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Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1924, Page 2

FIIOM the foregoing, however, it

clear it is not the fear of German repiisals or the desire to force Germany into making reparations, which Fra ice knows cannot he made under the oresent policy of the French. It is neither reparations nor security that France is worried over. France is ;osirous of dominating Europe, but the full of the franc is giving M. Poincare an attack of nerves. France has not only not paid any creditors, but lies also inflated tile currency and failed to balance the budget, and has belli indulging in a system of limine: il fraud. The fall of the franc will bring the French people to their senses, nnl

votes of confidence in the Chamber o! Deputies will not help M. Poincare very much. Drastic linniieial reforms are the order of the day in Fnitiv’. anti these should have been put in force three or four years ago. Th? French military vote must be reduce 1, and the soldiers released for civilian service. It will he interesting to watm lmu the l.nbbur Government in Britain handles this very delicate European political situation.

Foe a distance of 330 miles across the Nullarber Plain, the Trans-eoininenUl Australian railway track runs in an absolutely straight line—the long-.s* straight span in ilie world. At the eastern cml of the plain is a station. Cold,-a. The traffic is not what one would call heavy. Each week, iml'c l. three trains pass through in eithe, direction, and one might imagine the* the railway stall' would find existence rather dull. But Mr. A. G. Bola i the stationmaster. has resources whi-li relieve the monotony, and have enao'ccl him to write a most interesting book “The Trans-Australian Womlerlan 1.” Holden, or Youldeli. as it was origin:, l h spelt, is one of the three known places in suh-central Australia where surface water is found. Its soak per petunlly renews itself. From time immemorial it has been a rendezvous ol the natives. Here they came to perform their ceremonies and to barter their goods. It was a sanatorium in which the sick and injured made pilgrimage. The tribal armourers brought their flints and grinding stones to the soak, ns innumerable relics testifv. Venning and Howie appear to have been the first white inert to visit Oo’,lea, but no record of their trip exist*. It 1875 Giles made it the jumping-off place for his dash across the continent Since then explorers and surveyors have gone there at long tlitcrvals, and when the railway was built, new wells were sunk, and tlie water supply was improved. This rather forbidding waste of sandhill and outcrop is a lippy hunting ground for the naturalist and scientist. Animals and reptiles inhabit it. which arc to lie found nowhere else. Mr Bolnm gives an account of its fauna avifauna and flora. The first-mr::-eri include some curious creatures, such a, the kangaroo mouse, which can outpace any dog. and the marsupial mole, w hich, blind, deaf, and dumb, leads the simple hut happy life, aided only by a sense of smell. There arc lizards galore, some of which are like a trog in appearance, but hark like a dog. Others go along with a gait resembling the action of a cyclist. Ooldoa and its neighbourhood abound in fossils. The hones of extinct animals, such as the Tdprotodon. have been found. There are queer “sky stones.” whose origin i- a mystery; deposits of brown coal, and indications of oil. And last, but not least, there are the aboriginals, ol whose manners, customs, and institutions, .Mr Bolam has made a close study. Ooldea is hut a iinv outpost. That it should he the dwelling-place of two persons. Miss Daisy Bates and Mr A- G. Bolam, who have made such valuable contributions to ethnology, is all the more remarkable.