William Johnson Galloway

“ ONE'S first impressions of New Zealand, or Maori-land, are distinctly favourable. Seen from the coast, it is a more pleasant land than Australia; though, even after passing through Australia, the traveller from the old country, still measuring all things in his heart by our ancient and time-stained buildings, and by the bright verdure of our country districts, will find something strange, almost menacing, as of a transitory civilisation still struggling with unconquered nature, in the numerous wooden buildings and the darker green of the Bush. ”

“ No cut-and-dried scheme of Imperial Federation will be brought forward by the discreet statesman who remembers how near we seemed to it in the years before the revolt of our American colonies, and how perilous a matter, among Anglo-Saxons, is taxation without representation. But Australia is our depot and main strength on that side of the world, whither the battle of world-interests is now shifting. Too much stress must not be laid by the enthusiast on the offers, which are for the moment fashionable, of colonial contingents for our ever-recurring wars. ”

“ We, in England, have little enough to point to in this way; in a sense there is nothing peculiarly individual in our music as a whole. But with the old melodies of Ireland, that ever seem to tremble between a tear and a smile, and in the quaint pathos of Scotland's airs, and the well-defined beauty of typical Welsh songs, we recognise the true speech of the heart and the outpouring of the natural man. ”

“ You cannot serve two masters, nor can a man who has devoted a life to light musical composition, suddenly command the powers which can only be won by toil, and tribulation, and faithful devotion to a high ideal. To crown this fabric of shortcomings, the management committed the folly of running Ivanhoe every night. No masterpiece could have stood a test of this kind. And it was thus, with this single unfortunate specimen, that English opera was to be established. ”

“ The classic description of Australian forest scenery was written by Marcus Clarke, the author of the most widely-read Australian novel, "For the Term of His Natural Life." He says: "The dominant note of Australian scenery is a weird melancholy. The Australian mountain forests are funereal, secret, stern; their solitude is desolation. They seem to stifle in their black gorges a story of sullen despair. No tender sentiment is nourished in their shade. In other lands the dying year is mourned. The dying leaves drop lightly on his bier. In the Australian forests no leaves fall. ”

“ In vain did a great statesman, Camillo Cavour, argue the necessity of maintaining at all costs, the time-honoured encouragement, and help to pioneers of the Italian opera, bringing the discussion to an absolutely practical, if not downright commercial, level. "I do not understand a note of music," said he, "and could not distinguish between a drum and a violin, but I understand very well that for the Italian nation, the art of music is not only a source of glory, but also the primary cause of an enormous commerce, which has ramifications in the whole world. ”

“ The best of the public buildings in Sydney is the Chief Secretary's office, the exterior of which is decorated with statuary. The Town Hall is not merely the finest in Australia, but one of the largest in the world. It has a magnificent vestibule, and includes amongst its equipments one of the largest organs ever built. The Corporation of Sydney, though fortunate in its home, is not otherwise quite a happy family, and its affairs of late years have become so entangled that there is some talk of an inquiry by a Royal Commission. ”

“ Once produce opera at a price which all can afford to pay to hear, and can anyone doubt, that many a man and woman will choose it, in preference to an evening in a public-house or a music-hall. I never remember listening to an opera, however poor or badly performed, that I have not gained some strength with which to continue the desperate struggle of the battle of life—which is very much more than I can say, for instance, for speeches in the House of Commons. He who loves music has a servant at his command which will ever render him willing and delightful service ”

“ In no other country, not in the most advanced of the communities of the old world, are law and order more assured, public tranquillity less disturbed, the standard of living for the whole people higher, provision for education more liberal; in none is self-government, the distinctive gift of our race, more admirably illustrated. ”

“ In New South Wales the reverse happened. And there the working men are clamorous in their defence of their favourite doctrine of Free-trade. Nothing is more surprising, to the traveller, than to hear the working men of Melbourne "boo-hoo" whenever Free-trade is mentioned, and to hear the same class of men in Sydney cheer it lustily. The truth is that in Australia the question has never become one of principle, but has been considered rather, as, after all, perhaps, it ought to be, as a matter, for the balance of local and immediate expediencies. ”

“ What better can be imagined than a theatre conducted by a gathering representative of, nobility, fashion, and wealth?
It is under such auspices that opera originated, and that native art sprang to life and prospered everywhere; and it is to these one has the right to turn, with hope and trust, in England. But when wealth and fashion stoop from the pedestal assigned to them by tradition, and barter the [Pg 49] honoured part of Mæcenas for that of a dealer, they lose the right to be considered as factors in an art problem, and their enterprise may be dismissed from our attention. ”

