THE THUNDERER

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1938, Page 7

THE THUNDERER

A BIRTHDAY .TRIBUTE.

AUSTRALIA’S PAST, PRESENT

AND FUTURE.

SYDNEY, Feb. 1

The- London “Times” has summed up Australia’s past, . present, ana probable future in a special Anniversary. supplement,:, published simultaneously in Australia and London; ■ It traces -the. foundations of Australia’s economic strength, the stages. of which exploration and exploitation grew-into- scientific: understanding and control,, the growth of imaginative understanding in literature and art Though the. texture and substance o English and Australian life are vast’j alike, the--Australia of 1937 ,is not an .other' England, planted in a differen time and place. “The Times” leader-writer recoguis es this vital fact, and says:— There is a sense and a fact ot nation hood of which Australians are intensely conscious, a feeling of' being tliei own. people, Australian as well a British, not primarily the one n>u secondarily the other, hut British because they are Australian. The articles in this number depict atAustralia of strength, resilience, and individuality seeking as a nation s right a cultural diversity, a width o economic development, and a high de gree of self-contained strength within the democratic sanctions of her tra dition.

Mr 1L G. Menzies, Federal Attorney General, raises a nice point in his article on Canberra when he speaks o the “continued intensity of State paio dualism. ’”

lie explains how this local patriotism has induced a purely local loyalt\ and a feeling that the Commonwealth is some vague, distant body, to be distrusted as such.

fa the same way has grow-n the phobia that anything to enlarge the power of the Federal Government, particularly if it tends to detrace from tlr power of the Tin Pan State Assemblies is to he resisted.

Frederick Wood Jones, F.R.S., D.Sc.. late of Melbourne, now Professor oi Anatomy in the University of Manchester, mourns the gradual passin i of the Australian aborigine?.

He points out that the death of, the black is due to Australian apathy., and capacity for ignoring the abcniginal question altogether.

Forgotten Blacks,

Australia boasts five lloval Societies and six universities, to one oi which is attached a chair of Anthropology.

Put none of them have done ve-' much to preserve the black or interest, other people in the tush of doing so. State parochialism is also atta(lced by ,T. P Darling, headmaster of Geelong Grammar School, summmg-'-p the difficulties facing educationists in this country.

Expenditure on education, is not popular in Australia, despite her economiec ideals. Apart, from the University of Mes-

tern Australia, which is free, her schools of higher learning struggle against insufficient funds and a lack of interest on the part of the public that is little short of phenomenal.

This lack of interest in things artistic and intellectual explains why so many Australians ha,ve had to seek recognition abroad. This sad theme is expanded by Professor Walter Murdoch in an article on Australian literature. Unfortunately, he does not seem to have read anything written since 1920. Party politics and political divisions oil economic issues are well explained by an anonymous correspondent, who also draws attention to the scarcity of young men and the almost complete absence of women in our State and Federal Houses.

Australia was one of the earliest countries to adopt female suffrage, and is one of the last to lose its prejudices against women.

Our Cabinets, filled as they are with middle-aged and old men elected and retained mainly through party loyalty to the individual, fill the correspondent w-ith amazement and mild indignation. He says:—Voluntary retirements are extremely rare, and sitting members also invariably are pre-selected by conventions or returned at preliminary- ballots.

Political professionalism, due to a relatively high scale of payment for Ministers and members, doubtless is partly responsible for this exceptional degree of permanence. 7

Its effect is to exclude the younger generation until it has ceased be young, and to leave a disproportionate number of old and tried men in the various Cabinets.

MIGRATION GLOOM. Two critical points raised by the aviation writer are the number of our important aerodromes which are still not up to standard, arid the necessity for improvement in our ground organisation.

S. M. Wadham, Professor o Agriculture in the University of Melbourne, confesses to great gloom about our migration problems. More know-ledge is necessary now- to farm in Australia than was essential a few years ago, and brains are just as important as brawn, Professor Wadham points out. The greatest mistake in settlement schemes during tli e , last 18 years or so has been the idea that life was going to he easy, in the new country, with a-, fortune waiting round the corner for anyone with an energy to pick it up. Professor "Wadhani’s most optimistic note is i— I There is little doubt that sound tradesmen in certain industries which are now expanding stand a good chance of. establishing themselves under satisfactory .conditions in Aus-

tralia. : - n ■ Whether sound tradesmen in Great Britain are'desirous of seeking life under different conditions in a new country is a question which Great Britain alone can answer. With the realisation of our national personality has arisen the realisation of our .part in the Commonwealth of Nations, writes W. K, Hancock, Professor of History in the. University of Birmingham. That theme, adopted by most of the ,writers, is the most refreshing thing about the publication. They grant that, after 150 years, we ought to

grown up. There is nothing here to further tile idea that, an 'Englishman writing of Australia, adopts the attitude of a natropising parent telling with pride of his small son. Tempering praise w-ith criticism has saved it from falling into a Tounst-Uireau-pamphlet-cum-publieity-blurb as many such supplements, more eulogistic than factual do.