AUSSIES AND POMMIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 8

AUSSIES AND POMMIES.

EXTRAORDINARY LETTER. The Sydney Coroner on December' 7 recorded an open finding concerning the death of Charles Leslie Gill, aged twenty-five, whose body was found in the shunting yard of the Central Railway Station on November 26. The head had been severed by a train. The following letter was round in> the clothing of the deceased: — “ I have been in a few places now, and mixed with all kinds of queer people, but I tell you that Australia is the dumping ground of the world. So much scum has landed here at different times that really they are a queer crowd, and their manners are queer too. I never take any notice but keep myself to myself, aijd just go out on the week-ends with a fellow from Leicester. I never have anything to do with the so-called Dinkum Aussie 6. because they are not like a true-bred white Britisher, in that they can’t be trusted. They also, -in many cases, hate us, and call us “ Pommies,” because they are jealous lest we might take a good job. off them, because employers often find out they can trust' a Britisher. “ They think the Yank a great fellow here, but, as T say r they hate a Britisher as a rule. Occasionally after I have been talking to one of these native-born salt of the earth for some time he probably notices I am not an Aussie, and he asks me where I come from, or I can see he is what is called a ‘ sticky-nose.’ and I usually reply, with a quiet smile, ‘ Oh, I myself, I am a C'alethompi an. ’ That usually shuts the mouths of most stickynoses. I never say much. I leave them as cold as before, and as ignorant. In fact, I have had much fun in Australia over the ignorance of the Press, and some of the people here. “ In his spare time the Australian ‘ native-born 5 as he calls himself, to distinguish himself from a mere Englishman, only thinks about what horse will win at the races, or which football team will win. or how many pots of beer he can soak into himself. He never thinks of reading anything to broaden his narrow outlook on life. He is so lacking in knowledge that he is content with his own ignorance and considers himself the salt of the earth ; whereas he more nearly approaches the scum. “Of course, an English accent gives a man away here, but T have .little of that, and I have developed a little nasal twang, after the Yank 6tyle. and. as the Yank says, ‘it gets them all guessing.’ ✓ “The Australian won’t work on the land, and the Australian girl won’t work in domestic service. That is why they •wdnt mugs Home to do it. They want, as you can read in the papers, to fill all the best jobs themselves, and hope to import people from Home to do all the bullockiug work, like chopping down trees and grubbing them out,-etc; but T might tell you that 1 am gradually turning the tables on the cows here, as T now know as much, or more, about their country as they do. But it takes time to find things out. and determination to get to the winning post. As a matter of fact, you don’t want t.o take any notice at aii about what you hear about Australia and Aussies ir» English papers—because it is all rot.”