A NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD

New Zealand Tablet, 23 July 1914, Page 15

A NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD

IMPRESSIONS OF MELBOURNE. k In a friendly letter to the Editor, Mr. J. J. Moriarty, formerly travelling representative of the A.Z. Tablet and now of the firm of Lusk and Moriarty, architects, Melbourne, has sent us an account of his first impressions of the Victorian capital and its people. We especially direct attention lo his description of Catholic organisation and activity, which will, perhaps, be something of a revelation to some of our readers. Mr. Moriarty writes: Thinking it might interest some of my old friends among your subscribers to hear how this city impressed me after New Zealand, 1 will just jot down a few impressions that it made on my mind on the day of my arrival; and since then. I arrived on the Yarra on the 14th of March, and thought that whatever the city had in store for me, certainly it would have to be a. lot more beautiful than the river if I were ever to fall in love with it. This river is not a thing of beauty, and the local people rarely mention it to visitors. I had what I took to be a rather a good omen before, landing, for, on looking towards the city from the boat, the first sign of color to meet my gaze was the old green flag of Erin floating from many buildings in the distance. 1 remembered that we were nigh on to St. Patrick’s Day. and heard that they were holding high revels in Melbourne in honor of the occasion. , Unfortunately I did not get off the boat in time to see the procession, which is one of the big things of the year here, followed as it is by a great sports gathering in the Exhibition Buildings, but if 1 missed that I certainly saw more green sported on one day than I had seen in all my life up till then. There was, needless to say, a tremendous crowd about, and here I saw for the first time a typical. Australian gathering. The impression they made on me was that they were a wonderfully happy, care-free people, seeming to be quite in their element when on holiday bent, and this first impression of mine has been strengthened by residence among them. They are, I think, as a writer once described them, children of the sun. The big things of life do not worry them much, I should imagine, but the pleasant things of this world have in them ardent devotees. From the Minister down to the clerk of the Crown, they all patronise sport. You pick up the paper after a big fight, for instance, and you see that one or more of the Cabinet Ministers (if not the Prime Minister himself), was present. At football, —which, by the way, has at each ground from 20 to 30 thousand spectators on an ordinary match day,— you may read that the Governor or the Mayor or some such was in attendance. The thing that struck me most at the football match that I first attended was the large number of the fair sex that were present, and the tremendous interest they took in the game. You find • out here what interest in a game means; it is not the thing we knew in New Zealand. We cheered there (or at least I thought we did), but here it is something much more serious, and is a revelation as to what the human voice is capable of when giving vent to the feelings of its owner. If they encourage good play here, and they do, they have a much more effective way of discouraging bad, but as New Zealand football is a nice quiet game I won’t tell you any more about that part of it, for fear I would be teaching my countrymen bad habits. I will say that if any New Zealand umpire thinks that he can be taught no core, the Rugby Union should send him across and flsk the League to let him umpire just one game here, and then wait for results. If he were an infallible umpire he might get on all right, otherwise he would be sorry that he had not retired from the field whilst his honors were thick upon him. Theatreland also is something different to what we were used to in New Zealand. If we had one good company in any of our cities we were well off; here it is usual to have at least six companies to choose from for your night’s amusement, not mentioning the picture shows, or, in summer, the

