THE COMING AUSTRALIAN.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 23 March 1881, Page 2

THE COMING AUSTRALIAN.

This is the title of a remarkable paper in the Victorian Review, in which Mr James F. Hogan maintains that the tendency of young Australia is decidedly downwards, The three main characters* tics of the native Australian sppear to be (1) an inordinate love of field sports ; (2), * very decided disinclination to recognise the authority of parents and superiors : and (3), a previous dislike to mental effort. Mr Hogan says that nine out of every ten native Australians spend all their leisure either in crickefc or foot* ball. The insubordination of the Austra^ lian ' larrikin ' he attributes largely to the extent to which State education takes the place of parental training ; and, whatever its cause, there is no doubt that the proportion of juvenile crime in Vic* toria is abnormally large. His ovidence

i9 less conclusive as to the dislike which he thinks he discerns to all mental effort. He sums up his conclusions 07 saying that ' the coming inhabitant of the Southern continent will be peaceably disposed and sportively inclined ; rather selfish in conduct and secular in practice; contented and easy going, but non*intel« lectual and tasteless.' In other word*, remsrks the Pall Mall Budget Mr Hogan thinks that the Australian of the future will sink to the level of the Saiidtrich Islander.