BEAUTIFUL BRITAIN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 97, 14 October 1911, Page 12

BEAUTIFUL BRITAIN

•X.S.W PKHMIKirS IMPRKSSiIOXS. Tlip Ikn. .1. S. T. McGlowen, Premier of New South Wales, recently returned from a visit to ISritain, Kurope and America. ill tlie course of an interview with presse representatives, said: "Voti have read all about the Coronation ceremony, and, therefore, I need say nothing about it; but I am bound to say, first of all. that I feel very proud to have had tlie honor of being present at tliat ceremony as one of the representatives of the glorious Empire to which we all belong. "Naturally. I made the acquaintance of many people in the Old Country and ulsewhere." Mr. McUowen went on, "and whilst I had a good idea of the conditions existing before 1 went, it is nevertheless a fact that a good deal can only lie learned by personal observation. And while I admit that we may, with advantage. take lessons from older countries. yet I have returned home firmly convinced that in essentials at any rate we in Australia are on the right track. It cannot be gainsaid that in our efforts to maintain a proper standard of living for our people, ami to keep up tlie purity of our race, we are absolutely right. I am more than ever satisfied on this point after what 1 saw in the United States and British America. Many Americans with whom I conversed dwelt strongly upon the wisdom of our attitude in this matter." And yet, Mr. Mcfiowen added, in Western Canada the tiling that struck him most was the large; number of Chinese already there, and the numbers that were arriving by everv boat.

Of the American and his dollars, Mr. McGowen did not hesitate to hide his opinion. The worship of the Almighty Dollar was the fashion, and he was quite convinced that the people of Australia would be none the worse off for appreciating the fact that there was something more to l>e lived for than the mere accumulation of riches. "My trip has aiso taught me more than ever the desirability of maintaining Sunday as a day of rest. While Ido not wish to be understood as reflecting upon any people, Australia will never become a great nation if she makes the mistake of living too much for the sole purpose of eating, drinking and making merry. "Great Britain I found to be greater country than I imagined' it to be. From the standpoint of beauty, the Britisher has even more reason to be proud of his eoutnry than I thought. We in Australia hear them talk of the green lanes and beautiful hills, but what all this really means cannot be adequately realised unless one has had the fulness of its beauty. True it is that we had one of the best seasons as regards weather that had been known in recent years, and I saw the country under the most favorable conditions. Bute its beauties cannot be over-estimated.

Mr. McGowen was deeply impressed with the effect a country's history has upon its present generation, and said it appeared to him that the people of the Old World lived in the atmosphere of the past. But so far as Great Britain was concerned, Mr. McGowen was so enthusiastic as to declare that she seemed to have prospects of a future far more glorious than her past. The contrast between the extremes of wealth and poverty was greater and more acute than it is in Australia, but it was not so good or so acute as he thought would be the ease from his reading.

ON THE EMBANKMENT AT MIDNIGHT. "I walked along the Thames Embankment at midnight, and I saw the people —the outcasts of society of whom I had read—sitting on the seats sleeping. The number there was not so lauge as I had been led to understand l would be the ease, but an Australian was nevertheless Ixmnd to be struck by the contrasts of wealth and poverty as they are brought before his notice in London even- day. "I went one day to look at the Old Curiosity Shop, the establishment which has been rendered immortal by Charles Dickens, and near which is a common lodging-house. It was then afternoon, and there were between 20 and 30 men waiting for a 'doss.' It was an interesting sight in a way, but I would rather it had not been there." Mr. McGowen told a story of his early morning visit to the famous Billingsgate fish market. "The place did not appear to be quite as modernised as I thought it should have been, and I asked a man standing by 'ls this Billingsgate';' Darn, who are yer gettin' at,' replied the man questioned, 'everybody knows its Billingsgate.' 'That may be,' responded the Premier, 'so far as concerns; everybody who lives in London, but it is not known to every man who comes from Australia.' 'Do you come from Australia?' the Cockney asked eagerly. 'Yes.' 'And do you know Sol Green?' I did happen to know Sol Green, a racing man in Victoria, and said so. 'Well, he's my cousin,' the Londoner answered gleefully"—and Mr. McGowen concluded his story, "I say every bit of Billingsgate." As regards legislation, what he found far exceeded his most sanguine expectations. He saw the statesmen of the day facing questions in the Mother Country that even in Australia extreme Labor people hesitated to introduce. He referred to that legislation dealing with unemployment. Their other legislation, such as the Invalidity and Annuity Acts, was walking along a track that was first pointed out in Australia, as in the case of old-age pensions, early closing, and kindred matterßi.

