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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peeps At Many Lands: Australia, by Frank Fox
+
+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: Peeps At Many Lands: Australia
+
+Author: Frank Fox
+
+Illustrator: Percy F. S. Spence (etc.)
+
+Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25976]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEEPS AT MANY LANDS: AUSTRALIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
+
+AUSTRALIA
+
+
+[Illustration: THE NOMAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR]
+
+
+[Illustration: KANGAROO HUNTING. PAGE 47.]
+
+
+
+
+    PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
+    AUSTRALIA
+
+    BY
+
+    FRANK FOX
+
+    WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
+    IN COLOUR
+
+    BY
+
+    PERCY F. S. SPENCE, ETC.
+
+    LONDON
+    ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+    1911
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER I                     PAGE
+    AUSTRALIA, ITS BEGINNING        1
+
+    CHAPTER II
+    AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY            15
+
+    CHAPTER III
+    THE NATIVES                    33
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+    THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS          46
+
+    CHAPTER V
+    THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH            63
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+    THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD           73
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+    KANGAROO-HUNTING                                     _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                            FACING PAGE
+    SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL           viii
+
+    THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS                                 9
+
+    THE GARDEN STREETS OF ADELAIDE                                   16
+
+    COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE                                        25
+
+    THE TOWN HALL, SYDNEY                                            32
+
+    AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN CAPTAIN COOK'S TIME                        41
+
+    THE AUSTRALIAN FOREST AT NIGHT--"MOONING" OPOSSUMS               48
+
+    A SHEEP DROVER                                                   57
+
+    A HUT IN THE BUSH                                                64
+
+    SURF-BATHING--SHOOTING THE BREAKERS                              73
+
+    AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL                             80
+
+    THE NOMAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR                 _On the cover_
+
+             _Sketch-Map of Australia on pages vi and vii._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Map of Australia]
+
+
+[Illustration: KOOKABURRAS. _Page_ 59.]
+
+
+[Illustration: SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL.
+PAGE 25.]
+
+
+
+
+AUSTRALIA
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ITS BEGINNING
+
+    A "Sleeping Beauty" land--The coming of the English--Early
+    explorations--The resourceful Australian.
+
+
+The fairy-story of the Sleeping Beauty might have been thought out by
+someone having Australia in his mind. She was the Sleeping Beauty among
+the lands of the earth--a great continent, delicately beautiful in her
+natural features, wonderfully rich in wealth of soil and of mine, left
+for many, many centuries hidden away from the life of civilization,
+finally to be wakened to happiness by the courage and daring of English
+sailors, who, though not Princes nor even knights in title, were as
+noble and as bold as any hero of a fairy-tale.
+
+How Australia came to be in her curious isolated position in the very
+beginning is not quite clear. The story of some of the continents is
+told in their rocks almost as clearly as though written in books. But
+Australia is very, very old as a continent--much older than Europe or
+America or Asia--and its story is a little blurred and uncertain partly
+for that reason.
+
+Look at the map and see its shape--something like that of a pancake with
+a big bite out of the north-eastern corner. In the very old days
+Australia was joined to those islands on the north--the East Indies--and
+through them to Asia; but it was countless ages ago, for the animals and
+the plants of Australia have not the least resemblance to those of Asia.
+They represent a class quite distinct in themselves. That proves that
+for a very long time there has been no land connection between Australia
+and Asia; if there had been, the types of flower and of beasts would be
+more nearly kindred. There would be tigers and elephants in Australia
+and emus in Asia, and the kangaroo and other marsupials would probably
+have disappeared. The marsupial, it may be explained, is one of the
+mammalian order, which carries its young about in a pouch for a long
+time after they are born. With such parental devotion, the marsupials
+would have little chance of surviving in any country where there were
+carnivorous animals to hunt them down; but Australia, with the exception
+of a very few dingoes, had no such animals, so the marsupials survived
+there whilst vanishing from all other parts of the earth.
+
+When Australia was sundered from Asia, probably by some great volcanic
+outburst (the East Indies are to this day much subject to terrible
+earthquakes and volcanic outbreaks, and not so many years ago a whole
+island was destroyed in the Straits of Sunda), the new continent
+probably was in the shape somewhat of a ring, with very high mountains
+facing the sea, and, where now is the great central plain, a lake or
+inland sea. As time wore on, the great mountains were ground down by the
+action of the snow and the rain and the wind. The soil which was thus
+made was in part carried towards the centre of the ring, and in time the
+sea or lake vanished, and Australia took its present form of a great
+flat plain, through which flow sluggish rivers--a plain surrounded by a
+tableland and a chain of coastal mountains. The natives and the animals
+and plants of Australia, when it first became a continent, were very
+much the same, in all likelihood, as now.
+
+Thus separated in some sudden and dramatic way, Australia was quite
+forgotten by the rest of the world. In Asia, near by, the Chinese built
+up a curious civilization, and discovered, among other things, the use
+of the mariner's compass, but they do not seem to have ever attempted to
+sail south to what is now known as Australasia. The Japanese, borrowing
+culture from the Chinese, framed their beautiful and romantic social
+system, and, having a brave and enterprising spirit, became seafarers,
+and are known to have reached as far as the Hawaiian Islands, more than
+halfway across the Pacific Ocean to America; but they did not come to
+Australia. The Indian Empire rose to magnificent greatness; the Empires
+of Babylon, of Nineveh, of Persia, came and went. The Greeks, and the
+Romans later, penetrated to Hindustan. The Christian era came, and later
+the opening up of trade with the East Indies and with China.
+
+But still Australia slept, in her out-of-the-way corner, apart from the
+great streams of human traffic, a rich and beautiful land waiting for
+her Fairy Prince to waken her to greatness. There had been, though, some
+vague rumours of a great island in the Southern Seas. A writer of Chios
+(Greece) 300 years before the Christian era mentions that there existed
+an island of immense extent beyond the seas washing Europe, Asia, and
+Africa. It is thought that Greek soldiers who had accompanied Alexander
+the Great to India had brought rumours from the Indians of this new
+land. But if the Indians knew of Australia, there is no trace of their
+having visited the continent.
+
+Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, who explored the East Indies, speaks
+of a Java Major as well as a Java Minor, and in that he may refer to
+Australia; but he made no attempt to reach the land. Some old maps fill
+up the ocean from the East Indies to the South Pole with a vague
+continent called Terra Australis; but plainly they were only guessing,
+and did not have any real knowledge.
+
+In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Spanish and Portuguese sailors
+pushed on bravely with the work of exploring the East Indies, and some
+of their maps of the period give indications of a knowledge of the
+existence of the Australian Continent. But the definite discovery did
+not come until 1605, when De Quiros and De Torres, Spanish Admirals,
+sailed to the East Indies and heard of the southern continent. They
+sailed in search of it, but only succeeded in touching at some of the
+outlying islands. One of the New Hebrides De Quiros called "Terra
+Australis del Espiritu Santo" (the Southern Land of the Holy Ghost),
+fancying the island to be Australia. That gave the name "Australia,"
+which is all that survives to remind us of Spanish exploration.
+
+In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Dutch sailors set to work to
+search for the new southern land, and in 1605, 1616, and 1617
+undoubtedly touched on points of Australia. In 1642 Tasman--from whom
+Tasmania, a southern island of Australia, gets its name--made important
+discoveries as to the southern coast. He called the island first Van
+Diemen's Land, after Maria Van Diemen, the girl whom he loved; but this
+name was afterwards changed. Maria Island, off the coast of Tasmania,
+still, however, keeps fresh the memory of the Dutch sailor's sweetheart.
+
+But none of these nations was destined to be the Fairy Prince to waken
+Australia out of her long sleep. That privilege was kept for the British
+race; we cannot but think happily, for no Spanish or Dutch colony has
+ever reached to the greatness and the happiness of an Australia, a
+Canada, or a South Africa. It is in the British blood, it seems, to
+colonize happily. The gardeners of the British race know how to "plant
+out" successfully. They shelter and protect the young trees in their
+far-away countries through the perils of infancy, and then let them grow
+up in healthy and vigorous independence. This wise method is borrowed
+from family life. If a child is either too much coddled, or too much
+kept under in its young days, it will rarely grow to the best and most
+vigorous manhood or womanhood. British colonies grow into healthy
+nations just as British schoolboys grow into healthy men, because they
+are, at an early stage, taught to be self-reliant.
+
+It was not until 1688 that Australia was in any way explored by the
+English Captain, William Dampier. His reports on the new land were not
+very flattering. He spoke of its dry, sandy soil, and its want of water.
+This Sleeping Beauty had a way of pretending to be ugly to the
+new-comer.
+
+From 1769 to 1777 Captain Cook carried on the first thorough British
+exploration of Australia, and took possession of it and New Zealand for
+the British Crown. In 1788, just a century after its first exploration
+by a British seaman, Australia was actually occupied by Great Britain,
+"the First Fleet" founding a settlement on the shores of Port Jackson,
+by the side of a little creek called the Tank Stream. That was the
+beginning of Sydney, at present one of the greatest cities of the
+British Empire.
+
+A great continent had been thus entered. The Sleeping Beauty was aroused
+from the slumber of centuries. But very much had yet to be done before
+she could "marry the Prince and then live happily ever afterwards." The
+story of how that was done, and how Australia was explored and settled,
+is one of the most heroic of our British annals. True, no wild animals
+or warlike tribes had to be faced; but vast distances of land which of
+itself produced little or no food for man, the long waterless stretches,
+the savage ruggedness of the mountains, set up obstacles far more
+awesome because more strange. Man had to contend, not with wild animals,
+whose teeth and claws he might evade, nor with wild men whose weapons he
+could overmatch with his own, but with Nature in what seemed always a
+hostile and unrelenting mood. It almost seemed that Nature, unwilling to
+give up to civilization the last of the lonely lands of the earth, made
+a conscious effort to beat back the advance of exploration and
+civilization.
+
+On the little coastal settlement famine was soon felt. The colonists did
+not understand how to get crops from the soil. They attempted to follow
+the times and the manners of England; but here they were in the
+Antipodes, where everything was exactly opposite to English conditions.
+There were no natural grain-crops; there were practically no
+food-animals good to eat. The kangaroo and wallaby provide nowadays a
+delicious soup (made from the tails of the animals), but the flesh of
+their bodies is tough and dark and rank. Even so it was in very limited
+supply. The early settlers ate kangaroo flesh gladly, but they were not
+able to get enough of it to keep them in meat.
+
+Communication with England, whence all food had to come, was in those
+days of sailing-ships slow and uncertain. At different times the first
+settlement was in actual danger of perishing from starvation and of
+being abandoned in despair at ever making anything useful of a land
+which seemed unable to produce even food for white inhabitants.
+
+Fortunately, those thoughts of despair were not allowed to rule. The
+dogged British spirit saved the position. The conquest of Nature in
+Australia was perseveringly carried through, and Great Britain has the
+reward to-day in the existence of an all-British continent having nearly
+5,000,000 of population, who are the richest producers in the world from
+the soil.
+
+[Illustration: THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. PAGES 8 & 29.]
+
+After the early settlers had learned with much painful effort that the
+coast around Sydney would produce some little grain and fruit and
+grass for cattle, there was still another halt in the progress of the
+continent. West of Sydney, about forty miles from the coast, stretched
+the Blue Mountains, and these it was found impossible to cross. No
+passes existed. Though not very lofty, the mountains were savagely
+wild. The explorer, following a ridge or a line of valley with
+patience for many miles, would come suddenly on a vast chasm; a
+cliff-face falling absolutely perpendicularly 1,000 feet or so would
+declare "No road here." Nowadays, when the Blue Mountains have been
+conquered, and they are traversed by roads and railways, tourists
+from all parts of the world find great joy in looking upon these
+wonderful gorges; but in the days of the explorers they were the cause
+of many disappointments--indeed, of many tragedies. Men escaping from
+the prisons (Australia was first used as a reformatory by Great
+Britain) would attempt to cross the Blue Mountains on their way, as
+they thought, to China and freedom, always to perish miserably in the
+wild gorges.
+
+Finally, the Blue Mountains were conquered by the explorers Blaxland,
+Lawson, and Wentworth. Two roads were cut across them, one from Sydney,
+one from Windsor, about thirty miles north from Sydney. The passing of
+the Blue Mountains opened up to Australia the great tableland, on which
+the chief mineral discoveries were to be made, and the vast interior
+plains, which were to produce merino wool of such quality as no other
+land can equal.
+
+From that onwards exploration was steadily pushed on. Sometimes the
+explorers went out into the wilderness with horses, sometimes with
+camels; other tracts of land were explored by boat expeditions,
+following the track of one of the slow rivers. The perils always were of
+thirst and hunger. Very rarely did the blacks give any serious trouble.
+But many explorers perished from privation, such as Burke and Wills (who
+led out a great expedition from Melbourne, which was designed to cross
+the continent from north to south) and Dr. Leichhardt. Even now there
+is some danger in penetrating to some of the wilder parts of the
+interior of Australia without a skilful guide, who knows where water can
+be found, and deaths from thirst in the Bush are not infrequent.
+
+One device has saved many lives. The wildest and loneliest part of the
+continent is traversed by a telegraph line, which brings the European
+cable-messages from Port Darwin, on the north coast, to Adelaide, in the
+south. Men lost in the Bush near to that line make for its route and cut
+the wire. That causes an interruption on the line; a line-repairer is
+sent out from the nearest repairing-station, and finds the lost man
+camped near the break. Sometimes he is too late, and finds him dead.
+
+In the west, around the great goldfields, where water is very scarce,
+white explorers have sometimes adopted a way to get help which is far
+more objectionable. The natives in those regions are very reluctant to
+show the locality of the waterholes. The supply is scanty, and they have
+learned to regard the white man as wasteful and inconsiderate in regard
+to water. But a white explorer or traveller has been known to catch a
+native, and, filling his mouth with salt, to expose him to the heat of
+the sun until the tortures of thirst forced him to lead the white party
+to a native well. But these are rare dark spots on the picture. The
+records of Australian exploration, as a whole, are bright with heroism.
