Australia's Flag

-And The 32,823

It Didn't Get

Books can be written about virtually anything but not many people would consider the Aus tralian flag the subject for a

35/- book.

Nonetheless, Frank Cayley who specialises in Australian oddities, has managed to gather together an amazing amount of material on “the” flag and on every other piece of bunting that was ever flown in Australia.

Probably not one Australian in 100 has ever thought sufficiently about his flag to realise that it is not so very long since he had no national flag at all.

The Commonwealth of Australia has been in existence only since January 1, 1901. Before that the States seemed to get by with the Union Jack. In the year prior to Federation, however, there was great flag fever. The Melbourne Herald started it with a flag competition, the prize for the winning entry being £25 given by a local bookseller. The winning design had the Union Jack prominent on it, the Southern Cross and six red stripes. This competition was no sooner over than another Melbourne journal, The Review of Reviews for Australasia, announced another £5O prize, and the new Commonwealth Government, not to be outdone, upped the ante to £75 and announced a flag competition of its own.

"Misplaced Ingenuity"

Finally the Review and the Commonwealth combined forces with their competitions and entries began to come in from all over the world —32,823 in fact, in which everything from rampant kangaroos and other livestock vied with wild stripes, rising suns and zig-zags.

The man who arranged them later for public display described them, in the understatement of the year, as “miracles of misplaced ingenuity”.

The tremendous task of choosing the winner went on for months and finally five entries were judged equal first. Their designs were almost identical and with minor changes be came the Australian ensign as it is

known today.-

JT.

(FLAG OF STARS. Rigby Ltd. $3.50.)