OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 443, 27 February 1909, Page 10

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER

.WHERE STANDS SIR WILLIAM? ' . [?IIOM OUR OWN CORBESr-ONDBNT.] Sydney; February. 20. : What Will Sir William Dyne do? wag.tho. question everybody asked when it was announced that Mr. Deakin had defuiiteiy tired of tho.Labour party, and'was chatting over the possible terms of'ft coalition with Mr, Cook., For Sir William is a strong, supporter of tho Labour cause, and represents.a constituency which, although in the country, has a big Labour vote. The ex-Treasurer has not permitted tho question to remain unsolved Very long. He will have iibiie of Mr. Cook or Iris negotiations, and. therefore, he has promptly waved him aside. ''I do not think," says he, "that Mr. Cook and I aro ever likely to come together, unless he comes to my pulley"_ — a which Sir William' himself recognises as extremely doubtful. His own sympathies, lip .adds, aro-.; very strongly with a Democratic policy, and have! always beeii with tho party representing that side in politics, and not with ,the Conservatives; and as he thinks that most of. tho Labour Ministers are very capable men, all.Mr. Cook's, workings, ho. emphatically declares) will not have any effect upon him, because, a.ter fighting his party for, ; twenty years,'as h© has done,- he cannot imagine himself being swallowed up in.it. This points to'a direct line of cleavage between Mr. Deakin and Sir William Lyrie, and if tile negotiations'come to anything, aiid .theCbok-Deakin party go into-office, tho ex-Treasurer will manifestly be 'in; opposition to' hiß former leader.'". At ally rate, he is consistent;! But his attitude m regard to. the coalition, while only what was to. have .been expected, must add materially to the.difficulties of Mr. Deakin in arriving at an.Understanding.with tlie present Leader of the Opposition, The amalgamation niay come, of course—because anything is possible in it certainly does not sqoiii aiiy nearer after tlio clear definition of the. course, which Sir William Lyiie'proposes to follow in regard to,the proposal.

' ' Australian EloVen Me'art-tJUrhlngs. As reported in The Dominion by cable, the Australian Eleven for England haß been.selectcd at last—<and a nice hub-bub tho public is making about it, :hiainly on account of the inclusion of M'Alister, about . whom... the storm of controversy has principally raged for tho past week, He is too old,: say the critics, and his form is not good enough'for international cricket. M'Alister was himself Oiie of the three selectors, and it is manifest that this has given a tremendous weapon to his': opponents, for he had to fight to get himself into'the team..'He 1 frankly admitted this himself at a meeting of his friends in Melbourne;. Having , assembled. to protest against the.adverse criticism levelled against hint, they fraited for.the result of the' moot1M of the Selection Committee, then sitting in another part of the city. When M'Alister arrived, was known that he was in this ieatri, his friends Warmly congratulated him,'whereupon M'Alistor," in reply, triumphantly announced ■ that lie had just gone throughtwo hours-' bitter fighting; that it had been a lonfr, bitter struggle; that it had been his arilbitiOfl. to get into the Australian Eleven, and tlmt no ono had had to %lit harder.than h6.. This is certainly very frank, .but it also demonstrates, with sufncioiit' clearness that iiO man who is a candidate N for a place in the team ought to bo on the' Selection Committee. The "Wo 1 hours'; -bitter - fighting" that .M'Alister spealwtif was evidently waged against Clem Hill, Who stoutly.objected to his' claims to.be a member of the,team, saying l , that lie considered him past his best play, and that his style wej' ; .aot- suitable .for English Wickets. He SuggesM.tliat in his place •they should select GcTli'Sj .who had only that day played one of; the-finest forcing innings they could have wished.'to see; Against this the other two selectors, Iredalo arid M'Alistor, Urged that'oll a previous occasion, when Gehrs was battjiig here iri'eijually good form/ he proved a failure-asa-batsman when sent was at that time .iii; bad health.., Ho declared that he would take'either Hopkins or Hazlitt in prefefence.t6::M.'Alister, espebially aS Hazlitt was a yotlhg, player, who'was coming oil faflt. However, Hill failed ,to .bring the other selectors, or,eitherof tliern, to his .Way of tniriking, arid wits beaten accofclhigly, Iredale'S viotv is • that M'Alister has been treated in cavalier fashion; in the. past, and has not received justice when representative teams were chosen.' "Though lie is one of the older players," he-adds, '.'I thought he had <rualifications;whioh should still ebriiriiaiid success in England;' The. orily objectidri at all that I could see to M'Alister waS purely i matter of age; but ahy oiie who has taken Stock of. his play of recent'years—and particularly this say that M'Alister is not emiheritly .fittod to play for afty Australian team.", .Hill has also- strongly protested against the; inclusion of Carkeek as wicketkeepCr, preferring Dodds; of Tashlilriia, Ivith Gorry for second ckoicdT. 1 ;Iredale'S reply to this is that Dodds, though a good fricketkeepor, is ineligible,, and that, as be-, tween Carkeek and Gorry,', Carkeek is the better bat, whilst, aswickotkeepers, thereis Very little to chooso betweeii'thein.' Hill accused his colleagues of the", Selection' Com-mittee-...0f having .made their choice before they came to the meeting—of having, in fact, chosen certain names in they emphatically replied, that this,, was not the case, and that M'Alister and'ho'had never consulted one another on tho'.subject. The Selection has been severely criticised by many leading cricketers, including G, H. S.- Trott, who. has, represented Australia. on ; many oc-' casioiis in "England; He arid others advo- ; cato the claims of Hazlitt, but to the surprise of many, Whitty. has been chosen instead of Hazlitt—apparently on the ground that he bowJs with his left harid. . ,-','■