+
+The early pioneer in Australia--called a "squatter" because he squatted
+on the land where he chose--enjoyed a picturesque life. Taking all his
+household goods with him, driving his flocks and herds before him, he
+moved out into the wilderness looking for a place to settle or "squat."
+It was the experience of the "Swiss Family Robinson" made real. The
+little community, with its waggons and tents, its horses, oxen, sheep,
+dogs, perhaps also with a few poultry in one of the waggons, would have
+to live for many months an absolutely self-contained life. The family
+and its servants would provide wheelwrights, blacksmiths, carpenters,
+veterinary surgeons, cattle-herds, milkers, shearers, cooks,
+bridge-builders, and the like. The children brought up under those
+conditions won not only fine healthy frames, but an alertness of mind, a
+wideness of resource which made them, and their children after them,
+fine nation-builders.
+
+I am tempted, in illustration of this, to quote from a larger work of
+mine, "Australia," an instance of my own observation of the "resourceful
+Australian":
+
+"Without touch of cap, or sign of servility, the swagman came up.
+
+"'Gotter a job, boss?'
+
+"'No chance; but you can go round and get rations.'
+
+"'I wanter job pretty bad. Times have been hard. Perhaps you recollect
+me--Jim Stone. You had me once working on the Paroo.'
+
+"It was a blazing hot day in Central Queensland on one of the big cattle
+stations out from the railway line, a station which had not yet reached
+the dignity of fencing. The boss remembered that Jim Stone "was a good
+sort," and that it was forty miles to the next chance of a job. And
+there was always something to be done on a station.
+
+"'All right, Stone. I think I can put you on to something for a month or
+two.'
+
+"'Thanks. Start now?'
+
+"'Look. I have got a few men on digging tanks, about thirty miles out.
+It's north-north-east. You can pick up their camp?'
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'Well, I want you to take a bullock-dray out, with stores, and bring
+back anything they want sent back.'
+
+"'Yes. Where are the bullocks?'
+
+"'I haven't got a team broken in. But there's old Scarlet-Eye and two
+others broken in. You'll pick them up along that little creek there, six
+miles out'; he pointed indefinitely into the heat haze on the plain,
+where there seemed to be some trees on the horizon. 'Collar them, and
+then you'll find the milkers' herd right back of the homestead, only a
+few miles. Punch out seven of the biggest and make up your team.'
+
+"'Yes. Where's ther dray?'
+
+"'Behind the blacksmith's shed there. By the way, there are no yokes,
+but you'll find some bar-iron and some timber at the blacksmith's shed.
+Knock out some yokes. I think there's one chain. You can make up another
+with some fencing wire.'
+
+"'Right-oh.'
+
+"And this Australian casual worker (at 30s. a week and rations) went his
+way cheerfully. He had to find some odd bullocks six miles out, in the
+flat, grey, illimitable plain; then find the herd of milkers somewhere
+else in that vague vastness, and break seven of them to harness; fix up
+a dray and make cattle yokes; and then go out into the depths to find a
+camp thirty miles out, without a fence or a track, and hardly a tree, to
+guide him.
+
+"He did it all, because to him it was quite ordinary. The
+freshly-broken-in cattle had to be kept in the yokes for a week, night
+and day, else they would have cleared out. That was the only real
+hardship, in his opinion, and the cattle had to suffer that. He was
+content to be surveyor, waggon-builder, blacksmith, subduer of beasts,
+man of infinite pluck, resource, and energy, for 30s. a week and
+rations! And he was a typical sample of the 'back-country Australian.'"
+
+In the Australian Bush most children can milk a cow, ride a horse, or
+harness him into a cart, snare or shoot game, kill a snake, find their
+way through the trackless forest by the sun or the stars, and cook a
+meal. In the cities, too, they are, though less skilled in such things,
+used to do far more for themselves than the average European child.
+
+After the squatters in Australia came the gold-diggers. Gold was
+discovered in Victoria and in New South Wales. At first, strangely
+enough, an effort was made to prevent the fact being known that gold was
+to be found in Australia. Some of the rulers of the colony feared that
+the gold would ruin and not help the country. And certainly in the very
+early days of the gold-digging rushes, much harm was done to the settled
+industries of the land through everybody rushing away to the diggings.
+Farms were abandoned, workshops deserted, the sailors left their ships,
+the shepherds their sheep, the shop-keepers their shops--all with the
+gold fever. But that early madness soon passed away, and Australia got
+the benefit of the gold discoverers in a great increase of population.
+Most of those who came to dig gold remained to dig potatoes and other
+more certain wealth out of the land.
+
+Do you remember the tale of the ancient wise man whose two sons were
+lazy fellows? He could not get them by any means to work in the
+vineyard. As long as his own hands could toil he tended the vineyard,
+and maintained his idle sons. But on his death-bed he feared for their
+future. So he made them the victims of a pious fraud. "There is a great
+sum in gold buried in the vineyard," he told them with his dying breath.
+"But I cannot tell you where. You must find that for yourselves."
+
+Tempted by the promise of quick fortune, the idle sons dug everywhere
+in the vineyard to find the buried treasure. They never came across any
+actual gold, but the good effect of their digging was such that the
+vineyard prospered wonderfully and they grew rich from its fine crops.
+
+So it was, in a way, with Australia. The gold discoverers did much good
+by attracting people to the country in search of gold who, though they
+found no gold, developed the other resources of a great country.
+
+When the yields from the alluvial goldfields decreased there was a
+great demand from the out-of-work diggers and others for land for
+farming, and the agricultural era began in Australia. Since then the
+growth of the country has been sound, and, if a little slow, sure. It
+has been slow because the ideal of the people has always been a sound
+and a general well-being rather than a too-quick growth. "Slow and
+steady" is a good motto for a nation as well as an individual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY
+
+    The diggings--The Government at Melbourne--The sheep-runs--The
+    rabbits--The delights of Sydney.
+
+
+If, by good luck, you were to have a trip to Australia now, you would
+find, probably, the sea voyage, which takes up five weeks as a rule, a
+little irksome. But fancy that over, and imagine yourself safely into
+Australia of to-day. Fremantle will be the first place of call. It is
+the port of Perth, which is the capital of West Australia. That great
+State occupies nearly a quarter of the continent; but its population is
+as yet the least important of the continental States, and not very much
+ahead of the little island of Tasmania. Still, West Australia is
+advancing very quickly. On the north it has great pearl fisheries;
+inland it has goldfields, which take second rank in the world's list,
+and it is fast developing its agricultural and pastoral riches.
+
+Very soon it will be possible to leave the steamer at Fremantle and go
+by train right across the continent to the Eastern cities. Now you must
+travel by steamer to Port Adelaide, for Adelaide, the capital of South
+Australia. It is a charming city, surrounded by vineyards, orange
+orchards, and almond and olive groves. In the season you may get for a
+penny all the grapes that you could possibly eat, and oranges and other
+fruit are just as cheap.
+
+Adelaide has the reputation of being a very "good" city. It was founded
+largely by high-minded colonists from Britain, whose main idea was to
+seek in the new world a place where poverty and its evils would not
+exist. To a very large extent they succeeded. There are no slums in
+Adelaide and no starving children. Everywhere is an air of quiet
+comfort.
+
+[Illustration: THE GARDEN STREETS OF ADELAIDE. PAGE 16.]
+
+From Adelaide you may take the train to complete your trip, the end of
+which is, say, Brisbane. Leaving Adelaide, you climb in the train the
+pretty Mount Lofty Mountains and then sweep down on to the plains and
+cross the Murray River near its mouth. The Murray is the greatest of
+Australian rivers. It rises in the Australian Alps, and gathers on its
+way to the sea the Murrumbidgee and the Darling tributaries. There is a
+curious floating life on these rivers. Nomad men follow along their
+banks, making a living by fishing and doing odd jobs on the stations
+they pass. They are called "whalers," and follow the life, mainly, I
+think, because of a gipsy instinct for roving, since it is not either a
+comfortable or profitable existence. On the rivers, too, are all sorts
+of curious little colonies, living in barges, and floating down from
+town to town. You may find thus floating, little theatres, cinematograph
+shows, and even circuses.
+
+The fisheries of these rivers are somewhat important, the chief fish
+caught being the Murray cod. It grows sometimes to a vast size, to the
+size almost of a shark; but when the cod is so big its flesh is always
+rank and uneatable by Europeans.
+
+Fishing for a cod is not an occupation calling for very much industry.
+The fisherman baits his line, ties it to a stake fixed on the river
+bank, and on the stake hangs a bell. Then the fisherman gets under the
+shadow of a gum-tree and enjoys a quiet life, reading or just lazing. If
+a cod takes the bait the bell will ring, and he will go and collect his
+fish, which obligingly catches itself, and does not need any play to
+bring it to land.
+
+A cruel practice is followed to keep these fish fresh until a boat or
+train to the city markets is due: a line is passed through the cod's
+lip, and it is tethered to a stake in the water near the bank. Thus it
+can swim about and keep alive for some time; but the cruelty is great,
+and efforts are now being made to stop this tethering of codfish.
+
+These Australian inland rivers are slow and sluggish, and fish, such as
+trout, accustomed to clear running waters, will not live in them. But in
+the smaller mountain streams, which feed the big inland rivers, trout
+thrive, and as they have been introduced from England and America they
+provide good sport to anglers.
+
+The plain-country through which the big rivers flow is very flat, and is
+therefore liable to great floods. Australia has the reputation of being
+a very dry country; as a matter of fact, the rainfall over one-third of
+its area is greater than that of England. In most places the rainfall
+is, however, badly distributed. After long spells of very dry weather
+there will come fierce storms, during which the rain sometimes falls at
+the rate of an inch an hour. This fact, and the curious physical
+formation of the continent, about which you already know, makes it very
+liable to floods.
+
+Great floods of the past have been at Brisbane, the capital of
+Queensland, destroying a section of the city; at Bourke (N.S.W.), and at
+Gundagai (N.S.W.). In the latter a town was destroyed and many lives
+lost. Another flood on the Hunter River (N.S.W.) was marked by the
+drowning of the Speaker of the local Parliament. But great loss of human
+life is rare; sacrifice of stock is sometimes, however, enormous. Cattle
+fare better than sheep, for they will make some wise effort to reach a
+point of safety, whilst sheep will, as likely as not, huddle together in
+a hollow, not having the sense even to seek the little elevations which
+are called "hills," though only raised a few feet above the general
+level.
+
+I recall well a flood in the Narrabri (N.S.W.) district some seventeen
+years ago, and its moving perils. The hillocks on which cattle, sheep,
+and in some cases human beings, had taken refuge were crowded, too, with
+kangaroos, emus, brolgas (a kind of crane), koalas (known as the native
+bear), rabbits, and snakes. Mutual hostilities were for a time suspended
+by the common danger, though the snakes and the rabbits were rarely
+given the advantages of the truce if there were human beings present. An
+incident of that flood was that the little township of Terry-hie-hie
+(these aboriginal names are strange!) was almost wiped out by
+starvation. Beleaguered by the waters, it was cut off from all
+communication with the railway and with food-supplies. When the waters
+fell, the mud left on these black-soil plains was just as formidable a
+barrier. Attempt after attempt to send flour through by horse and
+bullock teams failed. It was impossible for thirty horses to get through
+with one ton of flour! The siege was only raised when the population of
+the little town was on the very verge of starvation.
+
+After crossing the Murray the train passes through what is known as "the
+desert"--a stretch of country covered with mallee scrub (the mallee is a
+kind of small gum-tree); but nowadays they are finding out that this
+mallee scrub is not hopeless country at all. The scrub is beaten down by
+having great rollers drawn over it by horses; that in time kills it.
+Then the roots are dug up for firewood, and the land is sown with wheat.
+Quite good crops are now being got from the mallee when the rains are
+favourable, but in dry seasons the wheat scorches off, and the farmer's
+labour is wasted. It is proposed now to carry irrigation channels
+through this and similar country. When that is done there will be no
+more talk of desert in most parts of Australia. It will be conquered for
+the use of man just as the American alkali desert is being conquered.
+
+Leaving the mallee, the train comes in time to Ballarat, which used to
+be the great centre of the gold-mining industry. Round here gold was
+discovered in great lumps lying on the ground or just below the roots of
+the grass. People rushed from all parts of the world to pick up fortunes
+when this was heard of. The road from Melbourne was covered with
+waggons, with horsemen, with diggers on foot. Most of them knew nothing
+at all about digging, and also lacked the knowledge of how to get along
+comfortably under "camping-out" conditions, when every man has to be his
+own cook, his own washer-up, his own laundryman, as well as his own
+mining labourer. But the best of the men learned quickly how to look
+after themselves, to pitch a tent, to cook a meal, to drive a shaft, and
+to do without food for long spells when on the search for new
+goldfields. Thus they became resourceful and adventurous, and were of
+great value afterwards in the community. There is nowadays rather a
+tendency in civilized countries to bring children up too softly, to
+guard them too much against the little roughnesses of life. Such
+experiences as those of the Australian goldfields show how good it is
+for men to be taught how to look after themselves under primitive
+conditions.
+
+Life on the Australian goldfields, though wild, was not unruly. There
+was never any lynch law, never any "free shooting," as on the American
+goldfields. Public order was generally respected, though there were at
+first no police. The miners, however, kept up Vigilance Committees, the
+main purpose of which was to check thefts. Anyone proved guilty of
+theft, or even seriously suspected of pilfering, was simply ordered out
+of the camp.
+
+The Chinese were very early in getting to know of the goldfields in
+Australia, and rushed there in great numbers. They were not welcomed,
+and there was an exception to the general rule of good order in the
+Anti-Chinese riots on the goldfields. The result of these was that
+Chinese were prevented by the Government from coming into the country,
+except in very small numbers, and on payment of a heavy poll-tax. When
+this was done the excitement calmed down, and the Chinese already in the
+country were treated fairly enough. They mostly settled down to growing
+vegetables or doing laundry-work, though a few still work as miners.
+
+The objection that the Australians have to the Chinamen and to other
+coloured races is that they do not wish to have in the country any
+people with whom the white race cannot intermarry, and they wish all
+people in Australia to be equal in the eyes of the law and in social
+consideration. As you travel through Australia, you will probably learn
+to recognize the wisdom of this, and you will get to like the Australian
+social idea, which is to carry right through all relations of life the
+same discipline as governs a good school, giving respect to those who
+are most worthy of it, by conduct and by capacity, and not by riches or
+birth.
