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Nguyen-Son Vo
Van-Phuc Hoang (Eds.)

334

Industrial Networks
and Intelligent Systems
6th EAI International Conference, INISCOM 2020
Hanoi, Vietnam, August 27–28, 2020
Proceedings

123
Lecture Notes of the Institute
for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics
and Telecommunications Engineering 334

Editorial Board Members

Ozgur Akan
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
Paolo Bellavista
University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Jiannong Cao
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Geoffrey Coulson
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Falko Dressler
University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
Domenico Ferrari
Università Cattolica Piacenza, Piacenza, Italy
Mario Gerla
UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
Hisashi Kobayashi
Princeton University, Princeton, USA
Sergio Palazzo
University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Sartaj Sahni
University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Xuemin (Sherman) Shen
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Mircea Stan
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
Xiaohua Jia
City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Albert Y. Zomaya
University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8197
Nguyen-Son Vo Van-Phuc Hoang (Eds.)
•

Industrial Networks
and Intelligent Systems
6th EAI International Conference, INISCOM 2020
Hanoi, Vietnam, August 27–28, 2020
Proceedings

123
Editors
Nguyen-Son Vo Van-Phuc Hoang
Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Le Quy Don Technical University
Engineering Hanoi, Vietnam
Duy Tan University
Da Nang, Vietnam

ISSN 1867-8211 ISSN 1867-822X (electronic)

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics
and Telecommunications Engineering
ISBN 978-3-030-63082-9 ISBN 978-3-030-63083-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63083-6

© ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2020
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 Preface

We are delighted to introduce the proceedings of the 2020 European Alliance for
Innovation (EAI) International Conference on Industrial Networks and Intelligent
Systems (INISCOM 2020). This conference has brought together researchers, devel-
opers, and practitioners from around the world who are leveraging and developing
industrial networks and intelligent systems. The theme of INISCOM 2020 was
“Computing, Telecommunications Technologies and Applications of 5G-IoT, AI and
Cyber-Security to Improve Citizens’ Lives.”
The technical program of INISCOM 2020 consisted of 25 full papers in oral pre-
sentation sessions at the main conference tracks. The conference tracks were: Track 1 –
Telecommunications Systems and Networks; Track 2 – Hardware, Software, and
Application Designs; Track 3 – Information Processing and Data Analysis; Track 4 –
Industrial Networks and Intelligent Systems; and Track 5 – Security and Privacy. Aside
from the high-quality technical paper presentations, the technical program also featured
one keynote speech. The keynote speaker was Prof. Dong-Seong Kim, from Kumoh
National Institute of Technology, South Korea.
Coordination with the steering chairs, Prof. Imrich Chlamtac, Dr. Vien Ngo, and
Dr. Ta Chi Hieu, was essential for the success of the conference. We sincerely
appreciate their constant support and guidance. It was also a great pleasure to work
with such an excellent Organizing Committee team and we thank them for their hard
work in organizing and supporting the conference. In particular, the Technical Program
Committee (TPC), led by our TPC co-chairs, Dr. Nguyen-Son Vo, Dr. Quoc Tuan
Vien, and Prof. Trung Q. Duong, who completed the peer-review process of technical
papers and made a high-quality technical program. We are also grateful to conference
manager Natasha Onofrei for the support and all the authors who submitted their papers
to INISCOM 2020.
We strongly believe that INISCOM provides a good forum for all researcher,
developers, and practitioners to discuss all science and technology aspects that are
relevant to industrial networks and intelligent systems. We also expect that the future
INISCOM will be as successful and stimulating as indicated by the contributions
presented in this volume.

October 2020 Nguyen-Son Vo

Van-Phuc Hoang
 Organization

Steering Committee
Imrich Chlamtac University of Trento, Italy
Vien Ngo Queen’s University Belfast, UK
Ta Chi Hieu Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam

Organizing Committee
General Chair
Van-Phuc Hoang Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam

General Co-chairs
Cong-Kha Pham The University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Xuan-Nam Tran Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam

TPC Chair and Co-chairs

Nguyen-Son Vo Duy Tan University, Vietnam
Quoc Tuan Vien Middlesex University, UK
Trung Q. Duong Queen’s University Belfast, UK

Sponsorship and Exhibit Chairs

Luong Duy Manh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Hoa Le-Minh Northumbria University, UK

Local Chairs
Tran Cong Manh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Van-Trung Nguyen Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Do Thanh Quan Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam

Workshops Chairs
Koichiro Ishibashi The University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Sylvain Guilley Télécom Paris, France
Xuan-Tu Tran VNU University of Engineering and Technology,
Vietnam

Publicity and Social Media Chairs

Tomohiko Taniguchi Fujitsu Laboratories, Japan
Nguyen Quoc Dinh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Dao Thi Nga Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
viii Organization

Publications Chairs
Quang Kien Trinh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Mai Ngoc Anh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Tomoyuki Ohkubo Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology, Japan

Web Chairs
Trong-Thuc Hoang The University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Vu Hoang Gia Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam

Posters and PhD Track Chairs

Ulrich Kuhne Télécom Paris, France
Guanghao Sun The University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Ta Minh Thanh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Le-Nam Tran University College Dublin, Ireland

Panels Chairs
Mai-Khanh Nguyen Ngoc The University of Tokyo, Japan
Le Chung Tran University of Wollongong, Australia
Berk Canberk Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

Demos Chairs
Zoran Hadzi-Velkov Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Macedonia
Van Sang Doan Kumoh National Institute of Technology, South Korea
Quang Nguyen The Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam

Tutorials Chairs
Jean-Luc Danger Télécom Paris, France
Duc Anh Le Center for Open Data in the Humanities, Tokyo, Japan
Tuan Le Middlesex University, UK

Technical Program Committee

Truong Khoa Phan University College London, UK
T. Tuan Nguyen University of Buckingham, UK
Purav Shah Middlesex University, UK
Tuan Anh Le Middlesex University, UK
Cong Trang Mai Queen’s University Belfast, UK
Le Chung Tran University of Wollongong, Australia
Huy T. Nguyen Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
G. Suseendran Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced
Studies, India
Falowo Olabisi University of Cape Town, South Africa
Thang Vu University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Yuanfang Chen Hangzhou Dianzi University, China
 Organization ix

Kien Nguyen Chiba University, Japan

Nguyen Ngoc Mai Khanh The University of Tokyo, Japan
Guanghao Sun The University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Duc Anh Le Center for Open Data in the Humanities, Tokyo, Japan
Tomoyuki Ohkubo Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology, Japan
Luong Duy Manh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Kien Trinh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Dao Thi Nga Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Huu Hung Nguyen Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Xuan Tung Truong Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Tang Van Ha Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Ta Minh Thanh Le Quy Don Technical University, Vietnam
Doan Van Sang Kumoh National Institute of Technology, South Korea
Toan Dao University of Transport and Communications, Vietnam
Huan Vo Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
and Education, Vietnam
Van-Ca Phan Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
and Education, Vietnam
Pham Ngoc Son Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
and Education, Vietnam
Kien Dang Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, Vietnam
Toan Doan Thu Dau Mot University, Vietnam
Dac-Binh Ha Duy Tan University, Vietnam
Nguyen Gia Nhu Duy Tan University, Vietnam
 Contents

Telecommunications Systems and Networks

Intelligent Channel Utilization Discovery in Drone to Drone Networks

for Smart Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Muhammed Raşit Erol and Berk Canberk

Downlink Resource Sharing and Multi-tier Caching Selection Maximized

Multicast Video Delivery Capacity in 5G Ultra-Dense Networks. . . . . . . . . . 19
Thanh-Minh Phan, Nguyen-Son Vo, Minh-Phung Bui,
Quang-Nhat Tran, Hien M. Nguyen, and Antonino Masaracchia

Performance Analysis of Relay Selection on Cooperative Uplink NOMA

Network with Wireless Power Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Van-Long Nguyen, Van-Truong Truong, Dac-Binh Ha, Tan-Loc Vo,
and Yoonill Lee

Convolutional Neural Network-Based DOA Estimation Using Non-uniform

Linear Array for Multipath Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Van-Sang Doan, Thien Huynh-The, Van-Phuc Hoang,
and Dong-Seong Kim

An UAV and Distributed STBC for Wireless Relay Networks in Search

and Rescue Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Cong-Hoang Diem and Takeo Fujii

Hardware, Software, and Application Designs

Resolution-Improvement of Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy via Two

Different Point Spread Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Xuanhoi Hoang, Vannhu Le, and MinhNghia Pham

Estimations of Matching Layers Effects on Lens Antenna Characteristics . . . . 85

Phan Van Hung, Nguyen Quoc Dinh, Hoang Dinh Thuyen,
Nguyen Tuan Hung, Le Minh Thuy, Le Trong Trung,
and Yoshihide Yamada

A 3-Stacked GaN HEMT Power Amplifier with Independently Biased

Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Luong Duy Manh, Tran Thi Thu Huong, Bui Quoc Doanh,
and Vo Quang Son
xii Contents

Feasibility and Design Trade-Offs of Neural Network Accelerators

Implemented on Reconfigurable Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Quang-Kien Trinh, Quang-Manh Duong, Thi-Nga Dao,
Van-Thanh Nguyen, and Hong-Phong Nguyen