“ Statesmanship, eloquence, sound common sense, lofty patriotism, have never been wanting even in the smallest of the Australian Parliaments; and now, looking forward to the future, and remembering all you have done in the past under difficult circumstances and the rivalry of separation, who shall measure the achievements which may be accomplished by your united efforts? You will be greatly strengthened for defence, your trade will grow by leaps and bounds, common credit will sensibly lighten the public charge, all petty jealousies will disappear. ”

“ I have proved we possess an operatic tradition, and as regards custom no one will dispute the prevalence of a taste for opera. Indeed, from personal experience, extending over a number of years, I can vouch for a feeling akin to yearning in the great masses of the music-loving public after operatic music, even when stripped of theatrical paraphernalia, such, for example, as one gets at purely orchestral concerts. ”

“ But Sydney is unquestionably the centre of Australian intellectual life, and during the last few years has enriched the prose and poetry of Australia by a succession of notable volumes, though there is yet, perhaps, a tendency to dwell upon station life and customs as giving the only typical Australian colour, overlooking much that is characteristic, and will yield matter for treatment in the literature of the future. Sydney artists establish camps by the water side, and study all the fleeting impressions of the sunlit harbour ”

“ A procession of white-headed, semi-blind, tottering men and women passes before them—made up of applicants for a pension of £18 per year, or for some fraction of it. The magistrate has to inquire sternly into the moral character of the applicants; to ask some saintly old woman if she has ever been in gaol; to demand of some decent white-haired veteran how often he has been drunk, and whether he ever deserted his wife. The process of securing a pension, in brief, is a sort of secular and human version of the Day of Judgment. ”

“ There must be no distraction of interest; to have several persons of equal importance is fatal. No musician could have made a successful opera of such a book as Ivanhoe. The talent, skill and experience of Sullivan did not fail to produce some agreeable numbers, but they failed most egregiously to make grand opera. A perpetual sense of disappointment pervaded the piece; it never rose to the height demanded by the situation, save when that was comic, and occasionally the failure was absolutely painful. The music kept trying to soar, but was all the time chained by the leg. ”

“ I do not propose to write a history of gold mining in Western Australia, but will in preference devote some attention to the results up to the present. There can be no doubt that many of the mines which were floated as companies were utterly worthless. This always happens in Australian mining, and is in some measure due to the fact that all mining is of necessity an uncertain and peculiar business. A scientific prospector, with all the learning of the geological schools at his finger ends, may err widely, whilst an ignoramus blunders on to a rich lead or a highly payable reef. ”

“ As regards interference, one can easily understand how a chief can lord it over his subordinate if so minded. It is sufficient to point out the anomaly of the director's position who is considered at the same time a Government official and a tradesman—a dualism that compels him to conciliate the attitude of a disinterested standard-bearer of national art with the natural desire of an administrator to run his enterprise for profit. ”

“ Deep ravines are crossed on lofty iron bridges, and the shoulders of the hills are tunnelled through frequently; so that the scene is constantly changing, and one passes from an extended view of the great plain on which Adelaide is situated, with the city in the middle distance and the Southern Ocean beyond, into total darkness, to emerge a minute later and catch a passing glimpse of a long winding mountain gorge. ”

“ Wild are they, nor does the breath of man stir them, but a blast leaping forth from a cavern of ox-hide, passes within, beneath the roots of the polished reeds; while a lordly man, the fingers of whose hands are nimble, stands and touches here and there, the concordant stops of the pipes; and the stops, as they lightly rise and fall, force out the melody." And in its growth, as in the growth of young children, the organ has had its share of infantile vicissitudes. ”

“ Not even a single volume of verse published in Sydney, however, dwells upon the beauties of the harbour beside which the poets live. As an illustration of the difference in the intellectual calibre of the two cities, it is worth noting that while Ethel Turner and Louise Mack—two charming young Sydney writers, who have made child life a special study—are known to every one in their own city, and much honoured, scarcely any one in Melbourne is aware that Ada Cambridge, a lady with an established reputation in fiction, has been for years resident there. ”

“ For the aim of an opera house, worthy of a great country like England, should not be to make most money with any agglomeration of performers, and makeshift mise-en-scène, but to uphold a high standard of Art. ”

“ Passing to political topics, the traveller finds in South Australia one of the most democratic constitutions in the world. The colony boasts that it leads the way in Australia in radical legislation, and runs a dead heat, in most matters, with New Zealand itself. The boast is probably justified. Politics, at all events, with churchgoing, seem to be the principal recreation of the Adelaide man, as gambling in Kalgoorlie mining shares is his business. ”