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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, Advance Australasia, by Frank Thomas Bullen
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-
-Title: Advance Australasia
-       A Day-to-Day Record of a Recent Visit to Australasia. Second Edition.
-
-
-Author: Frank Thomas Bullen
-
-
-
-Release Date: December 17, 2020  [eBook #64060]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVANCE AUSTRALASIA***
-
-
-E-text prepared by MWS, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
-available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
-
-
-
-Note: Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive. See
-      https://archive.org/details/advanceaustralas00bulliala
-
-
-
-
-
-ADVANCE AUSTRALASIA
-
-
-      *      *      *      *      *      *
-
-PREVIOUS WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
-
-     THE CRUISE OF THE _CACHALOT_
-     IDYLLS OF THE SEA
-     THE LOG OF A SEA WAIF
-     THE MEN OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE
-     WITH CHRIST AT SEA
-     A SACK OF SHAKINGS
-     A WHALEMAN'S WIFE
-     DEEP SEA PLUNDERINGS
-     THE APOSTLES OF THE SOUTH-EAST
-     SEA WRACK
-     SEA PURITANS
-     A SON OF THE SEA
-     CREATURES OF THE SEA
-     BACK TO SUNNY SEAS
-     SEA SPRAY
-     FRANK BROWN, SEA APPRENTICE
-     OUR HERITAGE, THE SEA
-
-      *      *      *      *      *      *
-
-
-ADVANCE AUSTRALASIA
-
-A Day-to-Day Record of a Recent Visit to Australasia
-
-by
-
-FRANK T. BULLEN, F.R.G.S.
-
-Author of "The Cruise of the 'Cachalot',"
-"With Christ at Sea," etc.
-
-Second Edition
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Hodder and Stoughton
-London MCMVII
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE
-
-
-Upon revising the last sheet of this small book for press I could not
-help feeling that some little explanation was needed of its appearance
-at all. For assuredly, when I accepted the commission of the Editor of
-the London _Standard_ to write for him a series of articles giving my
-impressions of Australasia during my forthcoming lecturing tour, I had
-no idea or intention of subsequently publishing those articles in this
-form. The onerous nature of my lecture engagements and the rapidity
-of my passing from place to place precluded any idea of giving such
-careful attention to form, sequence, and detail that I believe a book
-demands.
-
-But to my surprise and gratification, while the articles were
-appearing, always in a more or less abbreviated form according to the
-exigencies of space, the Editor wrote and informed me that there was
-a strong demand that the articles should be published in book form.
-I demurred on several grounds, but principally because they were the
-slightest journalistic impressions, that they necessarily contained
-many repetitions as the same features struck me obtaining in various
-places, &c. These objections, and others which I would rather not
-quote, were overruled, however, and so the book is here. And I send
-it out without any misgivings, because even if the critics do feel it
-their duty to go for me, they have in all my seventeen previous books
-been so uniformly kind, fair, and generous that a reversal of the
-treatment may perhaps have a bracing effect, though, like the nigger,
-"I dreads de process."
-
-F. T. BULLEN.
-
-MELBOURN, CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
-1907.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-                                         PAGE
-    I. THEN AND NOW!                        1
-
-   II. THE YOUNG GIANT                     12
-
-  III. A LAND OF DELIGHT                   24
-
-   IV. A GOODLY HERITAGE                   36
-
-    V. SANE SOCIALISM                      48
-
-   VI. MIGHTY MELBOURNE                    58
-
-  VII. SOME FLEETING COMPARISONS           71
-
- VIII. ON THE OLD TRACK                    85
-
-   IX. THE QUEEN CITY OF THE SOUTH         98
-
-    X. SOME FRIENDLY CRITICISM            108
-
-   XI. THE KING OF NEW ZEALAND            118
-
-  XII. TOWARDS MAORILAND                  129
-
- XIII. THE PARADISE OF LABOUR             140
-
-  XIV. A UNIVERSAL SHOCK                  151
-
-   XV. MUTTON, THE MASTER                 162
-
-  XVI. A HOMELIKE TOWN                    173
-
- XVII. THE CAPITAL OF WONDERLAND          184
-
-XVIII. A NATURAL MARVEL                   195
-
-  XIX. NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING               206
-
-   XX. SOME POLITICAL REFLECTIONS         217
-
-  XXI. NORTH AGAIN                        227
-
- XXII. THE HEART OF THE NORTH ISLAND      237
-
-XXIII. THE MAORI                          247
-
- XXIV. AUSTRALASIAN JOURNALISM            258
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THEN AND NOW!
-
-
-Thirty-four years ago, in a fine American ship chartered by Messrs.
-Anderson Anderson & Co., I paid my first visit to Australia, and the
-only one I ever made thither direct from the United Kingdom. Those
-were the palmy days of sailing ships to the Australasian Colonies,
-and a splendid fleet of regular liners, whose names were household
-words, made wonderful passages for equally wonderful freights with
-full cargoes each way for the great firms of Green, Wigram, Devitt &
-Moore, George Thompson, Anderson Anderson, and many others of less
-note, but of quite equal stability and repute. Passengers were carried,
-of course, in great numbers, and were, generally speaking, fairly
-comfortable, especially in the first class, or cuddy, although, of
-course, many of the necessities of ocean travel to-day were then
-its luxuries. It often happened, though, that through pressure of
-cargo or passengers, outside ships--that is, not owned by the regular
-lines--were chartered for a voyage, and passengers who had booked
-with a great firm upon the reputation of their ships for comfort
-and attention to the needs of the traveller, were sometimes badly
-disappointed. It was certainly so in the ship in which I paid my first
-visit. She was a splendid Boston-built vessel, but with very scanty
-accommodation for passengers. The captain was a very old Yankee, really
-past his work; but in one thing he was full of vigour, and that was
-in his hatred of and contempt for anything or anybody British; and he
-resented bitterly carrying British passengers in his saloon at all,
-telling them, as I well remember, upon an occasion when they approached
-him with a complaint, "I wish to have nothing to say to you. If I had
-been consulted, I would have paid big money rather than have carried
-you; but since you are here, make the best of it, and don't bring any
-complaints to me, for I won't hear you."
-
-So, of course, they were none too comfortable, especially as they had
-to wait upon themselves entirely, and bribe the cook to prepare their
-food, which, as he was a perfect fraud of a cook--a most unusual thing
-in American ships--did not help them very much. And unfortunately,
-however smart the old skipper may have been in his prime--and I cannot
-imagine a Yankee skipper not being smart--he was now, as I have said,
-quite past his work, and consequently we made a very long passage
-for so fine a ship. We commenced badly. Although the weather was
-beautifully fine, we took a Channel pilot--an almost unheard-of thing
-for an outward-bounder to do--and when we got well down off Plymouth,
-the captain forbade him to stand in for the English shore so that he
-might get a chance to land. So we carried him, fretting terribly and
-exhausting his vocabulary of abuse, half-way across the Bay of Biscay,
-where, meeting a homeward-bound steamer, the captain condescended to
-signal, heave-to and release the unlawful prisoner. His farewell was
-copious, involved, and highly decorated with flowers of sea-speech, at
-which I did not wonder.
-
-The weather all the way out was exceedingly favourable, but the time
-taken to Melbourne was 137 days, the average passage for such ships
-as she was being about 95. The only people who really enjoyed the
-passage, and, I believe, could have wished it longer, were the fellows
-forward who commenced broaching the valuable general cargo before the
-ship was out of the Channel, and lived always like the proverbial
-fighting-cocks, washing down their huge meals of various preserved
-foods, biscuits, &c., with copious draughts of all kinds of liquor
-from beer to champagne. The fact that to reach the spoil they often
-had to crawl amongst, over, and beneath a consignment of gun- and
-blasting-powder, amounting to over one hundred tons, and that with
-naked candles, never seemed to trouble them. Perhaps it is hardly
-necessary to add that they all deserted immediately upon the ship's
-arrival at Sandridge Pier, and, not to seem peculiar, I followed their
-example a day or two later.
-
-The conditions obtaining on my present passage out present, I suppose,
-as complete a contrast to that long-ago journey as are possible at sea.
-The great steamship _Omrah_ of the Orient Royal Mail Line, with a crew
-and passenger list of over seven hundred, gliding away from her berth
-in Tilbury Docks in majestic silence, and an utter absence of fuss or
-bother, the schedule of times of arrival and departure from each port
-called at on her twelve-thousand-mile journey calculated to the nearest
-hour, the minute attention paid to the comfort of each individual
-passenger of whatever class, and the extreme order and regularity of
-the working of the huge intricate machine--all these are commonplaces
-of the regular ocean traveller to-day, who indeed has grown so to
-consider them as a part of the scheme of things that he or she,
-especially she, is prone to regard any irregularity, however caused, as
-an infringement of chartered right, and without any consideration of
-circumstances to resent it accordingly. So easily do we grow accustomed
-to what, only two or three decades ago, was looked upon as a series of
-miracles.
-
-To me, however, this passage was of the highest interest, because in
-all my meanderings on many seas for so long a period I had never yet
-sampled the wonders of the Suez Canal, very inelegantly dubbed the
-"Ditch" by veteran Eastern travellers. I had heard fearsome stories
-of the iniquities of Port Said, of the discomfort of passing through
-that furrow in the desert of eighty-seven miles, and especially of the
-terrible heat of the Red Sea. Consequently I took little heed of Gib,
-of Marseilles, or of Naples, except to note that we left the latter
-port about midnight, the cone of Vesuvius glowing fiercely against a
-background of lowering sky, and wonder whether a similar fate to that
-of St. Pierre (which I visited in 1904) was imminent for the crowded
-villages of Torre del Greco, Torre dell' Annunziata and Ottignano. For
-the mountain looked furiously angry, and it has ever been noted that
-this warning is given before a grand exhibition of Plutonic power.
-Stromboli, which we passed close to, lay basking in the glorious
-sunshine, an innocent-looking halo of light vapour crowning his august
-head, and evincing not the slightest sympathy with his fiery brother in
-the north. Etna, which was passed later, looked, if possible, even more
-peaceful, in that his vast flanks were robed in purest white almost to
-the summit, which, like Stromboli, had just a light wreath of vapour
-hovering about its lofty crest.
-
-And then away under the same pleasant, placid conditions to the land
-of Egypt, not a cloud in the sky, hardly a ripple on the sea, and the
-climatic conditions as regards temperature nearly perfect. We arrived
-at Port Said in the early dawn, the weather being quite cool enough
-for an overcoat, picked up our pilot and steamed sedately in to the
-buoys off the town amidst an extraordinary hush, only broken presently
-by the hubbub of the coaling Arabs, who worked with an almost fiendish
-energy to get the six huge lighters of good Welsh fuel into the body of
-the ship through the side ports, thus producing the minimum of dust.
-To any one accustomed to disciplined work, the ways of these Arabs are
-mysterious beyond comprehension. Everybody seems to be in command,
-and to issue orders in a high yell of which nobody appears to take
-the slightest notice. The most insignificant, ragged varlet, who has
-apparently been dozing upon the coal, will suddenly start up and rend
-the atmosphere with his raucous cries, taking command of the whole
-flotilla. But nothing happens, except that by and by all the barges are
-in position and the coal passing begins, every man, as he empties his
-basket into the shoot and descends the plank, making some mystic passes
-in front of his face with his left hand, and intoning a few weird words
-of Arabic, probably an invocation or thanksgiving to Allah.
-
-The police arrangements at Port Said appear to be well-nigh perfect.
-The boatmen do not pester for hire, because the fare is fixed at
-threepence per passenger during the daytime and sixpence at night, and
-it is paid into an office on shore--a penny of _backsheesh_ making
-the boatman quite happy. On shore it is warm undoubtedly, but other
-discomforts there are none. No almost savage importunities to buy or
-go here or there; and as for vice, the unparalleled viciousness for
-which Port Said has long been a byword--well, if it exists, which I
-very much doubt, at least to any great extent, it must be deliberately
-sought for, and that at considerable expense. Certainly as far as I
-have been able to ascertain, viciousness is not nearly as flagrant in
-Port Said _now_ as it is in any large city at home or on the Continent.
-No doubt it was, as a cosmopolitan acquaintance of mine put it, "a gay
-place once, but these infernal hypocrites of English have made it as
-tame as a London suburb on a Sunday afternoon." At midday we cast off
-from the buoys and entered the Canal, having, during our stay, shipped
-an extension of the rudder and a huge searchlight over the bows, the
-former because the slow rate of speed admissible in the Canal (about
-four knots) does not allow the vessel to answer her ordinary rudder
-quick enough, and the second to permit of the navigation of the Canal
-by night. At first the scene was quite impressive, especially the
-amazing contrast between the gigantic dredgers, which lie by the banks
-and scoop up the bed of the Canal, pouring it out through a huge tube
-on to the desert beyond, and the nuggars, or Nile boats, of a type
-dating back two thousand years or more, with their upward-flaring bows
-and their huge lateen sails. The wind was right aft, so that we were
-in an almost perfect calm; yet it was cool in the shade, and only over
-the desert, where an occasional mirage showed itself, did it appear
-to be hot. As evening came on, the desert scenes aroused strange
-memories, the unkempt encampments with their groups of couchant camels,
-the solitary figures engaged in prayer with their faces Mecca-wards,
-and then a sudden blaze of colour, a golden glory in the West, and the
-vivid day was done.
-
-As in all such situations, night succeeds day with almost startling
-suddenness, but surely never did sweeter dark succeed glaring sunshine
-than now. There was no moon, and in the clear, deep violet of the
-heavens, from zenith to horizon, the stars glowed incandescently.
-The air was most invigoratingly cool--in fact, to the incautious
-ones coming up from the heated saloon after dinner in light evening
-dress, it was fraught with considerable danger. A solemn hush pervaded
-space--a silence which only seemed more profound for the gentle s-s-s-h
-of the returning water to the banks as we glided past--and the sense,
-hardly due to hearing, of the slow throb of the giant propellers below.
-Ahead the steep banks glowed white as snow from the touch of the 30,000
-candle-power electric light at the bows; astern, a vast, dazzling eye
-showed where another ship was silently stealing along after us. Even
-the usual gay chat of passengers exchanging reminiscences was hushed as
-if by the mental burden of the countless centuries of history round
-about them. For slowly we were stealing through the world-old desert,
-almost every grain of whose sands could tell, if vocal, wondrous
-tales of immemorial civilisations; and it needed no great stretch of
-imagination to people those solemn breadths with legions of ghostly
-watchers, whose sphinx-like faces expressed neither anger nor surprise,
-envy nor contempt, but only deep-browed contemplation of the splendid
-insolence of the modern engineer who had thus invaded their secret
-solitudes. And I could not help projecting my mind forward a few
-thousands of years, passing as swiftly as the space between us and the
-Ancient Egypt, and wondering whether the ephemera of that day would not
-class us as contemporary with Sesostris or Assur-banipal, even as we
-are apt to lose our historical perspective, and to look upon all the
-early civilisations as practically coeval.
-
-We emerged from the Canal into the Gulf of Suez on one of the most
-glorious mornings conceivable, a fresh breeze ruffling the dark blue
-of the Gulf into a myriad sparkling wavelets, the air sweet, cool, and
-heady as new wine, while the distant mountains lay enfolded in sombre
-purple. But all this beauty was lost upon our commander, who was loud
-in his objurgations against the abominable neglect, as he put it, of
-the authorities in allowing this roadstead at one end of the world's
-greatest highway to remain almost unnavigable for want of dredging,
-pointing, as he did so, to where our propellers were churning up the
-mud, and at the ship, which, by reason of her keel _smelling_ the
-ground, was almost refusing to answer her helm. However, his annoyances
-were soon at an end, and in the splendid freshness of the new day,
-we sped joyously down the Gulf towards the much-dreaded and deeply
-historical Red Sea.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-THE YOUNG GIANT
-
-
-Of course the time of year--the middle of March--must be taken into
-account, otherwise I should ask, in utmost bewilderment, why all
-this wholesale vituperation of the Red Sea? I am quite prepared to
-believe also that we have been especially favoured this voyage, as we
-have never, since leaving London, had an unpleasant day at sea. But
-when all has been said I am perfectly certain that many other places
-of my acquaintance, notably the Spanish Main and the East African
-littoral, are quite equal, if not superior, to the Red Sea in its
-alleged bad eminence of torridity. No; it was not until we began to
-near Colombo that the heat waxed at all oppressive, and even then only
-so to people who persisted in worrying about it. In Colombo it was
-hot and coal-dusty, and generally unpleasant to the traveller eager
-for sight-seeing, yet fresh from the coolth of home and even the Suez
-Canal. But it was over soon, and the latter half of the day was also
-tempered by a few tremendous tropical rain-showers, heralded by a
-thunder-clap out of a blue sky which sounded like the crack of doom and
-brought seriousness to many faces. I thought it was the report of a big
-gun fired close at hand, and looked vainly about for the smoke-wreath.
-
-Away again at midnight, passing through the narrow way between the ends
-of the two magnificent breakwaters at nearly full speed, so confidently
-are these modern twin-screw ships handled, and the long stretch across
-the Indian Ocean to Fremantle lay before us, the last lap of the ocean
-passage. So we settled down to quiet enjoyment again, marred only by
-the digestion of the news heard about the outbreak of Vesuvius, fully
-justifying my fears when I saw his angry glow on the night of leaving
-Naples. Swiftly we passed into the realm of the faithful South-east
-Trades, meeting the world-old swell from the southward and listening
-half-pityingly, half-contemptuously to the querulous complaints of
-passengers at the ship's motion, after their unstinted praises of
-her steadiness before. I reserved most of my pity, however, for the
-skipper, who had to meet these unwarranted aspersions upon the
-character of his fine ship, with explanations which his interlocutors
-did not understand, or, if they did, disbelieved, paid no heed to it,
-and went on grumbling.
-
-At last, punctual to the appointed hour, in the perfect wharf of a
-pearly morning, we steamed into the snug harbour of Fremantle, and
-after a brief delay for turning the ship so that she should be ready to
-steam right out without delay, we gently glided alongside the wharf,
-arrived in Australia. It was my first visit to Western Australia, and
-from what I had heard of the Swan River I had pictured something very
-different indeed from a waterway, which, though narrow, was deep and
-secure as a dock, and lined with wharves alongside of which such a
-ship as the _Omrah_, drawing 26 feet of water and measuring nearly
-9,000 tons, could be berthed with the greatest ease. As the light
-strengthened and it became possible to make out details, I was charmed
-at the finished look of everything, the absence of that squalor which,
-in American ports especially, seems inseparable from shipping quarters.
-There was nothing unkempt or untidy, and as the sun rose and the clear
-atmosphere shed its searching light upon every corner, this was most
-noticeable. One other point, too, about this most modern port was the
-use of the motor for harbour work, the lighters even being brought
-alongside by a motor-tug, while two or three others were gliding about
-the river with that uncanny air of sentience and absence of fuss which
-is extremely characteristic of the motor-boat, if not of the motor-car.
-
-Having met the inevitable interviewer who did _not_ ask me how I
-liked Australia, but who did put me to considerable inconvenience by
-requesting (in about five minutes) my views on the result of the recent
-elections in Great Britain, and the consequences to the Empire of the
-sudden rise of the Labour Party, I entered the train at half-past eight
-and gat me unto Perth, about an hour's ride. We passed through many
-thriving-looking townships, glaringly new to all appearance in that
-all-revealing sun-glare, but still, to my delight, free from squalor. I
-saw no tumble-down hovels, neglected fences, weed-overgrown forecourts,
-unpainted houses with "don't care" posted in unmistakable characters
-all over them, such as may be seen in the suburban districts of
-Chicago, for instance, to say nothing of many less important American
-cities. And I take it that to the observant traveller there are few
-better criteria afforded of the character of a great city generally
-than the approaches to it by train, for by some strange series of
-coincidences a railway almost always runs through the worst part of a
-town or city's environs.
-
-Therefore I was most pleasantly impressed by my journey to Perth--an
-impression which was deepened and confirmed upon leaving the train
-and entering the pretty little city itself, which I mentally compared
-with its ancient namesake in Bonnie Scotland. For its lovely
-surroundings old Perth can hardly be surpassed, but it is in itself
-a "dour auld toon," hard and grim, while new Perth, the capital of
-the young and strenuous giant, Western Australia, is bright and brisk
-and gay, humming with activity and yet solid and permanent-looking
-in its buildings, as if its citizens had faith in its capacity not
-merely to endure but to go on. To use an expressive if horrible
-Americanism, "there are no flies on" Perth. Its citizens are obviously
-full of go, and they have called to their aid all the most modern
-appliances for expediting communications either by road or rail.
-The electric trolley-car hums along the beautifully graded streets,
-alongside of which run a very forest of telegraph poles supporting a
-shimmering network of telegraph and telephone wires. I take off my
-hat metaphorically to those responsible for the roadways of Perth. To
-my mind nothing more fitly stamps the character of those in charge
-of a city than the condition of its streets, and I bear witness that
-the streets of Perth put to utter shame the roadways of many far more
-pretentious and incomparably older towns and cities that I could name
-both in the Motherland and in the United States.
-
-My stay in Perth on this occasion being limited to about two and
-a half hours, I could not waste time, so made haste to present my
-credentials to the Premier, Mr. Rason, and a leading citizen, Dr.
-Hackett, proprietor of the _West Australian_, and a gentleman of
-whom I heard nothing but praise. By both of them I was received with
-the greatest cordiality, but of course there was no time for any
-hospitality or investigation, and as I hoped to make a stay of a week
-or so on my return it was quite unnecessary to do more than exchange
-a few compliments and retire. But I confess that one thought has
-worried me. To judge from the newspapers which I have been devouring
-since they came on board this morning, the rulers of this Colony are
-mainly men whose time is principally devoted to the vituperation of one
-another and the promulgation of schemes of socialism, the difference
-between the ins and the outs being, as far as I can see, that between
-Tweedledum and Tweedledee. If, however, there be any truth in this,
-how is it that the evidences of good government and prosperity are so
-abundant, so unmistakable on every hand? It is a conundrum the answer
-to which I hope to learn later on.
-
-Back again to the ship in a great hurry, and punctually at the time
-appointed we steam out around Rottnest Island, and head for Cape
-Leeuwin, the "Horn" of Australia, where for the first time the sedate
-_Omrah_ begins to manifest symptoms of levity, evoking plaintive
-protests from those passengers who, spoiled by the persistently calm
-and uneventful passage we have made from Britain, have grown to
-resent any additional movement of the ship as a breach of faith on
-the part of the Company or a lack of seamanship on the part of the
-captain. We have with us as passengers to Adelaide the members of an
-Interstate Commission on Shipping Freights--gentlemen who all bear
-the distinguishing badge of membership of a State Parliament, a gold
-emblem on the watch-chain entitling them to free transit throughout
-the Commonwealth. They form a select coterie, holding severely aloof
-from all meaner folk, sitting together at a table of their own, and
-not deigning to recognise the genial captain, whose withers are quite
-unwrung by the neglect. It is impossible to avoid hearing their
-conversation in the smoking-room, for it is naturally of the aggressive
-order, one gentleman especially having a voice like a foghorn, with
-which he endeavours to drown any utterances of his colleagues. Yet--for
-the reflection will thus intrude itself--these are the men to whom,
-with their like, the destinies of this mighty continent are entrusted,
-and, judging by what I have already observed, with no small measure
-of success. Is it, I wonder, another proof of the dictum that man is
-better than his creeds, and that whatever irresponsibility may utter,
-responsibility will curb?
-
-Now one thought dominates others--that I must leave this happy home
-of mine and launch into the vortex of shore life. Mentally I contrast
-this feeling with the time when I almost always hated the ship that I
-was in, and in any case was anxious to get ashore. But inevitably as
-fate the big ship breasts the mighty south-east swell, accompanied by
-a graceful cohort of albatrosses and mollymauks, until at daylight on
-Easter Monday she glides through Investigator Straits into the calm
-waters of St. Vincent Gulf, and punctually to the appointed minute lets
-go her anchor in Largs Bay off Port Adelaide.
-
-As far as memory will serve me, there is nothing new in the appearance
-of the Port from this distance since last I bade farewell to it
-twenty-six years ago as second mate of yonder fine sailing ship, the
-_Harbinger_, now under the Russian flag, which by a most strange
-coincidence is the first vessel to strike my eye on my return. That
-argues little, however, for the approach by sea to Adelaide is
-unimpressive to the last degree, the distant range of blue hills giving
-no promise of the beauties which lie between their slopes and the sandy
-levels of the sea-shore. And I cannot help being struck by the fact
-that here alone, of all the great ports of the Commonwealth, is it
-necessary for the mail steamer to lie out in a roadstead exposed to any
-weather which, indeed, might not mean any danger to herself but does
-often spell much misery and delay to outcoming and ingoing passengers.
-Not, I hasten to add, because there is no harbour for even such large
-ships as the _Omrah_, but because the snug berths up the Port River,
-as it is called, take up far too much valuable time in reaching and
-leaving. There should undoubtedly be an outer harbour or breakwater;
-and one was commenced, but the contractors failed, and it remains in
-that condition awaiting the time when the authorities can make up
-their mind to go on with it again. Fortunately the fates are kind to
-us to-day, the weather being beautifully fine, and we are soon in the
-tender steaming for the Semaphore Pier, where a scene awaits us (it
-being Bank Holiday), which reminds us vividly of home. The spacious
-sands are studded with holiday-makers behaving after the manner of
-trippers at Margate or Southend, but, methought, a trifle more sedately
-and of course far fewer in number, while the long pier is thronged
-with anglers, but to my amazement there are no more signs of any fish
-being caught than are apparent on the piers of the before-named English
-watering-places.
-
-But now comes the always unpleasant business of Customs
-examination--unpleasant, that is, to most people, but fortunately in
-my own experience invariably modified by the courtesy of the officials
-in every port which I have yet visited, with one isolated exception,
-Syracuse, Sicily. Even the much-abused Customs searchers at New
-York have invariably treated me as if I bore indelible signs about
-me of inability to attempt fraud upon a confiding Customs officer,
-and refused to examine my baggage at all. So that I was not at all
-surprised when, despite what I had been told of the drastic scrutiny to
-which all personal belongings entering the Commonwealth was subjected,
-the most cursory glance into my baggage sufficed to enfranchise me.
-But then I never do smuggle anything, not considering it worth while,
-any more than it is worth while running the risk of detection involved
-in riding in a first-class carriage with a third-class ticket, to
-put the matter on no loftier plane. Then into the train, and away
-over the perfectly level country for Adelaide the beautiful. The same
-characteristics of neatness and apparent prosperity prevail here as
-on the road from Fremantle to Perth; but casting my memory back over
-the slight gap of twenty-six years, I am compelled to admit that I was
-unable to see very much development. Within a quarter of a century a
-dozen large cities of the size of Adelaide have been added to London,
-villages have grown into huge towns in this effete old land of ours, as
-it is contemptuously termed in America, but here in one of the fairest
-and richest countries under the sun the returning wanderer can note but
-little difference except in the erection of a few fine buildings in
-isolated spots. And I well remember that two of the finest of them, the
-Town Hall and Post Office, were in existence when I was here before.
-
-Why is this? Has Australia deliberately chosen the motto, "Festina
-lente," and if so, is she in doing so wise or unwise? Far be it from
-me to offer an opinion upon so momentous a matter, or to say that the
-watchword of "Australia for the Australians" is wrong. Fortunately I
-am not called upon to pass judgment, but only to record impressions,
-although I confess my grave doubts as to whether rapid gigantic growth
-of cities or of nations makes for the best of all things in the best
-of all possible worlds. However, here we are at the fine, spacious,
-and splendidly built railway terminus, opposite to which is the hotel
-to which I am conducted, and with a sense of having most comfortably
-and auspiciously begun my tour I sink into a cosy chair surrounded by
-friends, luxuriously content.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-A LAND OF DELIGHT
-
-
-Hotel life, which for some people has a curious fascination, is to me
-a hateful necessity of travel, and few indeed are the hotels which I
-have sampled in my journeyings about the world where I have been able
-to feel even moderately comfortable, much less at home from home. The
-comfort of the old English inn, so fondly dwelt upon by Dickens, is a
-thing of the past, and the huge caravanserais of England, America, or
-the Continent, are places which to me are a positive nightmare. The
-extortion on every hand, the absolute lack of plain, homely cooked
-food which one can make a meal of, the almost unbearable and entirely
-uncomfortable magnificence on every side combine to make hotel life
-to me, and many others like-minded, a thing to be dreaded. Therefore
-I feel to-day that I am among the favoured ones of mankind in that
-I have "struck" a hotel which is my ideal of what a hotel should be.
-The attendants are delightfully civil without a trace of servility,
-the food is not merely as good as any that I have ever eaten but it is
-plainly, carefully dressed, and not smothered with vile concoctions
-of sauce to disguise its natural savours (in most places this is
-done as a sort of compensation for the lack of savour in the fish,
-flesh, or fowl dealt with), there are six or seven different kinds
-of vegetables, beautifully fresh and homelike, and cooked as if they
-were worth attention, with luncheon and dinner, there is abundance of
-most delicious fruit, baths are free and available all day, and the
-inclusive rate is ten shillings per day or three guineas a week. Also
-there are no niggling paltry extras for attendance, even the matutinal
-cup of tea and newspaper at 7 a.m., and the cup of afternoon tea being
-supplied free. I begin to wonder first whether there was ever before
-a hotel like this as I sit in my spacious, airy room, and secondly
-how, in the name of common experience, can it pay? I feel it almost
-an obvious duty to my kind to mention the name of this paragon among
-hotels, but may not because of the inevitable misconstruction which
-would be put upon my doing so.
-
-Now I promise that there shall be little or no further mention of
-hotels in what I have to say. The next morning I awoke and stepped
-out upon the wide verandah into an air that was as heady as wine and
-almost too chilly for a sleeping suit. A perfect day, the golden sun
-flooding the world with light, the purple background of hills lying in
-slumberous shadow, and that sweet breeze pouring in upon the awakening
-city from the shimmering bay, just visible in patches from this
-elevation. Can this be Australia? My recollections of all her coasts
-from Townsville to Adelaide are very vivid, but they all include baking
-heat, scorching winds laden with sand, never at any time such a morning
-as this. But I must not stay indoors; it seems a sin, unless compelled.
-So as soon as possible I emerge, to be astounded by every person I
-meet saying, "Very cold this morning, isn't it?" Cold! I gasp with
-amazement, for to me the climate seems as nearly perfection as climate
-can be on this side of Paradise. As a matter of actual fact the shade
-temperature is 52° at 8 a.m.
-
-A stroll round the bright, cheerful, clean, magnificently paved streets
-brings me to the inevitable conclusion that such changes as have taken
-place in the last twenty-six years are hardly noticeable by me. The
-most prominent edifices in the city, the Town Hall and Post Office,
-were then erected, but beyond that I feel certain that the city's
-growth has been so slow that its beauty remains absolutely unimpaired.
-I hope the citizens will not feel aggrieved at my saying this,
-especially as I fail entirely to see how the tremendously rapid growth
-of a London suburb, for instance, which in twenty years will add to its
-area of buildings and population two cities of the size of Adelaide,
-makes for that which we all profess most earnestly to desire--the
-greatest good of the greatest number. There is on this first walk of
-mine alone, and on observation bent, an utter absence of those great
-variations between blatant wealth and squalid poverty which are so
-painfully apparent at home and in America. And there is a generally
-diffused air of comfort prevailing among the people and in their
-dwellings that is to me most especially delightful to see. Even the
-ramshackle two-horse trams which hump along the road seem to say almost
-defiantly, "We're proud of being evidences of the absence of hustle.
-Our people can have the electric trolley-cars whenever they want them,
-but there is really not the least little bit of need for hurry in the
-world." And anyhow, all the roads in the city are just perfect to ride
-on either in buggy or motor, on a bicycle or to walk on, so splendidly
-graded and beautifully kept is the asphalt of which they are composed.
-It is an object-lesson patent to the most casual eye of the character
-of the people, this wonderful care of the roads.
-
-Of all the cities that I have ever seen Adelaide comes easily first
-in the perfect beauty of its situation and arrangement. Level it is
-certainly, yet not nearly so level as it appears from the hills, with
-a lavish width of roadway even in what would in other places be mean
-streets, and beyond all the magnificent belt of park-lands which
-environ it, set aside for the health and enjoyment of its citizens
-as long as it shall be a city by wise, far-seeing old Colonel Light,
-bitterly as he was reviled at the time for making such a selection
-of a site for the capital of the new Colony. But it is not until the
-visitor has been taken in hand by some hospitable citizen, and, seated
-in a motor-car, has been whirled away by winding roads through lovely
-scenery up the beautiful flanks of Mount Lofty, that he recognises what
-a wonderfully handsome and ideally situated city it is. And there is
-a quiet exultation about those same citizens as, mounting higher and
-higher, they again and again invite you to survey the panorama beneath
-you, that is most pleasant to witness. They do not brag, bid you--as
-they would if they were Yankees--burst into unstinted panegyric, but
-they wait confidently and quietly for the expression of your honest
-opinion. And I do not think they are ever disappointed.
-
-Each suburb that is passed on the upward journey is well groomed, and,
-moreover--a characteristic feature of this favoured land--looks as
-if the inhabitants had come to stay. There is no "I'm but a stranger
-here" appearance about the snug houses and well-kept lots, while the
-fruit-trees suggest a veritable garden of the Lord. All the home
-fruits grow here in rich profusion side by side with oranges, lemons,
-and grapes, grapes, grapes, until you cease to wonder how it is that
-the Adelaide hawkers can afford to stand all day selling grapes that
-are simply perfection for size, flavour, and variety at a uniform
-rate of a penny a pound. But gladly as I always welcome the view of
-an orchard or a vineyard, I confess that my attention was always
-more quickly arrested by the fat, black level land in the valleys,
-whereon was growing in most lavish profusion all the vegetables that
-we love at home--peas and beans, onions and potatoes, parsnip and
-beet, side by side with luxuriant tomatoes, huge melons, and many
-other tasty agricultural products of sub-tropical countries. A gentle
-land, where frost is unknown, where temperate and sub-tropical fruits
-and vegetables grow side by side, and the only trouble is to find
-sufficient markets for the abounding crops garnered with the minimum of
-labour.