Information Processing and Data Analysis

Adaptive Essential Matrix Based Stereo Visual Odometry with Joint

Forward-Backward Translation Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Huu Hung Nguyen, Quang Thi Nguyen, Cong Manh Tran,
and Dong-Seong Kim

A Modified Localization Technique for Pinpointing a Gunshot Event Using

Acoustic Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Thin Cong Tran, My Ngoc Bui, and Hoang Huy Nguyen

Table Structure Recognition in Scanned Images Using

a Clustering Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Nam Van Nguyen, Hanh Vu, Arthur Zucker, Younes Belkada,
Hai Van Do, Doanh Ngoc- Nguyen, Thanh Tuan Nguyen Le,
and Dong Van Hoang

Distributed Watermarking for Cross-Domain of Semantic Large Image

Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Le Danh Tai, Nguyen Kim Thang, and Ta Minh Thanh

Depth Image Reconstruction Using Low Rank and Total Variation

Representations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Van Ha Tang and Mau Uyen Nguyen

Deep Learning Based Hyperspectral Images Analysis for Shrimp

Contaminated Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Minh-Hieu Nguyen, Xuan-Huyen Nguyen-Thi, Cong-Nguyen Pham,
Ngoc C. Lê, and Huy-Dung Han

A Predictive System for IoTs Reconfiguration Based on TensorFlow

Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Tuan Nguyen-Anh and Quan Le-Trung

Industrial Networks and Intelligent Systems

An Optimal Eigenvalue-Based Decomposition Approach for Estimating

Forest Parameters Over Forest Mountain Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Nguyen Ngoc Tan and Minh Nghia Pham
 Contents xiii

An Improved Forest Height Inversion Method Using Dual-Polarization

PolInSAR Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
HuuCuong Thieu and MinhNghia Pham

An Attempt to Perform TCP ACK Storm Based DoS Attack on Virtual

and Docker Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Khanh Tran Nam, Thanh Nguyen Kim, and Ta Minh Thanh

Identification of Chicken Diseases Using VGGNet and ResNet Models . . . . . 259

Luyl-Da Quach, Nghi Pham-Quoc, Duc Chung Tran,
and Mohd. Fadzil Hassan

Design and Evaluation of the Grid-Connected Solar Power System

at the Stage of DC BUS with Optimization of Modulation Frequency
for Performance Improvement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Nguyen Duc Minh, Quach Duc-Cuong, Nguyen Quang Ninh, Y Nhu Do,
and Trinh Trong Chuong

Security and Privacy

An Efficient Side Channel Attack Technique with Improved Correlation

Power Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Ngoc-Tuan Do and Van-Phuc Hoang

An Optimal Packet Assignment Algorithm for Multi-level Network

Intrusion Detection Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Dao Thi-Nga, Chi Hieu Ta, Van Son Vu, and Duc Van Le

Privacy-Preserving for Web Hosting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Tam T. Huynh, Thuc D. Nguyen, Nhung T.H. Nguyen, and Hanh Tan

A Novel Secure Protocol for Mobile Edge Computing Network Applied

Downlink NOMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Dac-Binh Ha, Van-Truong Truong, and Duy-Hung Ha

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Telecommunications Systems
and Networks
 Intelligent Channel Utilization Discovery
in Drone to Drone Networks for Smart
Cities

Muhammed Raşit Erol and Berk Canberk(B)

Department of Computer Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, 34469 Ayazaga,

Istanbul, Turkey
{erolm15,canberk}@itu.edu.tr

Abstract. Drone networks are playing a significant role in a wide variety

of applications such as the delivery of goods, surveillance, search and res-
cue missions, etc. The development of the drone to drone (D2D) networks
can increase the success of these applications. One way of improving D2D
network performance is the monitoring of the channel utilization of the
link between drones. There are many works about monitoring channel
utility; however, either they sense channel physically, which is not reli-
able and effective due to noise in the channel and miss-sense of signals,
or they have protocol-based solutions with high time-complexity. Hence,
we propose a less time and power-consuming MAC layer protocol based
monitoring model, which works on the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS proto-
col for D2D communication. We work on this protocol because it solves
the hidden terminal problem, which can be seen widely in drone com-
munication due to the characteristics of wireless networks and mobility
of drones. Our model consists of Searching & Finding and Functional
Sub-layers. In the Searching & Finding Sub-layer, we locate the other
drones in the air with a specific flying pattern; we also sense and col-
lect frame information on the channel. With a Functional Sub-layer,
we calculate channel utilization with Network Allocation Vector (NAV)
vector sizes, showing the duration of the drone about how long it must
defer from accessing the link. Also, we create a visualization map with
Voronoi Diagram. In that diagram, according to drone coordinates, each
region is generated after the k-means clustering algorithm, which is one
of the simplest and popular unsupervised machine learning algorithms.
Hence, each Voronoi section shows channel utility in terms of percentage
in a more precise and discretized way. Furthermore, with our model, we
decrease the sensing time of the channel by about 25%, and we reduce
the power consumption of sensing drone approximately 26%. Also, our
model uses about 57% less area during the calculation phase.

Keywords: Monitoring of channel utilization · IEEE 802.11

RTS/CTS · Drone to drone networks · Voronoi diagram · NAV vectors

c ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2020
Published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. All Rights Reserved
N.-S. Vo and V.-P. Hoang (Eds.): INISCOM 2020, LNICST 334, pp. 3–18, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63083-6_1
4 M. R. Erol and B. Canberk

1 Introduction
Low Altitude Platforms (LAVs), also called drones, are rapidly developing and
becoming extremely useful in a variety of areas, from civil applications to mil-
itary missions due to the structural advantages and moving flexibility on air.
Surveillance, search and rescue missions, delivery of goods, construction, and
natural disaster monitoring are most standing out applications of drones [1].
The achievement of these applications depends on improvements in network
performance. Hence, there are a significant number of challenges in aerial net-
works to increase network performance [2–4]. In this aspect, to provide reliable,
efficient, and stable drone to drone networks, monitoring resources of aerial sys-
tems is a crucial mission because that minimizes the cost of maintenance of data
flow. Thus, we focused on the topic of resource monitoring, which is channel
utilization for the drone to drone (D2D) networks.
D2D network complexity is dramatically expanding in terms of services and
topology, which causes challenging network management problems on network
resources. Hence, the diagnosing channel utilization as resource monitoring takes
crucial place in D2D networks. As mentioned in [5], monitoring characteristics of
wireless networks is critical to many management tasks such as fault diagnosis
and resource management. Also, in that work, monitoring types are introduced
as PHY and MAC behaviors. In this aspect, we focus on the discovery of channel
utilization for D2D networks in the field of smart city applications. It is known
that smart cities enhance life quality with intelligent things. Therefore, drone
collaboration and D2D networks play a vital role in supporting a lot of smart
city applications such as D2D communication and network resource management
[6]. Thus, in this work, we work on monitoring of channel utilization as resource
management of D2D networks in smart cities.
There exist many studies in the recent literature about evaluating channel uti-
lization in many ways for D2D networks. In [7], MIT LL has developed a data col-
lection and visualization framework to monitor and analyze the performance of
a high-capacity backbone (HCB) network, which is an example of Mobile AdHoc
Networks (MANETs). In that work, the monitoring implemented at various lay-
ers of the OSI stack. Furthermore, the channel utilization can be measured with
PHY(physical) layer methods. In [8], with the proposed Channel Quality Indica-
tor (CQI) feedback scheme, each cellular-UAV can evaluate link quality by the
reference signal. Also, in [9], Negative Acknowledgement (NACK)-related regu-
lar feedback system is considered. In this work, if Signal to Interference and Noise
Ratio (SINR) is less than the threshold of a special Modulation and Coding Scheme
(MCS), the user transmits NACK back to the base station. Moreover, [10] provides
novel channel feedback schemes that solve the problem of finding the right feed-
back mechanism to convey channel information. With this scheme, it is possible
to measure channel quality for wireless networks.
None of these works presented on PHY layer are accurate and reliable mea-
surement methods for link quality because PHY layer can be affected by other
signals or signal cannot reach the destination due to shadowing effect and
mobility of UAVs. Also, it is impossible to obtain any information about chan-
 Intelligent Channel Utilization Discovery in D2D Networks for Smart Cities 5

Fig. 1. The RTS/CTS mechanism [11] of scenario Fig. 4

nel quality for the base station, if no NACK is sent. The flow management
and logical connection are necessary for more accurate and reliable monitoring
of channel utilization; however, these works do not provide these MAC layer
properties. Shortly, to be sure about there is a communication in the channel,
the MAC layer protocol based approach is needed. Moreover, they have a very
complicated implementation of monitoring channel utilization.
Consequently, keeping these studies in mind, we propose a novel monitoring
approach of D2D network channel utilization and network traffic type in the
field where drones are actively communicating with the IEEE 802.11 protocol.
Also, our model works on the MAC layer with flow management and logical con-
nection advantages. Even though the most preferred way of calculating channel
utilization is the sensing channel always on the PHY layer, we present a protocol-
based method that uses the NAV vector, which is originated from IEEE 802.11
RTS/CTS enabled protocol. In our approach, we calculate channel utilization
using the duration field of the frames, which determines the NAV vector size.
Furthermore, only one participant can communicate in the channel with IEEE
802.11 RTS/CTS (see Fig. 1); thus, calculating the channel utilization with our
method becomes applicable. With our model, we prevent the sensing channel on
the PHY layer, which is not an optimal approach due to the power consumption
of the searching drone and noise in the channel. The MAC protocol-based system
we offered shows there exists absolutely communication in the MAC layer, which
6 M. R. Erol and B. Canberk

is a more exact sensing way rather than blindly sensing the channel. Further-
more, we propose a visualization method using the Voronoi diagram in our work
to show channel utilization in the area. Due to a Voronoi map that can be used
to find the largest empty circle amid a collection of points, the drone environ-
ment where drones are communicating can be represented this method in a more
precise way. With this method, drone groups can be visualized more centralized
manner within regions because we use one of the unsupervised machine learning
algorithms called the k-means clustering method according to drone coordinates.
This algorithm clusters drone coordinates and helps to create Voronoi regions.
Shortly, the main contributions of this paper include the following:

