Sossip from Sydney.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 720, 18 April 1914, Page 20

Sossip from Sydney.

Dgab Cheistabel, — SYDNEY is so full for. the Easter show that the hotels are like swarming ants' nests- Our country cousins ar© all over the city pavements when they are not out on the show ground. In the city, they perform herculanean feats of endurance in trying to cross the congested traffic at a hand gallop. The motor-hog who wants the whole road to himself is, in consequence, perturbed by the influx from the bush. For he finds, that they employ all their energy in trying to dodge the roaring, trams, but treat the motor honk as a toy concern with which no one, but. the man in goggles, has any concern. * *. '*.„■#. Every effort is being made, and, success is practically assured, to raise the £10,000 required .for the Olympic Fund. Australasia hopes to be magnificently advertised in a fine display of brawn and muscle in the great dash for first place in Berlin, 1916. All kinds of minor events, mothered by women's committees, will add a few .hundreds at least to the thousands required. The Olympic Ball, in our Town Hall on May 20th, has a solid backing of the women-kind who are related to sporting men or those who are' themselves prominent in athletics. . Miss .Fanny Durack, our champion girl swimmer—she is only 21—is on the Ball committee, probably her first plunge into social affairs. * * * * Mr. Livingstone Hopkins, so well known as "Hop, v of Sydney "Bulletin," went to America in the gigantic Niagara on a holiday trip. From Vancouver "Hop" will travel to the United-States, and particularly to his native State, Ohio. On the voyage he will be able to discuss the ethics of the peerage, or sundry other British institutions, with Earl Grey, who is a fellow passenger. # • * * .* • "Joseph and His Brethren" is entirely, or almost entirely, spectacular, for the dialogue is rather dull, and the T>lay - itself not one of those which grip the attention of jaded city folk. The country visitor doesn't exactly cheer the arrival of sheep in the first scene, but he draws the attention of his friends to their -ore-' sence in loud ecstatic asides. • * ' * .* * • Ethel Warwick, as Zuleika, Potiphar's wife, is a long, lithe, and, to be plain-, spoken, lean type of charmer, who is very unconvincing as a Delilah. This is. .from a woman's point of view, for she is handsome in a manner which to our sex is not conspicuous for charm. Joseph has. or'so it seems to the average feminine spectator, an excellent chance of escaping from this lady's lures. His "frantic" flight'" after"ZuTeika ' has" pulled down her back hair after the approved 'fashion in melodrama, is too obviously stage business. The scenery is a triumph of realism. Two donkeys and a camel also assist the desert to look as much like the' genuine sand-heap blistered by a burning' suit as 4s. possible. -v # * * * The Shakespeare Tercentenary fund is to gather in a few shekels from a forthcoming fete in the Town Hall. While hospitals are prying aloud j for help, the luxury of .raising a. memorial to the immortal William may be respectfully •questioned. I am not sure that it not to be taxed., Everyone is threatened -with a tax of some kind—that is to " sav, everyone but- the Weary Willie tribe, and: a Shakespeare fund ought to

bear some of the burden of our gloomy Reign of Taxation. The dop tax is about the only thing that has escaped the attention of a- Government which is determined to leave no copper unturned. * * * it The show was officially opened with the usual display of bunting and the inevitable speeches, in perfect weather. Visitors from overseas, who are a plentiful crop just now, could scarcely see the surroundings of Sydney under better conditions. The Agricultural Grounds, Moore* Park, where the Easter Show fills the air with the bellowing of. cattle, is in splendid foliage after the recent rains. * * * * Sir Gerald Strickland, who. opened the show, is once more in residence at State Government House. For months, broken by the bi-weekly trips to town of the Governor, the family has been living on the southern hills at Sutton Forest, presiding at local charity fetes, and cultivating the simple life. * # * * Miss Strickland is barely eighteen, and is pretty in a fair-haired and typical English style. Whether it be true that she' has taken seriously to chicken-rearing for profit, or not,, one hesitates to- say. But, with her younger sisters, the eldest daughter certainly possesses several incubators, and love of rural life appears to be rampant in the family. Early risers they are bound to be. The restless desire to be up and doing, which drives their energetic father from his couch before 6 a.m., automatically inspires the three elder girls with the same peep-o'-day hours. Last winter, they used to clatter out of Government House gates long before the early morning tea-cup circulated in adjacent society. * * * * Lady Edelin© Strickland is looking much better, though she is still unable to walk about. She drove into show ring in the low victoria, which is her favourite equipage, and on the official opening day saw the-big parade of horses and cattle, which the pride of the Royal Agricultural Society. This year it eclipsed the exhibition of 1913 and many of its predecessors. Ten years ago, I think the horseflesh was more imposing as a whole. Then the motor had -jiot annihilated the four-in-hand displays and pushed the trotting horse into an inconsiderable minority. The beautiful teams of thoroughbreds in front of big drags, with ' the owner as whip, have gone—for ever, so far as exhibition purposes are concerned. Practically, indeed, the four-in-hand, as the vehicle of the wealthy, is extinct in New South Wales. It added much to the picturesque side of life in the.more leisured, and • I believe happier, era that preceded the present Frenzy of the Strike. * * * * This year the ride astride has demonstrated its great advantages over the old side-saddle tradition. "■ Mrs. Stace, a magnificent horsewoman, and a professional who takes an important part in jumping contests in New South Wales shows, however, prefers the old sideseat./ She is too confirmed in the style of riding to which she is accustomed to change to the. more manly fashion. But . she appeared ' at the recent show ring I events to less advantage' than the girls who rode astride. * * * ■ * Of the latter, Miss Alice McCulloch, a daughter of a well-known 'Victorian pastoralist, was the pick. She wore the

