AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 5

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY. December 30

I have just been permitted sre an advance copy of a new book on New Zealand and the New Zealanders, by Max Herz—Dr Max Herz, formerly of Christchurch and Auckland, and now of Sydney. This is not the first time we have seen him in print. Some years ago, it will bo remembered, he said tilings about the Christchurch folk, and a year or two ago he was somewhat outspoken in regard to the figures of the Australian girls. In his new book. "New Zealand: The Country and the People " (translated from the German and published by T. Werner Laurie, of London), Dr Herz is still as outspoken as ever, and in places spares neither Government nor people. " I do not think." he Bays, for instance, "there is a place in tho world where one has a less comfortable Beat than in Hie tram-like carriages of the New Zealand railways (which, from all appearances, might mean "No Zeal Required")." The book is one of the most comprehensive yet published aboutj the Dominion, its scenery, its legislation, its people, white and brown; and now and again tho author grows ciuite poetical. "Wo had wandered from the boiling lakes and playing geysers." he says, in his last chapter but one, " from Waimangu, towering like some huge black pine to the sky. into the lovely and magnificent bush, where the strong sun' penetrates through the delicate ferns. We had gone into the jungle, and on to the calm serenity of the fjords. We had drunk in the sublime and never-to-be-forgotten picture of Milford Sound, visitedthe gorgeous cold lakes, and witnessed the majestic Grreatneas of the Alps. The notes of a noble symphony of natural beauty had resounded for us. The geysers were an oppressive 'allegro con brio ' of anguish, such as introduce* Beethoven's C minor symphony : the silent moonlit nights of the Sounds were its ' andante con moto ' : the bush its merry ' scherzo,' tho lofty and unfettered magnitude of the Alpine world was the resonant, triumphal song of thp finale. Whore is a country on our beautiful enrth which offers all that within so small a space? Undefined "dories of nature! Wo part from this land full of sincerest thanks for the pleasure that it gave us. A fewwords may now be devoted to its people." THE NEW ZEALANDERS. In the il'ial chapter of the book, headed " The Now Zealanders," our candid critio says: " One condition above all has helped to mould the Now Zoalander—the emptiness of tho book in which ho started to write the history of his national life. New Zealand is a now country. It has no ancient, history and no old culture, but belongs to these lands which, in tho words of Goethe, "have it better than our continent —the old one." It has no old autochthonous inhabitants, no nation, no ruling families, no nobility nor clashes', nor the dead-weight of thoso traditions, grey with age, which men regard as holy. . . .

Here, as in Australia, tho principle of tha "'white" policy holds good. Men believe in a White Australasia, and look askance on the alliance of the Mother Country with Japan. In this deep-seated aversion to tho yellow races lie the germs of ixjssiblc conflict with the Old Country, for the oolonials would never yield. It was this latent sentime-nt that was the s:cret of tho unprecedented enthusiasm with which New Zealand and Australia received the United States battleships in 1908." And now we come to Art. "Ho is a Philistine —a shocking Philistine and Boeotian in

matters of art. In a musical farce he sees an 'opera,' in a trashy melody a in Tosti's ' Good-bye' the gate of heaven. A shallow, sentimental, genre picture is to him th© highest ideal in painting. TJid old I masters, Leonardo,. Velasquez, and the ! great Rembrandt are unknown. And un- ! known almost are Van Dyek and Holbein, j evon though they lived in England, to say nothing of more modern artists. The pub- ' lio gaHeries would be much better advised j to purchase good copies of the old masters I in the place of the comparatively worthless though original efforts of mediocrity. ' In sculpture, architecture, and furnishing the i New Zealandor is also described as woe- | fully deficient. " This evident disdain of j culture finds expression in the clothes of j the ix?ople. They are neither elegant noir i fashionable. The suit of the man is rough and substantial. As for the girls and/, women —they are good comrades for the . men. No hysterical, delicate creature?, but j beings full of blood, strength, and health. Elegant or stylish, the great, majority of women cannot be ■©ailed. Their carriage j is too oarelow their style, of dress too untidy, too fluffy, too dowdy, and too pre- j tontious. The middle classes have not yet [ disoov&red the charm, of simplicity, and endeavour on insufneii nt incomes, by aid of ! cheap finery, to copy th© more well-to-do ,

