AUSTRALIA AS IT IS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9882, 13 April 1893, Page 2

AUSTRALIA AS IT IS.

A CHAT WITH DR LEMON. (by our special reporter.) THE ItEY»NOTB. Calling upon the Doctor tho other day 1 found him by no means in the mood which used, to be common in travellers returned from the continent. There was a time when meU epoke enviously about what they had seen in Australia, especially la 'MarVejlocks Melbourne.’ . When they talked ot their experiences there t waa a suggestion in .their tone of a hankering after Egyptian flashpots ; eo superior had they found everything In the great K 1 Dorado —business, pleasure, boundless cash, endless opportunities, wonderful enterprise; all of wbioh things invariably led up to a doleful refrain, ‘So different from this one-horse country,’ All that ii dove conspicuous by its absence from the manner of returned visitors. Dr Lemon bad no hankerings and no reptnings. The very mention of Australia put his faith in New Zealand on its mettle. * I’ve seen Australia from Melbourne to Brisbane, overland,’ said the Dootor, 1 but I’ve seen nothing like New Zealand—nothing to compare with the country between here and New Plymouth ; nothing to approach it in any shape cr form.' The Dootor was very definite, very outspoken, very characteristic on this point, raising bis voice as if in wrathful peremptory defence of the finest country in the world against sozzis unexpected and horrible fialuthny. AiARVELLotrs blblAourne.

Melbourne, the port of arrival, naturally was tho first place to occupy ns. The Doctor had an expressive word for a good deal of what bad passed before him. Gotten,' he declared as he said many things which are written in private letters, printed in newspapers financial and otherwise,, and being discussed at the street corners peed not be ect down here. The * boom,' its effects In the shape of fortunes lost and families impoverished, its details in the guise of vast series o! bills towering up on the foundation of single properties ; of sentences being served in prison, of credit everywhere shrunken, of ebbing confidence —these and many other things the Dootor discourses on as we review the state of Melbourne.

As to tho extravagance of the boom period be haa muoh to say, but nothing so striking as his description of tha great buildings erected in those days of mania with the vast sums flowing from everywhere Into the Victorian capital. Great structures everywhere meet the eye, brand new, of colossal proportions, ten to thirteen ecorles in height, of most expensive design and a finish truly palatial* Staircases within of white marble, with ba’ustrades and banisters of red marble, and floors of marble; without,pilasters, pillars, plinths, cornices, mullions of marble of many hues, polished and gleaming in the sun, embellishing the facades all this palatial splendour for the housing of ordinary commonplace businesses and their humdrum stiffs and surroundings ; very little of it occupied ; non 1 ? of it ever destined to make more than a fraction on the interest of the cost of oonstruoiion. As gorgrou* as castles in Spain, but unfortunately as substantial as the Kook of Gibraltar, pariusneot witnesses for all time of tho extravagant folly of these wild days. Of course there is very little building j-nt now in Greater Melbourne ?

Building ! Why, there are 11,000 empty booses ; and many of the bouses bull*/ of late years, intended for wealthy comfort, and ostentatious luxury, are occupied now by two and three families. That stoppage of the buildiog trade of course is one of the causes of the general lack of employment. Another is tbe gradual closing of the factories. The manufactured goods aCcumulate, their quantity is greater than can be consumed in there is no outside market, and tho spending power within has fallen considerably. There is no other resource but to discharge hands. 4 That's Protection,’ save the Doctor, who has evidently been laying down the Uw on the subject in the teeth of Marvellous Mel bourne with hia usual vigour. He admits as much in answer to a question, but we do not get iota an argument. What becomes of the unemployed ? They besiege the Government for work, insisting that work most be found ; filling in certain swamps in tbe neighbourhood of Melbourne and so forth ; works not required, and cer Uin not to be remunerative. Very vicious in principle, of course, bat there’s abso* lately nothing el*e for the unemployed to ask for. I suggest the possibility of their being put on the land, but the Doctor oaiy asks where i« the money to .come from iu that country which has come to tbs end of its credit. What is the Labour Bureau about ? Nothing fau* mismanagement, quite unable to grapple with tbe question. THE POLITICAL DirVICCLTY.