.THeVVedding that-Never Came Off* ' In those days of. the suffragette, the public hears so much about rights that they, may be. apt to fdrgdt men's Wrongs; and henco Leonai'd'Cooper, a olerk employed at- Queanbeynri, has emphasised this week the important principle that no Woman may heedlessly, trifle'with, an Unprotected young man's alfectidns, for in the Sydney District Court he brought -an action for breach of promise, and was awarded £50 damages.'■' It appears that Cooper and the defendant, Miss Pauline Loder, of North Sydney, Were- employed in the sarno establishtoentr-hd' as clerk and she as milliner—When they became engaged.' Sha prdmised, he says, td marry him on a certain v datd, and several times' postponed' the arrangements ■ when.. ho had come to consider them . definite, so that ho could not make head or' tail of her conduct. Eventually she positively, refused to 'carry but:the agreement, and became engaged to someone else. Plaintiff's solicitor said that it ; was not often a man was found courageous enough to bring such ah adtidri, arid though he did not speak of the-i absolute futility of such an undertaking in nirietyhine cases out of a liundr'ed, fie explained that the time had arrivod i when women should be brought tc a sense of their responsibilities! - .It Was claimed that 'the defendant Was good-looking and 'sensible/, ane? as she did not appear in Court, this, may have been-a judicious movo, on the part of her solicitor, who perhaps saw the prospedt of heavier damages being allowed were the jury to sot dyes' oh her. ..Plaintiff said ha had bought s lldUsd and incurred other expenses; the best.man had even bought a new sriit of dlothes for. the wedding that never enmo off. The defendant wrote to plaintiff from Sydney, Whore . sho had gone ..for a change of air. 'In this letter she Spoks of his character and manly attributes in the inost eulogistic terms, hut nevertheless she admitted that hdr feelings had undergone a complete change, and that since her sojourn in the big city she had.grown entirely irtdifforont' to hlim Then sho Wrote putting off the. marriage several timos, arid in February, 1908, explained that she Was suffering from rheumatism ad an excuso for hef heaftless conduot. Alarmed at what looked very like-"backsliding," Cdopor came to Sydney, and'when Miss Loder saw him, she is ffr ported to have "cleared put." A less determined person might havo taken tills hint, but plaintiff ignored it, and When ho called again to see the lady, she handed him over his engagement ring, of which he refused to take possession. Later on, she'wrote to hini in ft rßtli'dr bantering tone, but exhibited a sense df variety by promising to becomo his friend /of tho future, instead of the orthodox sister. Plaintiff's object in bringing tlid suit was to recover his iftseue, for the presents jie had given the lady had not baon rs-