– We propose a new system model consists of Searching & Finding Sub-layer

and Functional Sub-layer Modules, which is responsible for locating drones
and creating a Voronoi Diagram. This model works on the MAC layer of
IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS protocol.
– We introduce a practical and more straightforward channel utilization calcu-
lation using the properties of the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS protocol.
– We present a novel monitoring approach with a k-means clustering algorithm
to visualize and analyze network traffic in the Voronoi diagram with a more
effective and faster way.
– We can also apply our implementation to future technology WIFI 6, which
is the data-driven protocol as we propose. Hence, our model will present a
compelling and more uncomplicated novel monitoring method in the future.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The network architecture is

explained in Sect. 2. In part 3, the system model is indicated. The simulation
environment is described in Sect. 4. In Sect. 5, we evaluate the performance of

Fig. 2. Network architecture

 Intelligent Channel Utilization Discovery in D2D Networks for Smart Cities 7

our proposed model. Finally, we conclude the paper by summarizing the achieve-
ments in Sect. 6.

2 Network Architecture
The network topology for our model consists of n drones with one searching
drone. These drones are communicating with the IEEE 802.11 wireless net-
working protocol with RTS/CTS (Request To Send/Clear To Send) mechanism.
The RTS/CTS mechanism is created for avoiding the hidden terminal problem
in wireless networks and allows only one pair to communicate in the channel.
Drones can fly at different heights with the specific moving pattern. However, the
searching drone always flies at the pre-determined height. All drones repeat their
flying patterns after reaching destination coordinates. Furthermore, we assume
that all drones are completed authentication stage for wireless communication.
Hence, they communicate directly with each other on the same channel without
authentication messages. Moreover, the channel is always busy, and the frame
size is randomly generated in the network. We represent the whole network
architecture and the component models of the searching drone in Fig. 2.

3 System Model
We divide the proposed system model into two coherent sub-layers titled Search-
ing & Finding Sub-layer and Functional Sub-layer. Searching & Finding Sub-
layer is responsible for searching on the area with a specific movement pattern
and gathering information from D2D communication. Moreover, we dedicate the
Functional Sub-layer to process information belongs to the Searching & Finding
Sub-layer. Each of the sub-layers additionally owns some modules. Searching
& Finding Sub-layer has two modules entitled Sensing and Data Classification;
furthermore, the Functional Sub-layer has two modules entitled Calculation and
Visualization. In Fig. 3, we represent the entire system model and the associa-
tions between its segments.

3.1 Searching and Finding Sub-layer

Searching & Finding Sub-layer includes Sensing and Data Classification Mod-
ules. The Sensing Module determines the movement pattern of the searching
drone and executes it. Furthermore, this module performs the classification of
data operations and gives the meaning of them.

Sensing Module. This module handles the movement pattern of the search-
ing drone and operations of collecting data from the channel with sensing. This
information contains coordinates of communicating drones, source and destina-
tion address of the frame, Duration ID in the frame to keep Network Allocation
Vector (NAV) timer and frame types such as RTS, CTS, DATA or ACK. After
the sensing channel for gathering this information, this module transfers col-
lected data to the next layer called Data Classification.
8 M. R. Erol and B. Canberk

Fig. 3. Layered architecture of proposed system model

Data Classification Module. This module exists at the end of the Searching
& Finding Sub-layer. The transferred data from Sensing Module is classified here
to match that data with Drone Data sections. The coming information from the
below layer is assigned to Drone Data if there exists. In the case of a new drone
whose information does not exist in the Drone Data section, is discovered, then
the new part is created in the Data Classification Module. All other information
about this drone will be assigned this section in the future data gathering. This
module’s main aim is grouping collected data with corresponding drones to make
it easier for calculations in the future. After all these operations, the classified
data is transferred to the upper layer named Calculation Module.

3.2 Functional Sub-layer

The functional Sub-layer includes Calculation and Visualization Modules. The
Calculation Module calculates channel utilization, and the Visualization Module
creates a Voronoi diagram with calculated channel utilization and network traffic
type.

Calculation Module. This module exists between Data Classification and

Visualization Module. It calculates channel utilization and type of network traf-
fic for each drone. To do that, this module uses the information coming from
the Data Classification Module. Furthermore, this module contains submodules
called Channel Utilization and Traffic Type Sub-Modules.

Channel Utilization Sub-Module. This module is responsible for computing the

channel utilization of the area. To do that, this module uses the properties of
the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS protocol. Due to this protocol, only one pair can
communicate at a certain time. Other drones should wait until the NAV vector
reaches zero; after that, if they win back off timer before other drones, then
they can transmit their data. The Fig. 4 shows sample scenario. This scenario is
an example of our model with less number of drones with the searching drone.
 Intelligent Channel Utilization Discovery in D2D Networks for Smart Cities 9

(b) The placement of drones in the area

(a) The communication sequence diagram

Fig. 4. The sample scenario of IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS

The communication sequence diagram of the area can be seen in the below part
of the figure. In our model, we concentrate on the repeated cycle of RTS/CTS
mechanism denoted as tslottime and natural outcome of IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS
protocol, known as sequentially repeated cycles like in the Fig. 4b. It can be
understood that tslottime can be calculated focusing on starting time with the
RTS frame after the Backoff timer until the ACK frame is transferred, which
showed in Fig. 4b. In this interval, only one drone pair can transmit, and the
total transmission time for data always has the same sub-time intervals except
for the data frame size. Other time intervals like DIFS duration denoted as tDIF S
are constant values determined by the protocol as in work [12]. Hence, tslottime
can be denoted as following:

tslottime = tRT S + 3 × tSIF S + tCT S + tDAT A + tACK + tDIF S + tBackof f (1)

where tBackof f is a random value between [1, CW], and other time intervals are
the part of the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS protocol. The CW(contention window) is
an integer between CWmin = 32 and CWmax = 1024. In our model, we consider
Another random document with
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It is unfortunate that the continent should be in this position—the
position of having nothing but a large fortune, a motor car, and a
quantity of expensive furniture to aim at. Henry Lawson and one or
two other poorly appreciated writers of talent have endeavoured to
inspire the people with a martial sentiment, but as yet without
success. All invocations to the “star of Australia” have so far fallen on
deaf ears. There is no star of Australia. It has not set, and it has
never risen. Until something unforeseen happens it does not seem
likely to rise. How can it? The well-spring from which patriotic
aspirations mount up has not yet been discovered. People with
admirable intentions have recommended Australia, as an escape
from mere frivolous amusements, to cultivate various forms of the
strenuous life—for example, the life in barracks, the life in libraries,
the life on the intellectual mountain top, the life in the home. It is
unquestionable that a new development of some kind is badly
needed. Australia would reap a substantial benefit, and one reflected
throughout all ranks and conditions, if in the near future it evolved
something, whether it were a patriotic ideal, a jingoistic ideal, a
home-life ideal, a moral, intellectual, religious, or even a physical
ideal. If it is to play a respectable part in future questions of
magnitude it must, at any rate, develop some variation in the
pleasure-seeking, money-making, work-shirking propensities that
represent the greater part of its social life. Probably the salvation,
when it does come, will be wrought by the working classes; for
though they have blundered industrially, and failed more than once
politically, they have the confidence of numbers, they are
emancipated, and they are quick to learn. The ultimate destiny of
the Australian continent is very largely in their hands.
 III
JOURNALISM

The many waves of thought, the mighty tides,

The ground swell that rolls up from other lands,
From far-off worlds, from dim eternal shores
Whose echo dashes on life’s wave-worn strands.

