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+Project Gutenberg's Town Life in Australia, by R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Town Life in Australia
+       1883
+
+Author: R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2005 [EBook #16664]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWN LIFE IN AUSTRALIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Col Choat
+
+
+
+
+
+TOWN LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.
+
+BY
+
+R. E. N. TWOPENY,
+
+OFFICER D'ACADEMIE DE FRANCE, AND LATE SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION
+FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA AT THE PARIS, SYDNEY, AND MELBOURNE EXHIBITIONS.
+
+LONDON:
+ELLIOT STOCK,
+62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
+
+1883.
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+The following work was originally written as a series of letters; but the
+epistolary form has only been partially retained. As it has necessarily
+been carried through the press without communication with the writer, who
+is now in New Zealand, errors may possibly have been committed, for which
+the editor rather than the writer is responsible; it is hoped, however,
+that these will not be found numerous.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+A WALK ROUND MELBOURNE
+SYDNEY
+ADELAIDE
+HOUSES
+FURNITURE
+SERVANTS
+FOOD
+DRESS
+YOUNG AUSTRALIA
+SOCIAL RELATIONS
+RELIGION AND MORALS
+EDUCATION
+POLITICS
+BUSINESS
+SHOPS
+AMUSEMENTS
+NEWSPAPERS
+LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND ART
+
+
+
+A WALK ROUND MELBOURNE.
+
+
+Although most educated people know that Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide
+are populous towns, I should doubt whether one Englishman, who has not
+been to Australia, out of a hundred _realizes_ that fact. I well remember
+that, although I had taken some trouble to read up information about
+Melbourne, I was never more thoroughly surprised than during the first
+few hours after my arrival there. And I hear almost everyone who comes
+out from England say that his experience has been the same as my own. In
+one sense the visitor is disappointed with his first day in an Australian
+city. The novelties and the differences from the Old Country do not
+strike him nearly so much as the resemblances. It is only as he gets to
+know the place better that he begins to to notice the differences. The
+first prevailing impression is that a slice of Liverpool has been bodily
+transplanted to the Antipodes, that you must have landed in England again
+by mistake, and it is only by degrees that you begin to see that the
+resemblance is more superficial than real.
+
+Although Sydney is the older town, Melbourne is justly entitled to be
+considered the metropolis of the Southern Hemisphere. The natural
+beauties of Sydney are worth coming all the way to Australia to see;
+while the situation of Melbourne is commonplace if not actually ugly; but
+it is in the Victorian city that the trade and capital, the business and
+pleasure of Australia chiefly centre. Is there a company to be got up to
+stock the wilds of Western Australia, or to form a railway on the
+land-grant system in Queensland, to introduce the electric light, or to
+spread education amongst the black fellows, the promoters either belong
+to Melbourne, or go there for their capital. The headquarters of nearly
+all the large commercial institutions which extend their operation beyond
+the limits of any one colony are to be found there. If you wish to
+transact business well and quickly, to organize a new enterprise--in
+short, to estimate and understand the trade of Australia, you must go to
+Melbourne and not to Sydney, and this in spite of the fact that Victoria
+is a small colony handicapped by heavy protectionist duties, whilst
+Sydney is, comparatively speaking, a free port, at the base of an
+enormous area. The actual production does not take place in Victoria, but
+it is in Melbourne that the money resulting from the productions of other
+colonies as well as of Victoria is turned over. It is Melbourne money
+chiefly that opens up new tracts of land for settlement in the interior
+of the continent, and Melbourne brains that find the outlets for fresh
+commerce in every direction. There is a bustle and life about Melbourne
+which you altogether miss in Sydney. The Melbourne man is always on the
+look-out for business, the Sydney man waits for business to come to him.
+The one is always in a hurry, the other takes life more easily. And as it
+is with business, so it is with pleasure.
+
+If you are a man of leisure you will find more society in Melbourne, more
+balls and parties, a larger measure of intellectual life--i.e., more
+books and men of education and intellect, more and better theatrical and
+musical performances, more racing and cricket, football, and athletic
+clubs, a larger leisured class than in Sydney. The bushman who comes to
+town to 'knock down his cheque,' the squatter who wants a little
+amusement, both prefer Melbourne to spend their money in. The Melbourne
+races attract three or four times the number of visitors that the Sydney
+races do; all public amusements are far better attended in Melbourne; the
+people dress better, talk better, think better, are better, if we accept
+Herbert Spencer's definition of Progress. There is far more 'go' and far
+more 'life,' in every sense of these rather comprehensive words, to be
+found in Melbourne, and it is there that the visitor must come who wishes
+to see the fullest development of Australasian civilisation, whether in
+commerce or education, in wealth or intellect, in manners and customs--in
+short, in every department of life.
+
+If you ask how this anomaly is to be explained, I can only answer that
+the shutting out of Sydney from the country behind it by a barrier of
+mountains hindered its early development; whilst the gold-diggings
+transformed Melbourne from a village into a city almost by magic; that
+the first population of Sydney was of the wrong sort, whilst that which
+flooded Melbourne from 1851 to 1861 was eminently adventurous and
+enterprising; that Melbourne having achieved the premier position, Sydney
+has, with all its later advantages, found the truth of the proverbs: 'A
+stern chase is a long chase,' and 'To him that hath shall be given.'
+
+Passengers by ocean-going vessels to Melbourne land either at Sandridge
+or Williamstown, small shipping towns situated on either side of the
+river Yarra, which is only navigable by the smaller craft. A quarter of
+an hour in the train brings the visitor into the heart of the city. On
+getting out he can hardly fail to be impressed by the size of the
+buildings around him, and by the width of the streets, which are laid out
+in rectangular blocks, the footpaths being all well paved or asphalted.
+In spite of the abundance of large and fine-looking buildings, there is a
+rather higgledy-piggledy look about the town--the city you will by this
+time own it to be. There are no building laws, and every man has built as
+seemed best in his own eyes. The town is constantly outgrowing the
+majority of its buildings, and although the wise plan of allowing for the
+rapid growth of a young community, and building for the requirements of
+the future rather than of the present, is generally observed, there are
+still gaps in the line of the streets towards the outskirts, and houses
+remaining which were built by unbelievers in the future before the city.
+In the main thoroughfares you might fancy yourself in an improved
+Edgeware Road. In a few years Collins and Bourke Streets will be very
+like Westbourne Grove. The less frequented streets in the city are like
+those of London suburbs. There _are_ a few lanes which it is wiser not to
+go down after ten o'clock at night. These are known as the back slums.
+But nowhere is there any sign of poverty or anything at all resembling
+Stepney or the lower parts of an European city, The Chinese quarter is
+the nearest approach thereto, but it is quite _sui generis_, and squalor
+is altogether absent.
+
+The town is well lighted with gas, and the water-supply, from reservoirs
+on the Yarra a few miles above, is plentiful, but not good for drinking.
+There Is no underground drainage system. All the sewage is carried away
+in huge open gutters, which run all through the town, and are at their
+worst and widest in the most central part, where all the principal shops
+and business places are situated. These gutters are crossed by little
+wooden bridges every fifty yards. When it rains, they rise to the
+proportion of small torrents, and have on several occasions proved fatal
+to drunken men. In one heavy storm, indeed, a sober strong man was
+carried off his legs by the force of the stream, and ignominiously
+drowned in a gutter. You may imagine how unpleasant these little rivers
+are to carriage folk. In compensation they are as yet untroubled with
+tramways, although another couple of years will probably see rails laid
+all over the city.
+
+It is a law in every Australian town that no visitor shall be allowed to
+rest until he has seen all its sights, done all its lions, and, above
+all, expressed his surprise and admiration at them. With regard to their
+public institutions, the colonists are like children with a new
+toy--delighted with it themselves, and not contented until everybody they
+meet has declared it to be delightful. There are some people who vote all
+sightseeing a bore, but if they come to Melbourne I would advise them at
+least to do the last part of their duty--express loudly and generally
+their admiration at everything that is mentioned to them. Whether they
+have seen it or not is, after all, their own affair.
+
+In this respect a Professor at the Melbourne University, on a holiday
+trip to New Zealand, has just told me an amusing anecdote, for the
+literal truth of which he vouches. A couple of young Englishmen fresh
+from Oxford came to Melbourne in the course of a trip round the world to
+open up their minds! For fear of a libel suit I may at once say I am not
+alluding to the Messrs. Chamberlain. They brought letters of introduction
+to Professor S----, who proposed, according to the custom of the place,
+to 'show them round.' 'Have you seen the Public Library?' he began. 'No,'
+answered the Oxonian. Shall I take you over it?' continued the Professor;
+'it is one of the finest in the world, well worth seeing; and we can kill
+two birds with one stone by seeing the Museum and National Gallery at the
+same time.' 'Well, no, thanks,' was the reply; 'it's awfully good of you,
+we know; but I say, the fact is books are books, all the world over, and
+pictures are pictures; and as for minerals, I can't say we understand
+them--not in our line, you understand.'
+
+The Professor now thought he would try them with something out-of-doors,
+and proposed a walk to the Botanical Gardens, which was met with 'Don't
+you think it's rather hot for a walk? Besides, to tell the truth, one
+garden is very much like another.' 'But these are very large,' persisted
+the Professor; 'not scientific gardens like Kew, but capital places to
+walk and sit about in. There are a number of flowers there, too, which
+you cannot see at home.' Oxonian No. 2, however, came to the breach: 'We
+bought a lot of flowers at a shop in Collins Street yesterday, and we are
+going to send a hamper of ferns home; so that if you won't think it
+uncivil of us to refuse your kindness, we won't take up your time by
+going so far.'
+
+Although somewhat abashed, the Professor thought of several other 'lions'
+which they might like to see, but was invariably met with the same polite
+refusal, till at last he gave it up as a bad job, and turned the
+conversation to general subjects. They had taken up their hats, and were
+saying good-bye. The Professor, who is a kind-hearted man, and was really
+anxious to be of service to the two friends, felt quite vexed with
+himself that he could do nothing more than ask them to dine. So, just as
+they were parting with the usual mutual expressions of goodwill, he asked
+in a despondent, almost prayerful tone: 'Are you quite sure there is;
+nothing I can do for you? Pray make use of me if you can, and I shall be
+only too delighted.' The reply was in a rather nervous voice from the
+younger man, who blushed as he asked the favour: 'Do you know anyone who
+has got a lawn-tennis court? We should so awfully like to have a game.'
+
+The Professor introduced them to the head and to some of the
+undergraduates of the affiliated colleges close by, and heard very little
+more of them till they came to dinner with him a fortnight later, the day
+before they were to leave Melbourne. The conversation at dinner turned of
+course upon what they had seen during their visit, with which they
+declared themselves immensely pleased. But when asked as to the things
+which had most impressed them, it came out that Sundays were the only
+days they had gone out of the town; that they had not been to see a
+public institution or building, except their bank and the theatres.
+'Surely you can't have spent all your time at the club,' said the
+Professor, 'though there is a capital library there; and, by the way, did
+you ever play tennis at Ormond College?' And then came the reply from
+both at once. It turned out that they had been to Ormond College to play
+tennis twice a day, except when they stopped lunch there. And then
+followed a technical description of the college tennis-courts, the
+Australian play, etc., etc.
+
+But the cream of the story is not yet reached. The young men were to
+leave the next day for Japan, and the Professor waxed enthusiastic over
+the delights in store for them in that land of the morning. He quoted
+anecdotes and passages from Miss Bird's book, and repeated more than once
+that he envied them their trip. 'Well, yes, you know,' said the eldest,
+'we've got several introductions; and I hear there are lots of English in
+Tokio, so that we are sure to get plenty of tennis.'
+
+There are not many people who are likely to be so frank, not to say dull,
+as the Professor's friends; but how many people there are who travel
+round the world and see nothing! There is a moral in the story which is
+probably applicable to at least half of my readers, more or less.
+
+Of the public buildings, which are scattered in considerable numbers
+about the town, the largest are the New Law Courts, which have just been
+erected at a cost of L300,000. They contain 130 rooms, and provide
+accommodation for the Supreme Court, the County Court, the Insolvent
+Court, the Equity Court, and for the various offices of the Crown Law
+Department. The plan is that of a quadrangle, with a centre surmounted by
+a dome 137 feet high. Still more elaborate and magnificent are the
+Parliament Houses not yet completed, the front alone of which is to cost
+L180,000. With regard to the architecture of these buildings, there is
+ample room for difference of opinion, but everyone will agree to admire
+the classic simplicity of the Public Library, erected some twenty years
+ago, which is planned with a view to the subsequent erection of a
+National Gallery and Museum, to complete a really noble pile of
+buildings. And it is well worth while to go inside. The Library is
+absolutely free to everybody, contains over 110,000 volumes, and has
+accommodation for 600 readers. An interesting feature is the large
+newspaper-room, where scores of working-men can be seen reading papers
+and magazines from all parts of the world. At the back of the same
+building are the painting and sculpture galleries, with which is
+connected a school of art and design. Behind these again is a museum. In
+the galleries there are a few good modern paintings, and a large number
+of mediocre ones. The statuary consists mainly of well-executed casts and
+four marble statues by the late Mr. Summers. The museum is only likely to
+be of interest to entomologists and mineralogists, the collection in both
+these departments being considered very good. The foundation and the
+success of the whole of this institution are almost entirely due to the
+late Sir Redmond Barry, who did almost as much for the University, which
+has also been exceedingly useful and successful from every point of view.
+As a building it is not equal to the Sydney University, although it
+possesses a splendid Gothic Hall, the gift of Sir Samuel Wilson, who now
+lives at Hughenden. In connection with the University is an excellent
+Zoological Museum, which is interesting to more than specialists.
+
+Other fine buildings are the Government Offices, the Town Hall with its
+enormous organ, the Post Office, the International Exhibition--all built
+on a truly metropolitan scale, which is even exceeded by the palatial
+hugeness of the Government House, the ugliness of which is proverbial
+throughout Australia. But, perhaps, the class of buildings, which must in
+every Australian city most excite the surprise of the visitor, are the
+hospitals and asylums. There are no less than ten splendid structures in
+Melbourne devoted to charitable purposes. The Roman Catholics have built
+a fine cathedral, but it is not yet finished. The Church of England is
+collecting money for a similar purpose. Meanwhile the prettiest church
+belongs to the Presbyterians. None of the other churches are in any way
+remarkable. Anyone who has not seen the London Mint will find the
+Melbourne Mint worth a visit. The Observatory contains one of the largest
+telescopes in the world; and even if there are no races going on, the
+Flemington Racecourse is a 'lion' of the largest dimensions. There are
+four theatres, only one of which is well-fitted up. The visitor will
+notice that drinking bars are invariable and very disagreeable
+accompaniments of every theatre. One bar is generally just opposite the
+entrance to the dress circle, an arrangement which is particularly
+annoying to ladies.
+
+Altogether, the public buildings of Melbourne do the greatest credit to
+the public spirit of the colonists, and offer substantial testimony to
+the largeness of their views and the thoroughness of their belief in the
+future of their country. There is certainly no city in England which can
+boast of nearly as many fine buildings, or as large ones, proportionately
+to its size, as Melbourne. And this is the more remarkable, remembering,
+that even in the existing hard times, masons are getting 10s. 6d. a day
+of eight hours, and often a very dawdling eight hours too.
+
+The Botanic Gardens, just outside the town, are well worth a visit. They
+have no great scientific pretensions, as their name would imply, but are
+merely pleasure-grounds, decked with all the variety of flowers which
+this land of Cockaigne produces in abundance. Besides these, there are
+several pretty reserves, notably the Fitzroy, Carlton, and University
+Gardens, and the Regent's Park, which are all well kept and refreshing to
+the eye after the dust and glare of the town.
+
+The proportions of the commercial buildings and business premises are on
+the same large and elaborate scale. Of the architecture, as a rule, the
+less said the better; but everything is at least more spacious than at
+home. The climate and the comparative cheapness of land give the
+colonists an aversion to height in their buildings, and even in the
+busiest parts of Melbourne most of the buildings have only two
+stories--i.e., a ground-floor and one above--and I can hardly think of
+any with more than three. The sums which banking companies pay for the
+erection of business premises are enormous. Thirty to sixty thousand
+pounds is the usual cost of their headquarters. The large insurance
+companies have also caught the building mania, and the joint-stock
+companies which are now springing up in all directions emulate them. The
+Australian likes to have plenty of elbow-room. He cannot understand how
+wealthy merchants can work in the dingy dens which serve for the offices
+of many a London merchant prince. In this matter, contrary to his usual
+practice, he is apt to consider the surface rather than what is beneath
+it; and it is an accepted maxim in commercial circles that money spent on
+buildings--which is of course borrowed in England at English rates of
+interest--is amongst the cheapest forms of advertising a rising business
+and keeping an established business going. Nobody in a young country has
+a long memory, and nothing is so firmly established but that it may be
+overthrown if it does not keep up with the times.
+
+The general run of shops are little better than in English towns of the
+same size, if we except those of some dozen drapers and ironmongers in
+Melbourne, and two or three in Sydney, which are exceptionally good. Of
+these it may be said that they would be creditable to London itself. Both
+trades are much more comprehensive than in England. A large Melbourne
+draper will sell you anything, from a suit of clothes to furniture, where
+he comes into competition with the ironmonger, whose business includes
+agricultural machinery, crockery and plate. The larger firms in both
+these trades combine wholesale and retail business, and their shops are
+quite amongst the sights of Australia. Nowhere out of an exhibition and
+Whiteley's is it possible to meet so heterogeneous a collection. A
+peculiarity of Melbourne is that the shop-windows there are much better
+set out than is customary in England. It is not so in Sydney. Indeed
+Melbourne has decidedly the best set of shops, not only in outward
+appearance, but as to the variety and quality of the articles sold in
+them. Next to the drapers and ironmongers, the booksellers' shops are the
+most creditable. The style of the smaller shops in every colonial town is
+as English as English can be. The only difference is in the prices, but
+of that more anon when we go into the shops.
+
+The river Yarra runs through the city, and is navigable as far as its
+centre by coasting steamers and all but the larger sailing craft. Above
+the harbour it is lined with trees and very pretty, and in spite of many
+windings it is wide enough for boat-races. Below it is uninteresting, and
+chiefly remarkable for the number and variety of the perfumes which arise
+from the manufactories on its banks. Next to the monotony of the Suez
+Canal, with which it presents many points of resemblance, I know few
+things more tiresome than the voyage up the Yarra in an intercolonial
+steamer of 600 or 700 tons, which goes aground every ten minutes, and
+generally, as if on purpose, just in front of a boiling-down
+establishment.
+
+If the Australian cities can claim a sad eminence, if not an actual
+supremacy, in the number of their public houses, of which there are no
+less than 1,120 in Melbourne, I am sorry to say that they are as much
+behind London in their ideas of the comforts of an hotel as London is
+behind San Francisco. Melbourne is certainly better off than Sydney or
+Adelaide, but bad are its best hotels. Of these Menzies' and the Oriental
+are most to be recommended; after these try the United Club Hotel, or, if
+you be a bachelor, Scott's. The hotels, I think without exception, derive
+their chief income from the bar traffic, with which, at all but the few I
+have mentioned, you cannot help being brought more or less into contact.
+Lodgers are quite a secondary consideration. This is very disagreeable
+for ladies. The best hotels, moreover, have no _table d'hote_--only the
+old-fashioned coffee and commercial rooms; so that if you are travelling
+_en famille_ you have no choice but to have your meals in a private
+sitting-room. For a bachelor, who is not particular so long as his rooms
+are clean, and can put up with plain fare, there need, however, be no
+difficulty in getting accommodation; but anyone who wishes to be
+comfortable had better live at the clubs, which in every one of the
+'capitals' are most liberal in their hospitality, and have bedrooms on
+their premises. Visitors to the colony are made honorary members for a
+month on the introduction of any two members, and the term is extended to
+six months on the small subscription of a guinea a month. The Melbourne
+Club is the best appointed in the Colonies. The rooms are comfortable,
+and decently though by no means luxuriously furnished, and a very fair
+table is kept. The servants wear full livery. There is a small library,
+all the usual appurtenances of a London club, and a racquet-court. The
+other clubs, though less pretentious, are all comfortable.
+
+Your colonial rarely walks a step farther than he can help, and of course
+laziness is well provided with cabs and omnibuses. You can take your
+choice between one-horse waggonettes and hansoms, though a suspicion of
+Bohemia still lingers about the latter. Happily Mrs. Grundy has never
+introduced 'growlers.' The waggonettes are light boxes on wheels, covered
+in with oil-cloth, which can be rolled up in a few seconds if the weather
+is fine or warm. It is strange that victorias like those in Paris have
+never been tried in this warm climate. A few years ago Irish
+jaunting-cars and a jolting vehicle called a 'jingle' were much used, but
+they have slipped out of favour of late, and are now almost obsolete. The
+fares are usually moderate, ranging from a shilling for a quarter of an
+hour to the same coin for the first mile, and sixpence for every
+subsequent one. Cabby is fairly civil, but, as at home, always expects
+more than his legal fare.
+
+Nowhere do omnibuses drive a more thriving trade than in Melbourne, and
+they deserve it, for they are fast, clean, roomy, and well managed. The
+price of labour makes conductors too expensive a luxury, and passengers
+have to put their fare--in most cases threepence--into a little glass box
+close to the driver's seat. This unfortunate man, in addition to looking
+after the horses, and opening and shutting the door by means of a strap
+tied to his foot, which you pull when you want to get out, has to give
+change whenever a little bell is rung, and to see that the threepences in
+the glass box correspond to the number of passengers. Yet not only does
+he drive fast and carefully along the crowded thoroughfares, but it is
+difficult to escape without paying. Several times when a 'bus has been
+crowded I have tried the effect of omitting payment. Invariably the
+driver has touched his bell, and if that is not attended to, he puts his
+face to the chink through which change is passed, and having re-counted
+the number of people in the 'bus, civilly intimates that 'some gentleman
+has forgotten to put in his fare.' Where the omnibus companies have not
+penetrated, waggonettes similar to those previously described pioneer the
+road, and on some well-frequented lines they run in competition with the
+omnibuses.
+
+I don't know that it would be true to say that the number of horses and
+vehicles in the streets strikes the stranger's eye as a rule. A man
+accustomed to the traffic of London streets passes over the traffic of
+Melbourne, great as it is for a town of its size, without notice. But I
+think he cannot but notice the novel nature of the Melbourne traffic, the
+prevalence of that light four-wheeled vehicle called the 'buggy,' which
+we have imported via America, and the extraordinary number of horsemen he
+meets. The horses at first sight strike the eye unpleasantly. They look
+rough, and are rarely properly groomed. But, as experience will soon
+teach the stranger, they are far less delicate than English horses. They
+get through a considerably greater quantity of work, and are less
+fatigued at the end of it.
+
+A walk down Collins Street or Flinders Lane would astonish some of the
+City Croesuses. But if a visitor really wishes to form an idea of the
+wealth concentrated in Melbourne, he cannot do better than spend a week
+walking round the suburbs, and noting the thousands of large roomy houses
+and well-kept gardens which betoken incomes of over two thousand a year,
+and the tens of thousands of villas whose occupants must be spending from
+a thousand to fifteen hundred a year. All these suburbs are connected
+with the town by railway. A quarter of an hour will bring you ten miles
+to Brighton, and twelve minutes will take you to St. Kilda, the most
+fashionable watering-place. Within ten minutes by rail are the inland
+suburbs, Toorak, South Yarra, and Kew, all three very fashionable;
+Balaclava, Elsterwick, and Windsor, outgrowths of St. Kilda, also
+fashionable; Hawthorn, which is budding well; Richmond, adjacent to East
+Melbourne, and middle class; and Emerald Hill and Albert Park, with a
+working-class population. Adjoining the city itself are North Melbourne,
+Fitzroy, Carlton, Hotham, and East Melbourne, all except the last
+inhabited by the working-classes. Emerald Hill and Hotham have handsome
+town halls of their own, and the larger of these suburbs form
+municipalities. Nearly everybody who can lives in the suburbs, and the
+excellence of the railway system enables them to extend much farther away
+from the city than in Adelaide or Sydney. It is strange that the
+Australian townsman should have so thoroughly inherited the English love
+of living as far as possible away from the scene of his business and work
+during the day.
+
+The names of the suburbs afford food for reflection. Yarra is the only
+native name. Sir Charles Hotham and Sir Charles Fitzroy were the
+governors at the time of the foundation of the municipalities which bear
+their names. The date of the foundation of St. Kilda is evidenced by the
+name of its streets--Alma, Inkerman, Redan, Malakoff, Sebastopol, Raglan,
+Cardigan, and Balaclava, the last of which gave its name later on to a
+new suburb, which grew up at one end of it. In the city proper the
+principal streets are named after colonial celebrities in the early
+days--Flinders, Bourke, Collins, Lonsdale, Spencer, Stephen, Swanston,
+while King, Queen, and William Streets each tell a tale. Elizabeth Street
+was perhaps named after the virgin queen to whose reign the accession of
+the Princess Victoria called attention.
+
+As you walk round you cannot fail to notice the sunburnt faces of the
+people you meet. Melbourne is said to have the prettiest girls in
+Australia. I am no judge. On first arrival their sallow complexions
+strike you most disagreeably, and it is some time before you will allow
+that there is a pretty girl in the country. When you get accustomed to
+this you will recognise that as a rule they have good figures, and that
+though there are no beauties, a larger number of girls have pleasant
+features than in England. What may be called nice looking girls abound
+all over Australia. In dress the Melbourne ladies are too fond of bright
+colours, but it can never be complained against them that they are
+dowdy--a fault common to their Sydney, Adelaide, and English sisters--and
+they certainly spend a great deal of money on their dress, every article
+of which costs about 50 per cent. more than at home. In every town the
+shop girls and factory girls--in short, all the women belonging to the
+industrial classes--are well dressed, and look more refined than in
+England. Men, on the other hand, are generally very careless about their
+attire, and dress untidily. The business men all wear black frock-coats
+and top hats. They look like city men whose clothes have been cut in the
+country. The working-men are dressed much more expensively than at home,
+and there are no threadbare clothes to be seen. Everybody has a
+well-to-do look There is not so much bustle as in the City, but the faces
+of 'all sorts and conditions of men' are more cheerful, and less careworn
+and anxious. You can see that bread-and-butter never enters into the
+cares of these people; it is only the cake which is sometimes endangered.
+or has not sufficient plums in it.
+
+SYDNEY.
+
+I suppose that nearly everyone has heard of the beauties of Sydney
+Harbour--'our harbour,' as the Sydneyites fondly call it. If you want a
+description of them read Trollope's book. He has not exaggerated an iota
+on this point. Sydney Harbour is one of those few sights which, like
+Niagara, remain photographed on the memory of whoever has been so
+fortunate as to see them. With this difference, however--the impression
+of Niagara is instantaneous; it stamps itself upon you in a moment, and
+though further observation may make the details more clear, it cannot add
+to the depth of the impressions. But Sydney Harbour grows upon you. At
+the first glance I think you will be a little disappointed. It is only as
+you drink in each fresh beauty that its wonderful loveliness takes
+possession of you. The more you explore its creeks and coves--forming
+altogether 260 miles of shore--the more familiar you become with each
+particular headland or reach, the greater your enchantment. You fall in
+love with it, so to speak, and often I look up at the water-colour sketch
+of Double Bay which hangs over my dining-room mantelpiece, and hope the
+hope which partakes of expectation, that before long I shall see Sydney
+Harbour again.
+
+And it is as admirable from a practical as from an artistic point of
+view. The _Austral_ and the _Orient_ can be moored alongside natural
+wharves in the very heart of the city. There are coves sufficient to hold
+the combined fleets of the world, mercantile and naval. The outer harbour
+is the paradise of yachtsmen; the inner, of oarsmen. The gardens of
+suburban villas run down to the water's edge along the headlands and
+points, and there are thousands of unoccupied building sites from which
+you can enjoy a view fit for the gods.
+
+One feels quite angry with the town for being so unworthy of its site.
+Certainly, one of the greatest charms of the harbour must have been
+wanting when it was uninhabited, and the view of the city and suburbs as
+you come up into port is as charming and picturesque, as that of
+Melbourne from Port Philip is commonplace and repellent. But when you get
+near the wharf the charm vanishes. Never was there a more complete case
+of distance lending enchantment to the view. Not but that there are
+plenty of fine buildings, public and private; but the town is still much
+farther back in its chrysalis stage than Melbourne. Time alone can, and
+is rapidly making away with the old tumble-down buildings which spoil the
+appearance of their neighbours. But time cannot easily widen the streets
+of Sydney, nor rectify their crookedness. They were originally dug out by
+cart-ruts, whereas those of nearly every other town in Australia were
+mapped out long before they were inhabited. But if they were not so
+ill-kept, and the footpaths so wretchedly paved, I could forgive the
+narrowness and crookedness of the Sydney streets, on account of their
+homely appearance. They are undeniably old friends, such as you can meet
+in hundreds of towns in Europe. Their very unsuitableness for the
+practical wants of a large city becomes a pleasant contrast to the
+practical handsomeness of Melbourne and Adelaide. The size and
+handsomeness of individual buildings is lost in the Sydney streets. You
+look at the street from one end, and put it down in your mind as no
+better than a lane; you walk down it without noticing the merits of the
+buildings it contains; whereas in Melbourne both the general effect and
+each individual building are shown off to the greatest advantage; but
+there is a certain picturesqueness and old-fashionedness about Sydney,
+which brings back pleasant memories of Old England, after the monotonous
+perfection of Melbourne and Adelaide.
+
+The most unpleasant feature about Sydney is, that there is a thoroughly
+untidy look about the place. It is in a perennial state of _deshabille_;
+whereas Melbourne nearly always has its dress-clothes on. In keeping with
+the wretched pavements, the muddy crossings, and the dust, are the
+clothes of the people you meet in the streets. Nobody seems to care much
+how they dress, and without being exactly countrified in their apparel,
+the Sydneyites succeed in looking pre-eminently dowdy.
+
+The water-supply is not always quite as plentiful as could be wished; but
+on the other hand, there is an excellent system of deep drainage, and the
+eye is not offended by open sewers, as in Melbourne. You will notice that
+there are not so many private carriages here, and fewer horsemen. The
+traffic appears greater, but this is entirely owing to the narrowness of
+the streets. It is not so rapid, as you will easily perceive.
+
+You land, as I think I mentioned, in the heart of the city, and, unless
+you prefer Shanks's pony, must perforce take a hansom to your hotel, or,
+if you have much luggage, two hansoms, for four-wheelers are almost
+unknown. In compensation, the Sydney hansoms are the cleanest and fastest
+you will ever have the good fortune to come across. Steam trams run out
+to the railway station, which is at the farther end of the town, and to
+all the suburbs. There is practically but one hotel to go
+to--Petty's--and that very inferior. In most matters of this kind Sydney
+is only a second-rate edition of Melbourne.
+
+The beauties of Sydney are certainly rather natural than artificial, and
+since one can always see a big town more or less like Melbourne, whilst
+the scenery of Sydney Harbour is almost unique of its kind, if I were
+obliged to see only one of the two places, I would rather see Sydney. But
+although, Sydney is poorly laid out, it must not be imagined that it is
+poorly built. On the contrary. Its buildings are put in the shade as
+regards size by those of Melbourne but if you had not seen Melbourne
+first, you would certainly have been surprised by the number and size of
+the public buildings of Sydney. The rich man loses his sense of the
+proportionate value of moneys. But Sydney has the great advantage of
+possessing superior building material in a red and grey sandstone of
+great durability, which forms the substratum of the whole district in
+which it is built, while Melbourne has mainly to rely on a blue stone
+found at some distance, and has to import the stone for its best
+buildings from either Sydney or Tasmania. I must confess too, that I
+prefer the general style of architecture in Sydney to that most common in
+Melbourne. First and foremost, owing to the more limited area of the
+business part of the town, the Sydney buildings are much loftier.
+Melbourne and Adelaide always look to me as if some one had taken his
+seat upon the top of them and squashed them down. Sydney is taller and
+more irregular. It climbs up and down a whole series of hills, and
+protrudes at all kinds of unexpected points. The city proper has no very
+definite boundaries, and you hardly know where the city begins and the
+suburbs end.
+
+Of the public buildings of Sydney, the handsomest are the Treasury, the
+Colonial Secretary's office, and the Lands Office, each four or five
+stories high, and close to the water's edge. The Colonial Secretary's
+office is only second to the Melbourne Law Courts amongst the completed
+buildings of Australia. It is lofty, massive, and dignified outwardly,
+elegant and spacious inside, although it has been fitted up in the most
+incongruous fashion with odds and ends of third-rate statuary, imitation
+bronzes, etc., until it looks like an old curiosity-shop. The University,
+though comparatively an old building, still holds its ground amongst the
+best, and may well be proud of its splendidly proportioned hall, built in
+fifteenth-century Gothic. The Roman Catholic Cathedral, which has just
+been opened, is also well proportioned. The length is 350 feet; width
+within transept 118 feet; width of nave and aisle 74 feet; height about
+ninety feet. There is to be a central tower 120 feet high, and two towers
+with spires which will rise to a height of 260 feet. The Anglican
+Cathedral, though not large, is a handsome building with two towers, in
+fourteenth-century Gothic. The Post Office will for many years remain a
+fragment of what may or may not be a handsome building. The Town Hall has
+evidently been built with the idea of at all hazards making it larger
+than the Melbourne Town Hall. So far it is a success. But architecturally
+it is nothing more than a splendid failure--over-decorated and
+ginger-bready. Curiously enough it is built upon the site of the
+burial-place of the early settlement---forming a sort of Westminster
+Abbey for the first settlers. There are four theatres, but none well
+fitted or decorated. Palatial hospitals and asylums of course abound, but
+the Parliament House is wretchedly small.
+
+Unfortunately Sydney has very few reserves, and those few she keeps in
+bad order, with the exception of the Botanical Garden, situated on an arm
+of the land almost entirely surrounded by water. It is the most charming
+public garden I have ever seen; inferior to that of Adelaide in detail,
+but superior in the _tout ensemble_. Almost equally beautiful is the
+situation of Government House, a comfortable Tudor mansion, but rather
+small for purposes of entertainment.
+
+Amongst the commercial buildings, the new head offices of the Australian
+Mutual Provident Society are pre-eminent. They cost no less than L50,000.
+The banks are not equal to either the Melbourne or the Adelaide banks.
+But the insurance offices, warehouses, etc., though not nearly as
+numerous, are quite up to the Melbourne standard in size, although for
+the reasons already given they do not show to so great an advantage as
+their merit deserves. Of the appearance of the shops I have already
+written in my letter about Melbourne. They are not so fine as in
+Melbourne nor so well stocked, and are pretty much on a level with those
+in an English town of the same size.
+
+The names of the principal streets proclaim the age of the town. George
+Street and Pitt Street are the two main thoroughfares, and there are
+Castlereagh, Liverpool, and William Streets, while King, Hunter, Bligh,
+Macquarie, and Philip Streets, and Darlinghurst preserve the names of the
+first governors. The suburbs first formed preserve the sweet-sounding
+native names--Wooloomooloo, Woolahra, Coogee, Bondi. Of a later date are
+Randwick, Newtown, Stanmore, Ashfield, Burwood, and Petersham--the last
+four along the railway line.
+
+The good people of Sydney do not spend their money so much upon outward
+show as the Victorians. Hence the number of large houses in the suburbs
+is very much smaller. But whereas the country around Melbourne for miles
+is mostly flat as a pancake, the suburbs of Sydney literally revel in
+beautiful building sites. For choice, there are the water frontages below
+the town or up the Parramatta river, which is lined with pretty houses,
+whose inhabitants come up to Sydney every morning in small river
+steamers. The principal suburbs, however, are much closer to the city
+than in Melbourne, being connected by steam tramways instead of railways.
+New suburbs are also springing up along the railway lines, but until the
+railway station is brought into the centre of the town, they can never be
+nearly so populous as the Melbourne suburbs.
+
+ADELAIDE.
+
+I began with a comparison between Melbourne and Sydney, towns of 280,000
+and 220,000 inhabitants respectively. The capital of South Australia,
+Adelaide, with its 70,000, stands, of course, upon an entirely different
+level; but it possesses, to an even greater degree than Sydney, all the
+peculiar characteristics of a capital city. If any comparison can be made
+between Adelaide and its sister capitals, it is with Melbourne rather
+than with Sydney. Adelaide is a thoroughly modern town, with all the
+merits and all the defects attaching to novelty. It does not possess the
+spirit of enterprise to so adventurous a degree as Melbourne, but neither
+does it approach to the languor of Sydney. In this respect it has
+discovered a very happy middle course. There is certainly something very
+provincial about the attitude of the town towards the rest of the world,
+but this helps to make it the more distinctive, and conduces largely to
+its progress. It 'goes without saying' that there cannot be the same
+number of large buildings as in the larger cities, that their proportions
+cannot be so large, that there cannot be the same facilities for business
+or for pleasure. But the emulation produced by the achievements of its
+big neighbours has resulted in making Adelaide a far more advanced town
+for its size than either of them. Proportionately to population,
+everything in Adelaide ought theoretically to be on a fourth scale of its
+like in Melbourne. As a matter of fact, most things are on more than
+half-scale, many on a two-thirds, and a few things, such as the Botanic
+Garden, the Exchange, the Banks of South Australia and Adelaide, are
+unsurpassed.
+
+For its size, I consider Adelaide the beet-built town I know, and
+certainly it is the best laid out and one of the prettiest and most
+conveniently situated. It nestles, so to speak, at the foot of a range of
+high hills on a plain, which extends seven miles in length to the
+seashore. The approach by rail from either Port Adelaide or Glenelg is
+uninteresting, but directly you get out at the station the first
+impression is pleasing. The streets are broad and laid out in rectangular
+blocks as in Melbourne, and the white stone used for most of the
+buildings makes the town look particularly bright and lively, showing off
+the bustle and traffic to advantage. In the background are the hills,
+while on one side is the suburb of North Adelaide, on an incline divided
+from the city by a broad sheet of artificial water, running in the bed of
+the river Torrens through a half-mile deep belt of 'park-lands,' which
+encircle the square mile forming the city proper, and separate it from
+the suburbs.
+
+The conception of this belt of verdure, on which none but public
+buildings may be erected, dividing the working part of the town from the
+residential part, has always seemed to me a masterpiece of wisdom in city
+planning, and hardly less admirable are the five open reserves inside the
+city which serve as its lungs. Ultimately the city proper will probably
+be almost entirely reserved for business purposes. Already very few
+people live within the belts who can help it, although high prices are
+given for sites for residences on each of the four terraces fronting the
+belts. Except that Adelaide is perfectly flat, while Melbourne is built
+on two sides of a valley, Adelaide may not inaptly be described in the
+words of a visitor who was returning to England by the Peninsular and
+Oriental route, as 'a smaller but better Melbourne.' The style of
+architecture is not quite so florid, but the extreme squatness of the
+buildings is far more noticeable here. It is no merely that the buildings
+are actually lower, but the look lower from being built on the flat.
+
+Of the public buildings, the finest is the Post Office, which, though it
+wants an extra story to make it dignified, is, in my opinion, preferable
+to either the Melbourne or Sydney Post Offices. The new Institute, the
+Anglican Cathedral, which is lofty, the Town Hall, the Supreme Court, the
+Banks of South Australia, of Adelaide, and the English and Scottish Bank,
+and the new vice-regal residence on the hills, are all fine buildings,
+which would attract favourable notice in Melbourne or Sydney. Nominally
+there are three theatres, practically only one, but that is undoubtedly
+the prettiest and best in Australia. But the pride of Adelaide is its
+Botanic Garden, which, though unpromisingly situated on a perfectly
+level spot, with no water at hand, has been transformed, by means of
+artificial water and artificial hillocks, into the prettiest garden in
+the world The area is only forty acres, but every inch has been turned
+to the utmost advantage, and this is really a garden, while the Sydney
+Gardens--mark the plural--are more park-like, and those of Melbourne can
+hardly be called gardens, in the strict sense of the word.
+
+The drainage is defective, but the water-supply good. There is still a
+great deal to be done to the footpaths, and until quite recently the
+municipal arrangements were in every respect almost as bad as those of
+Sydney. But an able, energetic, and liberal mayor, Mr. E. T. Smith, in
+the course of two years so stirred up the citizens that pavements have
+been laid down, additional gas-lights provided, the Torrens artificial
+lake constructed, the squares and park-lands transformed from untidy
+wildernesses into handsome oases, and the general aspect of the city
+entirely transformed. I do not know that I ever saw so much done entirely
+at the initiative and by the energy and persistence of a single man.
+
+Of the shops there is not much to be said. They are not at all up to the
+average of most of the institutions of the town, with the one exception
+of those of the jewellers and silversmiths, the work in which is original
+and artistic, throwing altogether into the shade similar shops in
+Melbourne and Sydney. The cabs are all waggonettes, similar to those used
+in Melbourne, but drawn by two horses instead of one. Adelaide abhors
+hansoms. They exist, but are never used by respectable people, who have
+come to look upon them as unholy in themselves. The tramway system is the
+most complete in Australia. All the trams are drawn by horses; to such of
+the suburbs as are too thinly populated to have trams large waggonettes
+for the most part run in lieu of omnibuses. Adelaide is the only
+Australian town in which the American system of buying land, and making a
+railway to bring population to it, has been carried out. The idea was
+first tried with tramways, the writer having taken some part in
+originating and promoting it. Of the hotels of Adelaide, the best is the
+York. It is better than the best, in Sydney, but inferior to the best two
+in Melbourne.
+
+Owing to the excellent plan on which the city is laid out, it is
+surrounded on every side by suburbs at the short distance of half a mile,
+connected by horse-tramways. Beyond these, however, there is the
+flourishing watering-place of Glenelg at a distance of only seven miles
+by train; and now that the railway has been carried into the hills, it
+will not be long before large suburbs grow up in them. Wealth in South
+Australia is more equally divided than in the sister Colonies. Hence
+there are only a few large mansions, but comfortable six to ten-roomed
+cottages abound.
+
+HOUSES.
+
+The inevitable 'newness' of everything cannot but strike the eye
+disagreeably. This is especially noticeable in the buildings and houses,
+few of which date back more than ten years. In the growth of towns, as
+well as in the progress of individuals and institutions, there are three
+periods to be gone through. Here the first stage is that of the log-hut.
+This is succeeded by the weather-board cottage, which in turn gives place
+to brick and stucco. Finally comes the stone building with its two or
+three stories. The log-hut stage is of course far past. The weather-board
+cottage still lingers in the poorer outskirts of Melbourne, but is
+extinct in Adelaide, and fast becoming extinct in Melbourne. The choice
+now is between brick and stone. In Sydney the abundance of stone on the
+spot, gives it the preference; Adelaide, with less stone, builds chiefly
+in brick; Melbourne, which has to get its stone from a distance, uses
+hardly anything else but brick. This, of course, for private houses.
