AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14839, 3 December 1913, Page 3

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

(TP-Qit octi ovrs conßEsroNDEjrr.) j SYDNEY, November .22. THE TEST. Interest extending far beyond tho boundaries of this State attaches to tho general elections to the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, -which will take place on December 6th. It is hoped that these elections will show decisively ■whether in the largest State of Australia the electors have had enough, for tho time being at any rate, of a Labour party regime, or whether they are willing that Labour should continue in office . for three years, to the exclusion of the Liberals, who are in New South Wales politics of tho same S'bs'ance as the Liberals in the Folera! Legislature. Despite accord on tho part of tho Liberal and Labour parties in the desire to have the issue a clean cut one between them, no fewer than 247 candidates have nominated for the ninety eea stobe fi led. On'/ three candidates, two Liberals and one Labour, were declared elected without opposition. In one of these three cases a Labour rival was declared to be ineligible as not being a duiy qualified elector. The Political Labour League lias set its seal of approval u t xm oo candidates, wrale 83 are before the electors as iornial.y -selected Liberal candidates. Amongst the 47 independents are several who submitted themseives to the Liberal or Labour organisation, were not sJectol, but feel that i t;ieir merits wore not given just conI ii-era.ion in the opera.ion of the selec- | tion machinery. Led by Mr G. S. I Ueeby, ex-Minister of Labour in the Labour Cabinet, there is in the field a new third party, a party which holds that the present system of party government and machinery is wrong, anJ urges in substitution " a Parliament ejected as individuals and the institution of elective Ministries. The Beobyite. or National Progressive candidates number only 13, but they hope for the election of sufficient of their number to give them controlling power between the closely baa ced Labour and Liberal parties. The purely country political organisations are practically two in number. These are the Farmers' and Settlers' Assoc'ation, and an offshoot, called the Country Pa ty. The Farmers and .Settlors are content to throw in their lot with the Liberals, with a number of the candidates formally endorsed as Liberal men, but the Country Party, which puts forward eleven candidates cf its own, maintnins that country inte-rsts call for representation quite apart from association with either the Liberal or Labour parties. There are eight declared Socialist candidates, who" are understood to be swayed more by the wish to do propaganda work than by any hopes lof success at the poll. It has to be j romembe'od that in Now South Wn'es i them is the factor of the second ballot. j ricionted to nrevrmt the return of a I minority candidate on a split vote, and +>.f> tw-> groat nnrtips nre looking t-o r r'\ or c el,m ''nation of much of tho element whHi threatens to make th-m imnotent. However, it is qni** , noysiMo +!mf the two b ; £ narti'ps will coTe hock fnirlv eoual in sffeno-th. and *£at the balance of nower will lie in hand* of a omhina+ion of fores 'Vs<x« atert from two n-'rHp*. represented by a total of 79 candidates.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL SONG. A New Zealander now resident in ojdney, Mr Arthur H. Adams, has triumphed in tho first half of the competition in progress for the production of the much needed Australian Nacional Song.. This competition is under the auspices of the Musical Association of New South Wales, which had £200 handed to it for prize money uy the music loving general manager or one of the big: Sydney soft goods emporiums. The prize money has been halved—£loo for the best verses, and £100 for the best setting of the prize verses. No fewer tnan 722 sets of vers-e were put brfore the adjudicators for the first sec 1 ion of the competition, when i'be adjudicators ha-i got through their st'ff task it was made known that Mr A<-ianr>s was the winner. His verses run thus:—

Vaet the heritage we hold, League on endless league unrolled, •Splashed with sun and wattie-gold, God's Demesne, Australia I Great our opportunity, Greater must our courage be; For our > race we hold in fee God's demesne, Australia. Sons of thore who won the eea, OMmperial blood are we; Ours the country of tho free— God's demesne, Australia! Freedom for our onward stride! ~W.de out continent, and wide Aro the faiths and hopce that guide God's Australia. Though begirt with guardian eeaa, Not in careless, slothful eaee Sha.l we shield thy liberties, God's demesne, Australia! Loyal scions of our race, Ready chance and chanw to face, , Wβ chaU die, but ne'er disgrace God's demesne, Australia. With the consent of the author, the Musical Association sanctions the use of the word "domain" for "demesne" in the refrain if the former word is more familiar. One might have guesred on reading Mr Adams's prize verses that they had been written by a New Zea-lander. Is not the main line a yan;nt, flattering to Australia, of tho fannhar description of New Zealand as "Ood's ow- Country?' , Hundreds of musical composers are now. hard at Tt-o-k in all parts of Australia in the hope of -winning the hundred pounds ***■ asido for the best musical setting. Will a >.ew Zenlander, or ex-New Zcalander, win this, tos?

