The Free Spirit of Australia

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 140, 3 September 1927, Page 24

The Free Spirit of Australia

An English Impression of a Nation in the Making

SOMETHING of the sailing jjS, adventurer still clings to M to the Australian. There Tj is a hreeziness, a heartiIfU ness and withal more than a pinch of common sense about him. Of such it may be truly said that they are the salt of the earth. Although we know him to he a fellow of sterling worth, he often gives evidence of an extremely stubborn mind. Once his opinion has been fixed, not all the thunderbolts of Jove can dislodge it and, as might be expected of one who has peopled and prospered the outermost continent, neglected of the world for years, he carries his convictions on his shoulders like a chip you are dared to knock off. But once he understands that your hesitancy is not superciliousness, and that you are ready to give ground in argument as freely as to take it, he will clasp you to his heart as a new chum, and then Hell itself cannot blast him from your side. The war discovered Australia to the world, and, to a lesser degree, the world to Australia (writes Chalmers Roberts in “The World To-Day”). In the Northern Hemisphere there was admiration, frank and freely given, for the conduct of Australian soldiers during the war. A trifle impatient of military discipline, more than ebullient in their hours of recreation, they fought like fine upstanding heroes, and made of Old England an exceedingly proud grandmother. Their influence on returning home was, we are told, incalculable. The sight of the Mother Country in her sore travail humbled them, made them better Britons if less perfervid “Aussies.” They realise that

the price of Empire has not been, cheap, that they are an obligation as well as a rich possession. A Visit of Better Understanding In the United States there is a great curiosity about Australia, due to the wonderful record brought back from Australia by officers and men of the American Fleet who paid a historic visit there the previous year. This was a real voyage of discovery on both sides. The Americans got to know a jovial, kindly people—just such men and women as had built up the great Republic of the West. They found a country larger than their own, with fewer inhabitants than New York; and fresh, as they were, from Hawaii, and familiar, as they were, with the Philippines, they gave spontaneous sympathy to the gospel of a White Australia. On their side the Australians, surprised at first not to find a navy of Uncle Sams, fur-chapped cowboys or gum-chewing tortoise-shell-spectacled heroes of the films, met men with often foreign-looking faces and names, but speaking their language, reared under similar traditions and worthy to be comrades and friends. The American Fleet meant more to the Australians than this. They knew that it stood for protection against the dreaded Yellow Peril, and that in protecting Hawaii and the Philippines the fleet was equally protecting Canada. Australia and New Zealand. The Americans went back filled with admiration for the beautiful Australian cities, the remarkable municipal parks and tramway and bus systems far surpassing those in the land where the greatest boast is efficiency. Those who speak of the White Australian policy as selfish do injustice to what is in many cases a fine, selfsacrificing idealism. Undoubtedly the big landowners and industria’ists would gain greatly in immediate profits if they supported a system of unrestricted immigration; but they cling to their high hopes of a self-contained continent which shall remain inhabited, as it is now, by perhaps the purest-bred race in existence. With the exception of New Zealand, no nation possesses a population so little diluted with foreign strains. Here you have a virgin continent capable of supporting at least fiftv million people, with barelv six

I sprinkled about its coastline. The scant pasturage of te North may be , years waiting for grazing herds, bit Western Australia and Queensland alone could support a mighty popuh- | lion immediately. The area of 500,0 W square miles of the Artesian Rowlands of South Queensland. the Darifcg Lowlands, the River Murray system, also the wheat areas of New Sooth Wales, Victoria and South Australia, and the mineral wealth of the South Eastern States all call out for inhabitants. This area supports about 4.000,0 M people—7o per cent, of the whole ot Australia's population. The same area in Europe supports 130.000,000 people. The Murray Valley scheme of develop ment is a mighty enterprise which makes one hopeful for the future of the continent. A great stream is being harnessed at the cost of £11.000,(00 for irrigation and navigation. But will this development come in time before the land-hungered peoples of the world sweep down to occupy Australian waste spaces? At sea sad on land Australia is virtually defenceless: and yet she has the finest 4>otefr tial fighting material known. The Aloofness of Youth The newcomer to Australia must not be misled by the seeming indifference, the amazing lightheartedness shown by the people in the face of what they believe to be a very real threat. True ; to their blood, they do not easily show their hearts to the stranger. There has also been something of the sensitive aloofness of youth—an aloofness caused by fear of the condescension of old age. In the past they felt—justly perhaps—the condescension of English arrogance which underlined its own superiority, and looked upon Australia as a dumping ground for j out-of-work labourers and ambitious servant girls. If there is one thing which will not j go down in Australia it is any pretence of superiority. , Here Jack is really as good as his master, and will stand no ordering about. Even the plutocart? - of the cities is unable to impress it s social code upon the people, and the general prosperity and independence of Labour emphasise this objection to restraint and regulation. Yet there is no doubt that the Australian is a good man and an e-fine ll i workman. He is extraordinarily resourceful and self-reliant. The tremendous amount of work he gets through, both in the country andl® j town, shows that his is a land of **** men, a land of and for men.