"BILLY."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11805, 16 September 1916, Page 5

"BILLY."

(By C. HAY THQMSON|if

Anions August happenings oAhj the one of most importance: as of interest has been the return of our Prime Minister. Mr William Morris Hughes, otherwise " Billy." After ' numerous welcomes and speeches all along from Fremauile, and still more numerous welcomes and speeches on and alter arrival in Melbourne, jfn privileged places where all might not <*ome, at last the common peopla were delighted to have a welcome sefcjjapart for themselves alone in their owl civic hall on tho evening of Monday, August 14. Arrangements for admission to this meeting, it. may be briefly stated, could not have been worse. It was known from the outset that the attendance was certain to be double or treble what tho Town Holi could hold, yet no measures wero taken to cope with it. Mo tickets were to be issued ; no seats reserved —except a very fe\V. ■ Tho organ gallery was allotted to returned, soldiers: tin: south and east balconies 10 women only, i.e., one balcony and tlie main floor were left for all and any.' At all public meetings hitherto held in. ihu Melbourne Town Hall the great doors to Collins and Swanston hove been opened punctually an hour before. This time, those who Arrived a little before 7 p.m. found tio faroi ds that nearly coalesced at tb<» #feeets' intersection ; vet it occurred to stjttne to remark that these were scarcely u large as might havo been expected. To M the thousands who waited outside these doors remained close shuttle whole evening, opening onlv to give exit; ihe i'enV units who gained entrance.at seren o'clock, found the hall filled from floor tc coil in sr ; save only one empty balcony. How those who filled tho building had found admission remained a mystery until next day, when it was announced that crowds beginning to gather at 4 p.m. were so dense by 5.30 that thoy were then admitted by " a little* sido dooiv'. During the waiting hour the west balcony—from which watchful Ipffi • rials warned off aggressors with tahe' r©u ark that it was ''reserved,' slowly, filled, but at 110 time was it quite full. 4 , Neither was the organ gallery; even, on the platform a few chairs were vacant,, while men, mostly -soldiers, stood alonii the walls or ieaned against pillars—police permitting for the great occasion, hut seeing that tho narrowed gangway was kept Clear. If s women did not preponderate they formed at least haif tho great..gathering.

Br Price, sit the organ, enlivened the time with popular and patriotic ■'■rrtelodies, and' in intervals the some halt or maimed, a groups of blind. ii score discharged and returned to civilian garb—sang cveryihirig,:except " Tipperary." the- _ downstairs khaki and many others joining in.fih© choruses, while* over and anon up' t»> nine o'clock Thor-like hammerings- of tho cheated on the great doors furnished a fundamental bass. Finally, organ and chorus settled down to ''.Auriralm Will Be There " with new repeated several times. At last, th* clock showing Mr Hughes to bo Jotc, they tenderly inquired: " Oil where, oh where is our lixtlr Billee ? Oh where, oh where can lie be!*"

At this psychological moment/ the missing Prime Minister walked on to the platform, and tho whole house r-oso and cheered him- for several minutes, tho air white with women's fluttering i handkerchiefs. ... •., Whether it was that Mr HugKes'Jlas profoundly aftcctcd by this derootrfrt'tsttion or by the eonseeiousness th&friliQ was still disallowed from speaking..;, cisively on the subject uppermost minds, he was at iir&t extraordinarilyl cold and halting in speech, and it ftafc! quite thirty minuter, before he recovered a measure of fiueuey. - Every, listener there was' tu?>< d _up to concert pitch on one subject, and waiting for a word with a tenvneSs that could be felt, but the word—conscription, or even what seems to b® regarded as a milder term, compulsory service—was leit unvoiced Hughes or any other there. Std) 4 .,,ih« Prime Minister did well. He. w'els upon, emphasised what, we are' forget in •" this happy land of ©are,"' that we are not '' helping lighting for oiu own place in a.> much as the Motherland or her billies, or rhe enemy himseif. Wisely he underlined the point; that Germany; is far from exhausted—her soil yet v t'rea from alien foot: only when the Allies' guns thunder in the Fatherland will too dawn of victory—the necessary, complete, decisive victory—have : arrived. Also, Mr Ungues invited us. : t» look at th.e map of our own country and see ourselves as we are —a "specie of white in an ocean of brown : live millions pretending to hold a _ oonfciugnv meant fov-oue hundred millions^.. and within coo-ee of live hundred millions of coloured peoples jostling oarlv'-olfior for room. r J. he picture made somo'ofiua draw a deep i,<r.\nh. Best lesson of all. perhaps, xygs-the dclinito, a'.most mathematical showing that alt available men in tho 'ffeiu means fewer lost, loss treasure spsfct, the war .shortened, with •. -Cf rtain / victory as the conclusion. "We must go on or go ' under,'' said the Prime Minister. *'• L havo abundant laith in .my. fellow-citizens. J believe that we Jjave done well, and that we will continue,to do well, and that whatever is necessary to be done will be done, come what may. As for me, I shall endeavour to do my duty, no matter whom it .pluses or whom it- displeases." ... .

These " prarc -'oris " might. well hare concluded the speech, though nicy di.ci not. They seemed to contain*; a pledge. But :tll we Know that- -rilgbt was thaf; Air Hughes, io_ judge fojriu* words, is a conscript ionist; t'tai *our Labour Party is .largely noii-co'nsttftp* '..ior.is!,, and that tho policy _of tlio-'Qjjrfl" riiODV/ealth on this point is to .be- decided bv the caucus-• 'he jail that-wags the dog. Under those eirciimstM&is, it was not surprising that most sigro uroue to find a- phrase in a t'ort-uVar-ticlo hy rule of our writers —" Ithurie', who with liis tfjp&ar •• touches lightly" things political^*-; curring frccpumtly to mind: " The-sly*'' comical, elusive Billy. ' A!,any thought, moreover, that never, <roring thewjioie speech, not even **hen the Speaker smote one closed fist: upon the ..other, as though Germany lay there between anvil and hannnei —not once dicb-4he voivo souiid smart, convincing. , may be because the voice is so largely an * artificial voice, produced 'lvy" a wrong method that robs it oi fcooaoee. >cxt monjinjr • vhe..£pp!prE> was -headed "A Great. Speech..'':. jukl- it read well. But. so -her:- 5* not .the • si i elites: improvomrtu in. reeriritmgresults. Tho State Pari ism* nt. m tho person of its Miuiste*' Agriculture (Mr 1 l>.golthorn).. is nceitsa] of maoism:*, tiotis iho School of Horticulture at Burnley. As. of the sixteen students now there, ten arc Women. this <-o»corni "i: nearly. That school is practically the only institute in Victoria where women can learn how to gre.v the Iter'is m' : the earth in an efficient and prniWsiourt! r.*.on«er. Thou ah Dookio admit.-, women, and- at' the onenit 10 : of 11 •i> year had one ...girl student. Huntley hn< turnou out several women gardener.-: who haw don# -well, one of the l«si :-.mi earliestbeing Miss lua Hitttirins, sh-ter «.f hij. O'on<* Mr Justii-e JTigaitis. The chief eoi4plaint against- the isisiittition' seems t# be that-it- attr?,Hs ; 'fow students. Russian flag day appeal fori .Marian refugees (August 11) was sunnv and raerrv and full of goodwill,-IhoQgh not wildly exciting. Small silk fiaga t<t#ia on the coat Is pel sold a t b>'jt- ther# were nun.erotts other to purchase. At present the halts at a low figure—about £BBoo— cron this will buy some sluvering child vietiaw of Ihe TeotooJo .. . . . ■. - -