-
-But what I think impresses all visitors to this favoured spot more
-than anything else are the vineyards, especially if he be conversant
-with Continental grape-growing districts. This strong, red soil,
-bearing evidences of abundance of iron on every hand, seems to be the
-natural home of the grape, and to be free, to an amazing degree, from
-those insect pests which have made the lot of the French and Italian
-vignerons such a weary one. Every variety of grape seems to flourish
-here in such wonderful luxuriance and fecundity, and withal in such
-healthfulness of foliage and fruit, that the eye wearies of admiring
-their prolific masses. Quite unintentionally it so happened that I was
-invited to go and visit one of the youngest of the vineyards and its
-"winery," as it is called, in company with two gentlemen, proprietor
-and editor of a great newspaper out here. And I must confess that I was
-amazed at everything I saw. The wagon-loads of tiny but rich-tasting,
-luscious grapes, coming in from the adjacent vineyards, where they
-were being picked by a merry troop of boys and girls, the ceaseless
-elevator upon whose revolving shelves a burly, silent man hurled huge
-fork-loads of grapes, the drum above, in which those same grapes were
-separated from their stalks and crushed at the same time, the juice
-flowing one way, the stalks another, and the crushed skins another. All
-the swift process was mightily interesting, especially as contrasted
-with the old crude methods of the Continent, with their maximum of
-dirt. I thought of Macaulay's
-
-
-     "This year the must shall foam
-     'Neath the white(?) feet of laughing girls,"
-
-
-and felt that this method was infinitely preferable. Then down below to
-where the great square backs full of juice were bubbling and boiling
-in the throes of fermentation, and I elicited information about the
-hastening of that wonderful process by the addition of special cultures
-_à la_ Pasteur, for your Australian wine-grower is nothing if not
-scientific. Here is a flood of claret, here one from the Sauvignon
-grape, here the Muscat, here port, but all busy, and none allowed to
-waste an unnecessary moment in the preliminary processes, however
-long they may have to lie and mature afterwards. And I was especially
-interested in seeing how the tint of the grape was reproduced in the
-wine, so that a very slight acquaintance and a keen eye for colour
-would be sufficient to name the particular grape from which any given
-back-full had been crushed.
-
-There was an air of absolute purity, of precise cleanliness everywhere
-which was exceedingly pleasant to notice, but there was also a curious
-solemnity, a brooding over everything, that was most impressive. Even
-on the top floor, where the machinery was in evidence, it made only a
-subdued hum, all being driven by an English-made petrol engine which
-I was proudly informed had run for four or five years, ever since it
-was put in, without any attention beyond an occasional wipe and the
-necessary feeding with petrol, and had never once given the slightest
-trouble. But as we descended into the vast cellars, amid vats and
-tuns of maturing wine varying in their contents from 500 to 2,500
-gallons, the silence became positively oppressive, and I found myself
-involuntarily speaking in a whisper, as if in some stately fane. Again,
-anything more unlike the wine-cellars of the Old World that I have seen
-could not possibly be imagined. There, cobwebs, mildew, fungi, and a
-damp, earthy smell as of the tomb; here, not a spot of dirt or speck
-of dust to be seen anywhere, as if scores of busy housemaids were all
-over the place every morning, which of course could not be the case.
-
-There were very few men about. Labour is costly here, and consequently
-every labour-saving appliance that can be devised is employed. But
-I was glad to learn that all the bottles I saw being filled were of
-Australian, not Belgian or German, make; that these people had too
-much patriotism to let a home industry be filched from them by free
-importers who would buy nothing in return. And certainly these hocks
-and clarets and ports looked very beautiful in their neat bottles
-with attractive labels, especially when I remembered having watched
-the whole process as far as the human eye could follow it, that they
-were all absolutely the pure juice of the grape without any extraneous
-admixture whatever, although for that I will not claim any special
-virtue on the part of the vigneron, only pointing out that the pure
-article is cheaper to make than any adulterated one would be.
-
-We then went into the still-house, where from the must, the crushed
-grape-skins, an absolutely pure brandy was being distilled, and
-I remember vividly the outcry at home because it was said to be
-impossible to get pure brandy. I am assured, and I have no difficulty
-in believing, that it does not pay the Australian wine-grower to
-sophisticate his brandy. That it is infinitely superior to any foreign
-brandy on the market at double its price I can also well believe, and
-as far as a novice's taste may decide it certainly is more palatable
-than any French brandy I have ever tasted at any price. Why, then, is
-it not in its rightful place at home? Brandy is not a drunkard's drink;
-it is largely medicinal, and it is essential that it should be pure.
-And I believe that if the people who now pay large sums for inferior
-foreign brandy would only try the pure product of the Australian
-grape they would never purchase any other. The wine is said to be too
-strong, too alcoholic, and I can easily believe that to be the case,
-but as far as the brandy goes, it can only be described as the best
-obtainable because absolutely pure. I came away from the vineyard
-with a feeling of great pleasure, on the one hand that I had been
-privileged to witness so beautiful a process, and of intense sadness
-on the other that these splendid natural products of our own loyal
-kin should still be in the struggling stage, should still have to
-fight for a bare existence against far inferior Continental wines with
-nothing to recommend them but the prestige of the name. Fortunately
-the Australians are loyal to their wines, and drink them themselves; if
-they did not I am afraid these lovely vineyards would have to revert to
-wilderness, which would be a crime against civilisation.
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-A GOODLY HERITAGE
-
-
-The soil which grows the grape, the orange, the lemon, the apple and
-pear and peach in such wonderful profusion, also grows the olive,
-and would, I feel sure, comparing it with the uplands of Costa
-Rica, grow a splendid grade of coffee. But who of us at home ever
-heard of Australian olive oil? We all know into what disrepute the
-Continental olive oil has fallen owing to its gross adulteration and
-its exceedingly unpleasant taste--due, I believe, to the methods of
-its preparation. Well, candidly, I was never able to eat olives until
-I came here, but these are so different to any that I have tasted
-before that I am now almost craving for them. And the oil is so creamy,
-so bland and mellow, that I look back in wonder at my dislike of the
-flavour of the oil that I have had poured over my salad in restaurants
-in London. And I do not at all understand why such an article of great
-utility and constant demand should not be in its rightful place in
-Britain, especially since, owing to the wonderful cheapness of ocean
-freights, the difference in its cost to the consumer from that of the
-very much inferior Italian oil would be practically nil.
-
-Currants also grow in great profusion, but the difficulty of drying
-them in the sun is great, and I do not see how they are to compete with
-the produce of Greece. Still, I suppose they are prepared in sufficient
-quantity and quality to satisfy the local demands, which, after all,
-is one of the prime objects of every Australian citizen; and a very
-laudable object too, that we in England should entirely sympathise
-with, seeing how many things we could produce ourselves, and in so
-doing employ our own people, which now we import under such favourable
-conditions to the foreigner. I do wish that our so-called Free Traders
-could see how common-sense Protection works out here for themselves,
-instead of accepting the worn-out theories which, in defiance of all
-reason and the experience of all other countries, are thrust upon them
-by people who should know better.
-
-The beauty of Adelaide is proverbial, but, curiously enough, it can
-only be realised from the landward side. The visitor who, on his
-passage hither from overseas, has been duly plied with glowing eulogy
-of the Queen of the South by faithful South Australians, is--must
-be--intensely disappointed as he nears the port and surveys the flat,
-sandy shores, the level only broken by an occasional chimney shaft or
-masts of ships lying up the invisible river as if they had been carried
-inland by some necromancy. But when, after an hour's run in a motor-car
-over superb roads and through perfectly lovely scenery, you reach the
-upper slopes of Mount Lofty, and are suddenly bidden to turn and look
-down upon Adelaide, which lies basking in the golden sunshine, edged
-by the glittering sea, you recognise that you are in the presence of
-one of the fairest scenes that earth can afford. Around you, nestling
-amidst the luxuriant vegetation, may be discerned many a picturesque
-little township, all alike noticeable for their lack of squalor or any
-other appearance of poverty which so painfully disfigures the fairest
-and most romantic of our villages at home. And scattered about between
-the townships lie the homes of the well-to-do Adelaide folks. I had
-almost said wealthy folks, but I fear to convey a wrong impression.
-They may be wealthy, but there is none of that tremendous ostentation
-and aggressive swagger about them that is so offensive in older
-countries. Comfort, yes, and even a certain amount of luxury, but the
-ostentatious note is entirely absent. Yet they are almost all self-made
-men, who are popularly supposed, at home at any rate, to be in their
-manners somewhat like the hero of one of Ouida's later books, "The
-Massarenes," who wipes his muddy boots upon a duchess's silk gown to
-show his authority over her.
-
-The most beautiful of all these country homes to which I have been
-fortunate enough to have the _entrée_ was one occupied by a very
-prominent K.C., Sir Josiah Symons. It occupies an ideal situation in
-the hills, and is, I should say, almost perfect in its surroundings and
-its climate. With most pardonable pride my host pointed out how it had
-grown up under his loving care from the smallest and most unpretentious
-beginnings until now it was what I saw it--a home as beautiful within
-and without as the heart of man could desire, a veritable abode of
-peace, and quiet, unostentatious luxury. This is an exceedingly
-pleasant feature of the life out here, the numbers of men who are now
-enjoying the fruits of a laborious life, and who look back upon their
-small beginnings with the greatest complacency and entire absence of
-that pomposity which at home, alas! so often marks the _nouveau riche_.
-These men, so far from being ashamed of the pit from which they were
-digged, evince the greatest delight in fighting their early battles
-over again. And they are mostly distinguished for their intense loyalty
-to the Motherland, while at the same time they are desperately jealous
-of their neighbours, and until you understand them you would imagine
-that they actually hated the other States who go to make up the great
-Australian Commonwealth. I have had to learn quite a new nomenclature
-since I have been here. I find that the use of the words Colonies and
-Colonial is steadily discouraged. They talk now of the States, the
-Interstate communications, not Colonial. Only a trifle perhaps to us,
-but to these strenuous Australians nothing of that kind is trifling.
-
-But, indeed, there is a curious confusion rampant just now in
-Australian political matters which is to a visitor from Britain fairly
-conversant with the State and aims of parties at home almost if not
-entirely incomprehensible. The Commonwealth leaders and the State
-leaders are not seldom at loggerheads, if one may judge by their public
-utterances, and the differences between Labour men, Socialists, and
-Conservatives, are very difficult to define. It is a veritable hornet's
-nest for an outsider to interfere with, but there is one comfort at
-any rate to a Briton that loves the Empire, and that is the spirit
-of loyalty to the Crown which is manifested by all parties. It is a
-sort of common ground upon which all can meet, although a cynical
-observer would probably suggest that it had no real cohesive value.
-There is another thing, too, which I think gives hope for the future
-of this marvellous country, and that is the fact that all parties now
-seem to be fairly in accord upon the population question. They all
-seem to realise that it is nothing short of ridiculous to expect this
-vast country to hold its own with such a trifling population as it
-possesses. With an area much larger than that of the United States,
-and a population of only one-seventeenth roughly, of that of the great
-Republic, while the two great cities of Sydney and Melbourne between
-them absorb almost one-fourth of the entire population of Australasia,
-it must indeed be a hard task to avoid seeing what an enormous waste
-of opportunities for men to rise and hew out fortune and position is
-going on. It only remains for Australians to agree as to the method
-of peopling their country, to divert to themselves the streams of
-capable and energetic Anglo-Saxons who yearly flow into the United
-States. Very cordially do I endorse the determination of Australasian
-rulers to keep out wastrels, incapables, and work-shy men. There is
-already far too great a number of these loafing about in the big towns
-for the industrious population to support, and, obviously, to import
-more of these anæmic parasites would be to waste the resources of the
-Australian States in an ever-increasing ratio.
-
-But I am straying too far from beautiful Adelaide, where I now am, into
-generalities. When riding about these lovely hills and valleys, where
-all the fruits of the earth that grow in temperate and sub-tropical
-zones flourish with incredible luxuriance, I have often asked the
-question whether this splendid fertility and wide extent of cultivable
-land was confined to the neighbourhood of the city and diminished
-in both quality and quantity up-country. And I have been repeatedly
-assured that it was not so, that Nature was amazingly lavish all over
-the southern portions of the great Central State, that farms could be
-had at tiny rentals, or at amounts of purchase-money which to us at
-home seem like a joke, but the difficulty was to find a market. So
-small a population of consumers is so very easily supplied. That was to
-me effectually demonstrated by the prices at which grapes of all kinds,
-the most splendid apples and pears and peaches, &c., among fruit and
-vegetables of all kinds, were sold, while all the necessities of life,
-such as bread, meat, tea, sugar, milk, &c., are equally cheap--so
-cheap that a mechanic or labourer can live well and be comfortably
-housed for the sum of 15s. per week; and to counterbalance this a
-journeyman mechanic's wages average 10s. a day of eight hours, while
-labourers' wages are 6s. per day. The case of the shop assistants and
-waiters, clerks, &c., is equally favourable, while certainly clothing
-and house-rent compare very favourably with prices obtaining in England
-for these necessities. Luxuries are undoubtedly more expensive than
-they are at home, especially spirits; wine, if the workman will drink
-the splendid produce of his own country, being marvellously cheap and
-good. But as with us, what eats the very heart out of the workman is
-so-called sport, and the inseparable gambling consequent thereupon.
-There is a great deal of leisure for enjoyment, which I feel sure is
-indulged in to the highest degree, and if it were not for the appalling
-waste of money in gambling would be of the highest benefit to the
-community at large.
-
-What is so hard to understand about a country like this, where the
-working man is so strenuously in evidence in politics and shows such
-eager interest in what concerns himself politically, in the strongest
-possible contrast to our workers at home, who may be, and are, led
-astray by the veriest claptrap as far removed from truth as it is
-possible to be, is, how he does not see that this gambling mania of
-his has raised up a vast horde of parasites who do nothing for their
-kind but fleece them, who are the scourge and pest of society, and to
-whose interest it is that the man who _earns_ money shall part with it
-without value received. The old _tu quoque_ argument about the Stock
-Exchange and the poor man being debarred from the pleasures of the rich
-can only appeal to the wilfully blind, for if my neighbour, in the
-exercise of his freedom to do what he will with his own, chooses to cut
-off his fingers and reduce himself to a helpless cripple, surely that
-is no reason why I, equally free, should go and do likewise.
-
-However, as the simile is somewhat stale, and the argument has been
-also used almost threadbare, it is not over-profitable to pursue it
-too far, but freely admit that with all these factors taken into
-consideration the prosperity of the country is undeniable, and that
-prosperity would be amazingly intensified if only there were more
-people. The one great drawback and danger to this magnificent country
-is its lack of population--a statement which cannot be too often
-repeated--and the parochial views of its politicians. Quite rightly,
-they look upon the comfort and well-being of their own folks as the
-primal consideration, before which all others fade into insignificance;
-but quite wrongly, and in purblind fashion, they fail to perceive
-that the maintenance of that comfort depends at present entirely upon
-the ability of Great Britain to protect them by her Navy. The total
-contribution of the Australasian States is at present £240,000 per
-annum, and it is voted grudgingly, as if the Old Country had no right
-to expect it. But no one in power seems to grasp the fact that the
-toiling millions in Britain are being taxed to maintain an expenditure
-of over forty millions upon the Navy, or an average of £1 per head of
-the population. If Australasia, whose need of protection from foreign
-aggression is just as great as ours, were taxed in the same proportion
-for the same purpose, its contribution to the upkeep of the Imperial
-Navy would be twenty times as much as it now is, or £4,000,000 per
-annum. And I dare say that it would not be any too great a price to
-pay for the security enjoyed. Australasia is building up a splendid
-Mercantile Marine of her own, she lays heavy burdens upon the Old
-Country shipowner as well as the foreigner who wishes to trade upon her
-coasts, for the benefit of her home-bred sailor-citizens; but as far as
-any ordinary eye can see she begrudges a penny for national insurance
-in case the Old Country gets her hands full at any time, as she may
-most easily do.
-
-However, let us hope that Australasia will be wise in time and
-recognise the possibility of the Labour party in England taking the
-same sort of view as the regnant party in Australasia. For if they do,
-and in refusing to vote supplies for the upkeep of a Navy to protect
-people who do not want, apparently, to be protected, or who are unable
-to see the absolute helplessness of their country unaided in the face
-of a hostile attack by a great foreign Power, they take a leaf out of
-the Australian politician's book, there will be wigs upon the green at
-once.
-
-I feel very strongly tempted to dip into statistics, which are
-available to anybody at home who cares to know, but must refrain except
-in the most casual way. But if ever figures were fascinating, surely
-they are here. South Australia, or, as it should more rightly be
-called, Central Australia, since it extends from South to North right
-across the vast continent, possesses an area of 578,361,600 acres,
-with a population less than that of the borough of Islington, or, at
-the census of December, 1902, 365,791. The average private wealth per
-head is about £250, the value of production between ten and twelve
-millions a year, and the debt per head (mostly, however, for productive
-works) is nearly £100. But this represents only a taxation of less
-than £2 per annum per head of the population. Best of all, as has been
-well said, the producer is king! The man who cultivates or mines, or
-breeds cattle and sheep, is the backbone of the community, and this,
-of course, in a new country, is as it should be. The manufacturer is
-daily growing in importance, his efforts carefully fostered so that the
-pauper labour of Europe shall not make those efforts nugatory, and the
-business man has a splendid field for his energies also.
-
-Yes, it is a wonderful country, where Nature is ready to yield up
-to man's labour in most bounteous profusion her richest treasures,
-but where at present _men_ are wanting. The great need of the
-country is labour--intelligent, willing, healthy labour. It is a
-white man's country, and white it should be and may remain if only
-white men are allowed to come in and settle there, as it appears at
-last they are being invited to do. But it will need some time to
-elapse before the object-lessons given to our workmen at home by the
-short-sighted political action of Labour leaders out here has died out
-of intending emigrants' memories, and the public interest at home is
-partly transferred from Canada, the astutest of all the Colonies, to
-Australasia, by far the richest of them all.
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-SANE SOCIALISM
-
-
-Adelaide may well be described as a staid city where the religious and
-intellectual element is exceedingly prominent and there is a noticeable
-absence of haste and bustle. There are, for the size of the city and
-its environs, an enormous number of literary and musical societies
-which keep the younger members of the community together by providing
-them with centres of interest. I cannot honestly say that this tends to
-narrowness of mind or outlook either, because so many of the members
-of these societies, both male and female, have travelled, if not at
-Home--as I gratefully note the Motherland is still called--to India,
-to Japan, or throughout the Australasian States. In fact, extended
-travel prevails here to an extent which is amazing compared with that
-of people with the same incomes and of the same class at home. A very
-large amount of the money which at home would be spent upon utterly
-valueless society functions and entertaining people who go away and
-make invidious comparisons, is here invested in travel; and so you
-shall find the daughters of a man whose income is only just over four
-figures telling you in the most casual way of their visits to the
-Temple of Shion-in, of the marvels of the Inland Sea, of the Taj, of
-Fiji, or of dear, wonderful, incomprehensible London.
-
-And then so many of the young men were through the war in South Africa,
-with its wonderful effect upon the enlargement of their minds. And here
-comes a paradoxical state of affairs. Side by side with their utter
-contempt for most of the British officers as leaders of men blazes up
-their passionate love for the old land, and I have often wished that
-Messrs. C. B. & Co., with their foul "methods of barbarism" slanders
-and the like, could hear the opinion of alert young Australia upon them
-and their methods. Especially now, when there looms awfully before us,
-in the opinion of every one out here that I have had an opportunity of
-conversing with, the near prospect of another terrible South African
-war, directly due to the work of the present Government, aided by
-Messrs. Stead, Aked & Co. I say nothing upon hearing all this, for I
-feel ashamed that such men should be allowed to play ducks and drakes
-with a great nation's interest. There is, however, another side to
-this, to which I will allude later on.
-
-For the present the main thought in my mind is that I am due to leave
-Adelaide for Melbourne. I must return again on my way home and say
-farewell to all these splendid folks, who have carried on the best
-traditions of our true hospitality at home to me. But this morning I
-have had a great treat. I met by invitation Mr. Watson, a great leader
-of the Labour party, who has been Prime Minister, and will, if I am
-any judge, soon be so again. He addressed a meeting last night in the
-Exhibition Building, at which it is estimated that some four thousand
-persons were present, for, as I have before said, in this land of adult
-suffrage, both male and female, people take their politics seriously,
-and the politician, professional though he be, must lead the strenuous
-life. This gentleman, who calls himself a Socialist, presents a curious
-contrast to the so-called Socialists at home of the Keir Hardie type.
-He is sane and gentlemanly, and from his public utterances, as well
-as his private conversation, I cannot imagine him lending himself to
-the despicable spoliation of the lower middle class that is the direct
-outcome of every Socialistic scheme of legislation at home. I find
-that Socialism here is of a very different type indeed to the brand
-that is presented to us in England. There are the usual cranks and
-Anarchists, who, bat-like, think that the remedy for all social ills is
-the disruption of society and the elevation of the noisy unfit to the
-position of equals to or masters of the quiet fit. But they are very
-small potatoes and few in the hill, and their meetings are farces which
-have to be protected by the police against the attacks of larrikins who
-regard them as fair game.
-
-But then we have none of the conditions obtaining here which are
-so luridly described in Upton Sinclair's book upon Chicago, "The
-Jungle"--a book which should make the soul of every decent man
-everywhere to take fire, a book that shows the American magnate in
-his true colours, and in which the only gleam of hope is that he and
-his horrible class may be swept from the earth which they defile
-and destroy. I earnestly hope that this book may have an immense
-circulation in England, so that our people may really understand
-what is going on in the United States to-day. I have been accused
-of saying hard things about the United States, and with reason, but
-the worst I ever dreamed of after my personal acquaintance with the
-people is eulogy compared with this frightful catalogue of horrors
-of which every page contains a nightmare. It has made me look with a
-most benevolent eye upon the legislation here in this country, which
-is popularly supposed at home to be in the grip of the enemies of all
-human progress, but which is at any rate entirely free from the truly
-damnable methods of the Chicago plutocrat.
-
-Once more, before I face the train journey, let me record the absolute
-perfection of the weather ever since I have been here to a visitor
-from home. The air has been so pure, so bracing, even keen at times,
-yet with none of that congealing bite in it which is the terror of
-weaklings both young and old at home. Of course the South Australian
-calls it cold, and greets me always with the remark that it is very
-cold to-day, with the result that I have no difficulty in finding a
-fruitful topic of conversation, since to me it is as nearly perfect as
-it can be. And with the spectacle daily before me of oranges, olives,
-lemons, grapes, and figs flourishing luxuriantly in the open air, the
-remark "very cold" seems sarcastic. But then there can be no question
-of the great heat here in summer, although there is no need to believe
-the careless dictum of men whom I occasionally meet, that 120° Fahr.
-in the shade is a common summer temperature here. That only shows the
-haziness of the average mind with regard to temperatures. With such
-heat as they do have here in summer, however, there is little wonder
-that the native-born or the acclimatised citizen does feel as very
-cold weather that which to us fresh from Britain is delightful beyond
-adjectives.
-
-And now, at 4.30, I bid goodbye to beautiful Adelaide with its
-hospitable, genial citizens, and in a cosy compartment of the train
-watch the lovely landscape glide by as we ascend the hills on our way
-to Melbourne.
-
-It is delightful travelling, especially as at stated stations there are
-refreshment-rooms where good and ample meals of well-cooked food are
-ready, and ample time is allowed for eating them. All prices in these
-restaurants are fixed by the Government, who own the railways and lease
-the catering to speculators under most stringent rules as to quality
-and prices. The result is the best railway meals that I have ever eaten
-in the world, and also by far the cheapest, indeed the prices are
-marvellous in their moderation as compared with Europe or America. The
-rate of travelling is not so rapid, but as the journey is mainly at
-night that matters little as long as the traveller reaches Melbourne
-in time to begin business as early as possible in the morning. We
-had, so I was informed, being personally entirely unconscious of it,
-a breakdown during the night which delayed us an hour in arriving at
-Ballarat, some three hours' journey from Melbourne. But we were there
-at 7.30, and found a hot and copious breakfast awaiting us, of all
-those things which are peculiarly associated with that meal; the charge
-was one shilling, or the impecunious could have a huge cup of coffee
-and a roll and butter for sixpence--a much dearer bite than the full
-breakfast of sausages, or fish, or ham and eggs, or chops or steaks,
-with potatoes and bread for double the money. But then it is a lavish
-land in the matter of food. There are no niggling extras here.
-
-We had only twenty minutes here, so that any extended observation
-of the flourishing town of about forty thousand inhabitants which
-stretched away on the level plain on either side of the railway line
-was impossible, but I looked eagerly around on the well-built houses
-and wide streets of the town which for its size has probably produced
-more gold than any other spot in the world. I thought of the wild days
-of the rush when Port Philip was congested with ships denuded of their
-crews, when Melbourne was merely a place through which the panting,
-fiercely eager crowds toiled on their way to the new Eldorado, or
-returned flushed with success to waste in most hideous debauchery and
-riot what had cost them such terrible toil to win. All that frenzied
-fight for gold has gone now, except an occasional fit of madness on a
-Stock Exchange on the report of one of the companies having "struck it
-rich"--reports that I believe are sometimes engineered by interested
-parties for the purpose of unloading worthless shares upon that vast
-confiding amorphous body, the public.
-
-No, the fat days of the individual gold miner have gone and the workers
-are now paid and employed in much the same way as they would be if the
-spoil they sought were coal or iron instead of gold. All the resources
-of science must be called in to make the business pay at the high price
-of labour, and the depths to which the burrowing men go in search
-of the thin veins of payable material is measured now by thousands
-of feet; and still they go deeper. But Ballarat and its sister
-gold-producing town, Bendigo, have long ago sowed their wild oats and
-are as quiet and church-going and generally respectable as any places
-in the Australian States. They look it too, and I have only to mention
-the fact that eleven o'clock is closing time for all public-houses
-(hotels the wise them call out here), and that the Sunday Closing Act
-is in full operation, to show that the purveyor of intoxicants has
-many hindrances placed upon his liberty to do as he likes. Gambling
-is rife, of course, but alas! where is it not in this country eating
-the heart out of all classes, but especially, as at home, out of those
-who are least able to afford it, the mechanics? However, as this is
-the subject I must refer to continually because of its tremendous
-prominence and effect upon the people, I will leave it now as we are
-speeding along towards Melbourne through immense areas of level, rich
-land studded with stumps and supporting flocks of scattered sheep.
-The approach to Melbourne by rail is so level that almost before you
-have realised that you are near the city the masts of the huge sailing
-ships lying in the Yarra Docks are visible, to my utter confusion of
-locality, because in my recollection the place where such ships lay was
-Sandridge, Geelong, or Williamstown, the first-named and nearest being
-about four miles from the city and situated, like the other two, on the
-shores of Hobson's Bay. But as we draw nearer, and I see the towering
-buildings apparently grouping themselves about the ships, it occurs to
-me that I have heard of the deepening of Melbourne's little river until
-ships of almost any tonnage can come right up into the city itself and
-lie there as they do in London.
-
-Even with the most cursory glance I can see how great have been the
-changes that have taken place since I was here first, thirty-five
-years ago, which is tremendously apparent as compared with that
-observable in Adelaide. The train glides into the station, an
-interviewer confronts me, and telling me that it is only a couple
-of hundred yards to Menzies Hotel, and that my luggage needs no
-supervision from me, escorts me up a gently inclined street, putting
-one eager question after another, among which, however, I do _not_
-hear, "How do you like Melbourne?" I have not time to notice more than
-one palatial building--not of the sky-scraper order, but conforming
-more to the quiet dignity of similar piles at home, the newly finished
-offices of an Australasian insurance company--when I find myself in
-the hotel, with my indefatigable reporter still plying me with eager
-questions, for he represents the only evening newspaper in this city
-of nearly half a million inhabitants, and wants a story for this
-afternoon's issue. Fancy a monopoly like that! But I don't know why
-he should make me say that I considered the _Herald_ to be the finest
-evening paper I had ever read in the world, since I did not know of its
-existence half an hour ago, and certainly have not yet read a line in
-it! But _que voulez vous_ from a reporter?
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-MIGHTY MELBOURNE
-
-
-From my bedroom window this morning I look down upon the little river
-Yarra, with the big ships lying snugly alongside of the substantial
-wharves, and realise what a vast change, in that aspect of Melbourne
-at any rate, has been wrought since my last visit, when where what is
-now a splendid area of water accommodation for ships of great size up
-to a draught of 24 feet, and a most up-to-date congeries of warehouses,
-wharves, bridges, embankments, and factories, was an apparently
-hopeless muddle of quaint huts and swampy land, out of which it seemed
-impossible that order could ever emerge. In those days almost every
-one spoke contemptuously of the Yarra as an insignificant creek which
-it was folly to waste money upon in the attempt to make it navigable
-for vessels of any size, and the pet project was a huge breakwater
-extending from Williamstown to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne) enclosing
-the whole of the bay between, including, of course, the embouchure of
-the Yarra. Around the whole of the coast of this bay was to run a line
-of deep-water wharfage, alongside of which ships of any tonnage might
-lie in perfect quiet as in a vast dock. This scheme was fully matured
-and presented in practical form to the existing Victorian Government by
-Sir John Coode, but its magnitude of conception, and, of course, its
-cost, staggered them. So they compromised on the Yarra improvements,
-with the result that the old piers are still used for the accommodation
-of the largest ships at Port Melbourne itself, and so they must lie at
-the piers in what is, owing to the great size of Hobson's Bay, quite an
-open and unprotected roadstead during certain winds.
-
-But though Hobson's Bay is so noble in area it is not too well off in
-the matter of depth, and ships drawing over 25 feet have to be most
-carefully navigated within its limits. More than that, the great ships
-of the White Star Line which trade here from England around the Cape
-are terribly handicapped by the fact that if they were loaded to their
-full paying capacity they could not get out of Hobson's Bay at all,
-owing to the want of depth at Port Phillip Heads. Strange, is it not,
-that at two such important points of ocean traffic as Suez and Port
-Phillip want of water should so long be allowed to hinder development,
-especially when it is remembered that there are no real engineering
-difficulties in the way? But of course it must never be forgotten that
-all really great public works in this country are heavily handicapped
-by the artificial restraints placed upon development by the restriction
-of population and consequently of revenue. All great schemes mean great
-expenditure, and with a population in the whole of this vast country
-of less than five millions this is impossible. Moreover, at present we
-have the grave spectacle of a declining birth-rate and an increasing
-emigration rate, a state of things which, in a country so full of
-natural wealth as this, is almost inexplicable. At present almost all
-politicians are agreed that the future of the country depends entirely
-upon her getting more population, but I do not see anything being done
-that will really tempt desirable immigrants who have no capital.
-
-This, however, is a question which confronts the visitor at every turn,
-and so must be dealt with in small doses lest it become monotonous. At
-present I am anxious to get out and see Melbourne itself, wondering
-whether I shall notice as great a change in the city as I do in the
-development of the Yarra. As I step out into the noble width of Bourke
-Street, in full enjoyment of the glorious crisp morning (for the
-weather is still perfect), the hotel porter greets me with, "Very cold
-this morning, sir," to which I only mumble unintelligibly in reply, for
-I really cannot say anything uncomplimentary to this lovely climate. A
-double tramcar without seats on top comes swiftly up the hill from the
-river-bank, and I jump on, noticing as I do that it is a cable-car. The
-pace is good, the road splendidly wide and straight, giving a view,
-when you are at its highest point, clear from one end to the other,
-a distance of about two miles. But I get a shock when I have to pay
-threepence for a ride of about half a mile; for there are no sections,
-as in most other places. Within certain limits of what may be called
-the metropolitan area the price is threepence any distance; but you may
-purchase eight tickets for a shilling, each of which will frank you for
-a threepenny ride.
-
-I do not think, however, that the average man saves much in this way,
-since it is a very common form of hospitality, when acquaintances meet
-on a car, to say, as hands go groping in pockets, "Oh, all right,
-I've got tickets!" and hand the conductor two. Outside the city limits
-these tickets are not available, but the fare remains the same. These
-very swift and comfortable cars are in the hands of private companies,
-who, I should think, must make a fine dividend, although it must be
-remembered that the wages are high and the service exceedingly good,
-commencing at 5.30 or 6 in the morning, and running most frequently
-until midnight. And as the city is built on the American square plan,
-with all the principal streets crossing one another at right angles,
-locomotion is very easy within the city limits.
-
-My first trip was down Bourke Street, which I remembered thirty-five
-years ago as the principal, the finest street in Melbourne; and I
-confess that I was somewhat disappointed with its unequal appearance
-and the dearth of fine buildings, for I had expected, from what
-I had heard, much greater development. The Post Office is a fine
-building, but not so favourably situated as that at Adelaide, so
-that, notwithstanding its fine tower and _façade_, it will not look
-imposing. Moreover, it is obviously much too small for the requirements
-of Melbourne, for there is a mean-looking shed devoted to telephone
-work; and for parcel-post delivery of _poste restante_ letters and
-money-order business the customer must go a considerable distance
-round into little Bourke Street of unsavoury fame. Before leaving this
-part of the question, let me say that nothing, I should think, would
-strike the British new chum more forcibly than the immense congeries of
-telegraphic, telephone, and other wires carried on posts at the sides
-of all the principal streets of the Australian cities, in emulation
-of the way these things are done in the United States. In Perth and
-Fremantle there are, in addition to the other cobwebby arrangements
-overhead, electric-car wires, and I could not help wondering what would
-be the result if one of these enormously high-tension car wires were to
-get broken and flung into the midst of a lot of telegraph and telephone
-wires by its side, especially on a night when the streets were crowded,
-as they often are, with people.
-
-Adelaide is, as I have said before, still in the thrall of the mediæval
-horse-car, wherein, if she did but know it, she is behind the smallest
-provincial town in England and some of the districts of London, so
-that at present she has nought to fear from so dire a catastrophe.
-Melbourne is served, as I have also said, with cable-cars, and for the
-life of me I cannot see why she should want anything better, especially
-as there is no question of linking up. I have been told that the cost
-of the upkeep of the cables is much greater than that of electrical
-power, but when I humbly inquire what the cost of conversion will be I
-am met with vague generalities. A little bird has whispered to me that
-when I get to Sydney I shall know the reason, which is that Sydney has
-converted her cable-cars into trolley electrics, and Melbourne, feeling
-a back number on this question, is of course furious, and must ante-up.
