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By Sydneysider

Sydney is the huh of the South Pacific, and its news is your news. Here are some of the things that made Nov.-Dee. headlines.

Among some peoples in this State privileged to read Cyril Pearl’s Wild Men of Sydney, will be politicians: Three copies exist in the Parliamentary Library.

The appearance of this book is believed to be the reason for the rush Defamation Bill which has caused the biggest political odour in recent years. Its “defamation of the dead” clause will make it possible for a person to sue if he considers that one of his ancestors has been de famed.

Rightly or wrongly, Press Baron Ezra Norton, of Truth and Daily Mirror group, is blamed for bringing pressure to bear on State politicians to have the Bill rushed through. Part of Pearl’s book tells a story of Norton’s father, John.

The NSW Bill is based on a piece of Queensland legislation, in force in that State since the good old days, when to say, “Your father was a lag,” was the surest way to buying a fight. * * * Readers of Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph, their appetites whetted by much publicity in and out of State Parliament, were bitterly disappointed when the promised serialisation of Wild Men of Sydney did not eventuate. After looking feverishly through the issue of November 30, for the first instalment, they were not comforted to find, in a small box, the information that on legal advice the Tele had decided not to publish the book. It was one way, anyway, of bringing home to readers what the Defamation Bill means. * * * It seems that Warwick has little luck as a King-Maker. The Fairfax Sydney Morning Herald's campaign for Labour, in the re cent Federal elections, was no more successful than an earlier attempt in the late war years.

The Menzies’ Liberal govern ment romped home with an in creased majority. Say the cynics, the only thing needed now to clinch the defeat of the State Labour government at the next election (probably April), is for The Sydney Morning Herald to espouse its cause. * * * With change-over to buses in George Street at the beginning of December, there are now no trams operating in the city

proper. The result has been a speed-up of traffic (which has pleased the motorists) ; but an intensification of hell for users of public transport. Buses do not lift as many passengers as trams, so crowds pile up at bus stops.

Inside the buses there are seats only for the minority, and the rest are bumped and jolted to a pulverised mass. The type of bus is wrong (say the critics, and those who have used London’s double-deckers will agree). They are single-deckers, with auto matically closing doors which produce, for six months of the year, conditions similar to a turkish bath. And, invested with a little brief authority, the drivers refuse to open-up until they reach the exact spot. There is no hopping off and on at will, as in the old trams.

The change-over from trams to buses may be good for the public purse; it is devastating to the public temper. * * *

Archbishop: The Rt. Rev.

H. R. Gough, Suffragan Bishop of Barking, England, has been invited by the Sydney Diocesan Synod to become Anglican Arch bishop of Sydney, in succession to the late Dr. H. W. K. Mowll. * * * MERRY XMAS: As seasonal spending spree gets under way— screaming kids under foot, bad tempered mums, perspiring Santa Clauses mopping their beards in Sydney summer heat—retailers are gleefully anticipating no less than £73,000,000 changing hands.

Who said Recession? * * *

High Cost Of Living:

Every Australian man, woman and child spends £4O per annum on beer and cigarettes. That works out at 9 per cent, of the national income—but what we lose on the roundabouts we make up for otherwise. Education, for instance, comes cheap: Only 6 per cent, of the national income. * * * SPORT: Jack Kramer, US pro moter of professional tennis, said in a TV interview that he had made offers to Australian Davis Cup hopes Ashley Cooper and Mai Anderson. Lew Hoad, who appeared on TV with Kramer, said he had made £A61,410 in the two years since he turned pro.