The Star. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1921. THE AUSTRALIAN TYPE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16539, 24 September 1921, Page 8

The Star. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1921. THE AUSTRALIAN TYPE.

It was a foregone conclusion that Lord NorthclifFe would have something interesting to say about Australia and its people. Not only is he a shrewd observer, but he is deeply interested in the problems which have a particular significance in regard to the future of the Commonwealth. Tho security of the Empire in the Pacific i 3 a subject on which the NorthclifFe journals have concentrated a good deal of attention, and in connection with which they are largely shaping British public opinion. Lord NorthclifFe, on his arrival in Anstrala, was curious to find out what manner of nation was being built up. Some of his early impressions were conveyed to a Sydney journalist. He said that he had set out on a long walk to try to find the Australian type—the unmistakable type which was most marked in the Diggers, “ lean, keen, hatchetfaced young men, hard and brown, bright of eye and quick of smile, and as a rule very tall.” The search for this type in the city led to a disap. pointment, and perhaps the searcher went to the wrong place for it. ** At the race meeting to-day,” he says, “ there were thousands of Australians. Here and there I saw the Digger typo. In my search for the Australian typo for the past few days I had forgotten that the great Australian army, of which I saw so much through tho war, came largely from the back-blocks. The people I see in Sydney are townspeople, and are, I presume, only as typical of Australia as Londoners are of England. But I do begin to perceive that about one in fifty of the young men I see is exchanging the ruddiness and the full face of the Englishman for the tanned and facial leanness of the Australian. There is a particularly handsome type of young Australian, with dark hair and blue eyes, in which I see Irish influence. 3 imagine that many of your policemen, who are a notably fine body of men. are of this Irish stock. I know hardly any better looking men than some of the Irish police of New York, and I think I trace a family relationship in the police of Sydney.” Lord Northcliffe’s visit to the Dominion had enabled him to observe a slight difference between Australians and New Zealanders. “ The New Zealanders —of that portion of tho North Island I saw—retain the ruddy complexion they carried from England with them. I mostly came in contact with agriculturists—very keen agriculturists, too. The only Australians I’ve seen are townsfolk, and these are Sydney folk. When I get up into the back-blocks, where I propose disappearing for some ten days, I shall bo in a better position to compare Australian r.nd British types. I recognise, of course, that each of your climates is beginning to produce a different kind of man. I have no doubt an Australian could discern the difference between a. number of people of Northern Queensland and an equal number from Victoria. One is conscious all the time that one is among a peoplo evolving a nationality.” Australian women and children also elicited some comment, but tho comment is conren tionai rather than critical. Lord Northcliff e regrets that he has not been brought in close enough contact to 6peak more definitely. “ I cannot say that I have been able to notice any development towards type in the Sydney womanhood. They are well-dressed, neatly shod; they carry themselves well, have all the various types of British good looks, and are generally very pleasing to look upon. The children look hardy, and like English children, are very suitably dressed. I have not noticed any differentiation in type.’ The opportunities for out-door life in Australian cites, seemed to have powerfully impressed the visitor, so incomparably superior are they to any other city be knows. Parks and open spaces are everywhere. Lord Northcliff e finds that one of the reasons of the British defeat in cricket was undoubtedly the absence of spaces in whek young people could play games. “ London, that octopus city, with its great brick tentacles spreading out year after year, has eaten the playing fields of our youth. Outside the few parks, in many of which games are not possible by reason of tho number of pedestrians, space for play in London is only to be obtained after a considerable journey. The Londoner has to swim in a small and crowded bath, which does not attract him to swim in, and to travel far afield to play cricket, which takes a great deal away of the joy of the game. Golf, by reason of the journey, becomes an expense, as, indeed, does every other game, except perhaps, bowls.” Lord NorthclifFe remarked that the Australians he had seen in the city did not appear to him to be in the least an imitative people. ( In lots of small matters they do things in their own way, and they are not afraid of great political experiments nor great commercial undertakings. «' The Australians,” he concludes, “ love to preserve the archives of the nation, as evidenced by the wonderful collection in tho Mitchell Library, which shows that hack of the Australian subconscious mind is the idea of building a nation. I only hope that developments in the Pacific Ocean may not prevent the fulfilment of that ideal.”