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TRAVELLING BOYS.
It is a good omen that while Australia
is equipping and sending expeditionary
forces to the conflict in the old world
she should also be bidding bon voyage to
a contingent of boys and youths who are
undertaking a tour to America, and who
will participate in the festivities asso
ciated with the Panama Exposition. The
spectacle will be that of a friendly army
visiting a friendly State on the occasion
of a great national demonstration which,
had it not been for the unfortunate war
in Europe, would have been in reality a
world demonstration. The Australian lads
will take with them the good wishes of
the people of this continent for their kins
men over the seas, and will be received,
as the last band of pilgrims were, with cor
diality and reciprocated evidences of
teem. There is nothing novel in the enter
prise, for not only has Air. -T. J. Simons
previously conducted a similar tour, but
it is not so very long since Australia liad
the pleasure of welcoming a company of
American lads, who won golden opinions
in all the States of the Commonwealth,
and. took back with them to the Repub
lic permanent impressions of the great
ness, potential and actual, of this and other
parts of the British Empire. There is no
form of education so effective as travel.
Those who enjoy its advantages on a liberal
scale not only have their outlook on human
life and activities enlarged, but
they learn from the opportunities
for comparison and contrast to
appreciate at their true value their own
national institutions and the achieve
ments of their own civilisation. Prejudices
are often removed, and a parochial view is
displaced by one more cosmopolitan. The
more men and nations know of each other
the less danger there is of friction, which
in numerous instances is the direct effect
of misunderstanding. These Australian
lads are paying a visit to America at a
period o: life when the mind is
particularly impressionable. They are
old enough to appreciate what
tbey see and hear, and young enough
to respond to appeals made to the imagina
tion and the reason. There will be much
for them to learn from the new scenes.
This would be so at any time, but-the op
portunities will be especially ample for
acquiring knowledge concerning a wide
range of subjects at a period when the ex
position is being held. Xaturally one of
the objects of first-rate interest will be the
Panama Canal, of which they have heard
and read so much. But as "things seen
are mightier than things heard'' the
greatest engineering work the world -has
ever undertaken should prove to them a
source of much profit wiwn studied on the
spot.
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