LORD ROSBBERY'S VISIT TO AUSTRALASIA.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 305, 13 November 1883, Page 5

LORD ROSBBERY'S VISIT TO AUSTRALASIA.

V Lord Rosebery has never given more gqu.* c}u^Y c eyltlwp.e Q ? . the pwotloal ' wisdom which he posaesaea to an extent greater than his years might seem to render possible, than in the journey he is now making to the Australian colonies by way of America. That experience, far too rare among our public men, when one thinks of the vajuatile lesgpjn^ that a discerning tyayejleji 1 c^n gather from it (i w-as acaui're.d fa early life by Sir. Charles l),ilke, who has shown again and again that his visit to Aus.traiask qqth. am] warngd^m,. ; Jioj'4 WSQbejy comes hither m,p,re matured in intellect, and with a faculty not less keen of discriminating the tendencies of political and social forces. He will learn much, that ought to influence the. lines of his f utu,rtj cursor j andj it Is certain \hs no, esqrt will be spared, to, mak,e his tour a pleagant one hj people who pride f;hem.selves, with justice, on their hospitality, and who will exerfc t}«? virtue with a}} \hp\y mjght to, d.o Honor to. a, nohlemau whose sterling merits and happy genius arc as well known, in the colbnies as' they are at home. He is the head of a race long esteemed and beloved in the little enterprising realm which has contributed to #\e A^stralfas s,q in.any $ \lp\v worthiest aud most prominent settlers. Lord Bosebery, ere he leaves Australia, will have found himself in regions the prevalent accent of which will have made him fftnoy Wmself back in .the Lothians. Hard»headed, hard-fisted, softhearted men will come to him with a flush on the honest face and a break in the broad kindly voice, and tell him ho vr, before they attained to the broad paddocks and th.c cou,ntjess sb,eep, they wepe « young lads" ab,Qut the Balmenly side, and " mindit the a,uld Lord weel." The Ministry— not the clerical, but the political Ministry — of New South Wales, observes the ♦ World,' will 'insist on escorting ! him in a pleasure Btea.mer vaund. the fairy Jnlefs an 4 b,y the shaggy coasts of the beautifu.l harbor, a.nd will organize a pionie in his honor over the wonderful " zig-zags " by which the railway crosses the precipitous creeks of the Blue Mountains. Of the party may be the grandson of the explorer Wentworth—an honored name in Australia — who. with his two comrades.nrat looked down from these aummiti on the bewildering gladdening spectacle of that far-stretching interior, now studded with towns and villages, now rich with crops and sheep and mines. The Victorians will carry him to Ballarat and Sand, hurst, and show \\im th§ now silent Eureka FJat a.n4 forest Oreek ; where once thou- I Sfvud&Jupon thousands of stalwart miners ' plied the pickaxe and rocked the cradle. , They can show him surface gold no longer ; but if he be williug to go, they will take him I down two thousand feet itttq the bowels of | the Magdala, sh^y Wro. the « face " whence the rich alluvium of the Madame Berry is brought up, three hundred feet, to the macer- ' aftng trough, and let him fire a blast among: ' the auriferous quartz of the BQlmcmt a»«t ! Saxhy, the Royal Hustler, or the Garden I Gujjy United. They will take him to PhiUp RvUHjeH's beautiful s^eep station of Carflgham

3 and show him, primus inter jjares,the merino ram which the undaunted Russell bought » under the hammer for the little bagatelle of t 1,400 guineas. They will equip him for quail 3 shooting among the preserves of Sir Samuel , Wilson's fine estate of Ercildoune ; and he I will be invited to look out|on the rich terrain. ' j stretching to where the smoke of Melbourne 1 rises sixty miles away, from the terrace of i the sweet mountain home of a gentleman t whose daughter married the other : day the ! son of a duke whose lands " march " with ; those Dalmeny. The South Australians will show him thednmb ghost of the once famous; Burra Burra copper mine, in which the late i Mr Delaney was a large shareholder ; and the. yet lustily vital Mopnta mine, which in 20 years has paid its lucky shareholders over ,*L 1,200,000 on a share capital of nothing at jail. The Queenslandors will let him here the crack of the stock whip ; {jive him piri ticipatiqn in the excitement and risks of a ! " round up ;" and offer him his choice of a | kangaroo battue, a kangaroo hunt, or a " cutting out" expedition in the scrwb aftor will cattle. In New Zealand he will sec a country that is surprisingly like England, \ihcre it dues not remind him of Scotland, except in parts which resemble the Alps, and in | other parts which have the temperature and , productions of Northern Italy ; a country in i ■ whose glaciers he may pluck the edelweiss, and from whose garden trellises he may pluck ripe grapes. He may visit at houses where no manservant is kept, yet his ho^t could buy him out to the last acre and the last yearling ; put down sovereign, for sovereign against his | Oountr-s-s's dowry, anil "th'enhave more than I enough left to maintain the modest style in : j which he lives. With bis knowledge of ! what the " bolls " of a Lothian farm laborer ' arriount to — the oatmeal and milk —it may I surprise him to have explained to him the meaning of- the phrase " ten, ten, two, and a j quarter."— the conventional abbreviation of j the weekly rations, ten pounds of meat, ten pounds of ilour, two pounds of sugar, and it quarter of a pound of tea, issued to each station-hand all over Australia, except in Queensland, where the ration is '• twenty, ' twelve, two, ami a quarter," because a I d">g or two may have to be fed. Evorjwhere will he discern prosperity, progress, enter-.! priso, and yet commitment. He will traverse ' Australia without being solicited by a beggar, i If he takes our. money to invesr, he may obtain ut least 2 per cent, of better re*urn than at home, with adequate security, «o lon .j as he holds alo f from investing* in gold mines. If he care to buy land he will ba very unfortunate if he does not find it steadily and rapidly appreciate in value. He may find a veritable " Bonanza l% in a wellselected, well-bought, and well-managed sheep-station. And when he come 3 to look into the details of colonial politics, he will find some interesting problems. He will find universal suffrage unaccompanied by either Bepnblican or socialistic -leanings. The political career, as in America, he will find for the most part' shunned by the better classes. He will discern that the component elements of at least the Lower Houses of the Colonial Parliament systems aret^o often not of the most desirable type,, and that the tone of debate •in these places. ;of legislation is too often narrow, coarse, and scurrilous; yet he will note, with equal surprise and satisfaction, that Australian politicians, while in too many things having an affinity to American politicians., happily are different in this — that among them peraonal corruption is rare indeed. Every indication he may fancy present of a not ungeneral proclivity . in favor of "a " big steal ;" but the most searching investigation will convince him that personal rottenness is a most exceptional attribute of the Australian politician. And he may take back to his Sovereign the gratifying assurance that in - all the .wide range of her dominions there abide no more ardently and solidly loyal subjects of hers than the wide-lying populations who live their worthy steadfast lives under the Southern Cross.