A special article of altogether unusual interest on "The Australian
Attitude" is published in Monday's Times. Start- ing from the proposition that "in order to understand a nation we must study the majority and the leaders it chooses, not those who have left their country because they are dis- gusted with the majority or the majority is tired of them," the writer notes the emergence, as a new and powerful factor in Australian politics, of the country party. Ten years ago the typical Australian was the townsman. Now in place of six States, each ruled by a compact body of townsfolk taking advantage of divided country districts, we find one Common- wealth ruled by a fairly compact body of countryfolk taking advantage of the divisions between the large towns. The typical Australian of to-day, then, is the bushman, and of the influences which operate upon his robust but impres- sionable intelligence, by far the most potent, in the view of the writer, is the Sydney Bulletin, a paper conducted with great ability, the unflinching advocate of sound finance, the generous patron of Australian literary endeavour, but using every weapon and every effort to bring about the severance of the British connection, and promote the establishment of an independent Republic.
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