1941-06-28 — Page 5

Three Sisters,

Katoomba

Across the

Saturday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

Blue Mountains

With Waltzing

Matilda

She travelled to Mel- "Waltzing Matilda, ed with their pickaxes. On the girl.

day on which Governor Mac- bourne where she saw the red- Waltzing Matilda,

quarie and his lady arrived at coat widower and his young You'll come a-waltzing Mount York on an inspection daughter, but she refused to Matilda, with me

tour, the convicts hurriedly, marry him and returned to picked out a roadway for the Hartley Vale where she lived And he sang as he carriage between huge rocks. A alone for many years. She is watched and waited till bronze tablet in one of the rocks buried across the fields behind

Collitt's Inn. his billy boiled

commemorates the occasion.

When the new road to the Hartley Vale is of unusual ucenic and historic interest and west was completed, the fame the old village is one of the most of Collitt's Inn declined. In its I learned this, Australia's romantic in the history of heyday the highway in front of It was the the Inn was crowded with car- unofficial anthem, during Australian mining. the lazy summer days of cradle of the oil shale industry, riages and horsemen in picture- but to the modern-day visitor sque costumes. To-day, a soli

You'll come s‐waltzing Matilda, with me!" ·

June 28, 1941,

Return to Rural

Life in China

By T. Paul Gregory

THE SIMPLE LIFE that exist contempt for the dignity of manunk" enco which affords surcense from fabour. By reverting to the soil for economic worries and is pervaded by a livelihood, however, agriculture the quiet charm of the countrysido

has become more und more the and the simple life wilt attain new bean ident of our generation. It is significance, and the rugged virluca an Ideal that means a return to agri- of the Chinese people Assuma cultural pursuits: hence, the ery greater importance.

"back to the farm" has now become

the clarion call of an extensive move-

ment to re-possess the land.

un-

Even in China, a nation which has

As the life of the Chinese people been the last to be affected by the has always centred round the coun- Industrial revolution, the force of the tryside, and especially the village, new movement has been felt. This this dramatic return to the occupa is largely because war has compelled tion of China's ancestors will vast numbers to migrate from cifles doubtedly foster a revitalisation of on the seaboard to the undeveloped the national consciousness, and the hinterland. Here, because of the peasant masses will come to assume lack of industry, there is no other a greater role in affairs than they recource but to take up farming.

have experienced for many long Even men who were established years. The sweeping changes which Artisans and shop-keepers, as well as will thus be effected will create a those who formerly held "white gradual industrialisation of the rural collar" jobs, have begun to orientate communily, and the simple lie as themselves to the simple ife of the new lived will become in the much less in evidence. It is too early in It has been a course which has the process of transition, however, to therefore entalled enormous sacrifices not see much change, and only of material wealth (for the new present-day village life is largely the arrivals have lost practically every Same as it was. thing they possessed) but also of Chinese Unges, as met with in pride; for, since the turn of the southern China, may be grouped into century, the younger generation

which differ China has appeared to manifest are general types,

from one another only as to the manner in which their inhabitants secure

those, their livelihood: 1. whose population depend upon rice cultivation for sustenance; 2. those,

peasants,

picking up on the quiet there. The day I went from Blackheath heights down the winding road to Megalong Valley, the driver car every few stopped the minutes to pick up logs of wood and empty beer bottles. The wood was to be used in his own fireplace and, with a sly wink he whispered that always 3d. to be gained on every empty bottle..

in which sericulture is the economic of proximity to shipping centres on mainstay: 3. those which on account the sea or rivers are supported by Ashing and the carrying trade.

Regardless of location, all Chinese

much villages are very

alike in appearance, and upon first glance mass of seem to be a composiíc there was

greyish-blac brick, tipped with red- dish-coloured tile. Further scrutiny the fact that what at first peals solld pile of brick is inter- secined a spersed by tunncia These prove to be lanes; for, like the Napoleonic Square, the Chinese vil- together, and separated from another by lunes of some four or more.feet in width. Each house is,

Famous Sights

and runaways.

0110

1

Picked for Prettiness -and Coolness!

Fresh Styles from

America

Cotton Frocks

In checks, stripes and florals, many with the popular shirt

top.

