AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14830, 22 November 1913, Page 2

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

(FROM OUR OWK CORBESPOXDEJfT.) SYDNEY, November 15 PARLIAMENTARY RUCTIONS.

What has happened during the past week in the Federal House of Representatives must have given you the impression that the Commonwealth Legislature is trying to live up or down, to the parliamentary ideals of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, which, when in session, is the scene of stirring entertainment in the form of uproar, abuse, and the argument of physical force. The primary causes arc about the same as operated recently in this State—the Ministerial Party without an effective majority, ar.d the Speakership in the occupation of a man who is freely accused of a strong bias adverse to the Opposition. Urged to do so by its supporting Press the Ministry is making liberal use of the closure, commonly called the gag, to force its measures through. This alone causes a great deal of row. Because in a speech in his constituency of Bailarat Mr McGrath accused the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Mr Johnson), of party bias, and the "faking" of "Hansard" reports, ho was, on the motion of the Prime Minister, suspended for the rest of the session in the absence of an adequate withdrawal. Mr McGrath would not admit that he had said at Bailarat what was reported in the Press, and challenged the right of the Speaker to ask him such a question. «e».The suspension of this Opposition member leaves the Government with a majority of one on the floor of the House. The Labour Party is very bitter over thematter, and declares that it will make the utmost use of its overwhelming majority in the Senate to obstruct the Government in every possible way. During the hottest part of the wild disorder which attended the suspension of Mr McGrath there was talk of fistic fight. In this Mr Mathews shouted for protection from Colonel Ryrie, of the Ministerial Party, whom he accused of threats to make cowardly use of a boxer's skill. Colonel Ryrie said he was no coward, and that if the six biggest men on the Opposition side came outside he would be ready to account for the lot of them. Mr Anstey promptly announced himself as one of the invited half-dozen. But the fight did not take place, to tno great disappointment of a number ot other members, as well as of many sporting folks outside of Parliament. Since then the possible outcome of the fight is being exhaustively discussed in the newspapers that have room for such matters, and personal potentialities have been weighed to the last ounce. Thus we have learned that -Colonel Ryrie is not nearly so good a boxer as is generally believed, and that in an encounter with a much lighter man on a military transport he was hopelessly outclassed. Regarding Mr Anstey the information is published that while not a finished performer with the gloves he is a sturdy battler, with experience of bare knuckle "goes" in the days when he was a seaman. It is also recounted that Mr Anstey once had occasion to "knock out" another seaman who made himself very obnoxious in an hotel. Years afterwards while walking along a Melbourne street with a well-known solicitor, Mr Anstey caught sight of the man he had knocked out, and drew the attention of his companion to the man. £<»« mind, ho'-U get his revenge yet, replied the solicitor with a smile he s now the Victorian hangman 1 Mr McGrath, who made his exit from the House amid a chorus of cheers from his colleagues, talks of resigning his. seat. He is a ruddy Irishman, always ready for a fight! Although he usually speaks in loud tones, and mostly-in accents of injury, he is " edlte always talking sense. Ho w now receiving no end of assurances of admiration from Labour quarters. . -■- ■

