1915] on the Visit of the British Association to Australia 355 



to the gilt class l)ut is open to all who have sufficient gold. Unfortu- 

 nately, it is no longer a recognized duty, even of the wealthy, as a 

 part of their education — but it should be. I would urge all young 

 people to travel, widely and imperially ; but while visiting the out- 

 lying regions of our empire, to study other lands as well. It should 

 be a necessary qualification, in our House of Commons, that a man 

 had learnt to know something of the world before entering there 

 and that he should continue to study it while a Member. 



To me the visit to Australia was of absorbing interest, not merely 

 in itself but because I had previously learnt to know Canada and the 

 United States, regions which, in some respects, are far less interesting 

 naturally ; and especially because I was able subsequently to study, 

 however superficially, Java, as well as our own possessions, Ceylon 

 and India, so that I could contrast the ancient, unfathomable civili- 

 zation of the East with our own more recent, superficial development. 



The comparison, I fear, cannot be made with entirely satisfactory 

 results. In Austraha the labourers' wages may be fixed by law at as 

 high a sum as ten shilhngs per day ; in Java they probably never 

 exceed sixpence. 



While staying at an outlying sugar plantation in Java, one evening, 

 after dark, we sat on the verandah lit by electric light from the adjoin- 

 ing factory and listened to the performance of the village orchestra 

 or GameJang. Besides a drummer, who beat time, there were half-a- 

 dozen performers each of whom had a rude instrument, consisting 

 either of a wooden trough across which a number of strips of metal 

 were fixed or simply of a wooden box, perhaps one that had carried 

 groceries from Europe, across the open top of which a couple of 

 rough plates of metal were slung — the performer had one or a pair 

 of hammers with which he hit the metal plates. Each instrument 

 was tuned. Each player played his part, so the melody was complex. 

 Our hostess had provided for a deft rehearsal previously, by one of 

 the women from the village, of their method of drawing patterns in 

 hot molten wax, preparatory to dyeing it, on the cotton slip used as 

 chief garment — the Sarong — and we had seen admirable specimens of 

 the finished work. All the household, together with a number of 

 outsiders, squatted on their haunches around the performers, listening 

 with rapt attention to the music ; the while the factory watchman 

 wandered up and down with drawn sword. Clad in colour as all 

 were, with the moon shining on the distant timbered slopes of a 

 volcanic mountain, the weird scene was one of strange charm and 

 beauty — the music indescribable but entirely befitting the surround- 

 ings. When we heard that such performances were the staple form 

 of enjoyment in the compound, my friend (a Swede) and I could not 

 help giving expression to the feeUng that the aesthetic plane on 

 which these poor folk stood was certainly not below that we were 

 accustomed to rate so high. And yet we are seeking to compass the 

 ruin of their svstem. The Dutch are now introducins: Western 



