CRITIC OF AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 9

CRITIC OF AUSTRALIA.

VICIOUS CIRCLE OF TARIFF.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT.

A. and N.Z.

SYDNEY. July 20

Major C. P. Allen, a Privy Councillor, after a short visit to Australia, sailed for New Zealand. Interviewed in regard to his experiences, here, he Caustically criticised Australia. He declared thn.t Australians did not like. criticism, it simply bored ' them. They were cocksure people; they were sure thay won the war, but every nation was sure 'of that. He came expecting to find that Australia, as a new democratic country, had solved many problems which troubled the Old Country; his experiences led him to ask • "Have you solved• one ? .You certainly have not solved the drink traffic, nor found any better way of settling • strikes. Then, economically,, how could Australia hope to be progressive as an exporting or manufacturing country while she remained in her present vicious circle bred of pro tectiou, and the. high wages which irresis tibly follow high prices, and act and re act upon one another ? Australian high duties on sugar, dried fruits, and other products did not make for Imperial unity.'" •

Major Allen commented on. the segregation of population in citiqs to the neglect of the development of the country Sailing along the coast and seeing wide stretches /of unpeopled country, he had many times said to himself that it was a great unused continent. Regarding the scheme for the settlement of British people, he had been informed of a deliberate policy of birth control in Australia since 1886. It could therefore be said that Australia was not doing its ' duty toward finding population for itself.