The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY. JANUARY 2. 1923. AN AMERICAN ON AUSTRALIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1923, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY. JANUARY 2. 1923. AN AMERICAN ON AUSTRALIA.

It is always interesting lo learn what the stranger within our gates thinks of us whether or no we agree with his opinions. If they are uncomplimentary we can dismiss him as a presumptuous ignoramus who has the temerity to write about us, on ft totally inadequate acquaintance. Jf he praises us we can say that here at last is someone who knows what he is talking about. But we cannot complain of our treatment in ‘‘lllustrated Australia and New Zealand” by Mr Wiiliam D. Boyce. Seldom, says a reviewer of the work have we had a more appreciative guest. Mr Boyce is an American newspaper proprietor who visited Australia more than a year ago and made many friends. As in tho case with most of his countrymen he knew little of Australia, and that little 1 was rather vague. He travelled extenj sively in Australia, and his tour was full of surprises. The more ho saw the more he found to admire. He notes that Sydney is “racing mad”, and he knows some American city planners “who would throw up their hands in despair” at the casual manner in which the city has been allowed to grow. But, he declares, “I like Sydney. Its people are genial and hospitable. They step along with more of a hustle than elsewhere in Australasia but they are not too busy to be cone teous and to make a stranger feel that he is welcome, and that if he but meets them half-way he will find them after all very much like himself.” Also in general ho likos our institutions, although his observation? about compuLory arbitration are much to the point, He likes the country, and wdj struck by the comfort of the station , homesteads o’ttbpo}:, Everywhere he

'went he tVas profoundly impressed with the potentialities oi the land. The burden of his refrain is iIW Australia has n unique place in the sun and that il the old world but realised the advantages that Australia can offer, out progress would he miraculous. Hole is his testimony : “Australia has a range of climate sufhciently varied to cn able all forms of temperate, su.j-tropi-eal and tropical 1 1 nits and vegetables to he grown to iierleetion Its soil is rich enough and its usources are

great enough to feed and clothe it least a hundred million people instead of the live million people it now pi's sesses. Its natural wealth lies in its

wotulei ful pastures, i; immense flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, its forests of great trees, its nines and water resources, ft is the land ol opportunity, and were it neaier the crowded rentie* ol Itncopc, and its resources as well advertised as 11 use ol • an.ida ami Argentine and the United States, it would he the Mecca of the European emigrant.”