+There are plenty of admirable stone buildings in Melbourne, as I have
+already mentioned.
+
+Now that the brick and stone age is firmly established the style of your
+house becomes a mere matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. With wages
+at from nine to twelve shillings a day, and with money so much dearer
+than at home, the Australian has necessarily to pay a much higher rent
+for his house. Excluding, of course, ground-rents, which make London
+houses so expensive, I think one may fairly say that rents here are about
+double the rate they are at home, and yet, _except for the rise in the
+value of land_ in the cities and their suburbs, house-property is by no
+means a remunerative investment. Nevertheless, there is always a great
+demand for it. The colonist is very fond of living in his own house and
+on his own bit of ground, and building societies and the extensive
+mortgage system which prevails enable him easily to gratify this desire.
+I believe that at least ninety out of every hundred house-properties in
+Australia are mortgaged up to at least two-thirds of their value. Out in
+the suburbs ground-rents are still low--very low indeed in comparison
+with the selling value. The reason of this is, that it pays to buy a
+house with a large piece of land attached, and to cut the land up and
+sell it in building allotments a few years afterwards. If you can get a
+fair rent for the house, the land will pay its own way.
+
+Architecturally speaking, there is little to admire. If the public
+buildings fail in this respect, the private houses have at least the
+advantage over them, that for the most part they do not pretend to any
+architecture at all. Many of the architects are self-taught, and have
+served little or no apprenticeship to the profession. Indeed, it should
+rather be called a trade, since they often are merely successful
+builders, who have taken to planning and superintending the erection of
+buildings, instead of erecting them themselves. This is one reason why
+private houses incline rather to the practical than to the beautiful.
+Another cause is the practical spirit of the colonists, which looks upon
+expenditure for mere ornamental purposes as wasteful and extravagant.
+Unless a man is really rich, he cannot afford the imputation of
+extravagance which any architectural expenditure will bring upon him.
+With his business premises it is different. Everyone understands that a
+merchant spends money in ornamenting his business premises, just as a
+tradesman dresses his shop-window. But the tradesman does not dress the
+drawing-room window of his private house. Neither, therefore, the
+merchant. Besides this, it cannot be too thoroughly understood that
+Australia is before everything a money-making place, and that anything
+like unremunerative expenditure with no possible chance of profit is
+considered foolish in all but a man who has made his fortune. With money
+so dear, and the chances of turning it over rapidly so frequent and so
+remunerative, such expenditure becomes little less than a sin. Everything
+ornamental not only costs twice as dear in actual money, but the money
+itself is worth at least twice as much as in England.
+
+Really large houses of the size of the manor-houses and halls which are
+scattered over England in tens of thousands, can be counted in Australia
+in scores. Of these but few have any architectural pretensions. Houses of
+this class cannot be built under L10,000 here, whereas in England they
+would cost from L4,000 to L5,000 and can be bought still cheaper. If
+there is any style which colonists particularly affect, it is the
+castellar. Both in the large houses I have just been speaking of, and in
+the ordinary wealthy man's house which has cost him from L3,000 to
+L5,000, turrets and flagstaffs abound. The passion for flagstaffs must, I
+think, be derived from the fact that most of the people who build these
+houses have had a long sea-journey from England, and retain a little
+ozone in their composition. There is also something assertive about a
+flag. A man who has a flag floating on his house is almost sure to have
+some character about him. Not unfrequently, when the builder of a house
+intends to live in it himself, he wishes to imitate his old home in
+England, or if he has risen in the world, some particular house of the
+village or town he was brought up in, which he admired in his boyhood.
+The man who builds for himself at least takes care to build soundly, and
+to have his rooms large and lofty.
+
+By far the majority of houses are built by speculators; which means that
+they are very badly built, run up in a tremendous hurry, constructed of
+the cheapest and nastiest materials, with thin walls--in short, built for
+show, and not for use. Everything looks very nice in them when you walk
+round just after they are built, and it is only after you have lived in
+them eighteen months that you begin to understand why the owner was in
+such a hurry to sell, and would not hear of letting the house to you,
+even at a good rent. You know something of this in London, but not nearly
+to the same extent as here. In these speculative houses there is often
+some little attempt at ornamentation--a bow-window thrown out, or the
+veranda lifted to form a Gothic porch, or the drawing-room brought out
+beyond the rest of the house, so as to form what is known as a T cottage,
+though it should rather be a P, with a protrusion of the drawing-room
+representing the straight line, and the body of the house the loop of the
+P.
+
+But the favourite type of Australian house is laid, out in an oblong
+block bisected by a three to eight foot passage. The first door on one
+side as you go in is the drawing-room, on the other the dining-room. Then
+follow the bedrooms, etc., with the kitchen and scullery at the end of
+the passage, or sometimes in a lean-to at right angles to the hinder part
+of the house proper. This kind of cottage is almost universal in Adelaide
+amongst the middle and upper middle classes, and invariable in the
+working-class throughout Australia. In the other colonies the upper
+middle classes often live in two-storied houses; i.e., ground-floor and
+one floor above. Their construction is almost as simple as the cottage,
+the only difference being that the bedrooms are on the upper story, and
+that a pair of narrow stairs face the front-door and take up half the
+passage-way, directly you get past the drawing and dining-room doom
+doors. The cottage is not high enough to strike the eye, but the
+squareness, or more properly the cubeness, of these two-storied houses is
+appalling. They look for all the world like houses built of cards, except
+that the cards are uncommonly solid. For my own part, I should never care
+to live in a two-storied house again, after experiencing the comfort of
+never having to go upstairs, and having all the rooms on the same floor.
+At first one is prejudiced against it. I was so, until during my second
+year in Australia I had to live on the third floor in Sydney. It was only
+then that I realized the advantages of the simpler plan.
+
+The strong light and heat of the sun has the effect of a window-tax in
+limiting the size and number of the windows. A few French windows are to
+be found in Adelaide, but the old sashes are almost universal. Of, late a
+fashion has sprung up for bow-windows, which, however pretty, have here
+the great disadvantage of attracting the sun unpleasantly. Shutters are
+not much used. Venetian blinds are more common. On a hot summer day it is
+absolutely necessary to shut all windows and draw down the blinds if you
+wish to keep at all cool. About five o'clock, if there is no hot wind,
+the house may be opened out.
+
+Nearly every house that can afford the space has a veranda, which
+sometimes stretches the whole way round. The rooms are usually lofty for
+their size, in winter horribly cold and draughty, in summer unbearably
+stuffy in small houses, the science of ventilation being of recent
+introduction. Even in large establishments all the living-rooms are
+almost always on the ground-floor, both on account of the fatigue of
+going up and down stairs, and owing to the paucity of servants. As a
+rule, the kitchens are terribly small, and in summer filled with flies.
+How the poor servants manage to exist in them is more than I can
+understand. It is no wonder they ask such high wages. In a few larger
+houses a merciful fashion has been adopted of making the kitchen a mere
+cooking galley, the cook preparing the dishes and doing all that does not
+require the presence of fire in a large back-kitchen. Happily every house
+has a bath-room, though it is often only a mere shed of wood or
+galvanized iron put up in the back-yard. In many of the poorer households
+this shed does double duty as bath-house and wash-house, or the
+wash-house consists of a couple of boards, with a post to keep them up,
+and a piece of netting overhead to keep the sun off. In larger houses,
+both bath-rooms and wash-houses are much the same as in England. Nearly
+all families do their washing, and often their ironing also, at home. Of
+the sanitary arrangements, it is almost impossible to speak too strongly;
+they are almost invariably objectionable and disgusting.
+
+There are very few establishments large enough to indulge in the luxury
+of a servants'-hall, and sculleries and pantries are much smaller than in
+England. Even the ordinary entrance-hall of an English house has to
+shrink into a mere enlargement of the passage. All over the house, in
+fact, the accommodation is on a much more limited scale, unless it be
+with regard to stables, which, owing to the low price of horses, are more
+numerous, if less luxuriously appointed.
+
+If the upper and middle classes suffer from want of room in their houses,
+and are wont to huddle much more than people in the same position would
+at home, the working-man is not much better off, although his four or
+five-roomed cottage at twelve shillings to fifteen shillings a week is
+more easily within his means than the five shillings a week that he paid
+in England. I do not of course mean that the working-man here knows
+anything of model cottages, such as are seen on large estates in England.
+I should even say that during the first year or two after his arrival
+there is little improvement in his habitation; but before long he
+acquires a small freehold, and with the aid of a building society becomes
+his own landlord. Directly he has reached this stage, an improvement is
+visible in his condition. It is difficult to over-estimate the social
+value of the work that has been done by building societies. In the
+suburbs of the large towns you see whole townships built entirely by
+these societies; every inhabitant of these townships in the course of a
+few years becomes a proprietor, and the society further aids him by
+making loans to him on mortgage of his property. It is the defect of
+these townships that the houses are all as like one another as peas in a
+pod--four-roomed squares or six-roomed oblongs built of red brick, and
+with every detail exactly the same; but their plainness and similarity
+does not detract from their manifest virtues.
+
+Terraces and attached houses are universally disliked, and almost every
+class of suburban house is detached and stands in its own garden. These
+gardens are laid out much in the English fashion; but there is little
+need of greenhouses, and unless you have water laid on to your lawn, it
+is difficult to keep it green in summer. In Adelaide but few people try
+to keep lawns; the summer sun is too scorching, and towards February and
+March the gardens look dreadfully dried up. But on the other hand,
+flowers of all kinds grow in abundance, and to a size which they rarely
+attain in colder climates. The garden needs little attention beyond the
+summer watering and you can get flowers all the year round. Fruit-trees
+grow with wonderful rapidity and bear most abundantly.
+
+With the aid of the hills you get several climates within a small area,
+and in Adelaide especially the abundance of flowers and fruit is all that
+can be desired. There is naturally some tendency to coarseness,
+especially in the fruit. The price of labour makes it difficult to keep
+large gardens in good order. For this reason few people keep large
+gardens. Another thing that accounts for the smallness of the gardens
+attached to middle and working-class houses, which are often no more than
+patches, is the speculation in land. The smaller the portions into which
+the speculator cuts up his building sections, the more he gets for them.
+I myself on one occasion bought an eight-acre section of land in one
+block for L1,100, cut it up into blocks of an eighth of an acre each, and
+resold it within six weeks for a little over L2,000. This
+land-speculation is quite a feature of Australian life, and at certain
+periods it is difficult to lose money by it. Large gardens are generally
+long leaseholds or freeholds belonging to rich people, who will not sell
+during their lifetime. At their death their gardens are cut up into small
+blocks and yield large profits. Nor do I think that the love of gardening
+is at all common here; it is not a sufficiently exciting occupation.
+
+FURNITURE.
+
+I closed my last letter with an account of the way in which houses are
+built here. I am now going to try to describe their contents. And perhaps
+the best way to do this will be to describe a type of each class of
+house, omitting all exceptions, which are necessarily numerous where so
+large a field has to be covered.
+
+We will begin at the top of the tree. Whilst the ambition of the wealthy
+colonist not unfrequently finds vent in building a large house, he has
+generally been brought up in too rough a school to care to furnish it
+even decently. His notion of furniture begins and ends with upholstery,
+and I doubt whether he ever comes to look upon this as more than things
+to sit on, stand on, lie on, eat off and drink off The idea of deriving
+any pleasure from the beauty of his surroundings rarely enters into his
+head, and it is not uncommon to find a man who is making L5,000 a year
+amply satisfied with what an Englishman with one-tenth of his income
+would deem the barest necessaries. The Australian Croesus is generally
+very little of a snob, though often his 'lady' has a taste for display.
+When this desire for grandeur has led them to furnish expensively, they
+are unable to furnish prettily, and usually feel much less comfortable in
+their drawing-room, in which they never set foot except when there is
+company--than when their chairs and tables were made by a working
+carpenter or with their own hands out of a few deal boards.
+
+One or two millionaires have had upholsterers out from Gillow's and
+Jackson and Graham's to furnish their houses in the latest and most
+correct fashion, and many colonists who go on a trip to England bring
+back with them drawing and dining room suites; but even then there is an
+entire want of individuality about the Australian's house--which is the
+more remarkable seeing how much his individuality has been brought out by
+his career, and shows itself in his general actions and opinions. He may
+know how to dogmatize on theology and politics, but when he gets down to
+furniture he confesses that his eye is out of focus. The furniture
+imported or (in Melbourne) made by the large upholsterers is, with few
+exceptions, more gorgeous than pretty; whence one may reasonably infer
+that the taste of their customers--when they have any--is better suited
+by the grandiose than the artistic. But most of the expensively furnished
+houses show plainly that the upholsterer has been given _carte blanche_
+to do what he will. Look at his shop-window, and you may make a shrewd
+guess at his customer's drawing-room.
+
+Nor is the furniture universal in Australia, as one would naturally
+suppose, after the style of that in Italy and the South of France. The
+frowsy carpets and heavy solid chairs of England's cold and foggy climate
+reign supreme beneath the Austral sun. The Exhibitions have done
+something towards reforming our domestic interiors, but it will be a long
+time before the renaissance of art as applied to households, which
+appears to be taking place in England, makes its way here in any
+considerable force.
+
+But instead of generalizing, it is time we should go through Muttonwool's
+house room by room. On entering the drawing-room the first thing that
+strikes the eye is the carpet, with a stiff set pattern large enough to
+knock you down, and of a rich gaudy colour. You raise your eyes--find
+opposite them the regulation white marble mantelpiece, more or less
+carved, and a gilt mirror, which we will hope is not protected from the
+flies by green netting. Having made a grimace, you sit down upon one of
+the chairs. There are nine in the room besides the sofa--perhaps an
+ottoman--and you can take your choice between the 'gent's' armchair, the
+lady's low-chair, and the six high ones. If they are not in their
+night-shirts you can examine the covering--usually satin or perhaps
+cretonne. The pattern is unique, being, I should think, specially
+manufactured for the colonial market. Bright hues prevail. Occasional
+chairs have only lately been introduced, and the whole suite is in
+unison, though harmony with the carpet has been overlooked, or rather
+never thought of, the two things having been chosen separately, and
+without any idea that it would be an improvement if they were to match.
+
+As for the make of the chairs, they are to be found in plenty of English
+middle-class drawing-rooms even now. The shape may be named the
+'deformed.' The back is carved out into various contortions of a
+horse-shoe, with a bar across the middle which just catches you in the
+small of the back, and is a continual reproach if you venture to lean
+against it. The wood of which the chairs are made is mahogany, walnut, or
+cedar. The large round or oval table which stands in the middle of the
+room is of the same wood, and so are the card-table, the Davenport, the
+chiffonier, and that Jacob's-ladder-like what-not in the corner. In some
+houses the upholsterer has stuffed the room with useless tables. Of
+course there is a fender and fire-irons, and probably a black
+doleful-looking grate, which during two-thirds of the year is stuffed
+with paper shavings of all the colours of the rainbow and several others
+which good Mother Nature forgot to put into it. On the chimney-piece is a
+Louis XVI. clock and a pair of ornaments to match. A piano, tune
+immaterial, is a _sine qua non_ even in a middle-class house, but when
+Muttonwool has got all these things--in short, paid his upholsterer's
+bill--he thinks a ten-pound note should cover the rest of his
+drawing-room furniture. Household gods are terribly deficient, and it
+would not be difficult to fancy yourself in a lodging-house. There may be
+a few odds and ends picked up on the overland route, and a set of
+stereotyped ornaments bought at an auction sale or sent out as 'sundries'
+in a general cargo; but of _bric-a-brac_, in the usual acceptation of
+the term, there is little or none.
+
+As for the pictures, they are altogether abominable. Can you imagine a
+man with L5,000 a year (or L500, for that matter) covering his walls with
+chromos? The inferior kinds of these 'popularizers of art,' as the papers
+call them, have an immense sale here. Even when a wealthy man has been
+told that it is his duty to buy pictures, the chances are that he will
+attend an auction and pick up rubbish at low prices, rubbing his hands
+over what he considers a good bargain; or if he wants to tell his
+visitors how much he gave for his pictures he gets mediocre work with a
+name on it. A recent number of the _Adelaide Punch_ has a caricature
+entitled ''Igh Art in Adelaide,' which though of course a caricature, is
+worth quoting as showing how the wind blows: 'Tallowfat, pointing to a
+picture in a dealer's shop, _loq._: "What's the price of that there
+thing with the trees and the 'ut in the distance?" Dealer: "That, sir!
+that's a gem by Johnstone" (a local artist of some merit)--"twenty
+guineas, sir." Tallowfat: "Twenty tomfools!" "What d'ye take me for? Why,
+I bought a picture twice that size, with much more colour in it, and a
+frame half as thick again, and I only paid ten for it! Show us something
+with more style."' A few men have good pictures, but I hardly know anyone
+who has any good engravings. Muttonwool can see no difference between a
+proof before letters and the illustrations from the newspapers, which may
+be seen pasted on the walls of every small shop and working-man's
+cottage. That there is a taste for pictures here is undeniable. But that
+is common to every child till it knows how to read, and will want a deal
+of educating before it can be called 'art.'
+
+We will now go into the dining-room, which is probably the best furnished
+room in the house. It is not easy to make a dining-room look out of joint
+provided you are not particular about the cost, though there is a very
+wide margin between the decent and the handsome. The upholstery is much
+the same as in an ordinary upper middle-class house in England--sofa,
+sideboard, chiffonier, two easy and eight or ten upright chairs in cedar
+frames and covered with leather, marble mantelpiece and clock, Louis XVI.
+glass, and a carpet which is at any rate better than the drawing-room
+one. If there is a breakfast-room it is a smaller edition of the
+dining-room. The study is chiefly remarkable for the absence of books, or
+for an inappropriateness to the owner's tastes which smacks of a job-lot.
+The bedrooms are disappointing. Pictures and knick-knacks rarely extend
+beyond the 'company' precincts. Muttonwool would think it a waste of good
+bawbees to put pretty things in the bedrooms, where no one but the family
+will see them. In these rooms he is _au naturel_, and with all his
+good-nature and genuineness he is rather a rough fellow. The brute is
+expelled from the drawing-room, but he jumps in again at the bedroom
+window. As for the servants' rooms, anything is good enough for them.
+Probably the master himself was contented with still less in his younger
+days. The kitchen is ordinarily very poorly provided with utensils.
+Ranges and stoves are only found in the wealthier houses, the usual
+cooking apparatus being a colonial oven--a sort of box with fire above
+and below, which is very convenient for burning wood, the usual fuel
+throughout Australia.
+
+I think this is about as much as need be said about an average wealthy
+Australian's house; but before going on to describe middle-class homes, I
+must ask you to remember that all large colonial houses are not furnished
+on this wise. There are a large number of people in Australia, and
+especially in Victoria, who have as good an idea of how to furnish as
+other middle-class Englishmen--though perhaps that is not saying much.
+But in articles of this kind I am obliged to strike an average. The type
+of house I have described is the most common. You must leave a marain on
+either side of it according to the education and tastes of the owner. And
+here let me note that in Melbourne houses are certainly more expensively,
+and perhaps better furnished than in any of the other towns. The
+Victorians have a much greater love of show than any of their
+fellow-Australians. Where a Sydney man spends L400 on his furniture you
+may safely predict that a Melbourner will spend L600. Consequently the
+furniture establishments in the latter city are much superior to those in
+the former, and that although, owing to the enormous duty-25 per
+cent.--but little English furniture is imported into Victoria.
+
+Let us now hie us to humbler abodes, and visit an eight-roomed cottage,
+inhabited by a young solicitor whose income is from L500 to L1000 a year.
+Here the whole drawing-room suite is in cretonne or rep, and comprises
+the couch, six chairs, and lady's and gent's easy-chairs, which we saw
+before at Muttonwool's. The carpet is also ditto. The glass, ornaments,
+etc., are similar, but on a smaller scale; and if there are any pictures
+on the wall they are almost bound to be chromos, for whilst Croesus
+sometimes invests in expensive paintings, the middle-class, who cannot
+afford to give from L100 upwards for a picture, will make no effort to
+obtain something moderately good, such as can be easily obtained in
+England for a very small outlay. The gasalier is bronze instead of glass.
+The real living-room of the house is the dining-room, which is therefore
+the best furnished, and on a tapestry carpet are a leather couch, six
+balloon-back carved chairs, two easy-chairs, a chiffonier, a side-table,
+and a cheap chimney-glass. In the best bedroom the bedstead is a tubular
+half-tester, the toilet-ware gold and white, the carpet again tapestry.
+Throughout the house the furniture is made of cedar. The kitchen is
+summarily disposed of; Biddy has to content herself with d table,
+dresser, safe, pasteboard and rolling-pin, and a couple of chairs. Her
+bedroom furniture is even more scanty--a paillasse on trestles, a chair,
+a half-crown looking-glass, an old jug and a basin on a wooden table.
+Even in the houses of the wealthy poor Biddy is very badly treated in
+this respect. In Muttonwool's house, if he keeps two servants, they both
+sleep in one room, and not improbably share the same basin. Servants are
+undoubtedly troublesome to a degree in Australia, but it is not
+altogether a satisfactory feature in colonial life that the provision
+made for their comfort is literally nil.
+
+Having seen the L600 a year cottage it is almost needless to visit the
+L300 and L400, belonging to clerks and the smaller shopkeepers. The style
+is the same, but the quantity and quality inferior. For instance, the
+drawing-room carpet is tapestry instead of Brussels; the dining-room
+furniture is covered with horse-hair instead of leather, and so on. We
+will go into the next cottage--less pretentious-looking and a little
+smaller. The rent is twelve shillings a week, and it belongs to a
+carpenter in good employ. Here there is no drawing-room, but the parlour
+aspires to comfort quite undreamt of by an English tradesman. Our old
+friends the horse-hair cedar couch, the gent's and lady's chairs together
+with four balloon high chairs, turn up again. There is a four-foot
+chiffonier, a tapestry carpet, a gilt chimney-glass, a hearthrug, a
+bronze fender and fire-irons, and a round table with turned pillar and
+carved claws. In the parents' bedroom are a half-tester bedstead with
+coir-fibre or woollen flock mattress, two cane chairs, washstand,
+toilet-table, glass and ware, towel-horse, chest of drawers, and a couple
+of yards of bedside carpet. The two youngest children sleep in this room,
+and three or four others in the second bedroom, where the bedsteads are
+less showy and the ware very inferior. The carpet is replaced by china
+matting. The chest of drawers does duty as a toilet-table, and there are
+of course no such luxuries as towel-horses. Yet, take it all in all,
+Chips has much to be thankful for.
+
+With labour so dear as it is here, it is wonderful to think that a
+working-man can furnish, and furnish comfortably, a four-roomed cottage
+for L27; and yet this is what has recently been done in Melbourne by my
+friend Hornyhand, who is a common labourer, earning only eight to nine
+shillings a day, and paying about as much a week for rent. He is really
+uncommonly well off, everything in his house being brand-new; and yet, as
+he tells me, he is absolutely at the root of the honest social tree--the
+worst paid of the working-classes. I think it worth while to subjoin his
+bill. He certainly has not gone in for luxuries, but then he is of a
+frugal mind. If he wanted it, his house could be as well furnished as
+Chips'; but he doesn't see any object in wasting money on that kind of
+thing, and is content with little:
+
+Parlour.                                         L s. d.
+
+Cedar polished couch, covered with horse-hair    2 10 0
+Four cane-seat chairs, each 7s. 6d.              1 10 0
+Cedar polished table, 3 ft. 6 in., on claws      1 10 0
+Maple rocking-chair, with elbows                 0 17 6
+Carpet                                           1  5 0
+Hearthrug, 8s. 6d. fender, 9s. irons, 6s. 6d.    1  4 0
+
+Bedroom.
+
+French bedstead, 4 ft. 6 in. by 6 ft. 6 in.      1 15 0
+Pair paillasses                                    12 6
+Woollen flock mattrass                           1  0 0
+Woollen flock bolster and 2 pillows                 8 0
+Washstand, and rail attached                       10 6
+Toilet table, to match                             10 6
+Toilet glass, 14 in. by 10 in.                      8 6
+2 cane-scat chairs (Albert), 6s. each              12 0
+4 yards matting at 9d.                              3 0
+Toilet-ware, six pieces                            12 6
+
+Second Bedroom.
+
+2 French bedsteads, 3 ft. by 6 ft. 6 in. at 30s. 3  0 0
+4 paillasses, at 10s. per pair 1 0 0
+2 woollen flock mattrasses, at 16. 3d. each      1 12 6
+2 bolsters, flock, at 4s. 6d. each                  9 0
+2 pillows, flock, at 3s. each                       6 0
+Toilet chest of drawers
+(to serve for toilet table), cedar               2  5 0
+Toilet glass, 14 in. by 10 in.                      7 0
+Washstand, 2 ft. 6 in.                             12 0
+Wash, etc., 6 pieces                               12 6
+
+Kitchen.
+
+Deal table, turned legs, varnished                10 6
+2 wood chairs, each 4s. 6d.                        9 0
+Safe in Kauri pine                                10 6
+Pasteboard and rolling-pin                         4 0
+
+                                              L27  7 0
+
+Note.--That if he had not had two children to provide for in a second
+bedroom, nor indulged in the luxury of a chest of drawers, the whole of
+his furnishing would only have cost him L17 3s.
+
+Before closing this letter, a word as to what may be called the
+accessories of the household. But few families have any large quantity of
+plate, and electro has almost entirely superseded silver; metal is not
+common for dishes, and is quite unknown for plates. Nor is the crockery
+at all a strong point even in the wealthiest houses. In the shops it is
+almost impossible to get anything satisfactory in this line; and until
+the exhibitions, nine Australians out of ten had no idea what was meant
+by hand-painted china. The difference between china and earthenware is,
+it goes almost without saying, little if at all appreciated, much less
+that between hand-painted and stamped ware. The display of cut-glass at
+the exhibitions was almost as great a revelation to colonists as that of
+porcelain; hitherto all middle-class and most wealthy households have
+been contented with the commonest stuff. Table-cloths and napkins are
+also very second-rate, and sheets are almost invariably of calico.
+
+SERVANTS.
+
+That servants are the plague of life seems to be an accepted axiom
+amongst English ladies of the upper middle class. When I hear them
+discussing their grievances over their afternoon tea, I wish them no
+worse fate than to have the management of an Australian household for a
+week. It is not every Englishwoman whose peace of mind would survive the
+trial. Many a young English wife have I seen unhappy in her married life
+in the colonies, mainly on account of her domestics. And yet I doubt
+whether the colonial mistress makes as much fuss about her real wrongs as
+the English one about her imaginary grievances. Of course she can, if
+drawn out, tell you enough ridiculous stories about her servants to fill
+a number of _Punch_; but if they are only fools she is well content, and
+it is only when she is left servantless for two or three days that she
+waxes wroth.
+
+Where mistresses are many and servants are few, it goes almost without
+saying that large establishments are out of the question. Given equal
+incomes, and the English mistress has twice as many servants as the
+Australian, and what is more, twice as competent ones. Even our friend
+Muttonwool only has six coachman, boy, cook, housemaid, nurse, and
+parlourmaid. I don't suppose there are a hundred households in all
+Australia which keep a butler pure and simple, though there must be
+several thousand with what is generically known as a man-servant, who
+gets twenty-five shillings a week, all found. A coachman's wages are on
+the average about the same. The 'boy' gets ten shillings. Man-cooks are
+rare. A decent female cook, who ranks out here as first-class, earns from
+fifteen shillings to a pound a week. For this sum she is supposed to know
+something about cooking; yet I have known one in receipt of a weekly
+guinea look with astonishment at a hare which had been sent to her master
+as a present, and declare that it was 'impossible to make soup out of
+that thing.' After a little persuasion she was induced to try to make
+hare-soup after Mrs. Beeton's recipe, but the result was such as to try
+the politeness of her master's visitors. This lack of decent cooks is
+principally due to the lack of establishments large enough to keep
+kitchenmaids. Would-be cooks have no opportunity of acquiring their art
+by training from their superiors; they gain their knowledge by
+experiments on their employers' digestions; never staying long in one
+place, they learn to make some new dishes at each house they go to, and
+gradually rise in the wages-scale.
+
+Directly you come to incomes below a thousand a year, the number of
+servants is often reduced to a maid-of-all-work, more or less competent
+according to her wages, which run from seven to fifteen shillings a week.
+At the former price she knows absolutely nothing; at the latter something
+of everything. She cooks, washes, sweeps, dusts, makes the beds, clears
+the baths, and answers the, door. All is grist that comes to her mill;
+and if she is Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none, one must admit
+that an English-bred servant would not be one quarter so suitable to
+colonial requirements. Of course she is independent, often even cheeky,
+but a mistress learns to put up with occasional tantrums, provided the
+general behaviour and character are good. When we were first out here we
+used to run a-muck with our servants about once a week; but now we find
+it better to bear the ills we have than fly to others which we know not
+of. Our present Lizzie is impertinent to a degree when reproved; but then
+she can cook decently, and she is the first decent cook we have had since
+we have been out here. When you have lived on colonial fare for a few
+months, a good plain dinner covers a multitude of sins.
+
+Unfortunately, four-fifths of our servants are Irish--liars and dirty.
+These Irish are less impertinent than the colonials; but if you do get
+hold of a well trained colonial, she is worth her weight in gold on
+account of her heterogeneity. Your Irish immigrant at eight and ten
+shillings a week has as often as not never been inside any other
+household than her native hovel, and stares in astonishment to find that
+you don't keep a pig on your drawing-room sofa. On entering your house,
+she gapes in awe of what she considers the grandeur around her, and the
+whole of her first day's work consists of ejaculating 'Lor' and
+'Goodness!' We once had a hopeful of this kind who, after she had been
+given full instructions as to how a rice-pudding was to be made, sat down
+and wept bitterly for half an hour, till--her mistress having told her to
+'bake'--the happy thought struck her to put a dish full of rice in the
+oven, _sans_ milk _sans_ eggs, _sans_ everything. Another Biddy, engaged
+by a friend of ours, having to make a yeast-cake, put it under her
+bed-clothes 'just to plump it a bit.' A third, having been given a
+bill-of-fare for the day, put soup, meat, and pudding all into one pot,
+and served them up _au pot-pourri_.
+
+But if Biddy is trying to the patience, her stupidity is to a mistress
+accustomed to English ways almost more bearable than the
+'go-as-you-please'--if I may borrow a phrase from the new American
+athletic contests--of the colonial young lady, who comes to be engaged in
+the most elegant of dresses, bows as she enters the room, seats herself,
+and smilingly remarks, that she has heard that Mrs. So-and-So is wanting
+a 'girl.' After a little discussion about the work, privileges, etc., and
+upon the production of some written certificates--it is almost impossible
+to obtain personal references, and if it were possible you could not rely
+upon them--the engagement is made. The mistress requires a solemn promise
+that the servant will come on a certain day, and as often as not the day
+arrives without her. Our young lady has been round to a number of
+mistresses and 'priced' their places; she will not wilfully put you in a
+quandary, but if, after having engaged herself to you, she hears of
+another situation where there is less work or more wages, she takes it in
+preference, and leaves you to manage as best you can. Even when you have
+got her and found her suitable, you can never tell at what moment she
+will be pleased to be off 'Tuppence more and up goes the donkey!'--an
+inconvenience which is felt much more here, where there is probably only
+one servant in the house, than it would be in England.
+
+But if it were only higher wages which tempted servants away the remedy
+would be easy; a few pounds more a year would be cheerfully paid for the
+convenience of a continuity of one's household arrangements. In one year
+we have had ten servants. As there were no children, the place was an
+easy one; but that seemed to make little difference. At first we kept
+two, but they did nothing but quarrel; the cook left us on this account.
+We took our new cook simply because she happened to be a friend of the
+housemaid; but before long we found that it was out of the frying-pan
+into the fire: the first two had quarrelled 'because there wasn't
+sufficient work for two to do;' the second pair played together so much
+that they never did any work. We banished them both, and tried keeping
+only one servant, which many people had assured us would prove more
+comfortable. So far they were right. Hitherto my wife's time had chiefly
+been taken up with looking after the servants, to see that they did their
+work; now peace reigned in the house. We gave our maid-of-all-work
+fifteen shillings a week; we thought we had found a real treasure, and
+for a month everything went on wheels. But at the end of that time, just
+when she was getting accustomed to our ways and we to hers, Sarah gives a
+week's notice; she had no fault to find with her mistress, but the place
+was too dull. We offered two shillings a week extra but in vain. Our next
+stayed six weeks; her reason for leaving was that she did not approve of
+the back-yard. Number six stayed for three months; she was very nearly
+leaving at the end of the first fortnight, but we won her heart by giving
+her young man free access to the kitchen from 9 o'clock to 10.30 every
+evening. Even then, however, she found the place too dull. Number eight
+stayed two months; she left avowedly because she did not care to stop too
+long in one place. The ninth remained only a fortnight. She left because
+we objected to her staying out after eleven o'clock at night, although we
+gave her three nights out a week after half-past eight.
+
+When there are children in a middle-class family, a nurse-girl is
+generally, but by, no means always, kept. Hers is the lowest of all the
+branches of service, and is only taken by a young girl just going out
+into the world. Trained nurses, such as are common at home, are in great
+demand, and almost unobtainable. They can earn a pound a week easily, and
+at such wages a man whose income only runs into three figures is forced
+to put up with a nurse-girl. She undertakes no responsibility, her duties
+being confined to carrying the baby and screaming at the other children
+if they attempt to do themselves any bodily harm. If you wish to
+understand what the average nurse-girl is like, you have but to walk
+through any of the public gardens; you will see babies without number
+left in the blazing sun, some hanging half-way out of their
+perambulators, others sucking large, painted 'lollies' or green apples.
+The elder children, if they are unruly, are slapped and sent off to play
+by themselves, while the nurse-girls hold a confab on a neighbouring
+bench. Not that these girls are necessarily bad, but they lack the
+supervision and training of a head-nurse; they have been taught to look
+upon nursing as derogatory, and never stay long enough as nurses to get
+an experience in handling children. A few months of this, the lowest
+stage of servant-galdom, and then they pass up into the maid-of-all-work
+class. Thus it is that many mothers prefer undertaking the duties of
+nurse themselves, and devote themselves to their children often at the
+expense of their husbands, and certainly of all social relations.
+
+Colonial servants are much too fond of change for change's sake ever to
+stay long in one situation. A month's character is a sure guarantee for
+another place, and only a week's notice is required on either side before
+leaving. Hence servants are engaged and paid by the week; they do not
+expect any presents or perquisites, and it is not the custom to make them
+any allowance for beer. On the other hand, they will not stand being
+allowanced for tea, sugar, butter, or anything of the kind, and as a rule
+they fare in exactly the same style as their masters. Every other Sunday
+afternoon and evening, one evening every week, and occasional public
+holidays, are the customary outings, though we found it expedient to
+allow a good many more.
+
+The great redeeming-point about the servant-girl is the power she
+acquires, of getting through a large and multifarious quantity of work.
+She has frequently to do the whole house-work, cooking, washing, and
+ironing for a family of six or seven, and unless the mistress or her
+daughters are particularly helpful, it is out of all reason to expect
+that any of these things can be well done. Of course there are some good
+servants, but, unfortunately for their employers, the butchers and bakers
+generally have a keen eye for such, arguing with great justice that a
+good servant is likely to make a good wife.
+
+The greater part of the high wages which servants get is spent on dress.
+If ever they condescend to wear their mistress's left-off clothes, it is
+only for work in the house; but the trouble they take to copy the exact
+fashion and cut of their mistress's clothes is very amusing. One girl we
+had frankly asked my wife to allow her to take a dress she admired to her
+dressmaker, in order that she might have one made up like it. Whilst
+girls in the upper and middle classes are very handy with their fingers,
+and often make up their own hats and dresses, the servant-class despise
+to do this, and almost invariably employ milliners, who often cheat them
+dreadfully, knowing that they appreciate a hat or a dress much according
+to the price they have paid for it, and the amount of show it makes. In
+hats and bonnets this is specially noticeable; I have often seen our
+servants with hats or bonnets on, which cannot have cost them less than
+three or four pounds.
+
+The shortest and upon the whole the best way to get a servant is by going
+to one of the numerous registry offices. Some of these exist merely to
+palm off bad servants upon you; but there are always offices of good
+reputation, which will not recommend a girl they know absolutely nothing
+about.
+
+The needlewoman is little in vogue here; but as nearly everyone washes at
+home, washerwomen are plentiful; their wages run from four to five
+shillings a day, according to their capabilities, food being of course
+included.
+
+In spite of constant shipments from England, servants are always at a
+premium, and I need scarcely point out what an excellent opening these
+colonies afford for women-servants. Unfortunately, but a very small
+proportion of the daughters of the poorer colonial working-class will go
+into service. For some inexplicable reason, they turn up their noses at
+the high wages and comparatively light work offered, and prefer to
+undertake the veriest drudgery in factories for a miserable pittance. At
+a recent strike in a large shirt-making factory in Melbourne, it came out
+that a competent needlewoman could not make more than eighteen shillings
+a week even by working overtime, and that the general average earnings of
+a factory girl were only eleven to thirteen shillings a week. But so
+great is the love of independence in the colonial girl, that she prefers
+hard work and low wages in order to be able to enjoy freedom of an
+evening. It is in vain that the press points out that girls whose parents
+do not keep servants are accustomed to perform the same household duties
+in their own homes that are required of them in service; that work which
+is not degrading at home cannot be degrading in service; and that they
+will be the better wives for the knowledge of household work which they
+acquire in service. They might as well preach to the winds; and there are
+more applications for employment in shops and factories than there is
+work for, whilst mistresses go begging for lady-helps. There is a sad
+side to this picture as regards the social condition of the colonies, in
+addition to the inconvenience to people who keep servants. The girls who
+go into shops and factories, and have their evenings to themselves,
+necessarily undergo a great deal of temptation, and it is undeniable that
+they are not at all delivered from evil. The subject is out of keeping
+with these letters, but unless some means can be found to reconcile
+colonial girls to service, I fear an evil is growing up in our midst
+which is likely to be even more baneful in its effects upon the community
+than the corresponding tendency to 'larrikinism' amongst colonial youths.
+
+Since writing the above, an article on the subject has appeared in the
+Melbourne _Argus_ which is worth quoting in _extenso_:
+
+'We have undertaken to consider whether anything can be done to overcome
+the unwillingness which nearly all Australian girls exhibit to enter
+domestic service. There is an abundant supply of female labour in the
+colony, but unfortunately it is not distributed in the way that would be
+most advantageous to the community and beneficial to the women
+themselves. While household servants can scarcely be had for love or
+money, the clothing factories are crowded with seamstresses, who are
+content to work long hours at what are very much like starvation wages.
+How is this? We have shown that there is nothing in domestic work which
+any true woman need consider degrading; that the most refined and highly
+educated ladies have in all ages considered themselves properly employed
+when busy about household affairs; that servants have quite as many
+opportunities of forming matrimonial connections as factory girls, and
+that their training fits them to become much better, and therefore far
+happier wives. We have no doubt that all this, or at least the greater
+part, would be admitted by the seamstresses themselves: but nevertheless
+the fact remains that to domestic service they will not go. There is a
+feeling in existence amongst them that in some way or other household
+labour is menial occupation, and that to undertake it is to lose caste in
+the class to which they belong. We may call this fantastic idea "vanity"
+or "false pride," or what we will; but that does not do anything to
+banish it, or to render it less potent for mischief. Seeing that so much
+is at stake--that employers are clamouring for servants, and that women
+are sadly in want of some occupation which would lessen competition and
+raise wages in the sewing business--it is evident that society is deeply
+interested in getting rid of the ridiculous notion. As a first step
+towards that desirable consummation, let us endeavour to analyse the
+impression which exists in the minds of those who turn their backs upon
+household duties, and with their eyes open devote themselves to a
+laborious and underpaid occupation.
+
+'A correspondent ( _The Argus_, December 16) informs us that observation
+and the remarks he has heard made by factory girls have led him to think
+that there are three serious objections which the seamstresses have to
+domestic service. One of these is--"The idea of degradation, attached to
+the position of a 'slavey' in the minds of the lower classes themselves."
+As we have seen that there is nothing degrading in the work itself which
+servants are called upon to do, how comes it that its performance is
+considered less honourable than sewing or serving in a shop? The notion
+must take its rise in the conditions under which domestic service is
+rendered. The sewing girl or the shop-woman has certain business hours,
+outside of which she is as independent as her employer, and as little
+amenable to control. The household servant, on the other hand, is under
+discipline, and liable to be called on to do this, that, or the other
+during every hour of the twenty-four. From the time she gets up in the
+morning to the moment she goes to bed at night, she has no hour which of
+right she can reckon on as her own. If she wishes to go out she must ask
+permission; if she wants to receive a friend, she cannot rely on being
+left undisturbed. As a matter of fact, servants in this colony enjoy a
+very large measure of liberty, and those who are worth their salt very
+seldom have to complain of want of consideration or indulgence. If they
+do not meet with proper treatment, they can easily find situations where
+more regard is had to their feelings and comfort. But the thought that
+the leisure and freedom they enjoy is due in a great measure to favour,
+and not to right, is the fly in the ointment of the domestic's lot which
+renders it distasteful to many women, and which causes it to be looked
+down on by those who exist under far less favourable conditions. It seems
+to us that it is the want of some definite respite from liability to work
+which constitutes the "slavery" of which our correspondent speaks. If we
+are right in our supposition, then it is evident that employers have it
+in their power to take away the reproach from domestic servitude, by
+assimilating the conditions of household employment to those which attach
+to industrial occupations. Why should not servants have regular hours of
+work, outside which they would be absolutely free to go where, or to do
+as they please, without asking permission or fearing interruption? If
+such arrangements were to become customary, we can hardly doubt that the
+prejudice against domestic service would die out. The attractions of
+higher wages, equal freedom, better board, and more comfortable lodging
+would soon do their work.
+
+'It may be said that such a change as we propose would entirely alter the
+relations between mistresses and their "helps." No doubt it would. But we
+may ask why the relations between mistresses and servants should continue
+as they were in semi-feudal times, when the relations of other classes of
+society to each other have been resettled on an entirely different basis?