+
+We have stayed long enough at Ballarat. Let us move on to
+Melbourne--"marvellous Melbourne," as its citizens like to hear it
+called. Melbourne is built on the shores of the Yarra, where it empties
+into Hudson Bay, and its sea suburbs stretch along the beautiful sandy
+shores of that bay. Few European or American children can enjoy such
+sea beaches as are scattered all over the Australian coast. They are
+beautiful white or creamy stretches of firm sand, curving round bays,
+sometimes just a mile in length, sometimes of huge extent, as the Ninety
+Miles Beach in Victoria. The water on the Australian coast is usually of
+a brilliant blue, and it breaks into white foam as it rolls on to the
+shelving sand. Around Carram, Aspendale, Mentone and Brighton, near
+Melbourne; at Narrabeen, Manly, Cronulla, Coogee, near Sydney; and at a
+hundred other places on the Australian coast, are beautiful beaches. You
+may see on holidays hundreds of thousands of people--men, women, and
+children--surf-bathing or paddling on the sands. It is quite safe fun,
+too, if you take care not to go out too far and so get caught in the
+undertow. Sharks are common on the Australian coast, but they will not
+venture into the broken water of surf beaches. But you must not bathe,
+except in enclosed baths in the harbours, or you run a serious risk of
+providing a meal for a voracious shark.
+
+Sharks are quite the most dangerous foes of man in Australia. There have
+been some heroic incidents arising from attacks by sharks on human
+beings. An instance: On a New South Wales beach two brothers were
+bathing, and they had gone outside of the broken surf water. One was
+attacked by a shark. The other went to his rescue, and actually beat the
+great fish off, though he lost his arm in doing so. As a rule, however,
+the shark kills with one bite, attacking the trunk of its victim, which
+it can sever in two with one great snap of its jaws.
+
+Children on the Australian coast are very fond of the water. They learn
+to swim almost as soon as they can walk. Through exposure to the sun
+whilst bathing their skin gets a coppery colour, and except for their
+Anglo-Saxon eyes you would imagine many Australian youngsters to be
+Arabs.
+
+The beaches of Melbourne are not its only attractions. The city itself
+is a very handsome one, and its great parks are planted with fine
+English trees. You will see as good oaks and elms and beeches in Fitzroy
+Gardens, Melbourne, as in any of the parks of old England. Melbourne,
+too, at present, is the political capital of Australia, and here meet
+the Australian Parliament.
+
+Every young citizen of the Empire should know something of the
+Commonwealth of Australia and its political institutions, because, as
+the idea of Empire grows, it is recognized that all people of British
+race, whether Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, or South Africans,
+or residents of the Mother Country, should know the whole Empire.
+
+[Illustration: COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE. PAGE 22.]
+
+After Australia began to prosper it was found that the continent was too
+big to be governed by one Parliament in Sydney, so it split up into
+States, each with a constitution and government of its own. These States
+were New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, West
+Australia, and Tasmania. It was soon seen that a mistake had been made
+in splitting up altogether. The States were like children of one family,
+all engaged as partners in one business, who, growing up, decided to set
+up housekeeping each for himself, but neglected to arrange for some
+means by which they could meet together now and again and decide on
+matters which were of common interest to all of them. The separated
+States of Australia were, all alike, interested in making Australia
+great and prosperous, and keeping her safe; but in their hurry to set up
+independent housekeeping they forgot to provide for the safeguarding of
+that common interest.
+
+So soon as this was recognized, patriotic men set themselves to put
+things right, and the result was a Federation of the States, which is
+called the Commonwealth of Australia. The different States are left to
+manage for themselves their local affairs, but the big Australian
+affairs are managed by the Commonwealth Parliament, which at present
+meets in Melbourne, but one day will meet in a new Federal capital to be
+built somewhere out in the Bush--that is to say, the wild, empty
+country. Some people sneer at the idea of a "Bush capital," but I think,
+and perhaps you will think with me, that there is something very
+pleasant and very promising of profit in the idea of the country's
+rulers meeting somewhere in the pure air of a quiet little city
+surrounded by the great Australian forest. And as things are now, the
+population of Australia is too much centralized in the big cities, and
+it will be a good thing to have another centre of population.
+
+In this railway trip across the continent you are being introduced to
+all the main features of Australian life, so that you will have some
+solid knowledge of the conditions of the country, and can, later on, in
+chapters which will follow, learn of the Bush, the natives, the birds
+and beasts and flowers, the games of Australia.
+
+Leaving Melbourne, a fast and luxurious train takes you through the
+farming districts of Victoria, past many smiling towns, growing rich
+from the industry of men who graze cattle, grow wheat and oats and
+barley, make butter, or pasture sheep. At Albany the train crosses to
+Murray again, this time near to its source, and New South Wales is
+entered.
+
+For many, many miles now the train will run through flat, grassed
+country, on which great flocks of sheep graze. This is the Riverina
+district, the most notable sheep land in the world. From here, and from
+similar plains running all along the western and northern borders of New
+South Wales, comes the fine merino wool, which is necessary for
+first-class cloth-making. The story of merino wool is one of the
+romances of modern industry. Before the days of Australia, Spain was
+looked upon as the only country in the world which could produce fine
+wool. Spain was not willing that British looms should have any advantage
+of her production, and the British woollen manufacturing industry,
+confined to the use of coarser staples, languished. Now Australia, and
+Australia practically alone, produces the fine wool of the world.
+Australia merino wool is finer, more elastic, longer in staple, than any
+wool ever dreamed of a century ago, and its use alone makes possible
+some of the very fine cloths of to-day.
+
+This merino wool is purely a product of Australian cleverness in
+sheep-breeding. The sheep imported have been improved upon again and
+again, quality and quantity of coat being both considered, until to-day
+the Australian sheep is the greatest triumph of modern science as
+applied to the culture of animals, more wonderful and more useful than
+the thoroughbred race-horse. It is only on the hot plains that the
+merino sheep flourishes to perfection. If he is brought to cold
+hill-country in Australia his coat at once begins to coarsen, and his
+wool is therefore not so good.
+
+As you pass the sheep-runs in the train you will probably notice that
+they are divided into paddocks by fine-mesh wire-netting. That is to
+keep the rabbits out. The rabbit is accounted rather a desirable little
+creature in Great Britain. A rabbit-warren on an estate is a source of
+good sport and good food, and the complaint is sometimes of too few
+rabbits rather than too many. A boy may keep rabbits as pets with some
+enjoyment and some profit.
+
+In Australia rabbits were first introduced by an emigrant from England,
+who wished to give to his farm a home-like air. They spread over the
+country with such marvellous rapidity as to become soon a serious
+nuisance, then a national danger. Millions of pounds have been spent in
+different parts of Australia fighting the rabbit plague; millions more
+will yet have to be spent, for though the rabbits are now being kept in
+check, constant vigilance is needed to see that they do not get the
+upper hand again. The rabbit in Australia increases its numbers very
+quickly: the doe will have up to eighty or ninety young in a year. There
+is no natural check to this; no winter spell of bitter cold to kill off
+the young and feeble. The only limit to the rabbit life is the
+food-supply, and that does not fail until the pasturage intended for the
+sheep is eaten bare. Not only is the grass eaten, but also the roots of
+the grass, and the rabbit is a further nuisance because sheep dislike to
+eat grass at which bunny has been nibbling.
+
+The campaign against the rabbit in Australia has had all the excitement
+and much of the misery of a great war. The march inland of the rabbit
+was like that of a devastating army. Smiling prosperity was turned into
+black ruin. Where there had been green pastures and bleating sheep there
+was a bare and dusty plain and starving stock.
+
+At first wholesale poisoning was tried as a remedy for the rabbit
+plague. It inflicted a check, but had the evil of killing off many of
+the native birds and animals. There was an idea once of trying to
+spread a disease among the rabbits, so as to kill them off quickly, but
+that was abandoned. Now the method is to enclose the pasture-lands
+within wire-netting, which is rabbit-proof, and within this enclosure to
+destroy all logs and the like which provide shelters for the rabbits, to
+dig up all their burrows, and to hunt down the rabbit with dogs. The
+best of the lands are being thus quite cleared of rabbits. The worst
+lands are for the present left to bunny, who has become a source of
+income, being trapped and his carcase sent frozen to England, and his
+fur utilized for hat-felt. But be sure that if you bring to Australia
+your rabbit pets with you from England they will be destroyed before you
+land, and you may reckon on having to face serious trouble with the law
+for trying to bring them into the country.
+
+Whilst you have been hearing all this about the rabbit the train has
+climbed up from the plains to the Blue Mountains and is rushing down the
+coast slope towards Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, the chief
+commercial city of Australia, and one of the great ports of the Empire.
+Sydney is, I do really think, the pleasantest place in the world for a
+child to live in, though two hot, muggy months of the year are to be
+avoided for health's sake.
+
+On the Blue Mountains, as you crossed in the train, you will have seen
+wild "gullies," as they are called in Australia--ravines in the hills
+which rise abruptly all around, sometimes in wild cliffs and sometimes
+in steep wooded slopes. These gullies interlace with one another, one
+leading into another, and stretching out little arms in all directions.
+Turn into one and try to follow it up, and you never know where it will
+end. Well, once upon a time there was a particularly wild one of these
+gully systems on the coast hills where Sydney now is. Something sunk the
+level of the land suddenly, and the gullies were depressed below
+sea-level. The Pacific Ocean heard of this, broke a way through a great
+cliff-gate, and that made Sydney Harbour. Entering Sydney by sea, you
+come, as the ocean does, through a narrow gate between two lovely
+cliffs. Turn sharply to the left, and you are in a maze of blue waters,
+fringed with steep hills. On these hills is built Sydney. You may follow
+the harbour in all directions, up Iron Cove a couple of miles to
+Leichhardt suburb; along the Parramatta River (which is not a river at
+all, but one of the long arms of the ocean-filled gully system) ten
+miles to the orange orchard country; along the Lane Cove, through wooded
+hills, to another orchard tract; or, going in another direction, you may
+travel for scores of miles along what is called Middle Harbour, and then
+have North Harbour still to explore. In spite of the nearness of the big
+city, and the presence here and there of lovely suburbs on the
+waterside, the area of Sydney Harbour is so vast, its windings are so
+amazing, that you can get in a boat to the wildest and most lovely
+scenery in an hour or two. The rocky shores abound in caves, where you
+can camp out in dryness and comfort. The Bush at every season of the
+year flaunts wildflowers. There are fish to be had everywhere; in many
+places oysters; in some places rabbits, hares, and wallabies to be
+hunted. Does it not sound like a children's paradise--all this within
+reach of a vast city?
+
+But let us tear ourselves away from Sydney, and go on to Brisbane,
+passing on the way through Kurringai Chase, one of the great National
+Parks of New South Wales; along the fertile Hawkesbury and Hunter
+valleys, which grow Indian corn and lucerne, and oranges and melons, and
+men who are mostly over six feet high; up the New England Mountains,
+through a country which owes its name to the fact that the high
+elevation gives it a climate somewhat like that of England; then into
+Queensland along the rich Darling Down studded with wheat-farms,
+dairy-farms, and cattle-ranches; and finally to Brisbane, a prospering
+semi-tropical town which is the capital of the Northern State of
+Queensland. At Brisbane you will be able to buy fine pineapples for a
+penny each, and that alone should endear it to your heart.
+
+Thus you will have seen a good deal of the Australia of to-day. You
+might have followed other routes. Coming via Canada, you would reach
+Brisbane first. Taking a "British India" boat you would have come down
+the north coast of Queensland and seen something of its wonderful
+tropical vegetation, its sugar-fields, banana and coffee plantations,
+and the meat works which ship abroad the products of the great cattle
+stations.
+
+[Illustration: THE TOWN HALL SYDNEY. PAGE 29.]
+
+This tropical part of Australia really calls for a long book of its own.
+But as it is hardly the Australia of to-day, though it may be the
+Australia of the future, we must hurry through its great forests and its
+rich plains. There are wild buffalo to be found on these plains, and in
+the rivers that flow through them crocodiles lurk. The crocodile is a
+very cunning creature. It rests near the surface of the water like a
+half-submerged log waiting for a horse or an ox or a man to come into
+the water. Then a rush and a meal.
+
+If, instead of coming along the north, you had travelled via South
+Africa you might have landed first at Hobart and seen the charms of dear
+little Tasmania, a land of apple-orchards and hop-gardens, looking like
+the best parts of Kent. But you have been introduced to a good deal of
+Australia and heard much of its industries and its history. It is time
+now to talk of savages, and birds, and beasts, and games, and the like.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE NATIVES
+
+    A dwindling race; their curious weapons--The Papuan
+    tree-dwellers--The cunning witch-doctors.
+
+
+The natives of Australia were always few in number. The conditions of
+the country secured that Australia, kept from civilization for so long,
+is yet the one land of the world which, whilst capable of great
+production with the aid of man's skill, is in its natural state
+hopelessly sterile. Australia produced no grain of any sort naturally;
+neither wheat, oats, barley nor maize. It produced practically no edible
+fruit, excepting a few berries, and one or two nuts, the outer rind of
+which was eatable. There were no useful roots such as the potato, the
+turnip, or the yam, or the taro. The native animals were few and just
+barely eatable, the kangaroo, the koala (or native bear) being the
+principal ones. In birds alone was the country well supplied, and they
+were more beautiful of plumage than useful as food. Even the fisheries
+were infrequent, for the coast line, as you will see from the map, is
+unbroken by any great bays, and there is thus less sea frontage to
+Australia than to any other of the continents, and the rivers are few in
+number.
+
+Where the land inhabited by savages is poor in food-supply their number
+is, as a rule, small and their condition poor. It is not good for a
+people to have too easy times; that deprives them of the incentive to
+work. But also it is not good for people who are backward in
+civilization to be kept to a land which treats them too harshly; for
+then they never get a fair chance to progress in the scale of
+civilization. The people of the tropics and the people near the poles
+lagged behind in the race for exactly opposite but equally powerful
+reasons. The one found things too easy, the other found things too hard.
