The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, MAY 9, 1927. AUSTRALIA’S GREAT DAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 39, 9 May 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, MAY 9, 1927. AUSTRALIA’S GREAT DAY

AUSTRALIA’S fame always lias been unique. Rather more than a hundred years ago the natural no-velty of the island continent appealed to England’s wittiest commentator. In this remote part of the earth, observed Sidney Smith, Nature determined to have a bit of play, arid so made, among queer things, cherries with the stone on the outside, a quadruped as big as a large cat, with the eyes, colour and skin of a mole, and the bill and web-feet of a duck; a parrot, with the legs of a seagull; a skate with the head of a shark; and a monstrous animal, as tall as a grenadier, with the head of a rabbit, a tail as big as a bedpost, hopping along at the rate of five leaps to the mile,, with three or four young kangaroos looking out of its false uterus to see what is passing. And now, a century later, marking an epoch in a vivid history, it is man’s turn to fill the eye of the world with the supreme achievement of a young nation. To-day Canberra, the Federal capital of Australia, was opened by the Duke of York, whose ceremonial golden key symbolised the rich resources of Australia, the radiant temperament of its people, and the treasured freedom of British nations united in loyalty to an Empire Throne. Ottawa, Delhi, Dublin, Pretoria, Wellington, Canberra; what a rare story of Imperial development is embodied in those historic names! It is a romance of empire that lias no precedent in the world’s history.

Sixteen years have gone to the shaping of Australia’s administrative capital which, as yet, has no pretensions of a city. It has been created in the midst of many difficulties, its growth in recent years having occasioned more resentment throughout the different States than enthusiasm in any one of them. The site was accepted from the New South Wales Government m 1909; Commonwealth ownership became operative in 1911; and the future Federal capital was given its aboriginal name by Lady Denman on March 12, 1913. A small measure of architectural construction had been accomplished when the World War interrupted progress and thrust construction into the background of national enterprise. It was the great intrusion, however, that gave Australia the strength and status of nationhood, and subsequently hastened the building of Canberra. The political city to be is snugly placed between two parallel ridges of wooded hills, and affords prominence to the governmental area. The new Parliament House stands on a sunny slope, giving vision to legislators of whom many, when placed in Melbourne, eoxdd not see Australia for houses. Of course, Canberra is a city of compromise, as it had to be in serving the political needs of a great Commonwealth which supports seven Parliaments and makes politics a professional activity only excelled in importance and expenditure by horseracing. Now that the Federal capital is a solid reality, all the friends and admirers of Australia throughout the Empire will rejoice at its birth and will hope to see Canberra become the Washington of the Southern Hemisphere.

SAVING THE CHILD

IT shows a very sound sense of civic responsibility when out of a sum of £23,000 needed for the construction of a Karitane Home in Wellington, the residents of that city contributed no less than £19,600. Such a voluntary response demonstrates in a most practical manner that the people of this country are really concerned in the conservation of infant life, realising that the native-born baby is the best immigrant, and it offsets, at least to some extent, a seriously reduced birth rate. The work of the Plunket Society is truly deserving of every encouragement. It would have been an appalling thing for this young country to have maintained a high rate of infant mortality with a birth rate consistently falling. Twenty years ago Sir Trilby King launched his campaign for the reduction of mortality within the first year of life. At that time, of every 1000 babies born, 88 were destined not to reach the age of twelve months. Now that rate has been reduced by one-half. It is a triumph of organisation and persistence, for which Sir Truby King and New Zealand have gained the encomiums of the civilised world.

“The work is not charity, nor philanthropy, merely humanitarian,” said Mr. Young, Minister of Health, in opening the new Karitane Home. He might have added that in addition to being humanitarian, it has a most vital economic aspect. Everyone will agree with the Minister that every child in New Zealand has the right to be afforded every opportunity of gaining health and strength, so that it may eventually become an ideal citizen. And it may be said also that New Zealand has every right to the help of all its citizens in an endeavour to make every child born here an asset to the State. The babies of to-day, as citizens of the future, are the most precious possession of a country struggling to the strength of nationhood and it is undoubtedly the duty of the Government and the community to make their conditions such as will enable ihem to become healthy and useful men and women.