+Nearly all sorts of service now are matters of simple contract, and we
+know of no reason why domestic engagements should not be regulated in the
+same way. It would be better for employers to have a plentiful supply of
+efficient servants liable to work eight or ten hours per diem, than a
+scanty stock of discontented women whose services they can command day
+and night. With altered relations, we should soon have a change of
+demeanour on both sides. The correspondent we have quoted says that
+another of the things which prevents seamstresses from "going into
+service," is "the over-anxiety of mistresses that servants should know
+their position." In a democratic country like this, where young people
+are brought up with the idea that one man or woman is as good as another,
+we can easily understand that any assertion of superiority on the part of
+employers, or attempt to exact an outward show of deference, is very
+galling to undisciplined minds. Those who have been accustomed to be
+waited on from childhood upwards, are never very careful to insist on
+those forms and modes of address which at one time servants invariably
+adopted. As long as they are well served, they are content to sacrifice
+something to the modern spirit of equality. It is those who have risen in
+the social scale late in life who are always standing on their dignity
+and exacting homage. If the latter class would moderate its pretensions,
+a stumbling-block would be removed from the entrance to domestic service.
+We already have several agencies for training servants; could they not
+add to their duties the work of training mistresses in the ideas we have
+set forth, and in any others which are likely to diminish the distaste of
+Australian girls for household work? If they would take the matter in
+hand in a practical way, and familiarise the public mind with the notion
+of limited domestic labour, they would, we believe, do much to promote
+the comfort of home life in Victoria, and to improve the position of
+female labour.'
+
+FOOD.
+
+Generally speaking, food in Australia is cheaper and more plentiful than
+in England, but poorer in quality. Adulteration is, of course, as yet
+unknown, or but very little known, for the simple reason that it costs
+more to adulterate than to provide the genuine article. The working-man's
+food here is also immeasurably better and cheaper. Mutton he gets almost
+for the asking, and up-country almost without it. Bread is only 11/4d. to
+2d. a pound, and all the necessaries of life are good, healthy, and
+fairly cheap. But the richer man, who asks for more than soundness in the
+quality of his food, finds himself worse off than in London. Meat of the
+same quality as he gets at his club in Pall Mall is not to be got in
+Collins Street for love or money. The flour is the best in the world, and
+the bread wholesome and sweet; but the toothsomeness of German and French
+bakers is not to be had, and the finest qualities of flour are all
+shipped to England instead of being used here. The dearness of labour
+makes it impossible to give the same care to the cultivation of fruit and
+vegetables; and though these are cheap enough, the delicate flavour of
+Convent Garden is hardly compensated by their superior freshness. In
+short, our food is somewhat coarse, albeit wholesome enough.
+
+Up-country the meat is excellent; but in the towns it is not, as a rule,
+so good as in England, as the sheep and cattle have often to be driven
+long distances before they are slaughtered. Prices vary according to the
+different towns, seasons, and qualities from 6d. to 21/2d. a lb. for beef,
+and from 4d. to l1/2d. for mutton. Pork is from 9d. to 7d.; veal from 8d.
+to 4d. All kinds of fruit and vegetables, except Brussels sprouts, are
+cheap and plentiful. I will quote one or two prices at random from a
+market-book: artichokes, l1/2d. a lb.; tomatoes, 2d. a lb.; beetroot and
+cabbages, 1s. 6d. a dozen; potatoes, 6s. a cwt. During the season fruit
+is very cheap. Splendid Muscatel grapes can be bought in Adelaide from
+ld. to 2d. a lb.; peaches, 3d. a dozen; apricots, 2d. a dozen;
+raspberries, 5d. a lb.; cherries, 2d. a lb.; strawberries, 4d.; plums
+almost for nothing; but by far the best is the passion-fruit. Neither
+vegetables nor fruit, as sold in the markets and shops, are as good as
+those you buy in England. The inferior quality is due to the
+grow-as-you-please manner in which the fruit is cultivated, pruning and
+even the most ordinary care being neglected; but you can get as
+fine-flavoured fruit here as anywhere, and to taste grapes in perfection
+you must certainly go to Adelaide.
+
+Of course meat is the staple of Australian life. A working-man whose
+whole family did not eat meat three times a day would indeed be a
+phenomenon. High and low rich and poor, all eat meat to an incredible
+extent, even in the hottest weather. Not that they know how to prepare it
+in any delicate way, for to the working and middle, as well as to most of
+the wealthy classes, cooking is an unknown art. The meat is roast or
+boiled, hot or cold, sometimes fried or hashed. It is not helped in mere
+slices, but in good substantial hunks. In everything the colonist likes
+quantity. You can hardly realize the delight of 'tucking in' to a dish of
+fruit at a dinner-party. I once heard a colonist say, 'I don't like your
+nasty little English slices of meat: _we_ want something that we can put
+our teeth into.' Imagine the man's misery when dessert came on the table,
+and he was asked whether he would take a _slice_ of pear! Vegetables are
+for the most part despised, though the thoroughly old English dish of
+greens remains in favour, and potatoes are largely eaten.
+
+Tea may fairly claim to be the national beverage. A large majority of the
+population drink it with every meal, and you find cases of this even in
+the metropolitan middle classes. With them, however, it is more usual to
+drink beer with their mid-day meal, and to have meat-tea in the evening.
+This practice extends through the upper and middle classes, and into many
+wealthy houses. Next to tea may be ranked beer, English or colonial,
+which I have come to think is a necessity to the English-speaking races.
+But no colonist drinks much at meals. He prefers to quench his thirst at
+every opportunity that may occur between. In all country towns, if you go
+to see a man on business, out comes the whisky-bottle. If you meet an old
+friend, his first greeting is, 'Come and have a nobbler!' No bargain can
+be concluded without it. If it is a warm day, you must have a nobbler to
+quench your thirst; if it is freezing, to keep the cold out. There is no
+trade at which more fortunes have been made here than the publican's. The
+most exclusive and the most out-at-elbows find a common meeting-place in
+the public-house; although it is only fair to say that the custom of
+'shouting,' as it is called, is going--if it has not gone--out of fashion
+amongst the better classes in the capital cities. Beer, or more
+frequently spirits, form the favourite 'nobbler,' the price of which
+varies from fourpence to eightpence in Sydney and Adelaide according to
+the drink. In Melbourne all drinks are sixpence. There is a current
+story--which I know to be true--of two well-known colonials, who, on
+landing from the P. and 0. steamer at Southampton, immediately entered
+the first public-house, and asked for 'two nobblers of English ale.'
+Having drunk the ale, which was highly approved of, one of them put down
+a shilling, and was walking off, when the barmaid recalled him, and
+offered eightpence change. 'By G----!' was their simultaneous
+exclamation, 'this is a land to live in, where you can get two nobblers
+of English ale for fourpence! let us drink our shilling's-worth.'
+
+Like their American cousins, the Australians are of opinion that there is
+no liquid worthy to be mentioned by the side of 'champagne.' It requires
+some education to acquire a taste for claret. To the uninitiated sherry
+and port are chiefly palatable for their spirituousness; but everyone is
+born with a taste for champagne. It does not follow that everyone knows
+what constitutes good champagne. No merchant or lawyer, or anyone whose
+income is over L500 a year, dare give a party without champagne. It is
+champagne which gives _ton_. For this purpose it need not be very good.
+
+The _sine quibus non_ are a well-known brand and a 'gold-top.' Moet's or
+Roederer's _carte d'or_ is the party-goer's criterion of the success of
+the entertainment. As soon as he sees the label, he swallows the wine,
+good or bad--more probably bad, for most champagnes, like all other
+wines, are 'specially prepared for the Australian market,' and you know
+what that means. 'Body,' or what captious folk would call 'heaviness,' is
+the first condition of good wine to the colonial taste. The lower middle
+and lower classes also like it sweet; but of course a man who drinks any
+quantity of wine prefers it dry. Besides the champagne drunk for show,
+there is--in spite of a 20s. a dozen duty--a large quantity consumed in
+the way of nobblers, and at dinner by wealthy men. When a man has made a
+lucky speculation, or has just got a large order, he treats his friends
+to a bottle of champagne.
+
+I have not seen burgundy half a dozen times since I have been here. The
+old colonist finds claret thin and sour; but the younger generation are
+beginning to take to it, although there is no wine harder to obtain here
+than claret. Nine-tenths of what one buys is adulterated. His knowledge
+of _crus_ being naturally limited, the colonist likes to see on his wine
+a fine label, one which makes the quality of the wine easily
+comprehensible to him. Thus the most successful claret sold here is
+divided according to degrees of nastiness into five ranks, and you ask
+for So-and-So's No. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, irrespective of vintage or year. 'Bon
+ordinaire' is of course unobtainable, but you can get 'Chateau Margaux,'
+duty paid, at from 40s. to 50s. a dozen. I was once asked to buy some
+wine bearing that label for 2s. 6d. a bottle. The names of one or two
+well-known wines having reached your host's ears, he likes to show you by
+the name on the label that he is giving them to you; and, unfortunately,
+Margaux and Lafitte _labels_ cost no more than any other.
+
+A good deal of sherry and port--even more brandied than for the English
+market--is drunk. A wealthy man will never give you colonial wine, not
+because it is necessarily worse than the imported stuff on his table, but
+because it is colonial. Amongst the middle classes it is beginning to
+find favour. A great deal of extravagant praise has been lavished in the
+press on these wines since the Bordeaux Exhibition, and I fear that many
+who taste them for the first time will be disappointed. They are too
+heady, and for the most part wanting in bouquet, whilst their distinctive
+character repels the palate, which is accustomed to European growths. But
+for all that, I cannot understand how men with only moderate means living
+out here can pay large prices for very inferior imported wines, when a
+good sound, palatable wine is obtainable at from 15s. to 25s. a dozen. At
+the latter price a Sauvignon approaching to claret, grown close to
+Melbourne, is obtainable, which is really excellent; and the white
+hermitage from the same district, as well as from the Hunter River
+district in New South Wales, at 15s. a dozen, is also as good as one can
+wish, short of a _grand vin_, although in none of these wines do you
+entirely lose the _gout du terroir_, a peculiar earthy taste resulting
+from the strength of the soil. The cheapest wholesome wine I have ever
+drunk off the Continent is a thin _vin ordinaire_, smelling like
+_piquette_, which is sold at a certain rather low-looking shop in
+Melbourne. It is quite palatable, and when heavily watered I can vouch
+for its wholesomeness.
+
+The lightest of these wines contain about 18 degrees of spirit, whereas,
+as you know, an 'ordinaire' has only about 8, and a burgundy not more
+than 11 or 12. But the native wines which are generally preferred by the
+colonists themselves are the South Australian. In spite of a duty of 10s.
+a dozen, large quantities of Adelaide wine are drunk in Melbourne. Its
+chief characteristics are sweetness and heaviness. It may seem to you
+incredible, but I have drunk a wine made from the Verdeilho grape, and,
+grown near Adelaide by a Mr. C. Bonney, which contained no less than 36
+degrees of natural spirit, without a drop added: 32 and 33 degrees are
+quite common, and the average percentage in South Australian wine is
+about 28.
+
+In most cases the wines are named after the grape from which they are
+made, though sometimes the less sensible course of calling the wine
+'claret,' 'sherry,' or 'port,' is adopted. I say less sensible, because
+all colonial wines have a peculiar flavour, which makes it difficult to
+mistake them for the wines they profess to imitate. The
+Carbinet-Sauvignon grape, which I believe is the principal one used in
+the Bordeaux district, produces here a wine something like what you get
+on the Rhone. The Riesling, a Rhineland grape, resembles a brandied hock;
+it makes one of the best wines, and is often very palatable. The red and
+white Hermitage grapes do best of all. The Muscatel makes a delicious
+sweet wine in Adelaide, but it is very heady. I have no doubt that in the
+course of time, and when more scientific methods are pursued, South
+Australia will produce excellent ports and sherries, as well as
+Constantias, Malagas, and madeira, but I fear it will not be within the
+present generation. Claret, I understand from experts, will never be
+produced, but hermitages and wines of that type will be made in the
+course of ten or twenty years which will be able to compete in the
+European markets; long before this they should become useful for blending
+with French and Spanish wines. As a rule the wine is already sound and
+wholesome; and if one comes to think of it, taste is a purely arbitrary
+matter. One forms one's taste according to a certain standard to which
+one is accustomed. To a man accustomed to colonial wines, clarets and
+hocks seem thin and sour. One great difficulty which militates against
+the reputation of Australian wine, is that of the untrustworthiness of
+all but a few brands. Of course all vintages from the same grapes differ,
+but there is a margin of difference beyond which a wine may not go, and
+with many an Australian _vigneron_ this margin is frequently passed,
+owing to carelessness or inexperience in manufacture. Another drawback is
+the difficulty of procuring all but the most immature wine. Nearly the
+whole of each vintage is drunk within twelve months after it is made.
+That Australian wines will ever compete with the famous French _crus_ I
+should very much doubt, but that they will in the course of the next
+twenty years gradually supersede with advantage a great deal of the
+manufactured stuff now drunk in England is more than probable. At present
+the prices are too high for Australian wines to find any large market at
+home. Although it is of course an exceptional case, there is an Adelaide
+madeira which fetches as much as 63s. per dozen within two miles of the
+vineyard. Nothing now obtainable in Australia under 15s. a dozen would be
+worth sending home, and by the time freight and duty is added to that,
+the London price would be considerable.
+
+I have already made allusion to that peculiar phase of Australian
+life--nobblerising; but, if I am not mistaken, the impression left on
+your mind will be that the nobbler is either of aristocratic champagne or
+plebeian beer. But there are two other liquids--whisky and brandy--which
+play an important part in nobblerising. The quantity of spirits drunk in
+Australia is appalling. Whisky is the favourite spirit, then brandy, and
+rarely Schiedam, schnapps, or gin. And what about drunkenness?
+Statistically it is not very much worse than in England, but the
+difference lies in the class who get drunk. Here it is not merely the
+lower classes, but everybody that drinks. Not a few of the wealthiest and
+most leading citizens are well-known to be frequently drunk, though their
+names do not, of course, appear in the papers or in the police reports.
+The state of public feeling on the subject, though improving, is much as
+it was in England twenty or thirty years ago. Society says, 'Capital
+fellow, Jones; pity he drinks!' but no social reprobation attaches to
+Jones. He may be known to be carried to bed every night, for all it
+affects his reputation as a respectable and respected citizen. But with
+the advance of civilization better times are coming in these matters. It
+is no more so absolute a necessity to take a nobbler as it was ten years
+ago. Drunkenness, if not reprobated, is no longer considered a
+'gentlemanly vice.' A man who drinks is pitied. This is the first step.
+Before long blame will tread in the steps of pity.
+
+But enough of drinking. It is not a pleasant subject. Besides, I have not
+yet described the food of any but the working-class. And if they live ten
+times better than their fellows at home, it is equally true that the
+middle, and especially the upper, class live ten times worse. It requires
+the tongue and the pen of a Brillat-Savarin to give flavour to a
+Barmecide's feast; but as victualling is as necessary a condition of
+existence here as anywhere else, I must do my best to enlighten you as to
+our situation in this respect. May you never have practical experience
+thereof! If it be true that, while the French eat, the English only feed,
+we may fairly add that the Australians 'grub'. Nor could it well be
+otherwise under the circumstances. It is not merely because it is
+difficult to entice a good cook to come out here. If he really wants a
+thing, the wealthy colonist will not spare money to get it; but how can
+you expect a man who--for the greater part of his life--has been eating
+mutton and damper, and drinking parboiled tea three times a day, to
+understand the art of good living? Even if he does, he finds it
+unappreciated by those around him; and there are few men fond enough of
+the luxuries of life to be singular in their enjoyment. It takes a lot of
+trouble to get and keep a good cook, and there is nothing the Australian
+abhors like trouble. Consequently--I am now speaking only of the
+wealthy--he adopts one of two courses.
+
+Either he gives occasional grand dinners, in which case he imagines he
+has got a good cook because he is paying L60 or L70 a year for him--no
+very large salary even in England for a _chef_; or he is contented to
+live anyhow. In the latter case he dines at his club (where, by the way,
+he gets a very fair meal) in the middle of the day, and has meat-tea in
+the evening. In both cases the family dinner is much the same. No. 1
+cannot see the use of having what he would call a 'spread' for his own
+selfish benefit, and leaves his grand cook unemployed the greater part of
+the week. The dinner consists of beef or mutton, roast or boiled,
+potatoes and greens, bread-and-butter pudding, and cheese. The details
+change, but the type is always the same--what his wife calls 'a good
+plain English dinner, none of your unwholesome French kickshaws,' which
+are reserved for company. Fortunately his cook, if not very expert in the
+'foreign' dishes required to be concocted for company, has generally
+pretty correct notions within the limits of the family dinner.
+
+But it is not so with No. 2, and with the large middle class who all live
+in the same way. The usual female cook at 12s. a week is not even capable
+of sending up a plain meal properly. Her meat is tough, and her potatoes
+are watery. Her pudding-range extends from rice to sago, and from sago to
+rice, and in many middle-class households pudding is reserved for Sundays
+and visitors. A favourite summer dish is stewed fruit, and, as it is not
+easy to make it badly, there is a great deal to commend in it. At the
+worst, it is infinitely preferable to fruit tart with an indigestible
+crust.
+
+Ye gentlemen of England, who sit at home at ease, how astonished you
+would be to see your daughter Maud, whose husband is a well-to-do lawyer
+in considerable practice, setting the table herself because she cannot
+rely upon her servant doing it properly! And then she goes into the
+kitchen, and teaches cook how to make pie-crust. If children are
+numerous, or her husband is not getting on quite so well as could be
+wished, she will not be able to have a servant to wait at table. What
+wonder, then, if she gives up late dinner and has a meat-tea, at which
+everything can be put on the table at once. A colonial-bred lady has
+generally learnt something of good plain cooking, but the English
+mistress often breaks down before the serious and multifarious nature of
+her duties. It is by no means uncommon for her to be suddenly left
+servantless for two or three days; and if she does not possess great
+adaptability of disposition, the whole house is bound to be at
+sixes-and-sevens, and all its occupants, including herself, in anything
+but a pleasant state of mind. If a woman is worth her salt, she will not
+mind these things, or rather she will make the best of them; but it is
+not every English young lady whose love for her husband, present or
+future, will carry her through these domestic hurricanes; and, if not,
+she had better not come out here, although husbands are plentiful. Except
+amongst a very small class who can afford luxuries, the
+girl-of-the-period is out of place in Australia.
+
+DRESS.
+
+I doubt whether in my preceding letters I have made the distinction
+between Melbourne and its sister capitals sufficiently plain. I shall
+perhaps best convey it by saying that Melbourne is quasi-metropolitan,
+while both Sydney and Adelaide are alike provincial in their mode of
+life. In the matters of which I have been writing, the difference has
+hardly been sufficient to warrant a separate treatment; but with regard
+to dress, it becomes so noticeable, that not to treat of Melbourne
+separately would convey a false idea. For in dress it is not too much to
+say that the ladies of Melbourne are luxurious-a charge which could
+scarcely be brought against Australians in any other particular that I
+can think of. And take them all-in-all, they do not dress badly; indeed,
+if one considers the distance from Paris, and the total want of a
+competent leader of fashion, they may be said to dress well, especially
+of late years. The highly fantastic and gorgeous costumes for which
+Melbourne used to be notorious are fast disappearing. Successful diggers
+no longer take their wives into a shop, and ask how much colour and stuff
+can be put into a dress for fifty pounds. Already outrageousness is
+confined to a few, and when I say that it is generally agreed to be 'bad
+form,' you will understand that its death-blow has been struck and the
+hearse ordered. Bright colours are still in vogue, but they are not
+necessarily loud or unpleasant beneath the austral sun, and the act of
+combining them is beginning to be understood. When one remembers how
+their houses are furnished, and what their general style of living is it
+is astonishing to find Melbourne ladies dressing so brilliantly and yet
+with so little vulgarity.
+
+But it is not among the _grand monde_--if the term be not ridiculous as
+applied to Victoria--that you must go to discover taste. I am not sure
+that, class for class, the rich do not show the least taste in their
+apparel. Many of them send to Paris for their dresses, and pay sums,
+which make one's mouth water, to be dressed in the latest fashion; but I
+fancy that the French _modistes_ manufacture a certain style of attire
+for the Australian taste, just as the French merchants manufacture
+clarets for the Australian market. It is a compound of the _cocotte_
+and the American. Nor when she has got a handsome dress does the
+Melbourne _grande dame_ know how to wear it; she merely succeeds in
+looking what a Brighton lodging-house keeper once defined to me as a
+'carriage-lady.' A lady of the English upper middle-class dressed by a
+London milliner looks infinitely better.
+
+There are some costumes worn by Victorian ladies which you will never see
+worn by any other ladies; but for all that, the middle and even the lower
+class am by no means destitute of ideas about dress. Compare the
+Melbourne with the Birmingham or Manchester factory girl, or the young
+lady in a Collins Street retail establishment with the shop-girl in any
+but the most aristocratic part of London; the old country will come out
+second-best. And why is it? It is no easy question to answer; at the
+bottom is undoubtedly that general love of display, which is almost as
+characteristic of Melbourne as it is of Paris. But then what is the cause
+of that? And a love of display, though it may be and is amongst the
+wealthy productive of grand dresses, as it is of grand dinners and grand
+furniture, does not make taste--e.g., the Second Empire; and though it
+would be going too far to say that the ladies of Melbourne dress
+tastefully, it is within the truth to give them credit for a tendency
+towards taste. Throughout England the middle and lower classes dress
+hideously. Why should the first generation of Victorians show a
+disposition to abandon the ugly? I leave it to some aesthetic philosopher
+to find out the reason, and content myself with noting the fact. If I
+wanted to moralize, I have little doubt that the drapers' and milliners'
+accounts of these 'young ladies' would furnish a redundant text, and
+that, although a large number of them make up their dresses themselves
+from paper patterns or illustrations in _Myra's Journal_. How they can
+afford to dress as well as they do, they and their mothers best know; but
+the bow here and the flower there are not costly things, and the mere
+fact of being able to cut out a dress so as not to look dowdy shows
+natural taste. It is the rarest of sights to see a real Melbourne girl
+look dowdy. Her taste sometimes runs riot: it is exuberant, and becomes
+vulgar and flash; but even then the vulgarity and flashness are of a
+superior type to those of her equals across the ocean.
+
+Sydney and Adelaide are distinctly superior to English towns of the same
+size in the matter of apparel; but they will not bear comparison with
+Melbourne. On the other hand, gorgeous and flash dresses are very rare in
+the smaller cities. If they have not the talent of Melbourne, neither do
+they share its blots. They go along at a steady jog-trot, and are content
+to take their fashions second-hand from Melbourne, but with
+modifications. Their more correct and sober taste will not tolerate even
+many of the extravagances of which London is guilty--such extravagances,
+for instance, as the Tam O'Shanter cap, which was warmly taken up in
+Melbourne. But with all this good sense, they remain dowdy.
+
+I have said nothing hitherto of married ladies' dress. When a colonial
+girl marries, she considers herself, except in rare instances, on the
+shelf, and troubles herself very little about what she wears. As a rule,
+she has probably too many other things to take up her time. She has got a
+husband, and what more can she want? He rarely cares what she has on, as
+soon as the honeymoon is over. There is no one else to please, and I fear
+that colonial girls are not of those who dress merely for themselves;
+they like to be admired, and they appreciate the value of dress from a
+flirtation point of view. Their taste is rather the outcome of a desire
+to please others than of a sense of aesthetics. It is relative, and not
+absolute. When once the finery has served its purpose, they are ready to
+renounce all the pomps and vanities of this wicked world. And if the
+moralist says that this argues some laxness of ideas before marriage, let
+him remember that it is equally indicative of connubial bliss. Once
+married, her flirtations are at an end--'played out,' if I may use the
+term.
+
+In another respect the Victorian is the direct opposite of the
+_Parisienne_. If you leave general effects, and come to pull her dress
+to pieces, you find that the metal is only electro, to whatever rank of
+life she may belong. The general appearance may be pleasing, but in
+detail she is execrable. Not but that the materials of her dress are rich
+enough, so that my electro simile will hardly hold water; but money does
+not make the artist. Let us begin with the bonnet. Walk down Collins
+Street at the time of the block on Saturday, and I doubt whether you can
+count half a dozen bonnets which are both pretty and suitable to the face
+and head of the wearer. _Bien chaussee et bien gantee_ might be Greek
+as far as Australia is concerned, and if by chance you see a stocking or
+any portion of the under-clothing, you will have your eyes opened.
+Whatever does not meet the eye is generally of the commonest. It would be
+thought a sinful waste of money to have anything particularly good or
+expensive which other people could not see. The light of Melbourne is
+never likely to hide itself under a bushel; external adornment is the
+_mot d'ordre_. Ribbons and laces, or anything that helps to improve the
+look of a dress, the colonial lady will indulge in freely and even
+extravagantly; but you must not penetrate her tinsel armour.
+
+Owing to the climate, hats are much more frequently in use than bonnets,
+and if the merit of subdued tints is unappreciated, it is not often that
+the eye is shocked by the glaring discords to which Englishwomen are so
+prone. Fringes are much worn, and the hair is often parted on the side.
+In spite of the heat, _gants de suede_ find very little favour; they
+look dirty, and with a 25 per cent. duty cannot be renewed every day. The
+usual English fashions find their way to Melbourne in about eight months,
+and this is the more convenient, because your summer is our winter, and
+_vice versa_. Spring and autumn we agree to forget; this is rather a
+pity, because practically nine-twelfths of our year are spring and
+autumn, and on a bright July or August day the dress which is appropriate
+to a London fog in December looks singularly out of place. Sealskins and
+furs are worn till you almost imagine it must be cold, which during
+daylight it hardly ever is in this country. In summer, suitable
+concessions become obligatory, and dresses are made of the thinnest and
+lightest materials. Pompadour prints and white calicoes reign supreme,
+and look better than anything else. It is then that the poorer classes
+are able to dress best, the material being cheap. Winter stuffs are
+expensive, and to a great degree their effectiveness is in direct ratio
+to their cost; but during quite half of the Australian year the poor meet
+the rich, if not on an equality, at any rate on much fairer terms than at
+home with regard to dress.
+
+Servants, of course, ape their mistresses' dresses as in England, and
+generally manage to produce a delightful sense of incongruity in their
+attire; but for all that, they are much less dowdy than English servants.
+
+So much for ladies' dress. Change the sexes, and the picture is by no
+means so pleasing; for thorough untidiness of person, there can surely be
+no one to beat the Australian. Above all must one beware of judging a
+man's position by his coat. It is impossible to tell whether the dirty
+old man who slouches along the street is a millionaire or a beggar. The
+older his coat, and the dirtier his shirt, the more the probabilities are
+in favour of the millionaire. Perhaps he thinks he can afford to dress as
+he pleases. The city men are more careful of their personal appearance,
+and have kept up the shadow and image of London. They wear shiny
+frock-coats and the worst-brushed and most odd-shaped of top-hats, and
+imagine they are well-dressed; at least I suppose they do, for they seem
+to have a sort of contempt for the spruce tweed suits and round hats of
+'new chums,' and such of the rising generation as have followed their
+example and adopted that fashion. Can you imagine yourself wearing a
+black coat and high hat with the thermometer jogging about from 70º to
+110º in the shade? If the coat were decently cut, and of good cloth and
+well-brushed, and the silk hat well-shapen and neat, I might put you down
+a fool, but would admit your claims to be a dandy. But as it is, most of
+our city men are both uncomfortable and untidy. Their clothes look as if
+they had been bought ready-made at a slop-shop. The tie they prefer is a
+black bootlace; if not, it is bound to be of the most tasteless colour
+and pattern you can think of. A heavy gold watch-chain and diamond ring
+is _de rigueur_, but otherwise they do not wear much jewellery. Their
+hair, like their clothes, generally wants brushing, and hands and nails
+are not always so clean as they might be; but one knows that for the most
+part they tub every morning: this is a consolation.
+
+The bushman, at least, dresses sensibly. Wen he comes into town, he puts
+on a slop-coat, but retains, if not a cabbage-tree, at any rate a
+wide-brimmed, soft felt hat. Sacrificing comfort to ceremony, he
+generally puts on a collar, but he often kicks at a tie: he finds he must
+draw a line somewhere. But there is something so redolent of the bush
+about him, that one would not have him otherwise; the slop clothes even
+become picturesque from the cavalier fashion in which he wears them. Note
+that his pipe never leaves his mouth, while the city man does not venture
+to smoke in any of the main streets. He is a regular Jack ashore, this
+bushman. A bull would not be more out of place in a china-shop, though
+probably less amusing and more destructive. The poor fellow meets so many
+friends in town, that by the end of the day he has probably had more
+nobblers than are altogether good for him. It is a very hard life that he
+leads, and he takes his pleasure, like his work, hardly.
+
+If the Adelaidians are perhaps the least got-up, they are certainly the
+most suitably dressed of the inhabitants of Australian towns. With them
+the top hat is comparatively of recent introduction. Silk coats and
+helmets are numerous still, though becoming more rare every day.
+Melbourne and Sydney think it _infra dig._ to allow themselves these
+little comforts, and Adelaide is gradually becoming corrupted. It must,
+however, be added that the Adelaide folk are the most untidy, as the
+Melbourne are the least untidy of Australians. Comfort and elegance do
+not always go hand in hand. Tweeds are beginning to come into use amongst
+the upper middle, as they long have in the lower middle and lower
+classes. Capital stuffs are made at Sydney, Melbourne, Ballarat, and
+Geelong; but the patterns are very common. In a dusty place like this it
+is impossible to keep black clothes clean, and tweeds give far the best
+wear and appearance of any stuff. For my own part, I wear them winter and
+summer.
+
+The working-classes can, of course, afford to be, and are, better dressed
+than at home; for though clothes are in reality much dearer, they are
+much cheaper in proportion to wages. They do not often wear black coats
+in the week, but keep them for Sundays and grand occasions. Directly an
+immigrant has landed, he feels that his first earnings must be devoted to
+a Sunday go-to-meeting suit. His fellow-men all have one, and he does not
+like to feel himself their inferior, even with regard to a coat.
+
+YOUNG AUSTRALIA.
+
+Hitherto I have been writing of the properties and adjuncts of Australian
+life. It is high time to say something of the colonists themselves. And,
+here I shall describe the types which the colony has produced and is
+producing, rather than such modifications as colonists born and bred in
+England have undergone during their subsequent residence in
+Australia--colonials as distinct from colonists.
+
+Perhaps of their first stage of existence the less said the better. I
+have a holy horror of babies, to whatever nationality they may belong;
+but for general objectionableness I believe there are none to compare
+with the Australian baby. It is not only that the summer heat and sudden
+changes of climate make him worse-behaved than his _confreres_ over
+the ocean, but the little brute is omnipresent, and I might almost add
+omnipotent. Nurses are more expensive and mothers less fastidious than in
+England. Consequently, baby lives in the family circle almost from the
+time of its birth. Nurseries are few and far between. He is lashed into a
+chair by his mother's side at meals; he accompanies her when she is
+attending to her household duties, and often even when she is receiving
+her visitors. But if this were all I would say nothing. French children
+are brought up in a similar way; and in their case it certainly has its
+advantages as far as the child is concerned, whatever may be the
+inconvenience to the adults amongst whom it is brought. It is easy to
+avoid families whose children make themselves nuisances to visitors. But
+the middle and lower classes of Australians are not content with the
+baby's supremacy in the household. Wherever his mother goes, baby is also
+taken. He fills railway carriages and omnibuses, obstructs the pavement
+in perambulators, and is suckled _coram populo_ in the Exhibition.
+There is no getting away from him, unless you shut yourself up
+altogether. He squalls at concerts; you have to hold him while his mother
+gets out of the omnibus, and to kiss him if you are visiting her house.
+
+It is little better when he gets old enough to walk and talk. Having once
+made the household bow down before him, he is slow to relinquish the
+reins of office. Possession is nine points of the law. It requires a
+stern parent to make good the tenth. If the child no longer cries or has
+to be kissed, he makes up for it in other ways. He has breathed the free
+air of Australian independence too early to have much regard for the
+fifth commandment. To make himself a nuisance till he gets what he wants
+is the art he first learns and to this end he considers all means
+legitimate. Strict and _a fortiori_ severe measures towards children
+are at a discount in Australia, and, considering the surrounding
+circumstances, by no other means can they be rendered tractable. The
+child has no restrictions put on his superabundant animal spirits, and he
+runs wild in the most extraordinary, and often to elders, unpleasant
+freaks. Certes the second stage is but little less unpleasant than the
+first,
+
+When it gets into petticoats or breeches, the child must be treated of
+according to sex. And here _place aux demoiselles_, for from this time
+upwards they are a decided improvement upon their brothers. The
+Australian schoolgirl, with all her free-and-easy manner, and what the
+Misses Prunes and Prisms would call want of maidenly reserve, could teach
+your bread-and-butter miss a good many things which would be to her
+advantage. It is true that neither schoolmistresses nor governesses could
+often pass a Cambridge examination, nor have they any very great desire
+for intellectual improvement. But the colonial girl is sharper at picking
+up what her mistress does know than the English one, and she has more of
+the boy's emulation. Whatever her station in life, she is bound to strum
+the piano; but in no country is a good pianoforte player more rare, or do
+you hear greater trash strummed in a drawing-room. Languages and the
+other accomplishments are either neglected or slurred over; but, on the
+other hand, nearly every colonial girl learns something of household
+work, and can cook some sort of a dinner, yea, and often cut out and make
+herself a dress. She is handy with her fingers, frank, but by no means
+necessarily fast in manner, good-natured and fond of every species of
+fun. If her accomplishments are not many, she sets little value on those
+she possesses, and never feels the want of, or wastes a regret, on any
+others.
+
+Almost all girls go to school, but the home-training leads to little
+obedience or respect for their teachers, and the parental authority is
+constantly interposed to prevent well-deserved punishments. Accustomed to
+form judgments early and fearlessly, each girl measures her mistress by
+her own standard; and if she comes up to that standard, an _entente
+cordiale_ is established, the basis whereof is the equality which each
+feels to subsist independent of their temporary relations.
+
+At seventeen my lady comes out, though for the last two, if not three or
+four, years she has been attending grown-up dances at the houses of
+friends, so that the edge of her pleasure has long been dulled. School
+once left behind, she looks upon marriage as the end and object of life;
+but it must not be supposed from this that she makes any attempt to catch
+a husband. Young men are plentiful enough, and she does not care when her
+turn comes. That it is bound to come she takes for granted, and
+accordingly is always on the look-out for it. The camaraderie which
+exists between her and some half-a-dozen men may lead to something with
+one of them; and meanwhile she has time to ascertain their dispositions
+and turn their qualities over and over in her mind till some one's
+attentions become marked, and she makes up her mind that she is suited or
+the reverse. She has danced too much before she came out to care much for
+it now; but in a warm climate, where verandas and gardens lend themselves
+so readily to flirtation, she retains a due appreciation of balls and
+parties, and gets a far larger number of them than an English girl of the
+middle class.
+
+On the average, colonial girls possess more than their share of good
+looks; but 'beauties' are rare, and the sun plays the deuce with
+complexions. The commonest type is the jolly girl who, though she has
+large hands and feet, no features and no figure, yet has a taking little
+face, which makes you say: 'By Jove, she is not half bad-looking!'
+Brunettes are, of course, in the majority; and every third or fourth girl
+has beautiful brown eyes and an abundance of coarsish hair--which, by the
+way, she probably dresses in an untidy knob, all corners and no
+rotundity.
+
+Her manners have lost the boisterousness of school days, but still often
+want toning down according to English ideas. Her frankness and
+good-fellowship are captivating, and you feel that all her faults spring
+from the head, and not from the heart. She is rarely affected, and is
+singularly free from 'notions,' though by no means wanting in ideas and
+in conversation of a not particularly cultured description. With a keen
+idea of the value of money and the benefits to be derived from its
+possession, she never takes it into consideration in choosing her
+husband: her ideal of whom is above all things 'manly'--the type that
+used to be known under the description of 'muscular Christians.'
+
+In religion her views are not pronounced. She attends church pretty
+regularly, but is entirely free from superstition, though not always from
+intolerance. Adoration of the priesthood is not at all in her line. For
+politics she cares nothing, except in Victoria where naturally she
+espouses her father's side warmly, but in an irrational, almost stupid,
+way. Art is a dead letter to her, and so is literature, unless an
+unceasing and untiring devotion to three-volume novels be counted under
+that head. To music, according to her lights, she professes, and often
+feels, a strong leaning.
+
+There is one thing about her that strikes you disagreeably in society. It
+is her want of conversation with ladies and married people. To a
+bachelor, to whom she has just been introduced, she will chatter away
+nineteen to the dozen; but, even in her own, house, she has no idea of
+the social duties. Marriage, in her opinion, is a Rubicon, which, once
+crossed, if it does not altogether debar from the pleasures of maiden and
+bachelorhood, at least makes it necessary for married folk to shift for
+themselves. To talk or dance with a married man would be a terrible waste
+of time; and as for married women, she expects to join that holy army of
+martyrs in the course of time, and will then be quite contented with the
+same treatment as she has meted out to others. The politeness which
+springs from a sense of duty to others is little known to the Australian
+girl. If she likes you, she will make herself very pleasant; but if you
+are not worth wasting powder and shot on, you must expect to realize that
+disagreeable truth in all its nakedness.
+
+In many things a child, she often looks forward to her wedding for the
+mere festivity of the occasion, and thinks how jolly it will be to have
+six bridesmaids, how nice she will look in her bridal dress, and how the
+other fellows will envy her chosen one. Generally marrying two or three
+years younger than the English girl, she would consider herself an 'old
+maid' at twenty-three; and for old maids she entertains the very minimum
+of respect, in spite of their rarity in the colonies. Once married, she
+gives up to a large extent, if not entirely, the pomps and vanities of
+which she has had her full during spinsterhood, and devotes herself to
+her household, children, and husband. She usually has a large family, and
+in them pays for all the sins of her youth. She has had her fling, and
+for the rest of her life she lives but to serve her children and make
+them happy, recognising that in the antipodes 'juniores priores' is the
+adopted motto.
+
+The Australian schoolboy is indeed a 'caution.' With all the worst
+qualities of the English boy, he has but few of his redeeming points. His
+impudence verges on impertinence, and his total want of respect for
+everybody and everything passes all European understanding. His father
+and mother he considers good sort of folk, whom he will not go out of his
+way to displease; his schoolmaster often becomes, _ipso facto_, his
+worst enemy, in the never-ceasing, war with whom all is fair, and
+obedience but the last resource. Able to ride almost as soon as he can
+walk, he is fond of all athletic sports; but it is not till leaving
+school that his athleticism becomes fully pronounced: thus reversing the
+order observed in England, where the great majority of the boys, who are
+cricket and football mad at school, more or less drop those pursuits as
+young men. He is too well fed and supplied with pocket-money ever to feel
+the need for theft, but it is difficult to get him to understand Dr.
+Arnold's views about lying and honour. Though not wanting in pluck, he
+lacks the wholesome experience of a few good lickings, and can easily
+pass his school-days without having a single fight. He is quarrelsome
+enough, but his quarrels rarely go farther than hard words and spiteful
+remarks. At learning he is apt, having the spirit of rivalry pretty
+strong in him.
+
+In all but one or two schools classes are too much mixed to make a
+gentlemanly tone possible, and such little refinements as tidiness of
+dress are out of the question. When he is at home for the holidays, his
+mother tries to dig some manners into him (if she has any herself); but
+he has far too great a sense of the superiority of the rising generation
+to pay more attention to her than is exacted by the fear of punishment.
+Unfortunately, that punishment is very sparingly made use of; and when it
+is used, it takes a very lenient shape, public opinion being strongly
+against corporal punishment, however mild, and according to children a
+number of liberties undreamed of in the old country.
+
+Indoors the Australian boy is more objectionable than the English one,
+because he is under less restraint, and knows no precincts forbidden to
+him. Generally intelligent and observant, he is here, there, and
+everywhere; nothing escapes him, nothing is sacred to him. Of course his
+further development draws its form and shape from his previous
+caterpillar condition, and when he comes to take his place in mercantile
+or professional life, he is equally disagreeable and irrepressible.
+
+But such a young 'gum-sucker' must not be confounded with the ordinary
+middle-class Englishmen who form the majority of the professional and
+business men one comes in contact with in the present day. The native
+Australian element is still altogether in the minority in everyday life,
+and the majority of adults are English-born colonists. What modification
+then, you will ask, does the middle-class Englishman undergo in
+Australia? In some ways, a deterioration; in others, an amelioration. The
+deteriorating tendency shows itself in an increased love of dram--and
+especially spirit--drinking; in apparel and general carelessness; in a
+roughening of manner and an increase of selfishness. The improvement lies
+chiefly in greater independence of manner and thought, in a greater
+amount of thought, in enlarged and more tolerant views, in less reserve
+and _morgue_, in additional kindness of heart, and in a more complete
+realization of the great fact of human brotherhood.
+
+In Australia a man feels himself an unit in the community, a somebody; in
+England he is one amongst twenty-seven millions, a nobody. This feeling
+brings with it a greater sense of self-respect and responsibility.
+Altogether, then, it may be said that the balance of the modification is
+generally on the side of improvement rather than of deterioration. The
+Englishman in Australia improves more than he deteriorates. And this is
+the more true the lower you descend in the social scale. It may be
+doubted whether the really well-educated man--the 'gentleman' in short,
+to use the word in its technical sense of a man well born, well bred, and
+well educated--generally improves in the colonies. As a rule, I should
+say he deteriorates. He cannot often find a sufficiently large number of
+his equals within a sufficiently small area, nor keep sufficiently
+amongst them not to lose somewhat in manner and culture. He develops the
+breadth, as distinct from the depth, of his intellect. He learns a great
+deal which he did not know before from the life around him, but he also
+forgets a great deal which he has learnt.
+
+The great tendency of Australian life is democratic, i.e. levelling. The
+lower middle-class and the upper middle-class are much less distinct than
+at home, and come more freely and frequently, indeed continually, into
+contact with each other. This is excellent for the former, but not so
+good for the latter. In the generation that is growing up, the levelling
+process is going much further. The small tradesmen's sons are going into
+professions, and the professional men's sons into trades. You have the
+same tendency in England, but not nearly to the same extent.
+
+Slight as is the division between the middle-class and the wealthy class,
+I ought perhaps to say a few words on the latter. Practically, as well as
+theoretically, there is no aristocracy in Australia, and the number of
+leisured men is yet too small for them to form a class by themselves.
+Still every day their number is increasing; and although they almost all
+do a certain amount of work, it is rather because, if they did not, they
+would find time lie heavy on their hands, than because there is any
+particular need for it. The wealthy squatter--which low-sounding word has
+in Australia become synonymous with aristocrat--spends the greater part
+of the year in supervising his station, although generally employing a
+manager, whose work bears much the same relation to his own, as that of
+the permanent head of a department does to that of his political chief.