LOCAL OPTION. Contemporaneously with the State election poll, the eniranchised peopie of INew_ South Wales will bo askod to voce on the No-license question on December bbh. The Legislature has allowed a referendum every three years, and has recognised that the responsibility for the abolition, reduction, or continuance of licensed bars rests with the people themselves. If "continuance" is carried in an electorate bj even , a simple majority there is no alteration in the number of hotels or wine saloons. If "reduction" be carried a special court decides what bars shall be closod in the electorate within a range of from 10 to 15 per cent. On the assumption that every elector who would xote out all bars would also vote out Konie ot them, the No-license vote, if not carI ried by itself, is counted as being in favour of reduction. But, while continuance or reduction can be carried by a bare majority, the carrying of Nohcense requires a three-fifths , majority, rurther, even with such a majority, the vote is not effective unless it is the rote of at least 30 per cent, of the electors on the roll. A survey of the effect of the last poll shows that the proposition that no licenses be granted has not been carried co far in any electorate. Although in several cases a majority of electors voted all licenses out the threefifths' majority was not reached. Thus far the reduction vote has been responsible for the cancelling of 375 liquor licenses in New South Wales. The No-license campaign has been in full swing for come time already, and electors are hearing and reading no end of the pro and ©on arguments with which the people of New Zealand are even more familiar than we are here. By the way. New Zealand experience figures very largely in the discussion.

SURF SICKENERS. With the summer comes surf bathing, and with the surf coznee—garbage. Unless some drastic alterations are made tho attractions and repute of the surf bathing beaches about Sydney will be V-j-'od Sv .slrty [refuse.. To a cteadibr

increasing extent domestic refuse and ofcner .more , objectionable matter is clumped into the sea outside of Sydney Heads. The refuse-conveying crait are supposed ,t° £°' ou t tor a certain distance before they unload into .the i'asman Sea. But either they do not all go out for the prescribed distance, or tuey should have to go out further still, according to amended regulations. Wind and tide bring on to the surfing beaches tons of garbage and refuse which is rankly offensive in sight and smell. Thus it happens (and has happened) that when lair Adeline disports her charming figure in the breakers she is butted by dead and decaying sheep thai shoot the curling waves with ghastly earnestness. Or Percival. standing in physical magnificonce in the shallows, like an ocean-conquering Apollo, is made to look pretty foolish when a deceased cat, a rotten pumpkin, and a dirty lump of fat are laid at his feet by tho derisive waves. Frequently a whole beach is thickly fringed with garbage and ashes , , and the prospect of inadvertently taking a mouthiul of water in such surroundings is too much for even the strongest stomach. The surf bathers are protesting loudly, and as they number many thousands, in fact "everybody's doing it." and their visits mean much profit to business concerns, it is more than likely that their comfort will ere long be better considered than is now the case.

SMALLPOX. At last! There is great satisfaction at the announcement that in a few days time Sydney will be practically relieved of the embargo which was placed upon it by a federal proclamation shortly after the qutbreak of smallpox at the end of June last. A conference of Commonwealth and States health officers has for several days been considering the matter of the lilting of the embargo, apd it is understood that, despite the objections of the principal Federal medjeai officer and some protests from Victoria, the restrictive precautions in the matter of journeying from Sydney to any other State will be very materially modified. The smallpox outbreak has meant a loss of thousands upon thousands of pounds to business people in Sydney, and the popularity of this city as a holiday resort has suffered seriously. _ It appears that on specific assurances "that certain precautionary measures will bo observed by the New South Wales health authorities, it will no longer be necessary for travellers from Syuney to submit to vaccination, examination, and surveillance, as has been ti.o case for mouths past. People who travel from Sydney to places in other States will, however, be required to enter into an undertaking to report at once to the nearest local health authority should they become unwell within twenty-on© days after leaving Sydney. Isolated cases of smallpox continue to crop up in the Sydney metropolitan area, but the health officials assert that they have the-disease well under control now, and that with stricter quarantine there is no longer any cause for fear.

PASSENGERS' RIGHTS. There is now before the Victorian Parliament a measure which intert-ets many besides Victorians. ' This Bill, introduced by the Government, is to prevent steamship companies irom repudiating responsibility in regard to injuries to passengers, because the printed conditions under which tickets are issued contain exempting clauses. One who has taken the trouble to read through the conditions on his passenger ticket, to which he was obliged to subscribe, must have marvelled at the exhaustive ingenuity of shipping companies to secure for themselves freedom from responsibility for anything that might happen or be done to a passenger while on a ship. The Victorian Bill proposes to abolish the sys•tem under which each passenger is now required to agree at the acceptance of his ticket that he will not regard the company as liable for any injury sustained on the trip. Ship owners will be responsible to the same extent as

the railway management of the State is liable for accidents. A penalty not exceeding £100 is provided in case an owner inserts illegal conditions in the* tickets to the effect that the company is relieved from liability for loss or damage to a passenger arising from the "harmful or imDrniw" condition or the ship, or from negligence on the part of the bwner or bis Bervants.