SLASHED SKIIITS. This week two girls in Adelaide "have had a similar unpleasant exJSfenSfto that which befel a coupto Sf women who recently ventured abroad in Sydney m dresses ing some of the latest aanng vagaries of fashion. Tho split skirt has not become a, noticeable feature m the streets of Adelaide, which is generally a pretty quiet place in fashions as in other things. However, two gins who promenaded the main street the other evening wore dresses slashed so aggressively that orderly Adelaide soon became a very disturbed city. .A great crowd gathered round the girls. Shouts of derision, some of them or an indelicate kind, came from, the surging throng of men, women, and children. An urgent' message was sent to police headquarters, and a posse of men turned out with celerity that would " win immense admiration in Wellington. By the time the constables got to the scene of trouble, however, the girls in the slashed raiment seemed likely to be roughly handled by over-excited persons in the crowd, and the police had to draw their batons to effect a rescue. A GENUINE WELCOME. As one who thoroughly appreciates as well as distributes the sunshine o" friendship for Australia, Sir George Reid is surely happy (he says ho is) on account of tho welcome which was ready for him on his present visit from London, where he has done so well as the first High Commissioner. Sir George in now back in Sydney, and the people of his own city "and own State are apparently determined to make the High Commissioner feel that he is amongst real friends and admirers. _ So pronounced have been.the manifestations of the personal' popularity of Sir George that it has been found fitting by, a section of the Press to point out that in the demonstrations of personal friendship sight may De lost of the great merits of Sir George's services to Australia. A few years ago this Commonwealth was actually unrepresented in the capital of " the Empire. It seemed almost impossible that an Australian High Commissioner could win. for himself a place in the estimation of the British people to rival that of the stately old gentleman who represented Uanada. Yet it seems that in four years Sir George Reid has placed the Hig;h Commissioner- ■ ship for Anstralia in a position in which it need fear no rivalry. It is felt that fco has fulfilled all the calls of present office as no other living Australian could have done. Much satisfaction is expressed at reports that the Federal Government intends to extend I Sir George Tteid's appointment as i High Commissioner for a further term i at a considerably increased salary. ' INDUSTRIAL AKBITRATION. I Presented as it was before the breakdown of the big strike in New Zealand, tho report to Mr A. B. Piddington, as Royal Commissioner on industrial arbitration in Xew South Wales, i was received with especial interest. However, the public comments on the report are to a considerable extent in terms of disappointment. Mr Piddington finds that the Wages Board : system as now in force is slow and costly, a fact which has been well known for a long time. By way of a> remedy he suggests that representatives of employers and employees should no i longer be allowed seats on the Boards, ! and that judges instead of laymen, or mere barristers, should act as chairmen I of all Wages Boards. It is said to be very doubtful whether either employers or employees would show any time-saT-ing acceptance of a Wages Board eyetern in which they would have less of a direct cay than at present. Further, it is set out as a matter of extreme doubt -whether there would be more satisfactory results as regards time and satisfaction to thoee concerned, if the

