The San Francisco call., 1904-07-01
MANY CIVIC PROBLEMS
ARE BEFORE AUSTRALIANS
Young Men Desert the Country, in America
The Federal Capital Site Is Discussed Newly
Found Brazilian Parasite Kills Fruit Fly Pest

The federal capital site question has
been under discussion in Australia's
Parliament for some time, but has been
laid aside for the time. Some weeks
must elapse before it is again taken up,
but it is already apparent that the final
struggle may be between Lyndhurst
and Dalgety. Sir William Lyme is still
hopeful that Tumut viii be selected,
and he will have the assistance of Mr..
Watson in pressing it's claims, but
members anticipate that the other two
sites mentioned will receive the most
support in the House of Representa-
tives. Bomb bala was chosen by the SEN
ate. Opinion in that chamber is, how
ever, veering round to Dalgety, which
is only forty miles away from Bombala.
The New South Wales Government has
already undertaken not to ALLEVIATE any
more land in the vicinity of the most
popular areas, but Dalgety has only re-
Gently been regarded as a possible
choice. Austin Chapman, who repre-
sents the Dalgety as well as the Bonn
bala district, has written to the Min
ister for Home Affairs asking him to
request the New South Wales Ministry
to reserve the crown lands near Dali
getty for the present, and Mr.. Bachelor
has agreed to do this.
The first General Conference of the
United Methodist Church of Australia
sia began it's sittings recently in sgd
ney. After a welcome to the delegates
in the Athenaeum Hall an adjournment
was made to the Wesley Church.
Though the proceedings were largely of
a strictly business nature the general
public, on invitation, attended in large
numbers and manifested much interest
in the doings of the delegates. The Rev.
II. al cd for
a term of three years, his majority be-
ing very large, The Rev. w. Williams
was elected secretary for the same pc
riod. The retiring president, the Rev.
DR.. Lane, delivered an address, the
main feature of which was an advocacy
of the more adequate training of min
listers in order that in these days of
criticism and research they might be
able to stand in the watch tower of
the citadel and defend the faith"
INFLUENCE OF CHURCH.
Some idea of the widespread influence
in Australasia of the Methodist church
may be gained from the strik-
ing statement made at the Athe-
naeum by the president of the
General Conference, now in session (the
Rev. Dr. Lane), in speaking of the dis
tant places whence it's delegates had
come I'VE have come from afar," he
said from places as far north as
Rockhampton, in Queensland, and as
far south as Dunedin, in New Zealand;
from Grafton, on the eastern seaboard,
and from Perth, on the western"
The notice calling for tenders for the
conveyance of certain inland mails in
Western Australia has as one of it's
conditions that white labor only must
be employed in the conveyance of such
mails, and this Notwithstanding the
Government has already stated that
the employment of aborigines in GER
tain portions of the Commonwealth
will not be objected to.
An officer of the Agricultural Depart
ment of West Australia has found in
Brazil a parasite for the fruit fly which
played such havoc in orchards and
gardens during the last three seasons.
A commission has been appointed in
West Australia TO inquire into the inn
migration of aliens into that State.
The Sydney and Suburban Master
Bakers Association has resolved to
lower the price of bread to 2%d per
two-pound loaf.
The present State Parliament of New
South Wales, which expires by efflux-
ion of time on July Is, will not be called
together again. A Cabinet meeting de-
cided the matter on the 31st ultimo.
The results of the Victorian elections
held on June / give the Government 20
seats, Labor IA and the Opposition g.
Mr.. PendergraSt, the real leader of the
Labor party, was returned for North
Melbourne
The baneful tendency of younger
members of the rural population to
pitch tents toward the cities is as
prevalent in Australia as in older
countries. IL not more so in proportion
as the following from the Sydney Her
aid well shows:
THE secretary of a public institu-
tion in Melbourne was lately instruct
ed to advertise for around -taker
at S5s per week. The applications for
this splendid position numbered 1475,
and the secretary and his staff had to
go back to the Office at night and work
overtime in preparing the mass of mat
ter for consideration by the ruling
body, which was to make the appoint
ment. The incident painfully illus
trates the deplorable condition of the
light labor market in Australian cities
and reveals a most anomalous position
of affairs. We have q half-developed
and to large extent. unoccupied ter
ritory clamoring for livestock and the
plowshare, and all who have studied
the case are urging that Australia
requires immigrants to go into the
country and give the land a chance to
time 1475 men in one city are anxious
to secure billet at 35s per week.
We may be sure that world of pa
thetic misery lies behind many of those
applications, that the 35S week
would mean to a large proportion res
cue from respectable poverty and to
others relief from semi-starvation. Can
it be possible that while the cities are
crowded with workless people men
must be brought to Australia to work
the land and produce it's fullness? The
question is growing bigger every day,
but no man has so far hit upon a sat
isfactory way OF shifting the shfftless
from the city to the land and making
them useful to themselves and their
country.
Apparently large proportion of
the population will drift into the cities,
and once there they become the merest
tools of circumstances. For this sad
state of affairs the accepted explana-
tion is that the city life is most at
tractive and we are told that young
-