+Whenever there is a race meeting or any other attraction, the squatter
+comes down ( _not_ up as in England) to town and spends a few days or a
+few weeks there, as the case may be. If he is a married man he probably
+keeps a town house, where his wife lives the greater part of the winter,
+which is the 'season;' if a bachelor, he lives at his club, which
+supplies him with lodging as well as board.
+
+But he finds it hard work to spend any lengthened period in town. The
+clubs are deserted for the greater part of the day; everyone else has his
+or her work to do, and a lounger becomes equally a nuisance to himself
+and to his friends. With no tastes for literature or art, and little
+opportunity for their gratification if he should chance to possess them,
+he is thrown utterly on his own resources, and these rarely extend beyond
+drinking and gambling. Both these pursuits are more fitted for gaslight
+than daylight, and if indulged in too freely during the day, pall in the
+evening, so that he has literally nothing to do from breakfast till
+dinner. He cannot race or play cricket quotidianally, so that he soon
+returns to his station, where he stops till the next race meeting.
+
+The wealth of Australia has not yet passed beyond the first generation.
+The majority of the wealthy have themselves made their fortunes, and are
+not inclined to let them be squandered by their sons, at least during,
+their lifetime. The number of young men with no regular employment is at
+present very small. And it is well it should be so. Else we should feel
+all the evils of a plutocracy, purified neither by education nor public
+opinion--evils which have already made themselves apparent in the
+political system of Victoria.
+
+The Australian aristocrat has the greatest contempt for politics, and
+thereby has forged a collar for his own neck. The 'Berry blight,' as it
+is called, which has fallen over Victoria, is, to a great extent, a
+reaction against the selfish and inconsiderate policy of the squatters
+when they were in power. In such a crisis the mob has no time to be just,
+remembering only that the aristocracy were never generous. Politically, I
+fancy that the squatters will never again obtain power, except under
+conditions which will make a return to the old _regime_ impossible.
+Socially, there are yet evil days before Australia.
+
+There is a great deal of truth in the old saying--that it takes three
+generations to make a gentleman and there is no doubt but that the second
+is infinitely the worst of the three. Shortly the country will pass
+through a period when an unearned increment will fall into the hands of a
+half-educated class, whose life has nurtured in them strong animal
+passions; but I see no reason why we should not pass through the social
+as we are passing through the political crisis, and obtain a modified
+aristocracy in the third generation, which in the fourth should become as
+profitable to the country as an aristocracy well can be.
+
+At present the old squatter drinks and gambles; his son will drink less,
+gamble more--though it was not a young man who recently lost L40,000 in a
+night's sitting at a club in Melbourne--and lead a wanton life; but he
+will probably have the sense to educate his children thoroughly, instead
+of taking them away from school at seventeen, as was done with himself;
+and the grandson will obtain some cultivated tastes which will make a
+fight for it with those he has inherited. In the fourth generation there
+should be an aristocracy, with as much similarity of character and
+disposition to the existing English aristocracy as the different
+circumstances of the two countries will permit.
+
+The life of a wealthy woman in Australia is _ennuyeux_ to a degree. If
+she is a lady by birth and education, she must necessarily feel that the
+advantages which wealth bestows are squandered upon such provincialism as
+she is perforce subjected to. To reign in hell is, after all, a very low
+ideal, and one which can only be entertained by an inferior nature, so
+long as heaven remains within reach. There are, of course, advantages in
+being rich even in Australia; but the wealthy lady will naturally draw
+comparisons between these and those which the same amount of money would
+procure for her in London or Paris. She can import dresses from Worth's,
+and carriages from Peters', but she cannot choose them for herself; and
+if they should be really admirable, who is there to appreciate their
+superiority to the surrounding fashions?
+
+'How on earth am I to get on in Adelaide,' said a musician of
+considerable merit to me, 'when, as you know, there is no one with whom I
+can provoke comparisons?' The very superiority of the man was fatal to
+his success. And so it is with the Australian lady of taste. Nor does the
+misfortune stop there. Unless she makes frequent visits to centres of
+taste, I will defy any woman to retain her appreciation of good taste.
+Her own taste gets dulled by the want of means of comparison. You will
+perhaps say that taste in her surroundings is not everything which wealth
+can bring to a woman. But if you come to reflect for a moment, you will
+see that in the more comprehensive meaning of the phrase it is. Dress is
+but one example of the surroundings which a woman covets. I have chosen
+it because it is perhaps the commonest, though of course not by a long
+way the highest,
+
+But wealthy ladies 'to the manner born' are not so numerous in Australia
+that I need dwell long on the drawbacks of their position. It is at any
+rate happier than that of the _parvenue_, unless the mere fact of being
+ _arrivee_ confers any special enjoyment. At what has she arrived? At
+carriages, at dresses, at houses and furniture, and at servants of a
+style she is totally unaccustomed to and unfitted for. When you tremble
+before your butler, and have to learn how to behave at table from your
+housekeeper, wealth cannot be unalloyed pleasure. Without education and
+taste, the _parvenue_ has small means of enjoying herself except by
+making a display which costs her even more anxiety and trouble than it
+does money. Wiser is the rich woman who contents herself with the same
+style of life as she was accustomed to in her youth, adding to it only
+the things that she really wants--a more roomy house, a couple of
+women-servants, and a buggy. Thus she can feel really comfortable and at
+home; but unfortunately for their own and their husbands 'peace of mind'
+these poor women are too often ambitious to become what they are not.
+Even leaving aside the discomforts which are always allied to
+pretentiousness, the poor rich woman has a hard time of it. What can she
+do with herself all day long? She has not gone through that long
+education up to doing nothing which enables English ladies of means to
+pass their time without positive boredom. She has no tastes except those
+which she does not dare to gratify, and becomes a slave to the very
+wealth whose badge she loves to flaunt.
+
+The Australian working-man is perhaps too well paid to suit us poor folks
+who are dependent upon him; but, for all that, comfortable means bring an
+improvement in the man as well as in his condition. It is very trying to
+have--as I recently had--to go to four plumbers before I could get one to
+do a small job for me, and still more trying to find the fourth man fail
+me after he had promised to come. Such accidents are of everyday
+occurrence in colonial life, and they make one doubt the advantages of a
+wealthy working-class. But, independent and difficult to please as the
+colonial working-man is, his carelessness is only a natural consequence
+of the value set on his labour. Provided he does not drink, you can get
+as good a day's work out of him as at home. He will pick his time as to
+when he will do your job, and hesitate whether he will do it at all;
+but having once started on it, he generally does his best for you.
+Too often the sudden increase of wages is too much for his mental
+equilibrium, and a man who was sober enough as a poor man at home,
+finds no better use for his loose cash than to put it into the
+public-house till. But as a class I do not think Australian working men
+are less sober than those at home. Those who are industrious and careful
+in a very few years rise to be masters and employers of labour, and are
+at all times so sure of constant employment that it is no wonder they do
+not care about undertaking odd jobs. If their manner is as independent as
+their character, I am far from blaming them for it, though occasionally
+one could wish they did not confound civility and servility as being
+equally degrading to the free and independent elector. But when you meet
+the man on equal terms in an omnibus or on other neutral ground, this
+cause of complaint is removed. Where he is sure of his equality he makes
+no attempt to assert it, and the treatment he receives from many
+_parvenu_ employers is no doubt largely the cause of intrusive assertion
+of equality towards employers in general. Politically he is led by the
+nose, but this is hardly astonishing, since, in nine cases out of ten,
+his electoral qualifications are a novelty to him. He carries his
+politics in his pocket, or what the penny papers tell him are his
+pockets; or, if he rises above selfish considerations he is taken in by
+the bunkum of his self-styled friends. But in what country are the free
+and independent electors wiser? Happily for Australia, his Radicalism
+rarely lasts long, if he is worth his salt. He becomes in a few years one
+of the propertied class, has leisure to learn something of the conditions
+under which property is best preserved and added to, and thus--according
+to the admission of the leading Radical paper--Conservatism is constantly
+encroaching on the ranks of Liberalism. Except under very rare
+circumstances poverty in Australia may fairly be considered a reproach.
+Every man has it in his power to earn a comfortable living; and if after
+he has been some time in the colonies the working-man does not become one
+of the capitalists his organs inveigh against, he has only himself to
+blame.
+
+Of the three sections into which the working-class may be divided--old
+chums, new chums, and colonials--the first-named are, on the whole, the
+best. For the most part they began life with a superabundance of animal
+spirits, and a love of adventure, which have been toned down by a
+practical experience of the hardships they dreamed of. They certainly
+drink most and swear most of the three sections, but with all their
+failings there are few men who can do a harder day's work than they.
+Barring pure misfortune, there is always some good reason for their still
+remaining in the class they sprang from. Though this is not always
+strictly true, since a good many of them began life higher up in the
+world than they are now. Still I prefer them to the pepper-and-salt
+mixture which has been sent out under that happy-go-lucky process--free
+immigration. When the colonies were so badly in want of population, they
+could not stop to pick and choose. Hence a large influx of loafers, men
+who, without any positive vice, will do anything rather than a hard day's
+work, and who come out under the impression that gold is to be picked up
+in the streets of Melbourne. Under the name of 'the unemployed' they are
+a constant source of worry to the Government, whom they consider bound to
+give them something light and easy, with 7s. 6d. or 8s. a day, and give
+rise abroad to the utterly false impression that there am times when it
+is hard for an industrious man to get work in Australia. Of course many
+of our immigrants have become first-rate workmen, but such men soon rise
+in the social scale.
+
+The best workman when he chooses, and the most difficult to get hold of,
+is the thoroughbred colonial. Being able to read and write does not,
+however, keep him from being as brutal as Coupeau, and, except from a
+muscular point of view, he is often by no means a promising specimen of
+colonization. It is from this section of the community that the
+'larrikins,' as they are called, are recruited, roughs of the worst
+description, insulting and often robbing people in Melbourne itself, and
+moving about in gangs with whose united force the police is powerless to
+cope. Sometimes they break into hotels and have 'free drinks' all round,
+maltreating the landlord if he protests. In a younger stage they content
+themselves with frightening helpless women, and kicking every Chinaman
+they meet. On all sides it is acknowledged that the larrikin element is
+daily increasing, and has already reached, especially in Melbourne,
+proportions which make it threaten to amount to a social clanger within a
+few years. Of late their outbreaks have not been confined to night-work,
+but take place in open daylight, _coram populo et_ police. No one
+exactly knows how to meet the difficulty, and What shall we do with our
+larrikins?' is likely to replace the former popular cry of 'What shall
+we do with our boys?' to which some ingenious person furnished the
+obvious answer, 'Marry them to our girls.' Corporal punishment for
+corporal offences is in my opinion and that of most of the serious
+portion of the community, the only remedy which is likely also to act as
+a preventive; but however desirable it may be acknowledged to be, there
+is a difficulty in bringing it into use in communities whose sympathies
+are so essentially democratic as those of Victoria and New South
+Wales--for in Adelaide the police has still the upper hand. The votes of
+these very larrikins turn the scale at elections. Their kith and kin form
+a majority of the population, and therefore of the electorate. However
+much a member of Parliament or a Minister may recognise the necessity of
+meeting a social danger, he can hardly afford to do it at the expense of
+his seat.
+
+At the time of the Kelly trial practical demonstration of the latent
+sympathy with crime in Melbourne was afforded. Thousands of persons,
+headed by the Chairman of Committees of the House of Assembly, actually
+agitated for the reprieve of the most notorious, if not the greatest,
+criminal in the annals of Australia, a man whose murders were not to be
+counted on the fingers; and all this because for over two years he had
+set the police at defiance, and after a life of murder and rapine had,
+shown the courage of despair when his only choice was between being shot
+by a policeman or hung on the gallows. In many respects, as, I have
+elsewhere intimated, our free political system makes the social outlook
+here far more promising than in Europe; but larrikinism is a peculiar
+danger already well above the horizon, against which we seem powerless to
+deal. Some set it down to the absence of religious teaching in the State
+schools, but its real point and origin seems rather to lie in the absence
+of parental authority at home and the unpopularity of the old proverb:
+'Spare the rod and spoil the child.'
+
+SOCIAL RELATIONS.
+
+My last letter was necessarily, from the nature of its subject, a little
+flaky--a charge to which all these notes must more or less plead guilty.
+Though the heading of this one differs slightly, it must practically be a
+continuation of the same subject.
+
+The first social relation, like charity, begins in the family circle, and
+was incidentally touched upon in my last. Between husband and wife the
+relations in Australia are, on the whole, probably as satisfactory as in
+any other part of the world. Both generally marry from love, and whatever
+may be the general effect of love-matches, it cannot be denied that more
+than any others they tend to promote pleasant relations between the 'two
+contracting parties,' as the French would call them. Amongst the wealthy,
+as everywhere else, there cannot of course be the close marital intimacy
+of the middle classes; but not only is infidelity less common than in
+London, but moreover, the proportion of the wealthy who keep up the style
+which produces the quasi-separation of domestic life is far smaller.
+Husband and wife have grown rich together; they have taken counsel
+together, and lived an open life, as far as each other are concerned,
+ever since they were married. Against this the usages of society,
+dressing-rooms and lady's-maids are of little avail. You may chase the
+second nature out by the door, but it jumps in again at the window.
+
+In the middle and lower class the comparatively cribbed, cabined, and
+confined existence is also of the greatest service to that community of
+thought and action upon which conjugal happiness to so large an extent
+depends. Domestic occupations also occupy the thoughts of the wives, and
+business those of the husbands, so continually, as to leave few moments
+of mental vacuity for Satan to introduce mischief into. Of an evening the
+clubs are almost deserted, and their few occupants are nearly all
+bachelors, or married men who have left their wives in the country,
+having come down to town themselves on business. Drink must be recognised
+as a factor on the opposite side, and a by no means unimportant one; but
+there are many women who have no objection to their husbands drinking, so
+long as they either drink at home or come straight thither from the
+public-house.
+
+I wish I could give as favourable a view of the parental relations. They
+are undeniably the weak point of family life in the colonies. During
+childhood a certain obedience is of course enforced; but public feeling
+is strong in favour of the naughty boy and wilful girl, looking as it
+does upon these qualities as prophetic of future enterprise. So many of
+our best colonists, it must be remembered, were eminently wild in their
+younger days, that it is no wonder they think 'there is something' in the
+self-willed child. Their own life has been too much of a struggle for
+them to be able to appreciate at their true value the gentler qualities
+which in themselves would have been of little worth, the victory in their
+earlier days having been to the physical rather than to the intellectual.
+The child is naturally--for surely disobedience is an 'original sin' with
+nine children out of ten--only too disposed to take advantage of the
+views held by its parents, and gradually as it grows older, disobedience
+passes into disrespect and want of respect into want of affection. Such a
+thing as perfect confidence, in the French sense of the word, between a
+parent and his or her grown-up child is most rare. 'Everyone for himself,
+and devil take the hindmost, is the motto of the young Australian. He
+cares for nobody, and nobody need care for him, so far as his thoughts on
+the subject are concerned. Maternal affection cannot, however, be easily
+quenched, and consequently the child gets all the best of the bargain.
+
+Social relations are wider, therefore less easy to speak about decidedly,
+than family relations. In the early days there were but few social
+distinctions. Everyone was hail-fellow-well-met with everyone else, and
+the common struggle merged all differences of birth, wealth, and
+education. In a charming little work called 'Some Social Aspects of South
+Australian Life,' which was published in Adelaide about two years ago', a
+most realistic description is given of the sympathetic mode of living of
+the first settlers; and as it has never been reprinted in England, I
+extract a few sentences here and there, which may give some idea of the
+primitive existence there described:
+
+'The necessaries of life were produced in abundance, the comforts were
+slowly reached, and the luxuries had to be done without. There was very
+little difference in the actual circumstances of different classes--some
+had property and some had none' (this was before the gold-fever); 'but
+property was unsaleable for money, and barter only exchanged one
+unsaleable article for another' (and yet these are the people who
+nowadays groan about _money_ going out of the colony, and would measure
+its prosperity by the excess of exports over imports).* [* The
+parentheses are my own.] 'Nobody employed hired labour who could possibly
+do the work himself, and everyone had to turn his or her hand to a great
+deal of miscellaneous work, most of which would be called menial and
+degrading in an old community. . . Thus gradually the financial position
+of the colony improved by means of the well-directed industry of the
+settlers, and they owed much to the helpfulness and good management of
+the wives, sisters, and daughters of each household. . . Perhaps, never
+in any human society did circumstances realize the ideas of the community
+of labour and the equality of the sexes, so fully as in South Australia
+in its early days.' Youth and love, hope and trust, were the only stock
+in marriage of young couples, so that a new-comer is said to have
+remarked, 'Why, it is nothing to get married here! A few mats, and
+cane-bottomed chairs, and the house is furnished.'  A wife was not looked
+on as a hindrance or an expense, but as a help and a comfort,' says Miss
+Spence. 'Girls did not look for establishments; parents did not press for
+settlements . . . There was only one carriage in the colony for many
+years, which though belonging to a private person, was hired for such as
+wanted to do the thing genteelly . . . .' Social position depended on
+character, and not on income.
+
+The same writer lays herself fairly open to the charge of being
+_laudator temporis acti_ in her description of the present as compared
+with the past social life of the colonies, though I am quite prepared to
+agree with her remark, that 'in proportion as the conditions of life
+become more complex, they should be met by more ingenuity, more culture,
+and a deeper sense of duty;' and that 'the suddenness of our accumulation
+of wealth has scarcely prepared our little community for some necessary
+modifications of our social arrangements.' Therein lies the whole source
+of both what is best and what is worst in the present social life of
+Australia. Marriage, though still almost entirely an affair of love, has
+yet learnt to take L. s. d. into consideration, and none but the lowest
+class would be satisfied with the kind of furniture described above.
+Education has improved and is improving still more, far as it yet is from
+being up even to the English standard. More leisure has also produced
+novel reading with its consequent affectation of aristocratic ideas and
+prejudices and disproportionate estimate of essentials and superficials.
+
+Already each Australian capital has its 'society,' distinguished from the
+[Greek characters] almost as clearly as in London or Paris. In its own
+way, indeed, these societies are more exclusive than those of the older
+metropolises, which from their very size obtain a certain breadth of
+view. For obvious reasons the component parts are not altogether similar,
+but their governing idea is as much the same as the difference of
+circumstances will permit. It would be difficult to define exactly what
+opens the doors of Australian society, but is the shibboleth any more
+definite in London? Distinction of some kind or other must be
+presupposed. If that of birth, it must either be allied to rank or have
+strong local connections. Is it not the same in London, though, of
+course, on an infinitely larger and grander scale? If that of wealth, it
+must storm the entrance by social expenditure and pachydermatousness to
+rebuff. Wealth is, of course, the predominating factor here, as rank in
+London; because while in the latter case birth calls in wealth to furnish
+it with the sinews of war, in the former wealth calls in birth to teach
+it how to behave itself. Position is of small account, though the line is
+always drawn at shopkeepers _in esse_. Provided the candidate has cut
+the shop and opened an office, he can be admitted on payment of the
+social fees, but only gradually and laboriously unless his wealth is
+beyond criticism. The man who sells you a dozen of wine in the morning
+sits by your side at Government House or Bishop's Court in the evening,
+and the highest officials are not unfrequently the least esteemed
+socially. A happy consequence of this social jumble is, that with certain
+exceptions, which are, of course, getting more numerous as we advance in
+civilization, a gentleman can do anything here and still be considered a
+gentleman, provided he behaves himself as such; and the semi-menial
+employments of distressed gentlewomen do not bring with them one half the
+loss of social position that they generally entail in England. The
+smaller community is more narrow-minded than the large, but its sight is
+keener and more accurate in details. It is true that art, science, and
+literature are entirely without status in Australia, but then personal
+distinction of whatever kind is far more get-at-able than at home.
+
+If it strikes a visitor as utterly ridiculous that a society, the greater
+part of whose members are essentially _parvenus_, should assume the
+tone and mode of thought of an old-world aristocracy, we must yet
+acknowledge that that society keeps up a great many traditions of
+refinement which are in great danger of being lost sight of in colonial
+life. The outward and visible sign may be absurd, but the inward and
+spiritual grace is none the less concealed within it. That Australian
+society keeps up a number of social superstitions which might with
+advantage have died out during the journey across the ocean is
+undeniable, but it is also true that it preserves at least an affectation
+of higher civilization. It contains the majority of the gentlemen and
+ladies by birth and education in each city, and they go far to leaven the
+whole lump. The _parvenu_ has the merit of seeking after better things,
+and his imitation of aristocracy, if it necessarily falls far short of
+the mark, at least removes him a step or two above the way of thinking
+common to the class he sprang from. His daughters, with that superior
+adaptability inherent in women, are quick to catch the manners of the
+gentlewomen who move in their circle, and become infinitely superior to
+their brothers, even when the latter have been sent to finish their
+education at Oxford, or Cambridge. It is wonderful how much more easily a
+lady can be manufactured than a gentleman.
+
+Of the hospitality of 'society' in all the towns it is impossible to
+speak in too high terms. The stranger has but to bring a couple of good
+introductions to people who are in society, and provided he be at all
+presentable, the doors of the most exclusive houses will be opened to
+him. Young men of education and manners are everywhere at a premium, and
+the colonies are still small enough for it to be a distinction to have
+just come out from England. Unless you know your company it is always
+wise to avoid asking questions about or making reference to the earlier
+days of the people you meet. For all that, you will hear everybody's
+history, often, I suspect, with additions and exaggerations. In such
+small communities everybody knows everything about everybody else, and
+the man who has gone down in the world naturally delights in telling you
+of the time when he bought half a pound of sugar at Jones's shop, or when
+Brown worked in his garden while Mrs. Brown was his scullery-maid,
+Jones and Brown being now two social leaders.
+
+Amongst men social distinctions are very slight. It is lawful to be
+friendly with everybody and anybody in town, so long as you do not visit
+at his private house. And yet for very obvious reasons gentlemen
+are--except amongst the rising generation--much more common than ladies.
+A number of wild young men of good family and education have been poured
+out of England into Australia ever since 1852, and many of them have
+become amongst the most useful and respected colonists. But until
+recently there was a paucity of ladies, and the majority of gentlemen had
+but the choice between marrying beneath them or not at all. Hence
+frequent _mesalliances_. You meet a man at the club, and are delighted
+with him in every way. He asks you to his house, and you find that his
+wife drops her h's, eats peas with her knife, and errs in various little
+ways. I am purposely thinking of no one in particular, but fear at least
+a dozen of my acquaintances will think I am writing of them in making
+this remark. And it is a sad sight to see a man dragged down in this way,
+for very few men who marry beneath them can keep up the manner and mode
+of living to which they were born and educated, while those who do
+generally retain them at the expense of their own married happiness.
+Nowadays there are certainly plenty of young ladies in the towns, but for
+all that one constantly hears of the sons of clergymen and army officers
+marrying the daughters of grocers and farmers who were quite recently
+day-labourers. With every freedom from caste prejudice, I am yet unable
+to see anything but harm to the persons directly concerned in these
+ill-assorted matches, whatever the good result to the community may be.
+
+The centre round which society revolves is naturally Government House,
+but a great many people go to Government House who cannot be considered
+to be in society. To have been to a Government House ball is no more,
+_mutandis mutatis_, than to go to a Court ball at home. Neither will
+give you admission into the inner circle; and though that circle may not
+offer any but specious advantages and have but little to recommend it in
+preference to three or four other societies in the town, admission into
+it is coveted, and inclusion within its boundaries is as much a reality
+as if its walls were of stone. In Melbourne the scattered position of the
+suburbs and the extent of the population splits up the _elite_ into
+several local societies, but there is yet one _creme de la creme_. In
+Sydney the same thing takes place, though the local societies are less
+numerous; but in Adelaide there is practically only one 'society', the
+local aggregations of individuals not being deserving of any more
+dignified name than 'cliques.' Of the three societies, that of Sydney is
+on the whole, I think, the best. At Melbourne there are probably a larger
+number of cultivated persons, but the distance between the suburbs and
+the more extravavagant mode of living limits their sphere. The
+Adelaidians are perhaps the most English of all in their way of thinking,
+but they are also by far the most narrow-minded. For pure Philistinism I
+don't think I know any town that equals it. Shut up in their own little
+corner, they imagine themselves more select than Sydney and Melbourne
+circles, because they are necessarily smaller. And yet for
+kind-heartedness these gossip-loving Philistines are not easily to be
+surpassed. As long as things go well with you they will talk against you;
+but no set of people are less open to the charge of neglecting friends in
+misfortune.
+
+Class relations are, on the whole, excellent; and this is the more to the
+credit of the lower classes, because the plutocracy is utterly selfish in
+character, and does not interest itself in those social duties, which are
+proving so effectual a prop to the nobility and landed gentry of England.
+A certain animosity subsists between the squatters or pastoral lessees
+and the selectors who purchase on credit from Government blocks of land,
+which were formerly let to squatters. At times this breaks out in Parliament
+or at elections, but in spite of a determined attempt by a section of the
+Victorian press to pit the 'wealthy lower orders' against the
+horny-handed sons of the soil, class feeling rarely runs high for any
+length of time. The reason is, that the working-class are too well off
+for the occasional high-handed proceedings of the rich to affect them
+sensibly. For an agitation to be maintained there must be a real
+grievance at the bottom of it; and the only grievance that the Australian
+democrat can bring forward is, that having obtained the necessaries, he
+cannot without extra labour obtain also the luxuries of life.
+
+From figures I have already given as to rents, wages, and prices in
+general, you will have gathered that the cost of living is, broadly
+speaking, cheaper than in England as regards the necessities of
+existence, but dearer in proportion to the complexity of the article.
+Anything that requires much labour, or that cannot readily be produced in
+the colony, is, dearer; but, on the other hand, it should be remembered
+that money is more easily obtainable. Protectionist duties and heavy
+freights form an effectual sumptuary tax; and as most of the duties are
+_ad valorem_, first-class articles are heavily handicapped, and a
+premium put upon the importation of shoddy. The wine-drinker finds that
+he has to pay ten shillings a gallon on all he drinks, which should
+certainly entice him to drink good wine; but the only practical result
+discoverable is the small quantity of wine drunk as compared with beer
+and spirits. If few people keep carriages, there are buggies innumerable
+in every town; and for every man who keeps a horse in England, there are,
+proportionately to the population, ten in Australia.
+
+But perhaps the greatest element in the cheapness of colonial life is its
+comparative want of 'gentility.' The necessity to keep up appearances is
+not one-sixth as strong as in England. The earthen pot cannot altogether
+flow down stream in company with the tin kettle, but it can more safely
+get within a shorter distance of its metallic rival. Rich men live in
+miserable houses and wear coats which their valets would have nothing to
+do with at home; struggling men are less ashamed of struggling, and are
+not made to feel the defects of their condition so keenly. In a society,
+the position of whose members is constantly changing, the style of life
+is of less importance. The millionaire of to-day hadn't a sixpence
+yesterday, and may not have one again to-morrow. His brothers, sifters
+and cousins are impecunious, and in small communities poor relations are
+not easily got rid of. Constant intercommunication is thus kept up
+between class and class, rich and poor; they learn better to understand
+each other's position, and a clearer understanding generally leads to
+mutual respect.
+
+Again, the distribution of wealth is far more equal. To begin with, there
+is no poor class in the colonies. Comfortable incomes are in the
+majority, millionaires few and far between. This is especially the case
+in Adelaide, where the condition of the poorer class is better, and that
+of the richer worse than in any of the other colonies. In Melbourne the
+masses seem worst off, and the display of riches, if not the actuality
+thereof, is most noticeable. In Sydney the signs of wealth are not
+wanting to an examiner, but a superficial observer would say that there
+were not half as many wealthy men as in Melbourne. Few South Australians
+get beyond the comfortable stage, and, on the other hand, a greater
+number reach it. 'Squatting,' of course, supplies the largest section of
+the wealthy class; but, especially in Melbourne, gold-mining and commerce
+have contributed a large quota.
+
+RELIGION AND MORALS.
+
+In no country in the world is the legal freedom of conscience more firmly
+established than in Australia. All Churches and sects are absolutely
+equal in the eyes of the State; and any attempt to upset this equality
+would be resented, not only by the united forces of all the other
+denominations, but even by a majority of the only two Churches--the Roman
+and Anglican--who would ever dream of aiming at supremacy. But thorough
+as is the repudiation by the great majority of the community of the
+principles of State aid or control of religion, the two Churches which I
+have just mentioned occasionally raise their voices against secular
+education by the State, and make spasmodic appeals for State
+contributions to their denominational schools, which, however little
+likely to succeed, are not altogether without a rational foundation. But
+this is the utmost limit which State recognition, or rather the cry for
+it, is ever likely to reach.
+
+In times past the Church of England has struggled to regain the position
+she formerly held in the older colonies; but now whatever efforts she
+makes in that direction are confined to the ambition of being _prima
+inter pares_--a position which is vigorously and even bitterly attacked
+by the other Protestant sects whenever she either tries to assert it or
+has it thrust upon her. These ex-Dissenters have a lively remembrance of
+the yoke they endured in the old country, and even now that the spirit of
+supremacy has so completely died out, they spring up to do battle against
+any formality that recalls it to them. Thus, a few years ago the whole
+colony of South Australia was convulsed on the question of the Bishop's
+right to follow the Governor and precede the Chief Justice at official
+ceremonies, and peace amongst the devout was only restored by the
+Bishop's graceful relinquishment of a position to which his legal right
+was undeniable. Even now the title 'My Lord' as applied to Bishops acts
+as a red rag on many ex-Dissenting bulls, and they are as jealous of the
+slightest official preference of the Church of England as if their
+dearest religious liberties were therein involved.
+
+Legal and even official equality do not, however, always mean social
+equality; and the Church still retains a superior social position, a
+shadow of her departed State authority, which to some of her old
+competitors--especially the Congregationalists, Baptists, and
+Wesleyans--is the more galling because they are totally destitute of the
+means of assailing it. Happily, through the wise conduct of the Bishops
+of Adelaide and Melbourne in meeting ministers of other denominations on
+a common platform, whenever the cause of Christianity or of good and
+right in any way can be served thereby, and in showing sympathy with them
+in a multitude of ways, this unreasonable jealousy is losing ground and a
+better feeling springing up; but there are yet too many colonists that
+have felt the disabilities of Dissent in the old country who are unable
+to put on the armour of forgiveness, or rather of forgetfulness in the
+new. The enemy has lost his sting, but they will not allow him to live on
+the remembrance of his past greatness without a reminder of his present
+impotence.
+
+This impotence is in all ways, except socially, a certain reality; for
+while the ex-Dissenting bodies have thriven and waxed numerous and
+powerful upon the bread of independence, the Church has languished for
+want of her accustomed prop. Accustomed, not only to support their own
+ministers, but also to pay tithes and Church-rates for the benefit of
+their rival, the ex-Dissenters have simultaneously had their burden
+lightened and, for the most part, their incomes increased by the change
+of country. Besides this, they have to a certain extent felt themselves
+put upon their mettle to show their superiority to their old master, and
+thus they have put their best foot foremost, with the good result which
+always attends such efforts. Their ministers, better paid, and holding a
+higher social position than in England, have naturally become a superior
+class of men as a whole to those in the old country. Every day they are
+advancing, towards a higher standard of education and manners. Nor has
+the gain in education and position been accompanied by, as far as I can
+see, any loss in earnestness or deterioration in work. No one sect is
+sufficiently preponderant to admit of that.
+
+The friendly competition between them has been beneficial to them all;
+and, in spite of rivalry, the spirit of toleration between Protestant
+sects is thoroughly observed. Unfortunately, this toleration is not
+extended to the Roman Catholics. Their doctrines are so directly in
+opposition to the prevailing democratic and Protestant spirit of the
+community, that they have come to be regarded as Ishmaelites, if not as
+Amalekites, occupying ground which ought to belong to the faithful. An
+Anti-Popery cry would at any time command success; and numerous and
+influential as the Catholics are, directly they begin to assert their
+influence all the other religious bodies unite to counteract, and end by
+suppressing it. For a spice of intolerance in this respect, and for a
+general Philistinism in its views on all subjects, Australia is indebted
+to the middle-class Protestant sects, who form the most important element
+in the community; but to them also, in a large measure, it owes its
+political and social stability, and all those standard moral qualities
+which are the only safe foundation for a superstructure of intellect.
+
+Because I have spoken so warmly of the good influence which the
+ex-Dissenting or Protestant sects have exercised in Australia, it must
+not be supposed that the Church has been altogether a laggard. Probably
+no section of the English clergy has worked harder and more manfully than
+that which has been stationed in Australia. It is no fault of theirs if
+their sphere has been limited and their good influence less effective
+than that of their rivals. But they have been labouring under the
+misfortune of being unsuited to the people and circumstances amongst whom
+and which they live and work. Their sphere has lain almost entirely
+amongst the upper and lower classes, and it is neither of these that
+governs Australia. Where they came into contact with the middle class,
+the power in the land, they have been placed in the position of the round
+man in the square hole. The men of the middle class have asserted their
+social equality to, if not their superiority over, their clergy; and this
+an English gentleman finds difficulty in admitting, still more one who
+considers himself the minister of God to the people, rather than of the
+people to God. The Thirty-nine Articles do not admit of his recognising
+the orders of his nonconformist brethren as equal to his own, and this
+has been set down to pride. Altogether, the Anglican clergyman has been
+put in a false position, to extricate him from which is taxing all the
+tact of so politic a prelate as Bishop Moorhouse.
+
+The habit of paying no direct stipend to their clergymen in England has
+led to a reluctance to contribute good salaries for their support out
+here, where they must rely solely upon such support; and the lowness of
+salaries, if not the hardness of the work, has made the Anglican clergy
+in Australia as a class inferior to their English brethren. Of course the
+clergy still contains a large proportion of gentlemen within its ranks,
+but on the score of ability I fancy the ex-Dissenters have the advantage.
+Recognising this, Bishop Moorhouse is endeavouring both to shame
+Churchmen into raising the stipend of their clergy, and to procure for
+the congregations not only English gentlemen, but as far as possible
+hard-working, practical, broad-minded men. He has a difficult task before
+him, for already there are plenty of colonial clergymen who are either
+inferior to nonconformist ministers in cultivation, or stubborn adherents
+to a _regime_ which is impossible in Australia. These weeds must be
+pulled out before you can sow fresh seed; and yet it is hard to call men
+weeds who are serving the Church according to the best of their lights,
+faithful, hard-working men, or conservative old gentlemen, who are doing
+or have done a great deal of good work, and whose failings cannot be
+attributed to any fault for which you can morally reproach them.
+
+The Church is slow to adapt itself to colonial life. Amongst a
+preponderating lower middle-class element Nonconformity, or rather what
+is better known as Protestantism, is very popular. Low Churchmen find
+they can get a better sermon at the chapel, and can be hail-fellow-well-met
+with their pastor in these extraneous denominations. Thus the Church
+loses many of its former adherents, and while Anglicanism still remains
+the religion of the upper class, it can in no way pretend to be that of
+even a majority of the community.
+
+The Roman Catholics are on a different footing. For them no compromise is
+possible, and they cannot as Roman Catholics but be a state within a
+state. From time to time the priesthood incites them to aspire to
+political power, but hitherto none of these aspirations have borne
+practical effect, except in strengthening the hands of their adversaries.
+At present they are agitating more or less vehemently in each colony for
+State support to be given to their schools, declaring that it is
+monstrous that they should be made to pay for a secular education of
+which their religion prevents them from taking advantage.
+
+At first a section of the Anglican party, comprising nearly all the
+clergy, joined in this cry, but it became so evident that the bulk of the
+population was determined not to return to the old system, that they are
+beginning to desert the Catholics, and are now more wisely and with
+better chance of success attempting to amalgamate with the other
+Protestant bodies to obtain the admission into the State schools of
+religious teaching on a broad Protestant basis; i.e., of all the
+doctrines which are held in common by all Protestant denominations
+(except the Unitarians), to the exclusion of all doctrines on which the
+different sects differ. The bulk of the Dissenters are, I fancy,
+indifferent to any junction with the Church of England, and would just as
+soon have no religious teaching as what they call a 'pithless jelly-fish'
+religious teaching. But on this point I think public opinion is
+undergoing a change, and the formation of a Protestant party probable.
+The Catholics would consider such a concession as infinitely worse than
+the existing purely secular system. The omission of true doctrine would,
+as regards them, amount to an assertion of false; and on their side in
+opposing the Protestant party will be the Jews, the Freethinkers, and a
+large number who would rather have no religious teaching than any quarrel
+over it, and who are fairly satisfied with the existing state of things.
+If the Protestants ever become strong enough to win the day, it can only
+be at the expense of establishing a Catholic grievance so strong as to be
+exceedingly dangerous. The fact that all parties are now out in the cold,
+satisfies a rough-and-ready conception of justice with which the
+politician has always to reckon, but that all the Protestants should get
+a concession, of which it is impossible for the Catholics to avail
+themselves, would be manifestly unfair. Political expediency and justice
+seem to be alike against the claims of the Protestant party, unless it be
+resolved to grant aid to Roman Catholics and Jews only, which is a
+possible, though not very consistent, solution of the question.
+
+Ritualism is unknown, though the word is often applied to the one or two
+High-Church services in the capitals where the choirs wear surplices, or,
+worse still, where there are candles on the altar--a word which is almost
+as much objected to as priest. Broad and Low are decidedly the prevailing
+phases of Churchmanship, and every year the Broad is gaining upon the
+Low; the Low element consisting of those who were brought up in England,
+the Broad of the generation which has been born in the country. As this
+begins to predominate, the barriers between the Anglican Church and the
+other Protestant denominations will be lowered, and in course of time the
+differences between them will be reduced to preference in the mode of
+conducting service. The first step towards this was taken by the Bishop
+of Melbourne some two years ago in forming the Pastoral Aid Society, the
+object of which is to provide religious services in outlying districts in
+the bush, where there are not sufficient settlers of either the
+Episcopalian or Presbyterian Churches to make it possible to supply a
+minister of either. The Society arranges that services should be held in
+these districts alternately, according to the rites of each Church, and
+that they should be visited alternately by ministers of each.
+
+This system has proved of enormous value in keeping religion alive in the
+bush, and paved the way for an experiment not long ago in Melbourne
+itself, which has met with such general approval, that it may be said to
+mark the commencement of a new era in the Church of England, and even in
+ecclesiastical history. With the consent of the Bishop and of his
+church-wardens, Canon Bromby invited a Presbyterian minister--Rev. Chaos.
+Strong-to read the service and preach in St. Paul's Church, he himself
+taking Mr. Strong's pulpit. This precedent is certain to be largely
+followed; and it is easy to see that the courtesy which is extended to
+Presbyterian ministers will before long be extended to those of the other
+Protestant denominations, and that exchanges of pulpits between them all
+will become frequent.
+
+Churches abound in every Australian city, especially in Adelaide, where
+they are so numerous as to excite the ridicule of the less devout
+Victorians. I forget how many there are; but, at any rate, they bear a
+very small proportion to the public-houses, against which I think they
+may fairly be pitted. Still, there are plenty of them; and no sinner will
+easily be able to find an excuse for not going to church in the
+non-representation of his particular sect. When I say 'churches,' I am
+using the term in the official and colonial sense, for the word 'chapel'
+stinks in the nostrils of a Dissenting community, and many of these
+churches are not much bigger than an ordinary dining-room, and, having
+been built for profane purposes, have no external odour of sanctity
+beyond a black board, whereon you are informed, in gilt letters, that the
+building belongs to whatever sect it does belong, and that Divine Service
+is held there by the Rev. So-and-So at certain hours on the Sabbath. But
+from this you must not suppose that the two older churches have a
+monopoly of the religious buildings which can properly aspire to that
+name.
+
+For the most part, ecclesiastical architecture is rather a weak point
+with these newly-confirmed religions; but in Melbourne, with the
+exception of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, they possess far the finest
+churches, and in Adelaide and Sydney their edifices are at least
+imposing. The Roman Catholics., however, carry off the palm. In both
+Melbourne and Sydney their cathedrals are of grand proportions. In all
+three cities their other churches are large and lofty. The Anglicans have
+small cathedrals at Sydney and Adelaide; but, in spite of their including
+a majority of the wealthiest individuals in the colonies, they find a
+great difficulty in raising money for building purposes.
+
+As far as my experience goes--and I have 'sat under' the principal
+ministers of each denomination in each town at least once--the preaching
+is, for the most part, very poor. There are certainly two or three
+exceptions; but 'what are they,' one is irreverently apt to exclaim,
+'among so many?' The shallowness and often halting pace of these
+discourses is doubtless due, in large measure, to the colonial love of
+_extempore_ preaching. For sermons read out of a book public opinion of
+all denominations in Australia has the greatest contempt. Like English
+lower middle-class communities, again, they like a good pronounced type
+of doctrine from the pulpit. The lower regions are popular; but most
+successful is the denunciation of the people over the way who bow down to
+wood and stone, and commit sundry other iniquities for which Protestants
+are in no fear of being indicted.
+
+As you notice a man's general appearance and manner before you can form
+any idea of his character, so I have described churches and denominations
+before entering seriously into the question of religion. If
+Churchmen--who will probably form the majority of my readers--cannot but
+be grieved at the picture I have drawn, of the condition of the
+Australian Church, they may at least take comfort when I state that the
+preponderating feeling of Australian cities is essentially Christian,
+according to the received meaning of the word. The citizens are, for the
+most part, of a distinctly religious turn of mind. They may not be,
+and--except in Adelaide--are not, such good church-goers as at home; but
+they have not drunk of the poison of infidelity, nor eaten of the sweets
+of indifference. Amidst the distractions of colonial life this could
+hardly have been the case, but for the Puritan origin of so many of the
+more influential among them, and the healthy competition between the
+various sects, as well as the freedom from State control and interference
+already alluded to.
+
+As in social matters Melbourne may be regarded as the extreme type of
+Australia, so in religious matters Adelaide affords the easiest text to
+preach upon. Essentially lower middle-class, Nonconformist and Radical in
+its origin, South Australia might well claim the title of the New England
+of the Antipodes. Even to the present day, it preserves signs and tokens
+of the Principles on which it was founded: its progress having been the
+gradual and healthy growth of a Pastoral and agricultural colony,
+undisturbed by the forced marches of gold-mining. In Adelaide
+middle-class respectability is too strong for larrikinism, and imparts a
+far healthier social and moral tone than obtains in either Melbourne or
+Sydney; but for these advantages the little town pays the small but
+disagreeable price of Philistinism. Want of culture, Pharisees, and
+narrow-mindedness find a more congenial home there than anywhere else in
+Australia; but, to my mind, these are a cheap price to pay for the piety
+and real goodness which they cloak.
