ABOUT AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 174, 10 December 1912, Page 7

ABOUT AUSTRALIA.

| L^L :I RESIPJKT'S IMPRESSIONS. ki:Na.tura]]yj-ias - a , borough' councillor I;,-and chairman o£ tlte- ! Electric Light Com- | mittee, €r. J.-Clarke had a keen eye; for I-things: municipal while in Australia re- | cently. -Telling, of some of ■ his- impresi feio®S! tb ! ; a: News representative, Mr. iClarke' .said that,:', talking > municipally, he did'not think Australian towns were, anything like as progressive l as : tllosn of- N6\t ZpalaiuL'i.l'Even Sydney," he '•added, i'"with all its size, owns practically no municipal concerns. The tram. ■wdys 1, are; owned by the Government, and the gas land .electric Concerns, ooritrolled-;b'y companies;: ; ; M£liiy blv.the roads and footpaths' are l in very bad ' orde". Right;'in the business Centre, and !in suburbs' the size of Wellington you will find- 2ft. .ruts' in the roads. I was agreeably surprised to compare our roads with, theirs, i,<\, excepting A fewof tie -niain!-streets which are blocked." Touching on another'point, he referred ■ to the great fight in Sydney,: and indeed throughout 'the whole of Australia, of the Labor v. the Liberal parties. It asserted- itself not only in general but in politics, and the general opinion of the people he; met, commercial. men especially, was -that the State Labor 'Government 1 wag- not doing too well. The general complaint- against it seemed to be that it was a bit reckless, and that it o-nly considered- one- party—the Labor Party. Likewise, the Federal- Government was' being-severely criticised for entering into r 'compelstion'with the State Sittings -banks. ' They were fighting tlie. people with the people's own money, the double-banking; putting' the- country to much needless expense. Reverting to ■the municipality, he mentioned how It, was cbsting 'Sydney millions of pounds •to resume streets' for widening purposes, 'in ■ Elizabeth and Oxford streets, and down near the harbor, and 'passing on. he remarked that' Sydney'residents wero a pleasure seeking crowd. ' . : It "Was not to bp : fftincfcrecl at when the climate, the many facilities for pleasure, and the many places to; go to, were taken into.-.c-O-UsidjeratioiL.. They could spend the whole afternoon on the harbor in the boats for '2s, while th'd 'tV;iT\TO r 'ay' s : crviH was "out on its own," and was splendidly managed: They could go"tWelve miles out for five--pence, two-miles sections,.being.traversed ''for 'one penny., flic service was fast and frequent,•'■and the tram lines seemed I to extend' to" almost every where. 11l ' '•populating the'suburbs (and here was a leaf for New Plyiiioutli',s book) the idea was: "First lay 4h6' trams; the people will foiW^in 1 their train." The. wise heads"of'the: community were, he. proceeded, seriously concerned with the eejitValisaAiiiii problem.! Sydney was be- : ing populated iait" an. enormous- rate, at the expense.bf. the rural districts. The yearly inereii.se was reckoned at 10 ppr cent.''and ill is meant- draining: the. country at-the rativof 30,000 eabli year. It onttßt end sooner' or later."-'.

K UVING/IS:'2S;'PER CENT. DEARER . in. Sydney ilifin ,/ji .Ujc-'panjinian," re-marl{c4..Vr-VCli>i-ko./' '•Nothing. is cheap. Fish,, for is ,almost beyond the rcaeb of, the !a,vc,i;age- Curi,;ouf?]y, fcn.qugi]) in, : jjom.parison, with- the, , size,'of;|. , N;e,)v fjpnln-nq; to|W-ns, land ,is in-' finitely, cheaper. in: Sydney, and subuxbSi than "hevPj -Jts':'cjioapjiosp is out ,of all' .comparison tp,iit?s (Standing higher iri iSydney,.{if, OQW'se': .it ; must, b? ; taken .jnto. ( considemitipjwthfli in, Sydney jn. particn-' Jar : ,,tbei;« ~i,?.| a■. xvopden: ■ : housie. iThfiy g-re; /ail .oltj>wek:;or'istftne," • i ■ TftE; tiEST : FOT'MjpF ROAD. ; 1 Clarke' jsf}fj 7 Vvisile!,-^lelb.ourne,' •which, in a municipal ''sense, '-lie "found Ijo ,-be :eonsidera]3ly.rin;«d.va:nce of- Sydney.' He referred to the magnificent broad streets, some of tliem paved for milefc, and also to the fact that many of tlie suburban councils had launched out tnv municipal enterprises of their owiji. Prahran, a "suburb" about the size (jf , Wellington.-wme in-for-particular praise 'in this connection.. That;suburb had in, ijiJs most way, fcir 'fexperiment'iiig for »the class of road to be.used, and aifter investigations ex tending'over four or five yea'rs the whole of the Melbourne engineers had come to the conclusion that a tarred macadamised surface w.as tlw- most useful, the cheapest; aiul the most immune.from the dust nuisance :of. all forms of road-con-struction. He haft brought back to New Plymouth a, full report of the commission held over there to decide upon some special kind of road to reduce- the dust nuisance. The commission recommended macadamised roads, or roads sprayed with tar. Grass plots and plantations of trees were also extensively planted in the l ' streets for the same purpose, rv was frefl.tAKmi&flilitakfcd in

his observations in Melbourne by the courteous consideration shown to him by the Lord Mayor, who invited him to attend a meeting of the Couneil, and, subsequently, a dinner tendered to the aldermen. At the latter function, Cr. Clarke was invited to address the Council, and he took, he remarked to our representative, full opportunity to indulge in a Mttle "boost for New Plymouth." He also attended a meeting of the Prahran Council, and delivered another address.