+It was in the land between, the Temperate Zone, where, with proper
+industry, man could prosper, that great civilizations grew up.
+
+The Australian native had not much to complain of in regard to his
+climate. It was neither tropical nor polar. But the unique natural
+conditions of his country made it as little fruitful to an uncivilized
+inhabitant as was Lapland. When Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay
+probably there were not 500,000 natives in all Australia. And if the
+white man had not come, there probably would never have been any
+progress among the blacks. As they were then they had been for countless
+centuries, and in all likelihood would have remained for countless
+centuries more. They had never, like the Chinese, the Hindus, the
+Peruvians, the Mexicans, evolved a civilization of their own. There was
+not the slightest sign that they would be able to do so in the future.
+If there was ever a country on earth which the white man had a right to
+take on the ground that the black man could never put it to good use, it
+was Australia.
+
+Allowing that, it is a pity to have to record that the early treatment
+of the poor natives of Australia was bad. The first settlers to
+Australia had learned most of the lessons of civilization, but they had
+not learned the wisdom and justice of treating the people they were
+supplanting fairly. The officials were, as a rule, kind enough; but some
+classes of the new population were of a bad type, and these, coming into
+contact with the natives, were guilty of cruelties which led to
+reprisals and then to further cruelties, and finally to a complete
+destruction of the black people in some districts.
+
+In Tasmania, for instance, where the blacks were of a fine robust type,
+convicts in the early days, escaping to the Bush, by their cruelties
+inflamed the natives to hatred of the white disturbers, and outrages
+were frequent. The state of affairs got to be so bad that the Government
+formed the idea of capturing all the natives of Tasmania and putting
+them on a special reserve on Tasman Peninsula. That was to be the black
+man's part of the country, where no white people would be allowed. The
+help of the settlers was enlisted, and a great cordon was formed around
+the whole island, as if it were to be beaten for game. The cordon
+gradually closed in on Tasman Peninsula after some weeks of "beating"
+the forests. It was found, then, that one aboriginal woman had been
+captured, and that was all. Such a result might have been foreseen.
+Tasmania is about as large as Scotland. Its natural features are just as
+wild. The cordon did not embrace 2,000 settlers. The idea of their being
+able to drive before them a whole native race familiar with the Bush was
+absurd.
+
+After that the old conditions ruled in Tasmania. Blacks and whites were
+in constant conflict, and the black race quickly perished. To-day there
+is not a single member of that race alive, Truganini, its last
+representative, having died about a quarter of a century ago.
+
+On the mainland of Australia many blacks still survive; indeed, in a few
+districts of the north, they have as yet barely come into contact with
+the white race. A happier system in dealing with them prevails. The
+Government are resolute that the blacks shall be treated kindly, and
+aboriginal reserves have been formed in all the States. One hears still
+of acts of cruelty in the back-blocks (as the far interior of Australia
+is called), but, so far as the Government can, it punishes the
+offenders. In several of the States there is an official known as the
+Protector of the Aborigines, and he has very wide powers to shield these
+poor blacks from the wickedness of others, and from their own weakness.
+In the Northern States now, the chief enemies of the blacks are Asiatics
+from the pearl-shelling fleets, who land in secret and supply the blacks
+with opium and drink. When the Commonwealth Navy, now being
+constructed, is in commission, part of its duty will be to patrol the
+northern coast and prevent Asiatics landing there to victimize the
+blacks.
+
+The official statistics of the Commonwealth reported, in regard to the
+aborigines, in the year 1907:
+
+"In Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, on the other
+hand, there are considerable numbers of natives still in the 'savage'
+state, numerical information concerning whom is of a most unreliable
+nature, and can be regarded as little more than the result of mere
+guessing. Ethnologically interesting as is this remarkable and rapidly
+disappearing race, practically all that has been done to increase our
+knowledge of them, their laws, habits, customs, and language, has been
+the result of more or less spasmodic and intermittent effort on the part
+of enthusiasts either in private life or the public service. Strange to
+say, an enumeration of them has never been seriously undertaken in
+connection with any State census, though a record of the numbers who
+were in the employ of whites, or living in contiguity to the settlements
+of whites, has usually been made. As stated above, various guesses at
+the number of aboriginal natives at present in Australia have been made,
+and the general opinion appears to be that 150,000 may be taken as a
+rough approximation to the total. It is proposed to make an attempt to
+enumerate the aboriginal population of Australia in connection with the
+first Commonwealth Census to be taken in 1911."
+
+A very primitive savage was the Australian aboriginal. He had no
+architecture, but in cold or wet weather built little break-winds,
+called mia-mias. He had no weapons of steel or any other metal. His
+spears were tipped with the teeth of fish, the bones of animals, and
+with roughly sharpened flints. He had no idea of the use of the bow and
+arrow, but had a curious throwing-stick, which, working on the principle
+of a sling, would cast a missile a great distance. These were his
+weapons--rough spears, throwing-sticks, and clubs called nullahs, or
+waddys. (I am not sure that these latter are original native words. The
+blacks had a way of picking up white men's slang and adding it to their
+very limited vocabulary; thus the evil spirit is known among them as the
+"debbil-debbil.") Another weapon the aboriginal had, the boomerang, a
+curiously curved missile stick which, if it missed the object at which
+it was aimed, would curve back in the air and return to the feet of the
+thrower; thus the black did not lose his weapon. The boomerang shows an
+extraordinary knowledge of the effects of curves on the flight of an
+object; it is peculiar to the Australian natives, and proves that they
+had skill and cunning in some respects, though generally low in the
+scale of human races.
+
+The Australian aboriginals were divided into tribes, and these tribes,
+when food supplies were good, amused themselves with tribal warfare.
+From what can be gathered, their battles were not very serious affairs.
+There was more yelling and dancing and posing than bloodshed. The braves
+of a tribe would get ready for battle by painting themselves with red,
+yellow, and white clay in fantastic patterns. They would then hold
+war-dances in the presence of the enemy; that, and the exchange of
+dreadful threats, would often conclude a campaign. But sometimes the
+forces would actually come to blows, spears would be thrown, clubs used.
+The wounds made by the spears would be dreadfully jagged, for about half
+a yard of the end of the spear was toothed with bones or fishes' teeth.
+But the black fellows' flesh healed wonderfully. A wound that would kill
+any European the black would plaster over with mud, and in a week or so
+be all right.
+
+Duels between individuals were not uncommon among the natives, and even
+women sometimes settled their differences in this way. A common method
+of duelling was the exchange of blows from a nullah. One party would
+stand quietly whilst his antagonist hit him on the head with a club;
+then the other, in turn, would have a hit, and this would be continued
+until one party dropped. It was a test of endurance rather than of
+fighting power.
+
+The women of the aboriginals were known as gins, or lubras, the children
+as picaninnies--this last, of course, not an aboriginal name. The women
+were not treated very well by their lords: they had to do all the
+carrying when on the march. At mealtimes they would sit in a row behind
+the men. The game--a kangaroo, for instance--would be roughly roasted at
+the camp fire with its fur still on. The men would devour the best
+portions and throw the rest over their shoulders to the waiting women.
+
+Fish was a staple article of diet for the Australian natives. Wherever
+there were good fishing-places on the coast or good oyster-beds powerful
+tribes were camped, and on the inland rivers are still found weirs
+constructed by the natives to trap fish. So far as can be ascertained,
+the Australian native was rarely if ever a cannibal. His neighbours in
+the Pacific Ocean were generally cannibals. Perhaps the scanty
+population of the Australian continent was responsible for the absence
+of cannibalism; perhaps some ethical sense in the breasts of the
+natives, who seem to have always been, on the whole, good-natured and
+little prone to cruelty.
+
+[Illustration: THE AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN CAPTAIN COOK'S TIME. PAGE 34.]
+
+The religious ideas of these natives were very primitive. They believed
+strongly in evil spirits, and had various ceremonial dances and
+practices of witchcraft to ward off the influence of these. But they had
+little or no conception of a Good Spirit. Their idea of future happiness
+was, after they had come into contact with the whites: "Fall down black
+fellow, jump up white fellow." Such an idea of heaven was, of course, an
+acquired one. What was their original notion on the subject is not at
+all clear. The Red Indians of America had a very definite idea of a
+future happy state. The aboriginals of Australia do not seem to have
+been able to brighten their poor lives with such a hope.
+
+Various books have been written about the folklore of the Australian
+aboriginals, but most of the stories told as coming from the blacks seem
+to me to have a curious resemblance to the stories of white folk. A
+legend about the future state, for instance, is just Bunyan's "Pilgrim's
+Progress" put crudely to fit in with Australian conditions. I may be
+quite wrong in this, but I think that most of the folk-stories coming
+from the natives are just their attempts to imitate white-man stories,
+and not original ideas of their own. The conditions or life in Australia
+for the aboriginal were so harsh, the struggle for existence was so
+keen, that he had not much time to cultivate ideas. Life to him was
+centred around the camp-fire, the baked 'possum, and a few crude tribal
+ceremonies.
+
+Usually the Australian black is altogether spoilt by civilization. He
+learns to wear clothes, but he does not learn that clothes need to be
+changed and washed occasionally, and are not intended for use by day and
+night. He has an insane veneration for the tall silk hat which is the
+badge of modern gentility, and, given an old silk hat, he will never
+allow it off his head. He quickly learns to smoke and to drink, and,
+when he comes into contact with the Chinese, to eat opium. He cannot be
+broken into any steady habits of industry, but where by wise kindness
+the black fellow has been kept from the vices of civilization he is a
+most engaging savage. Tall, thin, muscular, with fine black beard and
+hair and a curiously wide and impressive forehead, he is not at all
+unhandsome. He is capable of great devotion to a white master, and is
+very plucky by daylight, though his courage usually goes with the fall
+of night. He takes to a horse naturally, and some of the finest riders
+in Australia are black fellows.
+
+An attempt is now being made to Christianize the Australian blacks. It
+seems to prosper if the blacks can be kept away from the debasing
+influence of bad whites. They have no serious vices of their own, very
+little to unlearn, and are docile enough. In some cases black children
+educated at the mission schools are turning out very well. But, on the
+other hand, there are many instances of these children conforming to the
+habits of civilization for some years and then suddenly feeling "the
+call of the wild," and running away into the Bush to join some nomad
+tribe.
+
+It is not possible to be optimistic about the future of the Australian
+blacks. The race seems doomed to perish. Something can be done to
+prolong their life, to make it more pleasant; but they will never be a
+people, never take any share in the development of the continent which
+was once their own.
+
+A quite different type of native comes under the rule of the Australian
+Commonwealth--the Papuan. Though Papua, or New Guinea, as it was once
+called, is only a few miles from the north coast of Australia, its race
+is distinct, belonging to the Polynesian or Kanaka type, and resembling
+the natives of Fiji and Tahiti.
+
+Papua is quite a tropical country, producing bananas, yams, taro, sago,
+and cocoa-nuts. The natives, therefore, have always had plenty of food,
+and they reached a higher stage of civilization than the Australian
+aborigines. But their food came too easily to allow them to go very far
+forward. "Civilization is impossible where the banana grows," some
+observer has remarked. He meant that since the banana gave food without
+any culture or call on human energy, the people in banana-growing
+countries would be lazy, and would not have the stimulus to improve
+themselves that is necessary for progress. To get a good type of man he
+must have the need to work.
+
+The Papuan, having no need of industry, amused himself with head-hunting
+as a national sport. Tribes would invade one another's districts and
+fight savage battles. The victors would eat the bodies of the
+vanquished, and carry home their heads as trophies. A chief measured his
+greatness by the number of skulls he had to adorn his house.
+
+Since the British came to Papua head-hunting and cannibalism have been
+forbidden. But all efforts to instil into the minds of the Papuan a
+liking for work have so far failed. So the condition of the natives is
+not very happy. They have lost the only form of exercise they cared for,
+and sloth, together with contact with the white man, has brought to them
+new and deadly diseases. Several missionary bodies are working to
+convert the Papuan to Christianity, and with some success.
+
+The Papuan builds houses and temples. His tree-dwellings are very
+curious. They are built on platforms at the top of lofty palm-trees.
+Probably the Papuan first designed the tree-dwelling as a refuge from
+possible enemies. Having climbed up to his house with the aid of a rope
+ladder and drawn the ladder up after him, he was fairly safe from
+molestation, for the long, smooth, branchless trunks of the palm-trees
+do not make them easy to scale. In time the Papuan learned the
+advantages of the tree-dwelling in marshy ground, and you will find
+whole villages on the coast built of trees. Herodotus states of the
+ancient Egyptians that in some parts they slept on top of high towers to
+avoid mosquitoes and the malaria that they brought. The Papuan seems to
+have arrived at the same idea.
+
+Sorcery is a great evil among the Papuans. In every village almost, some
+crafty man pretends to be a witch and to have the power to destroy those
+who are his enemies. This is a constant thorn in the side of the
+Government official and the missionary. The poor Papuan goes all his
+days beset by the Powers of Darkness. The sorcerer, the "pourri-pourri"
+man, can blast him and his pigs, crops, family (that is the Papuan
+order of valuation) at will. The sorcerer is generally an old man. He
+does not, as a rule, deck himself in any special garb, or go through
+public incantations, as do most savage medicine-men. But he hints and
+threatens, and lets inference take its course, till eventually he
+becomes a recognized power, feared and obeyed by all. Extortion, false
+swearing, quarrels and murders, and all manner of iniquity, follow in
+his train. No native but fears him, however complete the training and
+education of civilization. For the Papuan never thinks of death, plague,
+pestilence or famine as arising from natural causes. Every little
+misfortune (much more every great one) is credited to a "pourri-pourri"
+or magic. The Papuan, when he comes "under the Evil Eye" of the
+witch-doctor, will wilt away and die, though, apparently, he has nothing
+at all the matter with him; and since Europeans are apt to suffer from
+malarial fever in Papua, the witch-doctors are prompt to put this down
+to their efforts, and so persuade the natives that they have power even
+over Europeans.
