lii. 



fhe Review of Reviews. 



SEPTEMBER, 19 I 2. 



The fly in the ointment of Aus- 

 Hii'h Cost tralia's prosperity is the abnormal 

 of Living. ^qjj ^f living. One can hardly 

 take up a daily paper without see- 

 ing such headlines as " High price of Meat," 

 " High price of potatoes," '"' Onions as dear as 

 apples," etc. Those whose incomes have increased 

 during recent years find that this condition of 

 prices somewhat nullifies their improved salaries or 

 wages. But there is a considerable number whose in- 

 comes are little or no higher than thev were several 

 years ago. The difference to them is ^•ery consider- 

 able, and we wonder how they manage. N'ew South 

 Wales has appointed a commission to enquire into 

 the matter. Potatoes are twice as dear as they were 

 four years ago. the wholesale price being now over 

 ;£io per ton. Onions are ;£2o a ton. Mutton has 

 doubled in price, being now 46. per lb. wholesale, 

 while the consumer pays the retailer yd., and more, 

 for it. Cheese has gone up 38 per cent., lard 41 per 

 cent., flutter 24 per cent., rice and flour each 25 per 

 cent., and jam 14 per cent., while iHr'ef is 76 per 

 cent, dearer, and lamb 75 per cent, higher. It is 

 evident that good fat profits must go into .somelxsdy's 

 pocket, and equally plain that poor people mu.st be 

 having a bad time. It is a good thing that there 

 are fewer of them than in pa.st years, but this does 

 not lessen the hard.ship of those who are suffering at 

 present. The whole subject needs looking into in the 

 most serious, searching and comprehensi\e way. 

 High wages go hand in hand with high prices, but 

 the increa.se in prices surely cannot all be accounted 

 for in this wav. .AH the same, judging by the im- 

 mense patronage accorded all sorts of amusements 

 throughout the -Commonwealth, destitution has not 

 yet come through high prices. 



( uriouslv ill one of the great dailies 



"Nothing to two head lines .stood alongside each 



Defend. other which represented ideas wide 



as the poles apart. Sir John Fuller, 

 Governor of Victoria, speaking at the inauguration 

 ceremony of a new infantry regiment, while express- 

 ing the hope that .Au-stralia would never know the 

 horrors of war. as it ne\-er had in tlie past, went on 

 to say that all the .same they must be prepared to 

 " defend their heritage." These words were placed 

 as a heading above the report. On the same day 

 a deputation from the Trades Hall Council waited 

 upon the .Minister for Defence with regard to the 

 Saturday li.ilf-holiday being taken from so many 

 lads in order to comply with the compulsory drill 

 regulations of the Defence -Act, and one of the 

 speakers, a former president of the Council, said 

 that he considered that the lads had nothing to de- 

 fend except the jiropertv and maehiiierv of tlieir 

 employers. Here fh<- words " .\<jthiiig to defend" 

 were placed as a head line. Ot course such talk 

 is clap-trap. To .say that a man has no stake in the 

 country has been ju.stly regarded by labourers as an 



insult in the past. It is, moreover, absurd to say 

 that a man has nothing to defend because he owns 

 no land or machinery. Many of our happiest people 

 own neither. They are content to live in rented 

 houses. We live in the freest demccracy on earth. 

 Labour has control of legislation. Our people live 

 in a higher standard of comfort than those of any 

 land. And yet they have " nothing to defend !" 

 Our great system of free education, our magnificent 

 charities for the sick and poor, our tenderness for 

 those who are destitute through their own fault, our 

 high wages — all this is "nothing" in the eyes of 

 the agitator who thinks that the only way to securf- 

 future progress is to deny that any ha.s ever been 

 made. We ha\'e indeed a great heritage, one that 

 calls for great gratitude, as well as for wise states- 

 manship for its future development. 



The name of a Chinese merchant at 

 The Hop Peon Geelong has been very undulv ad- 

 Gooey Case. \ertised daring the past few weeks. 



Mr. Hop Toon Gooey brought his 

 wife out here some time ago under the Act which ex- 

 pres.ses our White Australia policy under conditions 

 that she could only remain for a certain time. The 

 official statement of facts makes this quite plain. 

 For one rea.son or another her stay has Ijeen pro- 

 longed, and an agitation has been set on foot to 

 secure an exemption on her account. This fhe Min- 

 ister, the Hon. Josiah Thomas, ha.s not felt justified 

 in granting. 'He has, however, accepted the assur- 

 ance of the Chinese Consul that the lady is not in a 

 fit condition to travel, and has therefore permitted a 

 further extension of her stay in our midst. Mr. 

 Thomas declares that Poon Gooey had promised pre- 

 viously to take his wife back to China when she was 

 able to travel, and had not kept his word, hence he 

 had refu.sed further consideration until the Consul's 

 assurance was given. There has been a rather fierce 

 agitation, partly against the Minister, who is only 

 .idministering the .Act as it was intended to be ad- 

 ministered, and more largelv against the exclusion 

 policy concerned. Hut the White .Australia policy 

 has been accepted Ijy the Commonwealth, .md we 

 know- of no political jiarty that would look at the 

 question of its revocation. Xo one, indeed, could view 

 with unconcern the possibility of ten million Asiatics 

 descending in a flood of immigration u^xi-n us. and 

 swamping the four and a-half millions of whites. 

 America has still to pay for its importation of the 

 coloured race. We know the perplexities of the whole 

 position. It is at times argued, '" How would we 

 [ike it il China closed her ports to white people?" 

 But the case Is radically rlifferent. China is thickly 

 poiinlated. She is in no danger of being over- 

 whelmed bv numbers of immigranls. as we are. 

 -Again, China cannot yet claim to lie on a higher 

 plane of social life and in dread of the standard of 

 life Lieing lowered by .such a purely hyiiothetical in- 

 vasion. U positions were reversed; if we h.ul four 