+
+The Adelaidian may be unpleasantly conceited and self-satisfied in
+religious matters, but then he is kind and hospitable, religious and
+moral, and not so sophisticated as the Victorian, who is probably a more
+agreeable person superficially. Yet in neither Melbourne nor Sydney can
+religion be said to be wanting. It is kept more in the background than in
+Adelaide, and there is not so much of it as in the smaller town; but the
+religious character of all three, taken either singly or together, will,
+I think, compare favourably with that of any other modern city or cities.
+
+Sabbatarianism is fast on the decline. The Sabbatarians are still noisy
+and determined enough to keep the majority of our public libraries,
+picture galleries, etc., closed on Sunday, but this is more from public
+indifference on the subject than from any general feeling that they ought
+to be shut. This becomes evident from a visit to the suburbs on a fine
+Sunday. All the world and his wife in private carriages and buggies,
+carts and omnibuses, even on Shanks's pony, come away for an airing; and
+if the weather only allows of it, there are many of these holiday-makers
+who make a day of it, leaving their homes early in the morning, with but
+a few who return to evening service.
+
+On the other hand, the Sunday is soberly kept. In the less strict
+families music is allowed, but never cards or games of any kind. The man
+who proposed such a thing in Adelaide would be _anathema maranatha_.
+The general feeling, is, that the Sunday was made too wearisome in
+England to be supportable in a common-sense community; and Sabbatarianism
+is gradually losing ground day by day, as fast as the keeping up of
+appearances will allow. There was a great outcry on one occasion because
+the Governor of Victoria travelled on a Sunday; but this was rather
+because there is a general feeling that unnecessary labour should as far
+as possible be avoided on a Sunday, than from Sabbatarianism in the
+ordinary sense of the word.
+
+Morality has so long been connected with religion that it is difficult to
+treat of the one without more or less trenching upon the province of the
+other. But there still remains something to be said on this score. The
+commandments which are most freely broken in Australia, are _par
+excellence_ the third, and then the sixth, in its minor sense of crimes
+of violence in general. Young Australia makes a specialty of swearing.
+High and low, rich and poor, indulge themselves in bad language
+luxuriantly; but it is amongst the rising generation that it reaches its
+acme. The lower-class colonial swears as naturally as he talks. He
+doesn't mean anything by it in particular; nor is it really an evil
+outward and visible sign of the spiritual grace within him. On the
+prevalence of larrikinism I wrote at length in a former epistle.
+
+Drunkenness comes next on our list of vices. That Australians as a nation
+are more drunken than Englishmen, I do not believe to be the fact; but
+what is undeniable is, that there is a great deal of drunkenness amongst
+those who may claim to be considered the upper classes here. An English
+gentleman of the present day, whatever his other sins may be, does not
+get drunk, because it is 'bad form,' if for no better reason. If in
+Australia we were to exclude as 'outsiders' all the leading colonists who
+are in the habit of intoxicating themselves--to say nothing of the chance
+customers--'society' would dwindle down to nearly two-thirds its present
+size. But there has been a very appreciable improvement in this respect
+during the last half-dozen years, and the tone of public feeling on the
+subject is gradually approximating to that of English society. The old
+colonists are not of course expected to change their habits in their old
+age, but with the young generation there is less tippling, and port,
+sherry, and spirits are being replaced by claret.
+
+Of drinking as apart from drunkenness I have already said enough. The
+seventh commandment is one of those unpleasant subjects which one must
+deal with, and which one would yet prefer to leave alone. Generally
+speaking, one may say, that while our upper and lower classes are, if
+anything, rather worse in their morals than in England, we make up for
+the deficiency by a decided superiority amongst the middle--both
+upper-middle and lower-middle--class. Conversation is perhaps coarser
+here; but whatever may be the reality, the moral standard generally
+accepted is superior to that of London. Such immorality as exists is
+necessarily of a coarser and more brutal type. In Melbourne, especially,
+the social sin is very obtrusive. Sydney has of late been acquiring an
+unenviable notoriety for capital offences, and it is not advisable for
+ladies to walk alone in the streets there at any time of the day. On the
+other hand, in Adelaide no woman who does not give occasion for it need
+ever fear that she will be accosted.
+
+Larrikinism is certainly a troublesome phase to deal with; but burglaries
+are exceedingly rare, and it may fairly be said, that life and property
+are more secure in the Australian capitals than in any European towns of
+the same size. As in all large cities, the scum or dregs of the
+population gradually localizes itself, and thus becomes easier of
+control, even though it may increase in amount. And here, Adelaide has an
+advantage in being seven miles distant from its seaport, which naturally
+retains a large portion of the noxious element. Melbourne has two
+disadvantages, which tend to make it the sink of Australia--firstly in
+its metropolitan character and central position, and secondly in the
+admission of a large number of bad characters at the time of the
+gold-diggings. Sydney, of course, retains traces of the old convict
+element--an element, however, which must be acknowledged to have
+contributed to the good as well as to the bad qualities which are
+peculiar to New South Wales.
+
+EDUCATION.
+
+That very profound saying about the victory of the German schoolmaster
+has not been without effect even in this distant land. During the last
+decade education has been the question _du jour_ here; not that we have
+studied it physiologically and psychologically and culture-logically, as
+you have been doing in England. Theologies are a little beyond our ken,
+and we leave it to the old country to discover, by a harmonious
+combination of deductive and inductive teachings, what education really
+is. Our educational crisis has been merely legislative and
+administrative; but it is no small transformation for us to have emerged
+from the chrysalis state of clerical and private-venture instruction into
+the full butterflydom of a free, compulsory and secular national system.
+And that not before it was time. Whatever may be the demerits of
+uniformity, State-interference, secularity, etc., etc., it does not leave
+room for the same incompetence in teaching and ignorance on the part of
+the learner, as frequently occurred in the old happy-go-lucky fashion of
+schooling. Australian children have all now the chance of learning the
+three R's according to the latest and most approved fashion, and if their
+parents choose they can also get a smattering of history, geography, and
+one or two other things into the bargain.
+
+The history of our educational evolution is perhaps worth summarizing. In
+the early days of colonization the Church of England spun an educational
+cobweb, which it has been very difficult to sweep away, and which still
+remains in a fragmentary state as an evidence of past good service. When
+the education of the first settlers was in danger of being altogether
+neglected, the Church put forth the greatest energy to meet their wants,
+raising funds both here and at home to provide schools and teachers. The
+Catholics, and later on other denominations, followed her example; and
+thus, at a time when the State was fully occupied with attending to more
+primary wants, an education was provided which, considering the
+circumstances and viewed according to the lights of those days, was
+highly creditable. The State subsidized these schools, as well as others
+which were established by private venture in townships where no
+denomination was sufficiently powerful to establish a school at its own
+cost. Boards were appointed to control the subsidies and roughly estimate
+the teaching of each school, and in New South Wales these boards had also
+power to establish national as opposed to denominational schools wherever
+opportunity offered. You can easily imagine how inefficient and
+extravagant this subsidizing arrangement proved. In small townships where
+a single State school could have given a good education to all the
+children in the district, there arose two or three denominational
+schools, all drawing money from the public purse, and yet each too poor
+and too small to teach well. At last in 1873 Victoria led the way in
+discarding the denominational schools, and starting at enormous expense
+an official system of free, compulsory, and secular primary instruction
+throughout the colony.
+
+In 1876 South Australia followed suit, though in that colony the
+schooling is only free to those who cannot afford to pay a fee of
+fourpence per week for children under seven, and sixpence for older
+children. Finally in 1880 New South Wales also threw off the yoke, which
+she had only borne longer than her neighbours because her old system was
+far superior to theirs. Here, too, a weekly fee of threepence per child
+is demanded, but no family may pay more than a shilling per week, however
+large in number, and in cases of inability the fees are remitted.
+
+All three Education Acts agree in their main bearings, though differing
+considerably on points of detail. The system of district and local boards
+of advice is largely made use of in all of them, but the compulsory
+clauses have never been properly enforced, principally on account of the
+great difficulty of doing so in thinly populated districts. The word
+'secular' admits of different variations in each province. In Victoria
+moral truths form the limit. In New South Wales an hour a day is set
+apart for religious instruction from the mouth of a clergyman or other
+religious teacher, if the parents do not object. In South Australia Bible
+reading is permissible, but comment on the text forbidden. It is yet too
+early to pass a definite judgment on the new systems, but it is already
+evident that the teaching in the State schools is much better than in
+those denominational schools which survive. Vigorous efforts are still
+being made by the Roman Catholic Church, with some aid from the
+Anglicans, if not to upset the new schools, which has become impossible,
+at least to regain a subsidy for their own, but, I fancy, with less and
+less chance of success every year, in spite of the fact that in Victoria
+the agitation is at present especially strong. The fact is, that while a
+large number of people agree that purely secular education is to be
+deplored, no feasible scheme can be propounded for introducing religious
+instruction into the State schools which will satisfy the demands of the
+Catholics. The Protestant denominations might without difficulty agree
+upon a common platform, and it is on the cards that they may, in spite of
+the Catholic opposition, succeed in introducing a modicum of religious
+instruction into the State schools. The Catholics maintain that false
+religious teaching is worse than no religious teaching, and will be
+satisfied with nothing less than a subsidy to their own schools.
+
+In spite of the yearly immigration of a number of children too old to
+learn to read and write in Australia, statistics show that in 1878, out
+of 100 boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 21, no less than 93
+could read and write--a result which must be considered creditable to the
+old 'arrangements.' But what the statistics cannot show is the meaning of
+that phrase 'read and write.' It is in quality far more than in quantity
+that the teaching of the State schools is superior. To my thinking, one
+of the best superficial proofs of their success is the number of
+middle-class children who are sent to them even in the towns. Previously
+these children had often grown to be nine or ten years old without
+schooling or teaching of any kind, and even now much of the time of the
+secondary schools is wasted in teaching simple primary subjects, which
+ought to have been at the boy's fingers-ends before he came to them.
+
+With the exception of an experimental higher school for girls, recently
+established at Adelaide, the State in Victoria and South Australia takes
+no part in providing secondary education. In New South Wales it has begun
+to do so, but as yet only on a very limited scale. To meet the wants of
+the colonists in this respect, two classes of schools have been
+established: denominational and private venture. The first class have
+often got good foundations, and taken as a whole they may be compared to
+the middle-class schools, which have recently been established in several
+parts of England, the two or three best rising decidedly above the level
+of the best of these, but not being able to reach that of English public
+schools even of the second class. Nor in spite of the vigorous efforts
+that are being made in some quarters will a public school tone ever be
+possible in Australia, so long as the majority of the boys attending are
+day-boarders. In all day-schools the authority of the head-master is
+necessarily impaired by that of the father, and the discipline of the
+school by that of the home; but here this is more than usually the case.
+The parents even go so far as to trench upon the schoolmaster's domain,
+reserving to themselves the right of deliberately breaking the school
+rules, whenever it is convenient to them to do so. 'Some parents,' writes
+the head-master of what is probably the nearest approach to a public
+school in Australia, 'keep their boys from school for insufficient
+reasons, and without leave previously obtained, to carry a parcel, or to
+drive a horse, to have hair cut, or to cash a cheque, or simply for a
+holiday.' Being an old English public-school boy and master, and fresh to
+colonial ways, he writes thus in his report for 1875; but in the report
+for 1880 he has to acknowledge that he cannot maintain the rule he had
+introduced, that no boy should be absent from school except on account of
+ill-health or stress of weather or after obtaining the leave of the
+head-master,'because I have not received adequate support.' 'The school
+cannot, single-handed,' he continues, 'press the point, if parents do not
+like it. The strain upon me, individually, is too great, if I have to
+remonstrate with a parent, or to punish a boy, on an average about twice
+a week.' The boys cannot be got to come back to the school on a certain
+day, or prevented from leaving before the term is over, many parents
+being of opinion that little is done the first week, and that therefore
+they may as well keep their sons at home.
+
+How hard this is for the schoolmaster who has his heart in his work, it
+is easy to see; and I was quoting an instance where a man of great
+resolution and perseverance had made an attempt under circumstances
+perhaps more favourable than could be obtained in any other school in
+Australia; for the school was certainly the best in the colonies from a
+social standpoint, and very nearly so intellectually at the time he took
+it. He himself, too, was summoned from England with the avowed purpose of
+introducing the public-school system. In no other Australian school would
+a five-years struggle of this kind be possible. Nor would this be a
+solitary instance, for though naturally one cannot gather it from
+published reports, the whole existence of a schoolmaster in Australia,
+who wishes to do his duty, and understands what that duty is, must be, on
+many important points of discipline and sometimes even of teaching, one
+continual struggle with the parents. In too many schools the parent not
+only uphold their boys in direct disobedience to their masters, but even
+encourage them in it out of personal dislike to them. In a small
+community, the master who dares kick against the parental goads soon
+finds the town too hot to hold him. He has but one choice, either to sail
+with the parental wind, or to lower his canvas altogether; and though a
+man of tact may make some progress by trawling and tacking, at the best
+he must feel disappointed at heart and his interest in his work half
+gone.
+
+Turning to the schools themselves. The divergence is so considerable,
+that any remarks I make can have but a very general application. At the
+best, the social tone is better than at your middle-class schools; at the
+worst--I am still only speaking of grammar schools and denominational
+colleges, the highest class of secondary schools--it is no worse; while
+the moral tone never falls to so low a level, and in some cases almost
+rises to that of second-rate public schools at home. The Church of
+England grammar schools are naturally the best in social tone, the boys
+being drawn from a better class of parents; and I am by no means sure
+that the morals and manners of boys do not, to a certain extent, go
+together. In the special sense of the word 'morality,' the best colonial
+schools can, I think, challenge comparison with your, public ones; but
+the regard for truth needs strengthening. On the other hand, theft is
+almost unknown. The same master from whose reports I quoted above, tells
+me that he finds colonial boys quite as tractable and amenable to
+discipline as English, when the authority over them is paramount; but in
+most schools this is far from being the case, the fault often, no doubt,
+lying with the master's want of tact. I still have a lively remembrance
+of the difficulty I had in keeping discipline on an occasion when I
+helped to examine a well-known college; but then, even at the best
+English public schools, the upper forms have a disposition to 'try it on'
+when a new hand is set over them, as my own reminiscences tell me.
+
+In the Victorian Schools, and in secondary, as in higher education,
+Victoria offers infinitely superior advantages to those of the other
+colonies combined. A feeling of _esprit de corps_ exists; not so
+strong, perhaps, as in English public schools, but very strong
+considering the number of day-boys. In the other colonies it does not
+take root at all firmly, or else degenerates into party spirit--a
+tendency which it also shows in Victoria, where it is moulded into better
+form by the masters. In most schools the prefect system has been
+established, of course with large modifications. It has difficulties to
+struggle against in the democratic spirit of the country, and in the
+early age at which the majority of boys leave school; but in its working
+shape it seems to do good. This is especially the case at one or two
+Victorian colleges, where the masters have established a mutual feeling
+of trust between themselves and the boys; but at too many the natural
+opposition remains. The masters get too easily disgusted at what they
+consider the rough manners and ways of the boys, and are contented to
+leave them to their own devices, so long as they get through their work
+and obey the rules. Consequently the boys become rougher and less
+amenable. Another difficulty in the path of good discipline and tone
+throughout the schools is the too advanced age at which boys come there.
+
+One of the greatest difficulties a head-master has to contend with is,
+that there are practically no preparatory schools, even in Victoria, to
+feed the large ones; and often, through a sudden rise of his parents'
+circumstances, or from some other reason, a boy is sent to school for the
+first time, at fifteen or sixteen, knowing nothing beyond the three R's.
+Others are taken away in the midst of school-work, either to go to Europe
+with their parents, or because times are bad, and then brought back after
+a couple of years with formed habits of idleness and independence which
+it is difficult to subdue. Looking at the last report of the Melbourne
+Grammar School, I find the average age of the upper sixth to be 17 1/2 of
+the first form 13 1/3; but I fancy that at the majority of schools the
+averages would be quite a year younger in both forms.
+
+At schools, as at home, more liberty has to be conceded to Australian
+than to English boys, and the circumstances of their life make them more
+fitted for it. But masters complain that parents of day-boarders do not
+take enough trouble to see that their boys work, and leave them too much
+choice of studies. This latter defect results from the strong feeling in
+favour of individuality amongst colonists, which leads them to favour the
+idea of each boy from the first striking out a line for himself, without
+considering how far he is a competent authority as to his own
+capabilities. Where parents do not interfere, obedience to rules is
+generally well enforced and that, although punishments are much lighter
+than in England, and the cane is only brought into use for extreme
+offences. The staff of masters is usually fairly strong as regards
+ability and attainments, but, as is too often the case in England, the
+majority of them are neither trained teachers, nor even with an aptitude
+for teaching; they have simply taken to this particular profession
+because they could get more immediate return from it than from any other.
+The head-masters, or rather those of recent appointment, are, as a rule,
+well chosen. Their salaries run from L800 to L1,200 a year; and you can
+get either a first-class man, whose health prevents him from remaining in
+England, or a good second-rater for that sum. In some schools the council
+or permanent board of governors work excellently with the headmasters;
+but too often the Australian dislike to absolute authority in whatever
+shape or form is so great as to induce the council to become meddlesome;
+and unduly interfere with the master.
+
+So much for the constitution of the school. The work though also modelled
+after the English system, diverges from it considerably to suit local
+requirements. English public-school training is directed to lead up to
+University teaching; thereby losing in amplitude and finish, but gaining
+in density and stability of groundwork. But here, although the majority
+of boys matriculate, they do not go to the University; and, to suit them,
+the University has itself been forced to widen its basis. It has become,
+to a large extent, an examining body for a kind of _Abenturienten_
+certificate, and of necessity the matriculation examination which serves
+this purpose has had to extend over a wider area. These two
+circumstances, reacting the one upon the other, have kept the
+school-teaching wide, whereby, of course, it loses something in depth.
+Thus the master of a leading school complains of the little time that is
+given to classics--only less than a quarter of the total school-hours to
+Latin, and no more to Greek, which is, moreover, an optional subject.
+
+But before you begin to blame our system--which, I may prophesy, will
+soon have to be adopted in England--you must remember the central fact
+that nine Australian boys out of ten finish their education when they
+leave school, i.e. at sixteen or seventeen. Four of the nine go into
+business, three into the bush, and the other two directly into
+professions. Obviously the interests of the nine are of far more
+importance than those of the one, and it is for their benefit that the
+system of education must be arranged. As the country advances in
+civilization, we may reduce the proportion of those who have to face the
+world directly they leave school to 80 or even to 75 per cent.; but even
+then it is only possible to consider the interests of the minority to a
+certain extent. I will grant that that extent should be greater than the
+numerical proportion, because the aim of a school must keep a certain
+elevation if it intends to keep above the average of schools; but it is
+impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and the _main_
+bearings of the school must reflect the purpose for which the majority of
+boys come there, if it is to be of any service, or to achieve any
+legitimate success.
+
+For my own part, I am not altogether inclined to regret the little
+attention that is paid to Latin and Greek. Mr. Matthew Arnold's complaint
+of half-culture has always seemed to me to savour of the pedagogue, and
+his school of the prig--though I use these words in the better shade of
+their meaning. It would, I believe, be a gain if the splitting of the
+educational system into denominational schools had not taken place. A
+school with 200 boys--the usual size of our largest--cannot give the
+twofold training, classical and modern, side by side, as most of your
+public schools are doing now; but I am not sure that what the classical
+side gains by such a division, is not lost by the modern side as compared
+with the homogeneous system.
+
+School-work nowadays cannot be mere training and foundation-laying. It
+would be absurd to expect it to cover every department of the higher
+education, but there is a happy mean discoverable between the two. A
+compromise can be established by which, while a preference is given to
+such studies as science and mathematics, which may be held to represent
+the inductive and deductive training, boys may yet carry away from school
+a reasonable amount of practical knowledge, which, if they do not allow
+it to get altogether rusty, can be of use to them in its direct
+application to their after-life, as well as in its indirect influence. To
+meet some such views as these, the heads of our best schools are allowing
+considerable latitude of subjects in their upper classes; but in most
+cases it would probably be better for the man if the boy's future career,
+being once settled, and his own and his parents' tastes consulted, the
+decision as to what optional subjects he should pursue were left with the
+head-master, the parent, of course, retaining a right of veto.
+
+But I am lapsing into an educational dissertation, and must hasten back
+to colonial school-work. Leaving out of consideration exceptionally
+clever boys, the average of learning at our better grammar schools is
+higher than in middle-class ones, which form the fairest standard of
+comparison obtainable, but lower than at public schools. The four or five
+top boys in the upper sixth would invariably be in the sixth at Harrow or
+Rugby: at times eight or ten would. The rest of the upper sixth would
+probably be well up in the upper fifth, or in what at Rugby is called the
+'Twenty,' while the lower sixth would compare with the lower half of the
+upper fifth, and higher half of the middle fifth. Here I am taking as our
+standard our three or four best schools, all of which, except the Sydney
+Grammar School, are Victorian. The two South Australian colleges and
+other leading New South Wales establishments fall far below this
+standard.
+
+I think I alluded before to the want of preparation for secondary
+education, and the interruption of the age-equality of the schools by the
+advent of boys of fifteen and sixteen, who have to be put in the first or
+second form Between them, these two causes lower the age-standard so much
+that one must, on the average, estimate that a colonial boy is two years
+behind an English one in point of education. This is most visible at the
+beginning of school-life, where, as you will have noted, the first form
+averages over thirteen years old, but is partially made up by the
+superior rate of progress if the boy remains long enough. At seventeen he
+should not be more than a year behind his English contemporary.
+
+The setting up of the matriculation examination as a standard up to which
+the average boy strives to make his way, has undoubtedly had a beneficial
+effect. Being a reachable proximate ideal, it works strongly upon every
+boy's _amour propre_, egging on the average and lazy to work, and by a
+system of honours holding out hopes of distinction to the able. The
+practice of giving text-books for it encourages cram, and its width
+allows of shallowness; but, to counteract this, distinction in any
+particular subject is very highly marked.
+
+That there should be a disposition here to look coldly upon the
+old-fashioned classical education is not wonderful. You are beginning to
+have your doubts about its superiority even in England. Here the majority
+of parents would just as soon bury the past, and everyone who becomes a
+_bona fide_ Australian must feel that the history of his country is yet
+only in embryo. Besides this, the tendency of a new country is towards
+practical knowledge--small profits, and quick returns; and in classics
+the outlay of time is considerable, the returns slow, and the profit not
+always very perceptible. Science receives daily increasing attention, as
+at home. Geography is better realized by colonial children, and, I should
+fancy, better taught. In fact, all English subjects, as they are called,
+get their fair share. Mathematics, even in those lower branches which
+come within the scope of a school, are not a favourite subject, although
+about the same number of school-hours are devoted to them as at home.
+
+The school-hours generally begin about nine a.m.; but school lasts till
+twelve. Second school begins at two, and lasts till four, when the
+day-boys go home. Half-holidays, ordinary or extraordinary, are rare; but
+Saturday is always a whole holiday. The main bulk of holidays are at
+Christmas, when some seven weeks are usually given. The midwinter
+vacation rarely lasts a month, and short breaks are allowed at Easter and
+Michaelmas, after the fashion of all schools comprising any large number
+of day-boys. As in England, the Easter term is the laziest; but here it
+is so for a good and sufficient reason--the heat during that period being
+often intolerable.
+
+Nearly every Australian school has a stable attached, in which boys who
+ride to school put up their horses during school-hours. It is most
+amusing to watch half a dozen 'fellows' galloping their ponies up the
+avenue, not to be late for first school, just as we used to scurry across
+quad to chapel of a morning! The ordinary sleeping and living
+arrangements for boarders are much the same as at home. At the Sydney
+State Grammar School, which is in reality purely and simply a day-school,
+several of the masters take boarders, in imitation of public-school
+boarding-houses. At the Melbourne Grammar School the second-master has a
+house, the property of the school; but, so far, there are not more
+boarders than will fill the school-house.
+
+The bill of fare of public schools has, I believe--thanks to scarlet
+fever and doctors--improved considerably since my day; but I do not
+suppose it has yet reached the luxury of unlimited meat and jam three
+times a day, with frequent bountiful supplies of fresh fruit. It is as
+necessary to the credit of an Australian school to keep a liberal table,
+as it is for an Atlantic steamship company. Where several schools are
+pretty well on an equality, the table often turns the scale.
+
+In Victoria, especially, the boys are inordinately fond of games and
+outdoor sports of every kind; but too many of the day-boys prefer playing
+cricket and football with local clubs to joining in the school games, and
+this makes _esprit de corps_ only possible between school and school.
+There are no divisions sufficiently strongly marked in the school to
+become parties. Sixth and school are perhaps the nearest approaches; but
+the day is far distant when intellectual differences will be appreciated
+by grown-up colonists, much more by schoolboys; and it is only in a few
+schools where a 'sixth' and 'school' match is possible. Untidiness in
+dress, and indeed in all of their belongings, is another of the colonial
+schoolboys' weaknesses. At the Melbourne Grammar School the boys have
+studies which they in a certain way appreciate; but they are quite
+content with the bare floor and walls, and would despise the little
+attempts at comfort and prettiness which an English boy makes. The
+latter's pride in his study would be quite incomprehensible to the
+colonial, who not unnaturally imbibes his ideas from the rough-and-ready
+mode of living in his home. As for uniformity in dress, he would be a
+bold master who would even attempt to carry it out.
+
+What I have written of the grammar-schools and denominational colleges of
+course applies more or less to all secondary schools. There is at this
+moment near Melbourne a private-venture college, which, owing to the
+great ability and reputation of its head, ranks with the best Victorian
+grammar schools. I should doubt whether the tone that is possible in a
+non-proprietary school can easily be brought about in a private one, but
+in teaching power it is certainly not inferior. With this one exception,
+the private-venture colleges established in each suburb of the different
+capitals are little better than the commercial academies of England.
+There is the same bad tone, want of sufficient numbers of boys of equal
+standing in the school-work, and other disadvantages, which make the very
+name of a private school malodorous. The boys are rough and unmannerly,
+the discipline slack, the teaching staff inferior in ability and social
+position. The public schools of Australia may not be all that could be
+wished, but [Greek characters] that a boy of mine should ever go to a
+colonial private school, unless it were a preparatory school--a class of
+institution greatly needed and not yet provided, because parents do not
+appreciate the need.
+
+The existence of three universities in a country with less than two
+million inhabitants speaks well for the colonists' appreciation of the
+higher instruction, which they themselves have rarely had the opportunity
+of enjoying. The Sydney University, founded in 1851, was the first in the
+field, but in spite of fine buildings, affiliated colleges, able
+professors, and a very fair supply of funds, it has never succeeded in
+attracting any considerable number of students, and can hardly be said to
+have won even a _succes d'estime_. No little of its failure is
+attributable to the success which has attended its Melbourne rival,
+founded in 1855, at the height of the gold-fever, and which may be said
+to have been floated on gold directly, and kept in deep water by it
+indirectly. Before Sydney could recover the effects of the emigration of
+those years, Melbourne was well under way, and the size and central
+situation of the latter city contributed no little to the success of its
+young university, which, under unusually politic as well as able
+management, increased annually in size and usefulness, until now no less
+than 1,500 students have graduated in its halls, and the number of
+undergraduates attending its lectures exceeds 280. It confers degrees in
+arts, laws, science, medicine, surgery, and engineering--the standard for
+which is above that of Oxford and Cambridge, and in medicine is higher
+than that of London itself. All the professors are men of first-rate
+ability. Amongst them are an F.R.S. (M. McCoy, Professor of
+Palaeontology), and Dr. Hearn, the well-known authority on jurisprudence
+and constitutional law. By acting as an examining body for the secondary
+schools, the university has not only widened its sphere of usefulness and
+materially raised the general educational standard of the colony, but has
+gained influence in circles, into which not even its name would probably
+otherwise have entered. Already a certain healthy tone and _esprit de
+corps_ obtains amongst the students, and _ceteris paribus_ a Melbourne
+graduate is professionally to be preferred to an Oxonian or Cantab., at
+any rate for colonial work. Thanks in no small degree to its educating
+and civilizing influence on the community, an anti-materialistic voice is
+beginning to make itself heard in Victoria, and if it does not occupy
+itself too much with politics, it promises to become an intellectual
+centre. It would not be difficult to find faults in either its
+constitution or its teaching, but it has the great merit of taking the
+trouble to understand and keep abreast of the times. All things
+considered, the Melbourne University may claim to have deserved the
+success it has commanded, and to be one of the greatest achievements of
+Victoria.
+
+The present prosperity and bright prospects of New South Wales, together
+with the educational influence of the late exhibition, and an opportune
+bequest of L180,000 by a wealthy colonist, have lately stirred up the
+authorities of the Sydney University to make a grand effort to justify
+its existence. A medical school--_the_ most successful side of the
+Melbourne 'varsity is to be established, and other improvements
+introduced. But although the principal, Dr. Badham, is a better classic
+than any that the Melbourne University possesses, there is an indolence
+and _laissez-faire_ about the Sydney University which must long keep it
+in the background. Not until there is a thorough reformation in the whole
+style, tone, and management of the university will there be any real
+progress, and the centripetal influence of successful Melbourne is so
+strong, that I do not believe Sydney will ever be able to catch up lost
+ground, or even to considerably decrease the interval between itself and
+its rival, advance though it may, and undoubtedly will, when the present
+governing body has died out, and the public insists upon an entirely new
+regime. As for the Adelaide University, it is bound either to federate
+with Melbourne on the best terms it can obtain, or to drag on in
+extravagant grandeur. In five years of existence it has conferred five
+degrees at a cost of L50,000, and the professors threaten to outnumber
+the students. The vaulting ambition of the little colony has somewhat
+o'erleaped itself; but by a federation with Melbourne there would
+undoubtedly be practical benefit gained, and little but sham glory lost.
+If Sydney would also forego its jealousy, and acknowledge the success of
+its rival by federating on a basis which should allow the Melbourne
+University the position of _prima inter pares_, all colonies would
+profit; but even if Sydney would federate--which I do not think in the
+least probable--it could hardly expect its successful _confrere_ to
+meet it on terms of perfect equality, especially as, comparatively
+speaking, Melbourne has little to gain by federation.
+
+As regards the cost of secondary and higher education, it must be
+considered exceedingly small, remembering that the value of money is less
+here than at home; and that the salaries paid to masters are from L50 to
+L200 a year higher than the same men would obtain in England. The highest
+terms for boarders at any secondary school are L80 per annum, and from
+L50 to L60 is the usual charge. Day-boys pay from L12 to L24, according
+to the school. The University fees are very light, amounting to not more
+than L20 to L30 a year, including all charges.
+
+As the Universities are purely teaching and examining bodies, with but
+little control outside their walls, the religious denominations are
+beginning to supply the want of a college system such as obtains at
+Oxford and Cambridge, by founding affiliated colleges in which the regime
+approximates as closely to that of the English Universities as the
+circumstances of the case allow. At Melbourne there are two of these
+colleges--Trinity College, belonging to the Church of England, and Ormond
+College, erected at the cost of some L70,000, and richly endowed by a
+wealthy colonist, Mr. Ormond, belonging to the Presbyterians. At Sydney,
+the Roman Catholics, the Church of England, and the Presbyterians, have
+all three erected affiliated colleges, but they are smaller and less
+successful than those at Melbourne, and in a large measure serve merely
+as theological colleges for training young men for the ministry. The
+Church of England in Adelaide has also founded St. Barnabas College,
+where, however, the relative importance of the two duties is
+reversed--the college being more especially a theological college. The
+Sydney colleges have not at all fulfilled the expectations which had been
+formed about them, largely owing to the want of success of the
+university; but the Melbourne colleges, and especially Trinity College,
+which is the least richly endowed, and has the smallest buildings, are
+doing excellent work. The atmosphere which the students breathe in them
+is conducive to greater steadiness of work and exertion to achieve
+university honours than is generally found in the unattached student;
+besides, they offer some social advantages, and are also morally tonic.
+In founding Trinity College, which was the first of these institutions in
+Victoria, four years ago, the Bishop of Melbourne may be said to have
+conferred an educational boon upon the colony only second to that which
+it owes to Sir Redmond Barry. Every year it is increasing in usefulness,
+and I can well understand that many parents who before preferred the
+expense of sending their sons to Oxford or Cambridge, will now see their
+way to allowing them to complete their education at the Melbourne
+University.
+
+The provision for the secondary education of girls in Australia is
+miserably poor. The only school that really combines the social and
+intellectual qualifications requisite is to be found at Perth, in Western
+Australia. At that school the teaching is admirable and the social tone
+excellent. The only other school where girls are well taught is the High
+School at Adelaide, but being a day-school and a State-school, it cannot
+be expected to pay much attention to the social side of education. The
+private schools for girls attain but a poor standard in instruction, and
+a worse one still, when socially considered. There is one in Melbourne
+considerably superior to the rest; but if I had daughters of my own, I
+should certainly not send them to any as boarders, and would think twice
+before I sent them as 'day-girls', if the expression be allowable. But it
+is only fair to these schools to say that my standard of what a girls'
+school should be is very high. It is, however, satisfied by the Bishop's
+Ladies College at Perth.
+
+POLITICS.
+
+The chief interest of Australian politics lies in their relation to those
+of the Mother Country. Having imported their whole constitution and law
+books holus-bolus from England, each colony has been engaged ever since
+its foundation in fitting them to its circumstances. The legislative
+equipment of the young Australias corresponded pretty nearly to the tall
+hats and patent-leather boots which fond mothers provided for the
+aspiring colonists. An exogenous growth has prevented originality of
+ideas, which for the most part have been supplied by English thinkers,
+but the adaptability and less complicated social machinery of a young
+colony have permitted the carrying into execution of many valuable
+measures long before they emerged from the region of theory in their
+native land. It would not be hard to multiply instances where important
+reforms have been hastened and made practicable in England by their
+adoption and favourable operation out here, or avoided on account of
+their failure here. Australia is the _corpus vile_ on which England
+makes her legislative experiments. In this direction there is a great
+deal of useful information in the study of our politics to an outsider;
+but to go into the question at large would take up a three-volume
+publication instead of a short letter, and my present purpose is merely
+to give an outline of the existing situation in each colony, only
+touching upon so much of their past history as is necessary for the
+understanding of their present position.
+
+The most interesting, history is that of Victoria, the youngest colony of
+the three, which up to the time of the gold discoveries formed a district
+of New South Wales, not inaptly named by its first explorer 'Australia
+Felix.' Practically, its history may be said to date from these gold
+discoveries in 1851. For the next five years adventurers of all nations
+and classes flocked to the diggings, and quiet settlers from other
+colonies left their sheep to look after themselves while they hastened to
+reap a share of the golden harvest. Fortunately the diggings only gave
+place to mines which are still a staple of wealth. But during the period
+of the American war the gold tide ebbed too swiftly, leaving high and dry
+not only diggers, but the thousand-and-one classes who were indirectly
+dependent upon the gold supply. The better portion of these found
+occupation on the land--the richest in Australia, though neglected during
+the gold mania. But there remained a large number without any visible
+means of support, and not particularly inclined to go out of their way to
+find any. What to do with this large class of 'electors' became the
+question of the day, until in 1865 Sir James M'Culloch introduced a
+scheme for making work for them. By turning the tariff into an industrial
+incubator he forced manufactures into existence, and gave employment to
+those who had nothing better to do. It was in this manner, to meet a
+temporary crisis, and with no deliberate economical purpose, that the
+thin edge of the protectionist wedge was introduced. When once the
+purpose for which the duties had been imposed was served, the originators
+of protection in Victoria thought they could be quietly dropped. Needless
+to say, it was easier to call in the spirit of Protection than to lay it
+again. The gold produce continued to decrease, and the cry was for more
+duties and heavier duties, until a please-the-people Ministry extended
+the list to every possible article of manufacture, and raised the duty to
+a prohibitive amount-for many articles as high as 271/2 _ad valorem_. The
+colony has now committed itself to an almost irrevocable extent. Even the
+relative idea of imposing duties temporarily for the sake of giving new
+industries a start, which marked the second stage of public opinion, is
+giving way to the absolute one that Protection means more work and higher
+wages whenever and wherever introduced. It may in course of time be
+possible gradually to take 5 per cent off the duties at a time. But any
+reduction of the tariff would instantly put hundreds of electors--and
+very noisy hundreds too--out of employment, and reduce the earnings of
+thousands, while the general effect upon prices would take a long time to
+become perceptible. At the present time, come Conservative, come Liberal
+into office, neither's tenure would be worth twenty-four hours' purchase
+if he made any attempt in that direction. The whole subject of Free Trade
+and Protection has for the present completely passed out of the region of
+practical politics.
+
+A distinguishing feature of Victorian public life is the existence of an
+approach to definite political parties bearing the same names and
+starting originally from the same bases as in England, though their
+principles by no means correspond to those of English Liberals and
+Conservatives. The main factor which led up to these divisions was class
+dislike, embittered by the remembrance that both plutocracy and democracy
+started in life on an equal footing. The diggings caused a general
+shaking up of the social bag, and the people who came out uppermost were
+mostly those who had been lowest before. In matters political they
+grabbed the public lands wholesale; socially they flaunted their wealth
+more openly than was wise. _Du haut en bas_ came badly from those who
+had only a few years ago been hail-fellows-well-met. On the other side
+was jealousy, embittered often by a feeling that it was a man's own fault
+that he had not got on better in the world. The change had been brought
+about too suddenly to allow of people shaking down into their new
+positions. In this state of public feeling demagogues were not slow to
+see their advantage. They fanned the flames of discontent and jealousy
+till they broke out in Mr. Berry's 'platform,' the bursting-up of the
+landed estates, reform amounting to revolution, protection _ad absurdum_,
+and so forth.
+
+For a short time feeling ran so high over the Reform Bill, as almost to
+threaten civil war. One minister talked of settling the question with
+'broken heads and flaming houses.' Another boasted at a public meeting
+that he had 'got his hand upon the throat of capital'--all bombast, of
+course, but dangerous bombast at a time of great public excitement.
+Happily a vent was found for these angry passions in the ridiculous
+incident of Mr. Berry's 'embassy' to the Colonial Office, which set both
+parties laughing, and after three years of turmoil which had led to
+considerable commercial distress, everybody got tired of agitation.
+
+The Berry Ministry died of ridicule. A Conservative Government then
+enjoyed a short tenure of office, but committed suicide by bringing in an
+impracticable Reform Bill. A second Berry Ministry came into office, but
+not into power. It also lived a few months, but with its dying kick it
+passed a measure which, though it placed the Upper Chamber on a more
+liberal basis than any other in Australia, and effected most important
+changes in its constitution, was conservative in comparison with Mr.
+Berry's first proposals. Hitherto members of the Upper House had been
+elected for ten years, the qualification for the electorate being the
+possession of property of the rateable value of L50 a year. Now the
+electoral qualification has been reduced to L10 house and L20
+leaseholders, and the tenure is for six years. The Lower House, or
+Assembly, has for years been elected by manhood suffrage throughout
+Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia.
+
+Land reform has not yet advanced equally far, and will probably be
+reserved for the next burst of democratic energy. The view of 'the party'
+is that land should be made to pay a tax proportionate to the increase
+which the State has, directly and indirectly, effected in its value by
+railways and otherwise. The more advanced section point out that the
+greater part of the land was sold at ridiculously and dishonestly low
+prices to friends of the powers that were. For this reason, and because
+the wealth of the colony would, they contend, be increased in the gross,
+as well as more equally distributed by the partition of the large
+freeholds, the tax should be progressive, i.e. increasing in percentage
+according to the value of the property, so as to compel the large owners
+to sell, and establish something answering to a peasant proprietary, or,
+more strictly speaking, a yeomanry tilling its own soil. The
+Conservatives look upon such a tax as nothing better than legalized
+robbery, and hold the most pronounced views on the sacred rights of
+property. A _juste milieu_ will probably be found between the two
+courses, and the existing land-tax be increased; but unless recent
+legislation for Ireland inspire new views of property, I do not think a
+progressive tax is to be feared. As regards the existing land laws, I
+shall say something further on upon this point in connection with those
+of New South Wales.
+
+After a bout of rabid Radicalism, Victoria now owns, or is owned by, a
+half-and-half Ministry made up of the weakest members of both parties.
+Its views are Liberal-Conservative, and wishy-washy; its principal
+concern to remain in office. It serves as a sort of Aunt Sally for both
+parties to shy at. But there is no coalition strong enough to replace it.
+For nearly two years now it has pursued the even tenour of its way,
+harmless and unharmed, confessing where it has blundered, and dancing a
+sword-dance among small matters of administration. So long as it occupies
+itself with nothing of importance, it seems likely to remain in office
+till the next General Election. In view of this event, Sir Bryan
+O'Loghlen has introduced a four-million loan to provide fifty-nine
+railways, which should conciliate the hardest hearts of his opponents in
+every district; for these railways are to be distributed most
+impartially, and if any districts have more than a fair share, it is
+those where opposition is most likely to be met. Unfortunately for the
+Government, a series of accidents on the suburban railway lines have
+recently called public attention to the fact that political influence is
+more useful than competence in the obtaining of employment in the railway
+department. The O'Loghlen Government have not been greater sinners than
+their neighbours in this respect; but unless they take the bull by the
+horns, and speedily bring in a measure to hand over the management of the
+railways to a non-political board, they are likely to be sacrificed to
+public indignation. The failure of the loan will also be laid to their
+door and if either Liberals or Conservatives can only organize themselves
+sufficiently, the General Election will probably prove fatal to them.
+
+Of all the Australian provinces, there is none with the immediate
+resources and future prospects of the Mother Colony. On her varied soils
+and amidst her different climates, wool, wheat, wine, and sugar all find
+a roomy and congenial home. Gold, copper, and tin are not wanting; and
+close to the seaboard she has an unbounded supply of coal, which must
+eventually be of more service in raising up manufacturing industries than
+all the protective tariffs of Victoria. The early circumstances of New
+South Wales were against its rapid growth. Founded as a receptacle for
+convicts, a system akin to slavery soon took root. Such of the early
+settlers as were neither gentlemen nor convicts belonged to the lowest
+class, or joined it soon after they landed. The colony was more than half
+a century old before it got any backbone; and although the descendants of
+convicts have in most cases proved excellent colonists, it took some time
+before 'trust in the people' could get the upper hand of fear. Even now,
+when but few of the last convicts remain above ground, and the masses of
+the population consist of immigrants in every way equal to the other
+colonies, the spirit of Conservatism is still ingrained in New South
+Wales. The shadow of the past still lingers behind in its comparative
+social and political stagnation, in an indolence and want of enterprise
+which is past all understanding to the Victorian, and a cherishing of
+prejudices long after they have been rooted out in the Sister Colonies.