+
+A gentleman who was a resident magistrate in Papua tells an amusing tale
+of how one witch-doctor was very properly served. "A village constable
+of my acquaintance, wearied with the attentions of a magician of great
+local repute, who had worked much harm with his friends and relations,
+tied him up with rattan ropes, and sank him in 20 feet of water against
+the morning. He argued, as he explained at his trial for murder, 'If
+this man is the genuine article, well and good, no harm done. If he is
+not--well, it's a good riddance!' On repairing to the spot next morning,
+and pulling up his night-line, he found that the magician had failed to
+'make his magic good,' and was quite dead. The constable's punishment
+was twelve months' hard labour. It was a fair thing to let him off
+easily, as in killing a witch-doctor he had really done the community a
+service."
+
+The future of the Papuan is more hopeful than that of the Australian
+aboriginal, and he may be preserved in something near to his natural
+state if means can be found to make him work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS
+
+    The kangaroo--The koala--The bulldog ant--Some quaint and
+    delightful birds--The kookaburra--Cunning crows and cockatoo.
+
+
+Australia has most curious animals, birds, and flowers. This is due to
+the fact that it is such an old, old place, and has been cut off so long
+from the rest of the world. The types of animals that lived in Europe
+long before Rome was built, before the days, indeed, of the Egyptian
+civilization, animals of which we find traces in the fossils of very
+remote periods--those are the types living in Australia to-day. They
+belong to the same epoch as the mammoth and the great flying lizards and
+other creatures of whom you may learn something in museums. Indeed,
+Australia, as regards its fauna, may be considered as a museum, with the
+animals of old times alive instead of in skeleton form.
+
+The kangaroo is always taken as a type of Australian animal life. When
+an Australian cricket team succeeds in vanquishing in a Test Match an
+English one (which happens now and again), the comic papers may be
+always expected to print a picture of a lion looking sad and sorry, and
+a kangaroo proudly elate. The kangaroo, like practically all Australian
+animals, is a marsupial, carrying its young about in a pouch after their
+birth until they reach maturity. The kangaroo's forelegs are very small;
+its hindlegs and its tail are immensely powerful, and these it uses for
+progression, rushing with huge hops over the country. There are very
+many animals which may be grouped as kangaroos, from the tiny kangaroo
+rat, about the size of an English water-rat, to the huge red kangaroo,
+which is over six feet high and about the weight of a sucking calf. The
+kangaroo is harmless and inoffensive as a rule, but it can inflict a
+dangerous kick with its hindlegs, and when pursued by dogs or men and
+cornered, the "old man" kangaroo will sometimes fight for its life. Its
+method is to take a stand in a water-hole or with its back to a tree,
+standing on its hindlegs and balanced on its tail. When a dog approaches
+it is seized in the kangaroo's forearms and held under water or torn to
+pieces. Occasionally men's lives have been lost through approaching
+incautiously an old man kangaroo.
+
+The kangaroo's method of self-defence has been turned to amusing account
+by circus-proprietors. The "boxing kangaroo" was at one time quite a
+common feature at circuses and music-halls. A tame kangaroo would have
+its forefeet fitted with boxing-gloves. Then when lightly punched by its
+trainer, it would, quite naturally, imitate the movements of the boxer,
+fending off blows and hitting out with its forelegs. One boxing kangaroo
+I had a bout with was quite a clever pugilist. It was very difficult to
+hit the animal, and its return blows were hard and well directed.
+
+The different sorts of kangaroo you may like to know. There is the
+kangaroo rat, very small; the "flying kangaroo," a rare animal of the
+squirrel species, but marsupial, which lives in trees; the wallaby, the
+wallaroo, the paddy-melon (medium varieties of kangaroo); the grey and
+the red kangaroo, the last the biggest and finest of the species.
+
+The kangaroo, as I have said, is not of much use for meat. Its flesh is
+very dark and rank, something like that of a horse. However, chopped up
+into a fine sausage-meat, with half its weight of fat bacon, kangaroo
+flesh is just eatable. The tail makes a very rich soup. The skin of the
+kangaroo provides a soft and pliant leather which is excellent for
+shoes. Kangaroo furs are also of value for rugs and overcoats.
+
+[Illustration: THE AUSTRALIAN FOREST AT NIGHT "MOONING" OPOSSUMS.
+PAGES 49 & 71.]
+
+Of tree-inhabiting animals the chief in Australia is the 'possum (which
+is not really an opossum, but is somewhat like that American rodent, and
+so got its name), and the koala, or native bear. Why this little animal
+was called a "bear" it is hard to say, for it is not in the least like a
+bear. It is about the size of a very large and fat cat, is covered with
+a very thick, soft fur, and its face is shaped rather like that of an
+owl, with big saucer-eyes.
+
+The koala is the quaintest little creature imaginable. It is quite
+harmless, and only asks to be let alone and allowed to browse on
+gum-leaves. Its flesh is uneatable except by an aboriginal or a victim
+to famine. Its fur is difficult to manipulate, as it will not lie flat,
+so the koala should have been left in peace. But its confiding and
+somewhat stupid nature, and the senseless desire of small boys and
+"children of larger growth" to kill something wild just for the sake of
+killing, has led to the koala being almost exterminated in many places.
+Now it is protected by the law, and may get back in time to its old
+numbers. I hope so. There is no more amusing or pretty sight than that
+of a mother koala climbing sedately along a gum-tree limb, its young
+ones riding on it pick-a-back, their claws dug firmly into its soft fur.
+
+The 'possum is much hunted for its fur. The small black 'possum found in
+Tasmania and in the mountainous districts is the most valuable, its fur
+being very close and fine. Dealers in skins will sometimes dye the grey
+'possum's skin black and trade it off as Tasmanian 'possum. It is a
+trick to beware of when buying furs. Bush lads catch the 'possum with
+snares. Finding a tree, the scratched bark of which tells that a 'possum
+family lives upstairs in one of its hollows, they fix a noose to the
+tree. The 'possum, coming down at night to feed or to drink, is caught
+in the noose. Another way of getting 'possum skins is to shoot the
+little creatures on moonlight nights. (The 'possum is nocturnal in its
+habits, and sleeps during the day.) When there is a good moon the
+'possums may be seen as they sit on the boughs of the gum-trees, and
+brought down with a shot-gun.
+
+Besides its human enemies, the 'possum has the 'goanna (of which more
+later) to contend with. The 'goanna--a most loathsome-looking
+lizard--can climb trees, and is very fond of raiding the 'possum's home
+when the young are there. Between the men who want its coat and the
+'goannas who want its young the 'possum is fast being exterminated.
+
+Two other characteristic Australian animals you should know about. The
+wombat is like a very large pig; it lives underground, burrowing vast
+distances. The wombat is a great nuisance in districts where there are
+irrigation canals; its burrows weaken the banks of the water-channels,
+and cause collapses. The dugong is a sea mammal found on the north coast
+of Australia. It is said to be responsible for the idea of the mermaid.
+Rising out of the water, the dugong's figure has some resemblance to
+that of a woman.
+
+Then there is the bunyip--or, rather, there isn't the bunyip, so far as
+we know as yet. The bunyip is the legendary animal of Australia. It is
+supposed to be of great size--as big as a bullock--and of terrible
+ferocity. The bunyip is represented as living in lakes and marshes, but
+it has never been seen by any trustworthy observer. The blacks believe
+profoundly in the bunyip, and white children, when very young, are
+scared with bunyip tales. There may have been once an animal answering
+to its description in Australia; if so, it does not seem to have
+survived.
+
+In Tasmania, however, are found, though very rarely, two savage and
+carnivorous marsupials called the Tasmanian tiger and the Tasmanian
+devil. The tiger is almost as large as the female Bengal tiger, and has
+a few little stripes near its tail, from which fact it gets its name.
+The Tasmanian tiger will create fearful havoc if it gets among sheep,
+killing for the sheer lust of killing. At one time a price of £100 was
+put on the head of the Tasmanian tiger. As settlement progressed it
+became rarer and rarer, and I have not heard of one having been seen for
+some years. The Tasmanian devil is a marsupial somewhat akin to the wild
+cat, and of about the same size. It is very ferocious, and has been
+known to attack man, springing on him from a tree branch. The Tasmanian
+devil is likewise becoming very rare.
+
+The existence of these two animals in Tasmania and not in Australia
+shows that that island has been a very long time separated from the
+mainland.
+
+Australia is very well provided with serpents--rather too well
+provided--and the Bush child has to be careful in regard to putting his
+hand into rabbit burrows or walking barefoot, as there are several
+varieties of venomous snake. But the snakes are not at all the great
+danger that some imagine. You might live all your life in Australia and
+never see one; but in a few country parts it has been found necessary to
+enclose the homesteads on the stations with snake-proof wire-fencing, so
+as to make some place of safety in which young children may play. The
+most venomous of Australian snakes are the death-adder, fortunately a
+very sluggish variety; the tiger-snake, a most fierce serpent, which,
+unlike other snakes, will actually turn and pursue a man if it is
+wounded or angered; the black snake, a handsome creature with a vivid
+scarlet belly; and the whip-snake, a long, thin reptile, which may be
+easily mistaken for a bit of stick, and is sometimes picked up by
+children. But no Australian snake is as deadly as the Indian jungle
+snakes, and it is said that the bite of no Australian snake can cause
+death if the bite has been given through any cloth. So the only real
+danger is in walking through the Bush barefooted, or putting the hand
+into holes where snakes may be lurking.
+
+Some of the non-venomous snakes of Australia are very handsome, the
+green tree-snake and the carpet-snake (a species of python) for
+examples. The carpet-snake is occasionally kept in the house or in the
+barn to destroy mice and other small vermin.
+
+Lizards in great variety are found in Australia, the chief being one
+incorrectly called an iguana, which colloquial slang has changed to
+'goanna. The 'goanna is an altogether repulsive creature. It feasts on
+carrion, on the eggs of birds, on birds themselves, on the young of any
+creature. Growing to a great size--I have seen one 9 feet long and as
+thick in the body as a small dog--the 'goanna looks very dangerous, and
+it will bite a man when cornered. Though not venomous in the strict
+sense of the word, the 'goanna's bite generally causes a festering wound
+on account of the loathsome habits of the creature. The Jew-lizard and
+the devil-lizard are two other horrid-looking denizens of the Australian
+forest, but in their cases an evil character does not match an evil
+face, for they are quite harmless.
+
+Spiders are common, but there is, so far as I know, only one dangerous
+one--a little black spider with a red spot on its back. Large spiders,
+called (incorrectly) tarantulas, credited by some with being poisonous,
+come into the houses. But they are really not in any way dangerous. I
+knew a man who used to keep tarantulas under his mosquito-nets so that
+they might devour any stray mosquitoes that got in. The example is
+hardly worth following. The Australian tarantula, though innocent of
+poison, is a horrible object, and would, I think, give you a bad fright
+if it flopped on to your face.
+
+Australia is rich in ants. There is one specially vicious ant called the
+bulldog ant, because of its pluck. Try to kill the bulldog ant with a
+stick, and it will face you and try to bite back until the very last
+gasp, never thinking of running away. The bulldog ant has a liking for
+the careless picnicker, whom she--the male ant, like the male bee, is
+not a worker--bites with a fierce energy that suggests to the victim
+that his flesh is being torn with red-hot pincers. I have heard it said
+that but for the fact that Australia is so large an island, a great
+proportion of its population would by this time have been lost through
+bounding into the surrounding sea when bitten by bulldog ants. It is
+wise when out for a picnic in Australia to camp in some spot away from
+ant-beds, for the ant, being such an industrious creature, seems to take
+a malicious delight in spoiling the day for pleasure-seekers.
+
+In one respect, the ant, unwillingly enough, contributes to the pleasure
+and amusement of the Australian people. In the dry country it would not
+be possible to keep grass lawns for tennis. But an excellent substitute
+has been found in the earth taken from ant-beds. This earth, which has
+been ground fine by the industrious little insects, makes a beautifully
+firm tennis-court.
+
+It is not possible to leave the ant without mention of the termite, or
+white ant, which is very common and very mischievous in most parts of
+Australia. A colony of termites keeps its headquarters underground, and
+from these headquarters it sends out foraging expeditions to eat up all
+the wood in the neighbourhood. If you build a house in Australia, you
+must be very careful indeed that there is no possibility of the termites
+being able to get to its timbers. Otherwise the joists will be eaten,
+the floors eaten, even the furniture eaten, and one day everything that
+is made of wood in the house will collapse. All the mischief, too, will
+have been concealed until the last moment. A wooden beam will look to be
+quite sound when really its whole heart has been eaten out by the
+termites. Nowadays the whole area on which a house is to be raised is
+covered with cement or with asphalt, and care taken that no timber
+joists are allowed to touch the earth and thus give entry to the
+termites. Fortunately, these destructive insects cannot burrow through
+brick or stone.
+
+In the Northern Territory there are everywhere gigantic mounds raised by
+these termites, long, narrow, high, and always pointing due north and
+south. You can tell infallibly the points of the compass from the mounds
+of this white ant, which has been called the "meridian termite."
+
+Australia has a wild bee of her own (of course, too, there are European
+bees introduced by apiarists, distilling splendid honey from the wild
+flowers of the continent). The aborigines had an ingenious way of
+finding the nests of the wild bee. They would catch a bee, preferably at
+some water-hole where the bees went to drink, and fix to its body a
+little bit of white down. The bee would be then released, and would fly
+straight for home, and the keen-eyed black would be able to follow its
+flight and discover the whereabouts of its hive--generally in the hollow
+of a tree. The Australian black, having found a hive, would kill the
+bees with smoke and then devour the whole nest, bees, honeycomb, and
+honey.
+
+Australian birds are very numerous and very beautiful. The famous
+bird-of-paradise is found in several varieties in Papua and other
+islands along Australia's northern coast. The bird-of-paradise was
+threatened with extinction on account of the demand for its plumes for
+women's hats. So the Australian Government has recently passed
+legislation to protect this most beautiful of all birds, which on the
+tiniest of bodies carries such wonderful cascades of plumage, silver
+white in some cases, golden brown in others.
+
+[Illustration: A SHEEP DROVER. PAGE 26.]
