DAMNING AUSTRALIA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 687, 18 July 1914, Page 3

DAMNING AUSTRALIA.

Recently an Englishman living in Sydney wrote to the '-'London Financial Times" and said,-inter alia : —"ln sending immigrants here, do send business ones. Of all unbusinesslike people, I am sure the Australians are the worst. There are not 1 per cent, of business men in Sydney. The ons thought is pleasure. The business part of life is a second consideration, and it is a lamentable fact how quickly a smart Englishman runs into the same groove as the Australian. The point is, there are not enough smart men here to keep the smart men up to scratch ; the consequence „is, everyone becomes slower and slower." When this appeared there happened to be in London a good Australian, and a well-known Melbourne business man and financier—Mr. George D. Mendell. He is also a vigorous writer, so he took up the cudgels for the Commonwealth. MENDELL'S DEFENCE. This is what Mr. Mendell said : "Why, the business men'of Sydnoy have created, out of nothing, in less than a century, the strongest private bank and the most successful mutual life assurance office in the world. They have made Sydney in fifty years the sixth shipping port, for tonnage in the greatest Empire the world has ever known. They have made in Sydney the most beautiful city oh earth, not excepting Edinburgh. Slow,, are they ? You get the same answer to the same question in one hour in Sydney as you can get in London in one week. The business immigrant, who goes to Australia to set the pace to keep the Australian business man up to the scratch mast take care he ds not run over and killed during his first spurt. 'Australia in fifty years has produced £742,000,000 of minerals, and has per head the soundest public debt, the most bank deposits, the most savings bank deposits, the best birth rate, the lowest death rate, the finest land laws, the best wool output, the most sheep in the world. Australia also produces the best horses, sheep, cattle, meat, butter, rabbits, champagne, sugar, and fruit known to merchants. Australia has the greatest silver mine, the best copper mine, the richest gold mine, and the largest tin mine, as well as the biggest coalfield of any spot on earth. Our trees are the highest, our coke the purest, our zinc the cfleanest, and our oil-shale beds and .brown coal seams the most extensive on the globe. v Our import and export trade is the largest per head, and so is our local shipping. Taxation is the lowest, epidemic disease the smallest, crime statistics the lowest, milk supply and food the purest, and old age pensions, at 10/per week, the highest known to humanity. Finally,,., we get more sun, warmth, and good weather than any place outside Southern Europe, and our population weighs more and measures more than any other people., , "The final argument is that the 1910 Commonwealth figures show the average property of each adult'to be £744, or a total of about 000,000 for a population of only 2,320,000 men and women." And the English Conservative being thus effectively dealt with hid his head in shame.