The people who are connected with journalism in Australia, as

elsewhere, fall naturally into three classes—managers, sub-editors,
and newspaper writers. There are numerous subdivisions, but these
are the three cardinal ones. The outside public does not always
appreciate the value of the classification just given. The outside
public may, therefore, in its tolerance, submit to be informed. For
modern journalism has become a vast and comprehensive and
complex thing. It touches every one, interests every one, more or
less attracts every one, more or less mystifies every one. The man
who is not an outsider, but who has had the lot to

See with eye serene

The very pulse of the machine—

who has been caught up and whirled round by the wheels, so to

speak—should be able to claim the privilege of describing his
observations and his sensations.
The managerial class is deserving of much respect, and usually gets
all that it deserves. Its members are few, but its influence is
undoubtedly great. Only a short account need be given of the
character and abilities of the handful of men who either own or
manage the great “dailies” of Australia.
For them the anonymity of the profession does not exist. They live
much in the public eye. They collect the praise; they accept the
flattery; they grow rich on the proceeds. The blame, when there is
blame, is also theirs. But what terrors can the breath of outside
criticism have for men who sell their papers at the rate of 30,000 or
40,000, or 100,000 a day? What profit is there in kicking against the
pricks? These men who control the city newspapers form a separate
oligarchy, and a powerful one. They are not troubled with any
misgivings as to their own potentialities in the cosmos. They have a
practical working knowledge of the world, and a vast confidence in
themselves. Sometimes they know how to write, sometimes they do
not. In any case it does not matter. Whatever brains they want they
can easily purchase. They live in large mansions in the suburbs,
arrive at their offices at eleven o’clock in the morning, go regularly
to Government House, and deal in Napoleonic fashion with
complaints from the sub-editor, with suggestions from the
commercial world, with expostulations from aggrieved politicians,
and with applications for increases of salary from unsatisfied
members of the staff. They have won their way to big positions, and
they know it. It is an excellent and a pleasant thing to be the
proprietor or the manager of a large newspaper in Australia.
The sub-editors, again, form a class by themselves; they resemble
the managers in that they are not really journalists. Possibly at some
stage of their individual careers they may have been, but they are so
no longer. As a matter of fact they are the sworn enemies of
journalism. They stand like the British infantry at Waterloo—a sort of
cold iron palisade against which the effervescence of youthful
journalistic enterprise dashes itself in vain. They represent not so
much the literary, as the commercial instinct of the paper. They are
the outposts which a cautious management sets to keep watch
against the Philistines. The sub-editor has tremendous responsibility
and very little power. Therein lies the tragedy of his existence.
Before he begins his long series of vigils under the electric lamp, he
knows that while he will get no manner of praise if everything goes
right, he will get short and decisive shrift if anything goes wrong. He
knows this very well; and the knowledge makes him what he is.
A strange existence, a strange personality is that of the sub-editor.
He seems to resemble the patient, sleepless Eremite of Keats’s last
sonnet; he is always there, and he is always “watching with eternal
lids apart.” It is impossible not to admire him. He must, to be in any
sense worthy of his post, possess great abilities. The machine that
he controls is vast, unwieldy, and yet sensationally rapid in its flight.
The Rio Grande of Paterson’s Steeplechase did not require a touch
half so firm or half so fine to keep him in his course. Of the
thousand objectionable, offensive, libellous, dangerous, unnecessary
or unwise things that come under the sub-editor’s notice every
week, how many get past him? How many does he suffer to see the
light of day? It is impossible not to admire the sub-editor, but it is
difficult to like him. He must be a man without pity and without
remorse. If he made allowance for good intentions, if he judged
otherwise than by results, he would ruin his paper in a month. If he
did not effectively discourage the swarm of budding writers who
attempt to rush him, he would speedily have to cease publication. If
he were not constantly saying unpleasant things, he would
inaugurate a reign of chaos. And yet there are one or two first-class
sub-editors in Australia who are well liked, and by none better than
by their victims. It is a strange anomaly, but there it is. In any case it
is a great tribute to the personality of the man.
Of the third class, the order of journalists proper, a great deal might
be said. This class includes all those who get their living by
furnishing copy to the newspapers of the country. They are a motley
crowd; they number in their ranks representatives of all the
professions, and of no profession at all. They embrace men and
women of good social position, and men and women who are
distinctly outside the pale. They have no definite organisation, no
professional status, no formal rules of etiquette, no exclusive caste,
no artificial barriers against membership. They have one standard of
living, unorthodoxy; one bond of fellowship, Bohemianism; one
passport to success, ability; one aversion, dulness; one insidious
enemy, human nature; one unreliable friend—the world.
For these workers of the community there should be, in the
aggregate, a feeling of considerable respect and of no little
sympathy. Of respect, because in the mass they accomplish great
things. The really first-class journalist showers a wealth of good
phrasing, clever word-painting, wise discrimination, light fancy,
brilliant humour, and saving common-sense on the breakfast-tables
of a quarter of a million people each morning. He does all this and
more. The result has come to be looked upon as necessary, obvious,
mechanical, in a sense inevitable. It represents to the average
reader the outpourings of a great machine. And a machine it
certainly is, but one that is intricately fashioned, piece by piece, out
of the minds and bodies, and hopes and fears, and personal gifts
and graces of tens of hundreds of unrecognised writers.
Unrecognised—the word that expresses always the salvation of the
bad journalist, and always the detriment, or the ultimate ruin, of the
good one.
These men are entitled to sympathy, or would be if they did not
include in their ranks so many specimens of moral obloquy, so many
hopeless outcasts from all the paths of reasonably sane and
tolerable behaviour. Journalism makes a man acquainted with
strange bed-fellows. Yet, taking it right through it contains probably
more ability than all the rest of the professions put together, though
possibly less knowledge than is to be found in any one of them. The
newspaper writer, considered as a type, is always overworked, and
always underpaid. Australia in this respect is no exception to other
parts of the world. The men who labour behind the veil of
anonymous journalism are rewarded for the most part with a living
wage, and are swept out of sight as the new generation comes
along. When their initiative goes, they go. Time is their deadliest
enemy. Instead of fighting for them as it fights for the barrister and
the medical man, it is constantly threatening them with loss of
initiative, with loss of energy, with loss of brilliance. Honey is
proverbially sweet for a season; but no one knows better than the
journalist that the laurel which he wins this morning cannot last till
to-morrow.
As to the products of this handiwork—what is to be said of them?
The Australian newspaper has already developed a character of its
own. Its place is somewhere between the startling sensationalism of
New York and San Francisco, and the solemn impressiveness of the
older London school. The representative editor balances himself
between these two modes of journalism. He is seldom quite free
from the English traditions, but he knows his readers; he knows that
they, too, are somewhat under the influence of the older and more
respectable associations; he knows that, while they have no taste for
solid reading, and are always ready to be excited or amused, they
have yet a contempt for machine-made sensationalism, for foolish
and frothy elaboration, for staring capital letters, for shriekful
epithets, for the flimsier kind of composition that rears itself on a
basis of sand. Hence it may be that the press of the Commonwealth
has followed, for the most part, a middle course, and has
endeavoured to be neither too dull nor too picturesque. The effort
has often resulted in insignificance; but it has now and again
achieved great success.
For purposes of illustration it is not necessary to go beyond
Melbourne and Sydney. The smaller capital cities, Adelaide, Brisbane,
and Perth, are content as a rule to follow their leaders. Whatever is
good or bad, or in any way distinctive at the centre, you will find
reflected, though in a slighter and paler fashion, in the towns further
north and further west. The same lines of demarcation hold good
throughout the continent. In each city one morning paper calls itself
“liberal” or “national,” while its rival goes one better, and styles itself
“radical” or “democratic.” The word “conservative” has become a
taunt, and is never an acknowledged title. The predominant
tendency is for the younger and more democratic organ to go
beyond its older and more serious competitor. The only important
exception seems to be that in Perth, where the West Australian
occupies a unique position. It is the accented mouthpiece of
“groperism”; that is to say, of those privileged few who came to the
State in early days, and monopolised as much of the earth as
seemed worthy of their attention. Needless to add, these people are
more conservative than they care to admit. The newspaper of their
choice is singularly popular considering the circumstances. Under the
guidance of an extraordinarily far-seeing and subtle-minded editor
who has a rare faculty for flattering a democratic audience, while
really ruling and guiding it—who knows also how to bend to the
storm when to beat against it is no longer possible—the West
Australian is more widely read, and more influential, to-day than it
ever was, and that in the midst of a people containing a stronger
socialistic infusion than is to be met with elsewhere in Australia.
It is in Melbourne and Sydney, however, that we get the most useful
and instructive illustrations of the working of the journalistic
machine. The Age and Argus in the former city; the Morning Herald
and Daily Telegraph in Sydney, represent the best that Australia has
yet been able to accomplish in this field of enterprise. The Age is
referred to first because it claims, and with an emphasis that
frightens contradiction, to have the largest circulation of any daily
south of the line. Its political influence, though perhaps hardly what
it was, has also to be reckoned with. The Age has been in existence
just fifty-two years; it has been consistently fortunate in the men
behind it. More especially it has been fortunate in its proprietor. It
owes its power, its prestige, its circulation, its character, its very
existence to David Syme, who is still, at a venerable age, an active,
working journalist, and who has the distinction of being the most
respected and the most disliked man in Australia—perhaps also one
of the very best liked by the few who know him really well. That he
has used his immense power fearlessly, and on the whole for good,
is unquestionable. The present editor of the Age acts up to the
policy of the proprietor. Never laying claim to pyrotechnical skill as a
writer, and not giving too much rein to his imagination, he is yet pre-
eminently shrewd, far seeing, clear-sighted, well informed, capable,
and where business interests are concerned, inflexible as death
itself. In private life no man could be more popular or more
deferentially urbane.
The Argus suffers now, and has always suffered, from want of
definite and decisive leadership. On its general staff it has had
during the past ten or fifteen years more brilliant men—considered
as reporters, at any rate—than any other daily paper in the English
language. But instead of advancing to meet the times it has stood