+
+Some very beautiful parrots flash through the Australian forest. It
+would not be possible to tell of all of them. The smallest, which is
+known as the grass parrakeet, or "the love-bird," is about the size of a
+sparrow. I notice it in England carried around by gipsies and trained to
+pick out a card which "tells you your fortune." From that tiny little
+green bird the range of parrots runs up to huge fowl with feathers of
+all the colours of the rainbow. There are two fine cockatoos also in
+Australia--the white with a yellow crest, and the black, which has a
+beautiful red lining to its sable wings. A flock of black cockatoos in
+flight gives an impression of a sunset cloud, its under surface shot
+with crimson.
+
+Cockatoos can be very destructive to crops, especially to maize, so the
+farmers have declared war upon them. The birds seem to be able to hold
+their own pretty well in this campaign, for they are of wonderful
+cunning. When a crowd of cockatoos has designs on a farmer's
+maize-patch, the leader seems to prospect the place thoroughly; he acts
+as though he were a general, providing a safe bivouac for an army; he
+sets sentinels on high trees commanding a view of all points of danger.
+Then the flock of cockatoos settles on the maize and gorges as fast as
+it can. If the farmer or his son tries to approach with a gun, a
+sentinel cockatoo gives warning and the whole flock clears out to a
+place of safety. As soon as the danger is over they come back to the
+feast.
+
+Even more cunning is the Australian crow. It is a bird of prey and
+perhaps the best-hated bird in the world. An Australian bushman will
+travel a whole day to kill a crow. For he has, at the time when the
+sheep were lambing, or when, owing to drought, they were weak, seen the
+horrible cruelties of the crow. This evil bird will attack weak sheep
+and young lambs, tearing out their eyes and leaving them to perish
+miserably. There have even been terrible cases where men lost in the
+Bush and perishing of thirst have been attacked by crows and have been
+found still alive, but with their eyes gone.
+
+It is no wonder that there is a deadly feud between man and crow. But
+the crow is so cunning as to be able to overmatch man's superior
+strength. A crow knows when a man is carrying a gun, and will keep out
+of range then; if a man is without a gun the crow will let him approach
+quite near. One can never catch many crows in the same district with the
+same device; they seem to learn to avoid what is dangerous. Very rarely
+can they be poisoned, no matter how carefully the bait is prepared.
+
+Bushmen tell all sorts of stories of the cunning of the crow. One is
+that of a man who suffered severely from a crow's depredations on his
+chickens. He prepared a poisoned bait and noticed the bird take it, but
+not devour it; that crow carefully took the poisoned tit-bit and put it
+in front of the man's favourite dog, which ate it, and was with
+difficulty saved from death! Another story is that of a man who thought
+to get within reach of a crow by taking out a gun, lying down under a
+tree, and pretending to be dead. True enough, the crow came up and
+hopped around, as if waiting for the man to move, and so to see if he
+were really dead. After awhile, the crow, to make quite sure, perched
+on a branch above the man's head and dropped a piece of twig on to his
+face! It was at this stage that the man decided to be alive, and, taking
+up his gun, shot the crow.
+
+There may be some exaggeration in the bushmen's tales of the crow's
+cunning, but there is quite enough of ascertained fact to show that the
+bird is as devilish in its ingenuity as in its cruelty. In most parts of
+Australia there is a reward paid for every dead crow brought into the
+police offices. Still, in spite of constant warfare, the bird holds its
+own, and very rarely indeed is its nest discovered--a signal proof of
+its precautions against the enmity of man.
+
+To turn to a more pleasant type of feathered animal. On the whole, the
+most distinctly Australian bird is the kookaburra, or "laughing
+jackass." (A picture of two kookaburras faces page 1 of this volume.
+They were drawn for me by a very clever Australian black-and-white
+artist, Mr. Norman Lindsay.) The kookaburra is about the size of an owl,
+of a mottled grey colour. Its sly, mocking eye prepares you for its
+note, which is like a laugh, partly sardonic, partly rollicking. The
+kookaburra seems to find much grim fun in this world, and is always
+disturbing the Bush quiet with its curious "laughter." So near in sound
+to a harsh human laugh is the kookaburra's call that there is no
+difficulty in persuading new chums that the bird is deliberately mocking
+them. The kookaburra has the reputation of killing snakes; it certainly
+is destructive to small vermin, so its life is held sacred in the Bush.
+And very well our kookaburra knows the fact. As he sits on a fence and
+watches you go past with a gun, he will now and again break out into his
+discordant "laugh" right in your face.
+
+The Australian magpie, a black-and-white bird of the crow family, is
+also "protected," as it feeds mainly on grubs and insects, which are
+nuisances to the farmer. The magpie has a very clear, well-sustained
+note, and to hear a group of them singing together in the early morning
+suggests a fine choir of boys' voices. They will tell you in Australia
+that the young magpie is taught by its parents to "sing in tune" in
+these bird choirs, and is knocked off the fence at choir practice if it
+makes a mistake. You may believe this if you wish to. I don't. But it
+certainly is a fact that a group of magpies will sing together very
+sweetly and harmoniously.
+
+One could not exhaust the list of Australian birds in even a big book.
+But a few more call for mention. There is the emu, like an ostrich, but
+with coarse wiry hair. The emu does damage on the sheep-runs by breaking
+down the wire fences. (Some say the emu likes fencing wire as an article
+of diet; but that is an exaggeration founded on the fact that, like all
+great birds, it can and does eat nails, pebbles, and other hard
+substances, which lodge in its gizzard and help it to digest its food.)
+On account of its mischievous habit of breaking fences the emu is
+hunted down, and is now fast dwindling. In Tasmania it is altogether
+extinct. Another danger to its existence is that it lays a very handsome
+egg of a dark green colour. These eggs are sought out for ornaments, and
+the emu's nest, built in the grass of the plain (for the emu cannot fly
+nor climb trees), is robbed wherever found.
+
+The brush turkey of Australia is strange in that it does not take its
+family duties at all seriously. The bird does not hatch out its eggs by
+sitting on them, but builds a mound of decaying vegetation over the
+eggs, and leaves them to come out with the sun's heat.
+
+The brolga, or native companion, is a handsome Australian bird of the
+crane family. It is of a pretty grey colour, with red bill and red legs.
+The brolga has a taste for dancing; flocks of this bird may be seen
+solemnly going through quadrilles and lancers--of their own
+invention--on the plains.
+
+Another strange Australian bird is called the bower-bird, because when a
+bower-bird wishes to go courting he builds in the Bush a little
+pavilion, and adorns it with all the gay, bright objects he can--bits of
+rag or metal, feathers from other birds, coloured stones and flowers. In
+this he sets himself to dancing until some lady bower-bird is attracted,
+and they set up housekeeping together. The bower-bird is credited with
+being responsible for the discovery of a couple of goldfields, the birds
+having picked up nuggets for their bowers, these, discovered by
+prospectors, telling that gold was near.
+
+If the bower-bird wishes for wedding chimes to grace his picturesque
+mating, another bird will be able to gratify the wish--the bell-bird
+which haunts quiet, cool glens, and has a note like a bell, and yet more
+like the note of one of those strange hallowed gongs you hear from the
+groves of Eastern temples. Often riding through the wild Australian Bush
+you hear the chimes of distant bells, hear and wonder until you learn
+that the bell-bird makes the clear, sweet music.
+
+One more note about Australian nature life. In the summer the woods are
+full of locusts (cicadæ), which jar the air with their harsh note. The
+locust season is always a busy one for the doctors. The Australian small
+boy loves to get a locust to carry in his pocket, and he has learned, by
+a little squeezing, to induce the unhappy insect to "strike up," to the
+amusing interruption of school or home hours. Now, to get a locust it is
+necessary to climb a tree, and Australian trees are hard to climb and
+easy to fall out of. So there are many broken limbs during the locust
+season. They represent a quite proper penalty for a cruel and unpleasant
+habit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH
+
+    An introduction to an Australian home--Off to a picnic--The
+    wattle, the gum, the waratah--The joys of the forest.
+
+
+The Australian child wakens very often to the fact that "to-day is a
+holiday." The people of the sunny southern continent work very hard
+indeed, but they know that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy";
+and Jill a dull girl too. So they have very frequent holidays--far more
+frequent than in Great Britain. The Australian child, rising on a
+holiday morning, and finding it fine and bright--very rarely is he
+disappointed in the weather of his sunny climate--gives a whoop of joy
+as he remembers that he is going on a picnic into the forest, or the
+"Bush," as it is called invariably in Australia. The whoop is, perhaps,
+more joyful than it is musical. The Australian youngster is not trained,
+as a rule, to have the nice soft voice of the English child. Besides,
+the dry, invigorating climate gives his throat a strength which simply
+must find expression in loud noise.
+
+Let us follow the Australian child on his picnic and see something of
+the Australian Bush, also of an Australian home.
+
+Suppose him starting from Wahroonga, a pretty suburb about ten miles
+from Sydney, the biggest city of Australia. Jim lives there with his
+brothers and sisters and parents in a little villa of about nine rooms,
+and four deep shady verandas, one for each side of the house. On these
+verandas in summer the family will spend most of the time. Meals will be
+served there, reading, writing, sewing done there; in many households
+the family will also sleep there, the little couches being protected by
+nets to keep off mosquitoes which may be hovering about in thousands.
+And in the morning, as the sun peeps through the bare beautiful trunks
+of the white gums, the magpies will begin to carol and the kookaburras
+to laugh, and the family will wake to a freshness which is divine.
+
+Around the house are lawns, of coarser grass than that of England, but
+still looking smooth and green, and many flower-beds in which all the
+flowers of earth seem to bloom. There are roses in endless
+variety--Jim's mother boasts that she has sixty-five different
+sorts--and some of them are blooming all the year round, so mild is the
+climate. Phlox, verbenas, bouvardias, pelargoniums, geraniums, grow side
+by side with such tropical plants as gardenias, tuberoses, hibisci,
+jacarandas, magnolias. In season there are daffodils, and snowdrops, and
+narcissi, and dahlias, and chrysanthemums. Recall all the flowers of
+England; add to them the flowers of Southern Italy and many from India,
+from Mexico, from China, from the Pacific Islands, and you have an idea
+of the fine garden Jim enjoys.
+
+[Illustration: A HUT IN THE BUSH. PAGE 63.]
+
+Beyond the garden is a tennis-court, and around its high wire fences are
+trained grape-vines of different kinds, muscatels and black amber and
+shiraz, and lady's-fingers, which yield splendidly without any shelter
+or artificial heat. On the other side of the house is a little orchard,
+not much more than an acre, where, all in the open air, grow melons,
+oranges, lemons, persimmons (or Japanese plums), apples, pears, peaches,
+apricots, custard-apples (a curious tropical fruit, which is soft inside
+and tastes like a sweet custard), guavas (from which delicious jelly is
+made), and also strawberries and raspberries.
+
+The far corner is taken up with a paddock, for the horses are not kept
+in a stable, night or day, except occasionally when a very wet, cold
+night comes.
+
+That is the surrounding of Jim's home. Inside the house there is to-day
+a great deal of bustle. Everybody is working--all the members of the
+family as well as the two maid-servants, for in Australia it is the rule
+to do things for yourself and not to rely too much on the labour of
+servants (who are hard to get and to keep). Even baby pretends to help,
+and has to be allowed to carry about a "billy" to give her the idea that
+she is useful. This "billy" is a tin pot in which, later on, water will
+be boiled over a little fire in the forest, and tea made. Food is packed
+up--perhaps cold meats, perhaps chops or steaks which will be grilled in
+the bush-fire. Always there are salads, cold fruit pies, home-made
+cakes, fruit; possibly wine for the elders. But tea is never forgotten.
+It would not be a picnic without tea.
+
+Now a drag is driven around to the front gate by the one man-servant of
+the house, who has harnessed up the horses and put food for them in the
+drag. Some neighbours arrive; a picnic may be made up of just the
+members of one family, but usually there is a mingling of families, and
+that adds to the fun. The fathers of the families, as like as not, ride
+saddle-horses and do not join the others in the drag; some of the elder
+children, too, boys and girls, may ride their ponies, for in Australia
+it is common for children to have ponies. The party starts with much
+laughter, with inquiries as to the safety of the "billy" and the
+whereabouts of the matches. It is a sad thing to go out in the Bush for
+a picnic and find at the last moment that no one has any matches with
+which to light a fire. The black fellows can start a flare by rubbing
+two sticks together, but the white man has not mastered that art.
+
+The picnic makes its way along a Bush road four or five miles through
+pretty orchard country, given up mostly to growing peaches, grapes, and
+oranges, the cultivated patches in their bright colours showing in vivid
+contrast against the quiet grey-green of the gum-trees. It is spring,
+and all the peach-trees are dressed in gay pink bloom, and belts of this
+colour stretch into the forest for miles around.
+
+The road leaves the cultivated area. The ground becomes rocky and
+sterile. The gum-trees still grow sturdily, but there is no grass
+beneath; instead a wild confusion of wiry heather-like brush, bearing
+all sorts of curious flowers, white, pink, purple, blue, deep brown. One
+flower called the flannel-daisy is like a great star, and its petals
+seem to be cut of the softest white flannel. The boronia and the native
+rose compel attention by their piercing, aromatic perfume, which is
+strangely refreshing. The exhaling breath of the gum-trees, too, is keen
+and exhilarating.
+
+Now the path dips into a little hollow. What is that sudden blaze of
+glowing yellow? It is a little clump of wattle-trees, about as big as
+apple-trees, covered all over with soft flossy blossom of the brightest
+yellow. I like to imagine that the wattle is just prisoned sunlight;
+that one early morning the sun's rays came stealing over the hill to
+kiss the wattle-trees while they seemed to sleep; but the trees were
+really quite wide-awake, and stretched out their pretty arms and caught
+the sunbeams and would never let them go; and now through the winter the
+wattles hide the sun rays away in their roots, cuddling them softly; but
+in spring they let them come out on the branches and play wild games in
+the breeze, but will never let them escape.
+
+Past the little wattle grove there is a hill covered with the white
+gums. The young bark of these trees is of a pinky white, like the arms
+of a baby-girl. As the season advances and the sun beats more and more
+fiercely on the trees, the bark deepens in colour into red and brown,
+and deep brown-pink. After that the bark dies (in Australia most of the
+trees shed their bark and not their leaves), and as it dies strips off
+and shows the new fair white bark underneath.
