A PESSIMIST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 95, 28 March 1916, Page 6

A PESSIMIST.

agin the government. , Most people have heard of Austra r lian pessimism. In “Australian Byways,” Mr Norman Duncan gives a Concrete example:— In the train we encountered an old codger with an Australian “bung’ (fly-bitten) eye and a marvellously surly disposition for a man of any age or condition. He was hunched in a corner scowling and morose and scornful, sucking his pipe in a temper which seemed to be habitual, and biting the stem as though he had nothing better than that poor thing to punish m solace of his mood—a sour okl.’dq" .with a. grteat bush of indignant iron-grey whiskers. He had no prosperity; he was seery and gray and,malcontent; and as it turned out he was in boiling dissatisfaction with the Government—the damned,, meddling Government, said he; and. they were making new laws in Perth, for ever making more laws, tons of law, miles and, miles of law!* It was no country for a man of spirit.. It was a law-ridden country. There was no free play. A man couldn’t follow his fancy. A man was regulated; his sitting down must be accomplished according to law; his rising up and- going forth. What happened to a man of spirit—a man with the fire and ingenuity to strike out for himself and begin to get alorfg in the world! Was he encouraged? Was he let alone? No,'sir! The Government straightway devised a law to deal with his enterprise. It was meddle, meddle. meddle! The Government meddled more men into the poorhoiise than it helped to keep out. “Do you reckon,” he demanded, “that a bloke can own a cow in this country ?” We reckoned that a bloke could. “Naw,” said he. “Suppose,” we proposed, “that a bloke bought ahd paid for a cow?” “It wouldn’t be his cow.” “To Whom,” we inquired, “would the cow belong?” “Gbv’ment.” “Taxes,” he elucidated. It was still obscure. “If I buy and'pa)? for a row,” the old fellow went, on,“I- have a right to think, that, that cow is mine. And she ought 'to' be mine. That’s argument.', You can’t dodge it. But 1 have to, pay a license to the Go v ’ merit every yeari for the privilege of keeping that .cow ; she isn’t mine at all. Is she .mine when she’s two years old? Is she mine when she’s ten years old ? No, sir; she’s never mine. That cow belongs to the Gov’ment. 1 only rent her. I couldn’t pay for her; and own her if both lived to be a thousand years old. I could milk tha^hibW»..rtrrcl sell that cow, and kill that cow; but that cow could never, iffWCr be mine. I’d be paying for "that cow to the day of her . death. And that’swWhy,” M added, cunningly, “you don’t catch me owning rib - I —k cow in this country !”