AUSTRALIA TO-DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17634, 26 May 1919, Page 8

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY

(From Oub Own Coebesfondent.) SYDNEY, May 12. The only special interest attaching to the by-election now proceeding for Paddington (Sydney), a State seat, lies in the fact that this district is out-and-out Bolshevist. Certain of its representatives 'were franldy and openly disloyal and anti-British during the war, and Paddington has cherished and not repudiated thein. When the vacancy occurred the Nationalists decided not to run a . candidate. A man named O'Hara was nominated in the Labour interest—an extremist of the wild-talking type that was bound to please Paddington. Then the Soldiers' Party—which is rapidly becoming ■a definite and important political entitydecided to put forward a candidate: a popular man named Lieutenant Thomson. £ IS Prospects were good, and that alarmed Nationalists, -anfi they decided then to nominate a candidate. A Lieutenant Harris is to carry their banner. That will give the seat to tho Bolshevists, of course. It was a typically-silly Nationalist move, and further alienates the sympathy of th© Soldiers' rarty from the Government. Kie other night the Paddington Municipal Council received a circular asking for help ln protesting against any of the Bolslrevists and Anarchists being deported from the United States being allowed to land in New i_outh Wales. The Paddington aldea*men were up in arms at onco. One man declared that it would bo a good thino- for Australia if the 7000 Bolshevists from America, and another, and yet another 70(X) were_ landed m Australia. They were only people who dared to stand up for the tdine being against tho people who held the big stack. Another man said that if the Bolshevists came to Australia they would help to bui_a up the nation. It was unanimously resolved that there -was no reason why the deportees referred to should not be estimable citizens, and there was no reason why they should be refused a landing- in Australia. ANNOYED WITH MB, RYAN. The ineradicable tendency of Australian politicians to go tripping o tr to Europe has got public opinion stirred up in Queensland just now. Mr Ryan (Premier) has been ab- , > P m „ Aust ; l ' aLla for several months and _Mr FiheUy (Minister of Railways) is supposed to be wandering about in America somewhere, 'lhis is the usual thing and no one was saying much about it, until it was reported ttiat Mr Ryan had attended a Socialist Congress in Amsterdam, where he had been m consultation with Germans and Austnans, and where measures antagonistic to the leace Treaty framed by the Allies were considered. That let loose a storm. Hiveryono luiowa that the Queensland Government is extreme and militant, and that its querulous and pessimistio attitude during the war (to put it quite mildly) was a source of considerable embarrassment to loyal Australia. But Mr Ryan's compromising action p*ut the coping-stone on it. Loyal and moderate opinion in Queensland fr SU i SU)R , as ? d . seeth ing, and the efforts ot Mr Ryans friends to explain all about it aro not having a calming effect. Opinion outside of Queensland is best summed up m this extract from the Argus: "Mr Ryan is not known in Australia as a man of either delicate sensibilities or enthusiastic patriotism.. It might have been hoped, however that he would not have affronted Australia m the face of the world by attending a Socialist Conference in which Germans and Austrians are taking part. Mr Ryan has done something more than violate good tasto and common decency. The Empire of which Queensland is a part, is at war'with Germany and Austria, and Mr Ryan is under the strongest obligation to abstain from entering into communication with the enemy. It is no .part of the duty of the Premier of Queensland, in any case, to spend public money in visiting Europe on missions of that kind."

WOMEN IN POLITICS AND LAW.

The admission of another woman to the Victorian bar makes a total of 11 ; lady barristers formally admitted to the practice of their profession in tho southern State. Women barristers are not recogniscd in the other States, birfc it is 14 years since the privilege was extended to them in Victoria. The women are seeking constantly for recognition, however, and it must oome to them sooner or later. A new law, for instance allows women to stand for tho Federal Parliament, and at the last election a number of candidates of that sex were nominated. Some of these candidates were women of marked ability, and in a few electorates—South Australia particularly —they gave the nominees of flie sterner sex seriously to think. They were not snccesstm oaywnGcn, but it is only-a matter

flf time before they will be in Parliament. New South Wales, in respect to granting rights to women, is very backward. A deputation from the Women's Rights Association recently waited upon the Attorneygeneral and asked that they bo allowed to enter tho legal profession, and to bo nominated as members of Parliament, municipal councils, and the like. The Minister gave the usual diplomatic, indefinite answer, but it is understood that a Bill of sonic lcind is in pickle.

Women as judges' associates probably represent a system peculiar' to Australia. Quito a number of the judges have ladies with them on tho Bench—generally a near relative. Just how the system arose is not clear, but it appears to work satisfactorily.