Possibly one of the most contentious evaluations of Australia and its people ever published,
God's Own Country, raised an enormous amount of vitriolic ire both in Australia and overseas following its publication. A critic for
Wairarapa Daily Times (New Zealand), for example, succinctly appraised the book and its supposed "appreciation" by suggesting that the subtitle must have been used derisively, 'as he sweepingly condemns Australia, and everything Australian is anathema to him." The writer goes to note:
While candid books on the Dominions are to be welcomed. There can be nothing but condemnation for the one in question. The author frequently lapses into unmerited abuse, and many of his statements will not bear examination. Mr Jacob lived six years in Australia, but nothing in the country pleased him. According to him, the men are ugly, the women waddle and are immoral, the food is bad, and the scenery is without beauty.... That a man should make such statements seems absolutely beyond the understanding of the average person and any colonial knows that they are utterly absurd (3 April 1914, p.4).
Not unsurprisingly, Jacomb came in for a significant amount of criticism from the people of Mildura. The local newspaper, the
Mildura Cultivator summed up the townships feelings on the matter in an extended article published shortly after the book had made its way there:
Charles Jacomb utterly refused to be absorbed by Australia and that is
the reason he did not absorb enough of the real Australia... In the name
of Australia generally, and Mildura in particular, I give Charles E.
Jacomb the lie direct when he attacks as he does Australian women... and
slanders Australian manhood. The trouble with Mr Jacomb was, and
probably will ever be, that being what he is in physique and
temperament, he affects to despise everything in the man of coarser
fibre (?) From first to last throughout the 20 chapters of his effusion,
Jacomb of Harrow forgets that there are in this world of paradoxes
coal-heavers with soul and so-called gentlemen without. I would remind
him that aesthetic temperament, finicky disposition and intolerance of
the ways of others do not as a rule represent soul superiority, but
instead soul inferiority of the most deplorable kind. Manhood adapts
itself to circumstances (14 March 1914, p.7).
The book was also discussed in parliament, with one senator suggesting
that Jacomb's claims, especially those raised in relation to the State
School system, be repudiated by the High Commissioner. The then minister
for Defence, Mr Millen, argued, however, that while the matter had been
give some consideration, 'the book bore on its face such evidence of
exaggeration and untruthfulness [that] it would be giving it undue
advertisement to take any action' ('Federal Parliament,' p. 17).
In his preface to the 1914 edition, Jacomb acknowledges the
possibility that his book would not be looked on favourably, writing:
'It
is a fact that customs and conditions vary the world over, and that a
critical estimate of any one country can be formed only by comparing it,
point by point, with surrounding lands. To make such a comparison is
easy, to make it without offending is difficult. It is perhaps a
difficulty that cannot be overcome' (n. pag.).
