IMITATIVE AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 271, 12 August 1919, Page 7

IMITATIVE AUSTRALIA

NEED OF ORIGINALITY. Bishop Long, speaking on reconstruction at the All Saints' Cathedral, Bathurst, recently, remarked that one tiling painfully apparent to the person returning from abroad was the absolute iniitativenoss of Australian life. Someone on the other Mrlc of tho world save the cry of Bolshevism, and tho people out here ran helter-skelter about it; then semebody stalled anti-Bolshevism. Australian was met'by so many Imported crios and ideals and pests that the ir-onle never troubled lo think for themselves or to live as tho.v 'honld. There was not enough originality lo sweep away the mnn w''o v-nited lo on nctly the old linei or enough to enable us to create things for our <>»': needs. So far as lie had iimved about .\u.-.!ra-li'i lie had eiieoiiiiloi"d everywh >ri> a kind of nhysiciil contemn: <Vn' lim Tcn'>ui> of Nations. The one-sidedness of the people on the question was extra•'nli'W.v. lie supposed oiM* altitude on Mich Wi; onations was because Australia heard only a few jini«y voices outside, Mm Council of Statesmen was quietly thinking "f the l>ig tilings.

All linrt to take a hand in reeonstnittion, and, if he were to chooso for himself, ho desired to be found with the ardent, hopeful, daring, and enterprising souls who welcomed tho new order and who wore dissatisfied with the old. mean lines upon which life hnel been hui'.t formerly—tho souls who were ready to attempt something for a finer and bigger Australia.