ladies, whoso toilets need fear no com--1 parison with any on tho Continent. The | disregard of the external evidences of culture is shown in the speech of the pecpilo I Sad to relate, one far too often hears the i younger generation talk with a twang that , horrifies the oar of anyone rued to good English. A mother will request her daugh- . tec ' Kyte' to ask tho ' lydy ' whether she ; will ' tyke ' another piece of ' cyke.' This ' twang is worse in Australia than New Zealand." The latter observation will afford a crumb of satisfaction to New Zealanders, at any rate. But if Dr Hertz hits hard, he does not fail to give New Zea- ! landers credit for a good many thing*. ■ " Too many people who are not Britishers live hare for the colonial to be narrowminded. . . . Hospitality ranks high in ids esteem. . . . The Now Zc«aJbnder has his heart in the right place : and if charity remains the greatest oif pious virtuos. and the true religion for man is ' work,' he is religious in the best sense of the word. . . . The New Zealander loves his country with all his heart, and no matter where he comes from, ho will tell you 'There is no place like New Zealand.'* . . . Tin; New Zoalander is what not everyone can claim to be—a happy man in a happy country!" If the people of the Dominion have their vices—and wo are told in this Look that " the national vices of Newt Zealand are gambling and legislation," Dr Hertz admits quite readily that they have many splendid virtues. \ GOING TOO SLOW. It was inevitable that the Labour Government of New South Wales, rinding its i majority in Parliament too slender to risk the introduction of measures relating to what may be termed the extreme portions of its platform, would sooner or later receive a prod or two from the rank and file outside. It has in fact, received quite a number of prods, especially from Broken Hill and Newcastle, two of the chief centres of the Labour movement. The complaint is that tho Government is " going too slow "—-walking instead of running. Recently a resolution was carried at Broken Hill "in favour of the formation of a separate trades union political party, and the matter was- discussed the other night by the Sydney Labour Council. There was somo warm argun.?nt. Mr J. Lynch, M.L A., declared that there were men in the league who wanted to drag the political | Labour movement away from industrial unionism. Delegates generally expressed tho belief that the present Labour party filled all requirements, and it was pointed out that tlicro were only 5000 outsiders to 140,000 trades unionists in the movement, and tho latter should bo able to mako their voices heard. Tho following resolution was carried on the recommendation of the executive:—''That in tho opinion of tho council, there is no necessity for the formation of a separate trades union political party " —a direct negative to tho Broken Hill proposition. There is no doubt, however, that a very large section of tho supi>ortcrs of the party is dissatisfied with the slow progress being made, not only by the State Labour Government, but also by the Fedpral Government, and if they don't hurry up something may happen. If they do lurry up, what will happen? THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN DEADj LOCK. j Meanwhile attention is focussed on the position in -South Australia, where the Labour Government has just come into violent collision with tho Legislative Council, with tho result that there is to be another api'eal to the people. The House at present; consists of 21 Labour members, 18 Liberals, and an " Independent who votes with tho Ministry." It is expected that tho elections will take place or. February 3. Tho light will bo short, sharp, and decisive. Tho trouble has arisen through tho action of tho : Legislative Council in throwing out tho I Appropriation Bill us a protest against tho action of the Government in adding to tho ' Estimates lines for the establishmet of briok- | works and timbar yards. Various proposals j wero made with a view to overcoming the | difficulty—the council, for instance, proposed I to submit tho bill to a joint committee of j both Houses to decide whether the items j hod boon rightly included —but without j avail. Liberals claim that the Opposition | is fully justified in refusing to allow tho ; Government to smuggle through items of policy by menus of line.- on the Estimates t without giving tho council a chance of discussing them, eithea by bill or resolution. DISCONTENTED DAY LABOURERS. Since tiie M'Oowon Government took offico | in Now South Wales thu number of works i carried out by day labour Iras boon un- ! precede r-t-ed, but oven those who work undc-r ; this system are now beginning to complxim. ' Thov have not benefited by it to tho extent ! they evidently expected, and the latest union \ report expresses keen disappointment at ihu

results of tho system. One of the strongest objections appears to bo the blocking of the redress of grievances by a superabundanceof departmental red-tapeism. According to the annua! report of the Railway Workers and General Labourers' Association, "our anticipations havo not been l-ealised. and teething ci-contont prevails, due in the main to the department undercutting the rates paid by the contractors in many instance*, and the lackadaisical way in which complaints emanating from the men are dealt with by the department. We believe that the Minister is not wholly to blame, and that many of his officers are not working in the besi interests of the department, their injudicious handling and treatment of tho men being the cause of a good deal of friotion We think that the State