$19.50

Jersey Cloth and

Silk Dresses -

Fashionable spots, stripes

and Florals.

from $25.50

A LIMITED NUMBER OF

EXTREMELY SMART

WHITE FELTS

from $9.50 ea.

nevertheless, practically an undevint- CHIFFON SQUARES, $2.95 ea.

1939 whilst in bathing pic the most important place in the tary touring bus usually waits tains from Blackheath is Kato- lago is a block of dwellings huddled nies at Junk Bay and Clear- whole valley is Collitt's Inn. outside, while a party of visitors

cals Little did I water Bay.

scones with strawberry think then that this year I

More than a century ago, jam and cream in the old bar. Pierce Collitt, accompanied by Parts of Mary's trousseau are would be singing it in the two friends, arrived in the valley still to be seen at the Inn. Blue Mountains of New and decided to build a home on valance, made in Switzerland in South Wales.

the site of a fresh-water spring 1800, still hangs above Mary's

By HELEN WALKER DUNCAN

ing counterpart of its neighbour: all

ceptions, of not more than a single

are windowless, and, with rare ex- storey in height.

Seven miles down the moun. omba, the "Brighton-minus-sca" of New South Wales. It is a busy little township during holi- days and the summer months, There are hotels, guest houses and good shops. Motors and charabanes set out every morn-

Nearby stands the 18'x-f'ong, or ing On sight-seeing trips.

#ancestral hall," wherein are cn- Famous Katoomba sights are shrined the tablets of the forefathers the Three Sisters, a rock forma- for as many generations

the tion, Echo Point, Nellie's Glen hamlet can claim existence. The an- and the Kingsford Smith Mem-church is to rural communities else

cestral hali is to the village what the

where the nucleus around which orial Park complete with_n miniature model of the Holly wood Bowl.

SU

moves the placid, contented sphere

of arcadian activities

The majority of Chinese villages

grove of bamboo, trees and under- brush, intended not only to provide a wind-break, but also to furnish some sort of protection for the from unwelcome in- community

Is placed

are partially surrounded by a thick

It became my anthem during at the foot of Mount York. He bed-a mute reminder of that walks in and around Black was one of the first settlers in lovely and high-spirited young heath, a sleepy little village on the district and it took him girl who lived and loved in the the highest point of the moun- many months to build his home days gone by.

The main motor road stretches tains.

which still stands to-day. He Traces of those old days are along the tops of the mountains As I swung along to Govett's hauled stones from Parramatta, to be found in nearly every vill bounded on either side by deep Leap or down into the Megalong about 80 miles away and built age on the Blue Mountains. valleys and precipitous drops Valley, the strains of "Waltzing four different types of walls for Local legend has it that Govett's only excelled in the Grand Can-

At the cottage. Matilda" filled the air.

Leap, one of the chief features yon. These valleys are often one time, in Perthshire, my He opened the building as a of the Blackheath district, is filled with cotton-wool mists favourite hiking song was "The licensed-house-and-did-a-roaring named after a mythical bush delight to many Scottish visit. you know-hence this typically bushrangers, the miners and the cliff which is more than 500 feet villages with their eye on the Rond to the Isles", but in Rome, trade in the days when the ranger who, when being pursued ors,

by relcouts, jumped over the But the mountain towns and redcoats (soldiers) passed by on I understand that the words the old road. Now, Pierce had high. The Blackheath inhabit- tourists trade can be ensily loft wood bound with Iron completes the

Australian song.

larised in song some years ago by a bushranger.

Matilda.

truders. Great rellannention; for |

upon this natural

the greater part of it is sown with to penetrate as a network of barbed thorny brambles-almost as difficult

wire. A solidly constructed gate of

'In addition, many Kwanglung villages bonst of a large, thick-walled p'dau-t'oi, or "fort," of reinforced embrosures concrete, pierced with for firearms. This fortalice, resem- bling so strikingly the donjon-keep of mediaeval European towns, frowns militantly over the patch-work of red-tiled roofs.

the

ants swear by this tale, though officially it is stated that the Peace and a feeling of well-being One night cliff was named after Surveyor come through a walk in the deep by the famous "Banjo" Patter- she heard the approaching red Govett. The old story is more glens between tall gum trees and son who died in Sydney early coats and warned the bushranger

giant ferns which sway in the this year. I used to think the who was then sitting in the bar, appealing though.