! traditional methods of the law courts were applied to all industrial arbitration by the employment of judges only to do what at present occupies the attention of 270 Boards. Mr Piddington believes that the volume of business would be greatly reduced by the cliI mination of the perennial discussion as to the cost of living and the minimum i wage, and he proposes the fixing of the S minimum wage periodically., say, once a j year, by an independent tribunal. As regards this proposition, commentators on the report point out that it is seriously fallacious to take it for granted that there is any uniform cost of living at all, and that men live according to their resources, capacities, anu tastes. Most disappointment is expressed in relation to the absence from the report of a statement of certain means by which industrial contracts can be guaranteed. That is the great problem, and the Royal Commissioner has not found a solution. ELECTRIFICATION. In both. New South Wales and Victoria there has been talk for several years of the electrification of the suburban passenger services which are at present carried on with steam. Victoria is now acting. Although there are practirally no outward signs as yet, considerable progress has been made with the huge task of converting the suburban railways of Melbourne from steam to electric'traction. What has been done so far is of a preliminary character towards the fulfilment in the near future of a complete scheme which will cost slightly over three millions sterling, aoart from rolling stock. Contracts have already been let for the supply of plant and for installations involving an expenditure of over £I,rOO'nOO. Naturally a great deal of responsibility will be thrown upon the chief officers of the Railway Department, who will have control when the contractors for the conversion arrangements have done their share. So that these officers may be equipped with up-to-date knowledge, arrangements have boon made for at least two of them to visit Europe and America to study the operation of electric railway 6ystems there. It is honed that the conversion of the Melbourne suburban eystem will bo completed early in 1917, and there are prospects of some or the suburban lines running under electric power in July, 1915. BUSH TO SEASIDE. So highly do some of the people of Sydney value facilities for living by the seashore during the summer time — living away from ordinary homes is almost"a matter of religion with many— that they feel the greatest pity for those who cannot enjoy such facilities. Consequently, a committee of Sydney ladies is working out a scheme for the establishment of a permanent home by the sea for the use of persons whoso lives are snent amid the heat and monotony o*f the bush. It is proposed to set up thirty bungalows, to be let at 10s a week "each. At the outset, each family will bo expected to do its own cooking, but later on, the cooking for all the tenants, or guests, or whatever else they may bo called, is intended to be'done at the administration building, and all will take their meals in a common dining-room. Exactly what kind of people will be eligiblo for occupation of these seaside homes has apparently not yet been determined, but unless there is embodied in the working out of the scheme something of the element of charity, which would not augur well from a business point of view, determined hostility must bo expected from the hundreds of persons who depend for their livelihood upon competitive catering as seaside bonrdina;housekeepers for the patronage of folks from tho country. COST OF LIVING. A remarkable amount of attention to the cost of living in its assumed relationship to what wages ought to be paid for this or that kind of work done m this or that industry is taking place ■ in almost every Australian State just now. In this connexion, Mr Justice Burnside made some rathor astonishing statements the other day while.presiding over proceedings in the Arbitration. Court of Western Australia. Hβ said that personally he would agree to a round robin from the workers advocating that everyone should have a minimum wage of £1 a day. The upshot would be that the cost of everything would be increased correspondingly, and tho problem would find its true level in time., There was no reason why the minimum wage should not be the same in all occupations. The maximum wage was-different. If wages were increased, the cost of commodities was bound to go up. Tho problem was like a snowball going down hill, and tho people had to pay for it in the end. It would go on until some world-wide arrangement fixing the prices and tho requirements of everybody was specifically stated. A more determining factor would bo a huge international war, which would demand all available cash. The public's stomach would have to bo satisfied with food. That would result in the setting aside of awards and the reduction of existing rates down to a bare minimum. You can imagine what a flood of criticism has been provoked by Mr Justice Burnside's plain deliverance. Most of it has centred round the simple point of an all-round minimum wage of a pound a day. It would take altogether too much space to even outline all "the comments, approval, and disapproval. AUSTRALIAN GOVERNORS. A motion in favour of the appointment of an Australian as a State Governor, has been put before that nonradical body, the Legislative Council of Victoria, by a private member who has never before been suspected of any inclination to overturn Imperial methods of tho past. Tho motion is specifically intended to assist in securing for the Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Justice, Sir Jobn Madden, the appointment to tho chief vice-regal office in Victoria at the expiry of the term of appointment of the present occupant, Sir John Fuller. The latter is at present in England oh leave, and it is expected that he will shortly resign for health reasons. In itself the motion put before the Legislative Council may bo regarded as a tribute to the personal qualities of Sir' John Madden, and as having been suggested by the thought that in view of the great d«-<al of service which he has rendered as LieutenantGorernor for a number of jears it would be only fair to make him the fully-fledged representative of the King. But the matter is being debated in the broader aspect of whether the time has not arrived for the institution of a practice of appointing Australians as State Governors. Strong contention in the affirmative is coming forward. It is argued th>it local appointments of State Governors are one of the inevitable consequences of federation, and that titled peisonages as decorative figureheads became needless when the Commonwealth was established and a Governor-General came to act as a means of communication on # all matters on which Australia comes within the scheme of Imperial affairs. But there is also strong opposition based mainly on a repugnance to anything that is held to have in it the germ of ferment in the direction of setting up dangerous non-imperial or anti-imper-ial independence. SNAKE EXPERT. If you read shortly of an Australian, Fox, doing things in connexion with snakes and serpents in India you will know that it is "Professor" Fox, of Sydney. This man has won for himself wide renown as an expert in the handling of deadly snakes of all descriptions. He enthusiastically accepts commissions to hunt for and catch snakes that have by their mere appearance caused extreme terror to others. The more developed and dangerous a snake is the more delighted is he to catch it. He wears ordinary attire, with no protection whatever for his hands, with which he unhesitatingly seizes any snake that he gete hold of, even tiger-snakes, whose venom is, balk

for bulk, said to be more deadly than that of any other kind of snake in the world. On Sunday afternoons he gives exhibitions of his extraordinary and uncanny mastery over snakes for the benefit of visitors to the seaside resort of La Perouse. His homo is in that locality, and is also the home of hundreds of venomous snakes, which he keeps as pets and trades in. He is prepared to supply poison in any quantity. Once he called at tho Sydney Universities and offered to provide some snake venom for experimental pur■poees. Hβ was told to bring as much as he had to sell at a price named by him at the suggestion of the University officials— a price that seemed absurdly low to them. lox turned up next day with about worth of poison at the agreed upon price. The university people said they didn't want buckets of poison, and were glad to compromise with l< ox at about £50. Fox was quite satisfied. He could extract any amount more poison from Knakes, in the manner shown by him to the crowds at La Perouse. He has been bitten so often by snakes that he is by npw probably able- to stand without ill-effects an amount of snake poison which would kill an ordinary person. But he attributes his immunity solely to an antidote which he makes and sells himself. This is where hie trip to India comes in. He has learned that the Indian Government is prepared to pay handsomely for a reliable antidote which will be the means of averting some of the enormous loss of life which takes place every year in India from enake bites. Fox has no doubt about being able to demonstrate completely that his antidote is what is wanted. Several well-known business men are tgiving him pecuniary support and introductions to the Indian authorities. Whatever Fox's success in India may be, it will be certain that there will bo no sleight-of-hand or make-believe business in his handling of snakes in full possession of loaded poisoning apparatus.