should lead the way in the matter of wages and conditions, and it certainly ought not to bo behind private employers in such matters. We regret to say that in this connection tho Minister has not risen to tne occasion by granting the men an increase instead of waiting to have his hands forced by tho decision of a wages board." There is another side to the question—and that is that Mr Griffith, the Minister for Works in this Labour Government, is a hard nut to orack, a man who tolerates no strikes in his department, no shirking of work, and insists on a man doing a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. These are attributes in a Minister that do not meet with Lb.o whole-souled approval of the eight-bob-a-day men. A SHORTAGE OF BEER. There has been a lamentable shortage of water in Sydney of late, and the use of the precious article for gardens and streetwatorin<r purposes has been practically prohibited; but it has also entailed a shortage of beer, which to many in this hot, dusty city is perihai>3 more lamentable than tho want of water. A working man does not mind going without a bath o:casionaUv. but he does not like being deprived of his customary gla;-.s of beer. The beer output suffered considerably owing to the lack of water, and some of the hotels ran quite out of it. One of the papers printed a picture showing a number of workmen cheering the arrival of a cartload of beer from one of the breweries in front of a suburban hotel a few days ago. It happened at a very awkward time—Christmas week, when there wes an unusual demand for the glass that cheers and has been known to inebriate. However, the ru-di has ended now, and matters are getting to their normal state again. While gardens havo gone unwatered and .streets unflushed the water has l>een flowing inte the various reservoirs, and now it is stated that theie neod be no further fear of a shortage. There is plenty of water on the catchment area—in the Cataract reservoir there are 19.000,000,030 gallons, and at Prospect over, 7,000,000,000 gallons more, or, in other words a supply by gravitation for 200 days—but the trouble has been that it was impossible to bring to Svdnov all the water that was required. Another main was needed, and the shortsighted Water Board had not set about the work in time. But the work will be completed in less than a fortnight, and then an extra supply of 5.000,000 gallons a day will he available. The reservoirs in and around the city are now fairly full, thanks to the nublic bavin* had to ;ro without its bath "and the garde™ w'thout the'r refreshing shower, and it is expected that the fortnight will be got over without anymore scares to householders and beerdrinkers.

j THE QUEENSLAND DROUGHT. ! There has been no substantial rainfall for some time, and in Queensland particularly the conditions are serious. Queensland is. in fact, in the grip of a real drought. New Zoalanders who are now settled (here writ > gloomy accounts of their experiences, and it will be well for other Dominion fanno's who have had their eyes on the Northern State to remain in their own country. To go to Queensland at the present time is simply to court disaster The Darling Downs and other grain-producing districts are in a very bad way, and there is a great falling off' in production, the wheat crop being almost an abrolut-e failure. July and September are the most vital months to the wheat bolt, and in those months there was hardlv any rain. There has, indeed, been no rain to speak of for some months past. In 1910 the area planted in Queensland was 106.718 acres, which yielded 1,022,373 bushels. During the 1911 season the area under cultivation was 47,533 aciv\s, estimated to yield 331,224 bushels. Some accounts .state tliat even this estimate is an. optimistic one. Even when the season is one of the best it is necessary for Queensland to import 2,000,000 bushels of _ wheat for I local consurrrution, and the seriousness of ' the present .situation is shown by the fact ' that it will l>e necessary to import sorno ' 3,500,000 bushels. I FIVE DAYS A WEEK.

Are vi'4 to have a five days' week, indulge

in recreation on the sixth, and rest on the seventh day? There was a time when such an idea would have been laughed at as Utopian; not so in these days, however. There is an old saying, "Give him a foot and ho will take a yard," and that about sums lip the worker of Australia. Tho more ho gets, the more he wants. It is not long- since one of those famous gatherings took place at the Trades Hall in Sydney, and a prominent member of the labour movement said lie looked forward to tho time when, instead of an eight hours' day wo would have a six hours, or even a four hours' day. Since then the proposal for a working week of five days has been launched, and has, of course, found roady acceptance among the workers. Elm plovers will regard the matter in a different light, though there are some employers, even manufacturers, warehousemen, and others, who are quite willing to make the eoncession, providing the extra time given to employees in this way be made up on the other days. There are certain employers who state that it is not worth their while to open for the half-day on Saturday; tho employees turn to their work on the Saturday in a listless way, and, instead of thinking about work think only about the races or cricket match in the afternoon, and before they have settled down to do anything it is time to go again. In those circuimstances, it is argued, it would !>e better not to open on Saturday at all. Already in some establishments the five days' week is being observed, and both employers and employees appear quite satisfied, even though for the workers it moans lontrer hours on the days they do work. Tho idea is opposed by the Eight Hours' Committee on the ground that it violates the principle of_ an eight hours' dav. Or is it. but the thin end of a wedge which will bring about a forty hours' week —five working days of eight hours each ?