EPHEMERAL PLUTOCRATS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16584, 17 November 1921, Page 8

EPHEMERAL PLUTOCRATS.

MEN AND THE YELLOW DUST. LETTERS OF A MARQUIS. By Teleorrapli—Press Aaßoclatlon-Copyright. Australia n aud N.Z. Cable A naooiation. (Received November 17, 12.35 p m.) LONDON, November 16. Messrs Hqdder and Stoughton published a life of the Marquis of Salisbury by his daughter. Lady Gwendolin Cecil. It includes letters written during his sojourn in Australia and New Zealand. Writing in 1852 from Melbourne he said he found he could gather little of the Church’s condition there because a great mass of the people seemed to be all-absorbed in their interest in gold and to have almost forgotten the existence of Christianity. He found Adelaide almost evacuated and on the verge of ruin through the gold iMsli. Melbourne was thronged with ephemeral plutocrats, generally illiterate, hurrying to exchange gold nuggets for velvet gowns for their wives and unlimited whisk'* for themselves. SOCIAL ANARCHY. Curiously enough, he found more to admire at the diggings. He was prepared to find the social anarchy which characterised California, but instead found more order and civility than was witnessed in his own native village, Hatfield. He records >i strong feeling prevailing against Downing Street, and adds : “ The people are apt to be riled at having the minutest affairs settled for them at a distance of 10,000 miles by clerks without the faintest notion of the questions handled. We * alienate the colonies and harass every Ministry for the exquisite privilege of supporting some thirty useless clerics. The political career of the marquis is interestingly dealt with.