AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14836, 13 November 1911, Page 4

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

PARTIES IN POLITICS. [from OUR own correspondent,] Sydney, November 8. A LITTLE while ago Mr. David Storey, the leader of tho New South Wales Democratic party, said proudly, "wo are seven." One —Mr. Gillies, for whose seat at Maitklnd Major Nicholson, a Liberal pure and simple, has just been elected—and then there were six. Now two-thirds of the remainder of this great party have resigned from the party, and there remain only Mr. Storey and Mr. "H. D. Morton. Mr. Storey, it is understood, is still leader. He will need to be very careful how he goes, or he may lose his sole remaining chicken. The trouble was really precipitated by the recent byelections at Maitland and Liverpool Plains. There was no attempt to run a Democratic candidate ; it was a straight.out fight between a Liberal and Labour man in each case, and Mr. Storey was found strenuously fighting on behalf of the Liberals. Some of his little party did not think this was quite the thing, for they called themselves Independents as well as Democrats, so that the public should have no doubt as to their position. Others might, call themselves Democrats in fact, both Liberals and Labourites claim to be suchbut these were the real Democrats, and to make the line of demarcation clearer they took also the other name of Independents. A Thousand Immigrants. By the Pakeha on Tuesday there arrived 1050 immigrants for New South Wales, practically all of whom were nominated by relatives and friends already settled in the State. This is by far the Largest batch to arrive here at one time, and they "came up the harbour with a thousand smiles. They are a splendid lot. If goer, to show that immigration is setting ,in as never before. Australia, with her total population of just over four and a half-millions, as the recent census shows, ian* well afford to take • them. There is no question that all these new people will be immediately absorbed. Between two .and three hundred of them were sent to the country districts on the day of their arrival. There were many children among them,. a fact that is not without its interest in a country where the birth-rate is so low, and where the demand for boy and girl labour is far greater than the supply. The Herald prints an article dealing with this sub- : ject. It is next to impossible to get teleI phone boys or errand boys. The papers are full of advertisements that are never i replied to, and one may count scores of cards with the words "Boy wanted," in shop windows. People no longer advertise for "smart Inns, references required," they don't even advertise for "smart" boys, but just advertise for boys, and the boys command high wages. The case is cited of a policeman who put his boy into a mechanic's shop four years ago, when he was 14, to-day he is earning £3 a week. " I was 20 years in the force before I was getting £5 a week," says the policeman. Wages were never so high as they- are to-day. The New South Wales Budget. The people of New South Wales, whose taxation has almost doubled per head of population during the last six or seven years, are to be taxed still further. This statement was made by Mr. McGowen, Premier and Treasurer, in his Budget speech on Thursday night. The past year has *jeen a record one for New South Wales, and • the Treasurer, no doubt, thinks the people can well afford to*pay a little more for their prosperity. Railways earned £6.042,205, and tramways £1*365,631 for the year, the return on invested capital being £4 15s 6d and £4 10s Bd, respectively. During the past eight years railway passenger traffic has increased by 88.12 per cent., and tramway passenger traffic by 76.58 per cent.— a statement of fact that indicates the wonderful growth of the State. Another million is to be, raised by fresh taxation. The income tax is to produce £775,000, and probate and stamp duties are to make up the rest. The present income, tax exemption is £1000, and though no exact statement was made' on the point it is understood that the exception in future will be £400 or £500. Incidentally, it may be noted that the Government's new proposals include a Bill to limit the profits of gas companies, something in the nature of a sliding scale being proposed, under which the price charged for gas will be regulated by the profits made by companies. The sliding scale idea is also to operate in regard to, the incomes tax, the number of a man's children being taken into account. 'I '

A Dastardly Act. A mysterious and incomprehensible outrage has been committed at the exhibition of the Women Painters' Society in Sydney, a. number of beautiful pictures having been maliciously cut and scratched to such an extent as to completely spoil them. The motive is not clear, but it is to be hoped that the police, who now have the matter in hand, will succeed in bringing the miscreants to justice. At first it was thought that the mutilation was the outcome of personal spite against, Miss Cusack. a Sydney artist, as within a few days two of her paintings had been mutilated, and the rest remained untouched; but this week two Victorian artists, Miss "Violet league and Miss Asquith Baker, have suffered similarly. The chances of catching the culprit, however, appear to be no brighter than the chances of catching the thief who stole "La Giocondo," from the Louvre in Paris. And talking of "La Giocondo," I wonder if your readers have yet read the version of the theft that the Paris newspaper L'Opinion found in a Methodist paper published in Chicago. "In the last days of August," said the Chicago paper, "a young lady visitor, Miss Joeondo, was abducted .in broad daylight ... while she was visiting the Louvre Museum. This regrettable incident is a fresh proof of the dangers which honourable young, women run, not only in tho streets, but even in the public establishments of the modern Babylon. Let us hope that tho lesson may not be lost, and that it may make plain the dangers to which women travelling alone in Paris expose themselves, in spite of the ,warnings which we continuously address to them." The Australian Twang. Once more the Australian papers are discussing the . Australian twang. It started in.Melbourne, and it has been taken up in Sydney and other cities. That there, is an Australian twang, nobody doubts. The present discussion centres in a proposal by the Victorian Government to institute the teaching of phonetics in schools in order to counteract the spread of the hateful twang. Some of the remarks made on the point are interesting. Professor E. R. Holme, assistant professor of English and modern languages at the Sydney University, asks, "What is the 'Australian twang?' By what is it to be judged? There is no such thing as an absolute standard of English pronunciation. A fiction called 'standard English' is continually cited by phoneticians, based upon the pronunciation most characteristic of educated people in London and the neighbourhood. Some such convenient, though vague, abstraction has its uses. But the . pronunciation of all educated speakers of English are like Kipling's nine and sixty ways of comprising tribal lays— single one of them is right. The Australian educated man is a fool for his pains if he tries to imitate anyone he hears talking in London. Let him speak his own language. In some ways it will be better. The German maxim puts it best: ' Let each man speak as it grows ia his beak.'" So Australians will probably continue to go to the " rices " and to buy their "pipers" of a morning. •'• - ' ■ '