NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 November 1925, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

.MEN AUSTRALIA WANTS.

LONDON, September 22. Mr Seymour Hicks is a comedian of the first order, but lie does not always jest, and in his book, “ Hullo, Australians ” ho has written a number of things which merit the most serious consideration. His chief character, Mr Green, a cheerful English bachelor, decided to visit Australia and sec what it and its people arc like. On the subject of a \\ bite Australia he hits hard. Bingland, an Australian whose acquaintance he makes, speaks strongly ; Your people at home haven’t troubled to realise that the making of a White Australia means almost more to the -Motherland than it does to us; they have no vision; Australia should lie Greater Britain. . . H you lost us, it would he the beginning o| your downfall. Your’rc overcrowded ; why not send us over a few million of your best people? Look at the rotten class ol emigrants you shove on to us. Shophoys and bookkeepers—we want agri- ; culturists who can go up country and stay there and work the land which will ultimately become their own.

WASTERS AND AGITATORS. Mr Green expresses his surprise, and Jackson, another Australian, declares that the emigrants do not realise that the 7(1 acres of land allotted to them is “ uncleared ” and thinks tlm emigrants would not emigrate if thev knew what was before them. He adds:

Fine as it would lie, and I’d give till I have to see it, I don’t believe there ever can be a White Australia —we shall have to employ coloured labour, tind the sooner we realise it the heller. . .

Of course not the Japs. . . Imperial coloured labour, that’s wlmt 1 meant. The natives of India are under Hie Union Jack. They work for Britain in their own country; why shouldn’t they work for us in ours? And there are countless thousands ol others under British protection. Mr Green remarks that cheap labour would crush every trade union, to which Jackson replies: Ah. you’ve said it. Trade unions. They're at the bottom of the whole thing—trade unionism is a fine thing to protect the individual in unfair circumstances, but it is generally the last thing to think imperially, which is what a young country needs. Mr Jackson is definite on Labour: It's not Labour 111 itself that’s going to ruin Australia ; it’s the tick oil Labour’s hack, the wasters, not the workers, those who agitate continually for higher wages, shorter hours, innumerable holidays, ami sometimes treble rates of nav for overtime.

EMPEROR COOK’S LATEST. BRUSSELS, September 22. Although the proceedings at yesterday morning’s meeting here of the committee of the International Federation of Miners were conducted in private, it was learned that they were very .stonnv.

Emperor Conk, secretary of tin* Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, was severely (akin to task by the German delegates for the speeches he made recently in Berlin and in Essen. Emperor Cook replied that lie accepted full responsibility for what he had said and that he maintained his state-

lie nevertheless voted for the resolution which disavowed the published reports of his own speeches.

COSTS OF SUGAR PRODUCTION SYDNEY. November o.

The chairman of the Colonial Sugar Company stales the imposition of a forty-four hour week on the company's factories in Queensland had increased tiie cost of sugar production twenty per cent.

■FAIhST’ FORTUNE. LONDON. Sept. 22

Mr Richard Xorthcot t. archivist of the Royal Opera. Coven! Garden, in the course of an anecdotal history of Gounod’s “Eaust,” which he broadcast from 21.0 last night, said:

Gounod, al the outset, received (J-ibO for the publishing rights of his score, and he stipulated for a fee of £2O for every performance in Paris, a fee which continues to he paid to his descendants. Reckoning the number of performances already given in Franco, and they run to thousands and considering the amounts demanded lor permission to stage the opera in Great Britain. America, Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, 1 estimate about LtiO.CCO having been paid to the composer and his family, which nitty he regarded as quite a satisfactory return for what was hardly three years’ labour. Gounod visited London in 1803 for the production of “Faust," which was tir.-l- heard at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Col. Mapleson, the manager, thought so little of its possibilities that he insisted on a substantial contribution towards the stage expenses. 1 would warn intending debutantes at Covent Garden that the period of the story of “Faust" preludes a Marguerite appearing with bobbed hair; she must wear the conventional, though artist ie. pigtails!

"Faust” has nearly reached its •lOGth performance al the Royal Opera. Covent Garden, and in present-day revivals by tile Grand Opera Syndicate, the proprietors of the theal re, all the armour, swords, helmets, spurs, and other things approved by Gounod in tlie first- representation there over lit) years ago. are still utilised for fluhundred supers engaged for the processions and these properties to-day are valuable.

LONDON'S PIGEONS. LONDON. Sepl. 22. Public disfavour is growing in Ihe City againsi the flocks of fat well-fed pigeons which swoop and flutter in grey clouds in front of St. Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Exchange. Visitors to London regard them as being one of the most interesting features of the City, and delight to feed them with grain or bread. Many City workers regard them as being a great nuisance. They disfigure buildings, soil the hats and ehiLhiiig of passers-by. injure walls by picking lime and mortar from them, and in their search for water upset the vases of flowers at the base of the war memorial to City troops outside the Royal Exchange. This last transgression is especially annoying to the women workers of the Rank of England, who have undertaken to keep the memorial a* tidy as possible. Although the Royal Exchange pigeons look a cleaner company than the rather disreputable birds at St. Paul's, it was yesterday stated that many of them are diseased.

Officials of the City Corporation are considering whether they shall take any action regarding the birds, the misdeeds of which were brought before the Court of Common Council in July.

WHITEHALL COSTS. LONDON. Sept. 22. Attention is to he called at the annual meeting of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce. at Aberdeen on Thursday, to the eost of the Civil Service and the urgent need for effecting a drastic reduction. A resolution from Nottingham that the Cabinet he asked to receive a deputation whose mission will he to speak of "the dire effects of the present scale of expenditure on the trade and commerce of the country" will he submitted. and the Huddersfield, Plymouth, and Sheffield Chambers have tabled similar resolutions.

The Southampton Chamber expresses the opinion that great savings could lie effected bv harmonising the conditions of pay of Civil Service employment with those existing in business concerns, particularly with regard to hours of work, length of holidays, amount of salaries, and number of employees.

NEW KIN EM A LUXURIES. I/OXDON, Sept. 22. Rending, writing, ,smoking, and cosmetic rooms lor women are to bo leat tiros of I lie piel tire house to bo erect-

ed on Ibo in to of t In* Empire Theatre. Leiroster-si|imi'o. W.C. I’ianned on American lines, the new building will bo similar in many "a\s lo the Oapiinl Theatre in New York - one id' the liuesl. luiirmalograph theatres in the world. Provisional plans were shown to a reporter yesterday by Mr I'. MChancellor, who is collaborating with Mr Thomas W. banib, Ihe American arehiteet. in designing Ihe building. “The building "ill seat H.otlO. and will have the largest seating capacity of any kincinalograph in central London,” said Mr Chancellor. A stage and dressing rooms for artists are being provided with a view to any possible developments in the presentation of films. “There will be a number ol lounges and rest rooms lor the men and women members of (lie audiences, and a pueuojll rr space is being provided inside t.ie building. ■ It is Imped that the new building "ill be completed by Christinas of next year.