-You remember in the "Naulahka" how cheerfully, whole-heartedly, and
-venomously the two rival cities, Rustler and Topaz, hated one another?
-Even so do the rival cities in Australia in like manner disobey
-the greatest commandment of all, and, remembering the misdirected
-affections of Liverpool and Manchester, I cannot throw any stones.
-
-Let me return to a subject that I can unreservedly praise Melbourne
-for--the magnificent paving and grading of her main streets. It is,
-to my mind, a most effectual mark of high civilisation when the roads
-of a city are well laid and well cleansed, especially when, as in
-Melbourne, they are such noble thoroughfares. There is an immense
-traffic both on side-walks and in the roadway in Melbourne, but the
-condition of both _trottoir_ and road is above reproach, even better
-than in Paris, which is to those who know, high praise. It would amuse
-our keen urchins who, in the City of London, dart about in the midst of
-the complications of the wheels and the clattering of hoofs with their
-exaggerated dustpans and hard brooms collecting the dung, to see their
-opposite numbers in Melbourne with a slightly bigger pan mounted on a
-pair of wheels and having a handle attached, doing the same work in a
-much more leisurely but effectual fashion. They would, however, say as
-I said, "That kind of contraption wouldn't work at all opposite the
-Mansion House." And, of course, they would deride the effort to make
-things easier, as men and boys always do.
-
-I have, however, arrived at Elizabeth Street, which runs at right
-angles to Bourke Street and only stops at the Yarra Bank or Flinders
-Street, and I am at once convinced of the growth and splendour of
-Melbourne. The shops are superb, the buildings are beautifully and
-splendidly built, and the crowds of people are immense. But--there
-is always a but, somehow--I am saddened to see outside the numerous
-drink-shops or hotels a disfigurement of hurriedly printed telegrams
-from the racecourses, of the day's racing, the odds, and the results
-of all that infernal literature that saps the very soul of a nation.
-Tattersall's is a name apparently to conjure with, every foul-mouthed
-dirty-handed filcher of other men's earnings calls himself a
-Tattersall's saloon or a Tattersall's bar, until I wonder what old
-Tatt, who was, I believe, a gentleman anyhow, would have said had he
-seen to what base uses his honoured name would be put. Forgive me for
-referring to this so frequently, but it is so thrust down your throat
-at every turn that it is impossible to avoid saying something about it,
-and sorrowing over its effect upon the people all around you.
-
-I turned down Elizabeth Street toward the river, and was staggered
-at the density of the crowds. It was 11 a.m., and the people were
-thick as bees swarming; not loafing about, either, but moving as if
-they had business somewhere. And the shops, those sure indications of
-prosperity, were quite comparable with any that I have seen anywhere,
-especially those devoted to jewellery, photography, drapery, and
-books! This must be a reading community indeed, for I do not remember
-having seen anything anywhere like Cole's Book Arcade or the Straider
-Libraries, where people go to buy books, not to borrow them. But I
-thought pitifully of authors' royalties, which at home are 1s. 3d.
-or 1s. 6d. on a book which is sold for 4s. 6d., and out here are
-threepence or fourpence on the same book sold at 2s. 6d. or 3s. 6d.
-This, however, being a matter only concerning those who write books,
-will not interest the general public, who appear to imagine that the
-author is fed and clothed and housed miraculously and ought not to
-expect payment for writing, but ought rather to carry about a ton or so
-of his books for glad distribution to every one that asks for them.
-
-Yes, Elizabeth Street was an eye-opener to me, who remember it in the
-days of long thirty-five years ago. It is of course unequal, quite
-small and unpretentious buildings cheek by jowl with mighty erections,
-but no more so than Oxford Street, which indeed it much resembles
-at the river end, except for the permanent shelters over the wide
-pavements so that people shopping on foot are protected from the sun
-or the rain, and for the never-ending flight of the cable-cars. It is
-true that there are no emporia comparable to Marshall & Snelgrove's,
-D. H. Evans & Co., Waring's, or John Lewis's, but that is not to be
-expected, remembering that we are in a city with about the population
-of Islington. But turning the corner of Elizabeth Street into Collins
-Street you get a vista of commercial buildings that for solidity,
-beauty, and also architectural effect may safely challenge comparison
-with any town or city in the old country, with the added advantage
-of having a splendidly wide and straight street of a couple of miles
-in length to show them off in. The only city at home that can compare
-advantageously with Melbourne as far as Collins, Elizabeth, and
-Swanston Streets are concerned, is Glasgow, and of course Glasgow has
-an immense advantage in point of size. On the other hand, Melbourne
-scores heavily in the matter of atmosphere and cleanliness. Yet, I do
-not know how it is, the great public buildings of Melbourne, with the
-exception of the Parliament Buildings, suffer greatly from their sites,
-which do not allow them to be seen as they should be. But there again
-we in London can say little, for some of our finest buildings have
-been hidden away so that they may hardly be seen to any advantage at
-all. And this, of course, is also the case in most of our great cities
-except in certain favoured spots, such as the view of the Houses of
-Parliament from the river, the Government offices of St. James's Park,
-St. George's Hall and its surroundings in Liverpool, &c., &c.
-
-Yet when we get down to bed-rock facts it is perfectly certain that
-Collins Street, Melbourne, is a thoroughfare that no city even of ten
-times Melbourne's age need be ashamed of, and it is marvellous how
-with so small a population in the rest of the State it has been built
-and is kept bustling. The site of the city is not beautiful, nor has
-it any lovely setting such as Adelaide possesses, but from the point
-of view of traffic it is splendid, as there are no hills anywhere
-to be negotiated, and consequently the railways and tramways can be
-most economically laid. In fact, so low is the whole plain upon which
-Melbourne and its great network of suburbs stand that I found myself
-asking several people if they ever had any trouble with abnormally
-high tides, if the Yarra never misbehaved itself. But they all said
-no, since the embankments have been built there does not appear to
-have been any trouble with floods. I can remember very well when much
-of what is now covered with beautiful houses and gardens was a barren
-waste of sand, to walk upon which in summer was torment. Indeed, I
-noticed even now that in the principal streets of some of the most
-prosperous suburbs around the bay there was an abundance of sea-sand,
-which certainly had not blown there. Of course, there is the comforting
-reflection that Melbourne is not on the sea, and that any great oceanic
-disturbance on the coast must spend itself against the protecting
-barrier of the Heads of Hobson's Bay, so that, failing any abnormal
-upheaval within the great bay itself, there is not much likelihood of
-any disastrous flood, in spite of the low level of the ground. Of
-which I am heartily glad, for it is a noble city--a worthy monument to
-the energy and enterprise of our fellows across the sea.
-
-
-
-
-VII
-
-SOME FLEETING COMPARISONS
-
-
-This is a paradoxical country in many ways. For instance, while wages
-are high in the cities and the cost of living is amazingly cheap,
-the prices of certain articles jump up and metaphorically knock you
-down. For instance, I was the other day admiring some magnificent
-lobsters (crawfish) in a fishmonger's window, freshly boiled and
-steaming, ticketed 1s. 6d. each. Such crustacea of equal size in London
-certainly could not be purchased for 5s. each, while for quality,
-flavour, and tenderness the English lobster is not within sight of
-the Australian variety. The prices of fruit and vegetables I have
-already alluded to in their phenomenal lowness, while the standard
-price of tea, the national beverage far more than with us, is 1s. 3d.
-per pound. If you wish for something very special you pay 1s. 6d., but
-few do. But walking away from those lobsters and the announcement
-that a _table-d'hote_ dinner of three courses might be purchased for
-sixpence, the price which has not varied apparently since I was here
-thirty-five years ago in respectable eating-houses, I bethought me that
-I needed a button-hook. And since I am exceedingly gifted at losing
-such small articles, I sought for a cheap one. I soon found one of the
-shops which are very common out here, a sort of variety store where
-you can purchase almost anything in the way of small non-perishable
-articles, and proffered my request. The attendant immediately produced
-one such as are sold on cards at home for six a penny. I took it and
-said it would do exactly. How much? "Sixpence," he responded promptly;
-whereupon I gasped, and then laughed heartily. He inquired rather
-anxiously what I was laughing at, and when I told him he was angry, and
-said he hadn't asked for my custom. Whereupon we parted.
-
-On another occasion I went to one of the beautiful bays close to the
-Heads and hired a boat to go fishing. I was out for four hours by
-myself, and when I returned and asked what I had to pay I was told two
-shillings. Which I naturally compared with the two and sixpence an hour
-charge at our watering-places at home and wondered at consumedly.
-
-There is a good deal of poverty, undoubtedly, of a certain kind, and
-must be more than I have had any opportunity of ascertaining within
-the working-class localities. But I do not think there is any hunger,
-provisions being so very plentiful and cheap. It is curious, however,
-to see the rough, unkempt, hard-bitten men and women who mix with the
-busy throng in the principal thoroughfares, and look wistfully around
-them as if seeking sympathy and companionship. They have fled from the
-loneliness of the back country, and in the great, bustling city have
-found a greater solitude than ever. Now and then may be met in Collins,
-Elizabeth, or Swanston Streets, a swagman, usually old and grey, with
-his ragged bluey or blanket-wrapped bundle slung at his back, and his
-battered, soot-encrusted billy (tin tea-can) in his hand; just as much
-out of place in that busy, bustling throng, as any unit of it would be
-in the great solitudes whose message of mystery seems to peer out of
-his eyes. Occasionally one of these men will camp in some doorway, and
-on being arrested will plead, with an air of innocent wonder, that he
-was not aware of wrongdoing, seeing that for the whole of his life he
-had lived and slept in the open, and had never been arrested for it
-before. But I should say that the majority of the swagmen now, those
-at any rate who are found in the vicinity of the towns, are blood
-brothers of the hobo in the United States and the tramp in our country,
-nomads whose one characteristic is an utter aversion to work and whose
-one virtue is a love of the open. The old days when the honest splitter
-or shearer or farm-hand, the bushman of any kind, had perforce to hump
-his bluey and pad off on the wallaby track in search of work when his
-job was done, or he got tired of it, are practically gone except in
-the remote districts of this vast continent, whose denizens rarely see
-civilisation at all.
-
-Neither in Adelaide or here in Melbourne have I seen any begging except
-by a couple of blind men, although there are a good many ragged,
-barefooted urchins running about in the vicinity of the railway
-stations selling evening newspapers. There is, however, an obvious
-overcrowding of the folks who ought to be in the country into the
-towns; and really it is not to be wondered at, seeing how many of those
-who come out here are entirely unused to and unfitted for a country
-life, and especially life in a new country. Which, of course, accounts
-for the lack of development of this amazing continent. The converse of
-this equally accounts for the advance of Canada, in that she welcomes
-those who have never known anything but the hard and grinding life
-necessary for wresting from wild nature the wealth that she holds in
-trust for the children of men, and who learn with a surprise that it
-takes much time to mitigate, that their earnings will not be snatched
-from them by force and fraud--who have looked, indeed, for nothing
-else but just the barest means of existence as the result of their
-incessant, terrible labours. Australia will have none of these, and as
-a consequence that mighty land is as yet barely scratched. Of what use
-can it be to advertise for farmers with capital to come to Australia
-and take up rich lands at a low price, if the labour to till and
-develop those lands is not to be had except at a price that precludes
-any idea of profit?
-
-I make these remarks in no carping spirit, but when I see that there
-is a general tendency in the Press to grumble at the fishing being
-in the hands of Italians, and gardening in the grip of the Chinese,
-while at the same time talking of the wondrous wealth of the country
-awaiting development, I am filled with wonder at the curious turn of
-mind that imagines that you can keep a vast continent in the hands of
-a few people and yet exploit its resources--a process which they know
-can only be accomplished by much manual labour. The results which have
-already been achieved by the few are a sufficient proof of the amazing
-richness of the country, but with a sufficiency of the white labour
-which is craving for work and bread in the old countries what a mighty
-uprising of this great Commonwealth we should see! The cry now is all
-for population, but no provision is made for the obtaining of the
-proper kind of population--people that are willing to work, and are all
-unused to or demoralised by city life, but lack the means of crossing
-the immense distance which separates them from the starvation of the
-old land and the plenty of the new.
-
-Moreover, this question of the white immigration is the only one of
-any importance before the Australasian politicians just now. The
-answer to it, free passages hither for white men willing to work on
-the land, British preferably, but white anyhow, is the only one that
-will satisfactorily meet the demand, never lost sight of, for a white
-Australia. A most desirable, an intensely reasonable demand, but one
-impossible of attainment unless white men of no means but their strong
-bodies can be assisted to get here as they are to Canada. No one wants
-to see a yellow Australia, but unless something is done speedily it
-will not be possible to avoid having a large part of Australia yellow
-within a very few years. Indeed I have great and grave doubts whether
-it will be possible to avoid it at all; because there is not the
-slightest use in blinking the fact that an immense area of the extreme
-north of Australia is not a white man's country. He may own it, but he
-cannot work it; and of what use is land without labour? It is the whole
-question of the Transvaal and Rhodesia over again, but in a more acute
-and decided form. Those regions are of incalculable wealth, but they
-must have men to work them who can stand the climate.
-
-Those men, the very men for the business, are clamouring to be allowed
-to come in, and it is a most serious question how much longer will
-the Commonwealth Government be able to keep them out. They are quite
-within reason in pointing out as they do that even the vast southern
-half or three-quarters of the continent where white men can both live
-and work, is practically unoccupied except in a few isolated spots, and
-to keep them out of land which they do not wish to possess but only to
-have the privilege of earning a living upon, is most dog-in-the-manger
-like. It may sound like an exaggeration to speak of Australia as being
-practically unoccupied save in a few isolated spots, but it is quite
-true. When we remember that Australia alone is immensely larger than
-the United States, and that the whole of her population is not much
-more than that of the City of New York, we feel inclined to stand
-aghast at such a state of affairs.
-
-What, however, has driven this home to me more than anything else
-has been the visit to Melbourne just now of the Japanese training
-squadron of three gunboats or third-class cruisers, the _Hashidate_,
-_Matsushima_, and _Itsushima_, under the command of Admiral Shimamura,
-who was Admiral Togo's chief of staff. Now it is entirely unnecessary
-for me to refer to the splendid behaviour of these men, who always
-win golden opinions wherever they go, or of the general courtesy
-of the officers, as you have had a visiting squadron at home at
-the same time. But I confess I was not prepared to find, as I did,
-so exceedingly hearty and spontaneous a welcome here extended to
-our allies as I have seen. At home it was impossible for it to be
-otherwise, remembering with what intense eagerness we had followed
-the fortunes of the Japanese, and how one and all felt interested
-in their success against the men who had committed the unatoned-for
-outrage of the Dogger Bank. Probably we have never had an alliance
-which has aroused such genuine, heartfelt enthusiasm as this with the
-Japanese, nor have ever felt such deep admiration for people apparently
-possessed of all the old-fashioned virtues of fidelity, courage,
-patriotism, and indifference to death. Beyond all this the Japanese
-are not our near neighbours, and we have no room in England to tempt
-them if they were. And so we are hardly in a position to judge of the
-general feeling towards them in Australia, which lives in constant
-dread of having a flood of Asiatic labour poured into it, and knows
-full well what that would mean. This feeling of dread finds malignant
-expression in certain organs which have a very large sale. There the
-Japanese are invariably spoken of as monkeys and caricatured in most
-unlovely fashion. And knowing all this, I wondered much what sort of a
-reception the Japanese would have when they came here in their warships
-as official guests. Well, the city just went wild over them. They
-compelled admiration by their behaviour, as indeed they always do, and
-they practically monopolised public attention in the most favourable
-way. They went everywhere and saw everything, every hospitality that
-the city could show, both official and private, being showered upon
-them. I was literally amazed at the show of enthusiasm manifested by
-the people, which perhaps reached its acme when some hundreds of the
-men, accompanied by a large detachment of our own bluejackets from
-the _Psyche_ and _Cerberus_, marched through the principal streets on
-their way to a huge garden party at the Zoo. The streets were packed
-as thickly with shouting, excited people as would have been the case
-in London or Liverpool, and the air rang with Banzais. I was standing
-at one of the windows of the Vienna Café, whither I had been invited
-to lunch by Mr. Atlee Hunt to meet Mr. Alfred Deakin, Prime Minister
-of the Commonwealth. At first I was alone, but Mr. Deakin joined me
-before the martial procession had passed, and as soon as the cheering
-had subsided he said, "Fine fellows, aren't they?" "Yes," I replied,
-"but what are you going to make of this portent? After your speech
-yesterday, when you most justly and truly praised them for the noble
-deeds by which they had won their high position among the nations, how
-are you going to deal with their application to be admitted into the
-Commonwealth on the same footing as other civilised people?" "Oh,"
-he said, "we shall refuse them admission, of course, as before. This
-cannot affect that." "Ah," I retorted, "but how will you maintain that
-attitude? Suppose that they insist upon being treated as white men and
-allies of Great Britain, how will you keep them out?" "We shall keep
-them out all right enough," he replied; "and besides, they have got
-their hands full in China and Korea for many years to come--much too
-full for them to worry about us."
-
-I was fain to drop the subject then, but as may readily be supposed
-I was entirely unsatisfied with this method of disposing of a mighty
-issue which may be presented at any moment, and cannot but be
-precipitated by the language of the newspapers aforesaid.[1] Even the
-tiny squadron here present of third-class cruisers is armed and manned
-as if it were of battleships, and I fairly gasped with amazement to
-see that one of them carried a 12½-in. (66-ton) gun. I am almost
-ashamed to point out how absolutely defenceless this wonderful land is
-with practically all its portable wealth concentrated within easy reach
-of the sea, at the mercy of a modern fleet, and of the lamentable way
-in which defence is allowed to drift, in reliance unspoken, but none
-the less definite for that, upon the immensely burdened Old Country
-for protection. It is inexplicable that from the point of view of
-self-preservation something is not done and done quickly. If only they
-would, as I have had several opportunities of telling them in public
-meetings, tax themselves to the same extent for the Navy alone as we
-are taxed at home, or to the extent of, say, 25s. per head of the
-population, they would have instead of the beggarly £200,000 per annum
-they now contribute, an income of £5,000,000 per annum which, in three
-or four years, would make either Germany or Japan think twice before
-attacking them, if the money were properly spent.
-
-I am immensely grieved at the defenceless condition of this people
-in case of anything befalling the Mother Country in the shape of a
-European war. Their only hope in such a case of preserving their
-independence should disaster overtake the British Fleet (and we must
-face that possibility) would be to enlist the aid of the Japanese, whom
-they treat at present as savages unless they come with a fleet. It is
-an impossible position, and one that cannot much longer be maintained.
-It must be settled one way or the other, in spite of all the wrangling
-of professional politicians, and I can only hope that it will not be
-settled by force of arms, because that could only be such a one-sided
-affair, could only be settled in the least desirable way by all
-English-speaking people.
-
-I am leaving Melbourne much saddened. It is such a beautiful city. It
-represents so much of human energy and skill, and also such a vast
-amount of kindliness and courtesy, especially towards that country
-which the native-born still speaks of regretfully as Home. I was
-told by a great many people that I should find much of the offensive
-bumptiousness with which Americans speak of Britain out here. I have
-not found any of it. The people are, as is quite natural, fiercely
-resentful of criticism from anybody, and especially from the Mother
-Country. But they are also intensely loyal, as well as intensely
-self-critical. There has been quite a storm raised here just lately.
-The Exhibition building--State property--has been leased to a gambler,
-a speculator in other men's earnings, for the purposes of so-called
-sport, for a prize-fight. They called it a boxing competition, but we
-all know what that means. Several thousands of people crowded to see
-it, among them many prominent public men. In fact, if you can imagine
-the Albert Hall let for the same purpose to a prominent bookmaker for
-a boxing match and the leading members of both Houses of Parliament
-attending the show, you can imagine what it was like. There was a
-fierce controversy in the newspapers about it, in which all the old
-arguments about the manly sport were trotted out, but the result was
-that the speculator netted an enormous sum of money, and continues to
-defy the Government by keeping open gambling-houses where whosoever
-will may throw away his money on the possible result of a horse-race.
-Still, I have just read that the Government has decided that the
-Exhibition building shall not be used for such purposes again. That
-decision, however, may be rescinded to-morrow.
-
-Now I go to Sydney, the Queen of the South. I have not said all I could
-say by a great deal, for there are some subjects too thorny to touch in
-print, but I hope all Melbourne folks will recognise how much I love
-their beautiful city, and how deeply I wish it well.
-
-FOOTNOTE:
-
-[1] When this paragraph reached Melbourne, some reporter interviewed
-Mr. Deakin on the subject and endeavoured to make a grievance out of it
-against the writer. But the Right Honourable gentleman refused to see
-the matter in that light, and behaved with his usual kindly courtesy;
-otherwise the passage should have been deleted, much as I feel its
-importance.
-
-
-
-
-VIII
-
-ON THE OLD TRACK
-
-
-Fortunately for me one of the fine ships of the Orient-Royal Mail
-Company was available at the time that I wished to leave for Sydney,
-so that I was able to travel in the pleasantest possible way according
-to my ideas, long train journeys having no charms for me. The _Ortona_
-was due to leave Port Melbourne railway pier at 8 in the evening, but
-owing to various hindrances of the usual character she did not get away
-until nearly midnight. But I looked my last upon the brilliant city
-at the time appointed, and having made myself comfortable on board
-did not care to go back again. Besides, I knew that I should have an
-opportunity of bidding a final farewell on my return journey, as it is
-inevitable that I pass this way, and there is always a day to spare. So
-that whatever points about it I have missed I shall be able to pick up
-in a later chapter.
-
-At last the whole of the outward cargo is out, the last slingful has
-been lowered into the railway truck alongside, and immediately the
-clang of the engine-room gong "Stand by!" is heard. No matter what the
-size of the ship or the distance she may be going, her departure has no
-more of fuss in it than a man makes leaving his own front door for work
-in the morning. And in our service at any rate the tendency is to work
-ever more quietly, so that you shall see the whole vast fabric glide
-away seaward, and hear nothing save an occasional whistle or the clang
-of a telegraph gong. To-night, for instance; the _Ortona_ is 9,000
-tons, a huge monster lying stern to seaward, and secured to the wharf,
-alongside of which she towers, by sundry steel hawsers. One whistle and
-those hawsers are cast off, men on the wharf slipping their bights off
-the mooring-posts. A responsive whistle informs the bridge that she is
-free. There is a clang in the engine-room, and the great shadowy mass
-glides astern until clear of the pier. Then another clang orders the
-port propeller to go ahead, and the ship revolves almost upon her axis
-in ghostly fashion without the aid of the rudder. As soon as she is
-round far enough another message is sounded in the engine-room, "Ahead
-starboard!" and with both propellers revolving the same way and the
-helm over to starboard she comes round to her course and is away in
-more than stately wise, but just as easily as a motor-car leaving a
-garage.
-
-The superb management of the modern mail and passenger ocean steamers
-in all departments renders it possible for even the least experienced
-voyager to feel completely at home within an hour of the vessel's
-leaving the pier, even when she goes straight out to sea at once
-(sea-sickness, of course, always excepted); but your Australasian
-passenger around the coast is seldom inexperienced. The distances are
-great between the principal cities, but the fares are quite moderate,
-and the vessels are so comfortable that there is an immense and
-incessant passenger traffic, the percentage of travellers coastwise
-being at least twenty times what it is at home. And I do not see that
-the connecting up of the cities by railway, with its great saving of
-time, has lessened that percentage much--it has merely increased the
-numbers of those who desired to travel, but dreaded the sea journey.
-So, as usual, we had a large number of short-distance passengers; in
-fact the _Ortona's_ huge accommodation was rather severely taxed, and
-yet within, as I say, one hour from Port Melbourne nearly all of them
-were snugly in bed and asleep, while the captain and pilot on the
-lofty bridge guided the big vessel through the mirk along the tortuous
-deep-water channel leading from Port Melbourne to Queenscliff, the
-Heads of Hobson's Bay, some fifty miles distant.
-
-Daylight found a few of us kindred spirits on deck in pyjamas sniffing
-the keen ozone-laden air, and watching with awe and admiration the
-amazing miracle of the sunrise. And here let me say that while I have
-often experienced terrific weather in these waters, I know of no other
-part of the world where, when the weather is fine, a man can feel
-the zest of living more keenly than he can here even in summer if
-he be up early. But now, in what they call winter, it is delightful
-beyond expression. It is revivifying to the invalid who withers under
-a cold blast and languishes in the warm airs, but having the air
-exactly tempered to the happy medium cannot but feel the desire of
-life return, the malaise of feeble health passing away until existence
-puts on bright hues and the greyness of things disappears as do the
-morning mists before the conquering sun. We linger on and on, trying
-to pick out once familiar headlands from the blue outlines of the land
-far on our port beam, until the warning bugle sends us scurrying
-below, etiquette demanding that all _déshabille_ be _tabu_ after 8
-a.m. But only fools and ladies linger long over their toilet on board
-ship. Experience soon teaches the landsman to be like the sailor in
-that respect, and so most of us are on deck again in a few minutes,
-unwilling to miss the gorgeous panorama of Bass's Straits near Wilson's
-Promontory, which we are rapidly nearing. Here is that marvellous dome
-of rock rising sheer from the sea to a height of about 400 feet, and
-almost as symmetrical as St. Peter's, except that on the southern side
-a huge cavern, whose floor is 40 feet above high-water and whose roof
-is over 100 feet high, has been scooped out by the hand of Nature--a
-cave inaccessible save by the sea-birds, whom, however, I have never
-seen entering it: a place that impels the beholder to dare all dangers
-in order to investigate its mysteries, but even on a day like this,
-when the ocean is peaceful as the bosom of a sleeping child, the
-gigantic swell of the South thunders up against those sheer walls of
-rock, and says, in unmistakable language, that for any intruder it is
-the place of death.
-
-But we glide rapidly past it at our sixteen miles an hour, round the
-much-dreaded Wilson's Promontory, which seems to be a gathering-point
-of storms, and along the picturesque coast, passing on our way many
-inter-colonial steamers befouling the bright air with their black
-columns of smoke, the coal they burn being native, and not of a quality
-conducive to clean burning; that is reserved to the coal from Wales
-which we are still using, and in consequence showing but a misty
-feather from our twin funnels hardly discernible against the sky.
-This is the invaluable fuel which we are so eagerly selling to our
-enemies to be used against us in the near future. But, of course, when
-we give away our trade with both hands, when we send abroad our best
-bone and muscle, and employ wastrel alien labour instead, a little
-thing like selling our incomparable naval coal to the enemy is a mere
-detail. I was asked the other day why Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
-and his henchmen did not, while in power, make short work of their
-opportunities and invite the Germans to take possession of South
-Africa, tell the Colonies to look after themselves, and suggest that it
-was unchristian to keep Great Britain under British rule, since it was
-manifestly more righteous, according to Bannerman, Massingham, Stead &
-Co. that it should be run by Michael or Uncle Sam than by John Bull &
-Co. This question I could not answer, but it was a fair sample of what
-every nation in the world thinks of us to-day. It is about the only
-thing they are agreed upon--that Britain is a sort of Jubilee Juggins,
-in the common slang, who stands in the market-place and invites the
-tricksters and the shysters of the world to come and divide between
-them not merely the contents of his pockets but his heritage. It is
-fast becoming difficult to avoid being ashamed to bear the name of
-Englishman.
-
-But we are nearing Sydney and all my interest is at concert pitch, for
-with the exception of a couple of days, while on my passage South from
-Brisbane in '80, I have not been here for thirty-five years. Of course
-I know that the amazing beauties of Port Jackson cannot be altered by
-the hand of man, but I am very curious to see what the superficial
-changes are. In the glory of a perfect morning we draw near the Heads,
-so close in that I am able to pick out the track of the electric cars
-going to Bondi or Botany Bay, the only alteration that I can see. When
-to me comes a young gentleman with an awful (yes, I can't help the
-word) collar that almost decapitates him, and seizing me by the arm,
-exclaims with almost frenzied eagerness, "D'you see that gap there?
-That's where the _Dunbar_ was lost, lemme see, ever so many years ago.
-Y'ore a stranger, come in the smoke-room and have a drink, an' I'll
-tell you all about it." (At 7.30 a.m.!) I gaze upon him benignantly,
-allowing no facial sign to betray the fact that when lamp-trimmer of
-the old A.S.N. Co.'s boats out here thirty-five years ago I had made
-many grateful shillings and eke half-crowns retailing that yarn to
-wondering passengers. And he beams upon me through his gold-rimmed
-spectacles as he retails a mass of distorted fact, what time I cling
-to the rail and refuse to be drawn smoke-roomwards at any hazard, for
-I want, in the words of Wan Lung, "makee looksee go in." He finally
-concludes with the encomium, "Well, old chap, you're a good listener,
-anyhow. Come and dig me out, won't you? I room at so-and-so, and I'll
-show you Sydney, real; I was born here." I compose my features and
-accept his card, never once, thank goodness, losing command of my
-features; but I am equally grateful to say that I never saw him again,
-knowingly.
-
-A swift pilot steamer ranges alongside, drops a boat as smartly as
-heart could wish, and (I timed it) in eight minutes from our "slow
-down" bell we were going full speed for the entrance and the boat
-was rehoisted on board the pilot steamer, she making frantic efforts
-to keep up with us as we swept grandly in for the narrow entrance.
-And then came the old familiar thrill as, sweeping round the South
-Head with the helm almost hard a-starboard, we open the harbour, so
-cunningly hidden by nature that even our greatest navigator sailed
-past it and did not realise what lay within. The frowning scarp of the
-North Head towered above us in all its grim majesty, the wake made a
-perfect semicircle on the glassy sea, and, behold, the opening closed
-in behind us and all the lovely panorama of the most beautiful harbour
-in the world unfolded before us as we glided swiftly towards our goal.
-My longing eyes saw little change as yet. All was as it had been--a
-few dwellings dotted here and there as if haphazard among the wooded
-eminences, except that the trolley lines showed up here and there. A
-pause for the doctor, a merely perfunctory visit anyhow, and away we
-went again, turning a sudden corner which showed me what a splendid
-city Sydney has become. But a spasm of horror went through me as I
-noticed that the city was enshrouded in a pall of filthy smoke belching
-from a forest of chimneys and hiding its beauties most effectually.
-And I wondered mightily at the gall of Sydney folks whom I had met in
-London complaining about our atmosphere! However, that is a reflection
-that will continually occur to the Londoner, abroad especially, after
-he has grown to accept it as unanswerable that London is the grimiest,
-gloomiest, and altogether most uninhabitable city in the world. I
-suppose it is a part of our national magnanimity to acquiesce in all
-the hard things that are said of us and the vaunts of our visitors,
-but I don't know whether the time has not arrived when we might with
-advantage talk back, in some directions at any rate.
-
-It is now that the visitor, returning after the lapse of many years,
-realises for the first time what immense changes time has wrought
-in the appearance of a place once so familiar. Adelaide, and even
-Melbourne, do not impress one until close attention has been paid
-and improvements pointed out by residents, for in their general
-aspect they remain the same as they did a quarter of a century ago.
-But Sydney bursts upon the view, dominating its magnificent bay as
-the veritable Queen of the Waters, and when seen in the early dawn,
-before the aforesaid disfiguring pall of black smoke has been spread,
-beautiful and picturesque to the limit of expression. But it is in the
-aspect of the harbour itself that a seafarer will find the greatest
-change. When I came here first, thirty-five years ago, Sydney was
-most noticeable for the magnificent fleets of noble sailing ships that
-lay reposing in all their stately beauty on the waters adjacent to the
-city, or were ranged all around the Circular Quay. All the grand old
-classic names which thrill the hearts of old sailors with memories
-of wonderful ocean races are associated with Sydney as with no other
-port in the world. The splendid fleets of Devitt and Moore, of George
-Thompson, the Duthies, Greens, Wigrams, represented by such flyers as
-the _Thermopylæ_, _Sobraon_, _Parramatta_, _Brilliant_, _Abergeldie_,
-_Superb_, and a host of others whose names leap to the memory, lay here
-as much at home as they were in London, and of course seen to much
-greater advantage. For Sydney lends itself so easily and naturally
-to maritime display, and its visitors were almost invariably of the
-aristocracy of the sea. No ship could hope to compete successfully for
-the immense valuable freightage of wool unless she were of the highest
-class and speed, and had also good passenger accommodation. And so the
-noble company of vessels which burst upon the beholder's gaze as his
-vessel rounded the quaint little island fort of Pinchgut impressed him
-mightily.
-
-Steam was in those days only just beginning to make itself felt in
-shipping out here. The P. & O. sent an infrequent ship, and a company
-had just crept into being which was endeavouring to institute a steam
-service from the Old Country with a few vessels of poor size and
-low power; but the dainty clippers ignored these grimy interlopers,
-looking down upon them as if with conscious pride in their own beauty
-from their splendid panoply of tophamper soaring into the skies. The
-Australasian coasting trade was beginning to be dominated by steamers
-which, however, in those days, were a collection of the quaintest
-freaks ever seen outside of a naval museum of antiquities. Yet such
-as they were they earned golden harvests for their owners in spite
-of their evil accommodation, their snail-like pace, and general
-unpunctuality. The food supplied was good and plentiful, if fairly
-rough in its preparation, and in any case the Colonial coasting
-passengers had not then learned to be fastidious. But these vessels
-used to sneak into Sydney and past the splendid host of sailing ships
-into their own out-of-the-way corner, as if ashamed of their ungainly
-hulls and their habit of befouling the bright air with the belching
-black clouds from their funnels--the result of burning native coal.
-They never dared to aspire to an honoured glance at the swagger curve
-of Circular Quay or Sydney Cove; that was reserved for sailing ships
-alone. It is a beautifully-shaped indentation in the shores of the
-harbour, the bow of which comes into what might be called the heart of
-the city. Its waters are deep and uniform; in fact, it is a natural
-dock of the most perfect type and in the most suitable place. But in
-those days its shores were sloping and unembanked, so that the ships
-were moored as close to as they could get, and long, massive stages
-connected them with the bank, for it was so sheltered that this
-primitive arrangement was quite undisturbed by weather.
