A TRIP TO AUSTRALIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 61, 16 June 1916, Page 7

A TRIP TO AUSTRALIA.

(By H. Williams.) | From Taranaki (New Zealand) to (lippsland Victoria), via Sydney and I .Melbourne', is a very interesting trip. I Hippsland, south-east, in Victoria, is I v\ liar Taranaki is in New Zealand—a great dairying pros im e. Though not i interested in dairy fanning myself, I 1 know enough about it to take mental | notes while visiting my many brothers land sisters in (iippsland (all of whom I are in farming business over there I '' and see the difference in the country and system of working. Some* are in hilly country, winch would sell at £ls | per acre; it is well chaired and running \ as many cows per acre l as in Taranaki ; I ami they have to grow no winter food. The grass, when I was there (end of .May) was very plentiful, and they were milking twice l a day. On the l j flats, of course. the land was more 1 valuable; and hardly any winter feed had to be grown. Kach farmer there 1 does his own separating, and there is keen competition for the buying of the

cream among the different butter factories, as many as three carts passing some of the farms. From my point of view, this is the better system than that in Taranaki, not entailing the wear and tear of cartage, to say nothing of .lie time saved in carting the milk backwards and forwards to the factories. The butter is amongst the best produced in Victoria, only being beaten by a factory in the west. A brother-in-law told me that he had not lost a single cow for sixteen years from any cause, but of course this is exceptional. Pigs were bringing in from £4 to £-1 Ids about the time of my visit, and altogether they had had a good season, but prices were not so great as ; he season previous, when 2s 2d for butter-fat was realised. The roads are very poor compared with the majority of roads in Taranaki at tin l particular district where I was, there being no metaf, but the neces-

sity for good roads there is not so great as here, where the milk has to be run to the factory.

The cities, Sydney and Melbourne, have gone ahead to a wonderful degree since i last was there some fourteen years ago. Sydney, especially, has practically, been re-formed. New streets have been made (in the city I mean), and others built on. In three years lately <1 at present forget the period) (35,000 new houses were erected. There are suburbs there now that I never heard of before. The most notable alterations are around Haymarket, and what was 25" years ago a graveyard in the writer’s memory, is now the site of one of the largest railway stations in the world. The tramway system cannot cope with the tremendous traffic, and an underground city railway has been started. There are dozens of picture palaces in the city and suburbs, but to my idea they can show no points to one or two

I shows ill Wellington ; in fact. the Stratford theatre throws as wood a ]»i-. luf»‘ as ;ho majority of thoin. Visit iinr one coutiumms show there, I saw (or its star |>i> tnre one I had seen in Stratford at Foley's twelve months previous. The military element is very strong, and soldiers are met at every turn. Strenuous efforts ate continually being made to aid recruiting, and even at night huge signs in electric light I httlbs, calling on till to enlist “for King and Country,” are met with everywhere, the city being just lilt'* day with the many powerful lights everywhere. Magnificent brass bands (Stratford band is not in it; are parading around, halting occasionally for the recruiting officers to make a speech to the crowds. Writer, who looks physically fit, but who really is exempt, was continually being bailed up and asked to enlist. During my sojourn in New South Wales I passed through the famous Liverpool Cam]); also the earn]) where the (Germans are interned, and where one was killed a few weeks

Accustomed as I am to the quiet of old Mount Egmont. I voted Sydney too fearfully noisy for me. Crossing from Sydney to .Melbourne, is just the context to the trip from New Plymouth to Wellington. No green grass, no lovely patches of native' bush, such as only New Zealand can show, but dry. par-ched-looking country, lint what crops of wheat they do get, to be sure! Passing through the Piverina, at every station one sees scores of thousands of hags of wheat piled up waiting for transport. Expressing surprise at such a vast quantity of wheat to my fellow passengers, 1 was told that all tins was a mere nothing compared to that at the water frontages in Melbourne, where one stack was 1(5 bags high, ‘Jo bags wide, and the stack a mile long. This is the result of the Covernmenr taking charge of all the wheat produced during the last two seasons. It is the opinion of the “man in the street” that this action on their part is a wrong one. To me it looks very plain that there will he a tremendous waste, as, of course, the ordinary shed room for the storage oi wheat is totally inadequate. md i- is all exposed to the Arriving in Melbourne, one does not so; , t,.• great difference that is so i rni.;-;! in Sydney. Same station ami same f 1 1;j cable trams meet the eye first thing;. Sint this month the thirty years’ lease, of the Melbourne tramway expires,Valid it is now to be taken over hy(T think) the municipal authorities. who intend converting it into an electric system. The new Flinders Street station, built since I was last there, has more daily passengers pass through it than tun?{Other station in the world. '■'* * Australia’s reputation for strikes was well being upheld while I was there; no less than throe important ones being on. Calling at the different tourist I nreau’s, I found that Mount Egmont

was hardly known, only in the New Zealand offices was it in any way spoken of, but not generally recommended “as we were so far removed from the rail wav,” Not oe solitary pictnie of our Mount or it hostels could be seen anywhere, while scores ol pictuies advertised tin' other resorts. D 1 course, I told them of the beauties ol the ioiests and mountain, and the up-to-date hostels so close to train and mount. There are two great mountain re-ruts in Australia, one, Mount Kosciusko, in New South Wales, being the highest point in Australia. < HOI If t., and Mt. Bullalo, in Victoria. Each has a splendid house, but the mountains and forest are not equal to Mt. Egmont. Tbev are well advertised, and in eon sequence the houses are three times the size of that of the New Plymouth hostel.

Coming home from Sydney. I was aboard the Manuka, ami took six instead of three and a-balt days to get across, on account of the learlully rough sea. When safely landed home in the old mountain reserve, though Australianhoru and bred, 1 had to admit J had seen nothing more beautiful or more grand since 1 had left it five weeks previously.