AUSTRALIA TO-DAY,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1696, 12 March 1913, Page 9

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY,

FEDERAL CAPITAL. \ (By Will Lawson.) Over the heads of the people and poliv ticians'of Australia, like the. sword of Damocles, hangs, and has, hung for ten > ' years, the question of the Federal Capi- • tal. By the constitution of the Commoni wealth; of Australia, such a city-i/.ust be ./, built, it-must bo 100 miles distant from ;• the •coast,, and not too near• to cither Sydney or. "Melbourne. These are the V ' facts concerning the Federal Capital of ; Australia. But there was no time prescribed in which' it had to be built, coni sequently no- one.in -Australia believes \ it will'be built in his lifetiirie. This may seem 'an extreme statement to make; % still, no man with whom I have discussed the -matter has exhibited half tho eni thusiasm he displayed when talking of i Victor :Trumper's benefit match. . There V is no doubt whatever that if the matter of the Inderal Capital oame up for \ discussion now, instead of ton years ago, ;> it would be indefinitely postponed. The Federal Capital is to be built / at Canberra, in the Yass ' district, on , open, undulating' .land.. ■ Tiio nearest port. will be Jervis.-, Bay, 50 miles south of Port Jackson, towards which excellent, ' but. hitherto unused, port the railway from Yass is now being constructed.' If a straight line bo drawn on'tlie map from. Sydney to Melbourne, it. will pass, through tho site cf 'the'future- city; divide the line into : thirds'and make a dot at onethird of the distance v f'.-om the Sydney end; that marks the-sjw; where, some: day, stately spires and minarefa will raise their height, from tne dry. brown . plain. ' ■- . - -- ; . ■-. ' Already the' Federal city has been planned; l on March 12 next the first - foundation stone will be laid, and then it . will depend upon the enterprise and enthusiasm of the Australian people When the city shall- be completed. •' At the 4 present moment, with the' thermometer soaring over'the 100 .mark, nobody cares ' much -about' the matter, and certainly' no Civil Servants want to move out into a. hot, inland city, where the summer tern- 1 perature will bo a vivid and real item of daily life. If Australia lay within temperate platitudes,. ithe , Moral,- Capital mijfht'have been, built already; ', .' i , , 10 prize which tho Government of Australia f offered for. plan's of the Federal City was won by an' American, a Finn came next, and the third, man was a. - I'renchman. This looks as though Australian townjplannifers had missed the. .bus._ But, as a,; matter of.'fact, the • winning plan has' been altered very much, and now > closely resembles; a. plan prepared by Australian \Government officers long ago. The Govornmait is nowoffering a prize : for the ibest, design- of Houses of Parliament, . which buildings : will have a length of over 600; feet. . The Jesuit: of this -competition is' regarded as being of much, importance, as tho r .style of architecture adopted by the Govern- . ment will,set tho fashion for the whole ■ prtyFor purposes of comparison, it may be mentioned that when: Washington, the capital of the United States of, America, the. population of that Republic was just dboufc the sdme as Aii'stralia now is—nearly five millions. And Washington is reported to 'suffer from jn unpleasant climate; yet it is the most fashionable, city.-.in tho United States. Wherefore it is reasonable to suppose that' V . Federal City of "Australia, whatever. , its climatic disadvantages in summer,: will' become the centre of fashion and- culture of Australia",'and the present bitter rivalry of Sydney and Melbourne will . be to „a great extent' minimised >by haying this third city jeplou^e^t., v • V , An amusin^iCoUtrover ; sy,ii.?,.-iiwv-,iii prof! giess in the Australian-.press':,as to, the -name -to-, bo ~given t0,.-the.; new,: capital. Myola,,, .nieanins;' - : tha ■int'eting-place,: .-and Canberra, which is not' a pure native -name, - appear to be at present the fa v. ourites. There seems to be no desire.'tfl emulate the example of America in naming , her capital city after her. deliverer. Ausl. tralia'.has so ; many honoured names 'in. her history',, of. men who dared her i deserts and'-wildernesses, in search rof wider realms. One of these names would appear'. to be a fitter title, for the city, ' yrMdh. .is :to be, arbitrarily built in, the wilderness at a cost of' ji10,000,000 sterl- ' • • ' > ing, in a spot where no city- would ever ; -have grown, by tho extension 1 of trade. ! But Australians appear more intent upon giving it some pretty trifling - of i no historic interest whatever—names which would look;well on'a red-tiled coti tage—Myola and. Canberra. Why not . Blurt? He was pre-eminently. Australia's most intrepid desert , explorer. . . One would think that the business of building a Federal City would fascinate the . minds Of all good Australians. Per;'haps it -did in tho beginning; i. The repeated' postponements from political- intrigue have 1 no doubt wearied-the simpler vintellects of ardent patriots. But what- , ever the cause of the apathy, thefact remains—the average Australian does -not care when or where tho Federal capital is built, he is much more-interested in Jiis embryo navy. 1