-
-That is all altered now. There is as great a change as from the _Dido_
-and _Basilisk_, ancient men-of-war of the Australasian Squadron of
-those days to the _Powerful_ and _Challenger_ lying in Farm Cove
-adjacent, which we have just passed. The few sailing ships that are
-here now are anchored in out-of-the-way coves far from the city, and
-they look as if pitifully aware that they are only here on sufferance,
-that their day of pride and power has gone, never to return.
-
-
-
-
-IX
-
-THE QUEEN CITY OF THE SOUTH
-
-
-Circular Quay, Sydney, is now embanked and faced in permanent and
-enduring fashion throughout its entire length of shore, and such
-splendid ships as the _Moldavia_, of the P. & O., the _Orontes_, of
-the Orient-Royal Mail, and the huge ships of the North German Lloyd's
-lie close alongside as if in dock, while all along the Circular Quay
-to the Darling Harbour Bridge there is splendid wharfage for the big
-steamships of Messrs. Howard Smith & Co., the Union Steamship Company
-of New Zealand, and the A.U.S.N. Co., in whose hands are practically
-concentrated the Inter-colonial (or, as they prefer to call it, the
-Inter-state) trade. Here is to be found a most wonderful development
-of Australasian energy, and it is especially a credit to Sydney, which
-has always taken the lead in shipping matters out here, although there
-is something very wonderful in the rise and progress in the Union
-Steamship Company of New Zealand. The vessels to be found lying at
-these wharves would be a credit to any country and any trade in the
-world for size, speed, and comfort of passengers. They are equipped not
-merely for coastal trade, but for a whole-world trade, some of them
-being far finer in every way than the liners from home were twenty
-years ago.
-
-However, in spite of the development in the shipping trade and the
-rise in power of the shipping companies, there has been practically no
-falling-off in the status of the men who do the work. In this favoured
-land Jack is no inarticulate helot, doomed to spend his strength for
-the benefit of others, and take just what they choose to fling him
-contemptuously in return. The seafarers here are a highly organised
-body, able and willing to speak with the enemy in the gate, and the
-conditions under which they live are little, if any, inferior to any
-enjoyed by their fellow-workers ashore. The standard wages for seamen
-is £6 10s. per month, with, of course, an eight hours' day when in
-port, and a shilling per hour overtime, while firemen and trimmers get
-30s. and 10s. per month more respectively. And the food is not merely
-good and plentiful, it is excellent, and lavish in its profusion. It
-should be, of course, this being the land of plenty, especially in the
-matter of eatables. Altogether, I should be inclined to say positively
-that in no part of the world is the seafarer so well off in every
-respect as in Australasia, and certainly there is nowhere in the world
-where the seafarer has so much Parliamentary and Governmental influence
-at work for his benefit--influence which is energised by the fact that
-the men who use it are mostly men who have had practical experience of
-a seafaring life themselves.
-
-I know I shall be confronted with a question as to whether I do not
-consider the position of the workers in vessels on the great American
-lakes superior to any others. Well, I know of those conditions, highly
-democratic as they are, and I unhesitatingly say that they are far
-inferior to those obtaining in Australasia. Assuming that the Lake
-business is seafaring at all and not ferrying on a fairly large scale,
-it must be remembered that, as in every other American institution,
-the men are the victims of corrupt combinations, that they cannot have
-good food because it does not exist--that is, according to our ideas
-of what constitutes good, wholesome food--and lastly, that while the
-wages are not higher, navigation is closed throughout the long and
-terrible winter by ice. Then the prudent worker lives on his savings,
-the imprudent majority starve or join the ranks of the hoboes, or fight
-for charity, as do the other victims of that terrible city, Chicago, to
-which place the great majority of the vessels belong. No, there is no
-comparison between the two services possible.
-
-And yet, in spite of these favourable conditions, there are always
-efforts being made for further improvements. I have just received
-a Parliamentary paper, the Report of the Royal Commission on the
-Navigation Bill for the Commonwealth of Australia, and its terms made
-me rub my eyes. Here are all the possible grievances, limitations,
-and disabilities of the seafarer set forth in judicial and impartial
-language by men who obviously know what they are talking about,
-and who have no fear of shipping papers, living upon shipowners'
-advertisements, attacking them, and defaming their characters, as some
-of the reptiles do who write for some of the shipping papers at home.
-Of course we hear the same story out here that always sounds so cynical
-to me, of shipowners being driven out of business by the incessant
-demands of the men for decent treatment, which it is impossible to
-grant and pay dividends, but we do not read here, as we so often may
-at home, of these impoverished shipowners dying and leaving fortunes of
-hundreds of thousands of pounds.
-
-In view of this satisfactory condition of things, I am extremely
-delighted to see that the Report already referred to contains a strong
-recommendation to the Government to reserve the coasting trade of
-Australasia to itself, excluding all oversea coming vessels of every
-other nation. One blot upon this sensible suggestion is, that it is
-proposed to treat British-owned vessels as foreigners, which is a
-blunder, especially in view of the tremendous fact that the British
-Navy constitutes the only defence against foreign aggression that
-Australasia possesses. And yet it is difficult to justify our claim to
-come upon the coast from England with our poorly paid men and much more
-cheaply run ships, which, after discharging their outward cargo, may go
-from port to port all around Australasia, carrying Inter-state freight
-and passengers in unfair competition with Australasian-owned vessels.
-But I feel sure that a compromise could be arrived at in our case--must
-be.[2] As for the Germans and French and Japanese and Americans,
-who so rigidly exclude all other nations from participating in what
-they call their coasting trade--from New York to the Philippines,
-for instance--they should not be allowed to carry an ounce of cargo
-or a single passenger from one Inter-state port to another under any
-pretext. Germany, for instance, which pays the Nord-Deutscher Lloyd
-£115,000 a year subsidy for its line to Australia, on condition that
-it does not bring Australian produce to Germany! That is the sort of
-country that needs a lesson in retaliation--a lesson that I rejoice to
-see our Southern brethren have the wisdom to compile and the pluck to
-put into practice.
-
-But all this time the _Ortona_ is lying at anchor off Sydney Cove,
-for her meeting ship, the _Oroya_, is at her wharf, and so there must
-be a transshipment of passengers into a tender for conveyance ashore.
-This delay, which fills me with joy as affording ample opportunity for
-observing the changes of which I have been writing, seems to goad many
-of my unhappy fellow-passengers to madness, one especially who dressed
-himself with great care for going ashore at 7 a.m., and has ever since
-breakfast been carrying a case of golf-clubs and a small valise about,
-being specially incensed at the delay. I may say in passing, that I
-arrived at my hotel at the same time as this gentleman, who, having
-seen his room, descended to the lounge and lolled there all the rest of
-the day--which thing is mysterious, but usual with fussy folks.
-
-Every berth at Circular Quay was filled with a big steamship, and I
-noticed that, as in Liverpool, Prince's landing-stage is the exchange,
-as it were, from whence all the ferry steamers to the Cheshire
-shore radiate, so here at the head of Circular Quay are the same
-conditions in full force. Quite a fleet of fine fast boats run from the
-comfortable series of piers to the various points across the harbour,
-and for the same ridiculously small fares. The boats are naturally not
-so large as at Liverpool, but they are beautifully built, engined,
-and kept, and I noticed with great pleasure that they were almost
-without exception produced locally. As a very large number of Sydney's
-workers live in the beautiful suburbs across the bay, or bays, the
-morning and evening traffic is very great, as, of course, it is also at
-holiday-times; for your Sydney folks are not only intensely proud of
-their harbour, but they use it, enjoy it on every possible occasion.
-On landing I found another profound likeness to Liverpool, in that the
-great electric car system in that city centres upon the pier-head,
-that is the landing-stage, so here I found a congeries of electric
-cars arriving from and departing to all parts, their common centre
-being Circular Quay. But the difference between Sydney and Melbourne
-is very great--greater indeed than can be described; it is to be felt
-immediately on landing. Sydney is a typically English city, with
-tortuous streets, not too wide, and wonderfully irregular buildings--a
-city which has grown up as our home cities have, and shows no sign of
-regular planning as do Melbourne and Adelaide, especially the former,
-which is as faultlessly regular as Philadelphia, only, of course, on a
-much smaller scale. And so, in spite of the long time which has elapsed
-since my last visit, fully twenty-six years ago, I feel at home at
-once but for one thing--those trolley-cars. What it is I cannot tell,
-but never before have I seen the overhead system so full of offence
-as it is here. The cars are of the American type, entered at the side
-and with no seats on top, and on routes where the traffic is heavy
-three of them will be linked together, in order to make them hold as
-many as one of our huge London conduit cars. But the nerve-wrenching,
-horrible uproar that they make, for some unexplained reason or another,
-is, in my experience, at least, unparalleled. I thought it would be
-impossible for trolley-cars to make more row than those in Turin, but
-that was due to banging of the badly laid metals, and to the drivers'
-insane craving for performing on the huge gongs. But here the rails
-do not jump up and down, nor do the drivers abuse their privilege of
-gonging. They need not. The car itself makes a hideous combination of
-uproars that puts every other sound out of court in its vicinity. All
-conversation indoors and out must cease until it has passed, and even a
-brass band in full blast is silenced.
-
-It appears as if, since the conversion of the trams into electrics, the
-City Fathers have not been able to agree upon the method of repaving
-the streets, so that the roadways, after the magnificent paving and
-grading of Melbourne's highways, give one a shock. They are frankly
-very bad, and the fact that the great main thoroughfares of Pitt and
-George Streets are only about half the width of Bourke and Collins
-Street in Melbourne, aggravates this objectionable feature. Really, the
-condition of Sydney thoroughfares is a great blot upon this beautiful
-city, which ought to be removed as speedily as possible, since, as I
-have often observed before, most people form their opinion of the
-character of a newly visited city from the state of its roads. One
-point, however, I specially noticed in the management of the street-car
-lines which certainly puts us to shame at home. At converging and
-intersecting comers there will be found a small kiosk, in which sits a
-man whose duty it is to shift the points for cars going in different
-directions. This he does by moving a little lever no bigger than a
-man's finger, which at the same time shifts the points for a coming
-car and shows a light at the summit of the kiosk, as a signal that the
-road is clear. At home, as you all know, either the conductor or driver
-has got to get down and shift the points by a clumsy manipulation of
-a sliding knob of steel with a rod which he carries with him, or a
-boy who sits shivering on a stool at the roadside comes and does it,
-generally in imminent deadly peril of his life where the cars follow
-one another rapidly. In addition, there is the utter inhumanity of
-keeping these boys or men standing or sitting about in all the many
-weathers of our inclement climate for many hours, laying up for
-themselves an awful harvest of pain and misery by and by. The Sydney
-system shows how this can all be avoided and bettered, and there is
-absolutely no reason why it should not be followed at home.
-
-FOOTNOTE:
-
-[2] At the time of going to press with this book the Colonial
-Navigation Conference has met, and these questions have been settled,
-almost entirely in favour of the Colonies.
-
-
-
-
-X
-
-SOME FRIENDLY CRITICISM
-
-
-Sydney is a city that grows upon a visitor immensely. Not merely from
-its almost ideal situation as the commercial capital of a great and
-growing country, or from the reminders which greet you on every hand
-of the fight which its people have waged to make their city worthy
-of its splendid environment, but from its amazing likeness to our
-cities at home, and from the general air of _homeness_, if I may coin
-a word, which pervades it. This one may say without any suggestion of
-detriment or derogation of or to the other Australasian States, because
-it comes as a natural consequence, Sydney being the Mother City of
-them all. There is, I find, among Sydney-siders the same diffidence of
-self-assertion that we have at home, with one exception--their harbour.
-Don't, as you value your happiness, say a word of dispraise of Port
-Jackson even in fun, it cannot be said in earnest. It will be taken
-most seriously, and will certainly be accounted unto the utterer for
-anything but righteousness. In other matters you may have your little
-joke and find your friends not at all thin-skinned, but please don't
-joke about the harbour.
-
-Yet the citizens of Sydney need not fear comparison of their beloved
-city with any other in the world, except, as I have said, in the matter
-of the roads and the noise of the trolley-cars. The buildings are truly
-splendid, the two chief, the Post Office and the Town Hall, being
-certainly the finest in the whole of Australasia, and worthy to take
-rank with any similar buildings at home. Indeed, it is nothing short
-of marvellous how so comparatively small a population can manage to
-erect and maintain such splendid buildings as these, and many others
-which greet the eye on every hand. It has been said, and I believe
-with truth, that the vast majority of the Australasian population is
-to be found in the cities and towns on the seaboard, engaged in the
-work of distributing the imports and exports. But if this be true,
-what amazing energy must be manifested by the people "out back" who
-produce, and what would be the condition of these cities if only they
-had a population behind them able to cope with the teeming wealth
-of the soil? Which raises again the eternal question of population
-of this vast country--a country which has as yet only been played
-with, but which has shown such immense productive capacity, that its
-possibilities fairly stagger calculation, supposing them to be dealt
-with intelligently.
-
-That, however, seems past praying for--as yet, at any rate. Can you
-imagine anything more unutterably foolish, short-sighted--oh! the
-dictionary does not contain adjectives to fit the situation--than the
-action of the Government which has been presented to all the world this
-week? The Japanese squadron, of which I wrote in Melbourne, has arrived
-here, and has been received with a perfect tempest of acclamations,
-both by Press and people, with the sole exceptions of the _Bulletin_,
-which in its charmingly witty and brilliant manner persistently refers
-to the heroes of Port Arthur and Tsutshima as "monkeys," and one other
-newspaper, of which I can only say that its publication is a disgrace
-to New South Wales, and would be a disgrace to Paris, which is not
-squeamish. At ball and banquet and reception the Japanese were rightly
-received with immense enthusiasm--a reception they have earned by their
-deeds, if ever men did. All honour to Australasia that, in spite of
-its intense dread of and antipathy to the yellow people, has thus
-recognised transcendent merit, both in civic and martial virtues. But
-while these festivities were going on, there happened to enter Port
-Jackson a certain steamship, the _Pacifique_, conveying six Japanese
-passengers to Japan. They were to be transferred to the _Kumanu Maru_,
-a fine mail steamer of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, lying at the Circular
-Quay, but as their period of waiting extended over three days, they
-were naturally anxious to see the sights of Sydney and witness the
-reception accorded to their countrymen. They were not allowed to land!
-In spite of the fact that they were in transit, were clear of all
-suspicion of disease or anything of the sort, they were forbidden to
-set foot upon the sacred soil of Australia, where their naval heroes
-were being treated as demigods. Comment here is impertinence, but it
-may be pointed out that not one man in authority appeared to think
-that possibly a few of the 2,000 Japanese who were being thus _fêted_
-and made much of might be taking voluminous notes of this occurrence,
-and compiling a bill to be presented in the near future. I ventured
-to point this out to several influential people, who admitted that it
-savoured of idiocy on the part of the powers that be, but also gave me
-to understand that it was none of my business, and that when the time
-came for that bill to be presented, they and the Australasian States
-might be trusted to--although they didn't use these exact words--muddle
-through it somehow. Which gave me quite a pang of home-sickness, for I
-recognise the speakers as veritable chips of the old block.
-
-Of course I know that these remarks will be fiercely resented, because
-your Australasian (it will be noted that I no longer dare to say
-Colonial), while intensely eager to criticise all the rest of the
-world, is fully persuaded that no one has any right to criticise him,
-or at least the doings in his particular State. This, of course,
-implies that while you may in any one State criticise any other as
-severely as you choose, you may not criticise Australasia as a whole.
-This, equally, is very strange to an Englishman, who is so accustomed
-to having the shortcomings of his own country held up to scorn by all
-the rest of the world, and of calmly accepting the remarks made about
-her, that he is amazed when an expression of candid opinion by himself
-or his country's public men is taken as almost a personal insult.
-
-The plain, unvarnished truth about the attitude of the Australasian
-Colonies generally towards the Mother-country is that they are and
-will be intensely loyal to her as long as they may do as they like
-without any interference, which freewill they interpret to mean also
-that if the Mother-country does anything to which they object they may
-not only protest against it but repudiate it as not binding upon them.
-That they may treat Britain in the matter of trade no better than any
-foreign nation, while at the same time enjoying as of right all the
-protection that the British Empire is capable of affording them, for
-which they do not consider it incumbent upon them to give anything in
-return. I asked a prominent editor out here the other day, who was very
-strong in his remarks about the Old Country, what benefit he supposed
-she derived from the Australasian Colonies. His answer will live in my
-memory. He said, with an air of gracious condescension, "Why, we send
-you all our produce!" I was so amazed, as well as amused, that I could
-say nothing for a little while, and when I did it was merely to remark,
-"That is an advantage, certainly; but whether to you or Britain is
-another question."
-
-Please let it be understood that in the foregoing I have been speaking
-throughout of the professional politician, whom I cannot profess to
-admire in whatever country he may happen to be, and not of the general
-public, which is loyal, lovable, and level-headed. All the best
-traditions of our dear land are carried on here, and it is almost
-impossible for even the most nervous, morbidly sensitive man or woman
-to feel themselves strangers. And what strikes one as being quite
-touching is the way the Motherland is continually being spoken of
-affectionately, regretfully as "Home." You will hear it on the lips of
-grey-headed people who were born here (and it is surprising how many
-of them you meet), and have never been out of the Colony, "Ah! how I
-should like to go home for a trip." But the strangest of all is the way
-in which foreigners, such as Germans, Italians, citizens of the United
-States, &c., who have been domiciled out here for many years, will
-speak of Great Britain as home in the same way as do the Australasians.
-
-A remarkable feature of Sydney, as of Melbourne, is the way in which
-the city has run over, so to speak, into suburbs; but there comparison
-ends between the two. For Melbourne suburbs, fine, prosperous-looking
-townships as most of them are, cannot be called beautiful, except where
-they are on the Bay, the country around being so very flat. But Sydney
-has every variety of scenery for which the heart could crave--hill
-and vale, rock and wood, while no residential suburb need be more
-than a few minutes from either one of many of the beautiful bays
-which run into the country from the main harbour like the tentacles
-of some gigantic but beneficent octopus, or the shore of the mighty
-Pacific itself. And communication with all these places by steamer,
-electric car, or train is at once cheap, rapid, frequent, and easy.
-So that housing of Sydney folks is never likely to become a problem,
-and overcrowding (although there are still a few slums) is entirely
-unnecessary, and would not exist if a certain type of people did not
-insist upon violating all hygienic laws and crowding together as
-closely as they can get. There will always be overcrowding unless the
-most drastic laws are passed to prevent it, as may be seen in any
-English or Scotch village, where, goodness knows, there is room enough
-and to spare, but the villagers persist in huddling their cottages
-close enough together to step across the lane from the front door into
-another opposite.
-
-Yes, Sydney has every scenic, natural, and healthful advantage that a
-city can be favoured with, while architecturally, it must be admitted,
-its citizens have done their duty as far as possible, remembering their
-limitations. Like us, they do not believe in defiling their cities
-with skyscrapers, but keep their buildings of a reasonable height,
-in accordance with the width of the thoroughfares. Two buildings
-especially cannot fail to impress the most careless and casual
-observer--the Town Hall and General Post Office. I do no injustice to
-Melbourne, but only state the bare fact when I say that not only are
-these two really magnificent edifices far finer than the corresponding
-municipal erections in Melbourne, but in their position they are
-much more highly favoured, in spite of the fact that Melbourne's
-thoroughfares are so much wider and straighter than those of Sydney.
-But Sydney's Town Hall has what every civic structure should have, a
-vast open space in which to stand manifesting its glories--a position,
-in fact, like St. George's Hall, Liverpool, and the Town Halls of
-Glasgow, Manchester, and Leeds. Melbourne Town Hall, while undoubtedly
-a noble building, suffers much from its position at an angle of Collins
-and Swanston Streets, with other buildings crowding in behind it, so
-that from no point can more than a small portion of it be visible, and
-no view of it can be obtained from any farther away than across the
-street. And the same remarks apply exactly to Melbourne Post Office,
-which is at the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, and but for
-its grand tower would hardly be noticeable. Sydney Post Office is so
-magnificent in its outlines that it entirely puts to shame the similar
-buildings in such great cities as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool,
-or Glasgow, which have nearly double Sydney's population. And its
-situation is a peculiarly advantageous one in that, although it is in
-the heart of the city and bounded on two sides by the comparatively
-narrow yet noble thoroughfares of Pitt and George Streets, it has
-an exceedingly wide space on its immense frontage which already has
-some grand companion buildings on the opposite side of it, and will
-doubtless soon be completely edified and in full keeping with the
-stately façade of the Post Office, which fills the entire front of
-the block between the two main thoroughfares of the city. A curious
-but pretty feature of the fine promenade along the front of the Post
-Office, the busiest part of the city during the day, is the number of
-flower-sellers (all men), who stand at the edge of the pavement with
-huge baskets of glorious blooms before them. These they vend in great
-bunches, tightly tied up and as large as a medium cabbage, at a uniform
-rate of sixpence each, which leads to the belief that everything which
-grows in this marvellous country is characterised by a uniformity of
-cheapness. And of course I was told that, being winter, the show was
-nothing compared with its summer beauty.
-
-
-
-
-XI
-
-THE KING OF NEW ZEALAND
-
-
-To-day I have had a veritable treat. By the courtesy of a few friends
-I was privileged to go and visit the _Sobraon_, that grand old flyer
-which, under Captain Elmslie, brought out from England to this Colony
-so many of her leading citizens. She is in her way almost as classic as
-the _Mayflower_ or the _Argo_, although towering mightily above them
-in beauty, size, and comfort for those who sailed in her. And she has
-met a far happier fate than have the majority of the celebrated old
-clippers of the bygone days. It gives the old sailor's heart a severe
-pang when he occasionally comes across a ship which in her day of glory
-was an honour to command; to be her master conferred brevet rank and
-dignity which nothing could rob a man of, even though, as, alas! was
-often the case, he descended from her wreck to a beggared old age;
-sold to the Norwegians, Italians, or even to some Indian coasting
-firm for a drudge and a byword. Some of these old flyers perished
-gloriously, but most of them were degraded into timber droghers or
-country-wallahs, without even the consolation that their shame was
-hidden under a change of name.
-
-Not so the _Sobraon_. Trim and taut as ever she was in her prideful
-days as the premier ship _sailing_ to Sydney from England, she now lies
-snugly moored in one of the most beautiful bays of that most splendid
-of all harbours. She belongs to the Government of New South Wales, and
-it is her grand mission to receive and deal with those waifs and strays
-who in this country, with its floating and polyglot population, have
-drifted or may readily drift into crime. She is at once a reformatory,
-an elevator, and a school of the best type. And the proof of her
-usefulness is found in the splendid results shown from most unpromising
-material. For not only are many of the boys here the result of the most
-curious miscegenation, Chinese, negroes, aborigines, and every European
-race being mingled and producing some extraordinary blends, but they
-have, by reason of neglect and freedom of the wild, often become
-literally young savages. Yet so wise is the rule and so excellent
-the training that from this queer raw material there is turned out
-a really fine finished product. All the officers are enthusiasts. I
-protested against the boys being put through their facings to make a
-show for me, but I found that to refuse to witness what they could do
-would give not only the officers but the boys entirely unnecessary
-pangs of disappointment. So of course I yielded, and was exceedingly
-glad I did, for the spectacle I was treated to was an inspiring as well
-as an illuminating one. Also, the fates being propitious, during the
-exercises the Premier of the Colony, Mr. J. H. Carruthers, with the
-Japanese Admiral Shimamura and his staff, and a host of representative
-ladies and gentlemen, came alongside in a steamer and _assisted_ at the
-function.
-
-I have never seen anything better done, and as for the singing of the
-boys, well, there must be something in Australian air that makes for
-excellence of the vocal powers. I have never heard children sing as
-they sing here. I heard the children sing at rehearsal in the Town
-Hall for Empire Day, and was astounded at the purity and volume of
-their voices, and the same characteristics were noticeable here in the
-vocalisation of these whilom waifs. Be it remembered that they do not
-all become sailors; many of them go into other employments, for which
-they become eminently fitted here, being taught trades in addition to
-the peculiarly saltwater training, which fits a man to help himself, to
-cook, wash, mend, and rise to the occasion whatever it may be.
-
-The food is, as might be expected here, super-excellent and plentiful,
-but even then there are certain luxuries, such as boys love, which may
-be earned by good behaviour and diligence. There are other privileges,
-too, as well as rewards, which may be earned in the same way, and in
-consequence the percentage of punishments is so low that it savours of
-necromancy how such boys can so readily be brought under the wholesome
-standard of sea discipline. And to crown all, the _Sobraon_ has now a
-tender called the _Dart_, which is rigged as a topsail schooner and
-has besides a set of engines and boilers, in which the boys who wish
-to go to sea are trained under actual sea conditions to become deck
-hands or firemen, as the case may be. To sum up, the institution is a
-great credit to Australia, not merely to New South Wales alone, for
-the practical way in which it deals with the waif problem, for the
-object-lesson in discipline and its value which it daily presents to
-a people never enamoured of discipline and continually growing more
-impatient of the slightest restraint, and for the excellent results it
-shows.
-
-Of course they (the powers that be) have been exceptionally fortunate
-in securing so perfectly adapted a ship as the _Sobraon_, and also in
-their superintendent of this fine enterprise, Captain W. H. Mason,
-whose ability, energy, and enthusiasm for his work is beautiful to
-witness, while it is also very pleasant to hear him speak of the manner
-in which his efforts are aided and backed up by the Government, no
-matter of what political complexion it may happen to be at the time
-when supplies are being voted.
-
-And now the time draws near when I must leave Sydney for that
-wonderland of the South, New Zealand--leave it, too, without having had
-more than the slightest opportunity of visiting the interior of the
-country. But to tell the truth, with the exception of a few points,
-such as the marvellous Jenolan Caves, I have little desire to do so,
-knowing full well the conditions that obtain and that everywhere I
-shall see the same problem presenting itself, the same reason why, with
-all this vast area of rich country, half of the population shall be
-gathered within the area of a few square miles on the shores of Port
-Jackson.
-
-The dire want of tillers on the soil, the men to take advantage of all
-that bounteous Nature has provided, is manifest everywhere outside the
-area of great cities like Melbourne and Sydney, while at home we have
-the endless cry for work, in order that those willing to work may live.
-It is intensely saddening to see, but there are not wanting signs that
-the people are awaking to what they are beginning to find is a deadly
-danger to their future in the coming great struggle for Empire. If only
-the politicians could or would cease their squabbling and hit upon some
-sensible plan in the working of which they could all agree! But as they
-very justly say, they get no object-lessons in political agreement or
-sensible adoption of workable plans for the removal of difficulties in
-the way of reform from Governments at home, pointing sarcastically to
-the Education Act imbroglio. And then the English visitor is fain to
-remain silent for very shame's sake.
-
-Since coming to Australia, although I have met and conversed with
-active politicians of both parties, I have never heard a political
-speech until coming here. It is true that at a private official dinner
-tendered to Admiral Shimamura and his staff by the Prime Minister of
-the Commonwealth, Mr. Alfred Deakin, I heard the latter make a speech,
-but it was scarcely political, nor was it for publication. It was a
-magnificent panegyric upon the prowess in war and virtues in peace of
-the Japanese, delivered with great force and fluency and entirely
-extempore. Compared with the mumbling, halting, exasperating delivery
-of some of our principal legislators at home, it was a performance
-to fill one with envious admiration; but of course it could not be
-forgotten that the speech was not being reported, and that in any case
-the issues at stake were not in any sense momentous.
-
-But I was invited to a banquet given in the Hotel Australia, where I
-was staying, by the New Zealanders in Australia to Mr. R. J. Seddon,
-who has just arrived here on a visit, and, curious to see the uncrowned
-King of New Zealand, I went. A massive man with a leonine head in
-front, but sloping curiously forward from the nape of the neck to the
-occiput, as if the back of the head had been sliced off diagonally. A
-hearty man who ate and drank vigorously and was almost boisterously
-jolly. The chairman of the banquet in his speech of welcome to their
-distinguished guest was in serious difficulties, being essentially
-a man of action rather than speech, and it was hard to say whether
-he suffered most in delivery or his hearers in listening. At the
-conclusion of the drinking of his health Mr. Seddon rose to reply, amid
-yells of "Kia ora! Haeremai! Ake, Ake," and other Maori salutations,
-and a perfect hurricane of stamping and hand-clapping. He began to
-speak portentously, uttering the baldest platitudes with a force and
-gravity that almost compelled belief that these commonplaces were now
-being uttered for the first time, having sprung into being there and
-then from the mighty brain of the speaker. For an hour he went on
-thundering out nothings which were received with rapturous applause
-whenever he paused for breath, and dispensing grave personal advice to
-the bunglers at Government in Britain, who were personally responsible
-for all the grave social evils that abound, all of which might be
-removed by wise legislation such as the speaker had been so largely
-responsible for in New Zealand. At last he sat down amid frenzied
-plaudits, having literally hypnotised the bulk of his audience by his
-magnetic and powerful personality, while taking an hour to utter what
-could easily have been stated in five minutes.
-
-That, however, was but the beginning of his labours. In proposing
-some healths and responding for others he made four more speeches of
-about a quarter of an hour each before the meeting broke up, and then
-descended to the winter garden, where a reception had been arranged,
-the guests to which had been waiting for over an hour for the great
-man's appearance. He was greeted with rapturous applause again, and
-proceeded to make another long speech which I only heard the echoes of
-afar off, for I fled to a restful corner and meditated. But it lasted
-fully three-quarters of an hour. Yet I learn that he has come over
-here for a rest from his arduous official labours in order to avoid
-a breakdown! Curiously enough, this man on his vacation literally
-dominated the Australian politicians, talked to them as if they were
-well-meaning but ignorant beginners, and was _fêted_ to the highest
-point. He got no rest, but that seemed to trouble him not at all. I was
-fain to ask some of his New Zealanders if they could tell me the secret
-of his power, and without exception their replies resolved themselves
-into this: that he never forgot a friend, however humble, and had a
-rare art of first browbeating and then conciliating his opponents;
-that he always had his ear to the ground to find out what the people
-wanted, and when he knew he bent his whole strength to give it to the
-party that was strong enough to demand it. This and his genius in being
-hail-fellow-well-met with even the raggedest loafer whom he had ever
-been friendly with, and that in any place, however public; gave him a
-popularity, in a land where men and women have adult suffrage, that
-nothing could shake. And on top of it all he had, like Mr. Gladstone,
-a beautiful and sympathetic home-life, lived in the open air of public
-scrutiny. There were no skeletons in his family cupboards, and this
-feature has always been and will always be an immense factor in any
-public man's success in Britain or a British Colony.
-
-I have said enough for the present about Mr. R. J. Seddon, although
-just now he seems to be the one force which counts out here, all the
-other political personages being but pigmies beside him, although the
-whole country which he rules so successfully has not nearly double the
-population of either Melbourne or Sydney. He certainly is a portent, a
-man whom even his bitterest opponents are bound to admire and respect
-for his many wonderful qualities, and perhaps most of all for his
-amazing vigour at a time of life--sixty-one--when, especially with his
-corpulent figure, he might reasonably be expected to slow down a bit.
-Instead of which he is making a triumphal tour of the Australasian
-States, being everywhere received with the honours usually accorded to
-a great potentate.
-
-The day arrives when I am due to leave Sydney for Auckland, and
-reluctantly I tear myself away from all the delights of this most
-beautiful and hospitable spot; only to find that the fine steamer of
-the Huddart Parker Line, which divides with the Union Company of New
-Zealand the monopoly of the Australasia-New Zealand trade, in which
-I was to sail, has been suddenly held back a day for no other reason
-obvious but the pleasure of the managers. Oh, they carry matters with a
-high hand out here, and if you object, well, you can so amuse yourself
-if you will, but it comes to nothing! I went down and had a look at the
-vessel though, and was filled with admiration at her fine proportions
-and splendid passenger accommodation. She is quite as large and far
-more finely fitted than the ocean liner of a quarter of a century ago,
-being nearly 3,000 tons register, and having all her appointments
-for the comfort of passengers up to date. But this business of
-Inter-colonial shipping has grown to stupendous proportions and cannot
-be dealt with casually at the fag end of a chapter, so it must stand
-over.
-
-
-
-
-XII
-
-TOWARDS MAORILAND
-
-
-As I mentioned in a previous chapter, your Australasian is essentially
-a wanderer, and the huge distances involved have no terrors for
-him. Land travel, except where the railways run, is slow, painful,
-difficult, and often dangerous, although essentially romantic. But
-where business is concerned romance has little scope, and delay is to
-be avoided at all costs. Consequently, from the very earliest days of
-the Colonies there was an attempt made to satisfy the needs of the
-travelling public by making communication by sea as safe and easy
-as could be. The efforts of the pioneers in this direction met with
-great and well-deserved success, but side by side with their growth in
-power and wealth came the demands of the seamen and firemen to share.
-These demands were favoured by successive Colonial Governments, which
-have always had the interests of the workers at heart, being usually
-composed of men who had been hand-workers themselves. Of course, in the
-result the workers always won, amid the plaints of the shipowners who
-predicted ruin to their enterprises if such wages and such food were
-made compulsory. But the lugubrious prophecies of evil have not been
-fulfilled, even in the remotest sense, for to-day the coastal trade of
-Australasia is without a parallel in the world.
-
-Indeed it seems almost miraculous, remembering the paucity of the
-population, how so immense a fleet can be maintained. Take, for
-instance, the Union Company, which, when I was in New Zealand
-thirty-three years ago, was just a babe in swaddling clothes with
-four or five small steamers. To-day it has a fleet of fifty-five fine
-steamships, including a veritable ocean flyer, the turbine _Maheno_--a
-pioneer, really, in ocean navigation for this part of the world. The
-headquarters of this giant Company are at Dunedin, a city of less than
-60,000 inhabitants or one-fifth of the population of the Borough of
-Camberwell, in London. Yet, great as this Company is and splendid as
-are the services it renders, it has not been able to keep the whole
-of the coasting trade of these islands, with their population of less
-than 900,000, in its own hands. It has to share the trade with another
-growing firm, that of Huddart, Parker & Co., and smaller local firms
-like the Northern Steamship Company. Of course, the efforts of these
-firms are not alone confined to New Zealand. They maintain a constant
-communication between Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and the
-Union Company sends its ships farther afield with great success to
-China, Japan, San Francisco, and Vancouver. It would not, I think, need
-a very great stretch of their energies for them to compete for the home
-trade (to Britain, I mean) with such giants as the Shaw, Savill, and
-Albion Company, the New Zealand Shipping Company, and Messrs. Tyser &
-Co. But I do not think they will bother about that as yet, since the
-Intercolonial trade is in so prosperous a condition, in spite of the
-high wages and good conditions of life accorded to the sailors and
-firemen.
