Correspondence
A LETTER FROM MELBOURNE. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Australia has once again emerged from a General Election, the second within twelve months. The nominal issue before the three million voters was the retention or abolition of the Commonwealth Arbitration Act ; the real issue was whether wages should be reduced. It was a foregone conclusion that the people would vote solidly against any reduction of wages and in consequence Labour has been returned to power with an overwhelming majority of forty- seven seats in a House of seventy-five.
The Prime Minister (Mr. Bruce) who in the past six and a half years has " done the State some service " has been defeated in his own constituency ; the Nationalist party, of which he was the leader, has been rent in twain, disrupted, and almost annihilated, and the new Labour Government, led by Mr. Theodore, with Mr. J. Scullin as the nominal Prime Minister, has been welcomed with fervour. One writes of Mr. Theodore as leader because no one believes that Mr. Scullin, who is a much respected Moderate, will be eventu- ally able to control him. Mr. Theodore is the strong man of the Party and for the next three years he will hold the keys of the Australian Treasury.
Unfortunately that Treasury is empty and there is indeed an accumulated deficit of some £5,000,000. We are in a bad way at the moment. We have over-borrowed for years past ; in times of plenty we scattered our largess far and wide ; we have squandered millions. But we have also had a series of bad drought years, the bottom has fallen out of the wool market, the number of unemployed is mounting daily, distress is widespread and even starvation is not unknown in this Land of Plenty.
All values have been inflated to such an extent that very few industries are paying their way and a period of deflation is inevitable and has already set in.
Whether the position will be improved by the presence of Mr. Theodore at the Treasury remains to be seen, but people do not forget that he was for many years in control m Queensland, with what dire results all the world knows.
But Australians are incurable optimists by nature and we fall back on our old catch cry : " It's a wonderful country," though some of the more thoughtful are beginning to ask themselves if it is such a wonderful country after all.
The " vast potential resources " which form the text of nearly every politician's speech appear to have failed us for the time being. Our primary industries are in a shocking condition and the farmer and grazier pleads with considerable truth that this in large measure is due to unprecedented droughts, and to the high cost of everything, the result of an appalling tariff wall and the ill-effects of the awards granted by the Arbitration Court. There is an old saying, Sir, that Australia rides on the sheep's back, a reference to our hitherto incomparable wool. For three generations wool has been our staple commodity. It has brought us £40,000,000, then £50,000,000 and lately £00,000,000 a year. But we have now suddenly fallen on hard times ; the bottom has dropped out of the wool market ; wool costs about a shilling per lb. to produce and prices this season are rather less than that. We hope for better things next season but already it is whispered abroad that artificial silk and Dame Fashion have between them wrought such pernianent injury to wool that it will never recover. :In other industries we have bounties to prop them' up, including sugar, wines, dried fruit, &c.. Every .pound of butter sold in Australia carries a tax of 3d. in order that the Australian dairy farmer should be able to recoup himself on the export losses, so that you in London buy our best butter cheaper than we can buy the inferior grade which is sold locally. There is, indeed, scarcely a single commodity which we can profitably dispose of overseas without the aid of a bounty which, of course, comes from the pockets of the Australian people themselves.
Australia has no mountains, rivers or lakes • she has a very -small population, and recently we have had very little
rain. And yet rain is our only hope • without it we perish. But, Sir, enough of our troubles. With sublime optimism we face the future blithely and in the sure hope of better times to come.
The election, the empty Treasury, the drought, the slump in wool—these are considered here apparently of little moment compared with the opening of the racing season. Migration has fallen to practically nothing, save a few domestics and boys, and the new Labour Government is emphatically, and perhaps wisely, determined to have no more migration to a country where unemployment is the most pressing and urgent problem to be faced. On the whole, Australia is not too well pleased with'herself just at present. We are all very hard up, except the favoured few, but perhaps we shall be able to borrow a few more millions to tide us over the lean years. If John Bull is not willing, then we may have to go to Uncle Sam. But these loans are becoming more and more expensive, and already
Australia, in common with other countries is flooded with American motor cars, American oil and American films, to mention only the principal items. We appear to be coming under the influence of American ideas, literature, speech, habits and customs, and Sydney, once an outpost of Empire, to-day has a very American aspect. But, Sir, our heart is in the right place ; we are still a patriotic Dominion and we still cling with affection to the Old Country.
YOUR AUSTRALIAN CORRESPONDENT.
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