Colin Clark on Australia

Abstract

InAustralian Hopes and FearsColin Clark appears at one point or another in all of his several guises: statistician, economist, newspaper commentator on public affairs, and exponent of a Roman CatholicWeltanschauung. He has written several earlier books which embrace the first two and steadiest of his regular employments, notablyThe Conditions of Economic Progress, and he has written a very great deal in a miscellany of newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets which falls under the latter heads, but this, I think, is the first occasion on which he has given expression to the several facets of his mind in a single book. The result is utterly fascinating, not least because of Clark's extraordinary capacity for stating highly provocative views in a “dead pan” fashion, as though uttering dusty platitudes. No reader unacquainted with the Australian scene will fully appreciate just how often Clark sets a cat among the pigeons, nor how adept he is at redefining cats and pigeons. The reader must proceed, constantly on the alert for what on earth is coming next, this in spite of the fact that much of the book is ostensibly straight exposition. Clark's willingness to take the risks of discrimination and judgment within his particular frame of reference keeps his writing lively. The question one really has in mind all along is whether or not he takesallthe facts into account before phrasing his pointed conclusions.