-
-In Australia, while there is no such phenomenally large Company working
-as the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, we have wonderful
-evidences of the virility and enterprise of the seafaring element. Not
-only in the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company, and Howard
-Smith & Co., with several minor Companies to serve the coast, but there
-are such Companies as Messrs. Gibbs, Bright & Co. and Messrs. Currie &
-Co., who devote themselves to trade with India, China, and Malaysia,
-and, of course, possess steamers capable of holding their own with
-any deep-water ships owned by any other nation. I only mention this
-to show how, in spite of the short-sightedness of the rulers of this
-wonderful country in keeping the population down, the breed holds true
-and the mercantile fleet of Australasia is, in proportion, far greater
-than that of Great Britain--in proportion, that is, to population; any
-other comparison would be manifestly unfair. It is really difficult
-to realise how, in a city with a population of less than 60,000
-inhabitants Dunedin, not by any means the first, but the fourth, in
-point of population in a land that numbers less than 900,000 all told,
-there should be owned a fleet of steamships worthy to take its place
-with those of any great Company in the world.
-
-It is, I think, a portent of considerable magnitude that these
-Antipodean States are reaching out so vigorously after the oversea
-trade, as distinguished from the Intercolonial business. Messrs.
-Archibald Currie & Co., of Melbourne, trade with India, and are
-building ever larger and larger steamers to sustain the bulk of their
-rapidly growing business. Messrs. Gibbs, Bright & Co., and Messrs.
-Burns, Philp & Co., reach out after the Polynesian trade and the
-immense business that is being done in the Eastern Archipelago,
-Singapore, Malaysia, and China. The Union Company goes even farther
-afield, connecting the Northern Island up with Australasia _viâ_
-Vancouver, and straining every nerve to make the mail service in
-this direction as effective, despite the increased distance, as that
-carried on by the jerry-built ships of the American O.S.S. Company.
-By the utter short-sightedness and supineness of our rulers at home,
-the beautiful Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands became the property of the
-United States, who, in pursuance of their fixed policy, immediately
-declared them to be a portion of the United States coast, and excluded
-foreign--that is British--trade, between them and San Francisco or
-any other Yankee port. Is it any wonder that everybody out here grows
-restive at the unaccountable oscillations and vacillations of British
-policy, if the treatment of the Society Islands, Navigator Islands,
-New Hebrides, and New Guinea questions could be called a policy of
-anything else but drift and relinquish? It seems impossible for our
-rulers to realise that every port annexed by a foreign power means its
-being practically closed to British trade whether home or colonial. But
-these things are fully and practically realised here, and are bitterly
-resented.
-
-At present, however, I am principally concerned with my departure
-from Sydney in this fine ship _Zealandia_, which is as perfect in her
-equipment, as up-to-date in every respect as any ocean liner, and, as
-I before mentioned, fully as large as the early ships of the Orient
-Line, such as the _Garonne_, _John Elder_, _Lusitania_, or _Cuzco_. As
-she slips away from her wharf and we glide quietly seawards, my mind
-flies back to the days of thirty-five years ago when I used to make
-the trip we are now on twice a month in a ship that, although only
-about one-third the size of this, was one of the finest coasters in the
-whole of Australasia, the _Wentworth_. I look somewhat wistfully at the
-beautiful panorama, wondering whether I shall ever behold it again, but
-thankful that I have once more been privileged to renew my acquaintance
-with one of the most beautiful spots on earth.
-
-My almost invariable luck still holds, for the sea is like a mill-pond,
-this stretch of ocean between Australia and New Zealand not being a
-_Mare Serenitatis_ by any means, as a rule. We have a fairly large
-number of passengers, many of whom belong to a theatrical company on
-tour, my first introduction to a travelling troupe. As there are only
-two classes in these ships, first and steerage, we have a curious
-gathering in saloon and smoke-room of scene-shifters, actors, and all
-the rest of the extraordinary "push" that goes to make up a theatrical
-company. But it is a typical little democracy, the manager of the
-whole show being on the best and most intimate possible terms with
-every member of his company down to the least important. To my mind,
-however, the most remarkable feature of this business is that there is
-a company of thirty children, of ages ranging from eight to fourteen,
-who are a study in themselves. They are the most precocious small
-people I have ever met, and yet not offensively so, like that terror
-in miniature, the American child. They are evidently as happy as it is
-possible for children to be, and every grown-up member of the company
-without exception is devoted to them, although they really seem to be
-unspoilable. They have, of course, a matron and a doctor in attendance
-upon them, and I understand that when they are ashore they attend
-school every forenoon. Healthier, happier, brighter children I never
-saw, their very business being a supreme delight. But glad as one must
-feel at seeing a lot of small folks having such a manifestly good time,
-the thought would persistently obtrude itself--what about their future?
-This gadding about from place to place in the company of people who,
-however kind, are not notable for a sense of responsibility, is most
-unsettling, and few indeed of these youngsters, either boys or girls,
-will be able to settle down again until middle age; while what is going
-to become of them during that awkward interregnum during which they are
-too old for their present business and not old enough, assuming they
-have the talent, for ordinary actors and actresses nobody seems to know
-or care. At present they are certainly living up to the letter of the
-Gospel injunction to take no thought for to-morrow, and, at any rate,
-they are having a splendid time.
-
-In a blaze of golden sunset we sight the Three Kings, those outlying
-northern sentinels of New Zealand which will now always be remembered
-for the horrors attendant upon the wreck of the _Elingamite_ only a
-few years ago. Curiously enough that terrible story--as it was so
-fully reiterated about the civilised world I need not now re-tell
-it--completely overlaid my early recollections of the Three Kings,
-all fortunately very pleasant. As a small boy in a Sydney steamer
-bound to Auckland I often saw them and always in fine weather, while
-again in a whaleship as a young man I have circled around their grim
-pinnacles, and never saw them veiled in the tempest spray which these
-stern seas can always raise upon the slightest provocation. Be sure I
-was up early in the morning, for the view along the north-east coast
-of New Zealand if the weather is fine is not to be beaten anywhere,
-more especially as you near the Hauraki Gulf and begin to approach
-Auckland. The fine weather still held, and the sun, blazing out of a
-cloudless sky, illuminated every crag, islet, and beach as we sped up
-the splendid sound to where grim Rangitoto waits like a stern sentinel
-over the smiling harbour, whose entrance he guards. I suppose living
-constantly within sight of a volcano, whether it be active or extinct,
-as long as its activity is not pronounced, tends to oblivion of its
-potentialities. But I confess that in my youthful days I never entered
-or left Auckland without glancing fearfully upwards at the crater of
-Rangitoto, as do visitors to Naples at Vesuvius, and wondering whether
-some day or other the giant Enceladus would awake from his slumbers and
-involve all that busy, beautiful environment in one heap of smoking
-ruins, _Absit omen_, and yet remembering the gigantic upheaval which
-caused the ruin of the pink and white terraces a quarter of a century
-ago, and, as geologists tell us, was only prevented from overwhelming
-this beautiful town by an extraordinary barrier of strata beneath the
-soil which shed the earth tremors off as a breakwater sheds the waves,
-it is impossible for an outsider who has been a frequent visitor
-to avoid having some such reflections as these. Fortunately for the
-progress of the world, the condition of mind of dwellers in seismic
-districts is closely akin to that of consumptives. It is a truism how
-a poor fellow in the last stages of phthisis will look commiseratingly
-upon a fellow-sufferer perhaps not nearly so far gone, and say, "Poor
-chap! he can't last long." When you anxiously inquire after the
-speaker's health he assures you, between bursts of coughing, that it is
-vastly improved, and really he has hardly ever felt better in his life.
-And so, in spite of St. Pierre, of Vesuvius, or of San Francisco, the
-volcano-encircled towns of the world go steadily on their way without
-apparently giving a thought to what may happen at any hour. Which, of
-course, is just how it should be, if our life is to be lived at all in
-decent fashion.
-
-Ah! here we are in Auckland. But, dear me, I hardly know the place,
-and have to look back to Rangitoto to get my bearings. There is, of
-course, the same splendid land-locked harbour, but in my day there was
-one wharf with a "T" at its end, and the smaller fry of schooners and
-such-like, which in those early days Auckland was famous for building,
-had to be content with tiny jetties or an outer berth in the anchorage.
-And now the whole water-front of the city is a labyrinth of wharves,
-which, being yet all too small, are being extended with the utmost
-energy. No docks are needed in this entirely peaceful and land-locked
-bay, but wharves, wharves, and ever more wharves, to accommodate the
-trade of the Britain of the South. It is a splendid object lesson in
-the maritime instincts of the British race that this city, whose total
-population is about one-fifth of a big London parish, should have an
-oversea trade of such enormous dimensions as to require the expenditure
-of millions on the wharfage accommodation!
-
-
-
-
-XIII
-
-THE PARADISE OF LABOUR
-
-
-Upon landing from the steamer, and strolling up the pier towards the
-well-remembered Queen Street, I was puzzled to account for the fact
-that the pier seemed shorter than it used to be. But I set it down to
-my being so much younger then, and to having seen so many big things
-of late years. I could not, however, help feeling that the rows of big
-warehouses crowding along the front were much closer to the water's
-edge than any buildings had been in my time, and I seemed to remember
-also that the water used to come up into the town unhindered until it
-chose to retire. Now, however, its entry was severely restricted, and
-I was not at all surprised to learn that, along the whole water-front,
-over half a mile at least, one hundred yards in width of land had been
-reclaimed and built upon. It may be asked why, in a new country like
-this, it should be worth while to spend money in reclaiming land from
-the sea when there is so much land unoccupied. But when you learn that
-the price of land in the city of Auckland ranges from £20 per foot
-frontage up to a figure which closely approximates to that in most
-parts of London, and that building land in even the remote suburbs of
-Auckland is fetching to-day £400 per acre, you will not be surprised,
-however much, like myself, you wonder at the reason for this state of
-things.
-
-Nevertheless, Auckland as a city is disappointing--distinctly so. It
-has one fine street, a really splendid wide and straight thoroughfare,
-but in that street there are only two decent buildings, one of which
-is, appropriately enough, the Auckland Savings Bank; all the rest,
-though some of them are pretentious enough, are mean, and unworthy of
-the first city of New Zealand in point of population (and some say of
-wealth), being either jerry-built of brick and stuccoed over, or of
-wood. Now, of all mean shams that my soul abhors, it is the imitation
-stone-building of which the early Victorian era in London furnished
-so many hideous examples. Good honest brick-work, or even wood-work
-that looks what it is, I like, but stucco, hiding, as it always does,
-the most slovenly and unreliable brick-work, and showing after a few
-weeks its misery in the shape of numberless cracks, and even crevasses
-(I saw one public building, before I had been five minutes ashore,
-which had to be propped up as if there had been an earthquake), is
-beneath contempt, and should never be encouraged by an independent and
-outspoken people. I know I shall be reminded of the lack of suitable
-building stone in this volcanic country, and the cost of getting stone
-here from other parts of New Zealand where it is abundant; but that
-is not to the point. There is plenty of brick--the best of brick--and
-abundance of the most beautiful timber the world grows, wherefore
-stucco, the sham of shams, should be anathema. Fortunately I shall be
-out of the country before the Plasterers' Union can be out after me, so
-I do not care.
-
-Then there seems to be something lacking in so prosperous a city
-in that there are so many mean streets and only one really good
-thoroughfare. The city looks unkempt, dishevelled, as if it had not
-yet made up its mind whether to rise to the height of a metropolis
-or sink to the depth of a village. It looks fortuitous, and although
-it certainly does not fall to the level of the average American city
-of its size, it does not rise to the occasion like Perth, Western
-Australia, for instance, although comparisons are odious; but I would
-like to know why! On every hand may be heard tales of the abounding
-prosperity of the country, and I have ever found that when business men
-are contented with the way things are going, and say so, the visitor,
-more especially if he be not one to whom something may be sold in order
-to get rid of it, may depend upon it that things are even better than
-they seem. Wages are high, food is plentiful and cheap, and, indeed,
-all the necessaries of life are cheap in comparison with the standard
-of wages. Only land seems dear out of all proportion to the prosperity
-of the country.
-
-This is indeed the paradise of labour. Practically all legislation is
-shaped with an eye to what the worker with his hands will think of it,
-and men who at home are classed with the demagogues, and treated as
-dangerous subverters of law and order, here make the laws, administer
-them, and rule the roost generally. I have been introduced to several
-men whom I should at once have recognised anywhere as journeymen
-carpenters, masons, plasterers, &c., with horny hands and an utter
-absence of the graces or delicacies of speech, and told that they
-were J.P.'s., members of the House of Representatives, or leaders of
-societies wielding enormous power. It is not necessary, nay, it is
-almost impossible, for strikes to occur, since every question of hours
-and wages is submitted to Courts of Arbitration having all the powers
-of legal tribunals. Strangely enough, the capitalists profess to like
-this state of affairs. I anxiously looked for some sign of insincerity
-in their remarks to me upon the subject, but could not detect any at
-all. So I was, and am, compelled to believe that they are at least
-contented to acquiesce in this condition of matters. Then it must also
-be remembered that many quite large employers of labour are themselves
-what we are pleased to call working men, that is, they still work at
-the bench with hammer and saw, lathe and file, among the men whom they
-employ, and their distance from employed to employer is not yet great
-enough for them to have lost touch with their men.
-
-One splendid result of this close equality of capital with labour is
-that there is no room for the whining rascal who gets so much utterly
-undeserved sympathy and the lion's share of pauper-making doles at
-home, the workshy or unemployable. He could not exist here. I do
-not quite know what they would do with him, but I am perfectly sure
-that he could not live here for any length of time. It is a land of
-workers, not loafers; and while for the worker who is unfortunate
-in any way there is every help and encouragement, for the class for
-which our sentimentalists who call themselves socialists at home
-are mainly responsible, there is nothing available but elimination,
-and that very swiftly. This goodly position of the worker is not
-confined to the outside workers only, the journeyman mechanic,
-labourer, &c., but it extends to the class which at home with us is so
-terribly handicapped in small business and in large wholesale houses,
-counter-salesmen and clerks. The majority of shops close at six, only
-a few refreshment-houses, tobacconists, &c., remaining open. No such
-spectacle is possible here as that which I have often seen at home at
-certain seasons of the year, when employees must work practically all
-night as a set-off to the fact that they get a fortnight's holiday
-in the year without pay. Or of the shops which, under the stress of
-competition, keep their pale slaves on their feet from eight in the
-morning until ten at night, and on Saturdays until twelve. Everything
-that can be done is done in the direction of early closing, even to
-the hotels (there are no public-houses here) whose bars are closed
-rigidly at ten o'clock, and on Sundays may not open at all. Nay, so
-far is this carried that, if you are staying in an hotel, you may not
-have a visitor to see you after ten, or on Sundays at all, lest you
-should be tempted to offer him fluid hospitality, and thus evade the
-law which declares that no man may drink intoxicants during prohibited
-hours, except in the privacy of his own permanent or temporary home.
-Local Option is carried out to its fullest extent, and has some queer
-results where a district closed to the sale of liquor ranges with one
-that is open. But there is no gainsaying the fact that all that can
-or may be done by what we at home know by the opprobrious epithet of
-grandmotherly interference to discourage the consumption of strong
-drink, is done.
-
-In many other ways what we call the liberty of the subject is
-interfered with, the distinct proviso being laid down that the law
-may punish any person for doing anything which is harmful to his
-neighbour. Which, of course, strikes at the root of monopolies, and of
-all those evils which usually accompany the building up of enormous
-fortunes out of the woes of the wage-earner. And yet, of course I
-suppose, there are evils attendant upon all this dry-nursing--evils
-which I have heard liberally descanted upon by citizens, but will not
-enlarge upon myself because, in the first place, I am not likely to
-come here to live, and next because I am too grateful for the removal
-of many of the horrible diseases of the body politic which are rampant
-at home, and can there, alas, only be cured now by drastic remedies
-involving much suffering to innocent people. Of course you have heard
-all about the old-age pension system out here, which is now about to be
-extended to Australia. I am not sufficient of an actuary to know what
-it will eventually cost, but I do know that at present it is hailed
-with intense satisfaction by all classes, who pride themselves upon
-having solved a problem that has baffled all the civilised nations.
-More than that, a public-spirited citizen of Auckland has erected and
-endowed a really beautiful building in one of the most romantically
-picturesque suburbs of Auckland, which is called the "Costley" home
-for aged people, and is on the lines of what we at home should call an
-almshouse or set of almshouses. Here with their pensions the old folks
-can, and do, live most comfortably, having entire liberty to do what
-they please, just as if they had retired upon a competency of their own
-earning. And, indeed, they are led to regard the old-age pension in
-that very light. In such a practical community as this it is, perhaps,
-superfluous to add that every care is taken to exclude from the
-benefits of the pension scheme all those whose habits of drunkenness
-and laziness have made them unworthy of its provisions. It really does
-not put a premium upon wasteful debauchery.
-
-When I was last in Auckland, thirty-five years ago, I used to be much
-amused and interested in watching the Maories, both men and women,
-strolling about the streets with a lordly air of indifference to
-everything under the sun but their own ease and comfort. The idea of
-work of any kind seemed entirely foreign to their nature, and although
-they were gratefully taking to the white man's style of dress, it was
-very slowly, and the mixture of native and European costume produced
-some grotesque effects. It was very funny to see a Maori belle dressed
-from top to toe in what she had been led to consider was the height of
-European fashion, plump suddenly down on the nearest convenient spot
-and hastily remove the tight boots which had been making her hobble
-like a Chinese lady. Tying them together with a piece of string,
-she would sling them over her shoulder, then producing and lighting
-a short, black pipe, she would resume her leisurely way sublimely
-indifferent to what anybody thought of her carefree proceedings.
-And the older natives were often dressed in a complete native garb,
-save that they wore trousers. It helped one to realise how near to
-the native times of supremacy we were to see these calm-eyed Maories
-strolling along the streets gazing at the strange sights but never
-manifesting any surprise or even interest.
-
-And now, so long after, I find almost as many natives about as I did
-then. You meet them everywhere, not now in native garb it is true,
-but wearing, with a curious alteration of set and cut, the ordinary
-European raiment. The women, too, hang skirts and jackets upon their
-stalwart bodies, but I did not see any more tight-fitting boots,
-most of the ladies wearing generous men's sizes and shapes for ease,
-while they also chose to wear, as being more comfortable and useful,
-men's wideawake hats secured with hatpins. The short pipe is still
-in constant evidence, also the tattooing on the chin which marks the
-married woman, while a child is often seen slung on her back in true
-native fashion all the world over. One thing excited my attention, in
-view of the statement made that this splendid race is slowly dying
-out--it is the magnificent build of many of the men. It is well known,
-of course, how fine a human animal the Maori half-breed makes, but I
-have seen many full-blooded Maories here whose physique was that of
-the Farnese Hercules, a splendour of trunk and limbs that even the
-slouching way in which their clothes are flung on them could not hide.
-But nothing will ever make the native take to the idea of steady,
-settled work--fixed hours for anything; it is unnatural to expect it,
-and, as far as I can see, the ruling powers of New Zealand do not
-expect it. They educate the Maori, give him a goodly share in the
-Government, treat him with kindly respect, and do nothing to hinder him
-from retaining his ancient language, but they do not commit the blunder
-of supposing that he will become a European.
-
-I have been for a drive to-day around the suburbs known as Mount Eden
-and One Tree Hill, from whence a peculiarly beautiful and comprehensive
-view of Auckland and its lovely environs can be obtained. But in spite
-of the beauty of the country and the luxuriance of the verdure, the air
-of prosperity manifest by the neat and sometimes handsome dwellings
-dotted about everywhere, and the wealth of flowers--the arum lily
-especially growing in masses by the waysides as if it were a noxious
-weed--one grim feature of the landscape would exclude every other
-consideration. Auckland is literally hemmed in on the landward side by
-a ring of craters of extinct volcanoes; nay, it would almost seem as
-if the whole region had once been one vast volcano, like Mauna Loa in
-the Sandwich Islands, having many vent-holes. Evidently the present
-quiet condition of things has lasted for many hundreds of years, and
-I fervently hope that no uneasy demon will arise to mar that ancient
-peace.
-
-
-
-
-XIV
-
-A UNIVERSAL SHOCK
-
-
-The pious aspiration with which I closed my last chapter has not been
-quite fulfilled. The earth mother is quiet, thank Heaven, but the
-minds of the people have been stirred as by some mighty disaster. On
-Monday, June 11th, the news was suddenly flashed across from Sydney
-to the whole of New Zealand that the _Oswestry Grange_ had returned
-to Sydney, whence she had sailed on the preceding day, with R. J.
-Seddon dead. It is almost impossible to convey to you at home what
-a sensation this news made. We all love the King, but it is with an
-impersonal affection; we shout and cheer for the various political
-leaders of our party according to our tastes; but here it was as if
-the country had been smitten with an irretrievable disaster. The
-visitor forgot the smallness of the number of people affected as he
-realised the extraordinary consternation this sudden death produced
-among all classes, even those who had been most violently opposed to
-him politically. I was staying at the time in an hotel kept by an
-amiable Hebrew, and in consequence largely frequented by gentlemen of
-that faith (who, by the way, are particularly numerous and influential
-in Auckland), and it was to me amazing to see the grief of all, the
-genuine sorrow manifested, and hear the sentiments of deep affectionate
-regret that were uttered by the landlord and his friends.
-
-The secret of this amazing popularity seemed to be that first and
-foremost the deceased Premier, while he magnified his office and
-never failed to magnify New Zealand also, was essentially accessible
-to all, hail-fellow-well-met with Tom, Dick, and Harry. He never, so
-it was said, put on "side," unless he were dealing with magnates who
-endeavoured to put it on with him, when he would be aggressively,
-almost ferociously, self-assertive. It has been repeatedly stated that
-he was offered a peerage at home, but refused. This man, so essentially
-of the people, who, like so many other men in power in this new and
-thriving country, had toiled at many humble occupations in order to
-earn a living, and who, when he had obtained the summit of power out
-here, lived in simplest style without a trace of ostentation, was wise
-enough and courageous enough to refuse such an honour as most men will
-toil and intrigue and spend fabulous sums in trying to obtain, because,
-so people here say, and I am fain to believe, he knew that as a peer he
-would have been a nonentity, but as plain Dick Seddon he was really the
-uncrowned King of New Zealand. Naturally his essentially Socialistic
-policy was fiercely assailed by those whose privileges and profits it
-curtailed, and nothing less than ruin was predicted for the country
-so subjected to political experiments of the most drastic order. But
-although it is for the present beside the mark to say that, so far
-from the country being ruined, it was never more prosperous than it
-is now, it is curious, almost pathetic, to note how all the voices of
-controversy are hushed, how all parties, all newspapers, unite in doing
-honour to the man whose proudest title was Digger Dick. There has been,
-as far as I have been able to hear, not one dissentient voice raised
-against the chorus of eulogy, and there certainly has been none of that
-indecent exultation so often painfully manifested at home on the death
-or downfall of one of our great men by the party opposed to him.
-
-During the later years of his life Richard John Seddon was
-exceptionally fortunate, over and above the position he earned by
-Titanic toil. But in nothing was he more fortunate than in the manner
-and time of his passing away. It must be remembered that he had just
-closed such a triumphal progress through the chief cities of the
-Commonwealth of Australia as a monarch, even the proudest, might have
-envied. He came to Australia as his own ambassador to endeavour to
-effect a closer union between the Commonwealth and New Zealand in
-matters of legislation, and especially in the direction of a reciprocal
-tariff. How far his self-imposed mission was a success it is as yet
-too early to say, but it is certain that he dominated the Australian
-politicians like a giant towering above pigmies. One would have
-thought that New Zealand was the great State and Australia the small
-to read the speeches made and the editorial comments thereupon. In
-fact Seddon seemed to hypnotise the politicians as he did the ordinary
-banqueters of whom I spoke in a previous chapter, so that even such a
-platitudinous and vulgar plagiarism from the arrogant Yankee as his
-frequently uttered allusion to New Zealand as "God's own country"
-was always rapturously applauded and received as the coinage of his
-own brain, a happy idea such as no other mind would be capable of
-receiving. This description of New Zealand was especially pleasing
-to Seddon's warmest supporters, the Maories, who are all nominally
-Christian now, and who all firmly believe that he was the inventor of
-the epithet.
-
-And then, when this triumphal progress culminated in Sydney and he
-had embarked for "God's own country," as his last telegram stated,
-he sat down to rest with his family around him, and suddenly laying
-his head upon his wife's shoulder, murmured "Oh, mother!" and died;
-instantly, peacefully, painlessly. Of course it was a terrible shock
-to his devoted partner and his no less devoted children, but as far as
-he was concerned it was a passing such as few great men are privileged
-to obtain. Even Nelson, whose end was similar in that he passed at
-the summit of his glory, had to endure long hours of agony, whereas
-Seddon's end was such as most of us, however humble, must crave for,
-but few obtain.
-
-Business seems paralysed, and the newspapers can apparently print
-nothing else but pages about the deceased Premier; but of course,
-although the intense mourning and general _distrait_ air will continue
-until the funeral at Wellington in about ten days, the people will
-discover, as they have so often discovered before, that no man is
-irreplaceable, and that the sincerest tribute to a great man's memory
-is to carry on his work after his departure.
-
-Perhaps I have devoted overmuch space to Mr. Seddon in a work like
-this, but really the event has caused so great a sensation out here
-that it seemed impossible to pass it over in a few casual words.
-
-My stay in Auckland is drawing rapidly to a close, to my regret,
-although, as I am repeatedly assured, the country is not to be
-compared, as far as appearance goes, to what it is like in the summer.
-Which seems so strange to me, for, as I am never weary of repeating,
-the climate now seems to be almost ideal to a Briton: the air has just
-enough freshness in it to dispel languor, while the sun's heat at noon
-is tempered enough to make the genial warmth enjoyable and the wearing
-of even the lightest of overcoats an absurdity. This ideal climate
-condition makes me wonder why it is that so many of the flowering
-plants and shrubs do not bloom all the year round. The conditions are
-never even sub-tropical, being more like Cornwall than anything else,
-yet there is no approach to the wealth of bloom that may be seen in
-our far western counties all the year round. And many of the trees,
-having shed their leaves, look absolutely dead, as if nothing could
-ever induce them to burgeon again. Even the verdure on the hills does
-not look fresh and green as it does in our southern counties during
-our much-maligned winter. But appearances are proverbially deceitful,
-and nowhere more so than here, for they tell me that the sheep find
-excellent pasturage all the year round, and are never in need of any
-special care, while the cool air induces the luxuriant growth of wool.
-
-But I must bid farewell to Auckland. The _Tarawera_ waits for me, and
-we are presently spinning southward down the Gulf towards Gisborne, my
-next halting-place. This is a coast to test seamanship. From Auckland
-round to Wellington there is no real shelter, and when the mighty
-Southern swell rolls up the steamers must either put out to sea and
-breast it, not daring to attempt a landing at any of the ports, or
-pass on with their disgruntled passengers to the shelter of one of the
-safe harbours aforesaid. As happened to the ship which passed us on
-her way North--for although the weather was not what a seaman would
-call bad--she had, owing to the enormous Pacific (?) swell breaking in
-on the coast, to give up all idea of landing her passengers, to say
-nothing of her cargo, at Gisborne, and take them on to Auckland. When
-we passed East Cape the weather was sublime, the sea like oil, and the
-sky above cloudless, serene; but that terrible swell tossed us about
-like a cork in a mill-race. However, we came into Gisborne, Poverty
-Bay, on Sunday, and anchored quite close to what has been ironically
-termed the harbour, rolling and tumbling about there in strangely
-bewildering fashion. Presently I saw some small steam vessels making
-their way apparently through the land, but behaving as we were doing,
-that is, rolling and tumbling about with wonderful agility. They
-soon emerged from behind what I could then discern was the horn of a
-breakwater, and immediately became easier in their movements. When,
-however, the tender, a fine, stout-built steamer of about 200 tons, got
-alongside it was possible to see how great was the motion on this calm
-day and to imagine what an impossibility it would be to carry on any
-work if the wind was blowing into this unprotected bay instead of, as
-it was now, blowing out. The master of the tender being an old shipmate
-of mine invited me on the bridge to see the entrance to the harbour,
-for which I was very grateful, for it was a revelation to me.
-
-This little community of less than 9,000 souls, being in possession
-of a magnificent sheep country and having built up for themselves the
-largest frozen meat export trade in New Zealand, felt themselves most
-severely and painfully handicapped by their want of a harbour. Not, be
-it understood, for vessels of any size--that they could hardly hope
-to effect--but one from which they might carry out their produce to
-ships at anchor in the bay. So they consulted Sir John Coode on the
-construction of a breakwater, behind which the small steamers might
-come down from the little river Waimata in safety and emerge into the
-bay. He gave his opinion, indicating the best position for, and the
-mode of construction of, the breakwater, which apparently did not
-coincide with their wishes. In the result they disregarded his advice
-and built the present breakwater, which, for a time, served fairly
-well, but alas! the channel behind it began to silt up from the scour
-of the river, which, as rivers are wont to do in all mountainous
-countries, occasionally ran in spate, overflowing its banks and
-bringing down enormous quantities of detritus. In the hope of obviating
-this the local authorities built a groyne running parallel with the
-breakwater and making a sort of canal running out into the harbour.
-But unhappily they extended this groyne until it was equal in length
-to the breakwater. Then when the prevalent swell rolled in, it struck
-the end of the groyne, rebounding up the channel, and making such
-mighty turmoil that it was impossible to get in or out except at very
-great risk. On my journey up, as I said, the weather was exceptionally
-fine, but this tiny steamer required two men at the wheel, which was
-spun hard up and hard down continuously as the great swell rolling in
-after her swung her from side to side.
-
-I need not labour this point, but may say briefly that it is one of
-those blunders easily made but most difficult to repair; and now
-this small, energetic community, having burdened itself with a debt
-of a quarter of a million in order to facilitate the shipment of its
-produce, finds itself in a rather worse position than before. It is,
-as may be imagined, a very sore point indeed with the townsfolk, who
-do not know who to blame, and who do not see what good blaming would
-do after all. Yet in spite of all this it is, by all accounts, the
-most prosperous in proportion to its size of any town in New Zealand.
-The ranges of hills hereabouts form, so I am told, ideal pasturage
-for sheep when they have been treated in the following fashion. The
-natural surface growth is burned off and grass seed is sown among the
-ashes. This presently, under the beneficent skies of this beautiful
-country, clothes those heretofore barren ranges with living green of
-such succulent nutritiousness that it will "carry" two sheep to the
-acre--sheep who fatten and breed with scarcely any attention, in such
-fashion as we in England have had ample demonstration of, and who find
-within easy reach a ready market. I confess that it was difficult
-at first to realise the value of those lofty ranges of hills where
-cultivation is quite out of the question, but in the light of this
-expert information and of what I saw of the flocks of sheep streaming
-down to the freezing works to be presently dealt with in exhaustive
-fashion, I began to understand how and why it was that New Zealand
-ranked so very high among the countries of the world as regards her
-export trade, £9 per head as against £2 8s. from the United States by
-the admission of one of their own experts.
-
-
-
-
-XV
-
-MUTTON, THE MASTER
-
-
-Gisborne is, historically speaking, almost the most interesting place
-in the whole of New Zealand. Close to the site of the present town is
-where Captain Cook made his first landing in the country, and named it,
-on the spur of the moment, Poverty Bay--a name which it still holds,
-because the natives take a delight in the irony of the appellation in
-contrast to that of the Bay of Plenty, which, though only the next
-bay northward, has done nothing so far to justify its grand title.
-This little place was also the scene of the Poverty Bay massacre,
-wherein between thirty and forty whites were slaughtered by the Maories
-under the redoubtable Te Kooti, as a direct result of the inevitable,
-invariable blundering of the home authorities. It is not a little
-remarkable, however, that it should have taken so long for this place
-to attain its present dimensions, even when the limitations of the
-harbour (?) have to be taken into consideration. But since that is a
-feature of every part of Australasia that I have revisited, I need not
-do more than allude to it in passing.
-
-Like Auckland, Gisborne suffers from a want of good building stone,
-which prevents the erection of any really imposing buildings, since all
-builders are in a conspiracy to hide the brick-work, of which the best
-buildings are constructed, under stucco, a most futile and pernicious
-proceeding, directly conducive to bad work. The older buildings are
-of wood, which is honest at any rate, if flimsy in appearance. It is
-not so in reality, as New Zealand boasts some of the finest building
-timber in the world--so good, in fact, that it pays to import soft
-wood from America and Scandinavia, and export the native woods for
-other purposes. It is a beautifully laid-out little town, with wide,
-level streets, and as yet no imposing buildings in them--a town where
-everybody seems contented and prosperous, although there is an utter
-absence of swagger, such as usually accompanies the possession of
-considerable means in other countries. It would appear that here, at
-any rate, the Socialistic schemes of the New Zealand Government have
-resulted in a general levelling of the people in point of comfort, a
-certain limitation of growth, and a great air of contentment, for I
-have heard no one as yet speak of hard times.
-
-Viewed from the sea, Gisborne gives one the idea of consisting of only
-a small collection of houses clustered about the lower slopes of the
-encircling hills, and the stranger instinctively wonders where the
-town can be, the distance of those hills from the sea being so very
-deceptive. But once ashore it is seen that there is really an immense
-area of almost absolutely level land extending from the sea-shore to
-the ranges--beautiful land of the highest quality, and containing
-space enough for the erection of a mighty city if only the conditions
-warranted its growth. The contrast between the level of Gisborne and
-the inequalities of Auckland is very marked, but of course, while
-the position of the former is excellent from the point of view of
-transport, it does not make for picturesqueness. It much resembles the
-position of Adelaide, and, for the same reason, the deposit of alluvium
-at the foot of the hills by the age-long work of the rivers coming down
-to the sea and spreading out their detritus.
