THE PROBLEM OF THE BUSH.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 94, 13 February 1897, Page 3

THE PROBLEM OF THE BUSH.

,A Sydney contemporary finds in the conduot of the accused of csrtain recent murder cases in Australia a dojelopment of colonial life which threatens appalling consequences unless its growth is checked. In one case two youths under twenty murdered a man in cold blood for the purpose of stealing property from his dead body. In another two boys, one fourteen and the other sixteen years old, were committed for trial on a charge of murdering their father under circumstances of ghastly horror. The point of resemblance between the two pairs of youths which arrested our contemporary's attention was the impossibility of arousing them to any consciousness of the atrocity of the crimes. To the Dedcrers, the first pair, " the act of murdering a man in cold blood for the mere purpose of possessing property seemed nothing involving special heinousness. They went about it in the most callous and nonchalant way, and appeared to have a difficulty in realising the c»nse of all the fuss that afterwards resulted from the discovery of the crime." The other boys, named Phillips, appeared equally hardened. Their father had undoubtedly been shot by someone, the body was then burned, and the skeleton broken up and scattered about. The horror of the whole affair never struck the boys, and they treated it as if it had been nothing out of the ordinary course of their everyday life. " They assisted the police to pick up the pieces as if they were mere curios, and are reported to have been amongst the least affected of those engaged in that gruesome search." Suspicion attached to the lads as being the perpetrators of this awful crime, aud they are now awaiting trial. Both the Dederer and Jb*hillip3 bnys were " bush" boys, having grown up, or rather vegetated, from babyhood to youth iu the bush, without any moral influence being brought to bear upon them, and •* with all their ideas of life gathered from the mere animal struggle for existence which they saw around them," the result being complete moral insensibility. This is a phase of Australian life which one sees reflected in much of the modern Australian literature and especially in the writings of Mr Henry Lawsou. One feels, as one reads his sketches that they •re mirror-like representations of upcountry life in its most sordid state. It is a phase which is full of danger to the community, and this is fully recognised by our contemporary. " Our Australian bush," it says, " with its depressing monotony, increased by social isolation, is tendering apparently to the production of a sileut, self - contained race of strong will and little reverence. Under cultivation these ate qualities capable of forming a very excellent cast of character—the sort of character that makes for national stability and strength. But if 'developed downwards, instead of upwards, there could scarcely be more dangerous material. And there is no doubt that in a great many instances this is the direction in which the type is progressing." Under such circumstances the writer thinks it is a peculiar anomaly that Australia should send missionaries to China, and Africa, and he urges that there is a wide field for Christian enterprise among the white heathen children of the Australian bush. He does not call them heathens, it is true, but in too many cases they can be little * _ better. _______ ___