still, and talked impressively of many things. More particularly it has
talked about the dangers of empiricism, and the responsibilities of
the press. People read it, and will continue to read it, not so much
for its opinions, as for the graceful manner in which most of its
writers contrive to deal with the English language. For the rest its
views on Imperialism and Free-trade fall on unwilling ears.
The Morning Herald is the oldest paper in the Commonwealth, and is
built on the same lines as the Argus. It has done great things for the
tone and temper of Australian journalism. Latterly, it has been
showing signs of democratic restlessness that have caused its older
admirers a certain amount of alarm.
The Daily Telegraph is the Mary Jane of Australian journalism. It is
the most active, the most aggressive, the most tireless, the most
sensation-loving, the most hysterical, the most shrill-voiced, the
most daring, and the most inventive paper published on the
continent. It is a slab of San Francisco tumbled down in the vicinity
of Botany Bay.
This reference to certain leading journals brings up a large question
—the question of the power of the newspaper press in Australia. Is it
an excessive power? And how does it compare with the power of the
press in other countries? So far as their political creeds are
concerned, the Australians have been called a newspaper-ridden
community. They are often too tired to think, and they let the paper
think for them. The writer recollects calling upon a prominent official
who had just returned to Melbourne after a visit for political
purposes to England. The first, and almost the only observation this
gentleman made, was that “They are not afraid of the newspapers in
the old country.” It was this circumstance that had impressed him
more than anything else, although during his absence he had been
everywhere, and had seen a great deal. If you are a public man you
must read and despise the papers. If you do not read them, you will
miss something. If you do not despise them, they will worry the life
out of you. The Age is the stock instance of a paper from which tens
of thousands of adult, and supposedly intelligent voters have been
content to take their opinions. This journal has made and unmade
many Ministries. The Sydney Daily Telegraph is aspiring to fill the
same rôle, but so far with not the same success. It is quite certain,
however, that Australian newspapers of the larger class possess
more influence in certain directions than is good either for
themselves or for the community.
Another question very often debated is that of the fairness or
otherwise of the press of the Commonwealth. Some of the leading
journals have a habit of assuring the public that they are
scrupulously fair; others discreetly say nothing on the subject; but
almost every one has adopted an admirable and impressive motto
which it places on view in a conspicuous place over the leading
columns. The motto may be intended as a salve for the consciences
of the management. There is a well-known story of a man who was
not religious, but who always took off his hat when passing a
church. Having paid that homage to his better instincts, he naturally
felt more at liberty to cultivate his other ones. Having hoisted his
motto, and having made obeisance to the abstract idea of fairness,
the newspaper proprietor feels that he must not allow himself to be
regarded as in any sense a bigot, or a moral fanatic. He has passed
the church and taken off his hat. For the rest, there are the interests
of his paper to think about. If these interests do not always coincide
with the interests of individuals, the circumstance is much to be
regretted—from the point of view of the individuals.
Some admirable diatribes have been uttered from pulpits and
platforms, and from Supreme Court benches, on the subject of
newspaper morality in Australia. During the hearing of a recent libel
case in Melbourne, a learned judge lashed himself into a white-heat
of indignation over the sinfulness of press writers who advocate
views which they do not hold, and refrain from publishing
statements which they do not like. His Honour found it hard to
believe that such monsters could be discovered walking the earth in
the guise of men. Similar sentiments have been echoed and re-
echoed everywhere. There is nothing in the world quite so fine as
the average man’s idea of what a newspaper ought to be. No matter
what this average man may be prepared to do, or to advocate, or to
believe himself, he is shocked beyond measure to find that even an
influential newspaper may have commercial instincts, that it may not
be disposed to love its enemies, that it may object to publishing
statements which tell against it, that it may be both unable and
unwilling to set an example of sublime innocence and spotless purity
to the people who read its pages.
A newspaper’s virtue, like a woman’s, has a special meaning, and
the meaning which outsiders attach to the word “virtue,” as applied
to a newspaper, is not necessarily that which obtains within the
craft. The goal which every management has in view is the goal of
success—not spiritual or ethical, but hard, financial, and materialistic
success. The proprietor’s virtue, the editor’s virtue, the writer’s
virtue, are synonymous, among members of the profession, with the
ability to produce a readable, a saleable, and an otherwise valuable
article. No one blames a lawyer for advocating a cause in which he
does not believe; no one censures a grocer for selling a brand of tea
which he does not personally like; no one objects to a carpenter
putting up houses in which he would not care to dwell. Why should
the newspaper be accused of unfairness when it does what is best
for itself? Like every private individual, it must keep within bounds.
If it commits a transgression there is always the libel law. If it
indulges in personal malice, there is always the gaol. The singular
thing is that so many journals—particularly the patriarchs of Sydney
and Melbourne—should be so anxious to assure the public of the
excellence of their intentions. As though good intentions had ever a
market value, as though the commercial instinct and the highest
moral principles were not always and necessarily opposed!
What of the newspaper writer’s calling as such? Is it worth
following? From the outside it looks attractive enough. Even from the
inside it has its charms, meretricious and otherwise. There is a
certain glitter and glamour about the profession, particularly in its
early stages. The absence of class distinctions helps the journalist,
and makes his work infinitely more agreeable. To a man with a real
literary turn—or what is even better, a news’ instinct—promotion
comes rapidly. He escapes the dull routine of other callings; he
comes almost immediately into the larger portion of his inheritance.
The reputation that blossoms towards the end of life, the rewards
that come eventually, but with glacial slowness, the solid and sure
gains of experience, all these are no part of his outlook. But he
acquires in a few months a reputation and a standing that elsewhere
are only the product of years. He steps at once into a wide and
breezy circle; he is thrown into daily contact with the most
interesting, the most notorious, and the most illustrious personages
of the time. About the work itself there is a peculiar, mirage-like
quality; it always seems to be pointing beyond the desert of daily
drudgery, beyond the arid region of hack-work and small salaries, to
the smiling country of fortune and literary fame. The young
newspaper writer “never is, but is always to be, blest.”
There are many people who do not require to be warned against
journalism; they drift into it, or fall into it, after chequered
experiences elsewhere. But to the youth who has a choice of
professions, and who thinks of choosing this one, a word of counsel
may be tendered. There is no calling that makes such demands on
talent, that asks so much, or that treats its tried servants so badly in
the end. The man on the general staff of a big Australian daily, may
for a year or two, or for a dozen years, have a good share of what
the heart desires. He may have a degree of reputation, an amount
of ready money, a following of friends; but the money, the friends,
the reputation are all liable to vanish at brief notice. The more
brilliant the writer is, the more quickly does he exhaust his stock of
nervous energy. After the first few years, time, as already remarked,
begins to work, not for, but against him; the more capable and the
more talked of he is, the more insidiously do adverse influences
begin to grow up. As a rule, his is not the temperament which
weighs chances, or lays up store for the future: and when the day of
his mental ascendancy is past, the management regretfully but
firmly shows him the door.
The writer has in mind four representative Australian journalists
whose abilities were, or are now, of the very highest. From the ranks
of any profession, or from all the professions together, it would be
difficult to pick in Australia four men who could boast in the
aggregate a greater measure of natural or of practised ability. Each
of these four has, time after time, charmed, interested, and amused,
hundreds of thousands of perceptive and critical readers. Had they
given half the same talent to law or medicine, to science or politics,
each of the four would beyond doubt have become rich and famous.
But what has happened? One of them, possibly the most brilliant of
the brilliant quartette, died early, in some measure a victim to the
hospitality and conviviality that his own unique personality and
charm of manner invited. Journalists in Australia will not need to be
told that the reference is to the late Davison Symmons. The other
three are still living. One of them, whose work conferred lustre on
the Sydney Morning Herald during the middle ’nineties, was in part
the victim of circumstances, in part the prey of his own
temperament. The knowledge that he was receiving 30s. or 40s. a
column for his efforts, while worse writers in England were getting
paid for theirs at the rate of shillings a line, drove him first to
misanthropy, and afterwards to other things. The third of the
quartette is the writer who is known throughout the continent by the
pen-name “Oriel.” He is at the top of the profession; he is one of the
few men in Australia who have combined social orthodoxy with
newspaper brilliance; he has worked hard, and he has not thrown
himself away. But what prospects of a tangible monetary reward are
there for the gifted “Oriel,” or for writers like “Oriel,” in comparison
with those which always await the cattle dealer, the rag merchant, or
the bluffing attorney? The fourth of these typical journalists is he
who disguised himself in the columns of the Melbourne Argus and
chronicled cricket, football, and other small beer for quite a number
of years. He might have continued to do so indefinitely, had not the
accident of the South African war given him a reputation and a
name.
These are only a few illustrations, but they will suffice. The individual
who launches out on the inky way must be prepared to be judged
critically on his merits, and to be treated without leniency or favour.
He must submit, for a time at any rate, to do the bidding of a man
who is also a journalist, and perhaps a less competent one than
himself. He must throw his illusions overboard; he must learn to give
and take; he must be watchful and ready, prompt to observe, and
quick to act; and he must be prepared to go without the richer
prizes that can be won in the warehouse, or in the domain of
medicine, or at the Bar.
Yet, if the would-be journalist possesses certain qualifications, in
addition to literary skill, he may be recommended to join the ranks
of the unlisted legion. If he has a saving sense of self-restraint; if he
has the faculty for seeing ahead; if he has a definite amount of
moral stamina; if he can treat the profession, not as an end, but as a
means to an end; if he can live through it and eventually rise above
it—if he can do this, the press is his most perfect and his ideal
medium. The monetary test is not the final one. The working
journalists can at least take to themselves one or two reflections.
The ways of the grocer and of the apothecary, of the lawyer and the
bill-discounter, are not their ways. Government House may not know
them, and the drawing-rooms of Toorak and Potts’ Point may forget
their feet. But they have their consolations. They are the rebels and
the outlaws, and yet a strange paradox—the entertainers, the
instructors, the beacons of the whole reading world.
 IV
THE GAME OF POLITICS