-
-I was taken to see the principal freezing establishment, belonging
-to Messrs. Nelson & Co., and went with a great deal of curiosity,
-after my reading of Upton Sinclair's awful book, "The Jungle," and my
-own experiences of Chicago. Of course, in point of size, there is no
-comparison, the whole output of New Zealand being but a trifle compared
-with the holocaust daily offered up in Chicago. But that was of no
-consequence; it was the system I wanted to see. First of all, our
-arrival (I was taken by a Government Stock Inspector) was unexpected
-by the people in charge, so that nothing could have been cleaned up
-or put out of sight for my sake. Work, indeed, was very slack, only
-a few bullocks being slaughtered and the sheep being discharged from
-the great refrigerators into specially built and equipped lighters
-for conveyance off to the _Niwaru_, one of Messrs. Tyser & Co.'s huge
-cargo steamers, which was lying in the bay. It gives rather a curious
-sensation to stand at the other end of the long chain of supply forged
-by man's inventive genius, which connects the sheep which I see on
-the hills yonder with the suburban butcher's shop in England with its
-sheeted carcases being chopped up for distribution at practically the
-same prices, and in practically the same condition, as they are sold to
-the consumer here.
-
-Apart from the grim side of the business, the immense and continuous
-blood-shedding and the suggestive crimson rivulet flowing steadily
-into the river beside the works, there was an air of great calm and
-peace over everything. There is nothing squalid or sordid or dirty
-about the place, from the rows of pretty workmen's dwellings to the
-immense cooling chambers crowded with freshly skinned and disembowelled
-carcases, depending from rails overhead and chilling off before
-commencing their journey towards the freezing chambers (Linde's Ammonia
-process), where the temperature rapidly converts those fresh, soft,
-pink and white bodies into no bad resemblance of a block of stone. As
-to the meat itself, like most householders, and without being anything
-of a butcher, I pride myself on knowing a bit of good meat when I see
-it, and better-looking meat than that mutton and beef I have never
-seen, even at Christmas-time at home, while its cleanliness was a
-striking contrast to the appearance of the carcases in many a West
-End butcher's that I wot of. The inspection is of the most rigid and
-searching kind, for the meat must be above suspicion. And should the
-examination of the lungs reveal the slightest taint of tuberculosis,
-the entire carcase is first drenched with kerosine and then cremated,
-every portion thereof except the hide, which of course has no part
-of it consumable by man. But the percentage of carcases which it is
-necessary to destroy is ridiculously low. The conditions under which
-the cattle live and are brought to the abattoirs are so good and
-healthful that the inception and dissemination of disease is very rare.
-
-Of course in this, as in so many other modern industries, the value
-of the by-products makes the business profitable, even though the
-main product be sold so cheaply. There is absolutely no waste, even
-the blood, except that portion which unavoidably stains the floors
-and walls of the abattoirs and is washed from the recently slain
-bodies of the beasts, being saved and converted into special manure
-of the strongest kind and of high value. The offal is similarly
-treated after the tallow is separated from it, and although this must
-be a disagreeable business, I testify that it is conducted without
-any offensiveness to either smell or sight. Then there is the great
-business of the hides, especially of the sheep, which are chemically
-treated, so that in a few hours the wool may be scraped off, uninjured
-itself, and leaving the pelt perfectly free from trace of wool as well
-as improved by the process.
-
-Bearing in mind the conditions of labour in the land of the free and
-home of the brave, I was curious to see what manner of men these were
-employed here. And I found that, as elsewhere in New Zealand, there was
-a great deal of equality between master and man, that labour knew its
-worth and was able to get that worth recognised in every needed way. No
-speeding up or working out here--the Unions and Government look after
-that. I cannot say that there was very much to learn about the simple
-process of slaughtering and freezing meat for the home market, but
-there was a very great object-lesson in the conditions under which it
-was performed and in the position of the works in which it was carried
-on: in the heart of the country and close to the sources of supply on
-one hand, while on the other there was the big ship almost alongside
-the works, so to speak, for which cause handling was reduced to a
-minimum--a desideratum always greatly to be desired for many reasons.
-
-By great good fortune I had the opportunity offered me of visiting
-two places of very great interest to all who love the primitive
-races, and regret to see them dying out. Now the Maori is one of
-those aboriginals, exceedingly scarce, who seem able to absorb the
-civilisation of the Anglo-Saxon without dying out. I know that there
-is a conflict of opinion about this, but on the best authority I
-am informed that there is a small increase among them, the only
-danger-signal being the preponderance of male births over females--a
-feature which the closest students of the Maori are unable to account
-for. At my lectures in Gisborne I had as part of my audience the
-students of the Maori Theological College, and by the courtesy of the
-principal, the Rev. Mr. Challoner, I was invited to the college itself,
-where one of the students, a stalwart youth of about twenty-one, gave
-me an extempore address of welcome in his own mellifluous language, the
-same being translated into fluent English by a fellow-student, clause
-by clause. It was intensely interesting, for these Maories are born
-orators, and although I know that our staid English cannot reproduce
-the flowers of native speech, yet I heard enough to show me what an
-amazing effort of diction it was.
-
-Then another gentleman, the Rev. Herbert Williams, son of the Bishop of
-Napier, drove me out to the Maori Church of Te Aro, a building which
-was commenced by the Maories in the best style of native art, but,
-getting tired of it, the artists abandoned their self-imposed task;
-which was unfortunate, as they represented the last and the best of
-the fast dying-out school of native artificers. But the missionary
-in charge decided that what had already been done must not be wasted,
-and a plan was formulated whereby the church should be constructed in
-European fashion, and the immense carved _rimu_ and _totara_ columns
-so lavishly adorned by the Maori artists should be incorporated in
-the building. This has been done, and the result is certainly most
-striking. Many of these columns, or pilasters as I suppose they should
-be more properly called, are trees cut in half longitudinally, and
-measure well over three feet across. They are carved from top to
-bottom, grotesquely, floridly; but undoubtedly in strict conformity
-with the canons of native art. They are undoubtedly of immense value
-as the last emblems of a primitive race, but unfortunately even the
-artists who designed and executed them have forgotten what the symbols
-signify. This is undoubtedly the case. They preserve an air of mystery
-as to the meaning of what they have designed, but the plain and obvious
-fact is that they do not know. The pattern has been slavishly followed,
-but the significance thereof has died out. And I suppose it only awaits
-some new Champollion to formulate a theory of derivation by means
-of which these grotesques may be linked on to the Maya and Egyptian
-works. Which warns me that I had better leave them.
-
-It happened--for in these matters we are the sport of the
-elements--that it was a perfectly propitious night when I was to
-leave Gisborne for Napier. There was quite a crowd of people down on
-the wharf ready to board the little steamer which was to take us off
-to the _Victoria_, one of the fine coasters of the Huddart, Parker
-Company, of nearly 3,000 tons register, and quite palatially fitted.
-To give you an idea of how the Colonial passenger is catered for, not
-only are you invited to enjoy a _chota hazri_, or little breakfast of
-porridge, tea or coffee and biscuits, in your bunk before rising, that
-is between 6 and 7 a.m., and the usual six meals a day of the ocean
-steamers besides, but the Company provide rugs and steamer chairs
-for the comfort of passengers on deck. Also the liquid refreshments
-dispensed from the bar are, despite the tariff, on a much more modest
-scale of prices than in the case of the deep-sea ships, sixpence being
-the standard price for practically all drinks that the ordinary man
-calls for. There was also everything that the most fastidious passenger
-could look for on board ship in the way of ladies' rooms, reading and
-smoking-rooms, &c., and altogether I doubt very much if any vessels in
-the world can offer more comforts to travellers than do these splendid
-coasting steamers of Australia.
-
-We got away at nine o'clock, and proceeded at fourteen knots down to
-the coast to Napier, which was reached at daylight, the navigation
-being of the simplest character along this steep-to coast. It struck
-me, though, that the service was an exceedingly arduous one for the
-officers, who, except at certain stated ports, do not get much rest,
-while the men, who undoubtedly work hard, have the intense satisfaction
-of knowing that their earnings are correspondingly good, since the
-eight hours' day holds good for sea-workers as well as land-workers
-when the vessel is in port, and overtime is paid for at one shilling
-per hour.
-
-
-
-
-XVI
-
-A HOMELIKE TOWN
-
-
-Napier, Hawke's Bay, is apparently totally different from any other
-town that I have seen in Australasia. It has a character entirely its
-own, which indeed is not an unfamiliar feature of New Zealand towns,
-many of which still bear the impress of their pious founders. A fine
-breakwater and a good pier within its shelter awaits the steamer, which
-lies cosily alongside, although it was obvious from the magnitude of
-the mooring chains and girth of the rope springs by which the ship was
-secured, that there were occasionally some lively times here under
-certain conditions of wind and weather. But _the_ feature which was
-most impressive was a precipitous cliff, which, only about fifty yards
-from the shore end of the pier, rose a sheer 300 feet into the air,
-as if defying all further ingress to the country. A good road wound
-around the base of this cliff--as good a road, indeed, as any we can
-boast of at home--and I noticed presently that a low, concrete sea-wall
-had begun to skirt it. Then the side-walk of asphalt was planted at
-intervals of about six or seven yards with the beautiful Norfolk Island
-pine, a species of araucaria, but not nearly so grotesque as the
-"monkey puzzle" tree. As we walked on the cliff to shoreward sloped
-downward, and gave pretty views of houses perched here and there amid
-embowering foliage, until presently we turned a corner, and lo! I was
-in Tunbridge Wells, at the corner of the Pantiles looking towards
-the Pump Room. The illusion was almost perfect, in spite of the many
-wooden houses which alternate with the stucco-fronted ones here, as
-elsewhere in New Zealand. And then another peculiarity obtruded itself,
-the naming of the streets, which has been done upon an original plan,
-the main thoroughfares being called after celebrated Indian generals
-and administrators, to keep company with Lord Napier, Hastings, Clive,
-&c., while the streets which run at right angles to them commemorate
-great poets and authors--Tennyson, Browning, Milton, Shakespeare,
-Dickens, &c. And splendid streets they are, as far as the roadways and
-footpaths are concerned, the buildings being all of the usual character
-in the other towns which I have mentioned. The town wears an air of
-solid prosperity, but is quite sedate and satisfied in its appearance,
-as if bustle and growth were neither looked for or, indeed, much
-desired. Of course it does grow, but very slowly, and I for one think
-of it as of other Antipodean towns, that if hurried growth means, as it
-too usually does, a large accession of the submerged tenth, then it is
-much better that it should hasten as slowly as it is doing.
-
-But to my mind the chief glory of Napier is its frontage on the
-magnificent bay. From the landing-place an asphalted esplanade, fronted
-by the low sea-wall before mentioned, runs for over two miles in an
-almost perfectly straight line. Over the wall the foreshore of shingle
-slopes gently down to near the sea, where it is carpeted with fine
-sand, making it an ideal watering-place. There are houses of varying
-character, but none at all pretentious, on the shore side of this
-esplanade for nearly its whole length, facing the open Pacific and
-fully exposed to the winds from the east, which bring in at times an
-enormous swell from the widest ocean of all, there being nothing in
-the nature of obstructing land between it and the west coast of South
-America. But of course the tremendous prevalent westerly gales which
-assail the west coast of New Zealand so furiously are not felt here,
-this being the sheltered side of the islands. Still, I could imagine
-that an amazing spectacle of assailing seas must be sometimes witnessed
-from the windows of those houses, and that the broad, smooth esplanade
-must at times be anything but a pleasant place for a promenade.
-
-As I before noticed about Gisborne, Napier is built upon a level plain
-bounded by the ranges, so that whichever direction the eye travels
-along the straight, wide roads it meets with either the sea or the
-hills, an impression always being given of restricted area, of living
-on a ledge, as it were, beyond which exit could only be gained by
-climbing high hills or going out to sea. But it must be remembered,
-first, that the area is far less restricted than it seems, there being
-land enough for all the expansion there appears likely to be for many
-years to come, and next, that although New Zealand is undoubtedly a
-hilly country, it is only in the interior that the hills attain any
-great magnitude, and that, as I have before noted, those hills are of
-great value in the pasturage of sheep. As in Gisborne, one may look
-in vain for any evidence of hustle, of determination to go ahead.
-A Sabbath calm even at noon of every day seems to pervade all the
-streets. Nobody is in a hurry, nobody seems to consider that haste
-in anything is necessary or desirable. And they are doubtless right;
-but it is curious that men who have lived in this calm atmosphere for
-thirty or forty years should be anxious to impress the visitor with
-what they have grown to believe is the fact--that the city is growing
-very fast. With all my admiration for New Zealand and her institutions,
-I must say that as far as growth is concerned she appears to me almost
-at a standstill, especially when compared with provincial towns at home
-which might be named by the score. I should not have mentioned this
-but that every one with whom I converse seems to be under the same
-curious misapprehension, based I suppose upon the fact that they have
-lived here so long, or have only travelled to similar or even smaller
-places that they know every brick and plank in the place, and watch the
-erection of each new edifice, however tiny, with an almost parental
-solicitude.
-
-The railway runs from here to Wellington, but except for places _en
-route_ is but little patronised, owing to the fact that in the
-splendid steamers which call here and are replete with every modern
-comfort the traveller may leave Napier late in the afternoon and be
-alongside the wharf at Wellington early in the morning--a method of
-travel which in a country where the inhabitants are as peripatetic as
-they are here, is of course immensely favoured. But as yet the harbour
-is not sufficiently commodious or safe to invite ocean-going liners,
-and considering the enormous expense which the making of an harbour in
-an unprotected roadstead (for Napier is nothing more) entails upon a
-very small population, I doubt very much whether the present generation
-or even the next will see one completed. It is to me a really
-marvellous thing how these tiny communities do shoulder burdens of this
-kind though, and an almost tragical interest attaches to the way in
-which such a painful mass of expenditure is sometimes wasted entirely.
-
-But I must bid farewell to pleasant, sunny Napier. It was Midwinter
-Day when I was there--the 21st of June--and the summits of the
-loftier ranges were lightly powdered with snow, but the air was mild
-and balmy, the sky cloudless, and the shade temperature at 9 a.m.
-52°--a delightful day, which I was earnestly assured was not at all
-exceptional, but rather the rule, in this sweet and equable land.
-I am extremely glad to have made Napier's acquaintance, but I feel
-that, in spite of its being in the most progressive land on earth,
-it is, like other places which I have visited lately, a spot where
-men take life easily, where nothing is strenuous except football and
-horse-racing--two sports which out here seem to constitute the chief
-business of life for the majority of the male population, speculation
-coming next, commerce next, and production last of all. If this
-judgment sound too severe, I have only to say that I have no prejudices
-at all, I merely record my impressions with an entirely unbiassed mind.
-
-We left Napier in the afternoon of this lovely day, skirting the
-coast at thirteen knots, to be reduced later on so as not to arrive
-in Wellington before daylight. We steam closely along the land, which
-everywhere presents the same rugged, irregular appearance of wooded
-ranges of hills, some of which indeed are high enough to be dignified
-by the name of mountains, these latter being now capped with snow.
-But I am not again likely to make the mistake of supposing that these
-rugged lands have no value, since I have learned their possibilities
-in sheep and timber, for both of which products New Zealand justly
-stands in the very front rank as regards quality. Nevertheless, I
-cannot help noticing that on this long stretch of coast between Napier
-and Wellington, there are only two tiny hamlets, there are scarcely
-any roads, nothing that could by any stretch of courtesy be called a
-harbour, and only a few little streams pouring their tribute into the
-Pacific Ocean. It is here, if anywhere, that the visitor realises the
-sparsity of the population, and by contrast the amount of energy that
-_must_ be concentrated somewhere in order to have made New Zealand
-the much-discussed country that she is. It is worthy of note that
-with great wisdom the Government of New Zealand have established
-a tourist department under the charge of a Cabinet Minister, the
-Postmaster-General, Sir Joseph Ward.[3] Under him, as general manager
-or agent, is Mr. Donne, who is given control of a very large sum
-for advertising purposes, in order to bring to the notice of the
-pleasure-seekers of the world generally the wonderful possibilities
-for sport and pleasure that New Zealand presents. Owing to wise
-precautions taken in stocking the country with game and fish, which
-have been, and are, most carefully protected, New Zealand is a thorough
-sportsman's paradise, red deer and fallow deer abounding, and trout
-of extraordinary size swarming in the lakes and rivers. There must be
-something amazingly congenial in the climate of this little wonderland
-to British game, whether fish, fur, or fowl. For the trout especially,
-which having been brought here from home or from Canada, in the form
-of ova, are now often caught up to a weight of 20 lbs., while other
-game is equally hearty and plentiful. The Government issues licences
-to shoot and fish at a very cheap rate, and the restrictions are only
-against indiscriminate slaughter or wanton destruction of any kind.
-
-Then the natural beauties of the country--its fjords like those of
-Norway, its Alps like those of Switzerland, its geysers and hot springs
-like those of Yellowstone Park--are extremely fascinating, while
-an additional charm is lent by the fact that all these wonders are
-easy of access, are at no great distance from each other, and that
-the charges are everywhere extremely moderate and the accommodation
-is exceptionally good. As indeed it must be, for the hand of the
-Government is extended over all in paternal care, and ill would it
-fare with any hotelier's prospects who should by rapacity or neglect
-of his guests do anything to hinder their efforts to make New Zealand
-a popular pleasure-ground. Then perhaps the greatest charm of all
-is the delightful climate. Even in midwinter, except in the extreme
-south, it can hardly be called cold, while in summer the climate is as
-nearly perfection as it can possibly be. The Union Steamship Company
-have also established a good service of steamers to the delightful
-South Sea Islands, with all their manifold charm, and Tonga, Fiji,
-or Samoa can be reached in a few days from Auckland through shining,
-slumberous seas and velvet nights, until, upon those Lethean shores,
-the peace of perfect rest descends to the wearied man or woman almost
-crushed out of existence by the mill-wheels of civilisation. Owing to
-the wise and fostering care of the Government of New Zealand of its
-oversea communications, it has, in spite of its Antipodean distance
-from the Old World; of its being, as it were, the very last outpost of
-civilisation on the confines of the globe, a splendid choice of routes
-thither, and by one of these routes, the dearest but certainly the
-most interesting, Auckland may be reached in well under a month from
-London. That is the route _viâ_ New York, San Francisco, and Honolulu.
-For those who prefer to take the Australian Continent on their way and
-touch the East also _en route_, there are the Orient-Royal Mail, P. &
-O., and other lines according to choice, but at practically the same
-rates, while to others who have plenty of time and no objection to a
-long sea journey, there is offered an economical route in magnificent
-ocean steamers of the largest size either direct by New Zealand
-Shipping Company or Shaw Savill and Albion Line, or _viâ_ Australia by
-half a dozen lines running thither round the Cape. In the former case
-the journey is made in about six weeks--a sumptuous rest cure for those
-who are good sailors; in the latter of course another week must be
-added in order to reach New Zealand from either Melbourne or Sydney.
-
-But I have said enough to indicate my belief that as a relief from the
-so-called pleasure-grounds of Europe with their terrible expensiveness
-and nerve-racking pleasures, it is a change of the most perfectly
-delightful and health-giving kind to pay our Antipodean brethren a
-visit, remembering that in these days of luxurious ocean travel the
-distance is, as Mr. Micawber said with less truth, merely imaginary.
-
-FOOTNOTE:
-
-[3] Now (1907) Prime Minister.
-
-
-
-
-XVII
-
-THE CAPITAL OF WONDERLAND
-
-
-At daylight I came on deck to witness the steamer's arrival at
-Wellington. I have often heard many hard things about the capital
-of New Zealand. How, for instance, it was so subject to tremors of
-the unstable earth that no buildings could be erected save of the
-flimsiest character, how every day was evil, in that gales of wind
-were the rule and fine weather the rarest exceptions, while rain was
-almost a permanent feature of the atmospheric conditions. All of which
-statements were, of course, exaggerated, but still I felt must have a
-certain basis of truth; and I wondered why. This morning I know, and
-although I gladly admit the exaggeration, I feel fully persuaded that
-Wellington, despite its truly splendid harbour, is hardly used in the
-matter of climate. It lies at the foot of a closely investing range
-of high hills, the other sides of which are exposed to the full fury
-of the brave westerly winds which sweep around the world, only just
-deflected slightly by two outlying points of the South Island, Cape
-Farewell and D'Urville Island. Consequently the immense amount of
-moisture brought across the mighty Southern Ocean finds a congenial
-arrestment by the hills on whose eastern slopes Wellington lies, and
-the fierce squalls which sweep through the streets are only what
-will always be experienced on the lee side of high lands. Then, too,
-Wellington lies in the direct line of the backbone of New Zealand,
-the mountain chain which, with hardly a break, extends through its
-whole length from north to south, or, more correctly, from NNE. to
-SSW.; which, in view of the fact that this is essentially a volcanic
-country, will, I think, sufficiently account for Wellington's liability
-to seismic disturbance. At the same time it must be remembered that of
-late years these terrifying vibrations of the earth's crust have been
-so few and feeble here as to encourage the erection of substantial
-buildings, all of which, however, have been put up with the greatest
-possible attention to such details of structure as may be expected to
-minimise as much as possible any earthquake effects.
-
-Fortunately my first view of Wellington was a favourable one. The
-weather was fine but overcast, still, although the sun was hidden,
-the air was clear, and I was able to take in the details of the grand
-land-locked harbour, the really splendid system of wharfage, and the
-imposing appearance of the buildings, which came right down to the
-wharves themselves. But I was, I remember, also impressed by the fact
-that Wellington looked cramped for room, and I was not at all surprised
-to hear, as I had been at Auckland, that an enormous amount of this
-crowded foreshore was reclaimed land, won back from the sea by an
-enormous expenditure of capital and labour, and returning a very high
-percentage upon the outlay. As in recent places which I have visited,
-but in a more restricted sense, Wellington appears from the bay like a
-town on sufferance, incapable of being extended in any direction save
-seaward, which extension has, of course, severe limits. But I learn
-without surprise that the surrounding hills are gradually being taken
-up for suburban residences, for the electric car takes little account
-of hills, and Wellington has a very fine system indeed, exactly like
-our own at home.
-
-The business aspect of Wellington, especially as regards its
-shipping, is so striking as to make it difficult indeed to realise
-that its population is less than 60,000, or a quarter less than that
-of Auckland. The wharves here have an enormous area, and such monster
-ships as those of the White Star Line and New Zealand Shipping Company,
-that is to say vessels up to 12,000 tons register, lie at these
-wharves and load quite comfortably, while the position is so easy of
-access and so sheltered that vessels may come and go at any time of
-the day or night. This is the great distributing centre for the whole
-of New Zealand, most advantageously placed, geographically speaking,
-and with its people most keenly alert to extend their trade in every
-conceivable direction. Here may first be realised what a gigantic
-concern the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand has grown into from
-its very small and tentative beginnings about thirty-five years ago.
-It has now a fleet of fifty-five vessels, speedy, efficient, and well
-kept up; from vessels of nearly 6,000 tons gross register and 6,000
-horse-power, which carry the "all red" mails to Vancouver, and the
-scarcely less splendid steamers of the Intercolonial service, in one
-of which I shall presently be sailing--the _Manuka_, of 4,505 tons and
-4,500 horse-power twin screw--down to the few small vessels which act
-as feeders from the tiny outlying coast hamlets. This fleet, which
-is almost essentially a coastal one, has a total tonnage of 112,540
-tons, which is not surpassed by any similar service in the world with
-the sole exception of the British India. And there the comparison is
-manifestly unfair, since quite a large proportion of the B.I. fleet
-are ocean liners in the fullest sense of the term. It is nothing
-short of marvellous how so small a country as regards population
-should have developed so splendid a fleet out of its coastal trade and
-communications with Australia.
-
-I took a walk round the well-groomed, busy thoroughfares of Wellington
-as soon as I could get ashore, just for a casual glance in the few
-hours that I am to remain to-day. My next ship for a short and
-interesting trip to Picton and Nelson is the _Pateena_, of 1,212 tons
-and 2,000 horse-power, which is to sail at one o'clock; so that I must
-leave any detailed remarks about Wellington for my return here, when I
-hope to spend a few days. I note, in passing, that the city seems to be
-as yet completely dazed by the shock of Mr. Seddon's death, but that,
-I think, is because yesterday the public funeral was carried out, and
-the remains of New Zealand's idol were laid away to their long rest.
-
-Getting tired, I returned to the wharf and boarded my new ship to
-enjoy the spectacle of a couple of large steamers getting away in
-truly British fashion, that is without fuss or bawling, but as if the
-movements of the ship were directly controlled and regulated from the
-brain of the master. It was a beautiful sight, and it was hardly over
-before our ship also glided away from the wharf, and in a quarter of
-an hour was outside the harbour heading directly across Cook's Straits
-for the wonderful series of fjords which must be navigated in order to
-reach Picton. Then I became aware of one of the main difficulties of
-our modern navigation. Here is a man charged with the care of (on an
-average) 200 lives, to say nothing of property, who from week end to
-week end never gets more than three hours' continuous rest. By day the
-intricate navigation of these wonderful sounds and bays is severe; at
-night, in fogs, in gales, and pelting rain the strain is terrible. And
-it is incessant. Talk about business strain! Wherein does it compare
-with this? To the thinking man the spectacle of this overwrought son
-of the sea in such a position of authority, watching lynx-like each
-headland as it looms like some glooming cloud upon his view, making
-mental combinations of the direction and force of the tides according
-to the time of day (or night, for people ashore do not understand that
-the maritime day counts twenty-four hours) taking into the hotchpot the
-age of the moon, and withal to combine these facts with the temporary
-contingencies of wind and weather, is fraught with deepest wonder that
-any man should be equal to it at all. Yet these men are, and by the
-universal rule that those who do the most get the least are always
-in what are subordinate positions. Although it must be admitted that
-compared with our coasting skippers at home such men are well paid. Yet
-no pay can compensate any man for such a wreckage of manhood as must
-result from the incessant strain of such a life. It is more than flesh
-and blood can stand.
-
-I did not see the worst part of it going out, because at Picton I went
-fishing in the dark, and got so tired that I slept through the passage
-of the French Pass, in the anticipation, too, that I would see it on
-my return. So when I awoke in the morning the _Pateena_ was stopped
-off what I find every one here imagines to be a phenomenon of unique
-quality, the Boulder Bank. It is a natural bank of pebbles nicely
-graduated from fine sand at the water's edge up to the huge pebbles
-weighing a couple of hundredweight at the summit of the ridge and
-stretching parallel to the foreshore of the port of Nelson. It begins
-far beyond the limits of the port, having indeed a total length of
-eight miles or thereabouts, and has, hitherto, compelled all vessels of
-any size entering the port to wait for tide in order to get round its
-extremity and between a curious outlying rock perched upon a bunch of
-reefs of the most dangerous character. Now, however, the harbour board,
-greatly daring, have cut through the natural bank at a spot nearly
-opposite to the town and speak of having a channel deep enough to
-bring in ships like the _Athenic_ and the _Corinthic_ of 12,000 tons.
-_Nous verrons._ I hope their enterprise will bear fruit, for here, as
-elsewhere, the expense of such works falls with tremendous weight upon
-a population, all told, of some 9,000 souls.
-
-Now comes the joke. This "Boulder Bank," as they call it, is an almost
-exact replica of the Chesil Beach, which extends from Portland to
-Weymouth, or _vice versâ_, according to which way you look at it. In
-the composition of the Bank itself there is absolutely no difference
-from that of Portland, but in direction and situation there is a great
-dissimilarity. Chesil Beach runs directly seaward from Weymouth in a
-very slight curve, having at its Channel end the English Gibraltar,
-Portland Bill. As most people know at home, the naval haven of Portland
-has been constructed by running a massive breakwater from Portland to
-the western horn of Weymouth Bay, or to leeward of the Beach, with two
-small openings almost like dock entrances without gates thereto. In
-Nelson, as I have mentioned, the beach runs parallel with the shores
-of the port, and the authorities have cut through the beach itself at
-a point nearer to the wharves already built, in order to bring the big
-oversea ships in for such modicums of cargo as there are to give them.
-
-Nelson is a typical New Zealand coast town. Its streets are wide, its
-buildings humble, and the ranges shut it in to its little foothold on a
-foreshore. Its growth is imperceptible. It seems hardly credible that,
-remembering the natural advantages of Nelson that after over half a
-century of enjoyment of these natural privileges it should still remain
-so small and feeble in point of population. Yet the fact remains, and
-it is due to the same causes to which I have so often adverted, that
-I hardly dare to recur to them again, the determination not to have
-anybody come here who has only his labour to sell. That is beginning
-to change, but in spite of the progressive legislation in labour
-questions, for which New Zealand is famous the world over, the Labour
-member and the labourer already established in a comfortable position
-looks sourly upon any proposition to introduce a competing element
-whether of his own blood or alien. And as far as I can see it will ever
-be thus with Socialistic schemes, so called, because they never seem
-to realise the _individual_ factor. And until they do every form of
-legislation adopted is bound to be a failure, as all such schemes must
-fail which run in opposition to the fixed laws of nature.
-
-One feature of all these New Zealand and Australian towns always
-strikes a stranger from England at once--the number of huge telegraph
-posts through the streets, laden with telegraph and telephone wires.
-No matter how small the town may be, these great mast-like posts bear
-their complex burden, for the telephone is a necessary of life here as
-it is in America. Indeed this particular feature reminds a visitor who
-knows both countries, of the United States, except that out here the
-people show their British love for order and neatness by having the
-posts neatly squared or rounded and painted, while the Americans, even
-in quite large cities, are content to have the rough tree with just the
-bark off, and sometimes not even that. Nelson, small and sleepy as it
-seems to be, is no exception to the general rule, but it has puzzled
-me more than a little to understand what use can possibly be made of
-all this network of wires. There does not seem business enough done to
-employ the half of them. Perhaps what business is done requires a much
-more liberal use of the telephone than is the case with us.
-
-
-
-
-XVIII
-
-A NATURAL MARVEL
-
-
-Many things might doubtless be written about Nelson which would be
-intensely interesting to people who live there, some indeed who, in
-spite of the absence of bustle and general air of ease, have managed
-to make comfortable fortunes there. Of its glorious climate I can
-unfortunately say nothing, having been favoured during my stay of
-five days with exceptionally cold and very wet weather, which you are
-always told in such places is something unknown, even to the oldest
-inhabitant. But I have no doubt from its beautiful sheltered position
-that Nelson must for most of the year enjoy a climate almost ideally
-perfect, and a strong proof of this is to be found in the establishment
-there of several higher grade schools or colleges for both sexes, to
-which I am told parents send their children from all over New Zealand.
-It has, however, one eminently undesirable feature, such as I have
-noticed nowhere else in New Zealand, a vast foreshore of unpleasant
-mud flats which are laid bare at low water, looking and smelling most
-unpleasantly. Of course, the daily lavation by the tides makes even
-this of no effect upon the health of the town, but it is curious,
-to say the least of it, that in a coast where steep-to shores are
-the rule--and it is quite common to get a depth of 50 fathoms almost
-touching the rocks--that this long stretch of shallows should have been
-formed. I put it down to the influence of the Boulder Bank; and perhaps
-some day when Nelson has grown, that mud flat will be reclaimed, as at
-Auckland and Wellington, and be worth much money for building upon.
-
-As the steamer in which I am to return to Wellington is fixed to
-leave in the middle of the day, I am looking forward with a great
-deal of interest to the return journey, because of the opportunity of
-witnessing the intricate navigation between here and Picton. For a
-slow steamer, unless under very favourable conditions, and for sailing
-vessels at all times, this route through the French Pass from Tasman
-Bay into Pelorus Sound is impossible. The passage is between D'Urville
-Island and the main South Island of New Zealand, which here forms
-a series of fjords and bays of great depth of water and wonderful
-picturesqueness. There is very little cultivable land, but as on
-the rest of the ranges I have hitherto mentioned, there is splendid
-pasture for sheep, which may be seen quietly grazing all over those
-desolate-looking hills. Many of the settlers' houses, nay, most of
-them in this locality, are right down on the foreshores of sheltered
-little bays, and the people find easy and swift communication with each
-other by water owing to the amazing spread of motor-boat industry.
-It is no exaggeration to say that the petrol motor for boats has
-caused a perfect revolution in travelling by water out here, there
-being hundreds of these neat, swift, and handy little vessels all
-round the coasts. Of course the great petroleum companies are largely
-responsible for this, in the same manner as the gas companies at home
-by introducing the penny-in-the-slot meter and free fittings have
-enormously extended the use of gas among the poorer of the people.
-These companies have made the acquisition of a petrol motor, which can
-be fitted to any ordinary boat at a very trifling expense, most simple,
-easy, and cheap, trusting to the increased sale of petrol for their
-profits. Again and again I have been compelled to notice the spread of
-the use of motor-boats throughout Australasia, especially for fishing
-purposes, but nowhere is this so marked as in New Zealand, for which
-country, with its deeply indented coast-lines and rugged land surface,
-this form of locomotion by water is particularly suitable. It is also
-found most useful for schooners and other small sailing craft, which by
-its aid are independent of towage in and out of harbour, and also on
-the failure of the wind at sea can, by starting the motor, make from
-three to five knots through the water in a dead calm.
-
-Viewed from a distance, the French Pass did not look particularly
-formidable; I judged it to be about two miles wide. But as we came
-nearer the captain pointed out to me that the actual passage was
-reduced to less than a quarter of a mile by the upheaving of rocky
-obstacles until at last the deep-water channel was limited, as I have
-said. On the two extremities of the reefs which form the "heads" of the
-pass there are erected beacons, on one of which there is a light of
-about four candle-power, I should think; at any rate, as the captain
-said, it looked as if you needed another light to see it by. The tide,
-coming in from the vast open Pacific, fretted and foamed and boiled
-through the narrow pass and over the adjacent rocks, the vessel being
-hurled forward over the ground at the rate of twenty knots an hour,
-her own speed being about fourteen. A fool could see how bad a place
-it would be for a slow ship or an ill-steering one, such having often
-been swept right round against the helm, perfectly unmanageable. And I
-shudder to think what this passage must be like with a westerly gale
-blowing, an enormous breaking sea on, and darkness over all. Yet it is
-done, and twice in twenty-four hours, too, by men who from week to week
-never have their clothes off except for a bath. Personally, I feel that
-it is utterly unfair to subject any man to such nerve-wrecking strain
-as that, especially when he has hundreds of lives depending upon his
-coolness, courage, and skill. Promotion to a long-distance clear run
-must seem to these sorely tried men like a change to Paradise.
