A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8476, 1 July 1907, Page 7

A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

By ALBERT DORRINGTON. (Author of "Along the Casttereagh," "Children of the Gully," etc.) (Published by special arrangement —Copyright reserved.) NO. 17. The average Englishman imagines that no such thing as slavery exists. If you told him to-day that the heart of Africa was prae'.ically under Arab influence, he would smile. The Arab is everywhere, and he firmly believes that Africa will some day be his. The interior of the Dark Continent abounds with Arab strongholds. Professor Drummond. in his book, "The Heart of Africa," comments strongly on the dominant Arab and his malicious all-powerful influence. From Lake Nyanza to the Nile live men are as saleable as horses. I mat a French traveller to-day who told me that it was impossible for three black men to set out on a journey without two of them conspiring to sell the third! . Imagine Egypt undo, a Ivlahommedan dynasty. Imagine (Jairo and Port Said patrolled by swarthy bands of man-stealing Arabs i Near the Canal-head we stumbled across two of Britain's representatives—a Highlander and a khaki-clad infantryman. Quiet, unassuming jchaps; bright-eyed, cheerful and per'fect gentlemen, when it conies to chasing the grim, unwholesome fellaheen at the point of the lance or bayonet. And only yesterday England had to point her guns towards che Turkish troops preparing to mass cii the Sinai Peninsula! As we came through the desert we discovered that the Australian is not the only person capable of using crimsoa adjectives, immediately we showed ourselves beyond the city boundaries, the inevitable crowd or Arab loafers assailed us with a well hissed blanky. "Hulloa, you Engaleesh Ausa-ai-eean." . We raised our hats and explained with an answering yell that we had a regiment of bush cavalry aboard ready to deal with insanitary heathens, who slept on sand heaps and frizzed their hair. Hereat the Arab mob spat in our direction, and waved their arms frantically. , . . The Highlander and ms friend m khaki strolled up leisurely, and paused to offer us words of advice. "Don't let those Arabs get on your trail after dark, or they'll drop you with a spear or a knife," said the Highlander. The infantryman borrowed a match from us, and paused to indicate the scattering Arabs, with his thumb. "Them fellers ain't the real frizzers," he broke in earnestly. "But I've known 'em to bite a man's heel when he tried to loosen thenteeth with a baynit." The Arabs melted across the sunblistered wastes of sand. We passed on. .. These children of the sand pride themselves on their horsemanship, and one has to admit that the desertman gets more out of his dish-faced Barbary than any other rider in the world. At Ishmalia we heard marvellous stories concerning the distances covered by present-day Arabs and their horses. While admiring a string of fiddle-headed steeds, on sale under an awning, I was approached by a venerable sheik, who offered the prince of all ponies and the father of kings for the sum of £2O. It was a pretty little Arab stallion he offered, five years old., and a perfect wind-drinker when it came to a pinch. The same stamp of animal would have brought twice the money in Melbourne or Sydney. I was compelled to reject the old man's offer, owing to the shipping company refusing to allow passengers to crowd horses into their cabins. I learned afterwards that the old sheik's little Arab had neariy bitten off a man's leg only the day before. And the soft-tongued old rogue had assured me that his little winddrinker had been reared with his children. Republics come and go; kingdoms totter; but the horse-dealer passes serenely down the centuries unchangeable as his stock of horse-

lies. It was in Egypt we discovered that the Australian abroad is in perpetual conflict with the travelling Englishman. The bone of contention is the White Australia policy. It must be admitted that the Englishman from London merely echoes the clap-trap of his neighbour's coining. To him the Chinaman, the coolie, and the Jap are very desirable colonists. His knowledge of their habits is usually gained from the illustrated papers. He winds up his argument in favour of admitting aliens into Australia by saying that Japan will level up things when the day of reckoning arrives. In Cairo and Naples we listened to the elegantly embroidered London ex-militairej who predicted a Japanese descent upon Australia within the next decade as a counterblast to the White Australia policy. Yet nine-tenths of the Englishmen who reside in the Commonwealth agree with our Aliens Restriction Act. The reasons are immediately apparent to them. Many of them have seen the Chinaman and the Jap in North Queensland, festering in their hasheech dens and gambling houses, and they admit frankly that an uninhabited wilderness is preferable to a colony of shanties and a race of mongrel whites. Entered the Straits April 24th. with an ice-wind shrilling down from Mount Etna's sullen brow. The coast of Sicily has many' picturesque spots but after mature and unenthusiastic reflection one fancies that the ancient poets were scenery-blind when they raved over these rocky headlands and bleak, desolate isles. From Colombo to Naples I have seen nothing to compare with the delightful coast pictures enclosed within our Great Barrier Reef. A volcano is a fine addition to the perspective, and at first glance the eve is overwhelmed by Etna s colossal bulk, snow-shrouded, pulsating, its great hot lips drinking in the eternal ice-blasts. But volcanoes are cheap hereabouts; no sooner does Etna fade than Stromboli heaves its fire-blown head through the cloud-masses. There

are villages and walled vineyards scattered around Stromboli's base. The Italian and Sicilian coasts are cultivated to their utmost capacity. Not a foot of arable land is left untilled. It is said that a family of hardpushed Neapolitans once tried to grow a certain variety of olives within the crater itself. In Australia there is much ado about putting people on the land; in Italy the Government has to forcibly prevent people f rom settling inside its show-volcanoes. (To be continued.)