it w ill squeeze the utmost out of the other, it has put le the great principle of justice and ailing straight for disaster. 1 he French Revolution, at the end of t. . Eighteenth Century, with all its : i:-;.'. was the outcome of an aristocracy and a clergy and a wealthy < i.i'S neglecting its responsibilities and <. >a i tit mere was no hope for France m the Government that iollW, ed Government by guil otino will no’ t..k.> you far. It brought France > ..ntuaih Napoleon Buonaparte and he, after deluging Europe in blood, finished at St. Helena. Tn? good that came out of all this . ,! uas tnat it compelled men everyto consider their duties to each i•• and to recognise their neighbours’ / I' as wei. as their own. On the time ot it. it seems to me as if the solid tho’igntlul electors of Australia have d-livered themselves over body and - ,i.l to a class of men who are incapa6l *et considering anyone’s welfare but sheir own. and the so-called leading statesmen of .Aust ra ia have helped to create a machine that is going to evolve ruin on one of the fairest lands on God’s earth. It is an old saying that “we have as good Government as we deserve,” in other words we Britishspeaking peoples create Parliaments that make our laws and hence the ulti-j nyite responsibility for what is donei dates back to the polling booth and the votes we cast.

The present position of things in the Sister States snou.d give their people furiously to think, especial.y the folk who abstain from voting. The man who does not u=e his vote, is not able to get away from the consequences simply by abstention, if rotten, unjust Government comes into existence he is responsible for it and must suffer as a result of it. To see an ill in the State and not fight against it is to condemn oneself in the eyes of God and man. The pi"-■s-.’ht terrible condition of affairs could not possibly have Some into exictence if all c asses of men had done tneir duty. There must be a so.id. sane and just public opinion in a land like Australia, but it wou.d seem as if for years it has been silent and neglectful—it has failed in its duty to the State because that duty was unpleasant, and to-day it is faced with crime and shanie that it must account for.

Has Australia become obsessed with the idea that -iie at its highest consists in wealth of gold and end.ess pleasure? If so, then she is damned, and when a who people suffers t.iat fate, all •. ami creed- t.'u.-t share its puniahmeut and condemnation. 1 don t say it has, but what puzzles me sorely is, where are the solid, thoughtful just men in the Government of the State? 1 put this question to a friend of mine, who knows Australia, and whose, opinion 1 vaue highly, and he says: that these men. where they existed, were provided by the . Labour party with good fat billets to keep them quiet.’ 1 wonder if that is true? If so, then it means that these men sold themselves, and as far as they were concerned, the State might go to the devil for what they cared. If all this is true, these men will assuredly go to the devil with the State, and such a crime brands them as criminals. These are strong words, but surely the position demands it.

In chosing. as Australia has to-day to refuse compulsion unen practically all : other parts of the Empire has done so, has she thought of the impression which has been made upon every part of our Empire and upon the wnole world? Tne conclusion men will arrive at will be that the weak spot in the British Empire is Australia, the place where Labour dominates. It’s a fine commentary and it will not be forgotten. Mankind has a long memory. What aiso wil. be the effect on the Australian soldiers in the trenches? ; The folks at home have told them they , will not fill up the gaps. What will be ■ the effect on the money market in London? It strikes me tfiat financiers will give them a wide berth. What wi 1 be the effect on the tide of emigration ? It wili not set strongly that way if I know anything of the heart of the Homeland. Aly God! think of the hal-ve-t this fair Australia is out to reap, and she will, because she must; the laws of God are irrevocable, she will have to carry home every sheaf. She has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. The idea! form of human society is a democracy, but it must be a democracy where all men’s rights are recognised and respected, a democracy where every man is free in the sight of God and man. Such freedom, however. only j comes lastingly to men along the line of knowing ana discharging their duties

towards God and men. Shape your nation on purelv class lines, whether it is lipper, middle or lower, and a day of doom is in front of you. That is what Australia has been doing, and ahead of her is a dav of pain and suffering and loss. New' Zealand is her next door neighbour, let her mark, learn and inwardly digest.