-
-We had hardly dashed through the foaming, whirling pass into the smooth
-waters beyond when a motor-boat, or oil launch as they always call them
-here, darted out from behind a headland to intercept us. The engines
-were stopped, the visitor swung alongside, and in five minutes had
-cast off again, having hove half a ton of potatoes and some fish into
-us for the Wellington market, due to arrive there soon after daylight
-in the morning. Away we went again, the forecastle now being crowded
-with passengers to see what, I believe, is the most interesting and
-extraordinary sight in the world connected with natural history--the
-visit of Pelorus Jack. Prior to my coming here I had heard numberless
-stories about this strange sea-monster's ways (he is usually spoken of
-as a fish), but although I could not refuse to believe altogether, I
-confess I made many mental reservations until I should see for myself.
-Fortunately the day was fine, the sea smooth, and the light good, it
-being about four in the afternoon. And as we passed the point off
-which he is expected and nearly always seen, he joined us, taking up
-his station on the starboard bow, right alongside of the stem. The
-first sight of him was sufficient to determine what he was--_Grampus
-griseus_, one of the smaller whales of the _Orca_ species, whose colour
-is usually chocolate-brown, this one, however, being piebald, brown and
-grey in patches, which show him almost white when he is just beneath
-the surface of the sea. Now the ship was going fourteen and a half
-knots, yet that grampus maintained his position by her side with the
-utmost ease, only the slightest quiver of his tail being noticeable.
-Occasionally he changed his position from starboard to port, pausing
-for a few moments right ahead of the swiftly moving ship, then,
-dropping astern a few feet, he would cuddle up lovingly against her
-side, turning over as he did so, as if he enjoyed feeling her chafe
-against his body. When thus engaged he rolled over sideways, presenting
-his back to the ship's side, but never once exhibiting any energy, as
-does the porpoise when accompanying a ship. It was an amazing instance
-of power in locomotion, and I could not help feeling that if he had
-chosen to exert himself he could have made rings round the vessel,
-_i.e._, travelled at the rate of about thirty knots an hour.
-
-Now there are some facts recorded about this wonderful sea mammal that
-are of keenest interest. No other creature of his kind has ever been
-seen in these waters. He is of so quaint an appearance that the many
-thousands who have observed and snapshotted him--including, of course,
-mariners from every sea--all say that they have never seen his like
-before. That is, of course, in colour and habits. I have seen rorquals
-come and chafe the barnacles off their huge bodies against a ship lying
-becalmed, but never come near a ship in swift motion. And there are
-men who have been on this coast for half a century who aver that they
-always have seen him; he seems to be a permanent institution. Nay,
-more stories are told by the Maories, as well authenticated as such
-stories can ever be, that he has been known as long as their verbatim
-history extends. I do not profess to believe that he is immortal, but
-as we know nothing practically of the longevity of whales, it does
-not do to be too sceptical. What I do know I have told, and it is,
-I think, sufficiently marvellous to be entirely disbelieved by the
-average person as savouring of a sea yarn. I can only add that he
-remains with the vessel for the space of twenty minutes or half an
-hour, during the whole of which time, by day or night, he is in plain
-sight of any who choose to look over the bows. At the conclusion of
-his visit he departs, as he came, in a straight line for the shore. It
-is said that he was once injured by one of the regular steamers, or by
-some one on board of her, and that since then he has never been near
-that particular ship. This may be true, and I confess it does not seem
-to be a more wonderful instance of animal instinct than what I have
-myself witnessed, but it is not necessary to believe it in order to
-appreciate fully the strangeness of this natural history phenomenon.
-There are several photographs of him on sale in the form of postcards,
-and on them it is stated that he is the only "fish" in the world that
-is protected by Act of Parliament. That, I find, is an accretion of
-imagination. There is a resolution of the New Zealand Parliament on
-record to the effect that he ought not to be molested by any one, but
-no special legislation exists. His dimensions are about fourteen feet
-long by six feet in girth at the thickest part of the body, behind the
-pectoral fins or forearms.
-
-As the shades closed down upon us we skirted closely the bold and
-rugged headlands of that picturesque coast and entered Queen Charlotte
-Sound, a deep fjord or indentation at the innermost point of which lies
-Picton, a tiny town of about 1,000 inhabitants, connected by railway
-with Blenheim, another similar place. Not having been privileged to see
-it, on either of my visits, in daylight, I can say nothing about its
-appearance except that there is a fine substantial wharf, and that as
-far as its accessibility by water and shelter for vessels is concerned,
-it may safely challenge comparison with the whole world. But it has
-no growth, does not appear likely to have, for reasons which I did
-not care to go into, but which I shrewdly suspect are much like those
-applying to other stationary towns out here--dearth of population and
-consequent paucity of production and utilisation of the great natural
-resources of the land. In this connection I may note that I have just
-seen, with intense surprise, that the New Zealand Government are
-advertising extensively in the United States for English-speaking
-farmers to come here and take up land; and I wonder why this should
-be so, in face of the oft-repeated assertions of love for the
-Mother-country which has so many of her citizens unemployed and eager
-to make their homes in new lands under the old flag. It is on a par,
-I suppose, with a series of paragraphs which I saw here in one of the
-papers the other day upon the discovery of oil in New Zealand. There
-had apparently been inquiries on the part of the agents of the American
-octopus, Rockefeller, and some people were indignant at the idea of
-"Standard Oil" getting a footing in a free country like New Zealand.
-But the editor of the paper in question suggested that it would be a
-very good thing for the stock-holders, and, anyhow, whether they liked
-it or not, the Standard Oil Company could compel them to sell their
-property or prevent them from selling their oil! Unpleasant reading
-that for free people of the British race!
-
-Daylight saw the _Pateena_ steaming up Wellington Harbour again to her
-snug berth at one of the fine wharves, and there, opposite to her, lay
-the splendid steamship _Manuka_, twin screw, 6,000 tons gross, looking
-more like some grand ocean liner than any coasting vessel. I was glad
-to find that I had been able to catch her, and thus travel in her down
-to Dunedin, although it reduced my stay to a few hours only, as before.
-Nevertheless, I was able to get about a bit and note some of the more
-obvious improvements in the city. It was rather ominous, however, to
-note, as I did in the case of one large building in course of erection,
-the structural precautions necessitated by the extreme possibilities
-of earthquake shock. I feel that nothing could induce me to settle
-comfortably in any spot, however beautiful otherwise, where at any hour
-I might find my own abode and the adjacent buildings tumbling about
-like houses of cards before a strong breath. Yet in how many parts of
-the world is this indifference to one of the most terrible calamities
-that can befall humanity to be witnessed! It is a curious phase of the
-influence of hope upon man.
-
-
-
-
-XIX
-
-NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING
-
-
-Wellington has certainly, as far as my experience of it goes, been
-grossly maligned for its weather. To-day is again as nearly perfect
-as possible, and that, I remember, in midwinter out here. I have had
-another pottering day such as I love about the city and its environs,
-and among my experiences has been a visit to the suburbs _viâ_ a sort
-of funicular railway, a cable-car running up the side of a steep hill
-starting from a tunnel, the entrance to which is in a back street
-only to be found by the initiated. The service is frequent and swift,
-and the journey to the summit and back well worth the taking, if only
-for the beauty and comprehensiveness of the view. It compels me to
-admit that beautiful as other parts of New Zealand undoubtedly are,
-the capital has charms peculiarly its own, especially now that the
-ingenuity of man has overcome the difficulties of transit.
-
-Looking down from the great height to which the cable-car has carried
-us, the panorama spread out before our eyes is full of beauty, and
-without going back one word on what I have said of the glories of
-Sydney and Auckland Harbours, I gladly admit that Wellington has no
-reason to be ashamed. She has a harbour that the proudest nation in
-the world might well envy for its capital. It is, as I have before
-had reason to say, immensely difficult to realise, looking down upon
-that splendid series of wharves, with its thronging ships of the
-largest size, that I am in a city of less than 60,000 inhabitants,
-the capital of a country whose total population is less than that of
-three of our London boroughs. It is, of course, only to be accounted
-for by remembering that here we have a selected population whereof
-every adult unit is of account. There are neither unemployed nor
-unemployable paupers or pauperising agencies. Intensely Socialistic as
-is the legislation, it must be accounted unto them for righteousness
-that they do not tolerate the loafer, the workshy, and the unfit. They
-do not make the mistake which our Socialists do at home, of fostering
-and coddling the parasites of the proletariat at the expense of their
-fellows who _will_ work, and scorn to accept doles from anybody while
-able so to do. It is impossible to imagine out here the spectacle of
-able-bodied men being driven to pauperism because they see so clearly
-that it pays better than work.
-
-Now the _Manuka_ is ready to start, and I am charmed by the manner in
-which this huge steamer is manipulated in truly British fashion--_sans
-bruit_, as the admiring Frenchman says. Hardly a sound is heard as she
-slips away from the wharf, and in a space little larger than herself
-is turned around and headed for the open sea. A delightful discovery
-has dawned upon me since travelling upon this coast, which is that the
-fine fleet of the Union Company and Messrs. Huddart, Parker & Co. are
-largely, if not entirely, officered and engineered by the native-born:
-if not exactly native-born, then brought out here so young that they
-are to all intents and purposes New Zealanders. Is this not as it
-should be? and should it not teach us a lesson at home, if we could
-learn a lesson, which seems doubtful as far as the Merchant Service is
-concerned, how good and useful and profitable a thing it is to have
-our most important trade in the hands of our own people? If only our
-clamorous so-called Free Traders at home could be brought to see the
-extent of the evil they are permitting in allowing the enemy--that is,
-the foreigner--to get his molluscan grip upon all our industries while
-our own best blood is being driven out of the country! No such mistake
-is being made here, although, of course, plenty of other mistakes are
-made, which is only natural.
-
-I have wandered about this beautiful ship until I feel quite
-happily familiar with her, and I have finished up with a tour of
-her engine-room under the guidance of a chief engineer, a native of
-Port Chalmers, Otago. She is up-to-date in every detail, possessing
-everything in the nature of machinery to enable her to take a position
-in any ocean line whatever. In fact, she exemplifies the peculiar
-genius of the Scotch who, while keen to economise to the ultimate
-baubee, never begrudge the most lavish outlay which makes for
-efficiency and durability. I am quite proud to be a passenger by such
-a coasting steamer, and yet I am assured that the new ones now being
-built for the same trade are far ahead of her in every way. But then
-I learn that this Company, far away at the under side of the world,
-have in several matters of ship-owning been pioneers, owning the first
-steel steamer, the _Rotomahana_, whose experiences on a reef of rocks
-showed how vastly superior steel was to iron for shipbuilding, owning
-the first ocean-going turbine steamship, the _Loongana_, of twenty
-knots, presently flying between Melbourne and Launceston, Tasmania,
-and running their ships at present with 95 per cent. of British crews,
-while aiming steadily at their ideal, which is to have them all British.
-
-It was an evil night, cold and drizzling rain with strong landward
-gale, so I did not stay on deck late, but retired to my spacious
-cabin, feeling certainly that I should be awakened at Lyttleton. And
-it was even so. When the steward brought my tea and fruit at 6.30 he
-informed me that she was alongside--a fact of which my senses had
-before apprised me. The weather was still coarse and blustering, the
-high hills which hem in the deep bay of Port Cooper, at the inward end
-of which has been formed the snug and secure harbour of Port Lyttleton,
-being covered with dense mist, and everything being especially cold
-and cheerless. When I was here before the majority of the ships lay
-out in the bay, in a somewhat exposed position, with a gale from the
-eastward. But even then they did their discharging and loading on
-the inner side of the infant breakwater, where they were perfectly
-sheltered and served by the railway which ran along the breakwater, but
-they were only usable by small vessels, such as the coasting steamers
-of the Union Company then were. Now I saw, with some considerable
-surprise, that not only has the original breakwater been nearly doubled
-in length, curving round in front of the town, but another arm has
-been extended from the opposite shore, so that the two now embrace a
-deep-water area as secure as a dock, within which great wharves and
-piers have been erected capable of accommodating vessels of the largest
-size. Close to us, at wharves where in my day only vessels of 400 or
-500 tons could lie, were the _Oswestry Grange_ and _Turakina_, two
-10,000-ton steamers of the Federal and New Zealand Shipping Company
-lines respectively. There were five or six of the Union Company's
-steamers and one or two small sailing craft, but not one representative
-of the old sailing ships that used to be such a feature of the port
-thirty years ago.
-
-The feature that I have so frequently noted as characteristic of most
-New Zealand ports, viz., that of nestling at the foot of the ranges on
-a little ledge of foreshore, is especially noticeable at Lyttleton,
-which town looks so absolutely cramped for room that the houses in many
-cases seem to be clinging to the sides of the encompassing hills. The
-latter, too, look higher than usual, but that perhaps is because of
-their nearness to the bay. But long ago the energetic colonists of the
-province of Canterbury took the bold step of tunnelling through that
-lofty range and connecting Port Lyttleton with the great area of level
-country beyond, the far-famed Canterbury Plains upon which the city of
-Christchurch is built. In certain parts of the city on a clear day I
-have been bidden to look away off at the ranges eighty miles away over
-a level plain no part of which was ten feet above high-water mark, and
-yet it was not boggy or swampy. So I should say that Christchurch was
-probably more favourably situated than any other New Zealand town when
-all the requirements of a town are taken into consideration.
-
-As to the appearance of Christchurch architecturally, I confess I
-was disappointed. Of course I know that the day was vile as regards
-its weather, and no place will look well in drizzling rain and
-driving gale. But still, I saw that the usual mean wooden buildings,
-interspersed with pretentious edifices of stucco-covered brick, were
-here, as in Wellington and Auckland, the regular style, and I was
-disappointed, because I had great hopes of Christchurch developing into
-a fine modern city when I was here before, and it seems to me (I hope
-its citizens will forgive me for saying so, but I don't suppose they
-will) to have become somewhat slipshod and down-at-heel in appearance.
-But, as I say, I had no fair opportunity of viewing it as a whole, and
-what I did see was a bird's-eye view at the best, my visit only lasting
-a few hours _en route_ to Dunedin.
-
-We left the harbour at about five o'clock in the usual quiet, easeful
-fashion, despite the weather, I being mightily struck by the manner in
-which this 6,000-ton steamship was turned round in a space less than
-twice her own length without the aid of a single spring or warp, or a
-sound being heard save the occasional clang of an engine-room gong, and
-the deep sob of the propellers. It was a fine piece of ship-handling,
-and when she pointed out between the closely confronted ends of the
-breakwater and sped seaward, I retired below, glad I had witnessed
-it but conscious that I had gotten chilled through by the inclement
-weather while thus deeply interested. So I went early to bunk, knowing
-that at daylight again she would be off the well-remembered Taiaroa
-Heads, the entrance to Port Chalmers Harbour, and felt that I must be
-on deck to see her going in round the spit. Surely at dawn the next
-morning I came on deck to face a wind bitter as any North-easter at
-home--a searching, cutting blast, sending the spume flying high over
-the long sand-bank that blocks the entrance to Port Chalmers Harbour,
-all but a narrow, curving channel of deep water close under the high
-land of the Heads, which seems terribly restricted for such vessels
-as do negotiate it. To enter it is necessary to make a complete
-half-circle, and keep within very narrowly restricted limits--almost
-as narrow, indeed, as when entering a dock, but under far severer
-conditions as regards ship-handling. Bor! but it _was_ cold. I used
-to pride myself upon my indifference to cold, but this morning has
-searched me out so that I could hardly endure to stay on deck while the
-big ship ploughed steadily up the harbour and around the end of the
-sand-spit across the front of the pretty little port where thirty-two
-years ago the fine, big sailing-ships of Patrick Henderson & Co., New
-Zealand Shipping Company, and Shaw, Savill, used to lie thickly during
-the season. It looked so deserted now, so lonely, for since then the
-narrow and almost unnavigable channel up to Dunedin has been dredged
-and buoyed so that ships of almost any size can be brought up to the
-city wharves. But without a pause she swung round Flagstaff Hill, and
-held her way steadily onward until we reached the city front with its
-great extent of wharfage, and a big Shaw, Savill liner, the _Karamea_,
-was lying cosily alongside her berth, and was secured at once, while
-just a few carriers and cabmen asked for hire, without, however, any
-bustle or fuss, because it was Sunday morning. I walked ashore, and
-just glancing around at the many alterations in the front of the city
-that have been effected since last I saw this place, made my way up to
-where I had elected to put up during my stay.
-
-It was a most pleasant change from all my late experiences in this
-thriving Antipodean Colony. I always have borne kindly recollections
-of Dunedin, as of all the Australasian ports I used to know seemed to
-fill the requirements of the mind as carrying on the traditions of
-the Mother-country; and verily there was no disillusionment. It was
-as it had been, only more so. No sham buildings here. Massive stone
-edifices of a fine type of architecture, and where brick had been used,
-as in the General Post Office, it was honest, good work, not at all
-pretentious or hiding itself under a flimsy veil of cracked stucco,
-but reminding me forcibly of the sturdy fashion of the Midland Railway
-Company's buildings at home, good red brick, well-pointed, with white
-stone facings and parapets, not needing to be ashamed by comparison
-with any other erections around. In that comprehensive glance, I saw
-that Dunedin had maintained her high promise in youth as regards her
-buildings, and whatever had been done since was surely in keeping. The
-streets were beautifully paved; there were many well-laid electric-car
-lines, and I noticed that up the sides of the steep, encircling hills
-there were cable-car lines running, enabling the citizens who lived in
-the suburbs to gain their homes with great ease and little expense.
-I saw that Dunedin was a city of which none of her citizens need be
-ashamed, and I was very glad. Moreover, although this southern part of
-New Zealand has an unenviable reputation as regards weather at this
-time of the year, the drizzle cleared away, and the sun came out,
-showing up the grand buildings clearly and pleasantly.
-
-
-
-
-XX
-
-SOME POLITICAL REFLECTIONS
-
-
-Here, as elsewhere in New Zealand, I am astounded at the paucity
-of the population when looking around upon what has been done. It
-seems impossible that this beautiful city with its environs has less
-than 60,000 inhabitants. According to appearance it should have been
-200,000; but there are the figures, and no amount of manipulation can
-alter them. I am told that the bulk of the trade of Wellington is
-carried on by Dunedin merchants, and certainly, judging by the names
-I saw over the principal mercantile buildings in Wellington, there
-would appear to be much truth in the assertion. That, however, will not
-explain why this wonderful little city still deserves the diminutive.
-It is, as I have elsewhere noted, the headquarters of the most compact
-and go-ahead coasting Steamship Company in the world--a Company, too,
-that is launching out now in directions that will make it anything but
-a coasting concern. Of course everybody (to use a colloquialism) knows
-that Otago is preeminently a Scotch Colony, but if the visitor did
-not know that, and had been an observant globe-trotter, he would at
-once perceive on arrival here that the Scotch passion for solidity and
-permanence of buildings so manifest in all Scotch towns, is abundantly
-in evidence here.
-
-But perhaps I have said enough to show that the small southern city
-of Dunedin, hidden away in the far, mysterious South, has no need, as
-far as her experience and institutions are concerned, to be ashamed of
-her origin. She has indeed kept the flag flying. There is, however,
-one matter that is of great importance and may, indeed, have had
-considerable influence in delaying her growth. She possesses a splendid
-harbour in appearance, but its navigability is of a very low order.
-The entrance at Taiaroa Heads is so tortuous and narrow that it is an
-exceedingly difficult matter to get these modern big steamships in or
-out. Also the channels available for such vessels within the harbour
-are so restricted, and have such sharp curves, that the risk of taking
-huge ships through them are exceedingly great even up to Port Chalmers,
-one-half the distance from the city. The enterprise of the citizens
-has succeeded in so deepening the remaining portion of the harbour up
-to the city from Port Chalmers that vessels of 8,000 tons may and do
-get up there, but it is an arduous task, and when they do arrive they
-see confronting them a low beach separating that part of the harbour
-from the Pacific; which leads even the most casual observer to the
-conclusion that a very short cutting, far less expensive than the
-incessant dredging of the present channel, should suffice to admit the
-largest ships to the city wharves direct from the sea without danger or
-delay.
-
-Here, again, we see the disabling, deterrent effects of a small
-population upon such improvements as this would be. Engineers make
-light of difficulties, which only exist in order to be overcome, but
-money in abundance must be had, and a small community must be taxed
-beyond bearing for a local improvement, which, when carried out, does
-not show an adequate return for so many years that the generation which
-achieved it may as well look upon it as money lost. You see it all
-comes back to the same starting-point--want of population. It is the
-crux of all questions out here, and to all appearance will still remain
-so. Very well; if the Colonists still are content to have it so, if the
-working class, which undoubtedly rules New Zealand now, is convinced
-that this condition is the best for them, I suppose it will so remain,
-and as to that they would probably say it is nobody's business but
-theirs. And there the visitor is compelled to leave it as long as he
-can; but it is ever present with him.
-
-There is another aspect of these thriving Colonies that will not be
-thrust aside. How utterly, abjectly, defenceless they are, if the
-protection of the Imperial Navy is withdrawn. Here we see a city as
-beautiful as a dream. Her foreshores are crowded with stately buildings
-of stone which would do credit to any country, however old. The
-romantic heights which embosom the city are dotted with pretty homes to
-which the citizens ascend by means of the cable-cars, and right away
-down to the verge of the Pacific on the level ground cast up for ages
-by the sea lie in hundreds the comfortable dwellings of the workers.
-It gives a patriot a thrill of horror to contemplate the fate of such
-communities as this in the easily imaginable event of the Motherland
-being so hardly bestead as to need every warship she possesses for,
-not merely the defence of her own shores, but the safe convoy of food
-to Great Britain. Should one swift cruiser of the enemy succeed in
-eluding the pursuit of the home defending squadrons, and get out here,
-it would be an easy and, alas! a congenial task, judging from what we
-are compelled to read in the organs of public opinion in Germany, for
-such a vessel to reduce these smiling centres of industry to heaps
-of smoking ruins without incurring the slightest risk. In the face
-of this awful and, I am bound to believe, imminent danger, what are
-the Colonies doing? Paying a subsidy to the support of the Imperial
-Navy which is nothing less than a puerile insult--£240,000 all told,
-of which amount New Zealand, with her amazing prosperity, contributes
-£40,000. It does not seem to occur to these Labour members, these
-devisers of Socialistic plans for the benefit of their own class, that
-it is of little use to make a list of ideal conditions of life if they
-take no steps to protect the people who enjoy that life. The plain fact
-is that the whole of the Australasian Colonies are living in a fool's
-paradise in regard to this matter, and pay no heed whatever to the
-spectacle of the anticipating Teuton licking his lips as he thinks of
-the fat prizes that will presently fall to his prowess and the results
-of his forethought. As I have ventured to point out to them again, if
-only they would tax themselves in the same measure as we at home do,
-say at the rate of £1 5s. per head per annum towards the acquirement
-and upkeep of a Navy it would mean a sum of at least £5,000,000 per
-annum, or in three years enough to account satisfactorily for any
-hostile European squadron that should dare to venture into these waters
-on piratical purposes intent.
-
-I do not care whether they acquire a purely Australasian Navy or
-subsidise a sufficiently powerful squadron of the Imperial Navy for
-Australasian defence. The thing is to prepare for the defence of this
-wonderful group of cities set on the borders of the Southern Seas,
-reared by men of our own race, Anglo-Saxon to the core, without more
-than a trace of that extraordinary mixture of breeds which is seen in
-the United States, making it the most polyglot population on earth,
-and filling the mind of the observer with intensest amazement at the
-interested cry of "hands across the sea" or of blood being thicker than
-water.
-
-There is something about Dunedin that appeals very strongly to the
-visitor fresh from home, and I think that something may be summed
-up in the word "weather." During the winter at any rate Dunedin can
-compete successfully with us in Britain in the matter of atmospheric
-uncertainty of conditions and disagreeableness. It is no uncommon
-thing to get five or six different samples of weather in almost the
-same number of hours, each vieing with the other which shall be most
-unpleasant. It is a strenuous climate, and it breeds strenuous folk as
-it always did, and therefore it is that Dunedin strikes the visitors
-from Britain as being homely. And when you take a trip by train, as
-I did, across the level plains of the Taieri bounded by snow-crowned
-hills, and watch the sheep standing in the sodden turnip rows stolidly
-munching away with their backs to the bitter blast and driving snow,
-you find it hard to realise that you are not journeying North from
-Euston or King's Cross to Scotland in midwinter, until you come upon a
-farmsteading and note that it is built of wood, or miss the hedgerows
-and walls that bound the tiny fields of home.
-
-There is another thing which I am bound to note in these impressions,
-and that is the apparent absence of rabbits in this country, which I
-have always been led to believe suffered from a veritable plague of
-these voracious prolific rodents. I pride myself upon missing nothing
-of consequence that passes within view as the train flits by, but I
-hereby solemnly declare that I have not yet seen a whole rabbit in
-this country. By which I mean that I have often eaten rabbit but have
-never seen a living one. I could not travel one-tenth of the distance
-in England that I have travelled here without seeing many rabbits and
-hares scampering across the well-tilled fields, and I have naturally
-felt very curious. Questioning such folks as I thought might know, I
-have received various answers such as that "You won't see them near the
-railway line" (why?) and "They don't show much in the daytime" (again
-why?); but the substance of it all seems to be that the rabbit-catching
-and exporting industries have been able to cope with what once was a
-pest so successfully that there is now a fear among a certain section
-of the up-country population that "rabbiting" will soon cease to be
-a lucrative employment. At any rate it appears certain that, without
-the importation of snakes or the inoculation by disease or any of the
-quaint schemes which were mooted in the legislative assemblies out
-here, the rabbit problem has been solved and does not now stand in the
-way of the South Island farmer raising lucrative crops.
-
-Here (between Christchurch and Invercargill) may be seen a wonderful
-stretch of agricultural land almost as level as a table, in many places
-forty miles wide, two or three hundred miles long. Often it extends
-to the sea from the snow-capped ranges of mountains which decorate
-the sky-line inland many miles away, again it assumes the nature of a
-wide valley bounded on either side by ranges of hills. It is beautiful
-land, and in many places it is well cultivated, but an enormous amount
-of it is still only used for feeding sheep, which seems a waste when
-the uncultivable ranges are so eminently fitted for that purpose. In
-other places the rivers which seek the sea from the mountains having
-so large a space of perfectly flat country to pass over have meandered
-sluggishly over very wide areas, creating deltas of barrenness by
-reason of the detritus they bring down with them. These great spaces,
-over which the railway passes on low trestles, just present a perfectly
-desert surface of grey gravel and pebbles where not a blade of anything
-green is growing, which seems unnatural, remembering the extremely
-fertile character of most riverine country. And I could not help
-thinking that if some steps were taken to confine these wandering
-streams to a single deep channel for each, that many great benefits
-would result to the land itself, which would soon become cultivable,
-and also a means of communication with the interior by water would be
-created. Such an improvement, however, seems as yet a very long way off.
-
-I am debarred at this present time from writing of Invercargill, the
-southernmost city of all British possessions, for I have not been able
-to get farther south than Gore, which, with a population of a small
-village, or about 2,000 souls, gives itself, with a sublime air of
-importance, the proud title of the "Chicago of the South." It would
-be ludicrous if it were not said in such deadly earnest, and yet when
-the visitor sees the energy and the up-to-date methods manifested by
-this tiny community, he is bound to take off his hat to its citizens.
-It is most brilliantly illuminated by electric light on tall standards,
-which would not shame any city in the world; nearly every house is also
-lit electrically and has its telephone; the streets are generously
-wide and mathematically straight; and the houses, although mainly of
-wood, are beautifully designed and most substantially built. Moreover
-Gore, like several other similar towns in the South Island, has decided
-by a majority of its citizens that it will not allow the sale of any
-intoxicant, and consequently there are no liquor saloons. Whoever feels
-that he needs stimulant of this kind may import it and keep it in his
-house, or give it away, but he may not sell it under a first penalty
-of £50, and on a second offence, three months' imprisonment without
-the option of a fine. Gore has just entered upon a second period of
-three years of "no licence," so presumably the citizens find it works
-satisfactorily, and undoubtedly the system is spreading. The visitor
-will be wise to offer no opinion upon the subject, seeing that it is a
-matter of purely local concern to a self-governing community.
-
-
-
-
-XXI
-
-NORTH AGAIN
-
-
-I am glad to have seen Gore and met its genial, hospitable citizens,
-but I am not sorry to get away, since during my stay a blizzard of
-great virulence has been raging. A tantalising kind of weather indeed.
-For occasionally there would be a burst of brilliant sunshine and the
-sky would look serene. Then with amazing celerity a black mass of cloud
-would arise from behind the ranges, overspread the sky, and burst upon
-us in a perfect hurricane of biting blast and blinding snow. But upon
-entering the train and starting for the north it was wonderful to see
-how rapidly we ran out of it into balmy, summer weather, until when we
-reached Dunedin we seemed to have entered another season altogether
-than winter, as fine a day indeed as heart could desire.
-
-I might just remark here that the New Zealand Government Railway
-rolling stock is all American, but the cars are of mixed type, some
-being like our corridor cars at home, only with the corridor wired at
-the side instead of being perfectly closed in like ours, and others of
-the open American type, seats on each side with a middle aisle. They
-are fairly comfortable, but the speed is slow, even on the express
-trains the pace is only about twenty-five miles an hour. The line
-is usually single and laid American fashion, that is, the rails are
-spiked down to the sleepers with hold-fast nails in a fashion that to
-us at home seems quite casual and temporary. The officials are genial,
-but being Government servants, which always seems to mean something
-different to public servants, they do not waste any time in superfluous
-civility, and they come down upon any hapless passenger who unwittingly
-infringes a bye-law with draconian severity. But with all that they are
-courtesy and gentleness personified when compared with the autocrats
-on the American railways, who actually resent savagely being spoken to
-civilly, and proceed to insult a passenger who is accustomed to speak
-to those whom he pays to serve him as he would like to be spoken to
-himself. Our Colonial brethren do not make that grim mistake, though
-quick to resent any needless assumption of superiority.
-
-It has been a great pleasure to renew my acquaintance with Dunedin,
-and to note the development of its shipping facilities, as well as
-the way in which the high character of the city architecturally and
-structurally has been maintained and developed, although the latter
-phase is much less important than I was prepared to find it. But
-principally I was interested in Port Chalmers, that idyllic spot for
-beauty of situation which has been left stranded, as it were, in its
-little nook by the passing of the traffic up the tortuous estuary to
-Dunedin. It is almost as it was when I last saw it, thirty-one years
-ago, in a state of arrested development. With the exception of three
-of the Union Company's steamers, which were lying there coaling, the
-port was deserted, instead of having quite a fleet of fine sailing
-ships such as used to lie at its wharves in my day. Such traffic as it
-has now is confined to the large steamers of Messrs. Shaw Savill, the
-New Zealand Shipping Company, and others which do manage to get up as
-far as this, but seldom venture up to Dunedin, as being too risky and
-involving besides too much loss of time. I really experienced all that
-sense of everything being dwarfed and mean, such as so often strikes a
-boy upon revisiting the scenes of his youth in some sleepy village or
-some small town after being away in the great world for years.
-
-The only change of any importance noticeable was that a fine new dry
-dock was being dug, which, I have no doubt, will be a very great boon
-to the big ships which call here, but I should think will be mainly
-used by the fine vessels of the Union Company. So I bade farewell to
-the pretty little old-fashioned place, with its lovely views over
-land and sea, and sped on over the railway towards Christchurch (it
-was being commenced when I was here thirty-two years ago) past the
-picturesque place where I once essayed farming--Purakanui--and catching
-occasional glimpses of beautiful bays, all silted up and worthless
-for navigation or shelter except by the smallest craft, to the
-thriving towns of Waitati, Oamaru, and Timaru. This is the unsheltered
-coast-line known as the ninety-mile beach, where the communication with
-the land depends upon the weather, but the richness and fertility of
-the great plain extending inland assures the prosperity of the towns
-studded along the harbourless shore.
-
-It is pleasant travelling, especially on a day like this, for the
-train although slow is very comfortable, and there is an excellent
-dining-car with good and plentiful food at a low rate compared with
-what is to be found in any other country in the Old World or America.
-And here I think it only just to say that wherever I have travelled
-out here I have found the same thing--the very best of food, plainly
-but excellently cooked and nicely served at a very low cost. I know
-that my ideas in the matter of food are considered to be old-fashioned
-and heterodox, but I cannot help that; my deliberate opinion is that in
-the matter of food which is honest and good without being ambitiously
-messy and ostentatiously disguised, the Antipodes can challenge the
-world. As far as food is concerned, it is like travelling from one home
-to another.
-
-The extent and fertility of this great plain, bounded on one side
-by the sea and on the other, far inland, by snow-capped ranges of
-mountains, is very impressive, and when occasionally the train pulls up
-at a thriving, bright town like Ashburton, and the traveller notes the
-neatness of the roads and comfortable appearance of the buildings, and
-the utter absence of squalor and grinding poverty, such as are, alas!
-too noticeable at way stations in America and in our own country, he
-feels a glow of satisfaction at being permitted to pass through such
-a land of plenty and of peace. And so we roll on into the thriving
-city of Christchurch, which is built entirely on the flat and is
-consequently not so picturesque or imposing as Auckland, Wellington,
-or Dunedin, but gives an impression of solid prosperity as well as of
-great extent, remembering always the number of its population.
-
-But I am _en route_ for Wellington, and my train is timed to catch
-the ferry-boat _Mararoa_, a 3,000-ton steamship of fifteen knots an
-hour, that, leaving Lyttleton (the port of Christchurch) at 5.30
-p.m., is timed to be in Wellington at daylight, or, say, about 6.30
-a.m., having in the meantime covered a distance of over 170 miles.
-She is a beautiful vessel, fit for any service in the world, but with
-the modesty generally attendant upon all such undertakings out here,
-the voyages which she and her sister ship, the _Rotomahana_, make on
-alternate days, are called the Wellington-Lyttleton ferry service. The
-only similar service that I can think of at present for distance and
-speed is the Fall River Line from Fall River to New York. But there
-is really no comparison possible. Those great top-heavy, gorgeously
-decorated vessels are obviously designed for service in sheltered
-waters, and are entirely unfit for a sea-voyage, while, for all their
-gingerbread decorations, I think meanly of the comfort they give for
-the money that is paid. However, as one is almost a lake service and
-the other must needs be prepared to encounter some of the worst weather
-in the world, it is, as I said, impossible to compare them.
