A VISIT TO AUSTRALIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13890, 30 April 1907, Page 3

A VISIT TO AUSTRALIA

INTERVIEW WITH DR WADDELL

The Rev. Dr Rutherford Waddcll, who has been absent from fho colony for iho past two months, returned to Duncdin on .Saturday afternoon by the Wimmera, and on being called upon during the evening readily consented to gjvc somo particulars of his trip and the impressions he had formed while iu Australia. Dr Waddcll said ho had been in and

about Sydney all Iho time, and had teen living very quietly in a sanatorium about 12 miles outside that city. The climatic conditions were almost pcrfect except during the first week or two, " when it seemed as if I had struck a parcii of Dunedin weather at its worst." After that it was clear and sunny, with the temperature up to 80 degrees, yet a peculiarity about, the heat of Sydney was that it was not oppressive. The doctor was staying at a remarkably picturesque place. Dr Waddell was struck with tho variety of architecture of Iho homes.

Tho religious life of Sydney naturally appealed to him, but he saw very little of it. Tho impression ho formed from what littlo ho saw was that with., a temperature of some 80deg and more during tho summer months it must be a pretty difficult matter to obscrvo tho precepts of tho Sermon on the Mount. The most significant feature of Sydney as compared with Ihis country is tho absence of home-life. Tho weather is so fine. all. the year round practically, that people spend almost all their time outside in tho open. They sit outside and very often sleep outside,- and tho outcome of that must be the product of a character that would lack the intellectual power and moral force of thoso who aro trained in homes where the fireside is central.

The political life of Sydney, fho doctor says, seems to be centred largely round iho failure of Federation, and tho general impression is that Svdnet- has been pushed into the background. All the newspapers thero are vigorous in their denunciation of this centralisation of institutions at, Melbourne. The jealous'- is very marked between the two cities,, but no'doubt they will adjust their differences in a little while. It was the nunc, the doctor pointed out, in Canada after the Federation of the provinces, but now the Canadians are practically a happv family. There is talk in Australia, esnooially in Queensland and Sydney, of withdrawing from Iho Federation, but Dr Waddell was told thut it was confined to very few people, and there was no likelihood of any practical effect being' sriven to it. Tho business and commercial life of Sydney is of' a most, strenuous order. " It is," said Dr Waddell, "a perpetual rush, and I should think it must end in tho development of a very nervous «ocial organism—an orgsi ism that would find it difficult to bear the strain for any very' lengthy period of i'oars. ' Dr Waddell was struck iVart.ieularlv with the healthy app'eara-nce of tho bovs ! and girls he saw holiday-making in the park at Sydney. They compared vorj favourably with our children hero. I

The doctor found everybody very kind. "Thero is a good deal of talk sometimes," said he, "about the impoliteness of colonials, but my experience of Ihc Sydney colonials was of a very happy kind. On ■tho whole, Sydney has undoubtedly great all Tactions, yet I am glad to got back to our own colony. I think our climatic conditions here will be much more conducive to the development of slrong character than thoso of Australia. It is cold enough here to create homes, and wherever you get home-life of the proper elafs you have the essential raw material for the. creation of national well-being. I might also, perhaps, say, comparing my present visit, with that of six years ago, that one of the most noticeable features is the advance in the cost of living owing fo the protective tariff which New South Wales adopted when it entered tho Federation. Everything has gone lip in price, and Sydney is now almost, as expensive a place to live in as Now Zealand. But one thing I saw cheap was fruit. Grapes of excellent quality could bo had .in any quantity at 2d a pound. If, made a New Zoalander, who has to nay Is or 2a a, pound at tho least, trust, that the day Is not far distant when our people hero will have the opportunity of enjoying a luxury such as this themselves."