+Even that arch-Democrat Sir Henry Parkes can only govern the colony by
+setting himself up as the reverse of Mr. Berry.
+
+New South Wales is constantly claiming credit for its adoption of a Free
+Trade policy, but even this was brought about more by good luck than good
+management. The circumstances which gave birth to Protection in Victoria
+never occurred in Sydney. No one ever thought of such a thing. A light
+tariff, founded on no particular principle, had been levied for many
+years for revenue purposes; when, on the eve of a General Election, Sir
+Henry Parkes, on the look-out for a good safe, cry, brought forward,
+under the seductive form of 'remission of taxation,' the existing tariff,
+which, though it manages to bring in as large a revenue as the Victorian
+Protectionist one, limits considerably the number of articles taxed. This
+was the first strike-out in the direction of Free Trade. The subsequent
+buoyancy of the circumstances of the colony, and the applause with which
+nearly the whole Australian press greeted the plunge, have confirmed the
+policy, and made it a safe political watchword. But a great deal remains
+to be done before New South Wales adopts Free Trade as it is understood
+in England. From the outward and visible sign to the inward and spiritual
+grace, is often a far cry.
+
+In New South Wales, as in Victoria, large tracts of land have been bought
+up at very low prices to form single estates. But the province is much
+larger than Victoria, and thus feels the loss less. It was here that the
+squattocracy was first successfully attacked. In 1861 Sir John Robertson
+passed an Act by which any person can select as much as 320 acres of
+Crown land in any part of the colony at the rate of L1 per acre, only 25
+per cent. of which is payable on the spot, provided he subscribes to
+certain conditions of cultivation and of residence on his 'selection.'
+This Act was subsequently copied in Victoria, and is now being altered
+there so as to enlarge the area selectable to 640 acres. Although often
+leading to great injustice, this has certainly afforded a healthy outlet
+for democratic passion. The plutocracy of New South Wales have risen to
+wealth less rapidly than in Victoria, and have lived much more quietly
+and with little display. And thus it comes about that there is very
+little class feeling in the colony, and politics are carried on without
+any more dangerous outbursts than the personal conflicts of excitable
+members of Parliament.
+
+Not only does party government not exist in New South Wales, but burning
+questions are few and far between. Since 1878 the lion has been lying
+down with the lamb, and the Parkes-Robertson Coalition Government has had
+to raise a powerless opposition to keep itself from death by inanition.
+Personal politics are always more or less the order of the day, and
+Ministers are well content that as much superfluous energy as possible
+should be spent on petty squabbles between private members, and on such
+local questions as the taking of railways through certain districts, or
+the building of police-courts in certain townships. Of course, when the
+General Election comes, they are bound to have something to swear by, and
+as they are not particularly troubled with either memory or conscience,
+they generally have no difficulty in sailing before the wind, even if
+they have to 'bout ship.
+
+The late Premier, Sir Henry Parkes, has a special aptitude for
+discovering which way the wind is going to blow, which places him first
+on the list of living Australian politicians. Whilst colonists have
+appreciated the compliment paid to them in the flattering reception which
+he has recently met with in London, no one who has lived in Sydney can
+forbear a smile at the idea of Sir ''Enery' passing as a representative
+of the respectable portion of the Australian community, to whom, for the
+most part, he is only less obnoxious than Mr. Berry.
+
+The ink with which I wrote the last paragraph had not been dry a
+fortnight, when the unexpected news came of the defeat of the
+Parkes-Robertson Government on their Land Consolidation Bill. Although
+the Parliament was still young, and there was no reason to believe that
+it did not fairly represent the views of the country upon the question at
+issue, Sir Henry obtained a dissolution from Lord Augustus Loftus, who is
+credited with having had no opinion independent of his Premier since his
+arrival at Government House.
+
+The General Elections have resulted in an enormous majority for the
+Opposition, and Sir Henry has resigned with the worst possible grace,
+having forfeited any regret that might have been felt for his overthrow
+by the abuse which he lavished on his opponents when he saw that the
+elections were going against him, and the ridiculous pomposity with which
+he has told the electors that they were not educated up to appreciating
+him. As to the cause of his fall, it may partly be attributed to the
+opposition of the Roman Catholics or denominational-education party, and
+of the publicans; but it is chiefly due to a strong feeling throughout
+the colony, that the land policy inaugurated by Sir John Robertson, just
+twenty-one years ago, has proved a failure, and that it has raised up a
+warfare between the pastoral tenants and the agriculturists, without any
+adequate advantage to the latter.
+
+It is passing strange that the colony, which was the first to introduce
+the democratic land system of 'free selection before survey' into
+Australia, should be the first to abandon it; and that the same Minister,
+Sir John Robertson, who came into note through its introduction, should
+practically end his political career with its downfall. The faults of
+selection before survey were obvious from the first. The 'selector,'
+being allowed to purchase in any part of the colony, used often to pick
+out the heart of the squatter's leasehold run. It became, of course, the
+squatter's interest to starve him out, and the selections, being isolated
+instead of contiguous, were ill able to battle against this opposition.
+
+The Bill on which the Coalition Ministry was defeated was merely a digest
+of preceding Acts on the subject; and what contributed no little to the
+fate of the Ministry, both in the House and in the country, was the
+circumstance that not one of them, except Sir John Robertson, took any
+interest in the Land Reform question, and that, until his recent
+coalition with Sir John, Sir Henry Parkes had been one of the most bitter
+opponents of the measures, on the consolidation of which he staked the
+life of his Government. Sir John had undoubtedly taken a back seat in the
+Coalition Government, and it was partly to revive his failing prestige
+that Sir Henry Parkes brought in a measure which was notoriously
+indifferent to himself. His brilliant reception in Europe and on his
+return to Australia had turned his head, and he believed he could make
+the House and country swallow whatever he chose. But his vaulting
+ambition o'erleaped itself, and in his chagrin and mortification he has
+unveiled the mask of respectability which he has worn for the last few
+years, and given vent to language and sentiments which have seriously
+injured the position he was achieving and the prospects of a return to
+office. These should have been excellent, since the new Ministry is weak
+in _personnel_, and has before it the duty of framing a new land
+policy, which is much more difficult than that of picking holes in the
+existing system. For the present they have shelved the question by
+appointing a Royal Commission to inquire into the working of the land
+laws. The programme for the session, revealed in the Speech from the
+Throne, contains nothing more startling than amendments of the Licensing
+Act and Criminal Laws, and measures for the establishment of secondary
+schools throughout the colony, and to abate the rabbit pest.
+
+The leading measures introduced by the Coalition Ministry during their
+four years' tenure of office were, if we except a Licensed Victuallers'
+Amendment Act, an Educational Act on the basis of that existing in the
+other colonies, which served as a trump-card at the 1881 general
+elections, and a measure for constitutional reform, in which they were
+checked by the Upper House in 1879. Sir Henry's object, like Mr. Berry's,
+was to strengthen the hands of the Assembly, but unfortunately for his
+scheme he had a very different class of electors at his back. As happened
+over the Land Act, his weathercock failed to point in the right
+direction. When the Council rejected his Bill, he indulged in threats and
+fulminations which would have done credit to a Berryite of the Berryites.
+But the country utterly refused to back him up. It would not be roused
+into indignation on one side or the other, and was utterly indifferent as
+to whether the Council was reformed or continued as of old.. So after a
+few days fuming and fretting, Sir Henry thought it wiser to let the
+matter drop. The Legislative Council still remains nominated by the
+Crown, the tenure of office being for life. On the Education Act, Sir
+Henry's platform was the consolidation of a system of secular education
+and the withdrawal of all grants in aid of denominational schools. Here,
+as on the Land Act, he had held other views in other times; but in this
+instance he caught the direction of the wind correctly and sailed before
+it triumphantly.
+
+In the new Ministry there is plenty of promise but little of past
+performance, and withal a good many discordant elements. The Premier, Mr.
+Stuart, is a good business man, of education and manners, but that is all
+that can possibly be said for him. The Minister for Education, Mr. Reid,
+is decidedly able, but very young. The Attorney-General, Mr. Dalley, is a
+man of great literary ability and a leader of the bar, but he has
+wretched health. The rest of the Ministry are nonentities, and by
+omitting one or two men whose respectability is hardly equal to their
+ability, Mr. Stuart has raised himself up an Opposition out of his old
+following. These will probably combine with Sir Henry Parkes, and _qui
+vivra verra_.
+
+The colony, of South Australia has, to my thinking, been peculiarly
+favoured. Conceived by political economy and born of religious
+nonconformity, it has ever been the most sober and respectable province
+of Australia. Thanks to Mr. Gibbon Wakefield's principles, on which the
+colony was founded, but little of the land fund has been squandered to
+fill the coffers of influential squatters, and by a system of credit to
+small freeholders in districts proclaimed suitable for agriculture--i.e.,
+free selection _after_ and not before survey-a large class of yeomanry
+have been established on their own farms. The stamp of the lower middle
+class (chiefly Dissenters) who formed the bulk of the early settlers has
+not yet been erased from social and political life. Never making giant
+strides, nor stumbling into pits of gold, like her nearest neighbour,
+South Australia has yet progressed year by year at an even jog-trot along
+the road of material prosperity. Although copper-mining has contributed
+no insignificant quota to the national wealth, the foundations have been
+laid in pasture, and the main structure is built up in wheat-growing.
+Owing to a combination of these circumstances, the division of wealth
+approaches much nearer to equality than in any of the other provinces.
+There are fewer rich and fewer poor. The standard of wealth is lower. The
+condition of the working-class is better and healthier; their chances of
+becoming proprietors and employers are greater. The middle class
+preponderates, but its very size, the diversity of interests it
+represents, and the stake it has in the general welfare of the country,
+prevent it from abusing its political power to any serious extent. Except
+with its aid, neither the squatters nor the working-class can gain undue
+advantages; and as this aid has rarely been lent without good reason
+there is an almost total absence of class antagonism and an excellent
+public spirit throughout the community, all classes working well together
+for the common weal.
+
+Definite political parties there are none, except on the few occasions
+when a stirring question has temporarily divided the community. The
+spirit of the colony is thoroughly liberal, without being democratic in
+the narrow sense. In most important reforms--such as the withdrawal of
+State aid to religion; the registration of landed property; the acquiring
+of Constitutional Government, and the placing of the Constitution on a
+liberal basis; the introduction of the credit system for the purchase of
+small farms, and refusal to sell large tracts of country; and the
+adoption of State Education--South Australia has either led the way or
+been amongst the first. Thanks to the more advanced views of the earliest
+settlers, the abuses to be done away with have never been so flagrant as
+in the other provinces. Hence the work of reform has in every case been
+carried out in a more just and moderate spirit. The chief fault to be
+found in the political temper of the people lies in their apathy. When
+they do go to the poll, not a few of the electors prefer to vote for the
+candidate whom they believe to have the most honesty and public spirit,
+even if they do not happen to agree altogether with his political views.
+But the preference of men to measures is by no means an unmixed evil
+under the circumstances. A new country not only offers great facilities
+for political adventure, but rarely sins by going too slow, and when any
+policy of real import comes to the front, the evil corrects itself in
+proportion to the importance of the occasion. To this preference, also,
+it is due that, although South Australian politics are for the most part
+personal, yet the evils of personality are less prominent than in the
+sister colonies. Political consistency is rated higher, and the tone of
+the debates is infinitely better, than in New South Wales, where there is
+the same absence of important questions. Indeed, the Legislature is famed
+throughout Australia as being the most hard-working and best behaved.
+
+With regard to Free Trade, a compromise has been adopted, and there are
+not wanting signs of a disposition to follow the example of New South
+Wales; but I fear this is rather out of dislike to Victoria than from any
+abstract recognition of the advantages of a Free Trade policy.
+
+Warned by the troubles to which the question of Upper House reform gave
+rise in Victoria, the South Australians tackled it last session, when
+both Chambers were on the best of terms with each other, and an Act was
+passed by which the franchise was reduced from L50 freeholders and L20
+leaseholders, to L20 leaseholders and L10 freeholders; the tenure of a
+seat shortened from twelve to nine years; the colony divided into
+electoral districts instead of voting in block; and a scheme introduced
+for finally dissolving the Council in the event of the occurrence of
+certain circumstances tending to produce a deadlock. All parties were
+agreed as to the general principles of the Act, and beyond a little
+skirmishing over matters of detail, it passed through both Houses with as
+little excitement as any petty measure. Public opinion has also declared
+itself in favour of imposing a tax either on income or on property, which
+is felt not to be paying its fair share towards the Government of the
+country. A land-tax was talked of, but in view of the re-action on the
+land question, which has extended in a modified shape from New South
+Wales, and of the present distress of the landed interest, such a tax is
+not likely to be imposed. Certain it is that additional revenue to meet
+the interest on the money borrowed for public works must be raised from
+some source. The land revenue, which had been used for ordinary revenue
+purposes, is now beginning to drop; and since the colony is but slightly
+taxed, in comparison with its neighbours, it has no reason to grumble at
+an increase of taxation. Amongst the more important measures passed last
+session, was one for providing compensation for improvements to selectors
+surrendering their agreements, and for remission of interest to those who
+have reaped under a specified average during the last three seasons.
+Another sets apart a million of money for making a railway to the
+Victorian border to place Adelaide in communication with Melbourne. The
+distressed condition of the selectors, who have taken up land in country
+which all experts pronounced unfit for agricultural purposes, except in
+exceptional seasons, will necessitate a measure next session to give
+special advantages for improved cultivation. Here also, as in New South
+Wales, the antagonism between the squatter and the selector, though less
+pronounced, is beginning to be found artificial. Owing to the clause in
+nearly all pastoral leases which provides for the resumption of all lands
+leased for pastoral purposes at three years' notice, and the want of
+inducements to capitalists to open up the interior, local capital is
+travelling over to Queensland. The probability is that the impossibility
+of selection beyond a certain area will be recognised, and special
+inducements will be offered to persons wishing to depasture unused land
+in the centre of the continent. There is some talk of a trans-continental
+railway between Adelaide and Port Darwin, which a syndicate has offered
+to construct on the land-grant system. But it looks as if the Government,
+which will never for years be able to construct the line itself, were
+unwilling to allow anybody else to do it.
+
+The present Ministry, like its predecessor, which lasted four years, is
+eminently respectable. The Premier, Mr. Bray, has shown himself to be one
+of the best leaders of the House ever known in Adelaide. The Minister of
+Education, Mr. Parsons, is distinctly able. The Treasurer, Mr. Glyde,
+represents caution, and the Minister of Public works, Mr. Ramsay,
+shrewdness and enterprise. Altogether it is a strong combination of
+administrative ability, and in Messrs. Bray and Parsons it has two good
+speakers. It cannot be said that the Ministry has any particular policy,
+though it represents the farmers and working-classes rather than the
+propertied section of the community. It will probably make use of the
+recess to find out what proposals are likely to meet with least
+opposition, and the Opposition will pronounce no definite opinions till
+the Ministry have made up their minds. And this is the chronic state of
+affairs. On minor differences Governments go in and out, but the broad
+lines of policy are laid down by the country, and remain the same whoever
+may be at the head of affairs. Nowhere is the theory of government by the
+people more fully and fairly illustrated.
+
+To write with any comprehension on the politics of a country, one should
+have lived in it and be acquainted with the principal actors on its
+political stage. A mere visitor's impressions must necessarily be
+superficial, however much they may be backed up by reading. Hence, I
+shall only say as much about Queensland as is absolutely necessary to the
+rest of my subject. Originally Moreton Bay was a branch penal settlement
+of New South Wales, and as only the worst and most troublesome characters
+were sent there, the history of the district up to the cessation of
+convict immigration in 1839, was none of the brightest. The discovery of
+the Darling Downs led to a certain amount of pastoral settlement, but it
+was not till its separation from New South Wales, in 1859, that,
+Queensland really began to flourish. Ever since, with the exception of
+two short periods of depression in 1866 and 1877-78, the youngest of the
+Australian provinces has been catching up its elder sisters with
+rapidity. The northern half of the colony offers unlimited opportunities
+for growing sugar, cotton and other semi-tropical products; and the area
+is so vast that there are not wanting prophets who say that Queensland
+will, twenty years hence, be the leading colony of the group. It is more
+than probable that, long before that period, she will have split up into
+two provinces--the older and southern settlement resembling New South
+Wales in character, and the more recently occupied northern district,
+with its semi-tropical industries, forming a half-way house between
+Australia and India. A country of squatters and planters is naturally
+Conservative in its politics. This is the only colony where manhood
+suffrage does not obtain, the qualification for the franchise being L100
+freehold or L1 leasehold. The members of the Upper House are nominated by
+the Crown for life.
+
+The political parties of the day may be said to represent the interest of
+Northern and Southern Queensland respectively. The Ministry, at the head
+of which is Sir Thomas McIlwraith, represents the Northern portion. Hence
+they have recently signed a contract with an English syndicate for the
+construction, on the land-grant system, of a trans-continental railway to
+join Townsville and other north-east coast settlements with the Gulf of
+Carpentaria. Reproductive works and free immigration form a principal
+item in their policy; but that which has attracted much opposition is a
+proposal for the introduction of regular supplies of Cingalese. The
+Opposition, led by Mr. Griffiths, represents the cooler climes, where
+coolie labour is little wanted, and which cannot be benefited by the
+railway. These contend that it would be impossible to confine the coolies
+to the sugar plantations, and that they will interfere with the
+legitimate labour of Europeans. They look for the support of the
+working-classes. The Northern interests are those of planters and
+capitalists.
+
+Although Western Australia occupies a third of the total area of the
+continent, it has so little connection with the sister colonies that it
+can hardly claim to be considered as a factor in Australian politics. The
+colony was founded in 1829, under the name of the Swan River Settlement,
+by a number of gentlemen, many of them retired officers, to whom the
+Imperial Government gave far larger land grants than they had capital to
+manage. For twenty years both settlement and settlers had to struggle for
+bare existence, until in 1851 they persuaded the Home authorities to
+establish a convict station there. This supplied much-needed labour for
+public works and a market for the stock and produce of the settlers,
+while the maintenance of the convicts necessitated the expenditure of
+L80,000 to L90,000 a year of Imperial money in the colony. With these
+aids, the settlers kept their heads above water, till, owing to the
+Victorian outcry against what was termed 'a blot' on the already rather
+shady 'escutcheon 'of Australia, the immigration was stopped in 1868.
+Since then the convicts have dwindled down from 5,000 to 500. Happily the
+discovery of new pastoral lands occurred almost simultaneously with the
+cessation of convict immigration, and the colony has slowly but gradually
+progressed, until now it has a population of 30,000 inhabitants. During
+the past year exploration has been vigorously prosecuted. Large tracts of
+country have been taken up for pastoral purposes by capitalists in the
+other colonies, and several projects for the construction of railways, to
+be paid for by grants of land, are now under consideration by the
+Government. At the present moment nothing but capital and population of a
+more energetic kind than the old settlers seems to be wanting for Western
+Australia to become a prosperous colony; and provided he is not afraid to
+rough it, there is no part of Australia in which a capitalist--whether
+large or small--can more remuneratively settle than in this out of the
+way part of the world; and this I say after having myself temporarily
+lost heavily there. Capital is the great need of Western Australia. At
+present, you feel yourself more out of the world in Perth than in
+Siberia. The people are poor, old-fashioned, warm-hearted, and
+slow-going, with no belief in the resources of their own country.
+Whatever wealth is made there, is made by outsiders--mostly
+Victorians--who are gradually galvanizing the place into life. But that
+Western Australia is destined to become a great country, no one who has
+lived there long enough to know something of it, and not long enough to
+become impregnated with the prevailing indifferentism, can doubt.
+
+The province is still under Crown Government, although there is a
+Legislative Council, two-thirds of the members of which are elected by
+L10 householders, which is yearly gaining power. The advent of
+Constitutional Government will depend entirely upon the progress of the
+colony; but at present it is far from being desirable, the elected
+members of the Council being distinctly the obstructive party, while the
+Governor and the Imperially appointed officials are the only persons who
+look beyond the squatting interest to that of the colony as a whole.
+
+The politics of the country consist of discussions as to whether settlers
+should be bound to pay half the value of the fences a neighbour has
+erected or wishes to erect between them; whether the railway should be
+allowed to go through a certain square in the township of Guildford;
+whether police protection, at the expense of the whole colony, should be
+afforded to settlers in the outlying districts, who are exposed to
+attacks of natives. People living within hearing of St. Stephen's can
+hardly imagine the virulence with which these petty questions are gone
+into, still less that for months they have formed the only topics of
+conversation. Liliput must, I feel sure, have been a far noisier place
+than Brobdingnag, and with the kindest feeling towards the most
+hospitable people in the world, I cannot forbear a smile at the
+recollections of the boredom I underwent on the subject of the Fencing
+Bill.
+
+Reviewing Australian politics as a whole, one notices that whilst all the
+colonies are distinctly 'Liberal' in their ideas, the shades of colour
+vary from Whiggism in New South Wales and Queensland, to extreme
+Radicalism in Victoria, with South Australia as the exponent of the more
+sober Radicals. The two more important provinces have diverged
+considerably from each other, partly from sheer opposition, but chiefly
+from diversity of circumstances and constituents. Until recently, South
+Australia was content quietly to beat out its own little track; but the
+_rapprochement_ between all the colonies, which increased facilities of
+communication have brought about, is yearly tending to lessen its
+individuality and to make it a mere copy of one or the other of its big
+neighbours.
+
+In discussing constitutional questions it is well to remember that,
+although all the Australian constitutions are founded on analogy with the
+British, that analogy can easily be carried too far. To begin, the main
+functions of the Colonial Legislature, and the relations of the two
+Chambers towards each other, are for the most part written down in black
+and white, their constitutions allowing no room for the 'broadening down
+from precedent to precedent,' which has enabled the British constitution
+to work comparatively so smoothly. The latter grew up naturally, the
+former were made to order. All parties in Australia are agreed to follow
+British precedent where none is provided in the Constitution Act; but
+there is a considerable party who actually hold that the colonial
+constitutions being modelled on the British, the spirit of the British
+constitution should be followed, even when it does not altogether agree
+with the letter of their own; and this, although it is obvious that an
+Upper House on such a broad electoral basis as that of Victoria or South
+Australia, affords almost as many points of comparison with the House of
+Commons as with the Lords. A peculiar instance of this feeling was shown
+in 1861 in New South Wales, where, the Upper Chamber being nominated by
+the Government, Sir John Robertson took advantage of the precedent
+established by Earl Grey's threat, to swamp the Legislative Council with
+nominees in order to pass a Land Act. Another difference besides the mode
+of appointment lies in the different education and social status of the
+members, about which I shall have something to say further on.
+
+Happily there has so far rarely been any strain in the relations with the
+mother country. It may be true that the colonists are gradually getting
+less patient when the Queen's assent is refused to an Act, but the
+Colonial Office is also becoming more wary in refusing such assent. This
+leads on to the general question of the probabilities of a separation.
+Certainly there is no sign of any intention deliberately to cut the
+painter; but by a rash act on the part of the mother country, or if
+Australia were to suffer severely in a war in which she had no concern,
+it might suddenly and unexpectedly snap. Such I believe to be the true
+state of the case, unalterable either by Imperialistic demonstrations at
+home, or ultra-Royalistic effusions out here; although in the ordinary
+run of affairs neither of these are without their use in keeping up a
+cordial feeling. Even in semi-communistic Victoria there is at present an
+unlimited fund of British patriotism, and, superficially, the colonists
+are more loyal than Englishmen living in the land. But present it has to
+be remembered that a majority of the inhabitants are still English born
+and bred, and that the circumstances of colonial life do not encourage
+the indulgence of sentiment at the expense of material advantages. Where
+the treasure is, there will the heart be also. When the purely Australian
+element gets the upper hand, the keeping of the British connection will
+become merely a question of advantage and opportunity. In time of peace
+the advantage is decidedly on the side of the present state of things.
+The events of war might reverse the position.
+
+No unimportant tie is the disunion between the colonies themselves. So
+far all attempts at Federation, whether proceeding from England or from
+public feeling in Australia itself, have completely failed. The subject
+was actually discussed at a recent Intercolonial Conference, and again
+last session in the Victorian House of Assembly. But I very much doubt
+whether all the talk that is going on upon the subject will overcome the
+practical difficulties within the present generation, unless there come
+some period of common danger. Certain it is that if Federation is to be
+brought about, the movement must be endogenous. At present the way is
+blocked by the opposite commercial policies of Victoria and Now South
+Wales. That practical experience will point out the true solution of the
+Free Trade and Protection controversy in Australia is hardly likely, when
+one notices the present Protectionist movements in England; but in the
+course of years, one may reasonably expect that a purely Australian
+feeling will overcome this stumbling-block, and give us one tariff for
+the whole of Australia. Such a feeling can hardly become sufficiently
+strong to effect this object without encroaching considerably on the
+ground now occupied by Imperial patriotism. How true this is, is
+exemplified by the fact that the first, and so far the only subject upon
+which there has been any Australian, as opposed to provincial feeling, is
+Australian cricket, or more properly the Australian Eleven. And in
+connection with this I note that the matches against England are
+invariably called International, which is not strictly correct. The two
+questions of Federation and Separation are almost inseparably bound
+together, though in time of war a federation would be possible which
+would only bind Australia more closely to England. Then will be the
+opportunity, not only for Federation, but for Consolidation, or for
+Separation. Which it will be, must depend largely on the course events
+take. As I pointed out above, if Australia were to suffer severely, it
+might cause Separation; but if, on the other hand, she felt that her
+liberties and well-being were preserved by direct force of British arms,
+it is quite probable that an irresistible feeling in favour of
+Consolidation might arise, and Lord Carnarvon's dreams might be realized,
+provided the British Government struck the iron while it was hot.
+
+When Federation takes place, I think there can be little doubt that it
+will take a shape similar to that of the United States; and that in due
+course of years Federation, in this shape, will become a fact, seems to
+me more than likely. Sir Henry Parkes's idea of fusion seems applicable
+enough to Victoria and New South Wales, if they could overcome their
+economical enmities; but that South Australia or any part of Queensland
+should join is impracticable. A year in New Zealand has been sufficient
+to convince me that the abolition of the Provincial system there has been
+far from an unmixed benefit. For most purposes, the colony of New Zealand
+is merely a geographical expression. If the distances between Dunedin,
+Christchurch, Auckland, and Wellington are sufficient to mar the fusion
+of the New Zealand Provinces, how infinitely more impracticable would a
+central Government at Albury be so far as Adelaide and Brisbane are
+concerned.
+
+The character and behaviour of the members of Australian legislatures
+have to be considered in forming any just estimate of colonial politics.
+Unfortunately, the little that is known on the subject at home has
+revealed neither in a favourable light. The rowdy members and rowdy
+scenes have _ipso facto_ attained prominence; but after carefully
+watching for myself, and taking the opinions of those best qualified to
+form them, I cannot but think that the generally-received opinion even in
+Australia is incorrect, and that, taking all the circumstances into
+consideration, both character and behaviour are far better than one has
+reason to expect. Here, as in many other respects, Victoria is the most
+pronounced example of what may be called Australianism as opposed to
+Englishism. Up to the present moment, she is the only Australian colony
+(I do not count New Zealand) which pays her legislators, and consequently
+she has at once the cleverest and the worst-behaved set. There are very
+few members of her parliament who can claim to possess any real political
+talent. But the general average of native as apart from trained ability,
+and of clearness in expressing what they wish to say, will--if we except
+the dozen leading men on each side of the House of Commons--compare with
+that of the more august assemblage. Nine-tenths of the Victorian members
+possess at least the gift of the gab. In the excitement of the moment,
+grammar goes to the winds, and _h_ 's fall thick as leaves in
+Vallombrosa, but they neither hesitate nor falter in their speech, and
+are nearly all possessed of a good deal of useful practical information.
+Their behaviour is certainly open to exception, but so is that of the
+House of Commons. The only difference is, that in Melbourne bad behaviour
+is almost the rule, while at St. Stephen's it may be considered the
+exception. Ministers and leaders of the Opposition give each other the
+lie direct and think nothing of it, and unparliamentary epithets are
+freely bandied about. At times there have been scenes unsurpassed only in
+the French Assembly, and one or two members have kept up a continued fire
+of uncomplimentary interjections. But it is only fair to remember that
+the great majority of the House belong to the lower middle class, and are
+found wanting, even if judged by the not very elevated social and
+educational standard of the colonies. Many of them have risen to their
+present not very high estate from the lowest class. Amongst people of
+that kind you cannot expect to find the tone of the House of Commons. The
+unfortunate members cannot leave the manners and customs of their class
+in the cloakroom of the House. Besides this, the questions under
+discussion in Melbourne of late years have been particularly
+inflammatory. When the appeal has been made from reason to passions on
+the one side, and to pockets on the other, the debates can hardly be
+anything but stormy; and if one recollects that most of these encounters
+take place between the present and the past lower orders, is it
+astonishing if irony and sarcasm give place to Billingsgate?
+
+The recent exposure of grave political scandals in Sydney has attracted
+attention to the seamy side of the political life of the colonies. But
+such scandals, I would fain believe, are exceptional. The tone of the
+Sydney House is little, if at all, better than that of the Melbourne one,
+in spite of the members being unpaid. Political adventurers--the curse of
+communities like these--are perhaps not so numerous, for the L300 a year
+paid to every Victorian M.P. offers special facilities for the
+professional politician, but some light has recently been thrown on their
+misdeeds. The questions under discussion in Sydney are also less
+important. But the very unimportance of New South Wales politics leaves
+open a wide door for strong language. I have a vivid recollection of
+hearing one member talk about the 'effluvium which rises from that dung
+heap opposite,' alluding to another member, who fortunately was well able
+to return the compliment in kind. Both, however, are amongst the most
+useful men in the House. Such amenities are mere matters of everyday
+occurrence, ripples without which the debates would stagnate. The pity of
+them is that they discourage men of education and position from
+descending into the political arena, and even corrupt the manners of
+those who do. Still, one must bear in mind that, however much a low tone
+is in itself regrettable, it is no criterion of the work of which the
+House is capable and which it actually gets through.
+
+In South Australia the tone of the House is much higher than in any of
+the other colonies. The general standard of ability is not so high as in
+Victoria, but the social status and general respectability of the members
+are considerably higher. The House seems to be impressed with the idea
+that it is considered the most respectable in Australia, and to strive to
+maintain its reputation in that respect. So mild is the general tenour of
+the debates, that an old House of Commons reporter assures me that the
+South Australian Assembly is a more orderly body and far more obedient to
+the Chair than St. Stephen's. Personalities of the warmer kind are
+considered bad form, and one of the ablest men in the House has
+completely lost all political influence from the shadiness of sundry
+transactions which, in the sister colonies, would most assuredly have
+been forgiven long before they were forgotten. Of course the House is hot
+free from adventurers, but they are of the better type, and have to
+conform to a fairly high standard of political morality, if they wish to
+obtain office and influence. As I stated before, the absence of burning
+political questions, and the peculiar temperament of the colonists, has
+led to a reputation for respectability being the chief recommendation for
+a seat in the House. There is occasionally a little 'log-rolling' to
+obtain the construction of public works in particular districts, but like
+everything else in South Australian politics, this is very 'mild,' and
+the struggle between the districts is never sufficiently strong to
+interfere seriously with the common weal.
+
+In Queensland, in spite of a Conservative constitution, the debates, if
+we may believe the fortnightly letters published in the leading papers of
+Sydney and Melbourne, rival those of Victoria in rowdyism. Personal
+animosity between members runs to an unpardonable height, and the leaders
+of the two parties are constantly making accusations against each other's
+integrity. Political scandals are more numerous, if less important, than
+in Sydney. Altogether, the impression that I have gathered is
+unfavourable to the Brisbane Legislature.
+
+The most prominent politicians in Australia are Sir Henry Parkes and Mr.
+Berry. Of these, Sir Henry Parkes is unquestionably the abler. He is a
+fair administrator, a good debater and leader of the House, has
+statesmanlike ideas, and but for his overweening conceit might have risen
+to the rank of a statesman. Mr. Berry's talent lies in a fluency of
+specious but forcible speech appealing to the mob, rather than in
+debating power. His vision is limited, and he is a poor administrator.
+After these two I would place Mr. J. G. Francis, now the leader of the
+Victorian Conservatives, who is decidedly able, and Sir John O'Shannassy,
+whose adherence to the Catholic claims alone keeps him out of a
+commanding position. Sir John Robertson may perhaps claim to be placed
+before either of these two, but it must be upon the ground of past
+performances rather than of present action; he is emphatically a light of
+other days. Sir Bryan O'Loghlen will never do anything remarkable; and
+the same may be said of Mr. Stuart. South Australia has two good
+administrators in Messrs. Morgan and Bray. The latter has developed
+during his Premiership abilities for which no one had given him credit.
+As a leader of the House, he has raised tact to the dignity of a fine
+art. Mr. Patterson seems to me the ablest of the Victorian Radicals. Mr.
+Parsons, of Adelaide, should also make his mark. In Mr. Ward, South
+Australia possesses the most brilliant speaker in the colonies but he has
+not sufficient application or steadiness to become powerful. Mr. D.
+Buchanan, of Sydney, is also clever, but his tongue runs away with his
+discretion. Sir T. McIlwraith, Sir T. Palmer, and Mr. Griffith, in
+Queensland, should of course be included in any list of prominent
+politicians of the day, but unfortunately I do not know enough about them
+to pronounce any opinion upon their abilities which would be worth
+having. Amongst living politicians who are not now taking part in
+politics, but whose names deserve to be mentioned, are Mr. Service, Mr.
+Murray Smith, and Sir Charles Sladen, who throughout the Reform agitation
+were the pillars of the Conservative party in Victoria, and Mr. Douglas
+in Queensland.
+
+Amongst the younger band of politicians, it is not difficult to discern
+three Premiers _in petto_. Mr. Reid, of Sydney, only wants more
+parliamentary and administrative experience, and the more thorough
+understanding of the proportions of affairs which a couple of years'
+residence in England would give, to become the nearest approach to a
+statesman which Australia has ever seen. In South Australia, Mr. Dixon
+shows a great deal of promise. In Melbourne, Mr. Deakin's fluency of
+speech impressed me considerably. Upon him will probably fall Mr. Berry's
+mantle. All three of these rising politicians are young and enthusiastic,
+but while Mr. Reid and Mr. Dixon are Australians in the widest sense, Mr.
+Deakin's ideas seem to be unable to reach beyond the colony in which he
+was born.
+
+The Land question, the Constitutional question, the
+Transcontinental-Railway question, the Coastal-Trunk Railway question,
+the Education question, the Immigration question, will be seen to be
+common to all the Australian colonies.
+
+In Victoria and South Australia the constitutional question is at rest
+for another decade; but though it is not at present on the _tapis_,
+there is every probability that within the next five years New South
+Wales will abandon the nominated Upper House for one elected by a
+propertied constituency, such as that of the South Australian and
+Victorian Legislative Councils. Within the same period Queensland, or at
+any rate the southern part of it, if it splits into two over the
+question, will adopt universal suffrage. Very possibly the opportunity
+will also be taken to make the Legislative Council elective, but probably
+on a much less liberal basis than in the other colonies. Five years more
+of progress such as she has made last year, and Western Australia will
+become fitted for and obtain constitutional government. The liberalizing
+of the Australian constitutions is entirely a matter of time, but the
+direction is pretty well indicated. The length of each step depends
+mainly upon whether it is made with the goodwill of both Houses at a time
+when there is no urgent demand for reform; or whether it is affected by
+obstruction on the part of the Upper House; or whether, as seems likely
+to be the case in New Zealand, it is brought about by the apathy of the
+Second Chamber. I doubt, however, whether even Victoria has reached
+finality in its Constitution, and it is difficult to prophesy what form
+the Colonial Legislative Council of the future is to take. Probably
+before Reform can take a new direction, there will be Federation, with an
+Australian Senate.
+
+Many people think that the solution of the Education question remains to
+be found. A Royal Commission was appointed last session in South
+Australia to consider the bearings of the existing system, and in
+Victoria there is already a strong political party opposed to it. After
+such a complete reversal of a policy which was supposed to be so firmly
+established as Sir John Robertson's land system, no system in Australia
+can be said to be finally established if there is any considerable number
+of sufferers by it. Most sensible people--though they are certainly not
+numerous--admit that the Catholics are really aggrieved by being obliged
+to contribute towards a system of education of which they cannot avail
+themselves, and many others regret the omission from our educational
+system of so important an element as religion. But the advantage of an
+uniform system of State education is widely and generally appreciated.
+The present system may be modified so as to give ministers of religion
+greater opportunities for doctrinal teaching out of hours, and to allow
+of broad Christian morality being taught as part of the educational
+course. But I cannot think that a return to State aid to denominational
+schools is at all probable; and if the next half-dozen years pass over
+without such a change, the number of electors educated under the existing
+system will make it impossible. The Church of England was the only
+Protestant body which originally objected to the secular system, because
+none of the other Protestant denominations had schools of their own. Now
+these are beginning to awake to the fact that the secular schools are
+thinning their flocks, and producing a large number of freethinkers in
+fact, if not in profession. They are therefore openly becoming more
+inclined to joint action with the Anglicans, not for the establishment of
+denominational schools, but for the introduction of broad Christian
+teaching into the existing schools. The Catholics, of course, hold that
+just as the existing schools negatively produce Free-thinkers by the
+absence of any Christian teaching, so broad Christianity would be mere
+Protestantism; i.e., the negation of Roman Catholic doctrine.
+
+On the Land question we seem as far as ever from finality. The reaction
+against the selection system will probably not extend to Victoria because
+the quantity of land there is limited, and its character for the most
+part superior. In South Australia the solution will probably be in
+superior facilities for opening up the interior or unoccupied lands,
+greater fixity of tenure to the leaseholders, restriction of the land
+open to the operation of the system of selection, easier terms to the
+selector, and greater encouragement to both selector and leaseholder to
+improve their holdings. In New South Wales the change must be more
+radical, because, in the absence of the South Australian clause which
+made survey precede selection, the evil which has arisen is much greater.
+But the direction of the change will probably be similar, though the
+selector will be less considered, and there is not much totally unused
+land needing pastoral occupation. In Victoria the selections are now
+being increased in size to one square mile, and I think changes will
+gradually be made which will make the large freeholders find it to their
+advantage to sell. In Victoria and New South Wales there is a quantity of
+freehold property used for pasture which is well fitted for agriculture.
+South Australia, on the contrary, has pretty well reached the margin of
+cultivation, and must seek to improve her wheat-yield, not so much by
+enlargement of the area cultivated, as by improvement in the cultivation
+of the area already under crop.
+
+Victoria has completely abandoned Government immigration, but New South
+Wales, South Australia, and Queensland each grant free or assisted
+passages to immigrants of a certain class. For the last three or four
+years the immigration policy has been slackened, but there is every sign
+that another push is going o be made in this direction by South
+Australia, which had almost entirely stopped free passages, and by
+Queensland. Beyond question, one of the chief needs of Australia at the
+present moment is a steady stream of immigration, and this can only be
+obtained by more strenuous efforts on the part of the Colonial
+Governments to make the position and prospects of the country better
+known at home. Immigration raises the revenue and helps to pay off the
+interest on our debt. It reduces the expenditure proportionately to the
+population. It gives more employment, since the new-comers must be housed
+and clothed and live; and it supplies more labour, enabling fresh country
+and new industries to be opened up. Population is the chief element of
+wealth and progress in a young country like this.
+
+The contract which the Queensland Government has just signed for the
+construction of a railway from Charleville and Point Parker marks the
+beginning of an era of transcontinental railways constructed by English
+companies upon the land-grant system. The next will probably join Albany
+(King George's Sound) to Perth, and the third will traverse the continent
+from north to south, i.e. from Port Darwin to Port Augusta, and
+practically to Adelaide. The advantages of the land-grant system are yet
+insufficiently appreciated in Australia, but in this system I believe
+there lies an enormous source of wealth. The Colonial Governments cannot
+possibly afford to construct these lines themselves; but if the contracts
+are made with discretion, the advantages which the companies will reap,
+though sufficient, will be as nothing compared with the enormous increase
+in the value of the remaining land, and the addition to the productive
+power of the colony. The railways from capital to capital will, of
+course, be constructed by the Governments of each colony. Sydney is
+already united to Melbourne, and in four years' time Adelaide will also
+be connected. Brisbane, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Mackay, and Townsville
+will all be joined in due course of time, and by the land-grant system
+Point Parker, on the northern coast, will be included. The next step must
+undoubtedly be the connection of Albany with Port Augusta on the
+land-grant system, and of Perth--or rather Geraldton--with the new
+settlements in the Kimberley district. All this, I think, we may
+reasonably expect to be done in the next quarter of a century. After that
+a line will probably be constructed across the centre of the continent
+from east to west, and the coastal trunk line completed along the
+north-west from the Kimberley district to Port Darwin, and thence to
+Point Parker.
+
+Just before the last mail left with this letter, the Parkes Government in
+New South Wales exploded like a bomb-shell. A fortnight after it was
+posted, Sir Bryan O'Loghlen wrought a _coup d'etat_. On the last day of
+January, Victoria was amazed by the altogether unexpected news that the
+Ministry had advised, and the Governor granted, a dissolution. The
+morning papers had not contained even a hint of such a catastrophe, and
+the publication of the Government _Gazette_ containing the proclamation
+was the first intimation of it which anybody outside the Cabinet
+received. The grounds upon which the request of the Ministry was granted
+were, that the House was so divided into sections of parties that it was
+impossible to carry on the public business; that the Parliament was
+moribund, having only six months to live; and that the Government, which
+asked for the dissolution, was undefeated. Both the Conservatives and
+Liberals, and their leaders the _Argus_ and _Age_, alike blame the
+Governor for granting the dissolution, on the grounds that the House was
+just as incompetent to transact business six months ago as now, and that
+the Government would never have applied for a dissolution but for the
+certain defeat which awaited them directly the House met, on account of
+the failure of the loan. To me, however, it seems that the Governor was
+perfectly right. Admitting the undeniable truth of the objections I have
+just quoted, it remains to be said that if the Government had waited to
+be defeated in the House, no Government capable of carrying on business
+could have been formed in such a House. As it is the Government are
+absolutely certain to be defeated in the country, and in a new House
+there is every chance of a strong Government being formed. Mr. Service,
+the ablest of Australian politicians, who led the Conservative Opposition
+to Mr. Berry's Government throughout the constitutional struggle, and who
+has been on a holiday in England during the present Minister's tenure of
+office, has resolved to re-enter into politics. Although a resolute
+opponent of the excesses of Berryism, Mr. Service is more of a Liberal
+than of a Conservative, and I confidently expect that the general
+elections will result in a Coalition Government formed of the ablest men
+of either side, under Mr. Service's leadership. Even Mr. Berry, in his
+election speech, has announced 'moderation' as his watchword, and a
+longing for the loaves and fishes of office will probably induce him to
+serve under Mr. Service. Mr. Patterson, the ablest of the Radicals, may
+be pronounced a certainty for the Ministry of Public Works. Mr. Francis,
+the leader of the Conservatives whilst Mr. Service was away, will be a
+fourth. For the remaining offices, Messrs. Pearson and Deakin of the
+Radicals, and Gillies of the Conservatives, are the most likely men. Such
+a Government of all the talents, with Civil Service Reform as the first
+plank in its platform, should rival the length and strength of the
+Parkes-Robertson Coalition, which lasted four years, and would be
+infinitely superior to it in ability. As for poor Sir Bryan O'Loghlen,
+the services he has rendered to the country are little likely to be
+appreciated at the poll, and all he will be able to do is to rally into
+opposition the men who think Mr. Service ought to have offered them
+portfolios.