Blackheath refrain "You'll come a-waltz- He found shelter among the

breeze and glisten with misty ing Matilda with me"-concern- rocks and trees on Mount York.

dew drops. Down along a dusty Blackheath is surrounded by rond past a wise-looking kouka- ed a man and his dancing part-

In a few weeks, his jealous apple orchards and every little burra perched on a tree trunk ner, Matilda. But I have since discovered that down here a eye spotted a redcoat whom he wayside cottage can produce de- or up a steep track where the

No description of a Chinese village swagman carries his pack on thought was a trifle too friendly lightful tea with scones, jam sound of footsteps and singing would be complete without a men- his back and as he walks it with his Mary. One night, he and cream for visitors.

disturbs a family of magpies.

tion of the fish-pond, of which there are invariably one or more situated dances up and down in rhythm ran to the cottage garden, There seem to be more dogs

Away from the bustle of the directly in "ront. Somewhat re- with his step. Hence Waltzing challenged the redcoat and was of every shape and size in Black-city into the calmness of the moved from these is often a

a plece shot through the heart. When heath than anywhere else in he died on the bar counter, Mary the world. They run free round when the continual ache of long-prominent bearing on the prosperity

countryside, that's the time of open land which, together

ponds, are regarded as possa The Blue Mountains made A vow that she would the villago and take a special

of the community. Indeed, it in belleved that good fortune enters the No matter what happens in marry the first man who stepped delight in chasing and yelping at ing to be back in Hongkong is

village by means of the open Reld the years to come I will always into her father's bar. Ile turn- every motor car which scorches soothed and the song spills out

cheerfully! on route

and the fish-ponds, and is retained to Mount associate this lilting song with bd out to be a 72-year-old farmer through

there by the surrounding grove. my first visit to the Australian but, true to her vow, she be- Victoria, Lithgow or the Jenolan countryside. The Blue Moun- came his wife and set up home Caves. They are friendly and tains were discovered in May, with him in the nearby Kanim- unafraid of strangers. Like the 1813, by Glaxland, Lawson and bla Valley.

horses there, they kept an eye Wentworth, In that year, a The redcoat finally married in open for me, for they know that great drought forced the col England and, several years my pockets were full of biscuits onists in and around Sydney Inter, on hearing of the death filched from a nearby ten-room. to think once again of trying to of Mary's husband, returned to Apparently, though, I was not discover a passage to the west Australia and sought out the the only one who did a little`. across the mountains. These

explorers forced their way across the chain of mountains and when they reached Mount York there, below them, ‚was spread a vista promising all that, had been surmised,

After 25 years, the possibility of finding a route of access to what is now the great wheat belt was opened up before them. In another year, there was a road built by convicts, parts of which are to-day the Great Western Rond loading from Sydney across the mountains on which motor cars, bikes and lorries speed along overy day.

On the summit of Mount "York there are several mom-. orials to the explorers and to Governor Macquarie, who was n driving force in New South Wales during those days. The convicts, too, have left their memorial-the old road lending. down into Hartley Valo is mark-

Covett's Leap and Bridal Veil Fall, Blackheath

•

"Waltzing Matilda, Waltz- ing Matilda,

"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me

And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled You'll come a-waltzing Ma- tilda, with me!”

|

Food here is no problem; for each village is a self-contained unit. The fields in addition to providing rice, also supply an abundance of vegel- ables, such as sweet-potatoes, yams, etc. The herds of swine, and the Docks of fowls, ducks, and geese provide them with flesh, and those who tire of pork and vegetables with their dally rice, may vary their menu with entremets from the village fish- pond.

The only drawback, perhaps, is lack of communication with the outer world, but even this obviated by the steady round of markel-days in the neighbouring hul, for market- town, when the peasants meet to barter, and exchange news and scraps of Information.

But this eventually will be chang- ed. The advent of the radio, and the arrival of new recruits to the Alaple

life, will inject a ferment in- to the tranquil monotony of peasant life as it now exists. Self-Improve- ment will then become their interest, and the village_co-operative society will. become a factor in bottering their economic condition.

But despite the changes which are hound to come, village life as now lived is yet all sumelent, and al- though it may be lacking in many of the amenities of the modern

world, it probably affords by reason

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