CHRISTIE MURRAY ON AUSTRALASIA. (Christchurch Press London correspondent) London, September 5.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 7272, 21 October 1891, Page 4

CHRISTIE MURRAY ON AUSTRALASIA. (Christchurch Press London correspondent) London, September 5.

The September magazines are at fall M the Angost were of things Austra.. laiian. In ihs "Contemporary" Mr Christie Murray oontinuei bit acoount of " The Antipodean*" In a very shrewd and unoonapromising manner. H^ OOfllidtra that the country bred Aus tralian has already shown the beginning of ft new racial type— a type Iofs heavy and solid than the Engllah, hut taller and more alert. "These men ride like centaurs, and drive at breakntok apeed where a'i English charioteer would Infallibly get down and lead bis hones. They are born to the oompanionibip of ibe horse, and ride ftlmoat as toon as they can wnlk. The ridfts of trained buck-jurapirs in tlio • Wild NV»8«.' shows excited derision amongst men who do the real th<ng in that direotion constantly and in the way of business. They are rather ugly horsemen to an English eyp, ■touching and lanky, but they can 'ake » hortt ftnywhere and can ait anything that haa lour lega. No Briton, however expert, can bold a candlo to the native-born colonial in this respect. In their raoet they strike one as riding rather cruelly, mid their distances are much hoarier than ours, Lindsay Gordon, whoie dashing Australian Terse is hardly as well known in England as in tba colonies, waa a corageous and successful steeplechase rider, and was praised for bis faculty of getting ' the lftit oanoe ont of a horse' — * phrase which is less humane than its writer probably thought it. They breed grand horseflesh, and it is open to doubt if there is a better horse than Carbine in the world. The noble beast is something of a fe'iah, and it was odd to see the skin of a dece»BPd racer exhibited in tho inter-coloninl exbibton recently held at Dunedin. I made the pissing acquaintance of one youth wbo had travelled hundreds of mnes to visit that show, and who, of all the things he bad eeea there, could recall, or thought it worth while to recall, nothing but the skin of ' old Musket. Side by side with the leathery remnant of that equine hero nothing was worthy of remembrance." Mr Murray finds the drinking o 1 tea mest excessive : " In all up-country places men drink tea Tbey drink it •11 day long and at every meal, in ■.mazing quantities, aud at a most unwholesome strength. The method of preparation »s simple, and one would think that if the aim were to brew a concoction altogether poisonous, it ought to be effectual. On Sunday mornioga the tea maker starts with a clean pot and a clem record. The pot is bong over the fire with a sufficiency of water in it for the dny'b brew, aud when this has hoiled he pours into it enough of the fragrant herb to produce • dPfp coffee-colored liquid. On Monday, with^Uw rcuiov.ng ye&terday'a bna leaves, be repents the process. On Tuesday da caps, and on Wednesday da c*j>o, and so on through the week. Towirds the close of il the great pot is rilled wuh an acrid mass of tea leaves, out of which the liquid is fqueez^d by the pressure of a tin cup. By this time the 'tea' is the color of ruety iron, incredibly bitter and disagreeable to the uneducated palate. Tho native calls it ' real good old post and rails' (ibe simile being obviously drawn from a* etff and daogeroua jump), and regards it as having been brought to tho pitch of perfection. DootorB tell of cases resulting from this abuie which closely border in their manifestations on the signs of ' delrium tremens.' ' In regard to tbo working man, he observes that "he makea no distinction between courtesy and servility." The stranger is first apt to count this fact for more than it is worth ; for when you have broken the repellent husk of manner you find that the man who ban chosen to cloak himself behind it h a very loyal, likeable, good fellow. But he will meet you on his own termB or on none. He will btve no aira of patronage and endures no touch of condescension. He is Bavagely on tho outlook for these things, and waits for r> opportunity toreEentthem. He derides with an unpleasing openness anything wb c*i seems to him an affect a ioo, and makes no allowance for any manner, iflms but bis own. Sparsely as tho coon ry is populated, there is ai much blasphemy to the tquare mile *s servos for tho people of Great Britain. It is an understood thing amongst such as have to do with cittle that our fourfooted brethren are conno's^eurd in this especial art, and that they lend a ready obedience only to such as are complete masten of i\ A teamster in a tight pi ico will shoulder a novice out of daty with a 'Let me get ut 'em !' and w'll at ooce begin, to ouree so horribly that for very thamu'u fake the dumb creatures in his charge will move. The ears of a man who has spent a year iu Barracks with the British private Die not easily eoorohed, but mine havo been made to tingle pretty often within the past two years. To this particular mannerism ihe young colonial is charitable in the extreme, but: if he should light upon an accent wbfoh has a touch of * oulcbaw' in it, his wrath and his vicirioua shame go beyond bounds. It is not an absolute essential that the traveller should speak the language of the country, but the ordinary globe-trotter, armed only with the Queen's English is at a grave disadvantage." But Mr Murray goes on to say, "The go-ahead tarry-for-poth'Dg spirit ii curiously exemplified in the fact that there are thousands of boyi in the colonies uodei the age of twenty-one who have ukea upon thrmtelvefl the respunsibilitiea of married life. The Australian boy U a msn as soon as he is breeched. Parental control, m we know it in Eoghnd, has faded out entirely. Tbeio is no defer •ace in the rising generation, and the ties of home are alight. Ago and experience count for little. Youth will |jave in way, and takes it with a free•loin less agreeable to the onlooker than «n !" im ! elfl Tho wh <> le oauntry ia filled with a reckless energy Ererybody is in a hurry to be rich. In 1888 tiere was an involveooy to every 1500

of the population of Australin, including Tasmania arid New Zealand. There is no country in which s > high a condition of general comfort, so loity a standard of proved intelligence, and hucU large and varied means of intellectual excellence oxist side by side with so much turbulence, so lax a commercial morality, and such overcharged stitistics of drunkenness and crimes of violence. Why should a people which is amongst the boat educated in the world be also amongst the lonst comraeicially sound, the towdiest, and most drunken ? Lot tbe-e he no tnintike about the question about the chaiges which are involved in it—Australian insolvencies aro to British about four to one Convicions in Australia up, to convictions in the United Kingdom, as two to one The figm-ps g.ven by Hayter, though apparently clouded with a purpose, prove tho last clmigo beyond tho chance of lcfutition. he highest percentage of deaths from tho abuse of alcohol ia recoided in Australia. It is 113 as against 80 even in Switzerland, and as against 46 in Kng land and Wales. In Ireland deaths from alcoholism are only a little over a quarter of those registered in Australasia, The towns of Denmark rise to the awful average of 274. But it is ovident that a full statement of facts would reduce it greatly."