IMPRESSIONS OF THE COLONIES.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume X, Issue 969, 16 December 1891, Page 3

IMPRESSIONS OF THE COLONIES.

On his arrival m Melbourne Mr Rudyard Kipling was interviewed by a representative of fcbe ' Age,' to wbomtho Angle-Indian author appears to have been very communicative. The inter viewer says of Mr Kipling : — The internal affairs of this country have not escapad Mr Kipling's notice, and Ite particularly noted the placa which the labor question takes iv Australian politics. He thinks we have too much poli tics for a young country with its character still to make, and that the claims of labor occupy too prominent a place m proportion to other branches of politics, just as politics as a whole receive more than enough attention m proportion to the real and solid development of the country. The outcries of the ' unemp'oyed' strike him as a peculialy bad accompaniment to the tune of a country 'bat goes to the znon>y market of London for the means to carry oh its public works, and the revolt of labor presents itself as a bad beginning m a country where ,the pioneer work-?-the real hard

woik of tfriaelfish lives— is not yet tinifibcil. 'ts it not rather early m your history,' be asks, 'with a mera handful of popula ion, to have half that t opnlution crowded into the ciif^B while Clio land lies an idle wiMerneep, and men are striking against overwork, while Government are paying wag's on n lief works for the unemployed ? It m all very well now for labor to make these demands. By nnd-bye you will be cut un ler, siire.^ Other peop les will come m when they find roo v here, unless your population grows at an ptior notis rye. Ti»er i are the Chines* 1 close against yon wailing their, tine; and learning from you. Don't thiuk thnt evt-ry blow, every kick, every curs«, an- 1 every wrong done, or every Chinaman murdered m San Francisco or insnlted m Australia is not told and r mem' er^d over there m China when those fellows go home. They may not let out about it In re. What wou'd be the use ? But when they are sitting over the evening pipe it goes round and round, and every Ciiinamah's gntvanct? goes through the lan<i from the coast line right back to the mountains of Tartary, and nursed up against you for a long settling they have to make when the time cotnep. There is a l>i°r score to be wiped out, and if your Australians could see them as I have m their native towns, where you meet eyes m every crevice till you might think the. very stonps m the streets ara made of flesh and blood, then you might get an idea of the force you will huve to reckon with. And be3i 'es their grand population, their coast and rivers give them a supply of born sailors, who /voulJ carry tliem ju9t where they wanted to go. 1/ whiba men won't work, other men will.