-
-The train, halting a very brief space at Christchurch, speeds on
-through smiling suburbs until it enters the great tunnel under the
-mountain which shuts off Christchurch from the fine harbour of Port
-Cooper. It stops for a few minutes at Lyttleton town nestling on the
-foreshore, then runs right down alongside of the ship so that the
-passengers have merely to step from the railway car to the gangway of
-the fine steamer, which will presently slip out to sea, and, in the
-face of any weather, land them at the wharf at Wellington as soon as
-they have rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and got ready for business.
-
-And so with the rest I find myself at the capital city again, which,
-in strong contrast to the stormy South which I left the day before
-yesterday, lies bathed in golden sunshine, the air balmy as our summer,
-and the green, encircling hills with their cosy homes peeping out
-from the rich verdure, giving no hint that this is the winter-time.
-Truly a goodly land, well-favoured by nature, and in the hands of a
-people determined to keep its blessings as far as may be under their
-own control, unable to see any sense in following the example so
-persistently set them by the purblind people at home, of handing over
-its choicest benefits to the unthankful alien or the sneering inimical
-foreigner. It is of no use looking here for any specimens of that great
-and influential class at home who are the friends of every country
-but their own, and who, while professing to labour for the good of the
-people, persistently encourage the efforts of those without, who hate
-Britain and all her works, leaving no stone unturned to undermine her
-position in the world and reduce her to a dependency of their own.
-
-The work of the Wellingtonians in developing their city has been
-astounding. On my previous visit I noted the extension of the
-residential quarters of the city to the slopes of the encircling hills,
-but I did not dream of the extent to which this has been carried.
-It came as a positive shock to me to learn that land in this rugged
-country, which is really as picturesquely uneven as Switzerland,
-without, of course, the enormously high mountains closely guarding
-it, has increased in value within the last generation from almost
-nothing to a thousand pounds an acre! Of course, engineering science in
-getting cable and electric cars running up the precipitous slopes of
-these hills is largely responsible for this inflation of land values,
-but comparing these values with those obtaining at home within easy
-reach of our great business centres, I am filled with astonishment
-at the price of land in New Zealand. I am strongly inclined to think
-that there is something artificial and temporary in such prices,
-especially when you remember that upon such enormously expensive land
-buildings are erected that, although beautiful to look at and entirely
-in accordance with their romantic environment, are practically all
-of wood. Still wooden house building has reached a high level of
-excellence in Wellington. If you can shut your eyes to the material,
-you will find nothing to gird at in the quality of the houses or their
-interior finish. In a word, they are beautiful and comfortable as well.
-
-It is not often given to the citizens of an important city to be
-able to get from their offices in a few minutes to homes that occupy
-exquisitely beautiful points of advantage as regards scenery, and at
-the same time commanding an outlook of immense area over the sea and
-the harbour of their city. This is essentially the case in Wellington,
-and it is an advantage that is fully appreciated, judging from the
-extraordinary development that has taken place within the last few
-years. The amount of land available for the erection of business
-premises near the wharves was very little, but that has been rectified
-by reclamation, more evident here than anywhere else in New Zealand,
-where the extension of foreshores and their conversion into busy
-business thoroughfares is carried to a greater extent than anywhere
-else in the world. Here are to be seen splendid avenues of traffic,
-bounded on both sides by grand buildings, where a generation ago the
-sullen sea beat incessantly upon long, barren, shallow beaches. The
-aggregate cost of these great works has been enormous--phenomenal,
-when it is remembered how small are the numbers of the population that
-have achieved so great a result; but the returns from this enterprise
-have undoubtedly justified the keen foresight and business aptitude
-which has energised them as well as prompted the outlay. It is with no
-ordinary feeling of satisfaction that I here bear my tribute to the
-go-ahead qualities and the enduring work of these makers of the Britain
-of the South.
-
-
-
-
-XXII
-
-THE HEART OF THE NORTH ISLAND
-
-
-And now for a brief spell I have been privileged to go into the
-interior of the country, although, be it noted, the traveller never
-gets very far from the sea. I am to-day paying a visit to a town of
-which I have heard a great deal more than would at first sight seem
-to be warranted by the official numbers of its population. Palmerston
-North is on the great central plain, which is, equally with the South
-Island, a feature of the formation of New Zealand. There are two ways
-of getting there from Wellington. One direct by the privately owned
-Manawatu Railway, and the other circuitously by the State Line. And
-as travellers usually do not care to waste time, however much they
-may have on their hands, it follows that the privately owned line is
-extensively patronised. Its chief station in Wellington is not, to say
-the least of it, at all imposing, being only a collection of humble
-wooden buildings. But then all these Antipodean railways have followed
-the example set them by the Yankees in that they do not believe in
-spending overmuch money upon stations or permanent way, although, to do
-them justice, they are not nearly so casual in their arrangements as
-are the Americans, who seem to regard, in railway matters especially,
-expenditure such as we at home deem a necessity, sheer improvident
-extravagance. Another thing which I was sorry to see was that the
-rolling stock was exclusively American, with all the temporary features
-that implies. But this is, of course, purely a domestic matter in which
-a visitor from home has no right to interfere.
-
-I confess, however, that I was not prepared for the question put to
-me in the train to-day by a middle-aged gentleman who was the editor
-of a newspaper devoted to the farming interest. In all seriousness
-he asked me whether we had any dining-cars on the railways at home!
-I was compelled to ask him whether he was joking, but it appeared
-that he was quite sincere in his ignorance, and it then appeared in
-further conversation that he had a fixed idea that all our catering
-arrangements in England on the railways had been taught us by the
-Colonies. Now it is quite true that there was a good dining-car on
-this train, wherein was served a comfortable, well-cooked meal, but
-in all its appointments it was very far behind what we get upon any
-of the long-distance lines at home. And when I endeavoured to explain
-the difference between the train in which we were then travelling and
-a Great Northern or Midland express, he said, "Oh yes, but then you
-have the advantage of the broad gauge!" It was impossible to pursue the
-conversation at any length, because I could see that he did not believe
-a word I was saying, so I relapsed into a book.
-
-Now no one would dream of comparing the railways in a settled old
-country like Great Britain, where safety, permanence, and comfort of
-travelling are the main considerations and high speed is a necessity,
-with the first tentative efforts at railway communication in a new
-country where people are quite satisfied with an average speed of
-about fifteen miles an hour, and where, the line being single, it is
-necessary to wait at certain stations until the train bound in the
-opposite direction has passed. I am very glad indeed to say that the
-railways in New Zealand are well managed, the stations generally quite
-adequate and easy of access, and the refreshment business, on the
-prohibition principle, well attended to. But when I am calmly asked
-whether we know anything about railway management at home, I find it
-difficult to keep from making sarcastic remarks, as I do when I am told
-that agriculture in Britain is still generally conducted on the lines
-of reaping-hook or sickle and flail.
-
-Ah well, I suppose this curious state of mind will continually be
-found among those who have been bred or born in a new country, and I
-do not know that it does much harm. They are so inordinately proud of
-the progress they see that they cannot imagine anything being more
-up-to-date or go-ahead.
-
-The distance from Wellington to Palmerston North is about forty miles,
-and leaving there--Wellington--at 8 a.m. we arrive at 11.40, this being
-an express train, the next train leaving at 10.10 arrives at 4 p.m.
-The journey was not in any way remarkable, except for the occasional
-glimpses of great stretches of down land, literally covered with
-fallen, bleached trees, in many places so thick that they covered the
-whole ground. This is where the fire has been run through them, and is
-the preliminary process of making grazing land. But I could not help
-thinking that it was a sinful waste of timber, either for firewood or
-paper-making, and no attempt was being made to clear the land or to
-expedite in any way the process of its conversion into pasture. I
-ventured to ask several times whether nothing could be done with all
-that wood. I always received the same answer, "that it did not pay to
-cart it away for firewood, and as for dealing with it in any other way,
-well, labour was too dear." So it remained an eyesore and an hindrance.
-Occasionally, where the fallen trees were fewer in number, cattle were
-to be seen grazing between the trunks and apparently doing very well
-indeed. Where the land was quite clear, as on our Wiltshire and Sussex
-downs, there were plenty of sheep, all looking in splendid condition,
-so that the pasture must be of a very high quality. Here and there the
-sheep were feeding in fields of turnips, being specially fattened I
-suppose, but these were few and far between.
-
-One curious feature of the land to me was its extremes. It was either
-very flat or very hilly; no gently undulating country such as we have
-so much of at home; but all of it worth money, and big money at that,
-mostly for grazing purposes. Every little town that we passed through
-wore a delightful air of quiet comfort, while both men and women
-looked fairly well-to-do, although they let their children run about
-barefooted in a way that is disconcerting to an Englishman. That,
-however, is probably only a fad, since the kiddies looked anything but
-poor in other respects.
-
-Palmerston North came really as a surprise. Owing to the fact that it
-lies upon a perfectly level plain it is not nor can it be picturesque;
-indeed it might, only the word sounds unkind, be called straggling. It
-certainly does cover a very large area for its population, and those
-responsible for its laying-out have been most generous in the matter of
-streets. Also wherever there are any public buildings they are as usual
-in the North Island of the prevailing construction, stucco-covered
-brick. I have often wondered what could have become of all the
-plasterers when stucco went out in England. I know now: they came to
-New Zealand, and here they revel in their favourite medium, imitating
-stone to their hearts' content.
-
-There is a spaciousness about Palmerston that is delightful. It fills
-one with the idea that it must some day be a great city, although
-the railway running along through the main street for its whole
-length bordered by grassy breadths upon which may be seen feeding the
-casual horse or cow, does not inspire much hope that it ever will
-be. Nevertheless, there is a great hotel a-building which would not
-be unworthy of a town ten times the size, and so I feel that there
-must be some basis for all this confidence. Here let me say with all
-the emphasis at my command, that my first impressions of hotel life
-in Australasia given you in my second chapter have been deepened and
-confirmed by every fresh one that I have stayed in, until I am fully
-prepared to swear that of all the countries I have ever travelled
-in Australasia is easily first in the matter of hotels. The food is
-always excellent, well-cooked, and abundant; the accommodation is
-invariably comfortable, the attendance all that could be wished, and
-the prices on an average about one-half of what they are anywhere else.
-Sorrowfully do I confess that I have never stayed in any British hotel
-that was nearly as good, as far as personal comfort is concerned,
-as the worst hotel I have sampled out here. These hotels are less
-pretentious in appearance, but they have no irritating extras, baths
-are not considered a luxury for which you must pay a high price,
-but are free at any time; a cup of tea at early morn in bed, and a
-newspaper is brought you and not charged for, afternoon tea is also
-free, and--whisper it gently!--if you are meanly inclined, you need
-not tip anybody. I would rather stay in the smallest way back hotel
-in Australia or New Zealand that I have visited than the most swagger
-hotel in London, while as for America--but there, to stay in any
-American hotel is to suffer penance for sin unrepented of--and the
-punishment is fully adequate.
-
-Palmerston also boasts the finest opera house (so they say) in the
-Southern Hemisphere. I am inclined to take this sweeping statement
-with a considerable grain of salt when I remember Buenos Ayres, for
-instance, but there is no doubt that this opera house, built by the
-municipality, is a splendid building, worthy of Melbourne or Sydney as
-far as its appointments, size, and appearance is concerned. Of course
-it is decorated with stucco on an exceedingly ambitious scale, and
-therein, to the visitor accustomed to the stone erections of other
-cities more favourably situated for durable building material, is to
-some extent discounted. Moreover, it is a debatable point whether any
-municipality has a right to burden its citizens with such a heavy
-debt as this has entailed for such a purpose; but as this is a purely
-domestic question it may safely be left.
-
-Its public buildings are dignified and stately, the Post Office
-especially being ten times finer and a much larger building than the
-Post Office in Auckland, which has nearly ten times the population
-of Palmerston. Yes, it is a bright, breezy, ambitious place, whose
-citizens manifest the most robust faith in its future, although, of
-course, there are many pessimists among them who talk dolefully about
-outrunning the constable, &c. It is the centre of a large dairying
-district, and from hence comes a great quantity of the splendid butter
-and cheese which is largely consumed at home. It is indeed an ideal
-country for such a purpose, owing to the richness of its pastures and
-the mild, equable climate which it enjoys. And I have been told that if
-only the farmers would manifest a little more energy the yield might be
-largely augmented with but slight increase of outlay.
-
-I went on from here to Wanganui, on the beautiful river of the same
-name, through a most beautifully diversified country, the level plain
-gradually narrowing as we went north, although there were occasional
-stretches of rich-looking valley land. A change has to be made at
-Aramoho Junction for Wanganui, the train from Palmerston going on
-direct to New Plymouth, Taranaki, where it connects with the steamer
-for Auckland. Wanganui is only two miles from the junction, and when
-reached comes as a great surprise. It is still more difficult here than
-elsewhere in New Zealand to believe that so beautiful and imposing a
-town, with such fine public and private buildings, can be run by a
-population of under 10,000 all told. The hotel in which I stayed was,
-in every detail of its appointments--in everything, in fact, that a
-hotel should be--worthy of any town or city in the world, while its
-charges were simply ridiculous.
-
-Here I came in contact for the first time to any extent with the
-civilised Maori. He and she pervaded the streets of Wanganui in almost
-equal numbers with the white folk, and I learned that there were more
-natives in evidence here than in any other town in New Zealand. But it
-is not fair to begin this subject at the fag end of a chapter and so I
-will deal with it in the next.
-
-
-
-
-XXIII
-
-THE MAORI
-
-
-Like all other primeval races the Maori does not bear the transition
-to civilisation at all well. The noble savage in his native state
-is a picturesque and romantic figure, with of course many customs
-that we pale children of modern days cannot away with. Now the Maori
-has unquestionably many noble qualities, but he shares with all
-other native races an intense and invincible repugnance to settled
-employment. As long as he can get his few primitive needs supplied he
-will not work. In his native wilds this reposeful languor is graceful
-and correct; it fits in with his environment. But in a town the Maori,
-with the garments of civilisation hanging awkwardly upon him, lounging
-at the street corners apparently indifferent to the flight of time,
-or indeed anything under the sun, will not appear to the visitor
-as anything else but an exceedingly unprepossessing loafer. It is
-necessary, in order to keep back the feeling of repugnance that will
-arise at sight of these groups of huge, seedy-looking men, to remember
-that they are the descendants of the original owners of the soil, and
-that they are now existing peacefully upon the rents of their lands
-leased to the energetic white settlers.
-
-In Auckland I noticed a good many Maori men and women about the town,
-all the latter and most of the former looking curiously slouchy and
-ungainly. But they were, after all, an exceedingly small item in the
-thronging population, although they were usually found on the street
-corners in the busiest part of the city at all hours of the day,
-looking as if nothing that ever happened could possibly concern them.
-Here in Wanganui, however, every street corner has its knot of lounging
-Maories looking curiously out of place in the midst of civilisation.
-They are all, men and women alike, of splendid physique, but of course
-too fat, owing to the lounging habit, all equally, of course, are clad
-in European clothing, and all without exception strike the visitor as
-being exceedingly undesirable and unornamental. For they have, with but
-rare exceptions, a peculiarly unprepossessing cast of countenance, and
-withal an expression of languid contempt for the _pakeha_ (white man)
-who goes bustling by that is not good to look upon.
-
-Now I know that this is very harsh-sounding, but it expresses my
-feelings exactly. I grant the Maori exceptional ability, especially as
-an orator; I know that he is the original owner of the soil for which
-he fought so doughtily that his enemies conceived a great respect for
-him. I am sure that he is fully entitled to all that he receives by way
-of rent for his lands and to the reservation which no white man may
-interfere with; but I do wish he and his _wahine_ would not get into
-shabby European clothing and hang about street corners in the towns. If
-they want civilisation, let them by all means become civilised and fit
-in with their surroundings; but if not, why! oh why do they not stay
-in their native encampments and loaf to their heart's content where
-loafing looks natural, dignified, and proper?
-
-In order that I may not be misunderstood, I hasten to say that in the
-colleges and in certain Government positions are to be found some
-most admirable specimens of the Maori race, rising to a height of
-intelligence and responsible feeling such as a negro seldom or never
-attains to, and with an admixture of white blood, whether half or
-quarter breed, many splendid specimens of manhood, both physically and
-intellectually, are developed. The Hon. James Carroll, Minister for
-Native Affairs, is a fine specimen of these last, and a gentleman whom
-it is pleasant to know.
-
-Unfortunately time did not admit of my going up what is here termed
-the New Zealand Rhine, the Wanganui River. But even if I had, I could
-hardly have ventured to describe its beauties after the flood of purple
-writing on this and kindred scenic delights of the country which
-has been poured forth from the Government printing works, under the
-auspices of the Government Tourist Department. For, wisely enough, New
-Zealand rulers, being thoroughly alive to the fact that their country
-is the little wonderland of the world, spare neither pains nor expense
-to make the fact known in order to attract, not so much settlers
-as visitors. I am afraid to mention the huge sum which this small
-community spends every year on advertising New Zealand as a playground
-and health resort. It was told me by the gentleman who "runs" the great
-business under the Minister in whose department it is, but he assured
-me that, large as it was, the assessable returns fully warranted it. An
-ever-increasing number of tourists come here from America and Great
-Britain, come prepared to be disillusioned, but go away enchanted, full
-of wonder that one small group of islands could possibly contain so
-much to be marvelled at, to look upon in speechless admiration.
-
-Also under the fostering care of the Tourist Department, game, fish,
-fur, and feather is increasing, making the country a sportsman's
-paradise, as well as a wonderland for tourists. There are no game laws
-as we understand them; during the season appointed any one may shoot
-or fish on payment of a small fee for the season--ten shillings. And
-out of the season no one, however highly placed he may be, can either
-shoot or fish, for here, as perhaps nowhere else on earth, the law is
-no respecter of persons; if it is ever biassed at all, it is against
-those who have in favour of those who have not. A curious feature of
-the fauna is that creatures indigenous to other temperate countries on
-being brought here thrive amazingly, although the native fauna was,
-even when the islands were discovered, contemptible in variety and
-number, there being practically no native game but the rat. Only on the
-coasts and in the bays might be found overwhelming abundance of the
-finest fish in the world. Now the lakes and rivers are stocked with
-trout and other foreign fish, the woods with game of all kinds, while
-domestic animals, such as sheep and cattle, are amazingly prolific
-and splendid in quality. To complete the present brief sketch of New
-Zealand's advantages, there are no noxious animals or reptiles, and
-very few unpleasant insects, what there are being mostly imported and
-easily dealt with.
-
-I really feel sorry to say goodbye to Wanganui, for it is essentially
-a place that invites to pleasure in the midst of all that can charm
-the eye and comfort the body. Sea, river, lake, mountain, forest, and
-fertile plain. I can quite enter into the feelings of a man whom I
-met the other day, who, having been a confirmed globe-trotter, came
-here for a week and stayed two years, only leaving then because he was
-compelled to. And I feel thus having only seen it in the winter; I find
-myself wondering what I should feel if I saw it in the summer! But the
-call to leave was imperative, and I was carried back to Palmerston
-North, through the golden sunshine and balmy airs of this midwinter's
-day, feeling glad that the dwellers in New Zealand were thus highly
-favoured. But as we crossed the Wanganui River I noticed that it was in
-spate, and I wondered if these beautiful, fat, level lands were ever
-flooded. There was no one at hand of whom I could ask the question, so
-I turned to my newspaper--for be it known unto you that each of these
-small towns will support a morning and evening newspaper--and there I
-read of the sorrows of Gisborne, the thriving town on the shores of
-Poverty Bay of which I wrote some time back. It has been the prey of a
-devastating flood which has overflowed those fertile levels and done
-enormous damage.
-
-At the hearing of which I feel very grieved, for I learned to know
-and like much many of the people there. Moreover I read also that the
-communications have been greatly interrupted, and steamers have been
-unable to call, or if they had the state of the sea between the two
-breakwaters would effectually prevent the tender from going out.
-
-The calamity, however, was purely local, for the smiling country
-through which I was now passing showed nothing of flood, although it
-looked as if it might be particularly liable to such visitations, being
-so flat and surrounded by hills. We swung into Palmerston again, and,
-so rapidly does one make acquaintances in a new country, I found myself
-welcomed like an old friend. I am not likely to forget that night at
-the cosy "gentlemen's club," as it was quaintly termed to me, but
-which I accepted as merely plain statement of fact. Song and story,
-and, executed by my own blood-kin, a _haka_, or Maori dance, fearsome
-in leapings and boundings and yellings, and concluded with fiendish
-grinning, the mouth gaping wide as possible, so as to show the teeth,
-and the tongue protruding to the roots. Savage indeed, and I felt that
-it should certainly be introduced at Adelphi Terrace.
-
-Late though the hour was when I reached my hotel, and sinfully early
-as the train departed next morning--6.55--there were brave and genial
-souls awaiting to speed the parting guest. Leave-taking was after our
-own fashion, entirely undemonstrative, but I felt sad, as I always do
-on these hurried journeys, knowing that, pleasant as the meeting has
-been, it is unlikely to be renewed, except by purest chance, in the
-centre of things, London, whither all roads seem to lead. I am afraid
-some of my untravelled friends that night thought that I was poking fun
-at them when I told them of strange meetings, foregatherings from the
-ends of the earth in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly, and more so than
-ever when I expressed my conviction that I should probably meet every
-one of them again in the vicinity of that classic region.
-
-Back again in what the New Zealanders proudly call the Empire City,
-oblivious entirely of the misnomer. It is a beautiful little city,
-a well-groomed and orderly city fully worthy of its position and is
-prospering in a very high degree. But to call it the Empire City is to
-ape the flapdoodle of the United States citizens, who, like the average
-users of forceful adjectives, see nothing incongruous or ridiculous in
-calling a collection of shacks a city, and cannot call a magnificent
-aggregation like New York or Philadelphia anything else. I would not,
-for a great deal, say anything that could even seem derogatory of
-Wellington. It is a place worthy of the utmost love and admiration of
-its citizens. In its surroundings it is peculiarly happy. They are
-romantic, picturesque in the extreme, which qualities, in days not so
-far distant, constituted a serious drawback to the city's expansion.
-Now, thanks to the electric and cable car service, those encircling
-hills have become easily accessible to all, and the citizens may and
-do enjoy, not merely the most delightful of panoramic views over sea
-and land that can well be imagined, but can pass to and fro between
-home and business swiftly, easily, and cheaply. True, this case of
-communication has brought in its train enhanced expenditure, land, on
-these erstwhile unsaleable hilltops, now fetching fabulous prices; but
-then these are the conditions which must always obtain whenever art
-and science step in to assist people to enjoy nature.
-
-And now the time approaches when I must leave Wellington for good.
-
-Therefore it is only just to put on record that all the reports I
-ever heard of its weather before I came here were base and malignant
-inventions as far as my personal experience goes. While it is quite
-true that occasionally the city experiences three days' steady rain
-without a break, it is false to say that dirty or windy weather is
-anything like normal--in fact, it would be far truer to say that such
-climatic conditions are abnormal. Earthquakes do occur undoubtedly,
-but so infrequently and of such slight importance that they are
-practically ignored. The old _régime_ of wooden buildings which I had
-often been assured were the only ones which would stand Wellington's
-insecure foundations has vanished, and splendidly ornate edifices of
-great height and imposing size are in evidence throughout the business
-district, and are also being rapidly added to. The streets of the
-city proper are beautifully level, paved like a billiard-table and
-well kept, while the roads up the hills, with all their winding and
-steep gradients are wonderfully well made. Indeed, taken altogether,
-Wellington, apart from the delightful character of its citizens, is
-one of the most desirable places to live in that is to be found in the
-whole world, in my opinion.
-
-
-
-
-XXIV
-
-AUSTRALASIAN JOURNALISM
-
-
-In this the final chapter of this series of impressions I feel first
-of all compelled to regret my inability to visit many Australian towns
-of great interest, more especially in Queensland and the northern part
-of New South Wales, several of which I knew well, such as Newcastle,
-Grafton, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Gladstone, and Maryborough. Also that
-I had neither time nor opportunity to see many of the inland towns of
-Australia such as I have had in New Zealand, although in their case it
-certainly would not have been a revisit. Neither have I been able to
-visit beautiful Tasmania. But in the course of my six months' tour I
-have been unable to get much more than a passing glance at the country,
-and also, by meeting all sorts and conditions of men, to get a fairly
-comprehensive idea of the conditions of things generally. Passing all
-these matters in review for a general summary, the first thing that I
-would like to notice is the high level of excellence and independence
-maintained by the Press. The newspapers of Australasia, with but two
-or three exceptions, are the equals of any of our newspapers at home,
-and in some respects their superiors, as, for instance, in political
-controversy. I gratefully miss that virulence of attack upon prominent
-men which is so painfully evident in many of our home journals, more
-especially so, strange to say, in those which profess to maintain a
-high religious standard.
-
-That form of argumentative abuse and reckless slander is out here left
-to certain lewd journals of the baser sort--which indeed would seem to
-be their obvious place.
-
-Daily Journalism is, as I say, of a very high order, and this applies
-not merely to the matter but to the paper and format also. And while
-the Colonial news is very full in detail and interest, home and foreign
-affairs are most comprehensively dealt with, and widely disseminated
-in the form of cablegrams and occasional London letters. In bulk, of
-course, these journals do not rank with the American newspapers, that
-hideous agglomeration known as the Sunday Edition being unknown here,
-but in quality the Colonial newspapers are so immeasurably superior
-that no comparison is possible, with such notable exceptions as the
-_Tribune_, _Outlook_, _Saturday Evening Post_, and a few others out
-of the many thousands of newspapers with which the great Republic is
-afflicted.
-
-But the most marvellous feature of Australasian journalism is its
-illustrated weekly Press. Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland,
-Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, all turn out splendidly written
-and illustrated journals, in which, except in the small matter of
-paper, the original pictures may safely challenge the world. A special
-feature of these fine papers, without exception, is the enormous amount
-of good reading matter which they contain for sixpence. I have just
-taken up one haphazard. It contains eighty pages of reading matter
-exclusive of advertisements. Fully half of this great space (the pages
-are _Graphic_ size but the printing is closer) is taken up with matter
-of intense interest to Colonials, such as the state of the markets for
-their produce, the conditions of agriculture, mining, manufactures,
-employment, sport, education, art, and science. Politics are fully
-dealt with, not merely Colonial, but worldwide.
-
-There are twelve pages of illustrations, four serial stories by
-well-known authors, twelve short stories, and about fifty storyettes.
-The only thing you may search its pages for in vain is anything
-objectionable or suggestive. This holds true of all, and it is indeed
-a high standard. Such papers as these are a sweet boon to dwellers
-up-country, who are thus kept in full communion with the great outside
-world in the pleasantest way. What I have said may seem too eulogistic,
-but I know that I have barely done the great Australasian illustrated
-Press justice, and have besides left uncatalogued a number of minor but
-most interesting items.
-
-There are also a number of magazines which, in defiance of scanty
-circulation because of the small populations, persist in appearing and
-flourishing, such as the _Review of Reviews_, _Life_, the _Red Funnel_,
-&c. These offer a fair and welcome field for the development of budding
-Colonial literary talent such as has already thrown up several writers
-of a very high class, notably Louis Becke, John Arthur Barry, Henry
-Lawson, "Banjo" Paterson, Mrs. Campbell Praed, and others. I hope no
-idea of invidious selection will be attributed to me in mentioning
-these names, I do but give them as they occur to me.
-
-The very delicate question of political matters must of course be
-dealt with, but circumspectly as becomes a casual visitor from the
-Homeland. The one thing which strikes me most forcibly is the daring
-way in which these new communities deal with what are burning and most
-difficult questions at home. I am afraid that they are often much too
-apt to forget, in their enviable position of writing upon an almost
-clean slate, the difficulties of dealing with home problems. This
-lack of perspective often leads politicians out here into intolerance
-of British slowness, as they term it, in handling such fundamental
-questions as those of dealing with the land, and the unemployed, for
-instance. They do not realise what it means to have the dead drag
-of past centuries, nor the paralysing effect upon the Old Country
-of free imports, both of cheap labour and manufactures. Securely
-entrenched behind their own prohibitive laws, they cannot see, nor
-can they understand, why Britain has so many paupers, nor how it is
-that we cannot do as they do--look after their own people first, and
-afterwards--a very long way--consider the foreigner. The Socialism
-which at home is so real a danger because it ever tends in the
-direction of more making of paupers and the survival of the unfit, in
-contravention of Nature's most obvious laws, assumes quite a different
-character here. As nearly as I can make out Socialism out here means
-the inalienable, incontrovertible right of every man to live and enjoy
-life, providing that he can justify his claim to be fit to live. At
-home, as far as I have yet been able to understand the pronouncements
-made by Socialists, every human being born has a right to live whether
-he will work or not, and if he beget children he may be as selfish, as
-improvident as he will, he has a right to have his offspring educated
-and maintained at the expense of the State, that is, being translated,
-at the expense of those who are striving with all their might to do
-their duty to their own families and to the State of which they are
-components.
-
-In consequence of this difference Labour legislation, or even
-Socialism, does not strike me out here as presenting any dangerous
-features. It is, of course, strange and pleasant to see labour meeting
-capital upon a purely equal basis, and to see the working of the
-Arbitration Courts where capital has no power beyond what the judge
-deems to be for the greatest good of the greatest number. But stranger
-still it is to see how men of wealth and position will concede that it
-is not all bad that the men they employ shall be placed, by the law,
-upon an entirely equal footing with themselves as regards questions
-of abstract justice. These things give furiously to think, but always
-there lies behind the knowledge that what is not merely possible but
-practicable in a new country, is both impossible and impracticable in
-an old one.
-
-One thing that must give a sincere patriot grave qualms upon visiting
-a new country like this is the terrible effects of that canker known
-as _sport_--save the mark!--upon the people. It is, as we all know,
-the curse of our own country; not real sport, but that foul business
-which, in its gambling outcome, keeps the best of our workers poor, and
-has raised an immense body of utterly worthless parasites to prey upon
-the community. This abominable thing flourishes here as ill weeds do,
-especially in new countries. Its worst form is, as usual, horse-racing,
-which always attracts the very worst elements of the people, and
-occasionally results in some such scene as that recently witnessed
-on the Flemington Racecourse, where one of the harpies was kicked to
-death. This paralysing mania pervades every class, takes precedence of
-business, of religion, of morality, and is responsible for a whole host
-of minor evils. It is simply incomprehensible how so many otherwise
-sensible people can be led, apparently helplessly, from all that makes
-life worth living into this vile vortex, which defies all law, all
-order, and creates a class of beasts of prey, all the more dangerous
-because human and intelligent.
-
-The development of these wonderful countries is sure but slow. What it
-would be but for "sport," even with the present ridiculously inadequate
-population, I cannot imagine, seeing what it already is, but one thing
-stands out most prominently, and that is the large margin left for any
-careful workman between his earnings and his necessary expenditure.
-No one here in the possession of brains and vigour need hawk them
-round fruitlessly for hire, nor having let them to an employer need
-he despair of ever being able to raise himself from the position of a
-hired man. Education is not merely free, it is of very high order, and
-ever tending more and more in the direction of common-sense inculcation
-of those things that are useful, while the ornamental is certainly
-not neglected. In consequence it is quite usual to meet men, while
-travelling, whose appearance is--well, shabby, according to Old World
-ideas--that is, they are in ordinary working clothes--who will talk
-most intelligently upon many subjects, and will not interlard their
-conversation with senseless expletives. These men, and they are a very
-large class indeed, form the backbone of the country, and will, in due
-time, a good many of them, develop into its rulers.
-
-What tends more to the dissemination of ideas and breadth of thought
-out here than anything else, I think, is the amount of travelling that
-is done. There are very few people that I have met on my journeyings to
-and fro who do not know these Colonies personally, very well, in spite
-of the immense distances. This, of course, is one of the causes as well
-as one of the results, of the great, the truly marvellous development
-of the Australasian Mercantile Marine. Another is that so large a
-proportion of the men have either been sailors or have never quite
-got over the effect of their long passage out from the Old Country.
-The spirit of the seafarer, his self-helpfulness, his adaptability
-to whatever circumstances he may find himself in and his indomitable
-optimism is over all. Which also accounts for a great many things
-otherwise mysterious and hard to understand.
-
-But I am told that there is another factor largely in evidence to
-account for the really slow development of this vast area of habitable
-and valuable land besides their invincible repugnance of being flooded
-with cheap labour. It is the spirit of content. I give this for what
-it is worth, and it was told to me by many. When a man who has known
-what it is to toil hopelessly at home with only the prospect of the
-poorhouse before him, comes out here and finds that half the amount
-of labour will provide him with a comfortable living and a nest-egg
-for the slope of age, he is very apt to say, "Why should I strive for
-wealth? I am quite comfortable, and can now earn all I need or wish for
-with a slight expenditure of energy, while, should misfortune overtake
-me through no fault of my own, the State will support me without
-pauperising me." This feeling, it is said, robs a man of the burning
-desire to get on which makes a country possessing such men great in the
-sense of being wealthy. "People are too jolly comfortable to work hard
-out here," said a working man to me the other day, and I had nothing to
-say about the matter at all. It is a problem for far wiser heads than
-mine. But it is based upon the root idea that the possession of more
-than a man feels that he wants, brings not happiness, but misery. The
-cynic may say that there are few men who possess more than they feel
-that they want, but I can assure him that they are a far larger class
-than he wots of, especially out here.
-
-Well, there are many things which leap to the pen, especially at
-the close of a book like this, but they must wait more fitting
-opportunity. What must not be omitted is mention of the deep and
-abiding feeling of the love for and the loyalty to the dear old land
-manifested by everybody, affection which coexists most comfortably with
-an almost passionate devotion to the new land which is, indeed, their
-own. No other passport to their hearts is needed than the fact that the
-visitor comes from the Homeland and loves it, he only is disliked and
-discredited who is ready to decry and belittle Britain in all things
-after the fashion of many curiously-minded folks at home. My best love
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