Is it not better, youth

Should strive, through acts uncouth,
Toward making, than repose on aught found made?

The game of politics as played in Australia has a certain vogue with

almost every class. In numerous directions are to be found striking
evidences of the pervading character of this form of recreation.
Every state, including those whose population is only half that of a
decent sized English town, has its two Houses of Legislature, and all
of the states in unison have their double-barrelled Federal
Parliament. Thus we get a total of fourteen Houses of Parliament,
and nearer seven hundred than six hundred members to represent
barely four millions of people. The amount of space these fourteen
Houses and these six hundred and seventy odd members take up in
the newspapers, and other chronicles of the time, is enormous.
Looking at some of the facts, one would be inclined to say that the
word “recreation” was a misnomer, that the whole business was
intensely and almost preternaturally serious. If a man confined his
reading to the journals of Australia, if he talked to mechanics on
their way home from work, or to business men over their coffee, if
he attended only a few of the open-air meetings that are a feature
of the life of the country, he would inevitably come to the conclusion
that the whole duty of man in Australia was to record his vote, to
watch his representative in Parliament, to burn incense to the proved
and faithful servant, and to hurl violently from his seat any individual
who ventured to tamper for a moment with the principles of justice,
equality, democracy, individualism, socialism, or whatever the
prevalent principle happened to be.
This would be a reasonable conclusion in certain circumstances, but
it would be an entirely erroneous one. As a matter of fact the game
is never really serious. In a land like Australia where many things are
dull, and lifeless, and mechanical, the tone and temper of public
affairs must be regarded as a pleasant relief. From the deadly
seriousness of cricket and horse-racing to the essentially humorous
quality of politics, is the most agreeable of transitions. It is an
incontestable fact that Australia is distinguished among all civilised
countries for the buoyant atmosphere, the mirth-provoking
attributes, and the Gilbertian features associated with its politics—
features that constitute, indeed, the whole substance and essence of
the game.
To be a successful player, you require a certain amount of aptitude,
and a large measure of good fortune. Let it be assumed that you are
a spectator, and desire to be something more; that you are anxious
to get among the players, to handle the stakes, to hold a winning
chance. The task is easier—much easier—in Australia than it is in
Great Britain, but yet it is never altogether easy. The unwritten laws
governing success and failure are uncertain and peculiar. You are
anxious to sit at the table among the players. It remains to be seen
what kind of hand you have got. There are certain cards it is very
desirable to hold; others you can do without. Take it for granted that
fortune has dealt you enterprise, ambition, intelligence, power of
grasping political questions, faculty of speech, capacity for winning
friends. This is a useful hand, but will not of itself get you what you
want. If somebody plays the stronger card, that is to say the power
of the purse, you will go under in nine cases out of ten; you will
remain always among the onlookers in the outer ring, and will never
get to the table. It is necessary to make this point clear. To say that
the moneyed man can do what he likes in Australia, and that wit,
eloquence, industry, and the rest are always beaten by a large
banking account, would be to commit oneself to a foolish and
palpable exaggeration. But no sane man would deny that, in the
game now under consideration, Power of the Purse is the Ace of
Trumps, and that to counterbalance it a very strong collection of
cards indeed is required.
There are many things that have to be reckoned with by the man
who desires to enter politics in Australia, but there is little outside
the cloven hoof of mammon that he can safely reckon on. The sands
of public opinion are shifting, changing. Even that useful attribute,
gift of speech, is by no means a certain passport to the post of
command. The crowd is jealous and suspicious of too much ability. It
is not pleasant for mediocrity to see itself outstripped by talent. A
man may talk himself into Parliament. On the other hand, he may
talk himself out of the possibility of ever getting there. So much
depends on the impression the crowd gets of the speaker’s sincerity,
of his earnestness, of his moral, social, and other qualities. It may
happen—in thousands of cases it has happened—that a man who
can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and whose whole
life has been patriotically unselfish, has been unable to gain a place
in the counsels of the nation. For some reason the onlookers would
not take to him; they have disliked or misread his cards, disliked or
misread the man. The influence of the Trades’ Union is one powerful
lever. Many a man has succeeded in entering public life by its aid;
but the Trades’ Union is becoming to a greater extent each year a
political conglomeration of fiercely ambitious units, and nine-tenths
of the speakers who declaim at a Trades’ Hall or Union meeting have
Parliament in view. Every speaker watches, criticises, and mistrusts
every other speaker. In the rush for the spoils it is difficult to say
who will, and who will not, come eventually to the front. Capacity
has to be shown, friends have to be made, opponents have to be
silenced, rival interests have to be placated, cliques have to be
frustrated, logs have to be rolled, wires have to be pulled, and much
else has to be done before the goal can be attained. To the
participant it is all very exciting, and to the onlooker it is very droll
indeed.
But it is in Parliament that the fascination of the game really begins.
So fascinating is it to the great majority of the participants who have
reached this stage, that you will scarcely find one in a hundred who
will offer to give up his place at the table, no matter how his
chances of winning a large stake may have dwindled, no matter how
much he may be out of pocket, no matter how his fellow-players
may be wishing him somewhere else. To say this is not to suggest
the worst kind of motive, or to cast reflections on individuals. The
writer knows a great many Australian politicians, and is inclined to
think that on the whole he likes them better than any other class. He
regards them as, for the most part, genial, pleasant fellows.
Speaking broadly, they are not dull-witted, and they are not corrupt.
There was a time when the average member of an English
Parliament was both. The Australian politician is usually a good
sportsman: he can take his winnings without boasting, and he can
take his failures like a man. He is under no illusions as to his own
aims, or his own qualities. He knows that it is to his interest to be
considered as a patriot, and he knows also, in his heart of hearts he
knows, that he is only a player. Let us quote Browning, and thank
God that the meanest politician boasts two soul-sides, one to face
his constituents with, one to show to the man or woman who knows
him. Let us thank God, for if it were otherwise the race of public
men would cease to exist. They would be consumed in the fires of
their own simulated fervour. And some highly interesting
proceedings would be lost to the world.
It is assumed, then, that the first step has been taken, that you have
got to the playing table, that you are directly under the eye of the
marker who calls the game. The fun is now about to commence, and
with it the danger. You are untried, and practically unknown. The
first thing to do in the circumstances is to get into opposition. The
manner of doing this requires a great deal of tact and finesse. Many
a man, and many a possessor of a naturally strong hand, has spoilt
it irrevocably by playing a wrong card at this early stage. The
probabilities are that you were carried into Parliament on a wave of
enthusiasm for the Government. You were chosen to sit behind the
front Ministerial Benches. Your constituents expect this of you. Now,
it is just possible to do precisely what your constituents do not
expect of you, and yet, not only keep their good opinion, but rise
very much higher in it. This, I say, is possible, but so far from being
easy, it is distinctly the hardest piece of strategy in the whole
political manœuvre.
However, something has to be done. You are unknown, and far from
rich; you are ambitious, and cannot afford to remain for years an
obscure unit among the followers of the party in office. The
fascination of the play is upon you; there are tens of thousands of
spectators watching intently, keenly interested, waiting to applaud.
The temptation to catch their eye—that large collective eye which
overlooks the continent—is irresistible. You are invisible because of
the Ministerial phalanx in front of and around you, and it is
necessary to get clear, to break away.
The opportunity will almost certainly arrive before long. The clever
gamester is he who recognises the chance when it appears and
makes the most of it. You must have a certain amount of patience.
It is ruinous to be too precipitate, but it will almost certainly happen,
and probably before the end of your first triennial term, that the
Premier will come down with certain proposals to which you are not
committed before the eyes of your constituents, and which are
intrinsically important enough to arouse popular feeling. This is the
opportunity to break with the Government. But as you represent a
government constituency you must be careful. You must go to the
electors and take them into your confidence; you must explain that
after a tremendous and heart-breaking struggle between devotion to
a political leader and devotion to principle, the latter carried the day.
It is well to point out—as truthfully you may do—that your threats,
tears, and entreaties have been fruitless to turn the Premier from his
fell purpose; that your expostulations have fallen on deaf ears.
Henceforth, you may add, all personal attachments, all private
longings, all political amenities, are to you as nought; all the
friendships of a lifetime have been laid on the altar; for the future
you live only in the endeavour humbly but unswervingly to give
effect to those eternal principles in comparison with the majesty of
which, the life and aspirations of the individual are as the small dust
in the balance, are a not worth naming sacrifice.
Once in opposition it will be found that your sphere has extended,
your reputation increased. It is now possible to marshal all your
forces. Allusions can be made that would previously have been
inadmissible; words can be used that before would have been
treason. At this period of the game it is advisable to cultivate a
method, a manner of your own. It is desirable to be in some way
distinctive. There is much virtue in a particular look, in a mode of
speech, in a mannerism. If you have not the main thing, which is
natural ability and power of carrying conviction, it is possible to get
something else—something that will focus the attention of the
spectators in the outer ring. Every one knows the story of the man
who laughed. He has had his counterpart, and a very successful
counterpart, in Australian politics. It will be recorded of one man of
obscure beginnings that he was a genial, capable, extremely popular
person, who laughed, and became Premier of Victoria. If laughing is
not your metier, if it goes against the grain, it is just as effective, or
even more so, to cultivate a cast-iron demeanour. The “cool, calm,
strong man” has been played admirably on several occasions, by
none more finely and successfully than by Mr W. H. Irvine, of
Victoria. Yet another pose that will often be found extremely useful
is that of the bluff devil-take-you kind of individual, as impersonated
by Mr Thomas Bent, of contemporary fame, and by Sir George
Dibbs, of happy memory. The astute Cornwall in King Lear says
some words to the effect that this kind of knave—the bluff,
outspoken knave—has more craft than any other kind that could be
mentioned. However that may be, the gruffly candid demeanour has
proved useful in Australian politics in the past, and is likely to prove