various.seaside comedy companies that go to help these people while away their tune. Sunday, too, lias its pleasuies, for in the evening most of the picture theatres are open, and they do "a great business. Even Good Friday was not sacred to the theatre world, and almost without exception every theatre in and around the city was open, and, more is the pity, did big business. R Co-equal with their love of pleasure they have another characteristic that is to a stranger within the gates very comforting, that is their good fellowship, their entire lack of suspicion, the real warm welcome they extend to all strangers. In a particular manner does this welcome go to the New Zealanders. As soon as they hear that you come from there they arc interested listeners, and never tire of hearing of its beauties. They seem to appreciate them more than many of our own people, and all express the one opinion that when funds permit New Zealand is to be their holiday resort, Beyond this of New Zealand they know absolutely nothing, and laughed much at me when I first came here and tried, in a real New Zealand way, to tell them what a great country it was, and what a large city Auckland was also. It was no good. You could interest them in talking of Rotorua, or the Cold Lakes, or the West Coast, or more particularly of the Maori, but to talk of big towns, well, that was too much to put on good natured people such as these are. I don’t talk about them now, and must, confess that 1 smiled the other day, too, when I heard a young New Zealander telling some one what a fine city Christchurch was. The joke comes in when you find out that the equivalent to our suburbs in New Zealand, have here greater populations than our cities over there. So much just now for the people. As to the -city itself,’ it is claimed for it that it is the finest laid-out city south of the line, and this is quite easily believed. Its main features are wide streets, fine buildings, and a multiplicity of public parks. There is not a crooked or twisted street in or near the city, and if a sixth standard boy were given an hour’s directions he would be able to find his Way around the metropolitan area ever after. They have a very antiquated system of trams here, the old' cable cars being still in existence, and, being owned by a trust, you tan well imagine that they do not worry very much about the comfort of the public. I have had on a few occasions to net out with the rest of the passengers and help to shove the cars along till they caught the cable again. New Zealand has the best of it there. The Melbourneites have a great civic spirit, and that makes for handsome buildings, for beautiful parks, for museums of more than ordinary merit, for fine art galleries—in fact, for all things that go to make the citv beautiful. There is one great drawback to the progress of the city proper though, and that is the number of cities surrounding it. This is a veritable land of municipalities, and mayors; you take a tram ride in any direction you will pass through at least several different cities. It means, of course, that one of them may block any work that might be, to the benefit of them .all. The Government of the State here took the matter in hand some time ago, and promised to legislate for making a greater Melbourne, but as in all things political, they never went past the promise. That word politics reminds me that this is the one thing here that the most ardent patriot cannot boast of. The Liberal Party have been in power in this State for a long time, and their record seems to be a long list of promises never redeemed. The Labor Party arc a growing power in State politics, and many people seem to incline their way, not because of their platform, but simply on the ground that if given a turn in office some work might be done. The name the Liberals arc generally known by here is the ‘ tired . party.’ As for the Federal House, well, the less said just now about it the better ; a. more childish exhibition of what grown men are capable of than that given by both parties during the session hist closed it would be hard to match in any country in the world. I feel proud of our New Zealand men, and in a race of comparisons they would

win easily. If Sir Joseph Ward were in . politics here he would stand right out above every man in Australia. The only pleasing prospect at present in- view is that things have got so unworkable in the Federal arena that tlie writing is on the wall for party government, and the elected ministry must come. There is to be a State election, as well as an election for both the Federal Houses, almost at once, so you see that we are in for a feast of politics. A double dissolution was granted to the Liberals in the Federal House, owing to the Senate having a Labor majority and blockingall business sent up to it. Even if the Liberals do win a majority in the Lower House they will be no better off, for it is an absolute certainty that the Labor Party will dominate the Senate again. If this occurs it means that they will be forced to elect 'the Ministry, or give up trying to do any business. The Labor Party have now decided to ado2it as a leading plank in their platform the Initiative and the Referendum. What the consequence will be to the party is debatable. However you will hear the news with reference to this in New Zealand, so 1 will not go further into it. Having thus far spoken of tilings in general, I want now to tell you of the ope particular thing that is of absorbing interest to a Catholic man who comes here from New Zealand : that is, of things pertaining to our faith. If the city pleased me, if the people by their kindness won for themselves my love, the Church and its activities left me dumbfounded with amazement at its greatness. I want to say here that it would be a good thing for the faith of our young New Zealand Catholics if they were all to spend a few weeks in a city like this. Their ideas, gathered from their own towns, that the Church was something small, would vanish instantly, and instead of being timid about things Catholic, they would go from here and want to tell all, that, leaving faith out of the question altogether, the greatest pride that man can wish for is to be a member of the body that do the things that the Church is doing here. Go to any part of the city or its environs, and you will find monuments of beauty and utility raised by these Victorian Catholics to the Most Highchurches, schools, convents, hospitals, homes for the foundling, for the aged, for the poor and needy, colleges, and orphanages, two branches of the great Homes of Abbotsford, run by the Good Shepherd Nuns; training colleges for teachers, homes of the missionary Fathers, etc., till one wonders whether he will ever see the end of them. Many Catholics born in Melbourne have grown to maturity and could not tell you the half of them. Of the schools, you will have some idea of their size when I tell you that at one of the parish schools I visited there were over 800 children. This is not by any means an isolated case, yet it will convey to your readers some idea of what the Catholic body is like here in numbers. In parish schools four, five, and six hundred pupils are quite ordinary. The Abbotsford Convent, which I had the pleasure of looking through, js like a small New Zealand town ; there are about 150 nuns there, and in the home there must be all told near a thousand people, to say nothing of the children they care for. There are eight colleges for boys here and all with large attendances! (To be concluded next week.)