AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17319, 20 May 1918, Page 6

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

, i | (From Ode Own Cobhehpondent.) SYDNEY', May 8. r Tjjo attitude of the official Roman L'aUiolie body in Australia towards most matters tile war and tho rolatioiiship between Australia and Great Britain ifi lw-i.-cimng jncroiLMiigly a matter of bitter comment by those who are reasonably loyal and sane. Tho '.thur-jh in Australia, as in most parts ol tho Eiiij>irOj is dominated by j l'ifchmen, and the latter, in their hotheaded t impulsive way, seem unable to lay aside their racial prejudices, or to remember that _ thero is any other country on earth but Ireland, and any other woes to be remessed but those of the Irish. This state of affairs may yet lead to' very serious j tiouble in Australia. ; Ihe opinions and activities of Dr Man- , nix Archbishop of Melbourne, are notori--3 V - Yesterday, the Biitish Empire Union 2 in Melbourne lot-warded a letter to the j Acting Prime Minister (Mr Watt), asking r that Dr Mannix "be summarily dealt with" ior a speech delivered by Imn 011 Sunday when, among other things, he referred to 1 the war as "a sordid trade war." Tho council, in its letter, expressed tho opinion that tho latest uttcancc of Dr Mannix 1 was prejudicial to recruiting and amounted - to a challenge to the Government in deliar.co of the War Precautions Act. 3 it is possible that from this incident - alone a crisis may develop. Dr Mannix 3 has been making statements' tor a long , time past of a nature which, had they a l/Cen the utterances of any other than a 1 high Roman Catholic prelate, would have t resulted in his immediate prosecution. He appears to have challenged tho Government 2 again and agam, ana the Government, - rather than precipitate a struggle with the t Roman Catholic Church, has done nothing. , But, obviously, there must bo some limit to > this sort of thing. t 'ihe position has been lendcrcd more i difficult by a pastoral letter just issued by , Dr lveily, the Roman Catholic Archbishop . of Sydney. This dignitary, in the earlier r period ol tho war, was a cordial supporter - of belligerent Australia, and did not seem anti-British. llis latest uttcraxicc, a 1 lengthy one, does not give such a' good 3 impresaion, and boils down to this: Let 9 Britain disavow, candidly and' practically, tho "'.surviving remnants of old policies 3 working for the impover : shment. dobaset ment, and enslavement or extermination of true Irishmen, in Ire-land and replace them at once by an honourable recognition ci the national, rigats o* the sister isiand ; and let Australia remove f om its Publio Instruction Act " unwise bigotry" which _ _ refuses to let private Roman Catholic schools ~ r rank equally with ordinary public schools » and then the Roman Catholio Church will, : oi\ behalf of Ireland and Australia, promise } to do what it can to help nlong the war. [ 1 his remarkable example of sophistry has aroused Iccen resentment in Sydney The Sydney Morning Herald has boldly and effectively attacked the Archbishop, end there aro many letters in Ihe papersome signed by well known Catholics— j condemning this appeal to racial passions . and religious prejudices at a time when . national unity is wanted. ; TONGA AND AUSTRALIA. The Premier of the island kingdom of r Tonga, Mr Tevita Tuivakano, is at present | on a visit to Sydney. I-Ie had not, prel " ousl - v ' . soca & larger city than Auckland. , The amiable little man, interviewed by tho , newspapers, had something interesting- to , say about the trade relationship between Tonga and New Zealand and Tonga and , Australia. He said that in 1855, King . George I of Tonga visited Australia, and was given a letter by Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, assuring the | King that Australia would try to help ' Tonga and preserve her independence. Tonga was then well disposed towards Australia; but in later years New Zealand had managed to take the trade from Australia, partly owing t3 her proximity and partly owing to the laxity or indifference of the Australian traders. The indifference of Australia had forced the Tongan Government to subsidise the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand by granting free harbour, pilotage and wharfage dues, to the extent of about £4000 per annum. Tonga, said Mr Tuivakano, would prefer to trade with Australia. There were no means of manufacturing oil from copra in New Zealand, and copra Was one of Tonga's largest exports, whereas in Australia there were ample means of making- copra oil. Owing to the lack of facilities in New Zealand, and of ships to Australia, Tonga was obliged to send much of her oopra to America. Last year she s©nt 7000 tons to '■he . Slatos. This year he estimated that 15,000 tons, worth £300,000, would go to America. - The island Premier spoke of . the manner m which Tonga had supported Britain in this war, and taken ..action against the Croimans domiciled there.* His re:U anxiety appeared when he 6poke about the future of the kingdom. "We have several treaties with England in which she promises to give us independence," he said, ''and we trust that England will not treat these as a scrap of paper." " Australia helped ,us to found the kingdom of Tonga," he concluded. " Why does she ignore us now?" REPUDIATION OF THE WAR DEBT. The following resolution, adopted unanimously by the annual conference of the Viotorian Railways Unions, is a straw whiah shows the direction of tho wind in certain Labour circles in this country: "That, in view of the fa£t that the Federal Govrenment has made no attempt whatever to deal with the financial problems that have arisen and will arise through the war, and realising that the whole buriien of the war will fail on the workers, this conference advocates the repudiation of the National War Debt." As wa3 to lie expected, the resolution, following upon the successful flotation of the £40,000.000 war loan, caused a furore. The greater portion of that 40 millions canw from small investors. Huge sums, of course, came from wealthy people who, with a keen eye on the future, were glad to get their money into a tax-free investment; but the vast majority of the investors were people of small moans, who do not wish to lose anything if they can help it. And if the expressed policy of the Labour party, or any portion of it, is to repudiate tho war debt, Labour has as much chance of regaining power in this country as it has of painting its banner on the moon. The Victorian Railway Commissioners took I drastio action. They said they would not again recognise the union until the latter had either expunged or rescinded the offensive resolution. The union executive, rather scared by the storm it had raised, was inclined to _ agree, or at least to temporise; but then it suddenly got backing from somewhere, and moral support from some misled oountry branches, and now it declares it will stand by the resolution. The "Bolshevik" bodies aro inclined to rush in to the assistance of the union. If they do, ami definitely commit themselves to a policy of repudiation, it will be the end of them so far as Australian polities are concerned. THE BOYCOTT AT BROKEN HILL. There have boon many stories of tho application of tho boycott in Broken Hill; and tho latest method of using this cruel and * cowardly weapon provides a good example of the condition of affairs in tho mining city. The April race meeting of the Broken Ilill Jockey Club was a complete failure. The tale of this boycott goes back some years. The Jockey Club, in 1915, had as secretary a com potent, and popular man in the person of Mr 11. L. Hosier. He was a member of a patriotic body known as the Barrier Empire League, and in that capacity his name appeared, with those of some of his fellow-members, at the. foot of a letter to the Department of Education regarding an alleged disloyal female teacher. It was said that she taught revolutionary ideas to children at a labour Sunday school, and that therefore she had no ri<rht to bo in charge of children. A copy of the letter was sent to the teacher, and she passed it on to tho labour organisation, and tho latter "went after the'scalp" 0 f M r Hosier. It could do him no harm personally, so it decided to boycott the race meeting conducted by his employers. The meeting resulted in a financial Joss. That was in 1916. . The matter simply brought Mr. Hosier into prominence, and he received a much better appointment as secretary UP a racing club in Williamstown (Victoria). The Broken Hill Club then appointed a Mr 11. H. Calder as secretary, and again gave offence to the labour organisation. It appeared that away back in 1909 Mr Older during ihe prog Toss of a strike, had attended dailv at one of the mines in order to feed the horses, and had thereby given mortal offence to militant labour. It was decided tliat tho .boycott of the olub miiFt continue. The next r;ice meeting was a failure. No one m Broken ITill bacj tho courage to defy toe tyrannous labour body. No more meetings were held until tho one last week, when the attendance -was confined to the club members, a few outsiders, the stable connections, and the club's emplovees (who were given permission to attend'so ,-k; to increase the club's losses), and two bookmakers who are not patronised by " good unionists." Only £416 was registered on taa totansator.

