LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

HOW EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY WORKS IN AUSTRALIA.

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] have just read with great interest and appieeiation the book from which I have taken tbpe following extract.

Its keynote seems to me to be faith in, and hope for, the possibilities of the human race, as developed by education and opportunity :—

" Modem servants are far better educated than they were forty -years ago. Many of them, indeed, have been as well educated as their mistresses. The result is that they are far less filled with the prejudices. which make for friction and inefficiencies. They know what they want, and they know what are the sine qua none of service, the things that cannot be forgotten without destroying the business by which they intend to live, without, that is, making .it:riot Worth while for people to hire them. They see that it is foolish to cut off the bough on which thty want to sit."—" Ecoao mica of the Hour," by St. Loe Strachey, p. 101.

May I presume, with all respect, to offer an antipodean point of view, which I have arrived at as the result of many years of residence and observation in- this so-called democratic country,?

The State of Victoria, with the confidence of extreme youth, proclaims that it has the best system of State education in the world. Probably also the average of intelligence here is not lower than elsewhere. The action of the one upon the other, as it presents, itself to, as it were, a non-combatant, may be supposed to offer something in the nature of a test case. May

I tell you how I. have seen it ? Australia is almost entirely without a- class of gentle and well-bred people, as .we of the older countries understand these terms. The professional euts,ses-are drawn ,from the only -04wee_there ; one brother may be a grocer, or an ironmonger, another a doctor or a 'clergyman. The clever and hardworking seri of the poorest parents may carve out his path! by way of the State school and its scholarships, to the top of -the profession of his choice. He has frequently done SQ. Can better proof be-given of the existence of 'equality of opportunity ? • The result of this excellent state Of affairs should surely be not that the lion and the lamb should lie down together, but that the community should be all lions or all lambs. Alas, for that human frailty which so often comes between the desire of the optimist and its fulfilment! No sooner has one of Labour's own class taken advantage of opportunity to mount from that lowest rung which is equality to a higher level than the voices of his former, equals, far from acclaiming him as an example of the success of their desired method, unite immediately in one howl of execration. Their erstwhile equal is now their superior, and has joined the ranks of those capital- ists who automatically become "vile ". and "bloated." Is not this inevitable ? The mari who has achieved wealth or honour by taking a&intage of opportunities which he shared • 'equally with others casts an immediate reflection on those who have failed to do likewise. In self-defence those whom 'he MO left behind must attribute his success to a vice, or a 'multiplicity of vices. Jones and Brown started from the same level, in the same school. Jones has made O great mercantile positiOn, -while Brown still carries a hod. Is it not

• atking 'too' rhuch of Brown to expect that he will recognize and 'admit that Jones made good because he was the better man ? ' Is it not true that the man who has risen incurs jealous littred, not because of his rise, but because he has left his fellows behind ?

• the' mine thing holds good in domestic service, if I may ' ,,-enture to offer an opinion which, so far as -this country is concerned, does not tear out that -which you have expressed 'in the extract which I have presumed to take as my text. 'The 'servant is indeed very often as well educated as her mistress.' There is, in fact, no difference between mistress and if,a id , excePtthat of the naoney possessed by that mistress's husband. The result is that the mistress, who probably ' earned her hiring in some more or less humble calling before ' her marriage, feels it necessary to assert her dignity 'whose existence -would otherwise be unsuspected. She does this 'spasmodically, looking to her maid for companionship in the intervals when loneliness puts dignity into the corner: The 'maid, in her turn, has an ever present" I'm-as-good-as-she-is" grudge, knowing that she would be entirely competent to take her mistress's place if by any lucky chance their positions were rëversed. The domestic problem cannot, I feel sure, be more acute anywhere than it is in Australia, that democratic land where equality of opportunity really does exist.'

• I should rejoice with a humbly thankful heart if I could see evidence that my conclusions were wrong, but I find it

impossible to be optimistic about the intelligence of the human race. Wisdom and beauty abound in the world, and it may lie within our power to offer to all mankind an equal , access -to their stores. But if one brings to the treasure deaf

'ears, and another blind eyes, while to a third it has been given , to have every . faculty awake and the desire for knowledge :.strong within him, wherein will lie our equality ? And in

Avhat.past record of the sons of men are we to look for traces of a generosity of spirit that will induce the laggard in the race to look without envy on the man who passes him on the road, . and say "you deserved it " ?

-I have spent many years in this backwater of life, which , fa. young in civilization, but old in envy, hatred, malice and 'all uncharitableness,, being also of that frail human material in which poet, philosopher and preacher alike have worked- , in vain.

- I have not left room for the apologies which I owe for , troubling you with my views, but I hope that you -will , graciously accept the assurance that I am aware of my

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