CRUSHED!

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 480, 9 October 1928, Page 13

CRUSHED!

Pin-Head Politicians and Arrogant Labour i t AMERICAN ON AUSTRALIA “Australia is being crushed between pin-head politicians and arrogant labour.” Mr. John M. Hood, of Los Angeles, California, is one of the moat severe critics who has ever visited Australia. He arrived I'rom Sydney this mornins by the ilarama, deploring the fact that a continent with such amazing possibilities is being utterly ruined by economic conditions. Mr. Hood made a fortune out of the simple little tops which are clamped on to bottles of lemonade and raspberry, etc., but this has not prevented him from taking a keen interest in politics and political economy since his retirement. His first introduction to Australia was not pleasant. Mr. Hood had Drought an expensive motor-car with him to tour the continent and New z«land, but it was dropped on the wharf and wrecked when it was being unloaded in Sydney. “Australia is an amazing place,” he said this morning, “full of possibilities, out she doesn’t get a chance. She is irushed between pin-head politicians and arrogant labour and a country can never get anywhere under those conditions.

. at Canberra, the new capital, a there was ever a ‘painted ship on a painted ocean’ Canberra is one. It is a delusion. The town cost £11.000.000 a ®J* they talk of spending another *11.000,000. It is 225 miles from nok" re an ? restrictions. Everybody realises what a great mistake has been made and yet nobody has the courage to stand up and say so. “The whole country is hampered with strikes and stupid restrictions. They say that it is the land of possibilities, but the United States is that alter what I have seen in Australia. “Their White Australia policy is a delusion. How can they work the .Pte® with a ‘White Australia’? “Everything is twice as dear in Australia as in the United States. If the government would only remove the duty on motor-cars the country would S° u a head twice as fast. “Ves. it is a marvellous country spoiled. Australia’s possibilities for development are amazing, but she will never get anywhere under her present conditions.’*

Mr. Hood will spend some time in New Zealand and will visit Mount Cook, the Franz Josef Glacier and hopes to walk over the Milford Track.