An Australian in Germany.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 50, 23 February 1912, Page 9

An Australian in Germany.

SOME IMPRESSIONS

A. D. McLaren, one time a school teacher in Sydney, has written a highly instructive and most interesting book about Germany to-day, entitled "An Australian in Germany." His word-pictures of the Continental Sunday should be enlightening to the wowsers of the Dominion and Commonwealth whoso aim i.s to mako the Day of Best and Rational Reei-eation a Day of Desolation and Dreariness. Hero are some of his impressions:—'l have visited tho po'-ivst quarters of the largo German cities, and have never come across the human wreckage that I have srcii in Franco and England, and to a los 3 extent in Sydney and Melbourne. Rags and dirt in Germany are 'forbidden' with the rest. 'Political corruption is unknown in Germany. ILmoaty is a characteristic, of the Gerni.in people as a whole. Ua.sca of food adulteration are very rare in Germany. It is forbidden! But it is also forbid-

den in England Yel every day the English iiewspnjver.s contain reports of prosecutions for selling margarino as butler, or ground shell as cocoa, or for watering milk. '"The Germans havo never tried to make Sunday a day of darkness and desolation for all who do not go to church. Those, of them who do not waJit to go to a concert or to take a trip on the river themelvcs havo never tried to prevent others from doing it. The Australians say tliat their country is the freest, in the world, but in the matter of enforcing rules and regulations for 'Sabbath observance,' they have been more tyrannical than eithor the Englisri or tho Germans. "To those used to the gloom and depression of the English, and still more tho Australian Sunday, the large trnv-ns of Germany on the first day of tb-e weok afford a delightful and refreshing contrast. Here are seen on a fine Sunday irmrniiifr happy hands of 'Sabbathbreakers,' parents and children, filing their way in all directions to the suburbs to enjoy a of football or a romp in the parks, some with hampers, intent on making a day of it. Others Hock to tho Znologioal Gardens—one of the finest in the world —which they can sec now for hall'priee (threepence). Tho prices of admission U) the theatres are also reduced, so that thousands who would otherwise have no opportunity of doing 30 aro enabled to »ec tho best plays and hear the best music. Many of the churches oven have notices affixed to the door announcing free concerts in the afternoon or evening. Some of those—Protestants as well as Catholics—who go to church in the

morning go to the theatre in the evco4 ing. 1 "In regard to the right to spend Sua-* day in one's own way thero is merer liberty in Germ-any than in either En.jj-4 land or Australia. Germany is neither! SabbaUnion nor democratic; Austra-i lia is both. 1 have not yet heard onfflj single person in Germany suggest tliafef places of aiiiiueii.eiu be closed on Stia-4 day. This, at any rate, evcryouw who bos vi-icd G'.'imau cities musfc aeliai 1 --the p,ool<- always look briphft and happy on Sunday. Who could sayj thai, of the people of Melbourne or< Syilney or even London i Those who have lived in Kraiee and Geianny v:\nJ ea.-ily understand why ioreigm i s Imto-I our Sunday. Churchgoers in Engli.-Ji—' speaking count nos s-iy licit the Sunday is being filched fr >m ibeiii. buttblf should remember thai they are otih fr section of the whole oonininnii'-. The dreadful result that is to follow the introduction of 'a bat. th'-y rail the 'Continental Sunday'—which many of th mm do not know fVom persoiml o-xnc-rie.ro* — only exists in their own imaginaw