+
+Our party has now come to a gully (ravine) which carries a little
+fresh-water creek (stream) to an arm of the sea near by. This is the
+camping-place. A nice soft bit of meadow will be found in the shade of
+the hillside. The fresh-water stream will give water for the "billy" tea
+and for the horses to drink. Down below a dear little beach, not more
+than 100 yards long, but of the softest sand, will allow the youngsters
+to paddle their feet, but they must not go in to swim, for fear of
+sharks. The beach has on each side a rocky, steeply-shelving shore, and
+on the rocks will be found any number of fine sweet oysters. Jim and his
+mate Tom have brought oyster-knives, and are soon down on the shore, and
+in a very short while bring, ready-opened, some dozens of oysters for
+their mothers and fathers. The girls of the party are quite able to
+forage oysters for themselves. Some of them do so; others wander up the
+sides of the gully and collect wildflowers for the table, which will not
+be a table at all, but just a cloth spread over the grass.
+
+They come back with the news that they have seen waratahs growing. That
+is exciting enough to take attention away even from the oysters, for the
+waratah, the handsomest wildflower of the world, is becoming rare around
+the cities. All the party follow the girl guides over a slope into
+another gully. There has been a bush-fire in this gully. All the
+undergrowth has been burned away, and the trunks of the trees badly
+charred, but the trees have not been killed. The gum has a very thick
+bark, purposely made to resist fire. This bark gets scorched in a
+bush-fire, but unless the fire is a very fierce one indeed, the tree is
+not vitally hurt. Around the blackened tree-trunks tongues of fire seem
+to be still licking. At a height of about six feet from the ground,
+those scarlet heart-shapes are surely flames? No, they are the waratahs,
+which love to grow where there have been bush-fires. The waratah is of a
+brilliant red colour, growing single and stately on a high stalk. Its
+shape is of a heart; its size about that of a pear. The waratah is not
+at all a dainty, fragile flower, but a solid mass of bloom like the
+vegetable cauliflower; indeed, if you imagine a cauliflower of a vivid
+red colour, about the size of a pear and the shape of a heart, growing
+on a stalk six feet high, you will have some idea of the waratah.
+
+Two of the flowers are picked--Tim's father will not allow more--and
+they are brought to help the decoration of the picnic meal. Carried thus
+over the shoulder of an eager, flushed child, the waratah suggests
+another idea: it represents exactly the thyrsus of the Bacchanals of
+ancient legends.
+
+The picnickers find that their appetites have gained zest from the sweet
+salty oysters. They are ready for lunch. A fire is started, with great
+precaution that it does not spread; meat is roasted on spits (perhaps,
+too, some fish got from the sea near by); and a hearty, jolly meal is
+eaten. Perhaps it would be better to say devoured, for at a picnic there
+is no nice etiquette of eating, and you may use your fingers quite
+without shame as long as you are not "disgusting." The nearest sister to
+Jim will tell him promptly if he became "disgusting," but I can't tell
+you all the rules. It isn't "disgusting" to hold a chop in your fingers
+as you eat it, or to stir your tea with a nice clean stick from a gum
+tree. But it is "disgusting" to put your fingers on what anyone else
+will have to eat, or to cut at the loaf of bread with a soiled knife. I
+hope that you will get from this some idea of Australian picnic
+etiquette. But you really cannot get any real idea of picnic fun until
+you have taken your picnic meal out in the Australian Bush; no
+description can do justice to that fun. The picnic habit is not one for
+children only. The Jim whom we have followed will be still eager for a
+picnic when he is the father of a big Jim of his own; that is, if he is
+the right kind of a human being and keeps the Australian spirit.
+
+After the midday meal, all sorts of games until the lengthening shadows
+tell that homeward time comes near. Then the "billy" is boiled again
+and tea made, the horses harnessed up and the picnickers turn back
+towards civilization. The setting sun starts a beautiful game of shine
+and shadow in among the trees of the gum forest; the aromatic
+exhalations from the trees give the evening air a hint of balm and
+spice; the people driving or riding grow a little pensive, for the spell
+of the Australian forest, "tender, intimate, spiritual," is upon them.
+But it is a pensiveness of pure, quiet joy, of those who have come near
+to Nature and enjoyed the peace of her holy places.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I took you from near Sydney to see the Australian forest and to learn
+something of its trees and flowers, because that part I know best, and
+its beauties are the typical beauties of the Bush. Almost anywhere else
+in the continent where settlement is, something of the same can be
+enjoyed. A Hobart picnic-party would turn its face towards Mount
+Wellington, and after passing over the foothills devoted to orchards,
+scale the great gum-forested mountain, and thus have added to the
+delights of the woods the beautiful landscape which the height affords.
+From Melbourne a party would take train to Fern-tree Gully and picnic
+among the giant eucalyptus there, or, without going so far afield, would
+make for one of the beautiful Hobson's Bay beaches. Farther north than
+Sydney, a note of tropical exuberance comes into the forest. You may see
+a gully filled with cedars in sweet wealth of lavender-coloured
+blossom; or with flame trees, great giants covered all over with a
+curious flowerlike red coral.
+
+But everywhere in Australia, the hot north and cool south, on the bleak
+mountains and the sunny coasts, will be found the gum-tree. It is the
+national tree of this curious continent, the oldest and the youngest of
+the countries of the earth. Some find the gum-tree "dull," because it
+has no flaring, flaunting brightness. But it is not dull to those who
+have eyes to see. Its spiritual lightness of form, its quiet artistry of
+colour, weave a spell around those who have any imagination. Australians
+abroad, who _are_ Australians (there are some people who, though they
+have lived in Australia--perhaps have been born there--are too coarse in
+fibre to be ever really Australians), always welcome with gladness the
+sight of a gum-tree; and Australians in London sometimes gather in some
+friend's house for a burning of gum-leaves. In a brazier the aromatic
+leaves are kindled, the thin, blue smoke curls up (gum-leaf smoke is
+somehow different to any other sort of smoke), and the Australians think
+tenderly of their far-away home.
+
+[Illustration: SURF BATHING SHOOTING THE BREAKERS. PAGES 23 & 73.]
+
+One may meet gum-trees in many parts of the world nowadays--in Africa,
+in America, in Italy and other parts of Europe; for the gum-tree has the
+quality of healing marshy soil and banishing malaria from the air. They
+are, therefore, much planted for health's sake, and the wandering
+Australian meets often his national tree.
+
+A very potent medicine called eucalyptus oil is brewed from gum-leaves,
+and a favourite Australian "house-wives'" remedy for rheumatism is a bed
+stuffed with gum-leaves. So the gum-tree is useful as well as beautiful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD
+
+    His school and his games--"Bobbies and bushrangers"--Riding to
+    school.
+
+
+Australia is the child among civilized nations, and her life throughout
+is a good deal like that of a child in some regards--more gay and free,
+less weighed down with conventions and thoughts of rules than the life
+of an older community. So Australia is a very happy place for children.
+There is not so much of the "clean pinny" in life--and what wholesome
+child ever really enjoyed the clean pinny and the tidied hair part of
+life?
+
+But don't run away with the idea that the Australians, either adults or
+children, are a dirty people. That would be just the opposite to the
+truth. Australians are passionately fond of the bath. In the poorest
+home there is always a bath-room, which is used daily by every member of
+the family. On the sea-coast swimming is the great sport, though it is
+dangerous to swim in the harbours because of sharks, and protected baths
+are provided where you may swim in safety; still children have to be
+carefully watched to prevent them from going in for a swim in unsafe
+places. The love of the water is greater than the fear of the sharks.
+The little Australian is not dirty, but he has a child's love of being
+untidy, and he can generally gratify it in his country, where conditions
+are so free and easy.
+
+I am sorry to say that the Australian child is rather inclined to be a
+little too "free and easy" in his manners. The climate makes him grow up
+more quickly than in Great Britain. He is more precocious both mentally
+and physically. At a very early age, he (or she) is entrusted with some
+share of responsibility. That is quite natural in a new country where
+pioneering work is being done. You will see children of ten and twelve
+and fourteen years of age taking quite a part in life, entrusted with
+some little tasks, and carrying them through in grown-up fashion. The
+effect of all this is that in their relations with their parents
+Australian children are not so obedient and respectful as they might be.
+This does not work for any great harm while the child is young. Up to
+fifteen or sixteen the son or daughter is perhaps more helpful and more
+companionable because of the somewhat relaxed discipline. Certainly the
+child has learned more how to use its own judgment. After that age,
+however, the fact of a loose parental discipline may come to be an
+evil. But there is, after all, no need to croak about the Australian
+child, who grows up to be a good average sort of woman or man as a
+general rule.
+
+It is very difficult indeed for a child in Australia to avoid school.
+Education is compulsory, the Government providing an elaborate system to
+see that every child gets at least the rudiments of education; even in
+the far back-blocks, where settlement is much scattered, it is necessary
+and possible to go to school. The State will carry the children to
+school on its railways free. If there is no railway it will send a 'bus
+round to collect children in scattered localities. Failing that, in the
+case of families which are quite isolated, and which are poor, the State
+will try to persuade the parents to keep a governess or tutor, and will
+help to pay the cost of this. The effect of all this effort is that in
+Australia almost every child can read and write.
+
+Going to school in the Bush parts of Australia is sometimes great fun.
+Often the children will have the use of one of the horses, and on this
+two, or three, or even four children will mount and ride off. When the
+family number more than four, the case calls for a buggy of some sort;
+and a child of ten or twelve will be quite safely entrusted with the
+harnessing of the horse and driving it to school.
+
+In the school itself, a great effort is made to have the lessons as
+interesting as possible. Nature-study is taught, and the children learn
+to observe the facts about the life in the Bush. There is a very
+charming writer about Australian children, Ethel Turner, who in one of
+her stories gives a picture of a little Bush school in one of the most
+dreary places in Australia--a little township out on the hot plains. I
+quote a little of it to show the sort of spirit which animates the
+school-teachers of Australia:
+
+"A new teacher had been appointed to the half-time school, which was all
+the Government could manage for so unimportant and dreary a place. His
+name was Eagar, and his friends said that he suited the sound of it.
+Alert of eye, energetic in movement, it may be safely said that in his
+own person was stored up more motive power than was owned conjointly by
+the two hundred odd souls who comprised the population of Ninety Mile.
+
+"There was room in Ninety Mile for an eager person. In fact, a dozen
+such would have sufficed long since to have carried it clean off its
+feet, and to have deposited it in some more likely position. But
+everyone touched in any way with the fire of life had long since
+departed from the place, and gone to set their homesteads and
+stackyards, their shops or other businesses elsewhere. So there were
+only a few limpets, who clung tenaciously to their spot, assured that
+all other spots on the globe were already occupied; and a few absolutely
+resigned persons. There is no clog on the wheel of progress that may be
+so absolutely depended upon to fulfil its purpose as resignation.
+
+"It was to this manner of a village that Eagar came. In a month he had
+established a cricket club; in two months a football club. The
+establishment of neither was attended with any great difficulty. In
+three months he had turned his own box of books into a free circulating
+library, and many of his leisure hours went in trying to induce the boys
+to borrow from him, and in seeing to it that, having borrowed, they
+actually read the books chosen.
+
+"But his success with this was doubtful. The boys regarded 'Westward
+Ho!' as a home-lesson, while the 'Three Musketeers' set fire to none of
+them. Even 'Treasure Island' left most of them cold; though Eagar,
+reading it aloud, had tried to persuade himself that little Rattray had
+breathed a trifle quicker as the blind man's stick came tap tapping
+along the road. The sea was nothing but a name to the whole number of
+scholars (eighteen of them, boys and girls all told). Not one of them
+had pierced past the township that lay ninety miles away to the right of
+them; indeed, half the number had never journeyed beyond Moonee, where
+the coach finished its journey.
+
+"Eagar got up collections--moths, butterflies, birds' eggs; he tried to
+describe museums, picture-galleries, and such, to his pupils. At that
+time he had no greater wish on earth than to have just enough money to
+take the whole school to Sydney for a week, and see what a suddenly
+widened horizon would do for them all. Had his salary come at that time
+in one solid cheque for the whole year, there is no knowing to what
+heights of recklessness he would have mounted, but the monthly driblets
+keep the temptation far off.
+
+"One morning he had a brilliant notion. In another week or two the
+yearly 'sweep' fever for far-distant races would attack the place, and
+the poorest would find enough to take a part at least in a ticket.
+
+"He seized a piece of paper, and instituted what he called 'Eagar's
+Consultation.' He explained that he was out to collect sixty shillings.
+Sixty shillings, he explained, would pay the fare-coach and train--to
+Sydney of one schoolboy, give him money in his pocket to see all the
+sights, and bring him back the richer for life for the experience, and
+leaven for the whole loaf of them.
+
+"'Which schoolboy?' said Ninety Mile doubtfully, expecting to be met
+with 'top boy.' And never having been 'top boy' itself at any time of
+its life, it had but a distrustful admiration for the same.
+
+"'We must draw lots,' said Eagar.
+
+"Upon which Ninety Mile, being attracted by the sporting element in the
+affair, slowly subscribed its shilling a-piece, and the happy lot fell
+to Rattray.
+
+"He was a sober, freckled little fellow of ten, who walked five miles
+into Ninety Mile every morning, and five miles back again at night all
+the six months of the year during which Government held the cup of
+learning there for small drinkers to sip."
+
+I need not quote further about young Rattray's trip to Sydney and to the
+great ocean which Bush children, seeing for the first time, often think
+is just a big dam built up by some great squatter to hold water for his
+sheep. That extract shows the Bush school at its very hardest in the hot
+back-country. Of course, not one twentieth of the population lives in
+such places. I must give you a little of a description of a day in a
+Bush school in Gippsland, by E. S. Emerson, to correct any impression
+that all Australia, or even much of it, is like Ninety Mile:
+
+"A rough red stave in a God-writ song was the narrow, water-worn Bush
+track, and the birds knew the song and gloried in it, and the trees gave
+forth an accompaniment under the unseen hands of the wind until all the
+hillside was a living melody. Child voices joined in, and presently from
+a bend in the track, 'three ha'pence for tuppence, three ha'pence for
+tuppence,' came a lumbering old horse, urged into an unwonted canter.