+
+BUSINESS.
+
+The _Australian Insurance Banking Record_ informs me that there are no
+less than 24 joint-stock banking companies, with 750 branches doing
+business in Australia. They all pay dividends of from 6 to 18 per cent.
+to their shareholders, besides putting handsome sums every year to their
+reserve funds, so that banking business is fairly profitable here. The
+existence and prosperity of so many banks in a community which, all told,
+is considerably smaller than the population of London, is chiefly due to
+the wealth of the small number of people who form it, and also to the
+wider range of business which the banks undertake. Nearly everybody who
+is worth L100 has a banking account, and most people who have an account
+have overdrafts, which are given for the most part on purely personal
+security. The banks also advance freely on growing crops, wool on the
+sheep's back, and all kinds of intangible security. Many of the largest
+merchants are to all intents and purposes mere bank-agents. It is quite a
+common thing for ordinary working-men to keep bank accounts; and all
+farmers, even the smallest, are obliged to keep them; for in the country
+specie payments are almost unknown, and the smallest sums are paid by
+cheque. Even in the towns, residents usually pay any sum over a pound by
+cheque. Although this practice has opened the door to a good deal of
+fraud, its convenience is obvious. You need never keep more than a few
+shillings in your pocket, and your bank keeps all your accounts for you.
+
+In a community in which every class is largely dependent upon his
+goodwill, the banker occupies the highest social position, almost
+irrespective of his merits. It is this excessive dependence upon the
+banks which largely accounts for the excessive ups and downs of colonial
+life. In times when money is easy the banks almost force it upon their
+customers. When it is tight, many people who are really solvent are
+forced into the _Gazette_, and a panic ensues, from which it takes the
+country some time to recover.
+
+The tendency to merge large firms into limited liability companies, which
+has extended lately from America to England, has also been felt in
+Australia, though not to the same extent as in New Zealand. In certain
+classes of business these come into competition with the smaller banks,
+but each, as a rule, runs hand in glove with a large bank, undertaking
+certain classes of loans and supplementing the bank's business. They buy
+wool and wheat freely in Melbourne, hold auction sales there, sell on
+commission in England, advance upon wool on the sheep's back and standing
+crops onwards; in short, merit their usual description of loan,
+mercantile, and agency houses. Mortgage and land investment companies are
+another class which has been springing up of late. One company has been
+started professedly to deal solely with wheat: several already exist
+which make wool their only concern. Besides these, there are the usual
+run of mining companies, which spring up epidemically and mostly have
+their headquarters in Victoria. It is needless to say, that in these
+companies it is a case of neck or nothing.
+
+Land is naturally the safest investment of any that offer themselves in
+the colonies. Although every ten years or so there comes to each colony a
+period of intense speculation in land, with a consequent reaction, it is
+a generally accepted maxim, that 'you cannot go far wrong in buying
+land.' There is always the chance of making 50 to 100 per cent. in the
+year by a land purchase, and at the worst you will get 10 to 20 per cent.
+per annum, if you can only afford to tide over one, or at most two bad
+years.
+
+On first-class mortgages the rate of interest varies from 6 1/2 to 8 per
+cent. for large amounts. For small amounts 8 per cent. is always
+obtainable by a man who keeps his eyes open. But, beyond this absolutely
+secure class of investments, one thousand-and-one small chances of making
+large profits with little risk occur to every man who has got a few
+hundreds; and if he fails to turn them to account he will have nothing
+but himself to blame.
+
+In the early days there was of course no distinction between wholesale
+and retail business, and in country towns the largest firms still keep
+stores where you can buy sixpennyworth of anything you want. Even in the
+towns the distinction is not firmly established, and many of the
+wealthiest importers still keep shops. Nor are the trades specialized to
+anything like the same extent as at home; though, in wholesale trade,
+they are becoming more so every day. Nearly the whole of the
+extra-Australian trade is still with England--chiefly London--though
+there is a small import trade with America and China, and export to India
+and the Cape. The French and Germans are both making strenuous efforts to
+establish a market here, and the Germans especially are succeeding. A
+great deal of business has been done of late by agents working on
+commission for English manufacturers; but most of the larger importers
+have their buyers in England. The tendency, however, is towards buying in
+Australia, although it is opposed by the large wholesale importers who
+are injured by closer connection between manufacturers and small buyers.
+
+If, on the one hand, there are fewer of those old-established firms in
+which strict traditions of honour descend from generation to generation,
+so, on the other hand, the smaller size of the towns gives less scope for
+barefaced swindlers. And thus, if the standard of commercial morality is
+lower here than at home, people are not taken in so easily, or to so
+great an extent. Everyone is expected to be more or less of a business
+man, and is looked upon as a blockhead and deserving to be cheated, if he
+does not understand and allow for the tricks of the trade. In Melbourne
+the heavy protectionist tariff has brought about an almost universal
+practice of presenting the customs with false invoices so skilfully
+concocted as to make detection impossible. Within my knowledge this
+practice has been resorted to by firms of the highest standing. Sharp
+practice amongst respectable firms is also very common, and verbal
+agreements are less trustworthy than in England. You are expected to be
+on your guard against being 'taken in;' and if you are taken in, no one
+has any compassion for you, the general opinion being that a man who
+trusts to anything less than the plainest black-and-white is a fool.
+
+Liberality to _employes_ and in the details of business is little known
+or appreciated. Exactly contrary to the prevalent idea in America, the
+Australian merchant is most averse to casting bread on the waters with a
+view to its return after many days. He distrusts courtesy and liberality
+as cloaks for the knave, or as the appurtenances of the fool. Loyalty is
+a phrase little understood, and the merchant leaves as little to his
+clerks' honesty or honour as he can possibly help. In business he holds
+that 'Every man's hand is against his neighbour, and his neighbour's
+against him;' and he pushes the aphorism to its fullest logical
+conclusion, i.e., not merely to 'Believe every man to be a knave until
+you find he is honest,' but 'Believe that when a man is honest it is
+merely the more successfully to carry out some rascality.'
+
+The old-fashioned English prejudice against bankruptcy has been improved
+out of existence by the speculative nature of all business, and the
+consequent frequency of insolvencies. Some of the largest merchants have
+'been through the Court,' as it is termed, more than once; and provided
+there has been no open swindle in the case, no opprobium attaches. Even
+when there has been swindling, it is soon forgiven and forgotten. A man
+who has been caught swindling is denounced at the time with an
+exaggerated ardour which would make a stranger think that swindles were
+almost as rare as the cases in which they are discovered; but it is only
+just to recognise that the exposed swindler has a fair chance given him
+of retrieving his reputation, and perhaps of setting himself up again.
+The fact is, that so much sharp practice goes on, that the discovered
+swindler is rarely a sinner above his neighbours: he has simply had the
+bad luck to be found out. If half the stories one hears are true, half
+the business people in the colonies must be more or less swindlers in
+small matters. I don't mean that they commit legal swindles, but merely
+what may be called dirty tricks. On the other hand, I know many business
+men in whose probity I could put full confidence. But you require to live
+in a place some time, and must probably buy your experience pretty
+dearly, before you find these out. And even they in many trades cannot
+help contamination. It is very difficult to mix thoroughly in business
+without dirtying your hands; it requires no ordinary moral courage to
+keep them clean when there is so much filthy lucre about. A man who is
+determined never to diverge from the strict path of honour finds himself
+of necessity at a disadvantage in the commercial maze, and the best thing
+he can do is never to go into it. His sense of what is right cannot but
+be dulled by the continual grating of petty trickery. He is led almost
+before he knows it into things from which he recoils with disgust,
+perhaps too late to prevent them, and he has continually to be on the
+watch for and to combat the trickery of others. I cannot say that,
+generally speaking, I have much sympathy with the somewhat smug
+self-righteousness of Young Men's Christian Associations, but I must say
+that they have done a great deal of good in putting a leaven of honesty
+into the commercial lump.
+
+The way in which a man changes his trade and occupation is remarkable.
+One year he is a wine-merchant; the next he deals in soft goods; and the
+year after he becomes an auctioneer. The consequence of this is, that,
+although colonists acquire a peculiar aptitude for turning their hand to
+anything, and a great deal of general commercial knowledge, that
+knowledge is for the most part very superficial. This accounts for the
+phenomenal success which a newcomer who is a specialist occasionally
+meets with in a line of business in which he is an expert, and also for
+the failure which often attends the efforts of competent specialists, who
+become discredited because they are not able to do something properly,
+which in England would not be considered to come within their province.
+To a man coming here to establish himself in any business I would always
+give the advice to take a subordinate position for a year in a similar
+business already established. This will give him what is called 'colonial
+experience,' for want of which many an able man fails at the threshold.
+
+Amongst the peculiarities of colonial trade is a strong preference for
+local manufactures, with the exception of wine. A large manufacturer of
+agricultural machinery, who has just been making a tour of the colonies,
+tells me that he finds merchants actually prefer an inferior and dearer
+article locally made, if it appears at all equal to the English one in
+appearance. In a certain measure I believe this to be true. It is not
+merely a patriotic or protective feeling of sentiment, but is to a great
+extent due to the untrustworthiness of European manufacturers, who
+constantly send out articles inferior to those ordered. The French in
+particular sin in this respect. The Americans seem to be most to be
+relied upon. Owing partly to the duty on wool, and to the small number of
+articles which can be exported to America, there is not nearly so much
+trade with the United States as might be expected. If freights were
+lower, or our social relations with America closer, there would certainly
+be many more American manufactures in use than there are now.
+
+Generally speaking, it may be said that trade is far more speculative and
+profits far larger than in Europe. Capital requires and obtains at least
+half as much again in interest. The openings for profitable speculation
+are greater. In squatting, the losses are occasionally very large; but
+during a good season the gains are beyond all English conception, if the
+rate of increase of the flock, which is sometimes from 100 to 120 per
+cent., be taken into consideration. You hear people say that the day of
+the squatter is coming to an end in Australia, and that money can no
+longer be profitably invested in sheep-runs. If this be so, how is it
+that nearly every Melbourne merchant is also an owner of stations? That
+sheep-farming can no longer be carried on with so small a capital as in
+the early days may be true; but if a man has the experience, and can
+endure the hardships of taking up new country, he has still every
+prospect of success. It is in the towns only that the acquisition of
+wealth is becoming more difficult; but it may be laid down as a general
+rule, that in town or country any man with over L5,000 will, if he goes
+the right way to work and has ordinary luck, multiply his capital by
+twelve in less than a score of years; and that the impecunious man can at
+least find more elbow-room than at home. Clerks are said to be a drug in
+the market; but that is a mere _farcon de parler_, expressing the fact
+that they are the worst-paid class in Australia. It does not prevent them
+from getting better pay for less work than they do in England.
+
+In the professions, as may be imagined, first-class men are rare. When we
+get them, it is either on account of their health or their habits. A
+first-rate man can do better in England than here, not only because the
+field is wider, but because the standard of comparison is higher. Even a
+second-class man should do better at home in the long-run, though for
+immediate results there is no place like Australia. But the man who will
+do well to emigrate is he who is just above the ordinary rank and
+file--the _junior optime_ of his profession. The rank and file will
+probably do better out here, but not so much better as to compensate them
+for the change of scene and life; and the Australian public will take
+little account of a man who cannot show ability in some direction. For
+specialists there is not yet much scope. Our social organism has not yet
+become sufficiently heterogeneous, as the evolutionists would say, though
+it is gradually progressing every day.
+
+Of all the professions, medicine certainly is the best remunerated. It is
+not merely that a certain Melbourne surgeon--a man, however, who would
+have made his mark in London--is making from L8,000 to L10,000 a Year,
+and several other leading doctors from L4,000 to L6,000; but that the
+general average income is about L2,000 a year, and an unknown M.R.C.S.
+can within a month of his landing walk into a practice of L600 for the
+asking. Exceptions of course there are to the prevailing high rate of
+income; but they proceed mostly, not from incapacity--for there is plenty
+of that at L2,000 a year and of drunkenness also--but from an
+unwillingness to begin with the hardships of a bush life. To start well
+from the first in town is possible, as has been proved, but only under
+exceptional conditions; whereas the most mediocre medico, with a mere
+license from Apothecaries' Hall, can land himself in a good country
+practice. Provided he can stand that life for three or four years without
+becoming a drunkard or breaking down in health, his fortune is made. At
+the end of that time he either takes an opportunity to buy a town
+practice for a small sum, which, if he has either friends or ability, is
+his best course, or if he has neither, he stays up in the country, and
+equally obtains a fortune, though with much harder work. Bush fees are
+large, but bush work is hard. The bush doctor may at any moment be called
+upon to ride fifty miles to see a patient. In town he would only get a
+half-guinea fee, or in Adelaide only five shillings; but the circle is
+circumscribed, and it is astonishing how many five shillings can be
+obtained in a day.
+
+In Melbourne and Sydney the bar still exists as a distinct institution.
+In Adelaide, solicitors, attorneys, conveyancers, proctors, barristers,
+are all united, and this reform, which works admirably, will probably
+soon be extended to the other colonies. What generally happens is, that
+one man with a penchant for the forum goes into partnership with another
+whose forte lies in the office; and thus, though all lawyers meet on an
+equality, the two branches of the profession practically remain apart.
+But the new regime offers great advantages to juniors, who are thus no
+longer dependent upon attorneys, but are brought face to face with their
+clients. The latter, in whose interest the reform was chiefly made, have
+thus, also, far more freedom of choice as regards their advocates.
+Comparatively easy as it is for a junior to get a fair practice, the bar
+has too few prizes to make it worth the while of the best men to stay out
+in Melbourne and Sydney. There are a few exceptions, but very few, who make
+over L4,000 a year, and in New South Wales the Chief Justice only gets
+L3,000 a year. Hence a marked weakness in the colonial bench of every
+colony, except Victoria, where the salaries are higher. Here and there
+you see a first-rate judge, but for the most part judges are
+ex-attorney-generals of the administration which happened to be in office
+when the judgeships fell vacant. Political distinction has become a
+_sine qua non_ for a candidate for the bench. The leading counsel often
+would not accept the office if it were offered them, and thus the
+just-above-the-averages form the majority of judges.
+
+The worst paid of all professions are the clergy, and not only are they
+the worst paid, but the hardest worked. The bishops get from L800 to
+L2,000 a year, but there are very few clergy whose stipends exceed L600,
+and the majority live and die without getting any higher than the L350 to
+L400 stage. Nor have they here the social compensation which they enjoy
+in England. There is no Established Church, and their position is not
+many degrees superior to that of the ministers of other denominations.
+The latter, whose wants are naturally less, are quite as well, and on the
+whole probably better, paid. If they have any ability, L500 to L700 is
+easily within their reach, and one or two distinguished preachers get as
+much as L1,500 to L2,000.
+
+SHOPS.
+
+The principal shops are noticeable for their size and the heterogeneity
+of their contents. At first I used to think that this want of
+specializing was a relic of the days of 'general stores,' which still
+reign supreme in the country towns. But, on the contrary, the tendency is
+decidedly to increase the range of retail business rather than to
+specialize it. For instance, it is within the last five years that
+furniture, china and fancy goods have become attributes of all the large
+drapery 'establishments, and that the ironmongers have gone seriously
+into the agricultural machinery, clock, china and fancy goods business.
+Amongst these ironmongers there are two shops--Lassetter's at Sydney, and
+McEwan's in Melbourne--which would attract attention in London; and in
+Adelaide, Messrs. Steiner and Wendt's silver-ware and jewellery shops
+have a style of their own which does them immense credit. But, on the
+whole, Melbourne is _facile princeps_ in shops as in everything that
+may be said to enter into the ladies' department. The windows' in the
+fashionable part of the town are dressed anew every week, and with a
+taste which reminds one of Paris. But in spite of this, the best class of
+articles are difficult to get, and the few shops that keep them charge
+almost ridiculous prices. One would suppose that a better class of things
+would be obtainable in free-trade Sydney than in protected Melbourne, for
+while freights and commissions fall equally upon the just and upon the
+unjust, an _ad valorem_ tariff such as that of Victoria presses very
+hard upon high-priced goods. But, as a matter of fact, the metropolitan
+and fashionable character of Melbourne more than counterbalances the
+tariff; and, so far as I can judge, you have as good if not a better
+chance of getting an article _de luxe_ in the protectionist as in the
+free-trade city. Of course the latter is the cheapest, but by no means so
+much cheaper as the difference in tariff would imply, competition being
+much keener in Melbourne.
+
+In Sydney, however, there is less adulteration and palming off of
+inferior for good articles. A curious instance of this came under my
+notice. Shortly after a recent imposition of an extra five per cent upon
+boots, I bought a pair exactly similar to some I had previously got at
+the same shop. The charge was exactly the same as before; and on my
+asking the shopman how it was possible for him to avoid raising his
+price, he candidly told me that people were accustomed to pay a certain
+price for a certain article, and that therefore he had been obliged to
+order an inferior boot, made to look exactly the same. 'My customers
+won't pay more, sir,' he added; 'and if I were to stick to the same
+quality as before, they would go to other shops, where they could get an
+inferior boot, looking just as good, for the old price.
+
+Although there are some dozen places in Melbourne and half-a-dozen in
+Sydney which are equal, if not superior, to any in Birmingham or
+Manchester, the general run of colonial shops are little better than in
+English towns of equal size, and their style is as English as English can
+be, especially the smaller shops.
+
+But in one respect there is a great difference. The English shopman
+generally knows his business thoroughly, the colonial rarely. Supposing,
+for instance, you want some article of ironmongery in an English shop,
+the attendant shows you an assortment to choose from, pointing out the
+special merits of each variety of the article as made by different
+manufacturers, and guiding, but not presuming to dictate, your choice.
+The colonial, on the contrary, begins by asking an exact description of
+what you want; and then, feeling sure that he knows much more about your
+requirements than you do yourself, brings you very likely something that
+will 'do,' but is not exactly what you want. He does not enjoy the
+trouble of laying before you a variety of things to choose from, and
+except in first-class shops he does not seem to care much whether you buy
+or not. The result often is, that you either are strong-minded enough not
+to buy at all, or so weak-minded as to take _das erste beste_ that is
+put before you. Either is unsatisfactory. So far has this custom of
+knowing everything proceeded, that at a leading dressmaking establishment
+in Melbourne when a friend of mine was ordering a dress, the fitter after
+the lady had chosen the stuff, and pattern, said, 'Of course you'll leave
+the details to me, ma'am,' the details including the length of the skirt
+and all the gatherings and miscellaneous ornamentations, which make all
+the difference between a pretty and a tasteless dress, and in which
+individuality has a chance of showing itself. As regards civility in the
+first-class establishments, there is little difference from the
+obsequiousness of the old country; but what difference there is, is in
+favour of the colony. In the second-rate shops there is often an
+unnecessary assertion of the shopman's equality with his customer, and a
+great indifference as to whether he buys or not. In the small shops where
+the proprietor or his family serve you themselves, the thermometer of
+civility registers a rise again, though sometimes after a rough fashion.
+
+No mention of Australian shops is complete without an allusion to the
+fruit and vegetable shops and markets, where every kind of fruit and
+vegetable can be obtained at a very low price; the varying climates
+obtainable within a small area enabling each fruit to remain much longer
+in season than in England.
+
+AMUSEMENTS.
+
+The change to a more genial climate and clearer skies has not been
+altogether without effect upon the temperament of the colonists. Like the
+stock from which they spring their ideas of pleasure are still limited.
+They are still, above all, a serious people; no disposition to abate this
+seriousness has shown itself, even in the rising generation. On the
+contrary, brought up in a country where idleness is a reproach, they have
+the serious side of life always before them. To 'get on' is the watchword
+of young Australia, and getting-on means hard work. But the more ample
+reward attaching to labour out here leaves the colonist more leisure. And
+this leisure he devotes to working at play.
+
+That 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' is already an accepted
+maxim, is exemplified by the numerous holidays and the way in which they
+are spent. There must be pretty nearly a dozen public holidays in the
+year. Saturday is always a half-holiday. Nine till five are the accepted
+hours for the clerk; half-past nine till six for the shop-assistant. The
+eight-hour system is generally accepted in all classes of manual labour.
+Some shops are open on Saturday evenings; but there is a strong movement
+to abolish this system. The clerk is rarely called back to work after
+hours. In all trades and professions the hours and work of the
+subordinates are much less than in England. When a public holiday falls
+on a Monday, Saturday for most purposes becomes a whole holiday also.
+Christmas Day falling on Monday in 1882, business did not begin again
+till Wednesday. So on Friday everybody had to lay in their stock of bread
+and meat to last till Wednesday morning. In wholesale business, in the
+professions and amongst the working-classes, the whole week from
+Christmas Eve to the 2nd of January is practically a holiday. It is quite
+useless to attempt to do any business during that period. In most places
+it is about Twelfth Day before things get into trim again. During the
+first few days of the year the work is done by half the ordinary staff
+The colonist certainly endeavours to get as much pleasure as he can out
+of existence. He has a full appreciation of the value of amusement. He is
+not himself amusing, but he thoroughly enjoys amusing himself.
+
+The abundance of fine and temperate weather makes outdoor life preferable
+to indoor during eight months of the year. Perhaps this is a reason why
+the colonists live in such poor houses and care so little how they are
+furnished. Town-life is a recent invention in Australia; and town-life as
+it is known at home, in the sense that numbers of people live in a town
+all their lives and only go into the country for an airing, is quite
+unknown. The majority of the population still lives, more or less, in the
+bush. Our ideals are country ideals and not town ideals. For all these
+reasons the principal amusements of the Australians are outdoor sports of
+one kind or another; and if the interest taken in them proportionate to
+the population be the criterion, this may fairly claim to be the most
+sporting country in the world. In Australia alone, of all countries, can
+any sport be called national in the sense that the whole nation, from the
+oldest greybeard to the youngest child, takes an interest in it.
+
+Cricket must, I suppose, take the first place amongst Australian sports,
+because all ages and all classes are interested in it; and not to be
+interested in it amounts almost to a social crime. The quality of
+Australian cricket has already spoken for itself in England. Of its
+quantity it is difficult to give any idea. Cricket clubs are perhaps
+numerable, though yearly increasing; but of the game itself there is no
+end. There is no class too poor to play, as at home. Every little
+Australian that is 'born alive' is a little cricketer, a bat, or bowler,
+or field. Cricket is the colonial _carriere ouverte aux talents_. As
+Napoleon's soldiers remembered that they carried a marshal's _baton_ in
+their knapsacks, so the young Australians all remember that they have a
+chance of becoming successors of that illustrious band of heroes who have
+recently conquered the mother-country and looted her into the bargain,
+though the idea of gain certainly never enters into their heads in
+connection with cricket. It may be, and it is most probable, that English
+cricket will soon recover the laurels which the Australians carried away
+in 1882; but I venture to prophesy that from 1890 onwards, the cricket
+championship will, except through occasional bad-luck, become permanently
+resident in Australia. The success of the first Australian Eleven bred
+cricketers by the thousand. If that eleven was picked out of, say, 10,000
+men and boys playing cricket, the present has been chosen from 20,000,
+and by 1890 the eleven will be chosen from 100,000. Certainly, very few
+of these can afford to devote themselves solely to cricket; but most of
+them will play from five to seven o'clock through six months of the year,
+and on holidays, half-holidays, and odd moments through nine months. Some
+measure of the interest which attaches to cricket can be gathered from
+the space devoted to it in every paper, and the fact that during the tour
+of the Australian Elevens the full scores of every match they played,
+together with details of the more important matches, were cabled from
+London every day, and this at 10s. 6d. a word. At the intercolonial and
+international cricket matches in Melbourne, as many as 23,000 persons
+have, on one day, paid their shilling to gain admittance into the cricket
+ground, and 10,000 is about an average attendance.
+
+The other day Parliament was most suddenly and unexpectedly dissolved in
+Melbourne. In a place where political feeling runs so high, the greatest
+excitement might have been expected over such an occurrence. But
+'Reuter,' who may be considered an impartial authority, merely cabled to
+New Zealand, 'The dissolution.'
+
+Chiefly owing to the impossibility of bringing about an international
+football match, the popularity of football is more local than that of
+cricket; but in Melbourne I think it is more intense. Patriotism cannot,
+of course, be roused when no national interests are at stake, but club
+rivalry is decidedly stronger. Some measure of the popularity of the game
+may be gathered from the fact, that the member who has sat in the last
+three parliaments for the most important working-man's constituency, owes
+his seat entirely to his prowess on behalf of the local football club. In
+no other way has he, or does he pretend to have the slightest
+qualifications. Of course there are numbers of people amongst the upper
+and middle classes who still have a holy horror of football as a
+dangerous game, and the want of unanimity in rules prevents the two
+principal colonies from meeting on equal terms. In the older colony the
+Rugby Union rules are played. Victoria has invented a set of rules for
+herself--a kind of compound between the Rugby Union and Association.
+South Australia plays the Victorian game. I suppose it is a heresy for an
+old Marlburian to own it, but after having played all three games, Rugby,
+Association and Victorian--the first several hundred times, the second a
+few dozen times, and the third a couple of score of times--I feel bound
+to say that the Victorian game is by far the most scientific, the most
+amusing both to players and onlookers, and altogether the best; and I
+believe I may say that on this point my opinion is worth having. Of
+course, men who are accustomed to the English games, and have not played
+the Victorian, will hold it ridiculous that the solution of the best game
+of football problem should be found, as I believe it has been found, in
+Melbourne. But I would ask them to remember that the Victorian game was
+founded by rival public school men, who, finding that neither party was
+strong enough to form a club of its own, devised it--of course not in its
+present elaborate state--as a compromise between the two. In
+corroboration of my opinion I would point to the facts that, while Sydney
+is at least as good at cricket as Melbourne, there are not a dozen
+football clubs in Sydney (where they play Rugby Union), as against about
+a hundred in Melbourne; that the attendance at the best matches in Sydney
+is not one-third of what it is in Melbourne; that the average number of
+people who go to see football matches on a Saturday afternoon in Sydney
+is not one-tenth of that in Melbourne; and that in Sydney people will not
+pay to see the game, while in Melbourne the receipts from football
+matches are larger than they are from cricket matches. The quality of the
+attendance, also, in Melbourne is something remarkable; but of some
+10,000 people, perhaps, who pay their sixpences to see the Melbourne and
+Carlton Clubs play of an afternoon, there are not a thousand who are not
+intensely interested in the match, and who do not watch its every turn
+with the same intentness which characterizes the boys at Lord's during
+the Eton and Harrow match. A good football match in Melbourne is one of
+the sights of the world. Old men and young get equally excited. The
+quality of the play, too, is much superior to anything the best English
+clubs can produce. Of course it is not easy to judge of this when the
+games played are different, but on such points as drop-kicking, dodging,
+and catching, comparison can be made with the Rugby game; and every
+'footballer' (the word, if not coined, has become commonly current here)
+knows what I mean when I say, that there is much more 'style' about the
+play of at least half a dozen clubs in Victoria, than about the 'Old
+Etonians' or the 'Blackheath', which are the two best clubs I have seen
+play in England.
+
+Of athletic meetings there are plenty, but they do not attract much
+interest as compared with cricket and football. Nor can rowing be called
+a thoroughly national pastime, though both in Sydney and Melbourne there
+are good rivers. The two colonies row each other annually; and in Sydney,
+more especially, there is a good deal of excitement over this event. But
+the interest felt in rowing is not much greater than in England. It is a
+popular sport, and that is all.
+
+Yachting is very popular in Sydney, the harbour being almost made on
+purpose for it; but yachting is only a rich man's pleasure. Lawn-tennis
+is as much in fashion here as at home, but it is not cultivated with the
+same ardour. The best players in Sydney and Melbourne would not be
+considered as more than third-rate at home. Bicycling is gaining in
+favour in Melbourne and Adelaide; Sydney is rather hilly for it. There
+are polo and gun clubs in all three towns, but they are, of course, small
+and aristocratic rather than popular.
+
+Fox-hunting there is none; but there are hunt clubs in the principal
+towns who run after a drag--in Melbourne after a kangaroo, and
+occasionally even after a deer. The country is of course monotonous, and
+wants very good riding. There are no sensational water-jumps even at
+steeplechase meetings, the colonial horse not being accustomed to water.
+But it wants a good horse to get over the unvarying succession of post
+and rail fences. People who talk about the jumps in steeplechases at home
+being hard should try a run over a colonial course of 4-feet-6-inch post
+and rails. The horses are accustomed to it, but not so always the riders.
+Up in the bush there is plenty of kangaroo-hunting to be got at almost
+any station. The squatters often pay a shilling a head for kangaroos, and
+very fair sport they afford when not too numerous. The wallaby is a
+smaller kind of kangaroo which is also hunted.
+
+There are snipe to be shot in Australia; but wild duck is really the best
+kind of shooting we get, and far more easily obtainable. They are much
+more varied in kind than at home. Rabbits are generally too plentiful to
+afford much fun. I have pelted them by the score from the veranda of a
+station-house in South Australia. At best they are poor sport. The
+kangaroos and wallaby are generally too tame. Amongst other animals
+shootable are the native bear--a sluggish creature looking like a small
+bear; the bandicoot, a small animal with a pig's head and snout; the
+native cat; cockatoos, parrots, eagles, hawks, owls, parroquets, wild
+turkey, quail, native pheasants, teal, native companions, water-hens, and
+the black swan and the opossum. Of these the wild turkey affords the best
+fun. You have to stalk them in a buggy, and drive in a gradually
+narrowing circle round them till you get within shot. The opossum you
+shoot by moonlight, getting them between your gun and the moon as they
+jump from tree to tree. Teal are fairly numerous. Pheasants, partridges,
+and quail, like the deer, were imported, and have bred rapidly; but they
+are not sufficiently preserved.
+
+On fishing I am no authority; but I have always understood that the
+fishing in Australia was very poor. Trout are being acclimatized in
+Victoria, but the day of the angler has yet to come.
+
+The population of Victoria is 880,000; of Melbourne and suburbs, within a
+ten-mile radius, 280,000. During the Exhibition year over 100,000 people
+paid a shilling, or more for admission to the Flemington Race Course on
+the Melbourne Cup day. The usual number on that occasion is 60,000 to
+80,000. I don't know any better way of asserting Australian, and
+especially Victorian, supremacy as _the_ racing country _par
+excellence_, in comparison with which England, proportionately to her
+population and her wealth, must indeed take a back-seat. There is not an
+inhabited nook or corner of Australia where an annual meeting is not got
+up, and well attended too. This meeting is the _rendezvous_ of the
+whole country-side, and generally ends up with a dance, and what is
+colonially known as a 'drunk.'
+
+The large number of imported horses, the care taken in their selection
+and the prices which have been paid in England for the best sires, are
+sufficient proof that for strain of blood Australia is not to be beaten
+in the world, whilst the progeny of this imported stock has for distance
+beaten the best records of the English turf. Thus while Kettledrum's 2.43
+is the best time--if my memory serve me right--on record for the Epsom
+Derby, there have been several 2.43's in Australia, and three years ago
+Darebin won in 2.41 1/2. And if it be objected that the imperfections of
+the Epsom course account for the difference, I would point to Commotion's
+victory in the Champion Stakes last New Year's Day--three miles in 5.26.
+The times here are most carefully taken, and whilst admitting that time
+can only furnish a rough test of merit, the times I have mentioned are
+sufficient to show that colonial horses can at least claim comparison
+with those at home. Doubtless before long we shall see an Australian colt
+running at Epsom; but the difficulties of age and transit must always
+severely handicap any Australian horse performing on the English turf.
+
+The Victoria Racing Club of Melbourne may fairly claim to be the premier
+club in Australia, and in the perfection of its arrangements and of the
+course at Flemington, it stands a head and shoulders above any European
+club. Already it has an excellent stand, and yet L30,000 have just been
+voted for its improvement. The lawn is perfection. The hill behind the
+stand would appear to have been made by nature in order to allow the
+half-crown public to see the finish, as well as the half-guinea folk in
+the stand. The course is flat as a pancake, well turfed and drained. The
+surroundings remind one of Longchamps. On race-days trains run out from
+Melbourne every ten minutes; and, as you can buy your train and race
+ticket beforehand in the town, you need never be jostled or hurried.
+Everything works as if by machinery. It would really pay the South
+Western officials to take a lesson at the Spencer Street Station next
+Cup-day, to prevent the annual scramble at Waterloo every Ascot meeting.
+
+The V.R.C. hold three race-meetings in the year at Flemington, together
+with a steeplechase meeting in July. The principal meeting is the autumn
+meeting of four days on the second of which the blue ribbon of the
+Australian turf--the Melbourne Cup--is run. One hundred and twenty-eight
+horses entered for this race last year, and twenty-four ran. The latter
+number is considerably below the average. The Cup is a handicap
+sweepstakes of twenty sovs., the distance being two miles, and the added
+money only L500. Altogether the V.R.C. gave L13,000 of added money last
+year, the greatest amount given to a single race being L1,000 for the
+Champion Stakes. Next to the V.R.C., the Australian Jockey Club of Sydney
+ranks; but there are four other racing clubs in Melbourne, two more in
+Sydney, and two in Adelaide--all holding good meetings, which are well
+attended and well arranged. The minor meetings in Sydney and Melbourne
+are, however, getting to be mere gate-money and betting affairs, and do
+not--with one exception--attract horses from the other colonies.
+
+Undoubtedly the chief fault of Australian racing is the prevalence of
+handicaps. We do not get so many short-distance races as at home, but,
+unless there is a prospect of a keen struggle between two special
+favourites, the public will not attend weight-for-age races in numbers at
+all adequate to defray their expenses, while a good handicap is always
+remunerative. The V.R.C. does its best to hold out against popular
+feeling by giving liberally to weight-for-age races, but without plenty
+of handicaps they could not find money for the weight-for-age races, far
+less for the luxurious arrangements of their courses.
+
+The colonial jockeys cannot be said to be at all equal to the English,
+and for really good riding one must still go to the old country; but
+every year an improvement is visible, and before long we may reasonably
+expect that Australia will have its Archer, or at least its Cannon.
+
+On all Australian courses the ring is kept well away from the enclosure.
+Last year the V.R.C. obliged the bookmakers to take out licenses to ply
+their craft at all on the course. And this brings me to the subject of
+betting and gambling generally. If the Australians are a racing
+community, so also are they a gambling community. The popularity of the
+Melbourne Cup is largely due to its being the great gambling event of the
+year. Every township in the remote bush has its guinea sweepstake over
+the Cup, every town hovel its half-crown one. The bookmaking fraternity
+muster strong on all racecourses, and apparently make an uncommonly good
+living out of their avocation. All kinds of laws have been made against
+gambling, but they have proved utterly useless. It is estimated that over
+a million of money changes hands annually over the Cup. Everybody backs
+his fancy, if only because, unless he is a strict Methodist, it would be
+peculiar not to do so. One of the peculiar features of this gambling
+mania are the numerous guinea sweepstakes got up every year by a man
+named Miller and his imitators. Miller last year had L120,000 entrusted
+to him for thousand and two thousand guinea sweeps in the Cup alone. He
+takes ten per cent. for management, and the rest is divided into so much
+for the winner, a fair sum for second and third, and the balance amongst
+runners and acceptances. Even those who draw a horse at all get
+something. Miller has many imitators, two of whom have bolted with the
+money entrusted to them; but deriving so liberal an income from
+them--something like L5,000 a year he is hardly likely to be dishonest.
+
+Passing from racing to horses generally. The riding capacities of the
+Australians are well known. Nearly every one born in the colonies learns
+to ride as a boy, and not to be able to ride is to write yourself down a
+duffer. Horseflesh is so marvelously cheap, that it is not taken so much
+care of as at home. In outward appearance, the Australian horse has not
+so much to recommend him as a rule, but his powers of endurance rival
+those fabled of the Arabian. A grass-fed horse has been known to go as
+much as 100 miles in a day.
+
+In 1796, i.e., only eight years after the establishment of a convict
+settlement at Botany Bay, the Victoria Theatre, Sydney, was opened with
+the famous prologue--
+
+'True patriots all, for be it understood
+We left our country for our country's good:
+No private views disgraced our generous zeal,
+What urged our travels was our country's weal;
+And none will doubt but that our emigration
+Was proved most useful to the British nation.'
+
+The author was an ex-pickpocket; the actors were all convicts, and the
+price of admission was the same all over the house--one shilling, payable
+in flour, wheat, or liquor! Such a first night must have been unique in
+the history of the drama.
+
+The modern Australian stage, however, only dates back as far as 1853. How
+popular it had become may be judged from the fact that Melbourne has four
+theatres, Sydney two, and Adelaide two, besides concert halls. As in
+England, these theatres have nothing to recommend them outside, nor can
+the interior arrangements be commended. A large part of their beer
+revenue is derived from drinking bars which are kept in connection with
+them. One of these, though respectable enough, is generally unpleasantly
+in close proximity to the entrance to the best seats in the house, and
+the other forming a rendezvous for all the bad characters in the town.
+The auditoria are nearly all badly ventilated, and ill fitted up, the
+only exceptions being the Theatre Royal at Adelaide, and the Bijou in
+Melbourne. The approaches and exits, are for the most part poor. Boxes
+are unknown, and the stalls are only second-rate seats. The dress-circle,
+which is considered the best part of the house, consists of a kind of
+open gallery fitted up like the stalls of a London theatre. Above are the
+'gods,' and below the pit. Prices of admission are very moderate; I have
+been told that during Ristori's and De Murska's visits, as much as ten
+shillings was charged for a dress-circle seat, but six shillings is the
+highest charge that has been made since 1876. In any theatre six
+shillings is the usual amount for the better performances, the worst only
+asking four, and at some theatres coming down as low as 3 shillings.
+Except when an Italian Opera Company is playing, full dress is
+unnecessary, and even unusual, at the theatre.
+
+The colonial taste in theatrical matters follows the English pretty
+closely. Opera-bouffe and Gilbert and Sullivan are preferred to
+everything else. Next in popularity is the 'New Babylon' type of play.
+Low comedy also draws well; and I have often wondered that Mr. Toole has
+not paid us a visit. Opera pure and simple used to be more appreciated
+than it is; but as the companies which produced it were always very
+second-rate, its temporary disappearance is not altogether to be
+regretted. The class of opera company that usually comes out here may be
+imagined when I tell you that Rose Hersee was a favourite _prima donna_!
+There are now sufficient resident operatic singers of the third class
+to perform opera without assistance from European stars; but by
+themselves these purely colonial companies do not draw well, except in
+pieces of the 'Patience,' or 'Tambour-Major' type. The Byron comedies are
+popular throughout Australia. Thanks to a company which came out from
+Enaland in 1880, and most of the members of which have taken up their
+abode here, they have been much better acted than any other class of
+plays. The modern society drama is not much appreciated, partly because
+the life in which its action takes place is little understood, and partly
+on account of the lack of the class of actors required to make the pieces
+successful. Dion Boucicault is still a favourite. Shakespeare is
+frequently played but, although the stage-mounting has been exceptionally
+good, and we have had such very fair actors as Creswick, and Hoskins, and
+Scott-Siddons, a high, authority has recently declared that Rignold's
+'Henry V.' is the only Shakespearean performance, that has paid for many
+years.
+
+The average quality of the acting on the Australian boards is by no means
+good. The difference between first and second rate art is not understood
+by a sufficiently large number of people to make it profitable for such
+companies as the Bancrofts, and Messrs. Hare and Kendall's, or stars of
+the first magnitude, to come out here. Since Ristori was here in 1874,
+Scott-Siddons, Creswick and Rignold, have been the best known actors we
+have seen; although Marshall's Quilp, Vernon's Bunthorne, and Hoskins's
+Touchstone, were impersonations of a high-class. Soldene, curious to say,
+did not hit the popular taste. The cardinal fault of colonial acting
+seems to me to be exaggeration. Most of our actors are artificial and
+stagey; even those who clear themselves of these faults seem to play down
+to the understanding of their audience. The 'star' system is as prevalent
+as in England. The stock companies are for the most part very poor.
+Pieces which require a large number of persons on the stage of course
+suffer. Colonial supernumeraries can only be compared with those at
+country theatres at home. Considering the circumstances, however, the
+scenery and mounting are as a rule most creditable. The last two years,
+especially, there has been a great improvement in this department.
+Melbourne is decidedly the theatrical centre of Australia. It has twice
+as many theatres as Sydney; most pieces are brought out there for the
+first time in the colonies; its audiences are more appreciative and
+critical; its stock companies are better. If a piece succeeds in
+Melbourne, its success everywhere else is assured.
+
+Whether it is on account of the warmer climate I do not know, but
+certainly the colonists are a more musical people than the English. Of
+course I do not mean that there are any considerable number of people
+here who really understand classical music, or who play any instrument or
+sing really well. On the contrary, as I think I have said in some other
+connection, there is no part of the world where you hear so much bad
+music, professional and amateur. But it is also true, that there are few
+parts where you hear so much music. Almost every working-man has his
+girls taught to strum the piano. Amateur concerts are exceedingly
+popular. Most young people think they can sing, and Nature has certainly
+endowed the young colonials with, on the average, far better and more
+numerous voices than she has bestowed on English boys and girls.
+Sometimes when you are bored in a drawing-room by bad music and poor
+singing, you are inclined to think that the colonial love of music is an
+intolerable nuisance. Especially is this the case with me, who have been
+constantly interrupted in writing by my neighbour's daughters strumming
+the only two tunes they know--and those tunes 'Pinafore,' and 'Madame
+Angot.' But if you are out for a walk on a summer's evening, and look
+into the windows of working men's cottages, you will see the old folk
+after their day's labour gathered round the piano in the sitting-room to
+hear their daughters play. I cannot hold with those who think a
+working-man's daughter should not learn music. Their reasoning is
+illogical--for being able to play the piano is in itself harmless, and
+may keep the girl out of mischief. Further, it gives a great deal of
+pleasure to her parents and friends, and often to herself as well.
