AUSTRALIA

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1937, Page 7

AUSTRALIA

A LAND OF COMPLEXES

AND OF SMWRT WOMEN

(The view, by J. C. Furnas)

If an Australian could live in the

physical enyironinciit of the American, and think and speak like an (Englishman,_ life would hold no more for him. Australians who travel to England ' by way of the Pacific coast, conscientiously booking British from New York to Southampton, return not only satisfactorily awed by the sentries outside St, James’ Palace but properly put in their places by Engtlsn chilliness. They are also happily stunned by the speed and comfort of American trains and air services, the height and luxury of American hotels. They would like Australia to do things in just that same style. They ask trustfully if Sydney isn’t iust like an American city, arid refer pridefully to their frequent use of o.k. and “you’re telling me,” as well as “good-o” and “too right.” But the way Americanisation works) out in Australia is well epitomised by the antipodean version of fhe American car, which is assembled in Australia with an Australian-made body and a right-hand drive. Sydney is studded with soda fountains, for instance. They are called “milk-bars” and serve no food. Svdnov’s new buildings, of which the nost-depression boom is spouting | any number, are of a slightly oldfashioned type—but so modified by a 150-foot building limit that the place, tp 11 eventual It look like Boston instead ° p . as it might prefer like lower Manhattan. Sydney women are every ounce ns smart as their New York sisters, in precisely the same vein—and +bev possess the unfair advantage of being, on the average. 25 per cent prettier. A ' type of English woman, in tweeds and j fl pt; heels, does exist in Australia, but sh" fails to set the nrevalent tone.

The wav imported customs and goods arc modified in Australia, lends point to the legend about wlrat Australians, .beljeve to be the best hotel' in the Commonwealth —a hostelry " which, although it must remain nameless, is nothing of the sort. . ..The man who built it, ..they say, travelled .round-the world expressly to inspect the finest hotels in the most" luxurious ..foreign capitals in order to inrorporafo all their, best features in his new place. Then he came ' home, presumably cpampied with ideas, and, built exactly •he: kind of hotel he would have built before he started—an outsize replica of one. of those grim, overloaded nests of dingy dining-rooms and boarding-house bedrooms which infest the Bloomsbury district of London. v The characteristically Australian ■touch lies'in the whole nation’s uiv shaknblo. belief that- the hotel as built : s first-class. ;

In importing spiritual goods and social traditions, and all the rest of the in.tnmriblcs, the Australian prefers to deal exclusively with John Bull and CV>,7 the old fashioned firm in Lombard Street., with branches in Oxford .and .Manchester. The male Australian receives his drinks, the cut, of his clothes, although not always the tailoring, and his ' c n<ineing, through the Suez —not the Panama—Canal.

The only department in which he has improved on the English model is in his eating, Australian food is the plain, simple, and toothsome sort of thing hi yhieh the English believe themselves to excel without succeeding in convincing anybody else. Australian roasts are well cooked, and there is .a fine flavour to Australian cabbage.

Tn general—these are all shameless generalities—an Australian in -.the.upper. income -tax bracket's, whether he is vvillin'T to admit it or not, hero-wor-ships Englishmen.

The alternatively br°sh and despondr erit . fivdneysider who speaks in superlatives to match the size of his continent, and iork.s strong whisky and soda down his throat with frontier hurry, apparently needs some such spiritual ‘bracer, as tins conception of the Englishman .; the solid, quiet, stable ’"orr-tun of the world, sinping long drinks judiciously. and talking small but devastntin'dv to the point.

An Australian ks of England as an oVect of' travel. He says “home,” and the first thing he dries, when possessed of snare cash and spare time, iV an “home” to plant his feet on magic soil.

dn , .Ameri/’a”’s ’"ondcr at fh ; s attitide grows wider when he remembers tbe comments of the English on An=•trnlians. Mention of the race to an average E'nnJoppr, and he nsnallv ves von the following s , enal demonstration n f English tact. “Ahst'rnlmm be snvs. , “Oil. dreadful people I The ''W Zealanders are a much better lot,”

As he maunders on, he alleges that Nustralrns speak Cockney; be refers slantwise to their convict antecedents, grows pious over Heir sportsmanship ■n cricket and football, and indignant oyer the shocking fact- that during He fJreat War Australian enlisted men seldom saluted English brass hats. After Twenty minutes of that, during -which the American is supposed to have forgotten as completely as the w Tt"lfsbrh.an how it began, the speaker lulls into a muse:—“Australians”— '"o s-iys—“a very strange r-.'e. Very 'ike you 'Americans, on the whole.” No American, to whom 'both cricket and the playing fields of Eton are mysteries, has any business assaying Australian sportsmanship. On the other

-counts, however, the American visitor to Australia must report that no indictment could miss the mark inure widely. The .Australian is no more like the American because he drives the same kind of car and would like to rule in the same kind of train, than, a modern Turk is like Mr Anthony Eden because AJustapha Kemal has made him put on a derby hat. Nor are Australians dreadful people, unless that epithet intends to be a bilious description of the whoie human race.

THE ENGLISH VIEW.

(By Stephen Graham;. The Australians have good eyesight. Indeed, the spectacled Austra Jian is rare; they do not even put on spectacles in order to look wise. In this respect, they are in contrast with the Americans. bine eyesight partly explains why Australia produces billiard and lawn tennis champions. A superlative gift of judgment characterises the cricketer, Don Bradman. In general, Australian batsmen see a little morn of the ball in flight than the English. Possibly they derive this gift of vision from the pure air and clear skies of their native land. In Australia and New Zealand, men do not aspire to be millionaires. All they ask is a competence. They try to make enough by bard work in their early years to have just enough to retire upon while they are yet young enough to enjov life to the full.

These are lands of comfortable people, where there are few very rich, and slums are hard to find. Wealth is pleasantly distributed. There is but little snobbery, and no “side.” There is much more feeling of the equality of human beings than there is either in Russia or in France. Any “great man” arriving in Australia finds his greatness a little discounted. i

The Australians are pleased to see

him, but do not want any pretentious, ness. They will be jocular and familiar with him; Neither has rank as much prerogative. The Australian Eleven at Windsor Castle were not so much in awe of as at home with King George V. Intensely loyal, they love the Royal Family, but they will not “kow-tow" to anyone. It is not surprising that both Australia and New Zealand are extremely democratic. Many felt that when Great Britain had a Socialist Government the Old Country had'come into line. As far back as the nineties Australia hoard the slogan, “Socialism in our time.” . - . There are* frequent strikes, such as the seamen’s strike and that of the miners in Victoria, and it would le idle to pretend that- these are not attended with bitterness, but their object is the remedying of grievances. . They do not aim at revolution. The life of the motherland has been, imitated under the South Cross. Even the wild rose and the blackberry bush hav* been imported and planted, and have grown apace.

The radio has, of course t silenced many pianos, but not the songs of the old country. The Scots especially keep their national music, and sing of the bonnte banks of Loch Lomond as il they had been cradled there. In a sense, the Australians and New Zealanders are nearer to us than we are to them. There is some American influence in social life, hut there is no American hr«t!e. Many energetic youig Australians and New Zea'anders, finding little scope at home, migrate to London. T)* - have given London a number of celebrities. But before these one must remember the many thousands who came over to serve on the battle fronts of the Great War. Nothing is lost that changes places in the Empire.