turned to him, and ho also'.claimed that ho had spent much cash entertaining her during their engagement. Wishing to have tin accomplished wife, lie had arranged that she should take lessons on the banjo, and naturally he resented, another man's profiting by. this outlay. "I'll take aback seat to ho man," ho wrote to tho fickle defendant."l live for only two things UoW—you and love or bitterest revenge. Mytcoth. are; clenched, and if i'aih foiled my.blood will hunger for revenge.' 1 Plaintiff did not deny that these statements, which "Deadwood Dick" literature, were not original. The Stag* V. the fireside. tho footlights and the firesido so seriously cdtifliot in their interests that it is only with the greatest difficulty that theso can be reconciled. 'An instance of this is given in a divorce case heard hi Melbourne j-esterday,' when Ernest John Taylor, a fireman'on the Victorian railways, petitioned fn-j the dissolution of his marriage with Miss Mabel Morgan) the well-known operatic actress, Who was principal boy in the pantomime "Mother Goose" in New Zealand. Before they married in 1901 in Melbourne)- the respondent -.vas a saleswoman, and at the time of her marriago was oldy 19 years of ttgev They have one child. According to.Taylor's deuce, husband and wife lived together for three' yearsj when she appealed' to him to allow her to become a member of Stephenson's Musical Comedy Company, then appearing at the Princess Theatre in Mel- 1 bourne After, coiisidefillg-tho matter for three days, he gave this permission, on condition tlmt : : the engagement was:not to be for six months, arid that Bhe would not abah-' don her interest .in tho home.. Ho Was financially.. embarrassed. at the time, having taken part in. : thd railway strike, .Afterwards, when he asked her to leave tho Htagej' she replied, "No, r could.hover lead.a humdrum life again,'! On NeW Yoar's Day,lßoß, he'took his little boy. to see .her: at Her' -Majesty's Theatre. His wife was then appearing ; in"Mother Goose.",. He appealed - to her to "give .up the cursed stage, and come back hofflo." Her,reply was that if that was all he had coma for* ho could leave; ftttd tu'r'nher heel, and without Baying "Goodbye" to either himself or child, she walked up ' the stage, 'He had not seen his wife smoe. His Honour thought it evident that' tho respondent had Wore, ambition for' a theatrical life than a home life, for Which i she appeared unfitted. The hUsbaiid had done -hid. best, to try.to got her to give Up her stage career, • and had appealed to her On his own and the child's behalf j but she appeared not to have any affectum' for either' husband or child, Ho granted a decree nisi, A LaVrti tennis .trouble/-■•"•-,ln laWft' tennis circles, there.lias been a good doalof disoUsSibn thlsweek over the action of the. New Zealand Association in seceding.from.the Australasian Federatidh— a step announced irl a letter read' at the animal meeting of the'Lawh Tennis ASsOcia-' tioh. of Australasia oii Monday, night, when Messrs. T. fl. Baiter and A. R. Barry, the New Zealand delegates, rjutthe casts for the Dominion. The complaint' Is that No*. Zealand, in'.its representation, is'tUerely.OUthji. footing of a provincial association,,whereas, it claims equal' national representation with Australia. Then again- there, id', a'-lack. of-. Interest shown by the' Australian States in the affairs of lawn tennis in New Zealand, and this.' Mf. Baxter Contended,XWas- illustrated When tho Australasian championships Were, held iti NeW Zealand, for thoy resolved themselves iHtd Now Zealand oha'mpionships, sinCe only OheCofflSetitor ,'camo frbm Australia/and WaOtically compelled to come to defend his title. ■'. Mr. Barry pointed out that While 'two 'Unit's .were concerned with equal' representation'lll the tennis world, one unit \vtts represented by twelve delegates j and the Other had.oilly. tfl'O, : Since New Zealand had nine afEliated<aSsociati6ns, 1-50 ' clubs, and 7350 tennis'.' player's,:: It -was. clearly entitled to better representation;-'',' It was explained by Mr.. Baxter that the' conditions, upon ,whieh;NewvZealand would consent to remain affiliated were:'—(l) That a council be formed between. the> Australian, and. Now. Zealand boduisV'to'be Called'the'AtlStralasiaii Counoil, for the purpose of carrying out international matches -.and. sanctioning, ' regnlatiß'g, and .Controlling national, Intercolonial, - and AuS; tralasiail.championshipsJ? and'"(2) that' all profits arising out of tho Davis Cup matches be equally.divided between- the governing bodies "Of tha CommohwCalth ajid'NeW Zealand. The only course obeS for Nc-W-Zea-laiid, if the ComttiOriwealtH did not-'agree to these terms; he. Said,-U'a's'.to apply for '»■■ mission to the Davis Cup contests as a separate nation. A motion was' Carried referring the matter to. the. various Australian' associations. ■; Meanwhile, the president of the association, Mr. W.,fi. Forrest,-considers that the. New Zealand. suggestions will not be_accebted in their present form, but that it is possible a satisfactory compromise will bS'arrived at if the matter is,talked over quietly by the delegates, from Australia and New Zealand, ■ . ;. '-, ■■.. ■'"■