+
+As for musical performances apart from opera, there are plenty of them.
+Twice a week there is an organ recital in the Melbourne Town Hall. Hardly
+a night passes without a concert of some kind is going on. As in
+theatrical matters, Melbourne takes the lead in all things musical. Last
+Christmas-week it was actually so ambitious as to get up a Musical
+Festival. The Town Hall organ is excellent. A good concert will always
+draw well. Ketten--who was not a marvel--had crowded houses night after
+night, with no other attraction but his pianoforte. Wilheling, who really
+deserved all the praise he got, found ample success in Melbourne, and a
+fair measure of it in Sydney and Adelaide. Arabella Goddard was, I
+believe, well satisfied with her Australian tour, though it was made when
+the population was not two-thirds of what it is now, and much less
+cultured. The colonists are genuinely fond of music, bushmen and townsmen
+alike. They may not know very much about it, but they are anxious to
+learn all they can. They will even pay to hear something above their
+appreciation, if the _Australasian_ tells them that it will improve
+their musical taste. The orchestra in the Melbourne Town Hall will
+accommodate 500 performers, and the hall itself can seat 4,000 people.
+The Sydney and Adelaide Town Halls are little smaller, and yet it is no
+uncommon sight to see them filled whenever a good concert is provided.
+Besides their town halls, each city has a smaller hall, devoted to
+musical entertainments.
+
+The most remunerative spectacular representation is what the most
+celebrated colonial impresario, Mr. R S. Smythe, calls a 'one-man show.'
+Mr. Archibald Forbes and Mr. R. A. Proctor both made fabulous sums out of
+their trip to the colonies; and if Arthur Sketchley failed, it was purely
+for want of a good agent. In Adelaide, which, as a Puritan community,
+looks somewhat askance at opera and drama, the popularity of good
+lectures is beyond belief.
+
+In a horse-loving country circuses are of course popular. Perhaps in no
+other part of the world can a circus obtain so critical and appreciative
+an attendance. Christy Minstrels and conjurors apparently do well,
+considering how very poor some of the miscellaneous entertainments which
+visit Australia are, it is most remarkable that they should contrive to
+get so good audiences.
+
+Household amusements are much the same as at home, although more
+frequently indulged in. The more frank relations between the sexes make
+dancing a favourite pastime. In this less pretentious social atmosphere a
+dance can be given without all the costly paraphernalia customary in
+England, and a far larger class of people are able to afford to give
+parties and balls. 'Assemblies' are held every season in all the towns,
+the season being, of course, in the winter months. Even the servants are
+accustomed to go to balls, and a mistress would only make herself
+ridiculous who looked upon their going to one as anything but proper. And
+here I agree with the colonists. So long as her work is done for the day,
+and provided that she does not go to so many balls as to interfere with
+her capacity for doing her work, I cannot see what impropriety there is
+in Biddy going to her ball. No doubt she enjoys dancing, and how can it
+do her any more harm than her young mistress? With all the universal love
+of dancing, which permeates even the strictest Puritans amongst the young
+colonials, there is very little good dancing to be met with. People out
+here do not attach much importance to what are called 'accomplishments.'
+To dance is pleasant, but it would be a waste of time to take trouble to
+learn to dance well.
+
+A mining population is always a gambling one and a card-playing one. In
+Adelaide the old Puritan element still sets its face as steadily as it
+can against cards as the devil's playthings; but young Australia will not
+put up with any such prejudices. Of course the mining townships are the
+centre of gambling with cards; but the passion extends sufficiently
+widely to do a good deal of harm. 'Euchre' is the favourite game, then
+'Nap' and 'Loo;' but it would not be fair to call the Australians a
+card-gambling people in comparison with the Californians.
+
+NEWSPAPERS.
+
+This is essentially the land of newspapers. The colonist is by nature an
+inquisitive animal, who likes to know what is going on around him. The
+young colonial has inherited this proclivity. Excepting the Bible,
+Shakespeare, and Macaulay's 'Essays,' the only literature within the
+bushman's reach are newspapers. The townsman deems them equally essential
+to his well-being. Nearly everybody can read, and nearly everybody has
+leisure to do so. Again, the proportion of the population who can afford
+to purchase and subscribe to newspapers is ten times as large as in
+England; hence the number of sheets issued is comparatively much greater.
+Every country township has its weekly or bi-weekly organ. In Victoria
+alone there are over 200 different sheets published. Nor is the quality
+inferior to the quantity. On the contrary, if there is one institution of
+which Australians have reason to be proud, it is their newspaper press.
+
+Almost without exception it is thoroughly respectable and well-conducted.
+From the leading metropolitan journals to the smallest provincial sheets,
+the tone is healthy, the news trustworthy. The style is purely English,
+without a touch of Americanism. Reports are fairly given; telegrams are
+rarely invented; sensation is not sought after; criticisms, if not very
+deep, are at least impartial, and written according to the critic's
+lights. Neither directly nor indirectly does anybody even think of
+attempting to bribe either conductors of journals or their reporters; the
+whole press is before everything, honest. Although virulence in politics
+is frequent, scurrility is confined to a very few sheets. The enterprise
+displayed in obtaining telegraphic intelligence and special reports on
+the questions of the day, whether Australian or European, is wonderful,
+considering the small population. In literary ability the public have
+nothing to complain of.
+
+Melbourne attracts to itself most of the able and clever men in
+literature and journalism There is a pleasant press club there called the
+'Yorick,' which forms a sort of literary focus; and for one clever,
+writer whom you find in the other colonies put together, there are two in
+Melbourne. It is the only Australian city which can claim to have
+anything approaching to a literary centre. It is no wonder, then, that
+the _Argus_ is the best daily paper published, out of England. There
+are people who assert that it is only second to the _Times_; but
+without going so far as this, there is ample room for surprise on the
+part of the stranger, and pride on that of the Australian, that so
+excellent a paper can be produced amidst so small a population, and under
+so great difficulties of distance from the centres of news and
+civilization. The _Argus_ will compare favourably with the _Manchester
+Guardian_, _Leeds Mercury_, or any other of the best provincial
+journals. In many respects it will be found superior to them; but
+although the amount of reading matter it contains is often larger than in
+the _Standard_ or _Daily News_, it cannot reasonably claim comparison
+with them. The leading articles are able, though often virulent; the news
+of the day well arranged and given in a concise, business-like manner;
+the telegrams--European, intercolonial, and provincial--are full, the
+expenditure in this department being very large. Literary articles are
+more numerous than in the London dailies, and are generally well
+executed. The theatrical critiques, though the best in Australia, are
+somewhat poor. The reports of parliamentary proceedings, public meetings,
+etc., are exceedingly full and very intelligently given, and their
+relative importance is well estimated. Throughout, the paper is admirably
+proportioned and well edited, the paragraphs being much more carefully
+written than in any London paper except the _Times_. There is rarely a
+slipshod sentence to be found in any part of the paper, which is the more
+remarkable as slipshod writing is a noticeable characteristic of almost
+every other colonial paper. The leading articles are for the most part
+supplied by contributors not on the permanent staff, two university
+professors being amongst the best known. They also write reviews and
+literary articles, though the doyen in that department is Mr. James
+Smith, to whom the _Argus_ pays a retaining fee of L500 a year. Art
+criticism is also in Mr. Smith's hands; and although all his work is
+essentially bookish and wanting in originality, he thoroughly understands
+his subjects, and his style and language are excellent.
+
+The paper and type used by the _Argus_ are similar to those of the
+_Times_, and in the arrangement, contents, and general style of the
+paper the same model has been followed. The standard issue is an
+eight-page sheet about three-quarters the size of the _Daily News_; but
+when Parliament is sitting, a two or four-page supplement is nearly
+always issued; and on Saturdays the number of advertisements compels a
+double issue, which includes 'London Town Talk,' by Mr. James Payne, and
+about half a dozen columns of reviews, essays, etc. On ordinary days four
+to five out of the eight pages are always covered with advertisements in
+small type, charged for at the highest rate obtainable in the colonies.
+The published price is threepence, and the circulation must be from ten
+to fifteen thousand.
+
+As the _Argus_ may be considered as the type of the Australian press at
+the highest point it has yet attained, it is worth while to make a short
+examination of a casual copy. The reading matter begins at the left-hand
+corner of page 6, with the heading 'Shipping Intelligence,' under which
+we learn that six steamers and one sailing-ship have arrived in Hobson's
+Bay on December 21st, and that four steamers and one sailing-ship have
+cleared out. Next comes a Weather Chart of Australia and New Zealand,
+after the model of the one in the _Times_; and then follow the
+observations taken at the Melbourne Observatory, a synopsis of the
+weather, and the state of the tide, wind and weather at twenty-two
+stations on the Murray, Murrumbidgee, Ovens, and Goulburn rivers. About
+halfway down the third column, we reach the heading 'Commercial
+Intelligence,' with a report upon the state of the market, and the sales
+reported during the day, auctioneers' reports, list of specie shipments,
+amount of revenue collected during the previous day at the Custom House
+(L7,498), stock sales, calls and dividends, and commercial telegrams from
+London, Sydney, and Adelaide.
+
+The next heading is 'Mails Outward,' which are separated from the leading
+columns only by the special advertisements, of which there are over a
+column. It happens that this day there are only two leading articles,
+whereas generally there are also two small or sub-leaders. The first
+leader is on the finding of the Coroner's jury anent a disastrous railway
+accident which has recently taken place. The second on the preference of
+colonial girls and women for low-paid factory-work, when comparative
+independence, easier work, and much higher wages are obtainable in
+domestic service. These two leaders occupy altogether nearly three
+columns, and are followed by five columns of 'News of the Day,' split up
+into fifty paragraphs.
+
+It is worth while to run the eye briefly through these paragraphs, which
+might be headed thus--_Resume_ of telegraphic intelligence; short
+account of Dr. Benson, whose appointment to the Primacy is announced by
+telegram; short account of the distribution of prizes at the Bordeaux
+Exhibition; announcement of the arrival of the P. and 0. mail at Albany,
+and of its departure from Melbourne the previous day; short account of
+the trip of H.M.S. _Miranda_, just arrived in the bay; ditto of the
+movements of H.M.S. _Nelson_, and of the Orient liner _Chimborazo_,
+with mention of some notable colonists arrived by the last ship; summary
+in eleven paragraphs of the last night's parliamentary proceedings;
+notice of a meeting to have a testimonial picture of Sir Charles Sladen
+placed in the Public Library; a puff of the coming issue of the
+_Australasian_; account of an inquest; three notices of Civil Service
+appointments; one of the intentions of the railway department about
+excursion tickets, and another announcing the introduction of reply
+post-cards; another that the Government intends circulating amongst
+vignerons a report and pictures of the Phylloxera vastatrix; a summary of
+the doings of the Tariff Commission; a notice of the intentions of the
+Steam Navigation Board; a list of subscriptions to the children's
+charities; a summary of two judgments in the Supreme Court; of a will
+(value L75,200); of a mining law case; of applications for probate of a
+will, and for the custody of children; an account of a fire, another of a
+distribution of prizes; a summary of the programme of a Music Festival;
+announcements of the different theatre performances, and seven
+subscription lists.
+
+The last column of the seventh page is headed 'Special Telegrams.' Of
+these there are only five today: one about the construction of Prussian
+railways on the Russian frontier, the second about the French expedition
+to Tonquin, the third on the relations between France and Madagascar, the
+fourth noting an explosion at Fort Valerian, the fifth on the execution
+of Oberdank. Then follow eleven messages from Reuter on M. Tisza's speech
+on the relations between Russia and Austria; on the Egyptian Financial
+control; the new Archbishop of Canterbury; the Lough Mask murders; the
+health of Mr. Fawcett and M. Gambetta; the trial of MM. Bontoux and
+Feder; the mails; monetary intelligence; commercial intelligence, and
+foreign shipping intelligence. This list gives not at all a bad idea of
+what European news is considered of sufficient importance to be
+telegraphed 15,000 miles.
+
+Turning over the page, a column and a quarter is occupied with a general
+summary of European news by the P. and 0. mail, telegraphed from Albany.
+Then follows country news by telegraph. Between Sydney and Melbourne the
+ _Argus_ has a special wire, which accounts for three quarters of a
+column of Sydney intelligence on twenty different subjects. There is also
+nearly half a column from Adelaide on nine subjects, and a "stick" from
+Perth on three subjects. The list of overland passengers from and to
+Sydney is also telegraphed from Albany. 'Mining and Monetary
+Intelligence' takes up over a column, without counting another column in
+very small type of 'Mining Reports.'
+
+Turning to the back page, we find that the first column forms the
+conclusion of the Parliamentary Debates. A column and a half has a large
+heading--'The Creswick Calamity,'--and is chiefly composed of
+subscription lists for the sufferers and accounts of meetings held in
+various parts of the country on their behalf. A column and a quarter is
+headed 'Sporting Intelligence '(results of small provincial race-meetings
+being telegraphed); a column is devoted to 'Cricket,' and a third of a
+column to' Rowing.'
+
+We now take up the outside sheet, and find the whole of page 4, taken up
+by a report of last night's Parliamentary debates. On the opposite page
+(9) the first three columns contain a full report of the inquest in
+connection with a fatal railway accident on a suburban line. Then comes a
+list of eighty-seven school-buildings to be erected or completed at a
+cost of L25,000. Three deputations take up nearly half, and the Russell
+Street fire two-thirds, of a column.
+
+Opening the sheet, pages 10 and 11 are the only two with reading matter.
+On 10 is a report of the Police Commission Meeting, occupying two columns
+and a half; and reports of School Speech Days--over three columns for
+eight schools. On page 11 the first four columns are Law Reports; a
+column and a half is devoted to a wool and station-produce report, and
+two half columns to reports of meetings of the Melbourne Presbytery and
+the Melbourne Hospital Committee.
+
+The remaining space is taken up by paragraphs under a third of a column
+in length, with cross-headings as follows: 'Casualties and Offences;'
+'Police Intelligence;' 'The Death of Mr. Chabot;' 'New Insolvents;'
+'University of Melbourne;' 'Friendly Societies;' 'The Belfast Savings
+Bank Case (by telegraph);' 'The Workmen's Strike;' 'Collingwood City
+Council;' 'A Recent Meeting;' 'The Wellesley Divorce Case;' 'The Victoria
+Agricultural Society.' 'Australian Electric Light Co.;' 'Public Tenders;'
+'Ballarat News;' 'Victoria Masonic Lodge;' 'Early Closing Association;'
+'The Tariff Commission;' '_Iron_ on Continuous Brakes;' and letters to
+the Editor on 'Holiday Excursion Tickets,' 'Window Blinds for Omnibuses,'
+'Swimming at the State Schools,' 'The Musical Festival (3),' and
+'Immigration to Victoria.'
+
+An analysis of the advertisements of the _Argus_ is almost equally
+interesting as showing the heterogeneity of the wants of the community.
+There are Births, 3; Marriages, 5; Deaths, 6; Funeral Notices, 5; Missing
+Friends, Messages etc., 8; Lost and Found, 13; Railways and Conveyances,
+6; Shipping, no less than four columns, including eight different lines
+of steamers to Europe, of which six are English, and seven of
+intercolonial steamers, of which three are owned in Melbourne, one each
+in Sydney, Adelaide, New Zealand and Tasmania. The next lines are Stocks
+and Shares, of which there are 18 advertisements; Lectures, Sermons,
+Soirees, etc, 5; Tutors, Governesses, Clerks etc., 45; which may be
+summed up thus: Wanted, a traveller in the hardware line, cash-boys, a
+copper-plate engraver, canvassers, junior chemists, five drapers'
+salesmen, law costs clerk, an engineer and valuer for a shire council, a
+female competent to manage the machine-room of a clothing factory, a
+retoucher capable of working in mezzo crayons, junior hands for
+Manchester and dress departments, two first-class cutters for order
+trade, a good shop salesman, a junior clerk, two clerks for wine and
+spirit store, a clerk proficient in Customs work, two clerks, (simply), a
+general manager for a carrying company, a grammar-school master with a
+degree, and one to teach the lower classes; an organist and two medical
+men, L400 and L500 a year guaranteed; an accountant, private lessons in
+dancing, a shorthand reporter. The persons advertising for situations
+under this heading are only 4 out of 45; they are a matriculated
+governess, a dancing-master, a doctor, a singing-master.
+
+The next lines are 'Situations Wanted,' 40; and 'Situations Vacant,' 118.
+The relative numbers are here again suggestive. Under the first heading I
+find a barmaid, three cooks, carpenters' apprentices, three gardeners,
+two nursery governesses, two housekeepers, three men desiring any
+employment, seven nurses, a tailor, and the rest miscellaneous. The
+vacancies are chiefly composed of 13 advertisements, from
+registry-offices for servants of all capacities, married couples,
+gardeners, housekeepers, butlers, plain cooks, parlourmaids, housemaids,
+laundresses, waitresses, barmaids, cooks, laundresses, general servants,
+nurses, needlewomen, lady-helps (3). Similar persons are advertised for
+by private individuals; but besides these, I find: Wanted a
+bullock-driver, a carter, a coachman, a shoeing smith, three butchers, a
+bottler, two bakers, innumerable boys, barmen, a compositor, several
+dressmakers in all departments, half a dozen drapers' assistants, four
+grooms, sixty navvies in one advertisement, millers, haymakers,
+woodcutters, spademen, needlewomen, quarrymen, etc., two wheelwrights, a
+verger at L120 a year, pick and shovel men.
+
+Turning over to the twelfth or back page, I find Wanted to Buy, 12;
+Wanted to Sell, 35; Board and Lodging, 44; Houses to Let, 67; Houses for
+Sale, 34; Partnerships, Businesses, etc., 44, of which 12 are hotels;
+Wines, Spirits, etc., 16; Dress and Fashion, 3; Auction Sales, 128,
+taking up 12 columns; Amusements, 24, taking up 2 columns; Stock and
+Station Sales, 11; Horses and Carriages, 18; Produce and Provisions, 2
+(Epps and Fry); Publications and Literature, 6; Bank Notices, 2; Public
+Notices, half a column; Business Notices, 53; Money, 41; Machinery, 23;
+Medical, 30; Judicial Law Notices, 6; Tenders, 26, and Meetings, 9. There
+is also a column and a half of special advertisements charged for at
+extra rates in the inside sheet just before the leading column.
+
+Although the _Argus_ has a very influential and advertisement-bringing
+class of readers, and penetrates beyond the limits of Victoria, by far
+the largest circulation in Australia is that of the _Melbourne Age_, a
+penny four-page sheet, published in Melbourne, which boasts of an issue
+of 50,000 copies daily, almost all absorbed within Australia. Its leading
+articles are as able and even more virulent than those of the _Argus_.
+Its telegraphic intelligence is good, and in dramatic and literary
+criticisms it is second only to the _Argus_ in Australia. But its news
+is comparatively poor, owing to its being only a single-sheet paper, and
+it caters for a far inferior class than the _Argus_. Its inventive
+ability, in which it altogether surpasses the London _Daily Telegraph_,
+has brought it the nickname of 'Ananias,' and it is essentially the
+people's journal. Just as in politics the _Argus_ is not only the organ
+but the leader of the ultra-Conservative party, even so the _Age_
+coaches the Democracy. To its influence is mainly due the ascendency
+which Mr. Berry's party held for so long, and the violence of the
+measures which poor Mr. Berry took in hand. It was the _Age_ which
+originated the idea of the Plebiscite, and of the progressive land-tax.
+It is protectionist to the backbone, having commenced the cry of
+'Victoria for the Victorians,' and fosters a policy of isolation from the
+sister colonies. Prominent amongst its leader-writers is Mr. C. H.
+Pearson, whose Democracy is at once the most ultra and the most cultured,
+the most philosophical and the most dogmatic. Another leader of the
+Radical party who frequently writes for the _Age_ is Mr. Dakin, the
+rising young man of Victorian politics, who represents talent and
+education apart from culture.
+
+The third morning paper in Melbourne is the _Daily Telegraph_, a penny
+Conservative sheet which has never attained any large influence or
+circulation, although edited by a man of considerable literary ability.
+The evening papers are the _Herald_, which is supposed to represent the
+Catholic party; and the _World_, which is rather American in tone, but
+very readable. Both are penny papers exerting very little influence.
+
+In all the Victorian papers, of whatever party, it is noticeable that
+Victorian topics, and especially Victorian politics, occupy an almost
+exclusive share both of leading and news columns; while the New South
+Wales and South Australian papers devote far more attention to
+intercolonial and European affairs. The fact is that Victoria is much
+more self-contained and independent of the mother country than its
+neighbours. Somehow or other there is more local news obtainable, more
+going-on, in fact, in Melbourne than in Sydney and Adelaide put together.
+Everything and everybody in Victoria moves faster. Hence there is more to
+chronicle; and greater interest is taken in what is going on in the
+colony. The political excitement of the country is, after all, but an
+outcome of this national vivacity of disposition. Half a dozen Berrys put
+together could not raise one quarter of the feeling in Adelaide, far less
+in Sydney.
+
+After the _Argus_ I should place the _South Australian Register_,
+published in Adelaide, as the best daily paper in Australia. In style and
+get-up it is almost an exact copy of its Melbourne contemporary, and its
+published price is twopence. In reports and correspondence it is quite as
+enterprising, but its leading columns and critiques being almost all
+written in the office, are necessarily weaker. The whole paper is less
+carefully edited, but its opinions are more liberal, and it is in no
+sense a party paper. It May, indeed, be said that not even the _Times_
+exercises so much influence in its sphere as does the _Register_. It
+not merely reflects public opinion, but, to a great extent, leads it, and
+it must be admitted that, on the whole, it leads it very sensibly. It may
+be urged against the _Register_, that its leading articles are wanting
+in literary brilliancy as compared with those of the _Argus_; but they
+are far more moderate and judicial in political matters. The
+extraordinary merits of this paper, in so small a community, are due
+partly to its having been, at a critical period in its existence, edited,
+managed and partly owned by the late Mr. Howard Clark, a man of great
+culture and ability, and partly to the close competition of the South
+Australian _Advertiser_, a twopenny paper which is well sustained in
+every department, and noted for occasional leading articles of great
+brilliancy.
+
+The _Sydney Morning Herald_ is the richest newspaper property in
+Australia. It has correspondents in almost every capital in Europe,
+including St. Petersburg--where the _Argus_ and _Register_ are not
+represented--publishes an immense quantity of news, and is edited by an
+able and liberal-minded man. But the absence of competition makes it
+inferior in enterprise to either the _Argus_, _Register_, or
+_Advertiser_. Its leading columns are sound but commonplace, and there
+is a fatal odour of respectable dulness about the paper. A second paper
+called the _Daily Telegraph_ was established in Sydney in 1879, which
+seems to be meeting the wants of the penny public, but it is very
+inferior to the _Herald_, or to the second-rate papers in the other
+colonies. In Adelaide, the evening papers are merely penny reprints of
+half of the morning papers. In Sydney, the _Herald_ proprietors publish
+the _Echo_, a sprightly little sheet; but the best evening paper is the
+_Evening News_, which caters for the popular taste and is somewhat
+sensational.
+
+The wants of the bushman, who relies on one weekly paper for his sole
+intellectual food, and who, though often well educated, is far away from
+libraries or books of any kind, have given rise to a class of weekly
+papers which are quite _sui generis_. The model on which they are all
+formed is the _Australasian_, published by the _Argus_ proprietors,
+which is still the best known and the best. Some idea of the enormous
+mass of reading-matter it contains may be gathered from the fact that its
+ordinary issue is fifty-two pages, a little larger than the _Pall Mall_,
+but containing five columns to the page and printed in the ordinary
+small type used in most daily papers, and known to printers as 'brevier.'
+To give an idea of the character of its contents is difficult. It is
+partly a newspaper, partly a magazine. The telegrams for the week are
+culled from the _Argus_. If it were not for the addition of a
+fortnightly intercolonial letter, the way in which the week's news is
+given would remind me of the _St. James's Budget_. It is divided into
+Parliament, town news, country news, intercolonial, home (i.e. English),
+and foreign news, and may be described as a classified reproduction of
+the more important news in the _Argus_.
+
+There are generally three or four leading articles somewhat of the
+character--but of course not the quality--of the _Spectator_; and the
+notes on the first page of the Liberal weekly are evidently imitated in a
+page of short editorial comments called 'Topics of the Week.'
+'Literature,' by which is meant a two-column review of a single book and
+three or four short reviews, is another heading. The 'Ladies' Column'
+contains a leader after the manner of the _Queen_, fashion items, notes
+and queries, and every other week an excellent English letter by Mrs.
+Cashel Hoey, dealing with new plays, books and social events in London.
+'The Wanderer,' 'The Traveller,' 'The Sketcher,' 'The Tourist,' head
+single or short serial articles of one and a half or two columns in
+length, signed or not signed, but always either well written or
+describing something new and interesting. 'Talk on 'Change' heads a
+column and a half of satirical or humorous notes, which are very much
+appreciated, and form a more leading feature of the paper than their
+merit warrants. The anecdotes are often new and always admirably told,
+but the comments are weak. 'The Theatres' contains one general critique
+of the newest play in Melbourne--sometimes two--followed by short
+detailed criticisms, hashed up from the _Argus_, of whatever is on the
+boards at the different theatres. 'The Essayist' is one of the best
+features in the paper, though it appeals to a very limited audience.
+Those written by a gentleman signing himself 'An Eclectic,' are
+exceptionally good--better, as a rule, than most similar essays in the
+_Saturday_. Dr. J. E. Taylor's 'Popular Science Notes' are by no means
+equal to those Mr. Proctor used to contribute. 'Original Poetry
+'speaks for itself. 'Miscellany' heads a column of humorous extract
+paragraphs, chiefly from American papers. 'The Novelist' contains a
+serial. 'The Story-Teller' a single story--original. This department is
+always well sustained, and no expense is spared in getting good work.
+'All Sorts and Conditions of Men' has just been running through the
+paper, Besant and Rice being favourite authors here. James Payne, B. L.
+Farjeon and R. E. Francillon are other contributors whose names come into
+my mind. Occasionally a colonial work is chosen, and the proprietors do a
+great deal of service in bringing out really promising authors.
+
+Besides all these standing dishes, there are, of course, a few stray
+articles on all kinds of subjects. In a copy before me is one of a series
+entitled, 'The Goldfields,' of special interest to miners, and treating
+the subject technically.
+
+But the two departments which may be said to have made the
+_Australasian_ are the _Sportsman_ and the _Yeoman_, which, to all
+intents and purposes, are separate papers incorporated with the
+_Australasian_. Of the _Sportsman_, I don't think it is too much to
+say, that it is the best sporting paper in the world, not excepting the
+_Field_, and it fully deserves the supreme authority which it exercises
+over all sporting matters south of the line. The page begins with
+'Answers to Correspondents.' Then come one or two leading articles on
+sporting matters, which form the stronghold of the department; then Turf
+Gossips, the Betting Market, full descriptions of all Australian and the
+principal New Zealand race-meetings, special training notes from
+Flemington, Randwick and Adelaide, intercolonial sporting notes and
+letters from special correspondents, winding up with 'Sporting Notes from
+Home.' Cricket next has a leading article and notes, followed by
+descriptions of the more important matches. Yachting, rowing, coursing,
+pigeon-shooting, hunting, shooting, football, and lawn-tennis all come in
+for a small share.
+
+The _Yeoman_ is not much in my line, though it is looked up to as a
+great authority upon all agricultural and pastoral topics. Taking a
+current number, I find it begins with 'Answers to Correspondents;' then
+comes the 'Weekly Review of the Corn Trade;' 'Rural Topics and Events;'
+a series of short editorial comments; a leader on' Wheat-growing;' 'The
+Crops and the Harvest, by our Agricultural Reporter, No. IV.;' 'In the
+Queensland Down County, No. VI.;' 'The Water Conservation Act, No. III.;'
+'The Melbourne Wool-buyers and the Wool-brokers;' 'Separating Cream by
+Machinery;' 'Selling Live Cattle by Weight;' 'Fancy Price of Breeders;'
+'Competition between Draught Horses;' 'Butter Cows;' 'The Black Walnut at
+Home.' 'Public Trial of Hornsby's Spring Binder;' 'Correspondence;'
+'Horticultural Notes;' 'Gardening Operations for the Week;' 'Plant
+Notes;' 'Notes and Gleanings;' 'Impoundings;' etc., etc., etc.
+
+So much for the _Australasian_, of which it must not be forgotten that
+the _Sportsman_ and _Yeoman_ are only component parts. As its name
+implies, it has a wide circulation beyond Victoria. In the Riverine
+district and a considerable part of New South Wales, it is the principal
+paper taken; and even in New Zealand and Western Australia all hotels and
+many private persons subscribe to it. To the wide area over which, and
+the good class of people amongst whom it circulates, is largely due the
+leading position which Victoria occupies in the minds of all the other
+colonies, and the views they take of her politics. The _Australasian_
+is of course Conservative, but not quite so rabidly so as the _Argus_.
+It surveys politics from the Conservative gallery. The _Argus_ takes
+part in the scrimmage and leads the Conservative forces. In commenting on
+intercolonial politics, by which I mean those of the other colonies, it
+always takes a mildly Conservative view, advocating federation, caution
+in borrowing, and assistance to the exploration and settlement of the
+interior. Not its least use is, that it gives the people of one colony
+the opportunity of knowing what is going on in the other colonies. Many
+of the articles are signed with a _nom de plume_, under the cover of
+which atheistical and even revolutionary views are allowed to express
+themselves. In religious matters the _Argus_ and _Australasian_
+maintain an eclectic attitude. Outwardly they are Christian in the widest
+sense of the term, but it is not difficult to see that most of their
+writers are agnostics. On social subjects, directly they get clear of
+contemporary local politics, their views are progressive and enlightened,
+often indeed original. It is curious to note that all the leading organs
+of public opinion in Australia are strongly Conservative and
+Imperialistic in their views of the foreign policy of England. There is
+only one exception, to my knowledge, the _Melbourne Age_, which
+advocates a non-interference policy, and would not be sorry to see 'the
+painter cut.' On home affairs the colonial press is naturally in sympathy
+with the Liberals, but the _Argus_ draws the line at the Cloture and
+the Liberal policy in Ireland, which it opposes.
+
+Of the imitators of the _Australasian_, the _Queenslander_, published
+by the proprietors of the _Brisbane Courier_; the _Leader_, published
+by the _Age_ proprietors; and the _Town and Country_, by the
+proprietors of the _Sydney Evening News_, are the best, in the order
+named. The _Sydney Mail_, published by the _Sydney Morning Herald_,
+is also a good compendium of information on current topics. The
+_Adelaide Observer_ is little better than an abstract of the S. A.
+_Register_, and the S. A. _Chronicle_ is literally a reproduction of
+the S. A. _Advertiser_. But all these papers are much more provincial
+in tone than the _Australasian_, and have hardly any circulation
+outside the colony in which they are published. About two years ago a new
+independent paper was started in Melbourne, with the programme indicated
+by its name--the _Federal Australian_. It is very American in tone, and
+a large portion of its space is devoted to rather second-rate funniness.
+But the leading articles are good, and it has struck out a most useful
+line for itself in a supplement called the _Scientific Australian_,
+modelled on the _Scientific American_. This portion of the paper is of
+great value, and if only on that account it deserves to live.
+
+Monthly illustrated papers are published in connection with the _Argus_,
+the _Age_, and the _Sydney Herald_, and also independently by
+printing firms in Sydney and Adelaide. The two Melbourne ones are by far
+the best, but they are very dear at a shilling. The same may be said of
+the comic papers at sixpence. The political cartoons in the _Melbourne
+Punch_ are often excellently imagined, but the execution is not
+remarkable, and the reading matter is wretched. The conceptions of the
+cartoons are also frequently coarse. The _Society_ paper has found its
+way here, via San Francisco. The most vulgar is the _Sydney Bulletin_,
+which is, as a rule, coarse to a degree; but it must be owned that it is
+also very clever and exceedingly readable--qualities which its imitators
+altogether lack. One knows quite enough about other people's business
+here without having papers specially to spread it, and in such small
+communities the _Bulletin_ tribe are a public nuisance. But yet they
+sell freely at sixpence a copy!
+
+The provincial press is, as a rule, feeble. Ballarat, Sandhurst, and
+Geelong are the only three towns large enough to support papers of the
+slightest value outside the place where they are published. But these
+small fry are very useful in their humble sphere, and are almost without
+exception respectably conducted. How they 'pay' is 'one of those things
+which no fellah can understand.'
+
+There are a number of newspapers devoted to the promotion of the
+interests of the various religious bodies, the licensed victuallers, and
+other trades. The best of these is the _Australian Insurance and Banking
+Record_, which is most ably conducted. The licensed victuallers support
+a weekly _Gazette_ in each of the principal towns. The Church of
+England has two organs, one in Sydney, and the other in Melbourne. The
+Temperance party, like their opponents, have three papers devoted to the
+maintenance of their views, besides which, they get a good deal of side
+support from the dozen or so of religious sheets. The licensed
+victuallers seem to combine sporting and dramatic items with the advocacy
+of what they call the TRADE, and abuse of the Good Templars. The latter,
+however, are still more vehement in abuse, and even less sensible in
+argument.
+
+Besides the newspaper press, Australia possesses four magazines, two
+published in Sydney and two in Melbourne. Of the former, one known first
+as the _Australian_, and then as the _Imperial Review_, is not worth
+mentioning, if, indeed, it is not ere now defunct. The other, called the
+ _Sydney University Review_, a quarterly, has only just come into
+existence with an exceptionally brilliant number, three articles in which
+are fully worthy of a place in any of the leading London monthlies. That
+it will continue as it has begun I should fancy to be more than doubtful.
+The oldest established magazine is the _Melbourne Review_, started
+about five years ago. For the last three years it has been languishing.
+The most flourishing magazine is the _Victorian Review_, which is only
+three years old. The contents are very variable in quality. Occasionally
+there is a really first-class article, and generally there are one or two
+very readable. The quality has much fallen off during the last eighteen
+months, but it affords a convenient outlet for the young colonists to air
+political and social crotchets, and to descant on philosophical theories.
+Now and then the editor used to hook a big fish, such as the Duke of
+Manchester, Professor Amos, and Senor Castelar, who have all contributed
+to its columns. The philosophical articles are naturally very feeble, but
+not unfrequently university professors and others among the ablest
+residents in Australia make the _Review_ a vehicle for setting forth
+schemes and ideas, which would not find admission into the newspapers.
+
+LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND ART.
+
+Strictly speaking, there is not, and cannot yet be, any such thing as an
+Australian literature. Such writers as live in Australia are nearly all
+English-born or bred, and draw their inspiration from English sources. A
+new country offers few subjects for poetry and romance, and prophecy is
+by no means so inspiring as the relation of the great deeds of the past.
+But yet there has been at least one amongst us who may claim to have had
+the real poetic afflatus, and whose subjects were invariably taken from
+the events of the life around him. This was Thomas Gordon, the author of
+'How we Beat the Favourite,' and several other short pieces of verse of
+rare merit, and redolent of the Australian air. George Brunton Stephens
+is another versifier, who at times showed signs of genius; and it is not
+long since a Mr. Horace Kendall died, who ran off sheets of graceful
+verses with considerable talent and no little poetic fancy.
+
+In philosophy, history, and science, many of the Professors at Australian
+Universities have written treatises worth reading; but Australia has had
+so little influence either upon their subjects or their mode of treating
+them, that their merit cannot be claimed for this country. Perhaps the
+best-known writers of this class, resident in the colonies, are Professor
+Hearn, author of 'The Aryan Household.' and Mr. Charles A. Pearson, the
+historian of the Middle Ages.
+
+Australia may boast of having furnished no uninteresting theme to Henry
+Kingsley, and several minor English novelists. She has sent to England no
+less rising a light than Mr. B. L. Farjeon; but the few novels that are
+written and published here have never attracted notice across the ocean,
+and rarely even in Australia itself, if we except Mr. Marcus Clarke's
+'His Natural Life.' After Mr. Clarke come Mr. Garnet Walsh, Mr. Grosvenor
+Bunster, and one or two prophets in their own neighbourhood, pleasant
+writers of Christmas stories, clever dramatizers of novels and
+pantomime-writers, but none of them with the least claim to a wider
+audience.
+
+The circumstances of a new colony naturally cause additions to the
+word-stock of the mother country. New occupations and modes of living
+need new words to describe them, or, as often as not, the settler not
+being of an inventive disposition, old words are used in a new sense.
+
+The 'bush'--itself an old word used in a new sense--has been most
+prolific in new phrases. Everyone who lives in the country, whether on a
+station or in a farm, but not in a township, is called a 'bushman,'
+although properly speaking this designation only applies to a person who
+lives in the 'bush' or unsettled country. 'Bushranger' is another word of
+the same derivation, which it is needless to explain. Of course you know
+what a 'squatter' is. It is strange that the same word which in America
+is used to denote the lowest class of settlers--the man who settles upon
+somebody else's land and pays no rent--is here a synonym for aristocrat.
+The term 'farmer' is applied exclusively to the agriculturist, and a
+squatter would be very much offended if you called him a sheep-farmer.
+The squatting class in Australia correspond to the landed gentry of
+England. The farmer is usually legally known as a 'selector,' because
+under the Land Act he selects a piece of ground perhaps in the middle of
+the squatter's leasehold and purchases it on credit for agriculture. A
+'cockatoo' is a selector who works his piece of land out in two or three
+years, and having done nothing to improve it, decamps to select in a new
+district. A 'run' is the least improved kind of land used for sheep, but
+the word is used almost alternatively with 'station,' which denotes an
+improved run. The run may be a mere sheep-walk, but a station is bound to
+have a house attached to it, and fenced 'paddocks' or fields. The
+storekeeper is the lowest official on a station. Next above him is the
+'boundary-rider,' whose duty it is to ride round the boundaries of fenced
+runs, to see that the fence is kept in good order, and that the sheep do
+not get through it. A 'stockman' is naturally the man who drives the
+stock, and the 'stockwhip' a peculiar short-handled long whip with which
+he drives them. A 'cabbage-tree' is an immense sun-protecting hat, rather
+like the top of a cabbage-tree in shape. It is much affected by bushmen.
+A 'billy' is the tin pot in which the bushman boils his tea; a
+'pannikin,' the tin bowl out of which he drinks it. A 'waler' is a
+bushman who is 'on the loaf.' He 'humps his drum,' or 'swag,' and starts
+on the wallaby track;' i.e., shoulders the bundle containing his worldly
+belongings, and goes out pleasuring. A 'shanty,' originally a low
+public-house, now denotes any tumble-down hut.
+
+Apart from bush terms, there are town appellations, such as 'larrikin,'
+which means a 'rough.' The word is said to have originated with an Irish
+policeman, who spoke of some boys who had been brought before the
+Melbourne Police Court as 'larriking around,' instead of 'larking.' To
+'have a nip' is to take a 'nobbler.' A white man born in Australia is a
+'colonial,' vulgarly a 'gum-sucker;' if he was born in New South Wales,
+he is also a 'cornstalk.' An aboriginal is always a 'black fellow.' A
+native of Australia would mean a white man born in the colony. The
+diggings have furnished the expressive phrase 'to make your pile.' A
+'nugget'--_pace_ Archbishop Trench--was a Californian importation. When
+speaking of a goldfield a colonist says 'on.' Thus you live 'on Bendigo,'
+but 'in' or 'at' Sandhurst--the latter being the new name for the old
+goldfield town. To 'shout' drinks has no connection with the neuter verb
+of dictionary English. A 'shicer' is first a mining claim which turns
+out to be useless, and then anything that does so. There is room for a
+very interesting dictionary of Australianisms. But I have no time to
+collect such a list. The few words which I have given will serve as an
+indication of the bent of colonial genius in the manufacture of a new
+dialect; and as they are given without any effort, just as they have come
+to my mind in the course of one evening's thinking as I write, they may
+fairly be taken as being amongst the commonest.
+
+I have headed this letter 'Literature and Art,'so that I am morally bound
+to say something about the latter, although there is next to nothing to
+say. Australia has not yet produced any artist of note. Perhaps the best
+is Mr. E. C. Dowling, and he is a Tasmanian. Resident in Victoria is a M.
+Louis Buyelot, a landscape artist of considerable merit. Excepting him,
+we have no artists here whose works rise beyond mere mediocrity. Mr.
+Summers was a Victorian, but his fame is almost unknown in his own
+country. Thanks to Sir Redmond Barry, Victoria possesses a very fair
+National Gallery attached to the Melbourne Public Library. Some of the
+paintings in it are excellent, notably Mr. Long's 'Esther;' the majority
+very mediocre. For my own part I prefer the little gallery at Sydney,
+which, though it has not nearly so many paintings, has also not nearly so
+many bad ones, and owns several that are really good, mostly purchased
+from the exhibitions. Adelaide has also recently bought a few pictures to
+form the nucleus of a gallery.
+
+By means of Schools of Design and Art, the colonial Governments have,
+during the last few years, been doing all in their power to encourage the
+growth of artistic taste, but the whole bent of colonial life is against
+it. Art means thought and care, and the whole teaching of colonial life
+is to 'manage' with anything that can be pressed into service in the
+shortest time and at the smallest expense. It is only fair to mention as
+a tribute to the laudable desire of the people to see good works of art,
+that no parts of the International Exhibitions were so well attended as
+the Art Galleries, and that although the pictures shown there were for
+the most part quite third not to say fourth-rate. The press is very
+energetic in fostering taste, but I don't think it is natural to the
+people. They like pictures somewhat as the savage does, because they
+appeal readily to the imagination, and tell a story which can be read
+with very little trouble. It is significant of this, that there is hardly
+a hut in the bush where you will not see woodcuts from the _Illustrated
+and Graphic_ pasted up, and that the pictures most admired at the
+exhibitions were those which were most dramatic--such as a horse in a
+stable on fire, and a showman's van broken down in the snow through the
+death of the donkey which drew it. Next to dramatic pictures, those in
+which horses, cows, or sheep appeared were most admired, for here the
+colonist felt himself a competent critic, and was delighted to discover
+any error on the part of the artist. Scenery came next in the order of
+appreciation, especially pieces with water in them, or verdure. Genre and
+figure-painting were quite out of their line.
+
+Of Music I have written in my letter on 'Amusements'. As a creative art
+it cannot yet be said to have an existence, although Mr. Wallace composed
+'Maritana' in Australia, and plenty of dance-music is manufactured every
+day.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Town Life in Australia
+by R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny
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