useful again. Then there is the humorous pose, of which Mr G. H.
Reid furnishes the best living example. This is invaluable at times,
but its successful adoption is so difficult that it cannot be generally
recommended. Only the highest kind of ability should venture to
undertake this manner. It may be of advantage to affect a plain, or
even a dowdy, appearance. The first Federal Treasurer wore an old
suit of brown clothes for a lengthy period, and with conspicuously
good results. But, whatever you cultivate, whether it is the manner
of the sage or the buffoon, of the circus or of the graveyard, it is
necessary to cultivate something, and to cultivate it well.
With a modicum of good luck, and a sufficiency of good
management, almost any one can rise to Ministerial rank in
Australia, or for that matter can obtain the highest post of vantage,
namely the Premiership. The comparative shade of private
membership is no sooner left behind than the game takes on still
different phases. The cards are reshuffled, the partners are altered,
the rules are revised. The play is as fascinating as ever—even more
so—but it has become much more difficult, much more complex.
One has only to reflect for a moment on the absence of any really
live question in colonial politics to understand the trouble that the
head of a Government must have to keep up some semblance of
enthusiasm in the country, and to retain his place. There is no large
Imperial question. There is no Home Rule question. There is no
longer a tariff question, although there are occasional murmurings
and mutterings from one or two sections of the people, and from
one or two dissatisfied newspapers. It is impossible to beat up a
party, either in the State or the Federal Parliament, on such lines as
Imperialism, Nationalism, Jingoism, Fiscalism, Conservatism, or any
other “ism” belonging to the larger domain of national affairs. What
is there left to fight about? There is very little. In three cases out of
four the incoming Government takes up the measures of its
predecessor. In three cases out of four the differences, other than
the personal ones, are barely discernible. In this political atmosphere
of Australia, Amurath with Amurath is eternally being confounded.
The rise of the Labour Party has been the most remarkable feature
of the situation during the past three or four years, and the whole
history of the Labour Party is the most conspicuous illustration of the
general truth of what has just been said. In Opposition it has been
magnificently strong and war-like. It has talked, through its leaders
and its units, firmly and finely of the necessity of checkmating
capitalistic greed, of nationalising industries, of abolishing the large
land-owner, of setting up a State Bank, of establishing a State iron
industry, of taxing the wealthy for the benefit of the poor, of granting
pensions to the aged workers, of saving the weak from the strong,
of improving industrial conditions, of giving every man a fair return
for his labour, of shortening hours, of widening the avenues of
employment, of adding something material and tangible to the
pleasures of the people. The Labour Party out of office has talked
impressively of all these things—so impressively, indeed, that it has
been taken at its word. During the last year or two, Labour Ministries
have been in power in the Federal Parliament, in Queensland, and in
Western Australia. What has happened? Where is the monopoly that
has been nationalised? Where are the wages that have been
increased? Where is the Bank that has been established? Where is
the land tax that was promised? Where are the old age pensions in
Queensland, in Western Australia or in the Federal Parliament? More
than this: where are the records of any serious attempt on the part
of one of the Labour Ministries of Australia to nationalise even one
industry, to check capitalisation, to pay old age pensions, to run a
State Bank, or to do anything that the average Liberal, or even the
so-called Conservative Opposition would not cheerfully undertake?
Not only has there been nothing revolutionary accomplished, but
nothing revolutionary has been even tried.
To keep your place at the inner table, to be able for any length of
time to set the pace for the rest of the numerous company, it is
necessary to remember that the other players, and not yourself, are
the actual masters of the situation. By proceeding warily, and by
showing a thorough knowledge of every unwritten rule and precept,
you may get as much as a reasonable man should require. You may
have the appearance, if not the substance of power, and all the
honours, emoluments, lime-light and other accessories connected
with it. But to attempt to run a crusade of your own, or to attempt
to put into practice the sentiments you preached in opposition, is
merely to commit hari-kari, to rush on your own doom. The Labour
Party, or the more intelligent members of it, have found this out. My
own opinion is that the Labour leader is a trifle less insincere on the
whole, than the average leader of any other party or section. Yet the
difference between the fighting Labourist’s word in opposition and
his performance in office is great and ghastly. It is not necessary to
blame him. He has simply had to realise that Australia is in a
condition, politically speaking, of being willing to listen to everything,
and of being able to accomplish nothing. It is always talking about
its breathless speed, and perpetually falling down in the mud.
Undoubtedly the most humorous, the most delightful, and at the
same time the most useful institution known to the continent is the
Upper House, or Legislative Council. What the Premier of the day
would do without this stand-by, it is barely possible to surmise. To
the head of an allegedly Radical government, the Tory Chamber is
always a God-send. Even the cleverest tactician finds now and again
that he must press forward when in office with measures that he
advocated when sitting on the left hand benches. It is an awkward
predicament for many reasons. He knows that if the reform is
carried, it will probably bring about a reaction, and that he himself
will almost certainly be hurled from office at the next election. Yet he
dare not jettison the principal plank in his fighting platform. What is
he to do? Amid the storm clouds that are all round him, out of the
night that encompasses him, above the tempest that is driving him
irresistibly forward there gleams one ray of light—the light of the
Legislative Council. There it is, straight ahead, standing between
himself and swift and sudden extinction. Confidently he presses on.
His vessel triumphantly breasts the waves of the Representative
House, and is dashed to pieces on the adamantine rock of the
Council’s inaccessibility. But he himself is safe. He gains breathing
time while the fragments of his craft are being pieced together
again. His constituents are satisfied. He comes back stronger than
ever from the next election, and goes through the performance
again.
Will any one deny that all these possibilities, all these variations, all
these moves and countermoves, all these chances of success, all
these risks of failure, go to make the pursuit of the political prize in
Australia one of the most absorbing in which man can engage? The
governing fact as already stated is that the game is not confined to a
privileged class, as is practically the case in England. Subject to
certain conditions, it is open to all. It is true that the possessor of a
banking account has an advantage. In the language of
pedestrianism, he beats the pistol; he gets a certain start every
time. But the start is not so great that it cannot by a display of
agility be overtaken. And the fact remains that the chief attraction of
Australia from the player’s point of view, and one of the chief risks
from the point of view of the spectator, is that political competitions
are conducted actually, as well as nominally, irrespective of wealth,
or rank, or status in life.
It is hardly profitable to indulge in generalisation as to the kind of
ability that is needed for success in public life. A certain kind of man
flourishes, and another kind—the opposite kind—is seen to fall; but
in a year or two the positions are reversed, and the set of qualities
which seemingly commanded success are those which invite or
compel failure. Therefore the generalising process is for the most
part vain. But if one were asked to name the attribute that is most
useful to an Australian politician—the attribute that it is ruinous to be
without—one might be tempted to mention knowledge of human
nature. The phrase implies a great deal. It implies such
characteristics as tact, foresight, and sense of the fitness of things;
power of being genial, or of seeming to be genial; knowledge of
when to strike, and when to refrain from striking. It means the
capacity to put yourself in the place of those for whom you are
legislating, to whom you are appealing. It suggests in the possessor
a degree of intellect, combined with a degree of sensibility. It is the
opposite of narrowness, of bigotry, of fanaticism, and of folly of the
more glaring kind.
A second quality to be considered eminently desirable is that of
accessibility. In the vernacular this is usually called “absence of frill.”
It is an asset well-nigh indispensable for any successful public man
in Australia, though it must not be confounded—as it sometimes is—
with lack of dignity. Most of the leaders of ministries and heads of
parties that I have met in Australia have been, and are, extremely
dignified; and, as a rule, the most dignified have been the most
accessible. It is not the kind of dignity that surrounds itself with
much outward pomp and ornament; not the kind that emulates Mr
Forcible Feeble, and proclaims its existence as loudly as possible, for
fear that it should be overlooked. It is the dignity that results from
mental processes not visible to the eye of the vulgar. It can unbend,
jest, laugh, look stern, wear the mask of folly or any other mask,
because it is sure of itself. The fortifications of reserve, and the
serried front of isolation, utilised by the typical English Prime
Minister, are not wanted in Australia. Here the obscure unit and the
political chief meet on equal social terms, to the advantage not
merely of the one, but of the other as well.
A third qualification which may be mentioned as very desirable, if
not as absolutely necessary, has been already alluded to as the gift
of speech. To accomplish much in public life in Australia, it is
necessary to talk, and to talk a great deal. Whether it is on a
platform or in the open air; whether it is within the walls of
Parliament or outside them, you must, if you desire to become well
known, tell the public something, and keep on telling it to them. The
Australians are quick, impressionable, receptive-minded. Their
highest awards are given, in nine cases out of ten, to the man who
can appeal to them in the most direct, the most personal, and the
most intelligible way.
The four men who have held office as Prime Minister of the
Commonwealth form, in the aggregate and as individuals, the best
illustrations of the qualities just enumerated. Each has displayed a
sound knowledge of human nature, evidencing the knowledge by his
many-sidedness, his tact, his judgement, his mingled daring and
caution, his willingness to compromise. Each has made himself
readily approachable, alike to indignant people who had grievances
to ventilate, to friendly people who had congratulations to utter, to
newspaper people who had questions to ask—in fact to all sorts and
conditions of people who used the right means of approach. And
each has been endowed with the gift of speech. Two of them—Mr
Reid and Mr Deakin—have exhibited it in a singular and superlative
degree. Sir Edmund Barton is a speaker of the very front rank. Even
Mr Watson, though not a fiery, forensic orator, is a very able debater.
Only those who have heard and watched him in Parliament know
how keen and capable and resourceful he really is. Quite apart from
these individual instances, facts may be found to show that one may
apply over the whole field of Federal and State politics the
conclusions just arrived at.
To be a prominent public man in Australia it is not necessary to do
great things, but to act as though you could do them, or wished to
do them, or would be certain of doing them if you got the chance.

