230 Australian Life 



popular among the people. The universal love 

 of music which makes this possible is also 

 accountable for the frequency and the success of 

 ballad concerts, and these, rather than the music- 

 halls, are the rivals which the theatrical manager 

 has to fear. 



The Australian artist complains, with good 

 reason, of the discouraging conditions in which 

 he works. Large sums have been spent in the 

 foundation of public art galleries, but a mere 

 driblet of this money has been devoted to locally 

 painted canvases. In connection with some of 

 these galleries, a fund exists for providing young 

 artists of promise with the means of study in 

 Europe, and the expenditure of this money has 

 almost an invariable result. Having once come 

 into touch with the world's art centres, the artist 

 does not find it easy to return to the practical and 

 commercial world of Australia, so that, up to the 

 present, these travelling scholarships have done 

 more for Australian artists than for Australian 

 art. 



At present, London proves an irresistible mag- 

 net for Australians following the artistic pro- 

 fessions, and it will be many years before this 

 migration can be expected to cease. Even if the 

 Australian community were less commercial and 

 more artistic, London would still offer a wider 

 sphere and more congenial surroundings, as well 

 as larger rewards. It is not in Australia, then, 

 but in London that the successful painters, 



