THE DESPATCH OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINGENT.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1535, 15 April 1885, Page 2

THE DESPATCH OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINGENT.

♦ (Correspondent Christ-church Press.) Sydney, March 17. Nobody who has not been in New South Wales and moving about amongst all sorts and conditions of men and women can form anj adequate idea of the feeling of national prid« and enthusiasm which the despatch of the Australian Contingent to the Soudan has aroused. la the cluhs, in hotels, in trains, on coaches in private circles, between the acts at the theatres, when*ever people are gathered together, this grand patriotic feat of military effectiveness is the one absorbing topic of conversation. If anything could exceed the general exultatiou on the fact of the troops having started for the seat of war, it is the general hope and belief, i amounting to a brimming certainty, that they will distinguish themselves gloriously very soon after arrival. The public impatience almost outstrips the possibilities of time and space ; and totally ignores the arrangemantsof the Imperial authorities. There are doubtless seme who at this, moment revel in the firm conviction tlfat within the next few weeks, th« n»ws will come of the New South Wales contiugent having encountered the Mabdi's hordes and visited a bloody vengeance on them for the death of Gordon. Even staid, matter of fact folks, who know pretty \nell how thiugs stand in a difficult and tedious campaign, aud are nat altogether carried away by a gush of sentiment, yet say with a thrill of joyful bop«, "If only our men get a chance to show what they are made of, they ate sure to behave well and do something worthy of the colony." The scene at the departure of the troops last Tuesday week is quite coramanly spoken of as a Bight never to be forgotten, aud numberless tough business men, who are as hard as nails on all other topics, acknowledge that they were quite overwhelmed by it, and find it no easy matter now to coutrel them- ; selves while speaking of it. As for the populace, they have given their whole heart to the enterprise, and every man and woman in the crowds who throng ! the narrow pavement of Pitt-street ! a«d George-street, considers himself 1 or herself personally represented by the force on board th« Iberia, and personally concerned in the fortunes of the colonial army. A smart Yankee, skilled in playing on that delicate instrument, human nature, is coining .money by a sixpenny show, consisting of nothing more remarkable than a lot of old pictures of the Soudan war, cut out of the raphic, and the Illustrated London Neics, and touched up and enlarged to suit the circumstances of the case. No 6mall proportion of those who pay their sixpence to this talented artist come out with their faces glowing with renewed fervour, nnder the unquestioning belief that the soJdiorg depicted in the act of repelling myriads «f Arabs, and piling up heaps of slain l>y their withering fire, are no •therg than the heroes of the New South Wales Artillery. The popular enthusiasm has ceased to be loyalty. It has become religion. The despatch of the troops is not an expedition. It is a crusade. All this being so, it is easy to imagine the state of public excitement in Sydney this morning, when Parliament re assembled, on the shortest possible summons, after a session of eleven months' duration, to sanction or condemn the action of the Ministry in committing thee olony to a share of Imperial responsibility, and an expense of a quarter of a million or so, without any legislative warrant. Long before neon, the hour of meeting the direction of the Parliament Houses might be discerned unmistakeably by the set of the tide of people in the streets. As all roads were said in olden times to lead to Rome, so this