divided coat, made fairly long, with smart high riding boots. Mounted on her own horse, a superb grey gelding, she looked like a component part of the animal. Though Miss McCulloch only took second prize in a hunting competition in which she was the only ladv rider, there was nothing to touch her for style and graceful horsemanship in the ring this 3 T ear. The grey must have tapped a fence to lose the'first place. * * * # Now that the well-to-do squatter permits his daughters to enter as amateurs in some of the jumping events at the big Sydney show, there may be a revival in the Australian girl's interest in . horseflesh. For several years she has taken the swift but unlovely motor to her heart. It is quite common now in Svdney to see women, usually mere girls, driving cars which belong either to themselves or to their relatives. The hard, rigid expression, tense set of the; muscles round the mouth, and eyes of the motor girl, become an unpleasant tax which she inadvertently pays for her craze for petrol. •*• ■ * it * * The big racing carnival this month has filled Sydney to the last attic. Many of the smartest women have bought, and will certainly wear, their autumn clothes. At the moment of writing we are having the still oppressive heat of an Indian summer. Unless, as often happens, a thunderstorm hurries along, the lady who wears a velvet gown edged with' fur, is going to have a sweltering time. ■» * # * The Australian Opera League is gird- , ing up its loins, and sending out invitations to a meeting on April 22hd. The object of this particular gathering is to form a ladies' committee. The Lady Mayoress has lent her official rooms in the Town Hall, also her presence to the affair. So far, the newly formed opera league has more enthusiasm than money in its treasury. It is strongly supported by professional musiciansj who see a jovful prospect of composing grand opera, which will be performed locally. A fair backing of amateurs is rallying round the league, and the New South "Wales Government, in spite of its hard-up condition, is offering £100 as a little encouragement. •* * * * The solid business men who look for interest on their investments, are very shy of National Australian Opera. The fact that possibly the most brilliant opera company ever. heard out of London or the great Continental centres, the Melba eompanv in 1911., is supposed to have actually cleared very little money, is sufficient to tighten the capitalistic purse. However, the League is making a strenuous effort, both here and in Melbourne, to form itself into a concrete official voices that something may come of it—one it may not eventuallv be a tale of liabilities. * * * * Tango colour is our old friend tomato shade with a dash of brick red added to the dye. Concerning this fantastic dance, by the way, one wonders whether it will survive the present season. Its feminine votaries appear to be numerous and enthusiastic. But I doubt whether, the fashionable man—who hates the mental fag of the tango steps, not to say its lurches and knee-bobs—will consent to overwork himself as a male tangoist for many consecutive weeks. * * * • * The curator of the Christchurch museum, Mr. Waite, has been over here on a holiday. * * * * A long and gloomy list of new taxation is the price we are .to pay for the extravagant finances of the New South Wales Government. They have another three years in which to work their will, so the small fry. who will incidentally bear the heaviest burdens, have plenty of time to realise the chastened joy of paying; the piper while Labour politicians dance. * * * * Lady Patey and her two children are now installed in Admiralty House. So the Admiral is no longer a grass widower with his home on the bounding main. The fact that the official residence of our naval commander-in-chief has not been snatched from him by reason of fends between our State Government and the Federal Parliament, "is.

something to be thankful for. New South Wales, cuts a sufficiently mean figure in the matter of allowing a Go- : vernor-General to be turned out of this State during his term of office. *-* . * * The news that Prime Minister Joseph Cook is blandly remarking that he has ,no intention of finding an official residence for the new Governor-General, is peculiarly exasperating to his supporters " here. He is .a New South Wales politician, though perched somewhat uncertainly on the giddy eminence of Federal Greatness. No one made more fuss over the "eviction" bungle than did Mr. Cook. And no one should realise more fully that all reasonable people here resent being unwillingly ostracised by the 'King's chief representative in Australia. Politicians are queer cattle when you come to put their deeds and "words into the same records. Yours discursively. . Bona.