This serves as an introduction to the question of tie invertebraoy, which is the besetting weakness of Amtrsliau politics. Every statesman who begins by talking of retrenchment sods by finding out that he is treading on the toss of bis supporters. It's just nothing but political corruption.* Every body oan get anybody in'o the Civil Service a race of billet banters. And such a service ! Every department is enormously overmanned, and there are too many d - pirtmente. The result is a waste of money and energy perfectly amazing sni deplorable. Of this state of things the details the Doctor has at bis fingers ends are numerous and multifarious. Hu knows something about public departments and the way they ought to be ruu. If be errs in his Ideas about them it is oo the elds that a man who is himself industrious, unsparing and methodical is liable to err; such men always want ererbody to follow their example by working at high pressure. Nevertheless bis judgment is sound, and bia account of the huge overgrown irreducible Civil Service of Victoria ie very suggestive. No one has any backbone in any possible Government, aud therefore retrenchment ia absolutely out of the question. That is another of the radical evils of the situation. The present Premier ie a man with a back bone, and be is going to try bia hand, but he may only get put out. NSW SOUTH WALES. In Sydney are things so bad ? Well, they don’t appear so; and they have no boom from which to Buffer a recovery. But things are bid there, too. Tte Doctor has beard it said that in reality they arc no better than in Melbourne, only ‘they don’t cry “ stinking fiill.” ’ The cable bad not mentioned the retrench! ment policy, eo we bad nothing to eay about it.

And what of the country between Sydney and Brisbane ? The report which the Chief Inspector of Stock for Now Sooth Wales has just made of his tour through New Zealand —a little pamphlet it ia, eminently flittering to New Zealand, and it gives the premier position ia stack breeding to this colony in every line—has the Doctor seen that report? Yes, the Doctor has seen it. It oontaias a tabular comparison of average temperature

and rainfall; all-NeiV-fUaUnd on one aide* acd a blbck-of New South Wales on ttu » her, Result—That particular block of New South Wales Very much like Zealand ; soil, climate, temperature, rainfall, every thing. Has the Doctor be«n struck by the resemblance ? The Doctor htt already said that be has seen nothing like New Zealand, or any part of it ; and ha sticks to that. Cold water ior the report I

.THE JfLOODS. Getting near Queensland, we naturally get into mure cold watbr. Thirty sii indbfcs cf rain in 24 hoilrsj of oottrse sodietfiing Wa# bound lo happen,,,and did happen On tbß Brisbane side. Biit tho Dbdsof was hot impressed with the damage done to the 6»ty of Brisbine. la the principal elf.ets yon weul-i never sunpect that there bceu : .d ticod at all. - Of coarse, when you get to the river and see the .broken bridges and other evidences, it is different. It appears that tho enormous amount of silt'bronght down by the fljod is a terrible difficulty. With ; present dredging appliances It will take two years to restore the channel of the river no as to let the steamers get up to their old positions at the wharves. Speaking generally, ibavDocto** thinks far more dk&age was done by the New South Wales Hoods. In East and West Maitland, he saw on the 'return journey great devastation. Miles of water still lying over the face of the ecuatry; where the Hoods bad subsided, vines covered with river mud, lo king like piles of mullock, pumpkins and all sorts of produce lying along tho fence* and roadways, left where carried by the waves i signs of the rain of producing interests . everywhere. M bat a country to farm in? Dried up one year, drowned out the next I Awful. No place like New Zealand, says the Doctor, returning to his constant refrain. QUKENaLAND. Id Queensland there is, of course, good country. At Toowoomba plenty of it, and what is more, it is peopled. On Sunday the plate is alive with tha buggies, spring caffes and carriages of the farming folk ooch* log to ohurebt Ani very prosperous and comfortable thhse pSoplo Joshed oomibg out of their fine rich country. But what a contract are the Darling Downs ! A fine country, with anil from three to four feet deep, and water everywhere to be bad, nowhere more than 40 or 50 feet from the surface. Bat not a sign of population. All bought up, and kept in sheep runs, looked up for evermore. There is talk among the politicians of a land tax. That brings us to the new party which Sir Charles Lilley is leading. What are its prospects? The Doctor has found that lha Labour Darky is very strong indeed io Queensland* and is sore we shall bear more Of it presently. Thera will probably be a sweeping change there before long; afl a reaction After ihe etrikb Mid the labour defeat, just as there was here two years atid a bdU ago. , • „ . ; w The £snska Jaipur.?.. Eyerylpody, admits that without it* sugar .cultivation Is irqpos•lble—the labour among the canes bdtng such that only the Kanakas can do it. Moreover, even the strongest opponents of this traffic arc beginning to see that the employment of Kanakas makes a great deal of work for white labour in various lines, which would all remain closed if the sugar industry is not sent briskly ahead. The Postal Contereno-.* ? 'At the mention of this gathering tho D. otor's river of words freezes suddenly up. Ho is not at liberty lo discuss matters postal and telegropbio. On such subjaots, and what was done at the conference, the Brisbane Courier

We omgh.and change the subject back to booms, floods, and political corruption; and having exhausted these matters we bring our ohat to an end with mutual thanks and congratulations.