Passing from England to America, Mr. McGowen said lie received a severe shock in America, both in the I'nited States and British America, where they were sowing seed from which in years to come their descendants would reap a whirlwind. He was more convinced than ever that Australia was wise beyond her generation in having attempted, and in a measure succeeded, in keeping the race pure. It was a shock to an Australian who entertained the sentiments that he entertained, and had been expressing during more than 20 years of public life, to find grand and glorious countries like Britain and America allowing themselves to be made a dumping ground for the scum of the world. When in parts of America be saw important industries in the hands of Japanese, while in British America they were landing 300 Chinamen from every boat, putting them in bond and letting them loose in their western country; when he saw along the Canadian Pacific Railway Chinese doing the work of navvying, repairing and keeping the line in order, they could well understand 'his fear when he said they would reap tares in the future from the seed they were sowing to-day. The British race never could raise those people to their own standard, and the tendency of the co-mingling of blood was to pull down rather than to build up. DOLLARS ALL THE TIME. The other great thing that impressed him in America was that most of (be people to whom he remarked on the beauty and niiignifiecnrc of some palatial buildings or some gigantic work, always concluded by saying how many dollars it had cost, conveying to him (Mr. McHowcn) the fact that there was something in the statement that America was worrying herself with dollars all ■ the time.

One very amusing incident of his visit I ti) America occurred (luring his stay |in New York. He noticed an unusual number of .lews, similar to those lie fouuil ill Whitechapel. lie asked tui American liow many Jews there were in New York. The reply was, "One million." whereupon he (Mr. McGowen) remarked that they ha<l one-tenth of all the Jews in the world, to which 'the New Yorker said, "Great Scott! I thought we had them all." Speaking of Germany, Mr. McGowen said that Germany was reaping the benefit of the social legislation of that great statesman, Bismarck, 20 years after his den Mi. Germans had a splendid technical education, otherwise he did not think British workmen, certainly not Australian workmen, need fear the technically ami theoretically better men. Taking them all round in consequence of their better education, lie found that neither Germans nor British worked as hard as they worked, in Australia, and they did not do as much work in ten hours as an. Australian did in eigtht. THE WAR SCARE. Regarding the war scare, lie thought they were played upon by people from interested motives, or sensational journalism. He did not find in Germany any pronounced feeling of enmity towards Britain. He did, however, notice evidence of a desire for expansion, but did not think that there was much fear of war breaking out. Even if there were war, he was not fearful, as far as England was concerned. She was the most glorious country on earth—too glorious, he thought, considering the way she treated other Powers.

At the Armstrong works, they invented and manufactured the most powerful death-dealing weapons, and then sold them to nations who might use them against herself. His trip was the most interesting that it had even been the lot of a man to make. He went to the Old Country with a strong belief in the past, present and future of the British people, and returned stronger in that belief, because lie found the statesmen in Britain moving, not only the present Government, but any Government thatw as likely to hold power —and legislation along lines to improve the social conditions of the people and mitigate the lot of the great mass —a movement that people in Australia thought the Old Country would not make for years. He returned with the most favorable impressions of the Old Land, but with the fixed idea that there was no place on God's earth that could compare with Australia, because of her freedom, sunshine and opportunities.