norning all passengers seemed to be t ;oitig one way, namely, to Macquarie- i itreet, and at tho narrow entrances to I he mean, unworthy precincts of the < [legislature the police had all their ; < york to keep the throng from j < docking th« way altogether. By a jnart«r to twelve the Legislative Council Chamber resembled a double parterre of flowers, so completely filled was it on both sides hy the best iressed aud best looking ladies of Sydney and the environs. There seemed do room left for the Councillors, to say nothing of the House of Assembly, and, as a fact very few of eitber got a seat. Among the earliest to arrive was Sir Alfred Stephen, the veneraMr Lieutenant-Go\ernor, bowed under the weight of more thau 80 years, and of a load of stats and jewels aud ribbons of the Bath of Saint Michael and Saint George. But the most notable figure in the Chamher, the observed of all observers, the cynosure of all eyes, was a short, stout, grey haired, clean shaven man, curiously like a Bonaparte iv figure and face, but clothed quite unlike a Bonaparte, in a b«b wig, a silk gown aud lace bands It was the Hou W. Dalley, Attorney General of New South Wales author -^^^Sfsfis^Bßftsßßlßßßßßßßßßßßßß^a^B^Aß^^J^Bßß^Bßßßßßßßßßfti^^tetlflitlfl^. foremost statesman of Australasia. In thisc»lony the loader »f the Legislative Council is accommodated with a convenient commercial looking desk at the House, next the Clerk of Parliament, and there sat Mr Dalley, writing as if for dear life, and occasionally applying his nose to a salts bottle, as if the heat aud the anxiety, and the overwork w«re almost more thau he could hear. But every n»w and then, as the chamber gradually filled, he would glance sharply, though wearily, around him, and recognising a friend of either sex, would rise and shake bauds, and in dicate a good seat, and exchange a few pleasant words, and then return to his work. Once when an usher whispered to him, he left the. room, and presently, brought in a dark, straight, sunburnt, sharp looking, youngish man, and one darker, more sunburnt, older and less like a brigand, whom, with many friendly attentions he played on the right of the chair. Cue was a New Zealand, and the other a Cape of Good Hope politician, and a place of honour was accorded to them on the. strength of their having at one time held the office of Minister of the Crown. Soon all the available space ahout the throne j was filled up by tlw consular body aud I other privileged persons. Conspicuous f amongst these was a gentleman in what the Americans call a " tasty" uniform of light hln« and silver lace ' with miniature volcanoes in full smoke i distributed liberally about his coat, ; and a profusion of startlingly original orders hung wherever there was room for them. He was the Consul for Costa Rica. Thi3 reminds on« of the cause celebrt! in London, where a toi distant agent of the Government of Houdunts, who,had succeeded in partially noatiug a loan of £1,000.000 on the vaguest security, and had got into trouble over it, produced as evidence of his official status the insiguia of the ■Ordar of the Holy Kose of Honduras. The World, iv a particularly amusing article, suggested that we should hear • next of the Order of the consecrated Cabbage of Cesta Rica. Bu-t all the ! minor lights were speedily extinguished ; by the arrival of the Governor, Lord i Augustus Frederick William Spencer i Loftus, arrayed in th« splendor of the j Grand Cross of the Bath, and conveyed ; in a State coach of the most astounding | magniticeuce. The military display in | front of the Parliament House at this ! moment was really imposing, the I newly raised corps of -Sydney Light I Cavalry having an especially gallant appearance. The Governor's speech was one of the shortest on record. It contained but five smull paragraphs, but there was a good deal iv it for all that. It announced and explained in the most direct terms the action of the Ministry in despatching •' a contingent of Australian troops to assist the 1 raperial forces in, Egypt ;" and it invited Parliament to sanotioa what had been doae, and to make provision accordingly. The Governor ! having delivered his speech to both | Houses in due form, the Council adjourned till thu evening, when the address in reply was at once moved and seconded. Contrary to the usual custom, Mr Dalley, on behalf of the Ministry, rose immediately after the seconder. He began hy justifying tbis course on the ground that the Ministry, having summoned Parliament in co»---sequence of their' own action, were bound to take the very earliest opportunity of stating what they had done and giving their reasons for doing it, without waiting for any attack to he made upon them. He then launched without further parley, into a wouderfully effective oration, eviduutly propared with the utmost care as to its matter and phraseology, hut depending also toagreatentent on the singularly powerful and attractive manner of its deliveiy. The most noticeable feature of the speech was the. bold unhesitating way in which Mr Dalley assumed thraughout that all that New South Wales had done had been done, on behalf of Australia. He spoke always of the contingent as " Australian troops, and of the expedition as "an effort on the part of Australia" to assißt Great Britain. In one of the finest passages in his speech he said be regarded the despatch of the troops mainly as a conjweuous proof that " the Australian colouirs for from being mere idepimenta in England's triumphant match of empire, were henceforth to be counted on as an inexhaustible source of Imperial strength." He carried the Council completely by storm, and at many points in his speech wie chef - ar.d interjections of approval were so leva*

md frcqneuta* almost toinerrupt the vigorous flow of his eloquence. When be sat down, amid a storm of plaudits, everyone present felt that the occasion was historical, and also that the Government were sure of an overwhelming majority. The mild and evasive amendment ou the Add reft* which has been moved in Ooancil, indeed, is more a formal protest en the part ef one or two individual* than anything else, aud the result of the debate is altogether a fefegono comelusion. In the House of Assembly the case is different There a certain section, numericolly small, • but net certainly unrepresentative, hare mad* a violent attack oa the " war policy ** on account of ita alleged aacMstit** tionalism, and also, perhaps maialy, on aceoant of - its «xpenaiv*ness to * the taxpayers.: This section found their chief spokesman in Mr Buchanan, the men* Iwr for Mudg*w, who poured fbrtlt a torrent of t'u« most unmeasured abaft* of the Government and all their sap-poitei-s for about an hoar and a half. Some passages of bis speech cooaisWd of nothing more or less taas a fttrtag of adjectives, thus : — " I cannot raor* fully characterise the action eftbe J^itisUT^hanby s*vuig it is mean. shirtfefui, horril.l^ absurd, reckless, illegal, contomptible, Ac., Ac, Ac," and so on as loug as his breath would held out. At some points be oosd language which outraged all parliamentary rules or propri ties whatsoever; hat in vain did the Speaker endeavor to check him or divert him froq§ hi* determination to smother the Minister* with invective. He seemed U hay» token a contract to empty a road pnddle, and to be bound to go- oa throwing the ra>»d oat with both hands until there was none left to throw. It should h«» stated that from hegiuning to end of this extraordinary speech Mr Buchanan never once gain* 1 the sympathy of his audience, hat had to make I headway all the time against a eon- ! stantliuzx of ridicule aud contemptooa» I interruptions, Having laid innsoli ; open in a hundred ways to a crusbmf ! reply, he swaggered out of the Hoata. and did not return to bear what others mijht have to say of him. The papers are unanimous in treating his performance as the escapade of a luaatic ; and it has even been ingested I that th« Government "squared/ him ! beforehand, to ensure their victory by | the outragweus oftousiveness el his assault on them arid on the sentiment . of loyalty which th^rapreseot. Their victory was snre, Bowever, fr»ra thebeginning, aud it was made still sorer i by the generous and ab}c support they received fro a Sir John Robertson, one , of Lhrir most formidable opponents on I . other questions. It may safely be said that the policy of military federation, which Mr Dal ley instituted at on« : stroke a few weeks ago. is already the , settled policy of New"Sonth Wales, her : Parlia<tient and people ; and in at) human probability it is destined to bo com* before long the peficy of all A*9tralia and to lead to results winch were never ev«n remotely contemplated Hy the so-called Federal Convention the year before last Yet New Sooth Wales was the colony of all others, which was supposed to stand in the way of Federation. The truth is she would have no Federation, unless she could stand at the head of it ; a position which she actually occupies at . this moment thsoagh the geaias of a i single statesman. '