THE “ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN” ON THE COLONIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5237, 5 January 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE “ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN” ON THE COLONIES.

Tho contributor to tho European Mail thus discourses on matters colonial;—“ have a few notes from a valued friend of mine who is now on a visit to this country which may well be incorporated in this column. He ia a modest and well-informed man, and his “ first impressions ” after an absence of a quarter of a century from the old country are strikingly fresh, though perhaps a little democratic : It ia an old story, ever new, that the bulk of English people do not know and cannot easily bo made to understand either the details of colonial life or the magnitude and importance of the Australian colonies. One daily meets with ao many ludicrous instances of this even amongst well-educated public men that I am sometimes a good deal amused, and at times a little piqued. A few days ago the clergyman of a suburban parish inquired, “ Who is Governor of Australia just now V* And this was asked with an air which the idea that the said Governor was an old friend of the clergyman’s. When told that in Australia there are seven or eight colonies and as many governors, he frankly confessed that he simply knew or believed Australia to be at the antipodes of England. So many persons have asked me this question that I think Macaulay s New Zealander should co-- * at once, just to. proclaim the existence of i. . country and all the other countries of the Pacific, Some of the principal daily papers habitually speak of “the Government of Australia.” We read in them that the aforesaid Government has lately interposed to stop Chinese immigration. At, Exeter Hall \ye heard a man most learned and eloquent on the conduct.. of the . “ Australian Government,” touching this busi-, ness. Sometimes I fancy it is because our friends at home have not time enough to think and to speak of the colonies separately, Let me give them the benefit-of the doubt. I have taken some time to think about them, and they are welcome to all the benefit of my thoughts. A bit of my mind I will give concerning the British workman. Full many a weary year he has been the hero, not of romance, but of a life painfully real. In the Parliament, in the vestry, in the taproom, garret, cellar, and cell the genius of debate and story has been “ the interest of the working classes.” IVlen have discussed the ignorance, the poverty, the civil rights, and the uncivil wrongs, the vices, and at last the fecundity of the working man. It seems to me that the first quantity brought out by all this is that he is a serf. All projects,, for his reform are based on this idea. The religion which is to improve his morality, the charity which is to relieve his necessities, and the law which is to pnnish his crime, all alike seem to me to assume a serfdom, natural and inevitable. My attention has been called to one aspect of this case not so often dwelt upen, that is the British workman’s personal appearance. In some places a grateful improvement is seen, but in others I can see none. In a county north of London, and not a hundred miles from it, mav be seen specimens pure and simple of the class to which I refer. The artist should see them ; he could do more with pencil than I can with pen. Little Hodge and his father are still on view. The philanthropist should see them, and for the nonce he might forget even the Indian famine. May the powers be gracious to me, for I am free to confess that my heart ached and my blood boiled as some of these poor creatures stood before me. To a man from a bright and genial country like Australia, with its tall and agile “ corn-stalks,” the farm laborer here is an-object to excite both pity and contempt. Usually two types of this class are met with. There is the small, type ; men small in frame and features, small in b ain, small every way. Always wanting in development, and sometimes deformed, they remind me of the miserable Papuans of New Guinea, many of whom are mere pigmies through ages of neglect of physical culture. Here a lad of fifteen walks with a stick, perhaps as a habit, but also for use ; at twenty he begins to stoop as if from age, and is old as to symmetry and strength before he is forty. There is a larger type, broad and ill-bound together, having the parts of a giant with the stamina of a dwarf. The man is heavy, slow, and mechanical. He is bent by long application to labor in a climate rigorous in temperature, and because his periods of recreation and rest are too few and too far between to straighten him. You might suppose him to .be a machine whose ioints are corroded. In old age he is shaggy and haggard. There Is a carious unity of hardihood and patience on his uncultivated face, svliich would be painful to see but,for the relief rendered to it by the softening influences of a home, often as pure as it is humble. The sight of all this used to be familiar to me, but an absence of nearly a quarter of a century spent amongst a ‘people well fed and free and who know how to balance work and-play, had banished the sad picture from my mind. Two questions may be asked here. How comes this sad state of things? Can it be,,altered for the better? The first of these is soon answered. These men are badly nourished, and have been for generations. Their hours of labor are too long, and sometimes men do the work which should be clone by horses or machines. Remotely their condition may be traced to the land laws of England. They remind me of the fabled hunt of the lion, the horse, and the ass. At the end of the year the spoil is divided, and as in the old fable, so here there is an appearance of equity, but practically it is most inequitable. The lion, or the landlord, takes first share. The horse, or the tenant, takes the next. The third share is supposed to fall to the laborer or the ass. It would please me to give a few persons the benefit of ray ,feelings on the subject. I am much interested in the duplicate battle which is being waged between the landlord and the tenant on the one hand, and the tenant and the laborer on the other. In a few place-, all alike have come to grief. The landowner cannot so easily as of yore get good tenants ; and the latter has hard timestoo, but the laborer now as always gets the worst of it. He is a slave who cannot be sold, but he can be starved. He wears no fetters,, but cannot easily leave the soil. His condition is eloquent in its appeals for relief. Can it be given? It seems passing strange to a visitor to have to ask such a question. Oil all sides he sees signs of wealth such as never marked any of the richest of the old empires, such as no country beside England can show to-day. Whole streets of princely mansions adorn the metropolis and the chief towns of England. Large estates, worth some continental monarchies, are to be seen from John o’Groat’s to Land’s End. Yes I There ia wealth enough and work enough. Can they not be so adjusted as to honor the rich and bless the poor? Let the men of England look to this with greater sympathy and vigilance, for neglect of it will one day unveil a terrible sequel. Love of country is strong in the Englishman. He does not readily quit hearth and fatherland, but a man’s patriotism suffers a fearful discount when compelled by want to seek relief on a foreign shore. Perhaps my view of the case is too limited, and my judgment will be modified when I have seen more, but such it is at present after some months spent in the study of these things as seen with Anglo-Australian eyes.