’Tis not what man does which exalts him, but

what man would do.

Achievement is dangerous, or fatal; the promise of achievement is

brilliant or inspiring. The truth of the matter is that Australians are
engaged, individually and collectively, in a game of which they
cannot see the end. Politically speaking, they don’t yet know where
they are, or where within the course of a generation they are likely
to arrive.
 V
PSEUDO-LITERARY

This world’s no blot for us,

Nor blank; it means intensely and means good:
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.

It is strange that a people possessed of literary instincts, and of the

literary temper, should be without a literature of their own; but so it
is. The shadow of a remembered personality does indeed flit now
and then across the brief page of Australian history. There was a
writer of verses named Lindsay Gordon, and a novelist of repute
named Marcus Clarke. Each of these struck out a path for himself.
Each left a record that will not soon be forgotten. But neither was a
product of the Southern Hemisphere; neither could be described as
native, “and to the manner born”; and neither of the two, nor both
together, could be credited with creating a literature for the country
in which their work was done.
It is true there have been, and there are, others of note. There was
a poet who wrote some very fine lines about the yellow-haired
September, about waste places of Kerguelen, about lost Lorraines,
about a frail, flower-like, dead Araluen, and about much besides. It
would argue ignorance of the subject to be unaware that the book of
rhymes beginning with an account of the man from “Snowy River”
has sold to the extent of 30,000 copies, or more. There is the
statement, made on what seems reliable authority, that the author
of Our Selection was paid for a continuation of that work the
remarkable sum of £500. And Victor Daley was, until a few months
ago, alive amongst us. The torch of inspiration is, therefore, not
quite gone out. Throughout the continent it flickers and falters,
never shining with a steady and continuous flame, rarely giving the
wayfarer a light to guide him, but every now and then dancing with
a faint, fleeting, will-of-the-wisp quality before his astonished eyes.
He sees a reflection, or he catches an echo, and then he is in the
dark.
Of rhymes and storyettes there are any number in Australia. The
local printing presses shed them in great profusion. They are more
numerous than leaves in Vallambrosa, or than wattle blossoms in
September. Nor is their musical and poetic quality to be despised.
Many of them—the majority of them—are ephemeral and worthless;
but taking them either in the aggregate, or in the unit, they
represent a fairly high journalistic standard. Frequently can there be
discovered among them a new image, a clever piece of
workmanship, even an original idea. Their metrical quality is often
admirable. In the Melbourne Argus there have been many good
verses—verses so good that one regrets they should have been
consigned to so perishable a receptacle as a penny print. For
genuine melody, of something better than a topical sort, one would
not go further than the lines written to a light-footed, golden-haired,
pathetically-dead, dancing girl—lines that bring her back among the
living:—

When the scene is lighted brightly, and we

watch the players nightly,
The peasant, and the prince, and the page.

The patriotic note has been struck often, sometimes clumsily, and
sometimes with good effect. Mr Essex Evans gives it a local
application in the rather formal verses beginning:—

Awake! Arise! The wings of Dawn

Are beating at the gates of Day.

And another Australian writer gives it an Imperial significance when

he says of England, in lines that have been much praised and
incidentally awarded a substantial monetary prize by a London
paper, that:—

She triumphs, moving slowly down the years.

Again, for pure romance we have Daley’s fantasy, with its very fine
exordium:—

The bright lights fade out one by one

And like a peony,
Drowning in wine, the crimson sun
Sinks down in that strange sea.

For a compound of sensuousness and sadness and lyric sweetness,

we have Von Kotze’s Island Lover with its invocation, and its lament:
—

Oh, Tuahina, that youth’s full measure

Should pass away like a summer’s eve!
That just the one gift that women treasure
Should be so helpless, so poor, and leave
A hint of sweetness, a taste of pleasure
And—grey-hued twilight to mourn and grieve!

These are only a few specimens, somewhat above the average as

regards workmanship and finish, but representative of what the
continent is producing every day.
So far as prose is concerned, the Australian topical and occasional
writer can hold his head up in any company. If you want a scene
described, if you want an incident related, if you want the pith of a
situation dexterously extracted, if you want an impression vividly
conveyed, if you want to catch from the paper the spirit and
atmosphere of a crowd, of a race-meeting, of a procession, of a play,
of a joke, of a tragedy, of a wedding, of a funeral; if you want any or
all of these things, there are a score or two of men in Australia who
will supply the requirement as well as it can be supplied anywhere in
the world.
But to say this is not to say there is a national literature. The term, it
must be remembered, means something more than a few dexterous
verses, a few patches of local colour, and a few characters that can
be held up to admiration as “racy of the soil.” That last phrase hangs
like a pall over the continent. If it were only possible to forget that
there is such a thing as a gum-tree in Australia the average quality
of the writing—particularly of the more ambitious and sustained kind
of writing—would considerably improve. If a national literature
implies anything, it implies the correct artistic and adequate
expression of the country’s thought and action; it signifies the
outward and visible form of what is real and vital and permanent in
the inner and intellectual life of a people. In other words it is alien to
what is merely topical and incidental. It is not a record of the
peculiarities of shearers and rouseabouts, or of the feats of jockeys
or stock-drovers. America would hardly be a literary country if it had
to rely exclusively on Bret Harte and Mark Twain. England would not
be literary if it had only Mr Punch and Mr Bernard Shaw. And
Australia, so long as its most characteristic and successful
compositions deal with the obvious peculiarities of a few local
people, cannot really be said to have a literature deserving of the
name.
The position of things is curious. There is on the continent a
population of four million people, possessing a complete net-work of
state schools, high schools, art schools, academies, universities,
professorships, and chairs of learning innumerable. Education is both
free and compulsory. Complete illiteracy is almost unknown. The
ignorance and stolidity of the London docker, of the Irish peasant, of
the Russian serf, of the central European farm labourer, have no
equivalent in Australia. The people of this country are facile and
quick-minded. They turn naturally to pen and ink. The writer’s
ambition is rampant among them. It is more insidious and more
pervading even than stage fever or cricket frenzy. Every second
dwelling of the middle class is cumbered with unfinished or
unpublished manuscripts. If the son is not guilty, it is probably the
daughter, or the governess, or the parent. Every newspaper editor, if
he felt disposed, could each day fill his columns ten times over with
contributions submitted by outsiders. A Sydney paper offered last
year a hundred pound prize for a serial story. The result was a
staggering mass of manuscript, weighing in the aggregate more
than half a ton, the work of one hundred and thirty-four unknown
and previously unsuspected authors. The same set of circumstances
repeats itself indefinitely. Most Australians have ideas which seem to
the possessors original. They want a vehicle of expression, and they
rush impetuously to the only one provided.
Yet the result is not great, or satisfying, or impressive. And the
reason is that the goal of all this endeavour—in so far as it is a
serious and sustained endeavour—is the hall-mark of the English
publisher. No one can compute the number of people in Melbourne
and Sydney, to say nothing of those in the country towns, who have
either accomplished, or are at present meditating, a descent on
London with an unpublished manuscript. The objective of the literary
person is always London. The recognised fount of honour is London.
The banners in the literary sky wave always in the vicinity of
Paternoster Row and of Leicester Square. Henry Kendall, who knew
what he was talking about, wrote feelingly of things that may
happen to “the man of letters here.” And circumstances have not
materially altered since Kendall had his furniture sold under him, and
since he sat all night on doorsteps in a suburb of Melbourne. While
confident enough in most things, Australians have shown no
confidence in their own literary judgement. They still look timidly
and obediently towards the other hemisphere. If their man of talent
can get an English publisher to take him up, they smile with fatuous
approval. If he cannot, they pity and despise him. As a consequence
the Daleys and Quinns and Lawsons who have chosen to rely, for the
most part, on the country of their upbringing, and who have carried
their wares, for the most part, to a local market, have found it hard
to make a living. Had they been obliged to rely exclusively on
literature their living would have been a precarious one indeed.