HOW COINER'S PLANT WAS DISCOVERED. f ,,° n ° ?/ t ' lo 'atcst funny stories told in the Mo bourne Detective Offico concerns a husband who hid a bottle of whisky, a wi o who searched for it, and some countorleit coins which got into circulation. A report rcax-hpd pcliw headquarters that ■spuiions coins were in circulation in the iW-Unbynionrr military camp, and de'toctivca wore told off to make inquiries. That is now the funny storv was discovered. A Carlton resident is fond of whisky—a J ftle too fond indeed, —and is forbidden by his strong-willed wife to partake of it. .-oinctimcs he takes a ljottle home, whereu pon he adopts precautions and hides the t I "J' ,or ; h '''' 'us breath tells the tale his t Z !": S ltut< ' s a . SParc; li- One day she ex- _ plorod the premises in vain. She searched 0 I!?, )" l J, £j' urcs . on top of the wardrobe, s , ; j l " ar ' r fss'-? and carpets; but it was not hi:oil she stretched her arm up behind , ,'P irt> K ra -to that she touched some- - !'" g ' m r h: ¥ that th >- whiskv was U ete Cat who,, lv pull w l out the parcel t.io found not whisky, but 250 new florins. A r.ojdior. a friend of the family, r.aibd, ' ?' ld v ' H f B r eatly interested in the discovery. He took one of the coins across the street f to .l publican; but the latter was wise, and piomptly seized a hammer and nailed it - to his counter 'Jlie soldier took a few of 1 the fh.rins to the camp, where, by way of >• a jcke, ho passed them off in various J directions But the careful housewife was a.armed. She tier] the coins up in an old stocking' ami dropped them in a deep porr , ai r< ' ! ", detectives warned s the soldier, who does not appear to' have I hnii any criminal irtent. They say that y they rounded up a gang of coiners in Carla ton in 1908, and as that was the date on a the coins they suspect that the parcel L > tounci behind tho fireplace was one of their t plants.