CONDITIONS ABROAD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5061, 6 December 1926, Page 4

CONDITIONS ABROAD.

AUSTRALIA BETTER OFF. LAWLESS AMERICA. Mr N. J. Neave has returned to Sydney, after a tour df the world, convinced that there is no country like Australia. Every Australian child, said Mr Neave, was, born with an inheritance ■ worth more, than money could buy. Climatic conditions there were 'far superior to those of England and America. The cost of living in Engand was about thle same ajs that in New South Wales, but wages were about half of those there. Perhaps rents were not so high, but that difference was more than absorbed by the cost pf meat, butter, and heating during the cold weather. In New York carpenters earned £3 10s to £4 a, day, but rents, were; from two to tour times higher .than those in Australia. Heating jn the winter a big item, and the cost of living four or five times greater. During slack periods the poverty was .appalling, as the dollar bought very little. “We do not realise what White Australia meajns to us, with good, clean laws, well and clearly administered,” he said. “In New York, Chicago, and Deroit, one. out of every eight people is black, one out of every 25, I should estimate, cannot speak English, and three of the remainder speak broken English, mostly very badly.

“During my visit Co Chicago two gangs used machine guns in ope of the main streets,, and murders and hold-ups were of daily occurrence. S'an Francisco had seven murders in two days, and Chicago 1800 murders in twelve months. It is a common occurrence tp hold up brinks in New York in the busiest part pf the city, in broad daylight. EVery policeman carries a revolver, and he uses it without much provocation. A car exceeding the speed limit has a tire shot at. It is nob necessary to go into a back street to be robbed. Every day the newspapers give lists o'f 20 to 30 people finod ana gaoled 'for three months' for driving cars when drunk in a ‘dry’ country.