+Three kiddies bestrode the ancient, and as they swung along they sang
+snatches of Kipling's 'Recessional,' to an old hymn-tune that lingers in
+the memory of us all. As they drew near to me the foremost urchin
+suddenly reined up. The result was disastrous, for the ancient
+'propped,' and the other two were emptied out on the track. From the
+dust they called their brother many names that are not to be found in
+school books; but he, laughing, had slid down and was cutting a twig
+from a neighbouring tree. 'A case-moth! A case-moth!' he cried. The
+fallen ones scrambled to their feet. 'What sort, Teddy? What sort?' they
+asked eagerly.
+
+"But Teddy had caught sight of me.
+
+"'Well, what will you do with that?' I asked.
+
+"'Take it to school, sir; teacher tells us all about them at school.'
+The answer was spoken naturally and without any trace of shyness.
+
+"'Did you learn that hymn you were singing at school, too?'
+
+"''Tain't a hymn, sir. It's the "Recessional"!' This, proudly, from the
+youngest.
+
+"But they had learned it at school, and when I had given them a leg-up
+and stood watching them urge the ancient down the hillside, I made up my
+mind that I would visit the school where the teacher told the scholars
+all about case-moths and taught them to sing the 'Recessional'; and a
+morning or two later I did.
+
+[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL. PAGE 75.]
+
+"The school stands on the skirt of a thinly-clad Gippsland township, and
+is attended by from forty to fifty children. Fronting it is a garden--a
+sloping half-acre set out into beds, many of which are reserved for
+native flowering plants and trees. School is not 'in' yet, and a few
+early comers are at work on the beds, which are dry and dusty from a
+long, hot spell. Little tots of six and seven years stroll up and watch
+the workers, or romp about on grass plots in close proximity.
+Presently the master's voice is heard. 'Fall in!' There is a gathering
+up of bags, a hasty shuffling of feet, the usual hurry-scurry of
+laggards, and in a few moments two motionless lines stand at attention.
+'Good-morning, girls! Good-morning, boys!' says the master. A chorused
+'Good-morning, Mr. Morgan!' returns his salutation, and then the work of
+the day begins.
+
+"But do the scholars look upon it as work? Something over thirty years
+ago Herbert Spencer wrote: 'She was at school, where her memory was
+crammed with words and names and dates, and her reflective faculties
+scarcely in the slightest degree exercised.' In those days, as many old
+State-school boys well remember, to learn was, indeed, to work, and when
+fitting occasion offered, we 'wagged it' conscientiously, even though we
+did have to 'touch our toes' for it when we returned. But under our
+modern educational system the teacher can make the school work
+practically a labour of love.
+
+"The morning being bright, the children are put through some simple
+exercises and encouraged to take a few 'deep breathings.' Then the lines
+are formed again. 'Left turn! Quick march!' and the scholars file into
+the schoolhouse."
+
+But we need not follow the school in its day's work, except to say that
+the ideal always is to make the work alive and interesting. Naturally,
+Australian children get to like school.
+
+In the cities the schools are very good. All the State schools are
+absolutely free, and even books are provided. A smart child can win
+bursaries, and go from the primary school to the high school, and then
+on to the University, and win to a profession without his education
+costing his parents anything at all. When I was a boy the State of
+Tasmania used to send every year two Tasmanian scholars to Oxford
+University, giving them enough to pay for a course there. That has since
+been stopped, but many Australians come to British Universities
+now--mostly to Oxford and Edinburgh--with money provided by their
+parents. There are, however, excellent Universities in the chief cities
+of Australia, and there is no actual need to leave the Commonwealth to
+complete one's education.
+
+In the Bush, and indeed almost everywhere--for there is no city life
+which has not a touch of the Bush life--Australian children grow to be
+very hardy and very stoical. They can endure great hardship and great
+pain. I remember hearing of a boy in the Maitland (N.S.W.) district
+whose horse stumbled in a rabbit-hole and fell with him. The boy's thigh
+was broken and the horse was prostrate on top of him, and did not seem
+to wish to move. The boy stretched out his hand and got a stick, with
+which he beat the horse until it rose, keeping the while a hold of the
+reins. Then, with his broken thigh, that boy mounted the horse (which
+was not much hurt), rode home, and read a book whilst waiting for the
+doctor to come and set his limb. Another boy I knew in Australia was
+bitten by a snake on the finger; with his blunt pocket-knife he cut the
+finger off and walked home. He suffered no ill effects from the
+snake-poison.
+
+Endurance of hardship and pain is taught by the life of the Australian
+Bush. It is no place for the cowardly or for the tender. You must learn
+to face and to subdue Nature.
+
+The games of the Australian child are just the British games, changed a
+little to meet local conditions. A very favourite game is that of
+"Bushrangers and Bobbies" ("bobbies" meaning policemen). In this the
+boys imitate as nearly as they can the old hunting down of the
+bushrangers by the mounted police.
+
+The bushranger made a good deal of exciting history in Australia.
+Generally he was a scoundrel of the lowest type, an escaped murderer who
+took to the Bush to escape hanging, and lived by robbery and violence.
+But a few--a very few--were rather of the type of the English Robin Hood
+or the Scotch Rob Roy, living a lawless life, but not being needlessly
+cruel. It is those few who have given basis to the tradition of the
+Australian bushranger as a noble and chivalrous fellow who only robbed
+the rich (who, people argue, could well afford to be robbed), and who
+atoned for that by all sorts of kindness to the poor. Many books have
+been written on this tradition, glorifying the bushranger. But the plain
+fact is that most of the bushrangers were infamous wretches for whom
+hanging was a quite inadequate punishment.
+
+The bushranger, as a rule, was an escaped convict or a criminal fleeing
+from justice. Sometimes he acted singly, sometimes he had a gang of
+followers. A cave in some out-of-the-way spot, good horses and guns,
+were his necessary equipment. The site of the cave was important. It
+needed to be near a coaching-road, so that the bushranger's headquarters
+should be near to his place of business, which was to stick-up
+mail-coaches and rob them of gold, valuables, weapons, and ammunition.
+It also needed to be in a position commanding a good view, and with more
+than one point of entrance. Two bushrangers' caves I remember well, one
+near to Armidale, on the great northern high-road. It was at the top of
+a lofty hill, commanding a wide view of the country. There was no
+outward sign of a cave even to the close observer. A great granite hill
+seemed to be crowned with just loose boulders. But in between those
+boulders was a winding passage which gave entrance to a big cave with a
+little fresh-water stream. A man and his horse could take shelter there.
+
+Another famous bushranger's cave was near Medlow, on the Blue Mountains
+(N.S.W.), in a position to command the Great Western Road, along which
+the gold from Lambing Flat and Sofala had to go to Sydney. This was
+quite a perfect cave for its purpose. Climbing down a mountain gully,
+you came to its end, apparently, in a stream of water gushing from out
+a wall of rock. But behind that rock was a narrow passage leading to a
+cave which opened out into a little valley with another stream, and some
+good grass-land. To this valley the only means of access was the secret
+passage through the cave, which allowed a man and his horse to pass
+through. A gang of bushrangers kept this eyrie for many years
+undiscovered.
+
+The latest big gang of bushrangers were the Kelly brothers, who infested
+Victoria. Ned Kelly was famous because he wore a suit of armour
+sufficiently strong to resist the rifle bullet of that day. The Kellys
+were finally driven to cover in a little country hotel in Victoria. They
+held the place against a siege by the police until the police set fire
+to it. Some of the gang perished in the flames. Others, including Ned
+Kelly himself, broke out and were shot or captured. He was hanged in
+Melbourne gaol.
+
+But this is getting far away from the Australian children's games. It is
+a curious fact that when the Australian children assemble to play
+"Bushrangers and Bobbies," everybody wants to be a bushranger, and the
+guardian of the law is looked upon as quite an inferior character. Lots
+decide, however, the cast. The bushrangers sally forth and stick up an
+imaginary coach, or rob an imaginary country bank. The "bobbies" go in
+pursuit, and there is a desperate mock battle, which allows of much
+yelling and running about, and generally causes great joy.
+
+"Camping out" is another characteristic amusement of the Australian
+child. In his school holidays, parties go out, sometimes for weeks at a
+time, sailing around the reaches of the sea inlets, or, inland,
+following the course of some river, and hunting kangaroos and other game
+as they go. Generally adults accompany these parties, but when an
+Australian boy has reached the age of fifteen or sixteen he is credited
+with being able to look after himself, and is trusted to sail a boat and
+to carry a firearm. I can remember once on the way down to National Park
+(N.S.W.) for the Field Artillery camp, at one of the suburban stations
+there broke into the carriage reserved for officers, with a cheerful
+impudence that defied censure, a little band of boys. They had not a
+shoe among them, nor had anyone a whole suit of clothes. But they
+carried proudly fishing tackle and some rags of canvas which would help,
+with boughs, to build a rough shelter hut. The remainder of the train
+being full, they invaded the officers' carriage and made themselves
+comfortable. They were out for a few days' "camp" in the National Park.
+For about ten shillings they would hire a rowing-boat for three days.
+Railway fares would be sixpence or ninepence per head. A good deal of
+their food they would catch with fishing lines; bread, jam, a little
+bacon, and, of course, the "billy" and its tea were brought with them.
+This was the great yearly festival, planned probably for many weeks
+beforehand, calling for much thought for its accomplishment, showing the
+sturdy spirit which is characteristic of the young Australian.
+
+All the usual British games are played in Australia: tops, hoops,
+marbles among the younger children; cricket, football, lawn-tennis among
+their elders. The climate is especially suited for cricket, as it is
+warm and bright and sunny for so long a term of the year. On a holiday
+in the parks around the Australian cities may be seen many hundreds of
+cricket matches. All the schools have their teams. Most of the shops and
+factories keep up teams among the employees. These teams play in
+competitions with all the earnestness of big cricket. As the players
+grow better they join the electorate clubs. In every big parliamentary
+division there is an electorate club, made up of residents in that
+electorate. The club may put into the field as many as four teams in a
+day--its senior team and three junior teams. So there is an enormous
+amount of play--real serious match play--every Saturday afternoon and
+public holiday. Australia thus trains some of the finest cricketers of
+the world. For some years now (1911) the Australian Eleven has held the
+championship of the world.
+
+The Australian child of the poorer classes usually leaves school at
+fourteen. The children of the richer may stay at school and the
+University until nineteen or twenty. Usually they launch out into life
+by then. Australia is a young country, and its conditions call for young
+work.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That finishes this "Peep at Australia." I have tried to give the young
+readers some little indication of what features of Australian life will
+most interest them. The picture is of a land which appeals very strongly
+to the adventurous type of the Anglo-Celtic race. I have never yet met a
+British man or boy who was of the right manly type who did not love
+Australian life after a little experience. The great distances, the
+cheery hospitality, the sunny climate, the sense of social freedom, the
+generous return which Nature gives to the man who offers her honest
+service--all these appeal and make up the sum of that strong attraction
+Australia has to her own children and to colonists from the Motherland.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
+
+
+
+
+    LIST OF VOLUMES IN THE PEEPS AT MANY LANDS AND CITIES SERIES
+
+    EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+    BELGIUM        IRELAND
+    BURMA          ITALY
+    CANADA         JAMAICA
+    CEYLON         JAPAN
+    CHINA          KOREA
+    CORSICA        MOROCCO
+    DENMARK        NEW ZEALAND
+    EDINBURGH      NORWAY
+    EGYPT          PARIS
+    ENGLAND        PORTUGAL
+    FINLAND        RUSSIA
+    FRANCE         SCOTLAND
+    GERMANY        SIAM
+    GREECE         SOUTH AFRICA
+    HOLLAND        SOUTH SEAS
+    HOLY LAND      SPAIN
+    ICELAND        SWITZERLAND
+    INDIA
+
+    A LARGER VOLUME IN THE SAME STYLE
+    THE WORLD
+    Containing 37 full-page illustrations in colour
+
+    PUBLISHED BY ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+    SOHO SQUARE, LONDON. W.
+
+
+    AGENTS
+
+    AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+    AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
+    205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
+
+    CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LTD.
+    ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO
+
+    INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
+    MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
+    309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Peeps At Many Lands: Australia, by Frank Fox
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peeps At Many Lands: Australia, by Frank Fox
+
+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: Peeps At Many Lands: Australia
+
+Author: Frank Fox
+
+Illustrator: Percy F. S. Spence (etc.)
+
+Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25976]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEEPS AT MANY LANDS: AUSTRALIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1 class="first"><small>PEEPS AT MANY LANDS</small><br />
+<big>AUSTRALIA</big></h1>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="cover" id="cover">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 460px;">
+<img src="images/covers.jpg" width="460" height="670" alt="" title="Cover" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="view"><a href="images/coverl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="kangaroo" id="kangaroo">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 460px; height: 607px;">
+<img src="images/kangaroos.jpg" width="400" height="557" alt="" title="Kangaroo hunting" />
+<span class="caption"><br />KANGAROO HUNTING. <a href="#kanga">PAGE 47</a>.</span>
+</div>
+<p class="view"><a href="images/kangarool.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+
+
+<div class="titleb">
+<p class="tp"><span class="title">PEEPS AT MANY LANDS<br />
+<big>AUSTRALIA</big></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="by">BY</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="author">FRANK FOX</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="illus">WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS<br />
+IN COLOUR</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap"><small>by</small></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="author">PERCY F. S. SPENCE,</span>&emsp;<span class="smcap">etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+
+<span class="pub">LONDON<br />
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK<br />
+1911</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="mt"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span>
+<a name="con" id="con"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="Contents" class="contents">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc tdpt" colspan="2">CHAPTER I</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlcon f9">AUSTRALIA, ITS BEGINNING</td>
+<td class="tdrcon"><a href="#i">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc tdpt" colspan="2">CHAPTER II</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlcon f9">AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY</td>
+<td class="tdrcon"><a href="#ii">15</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc tdpt" colspan="2">CHAPTER III</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlcon f9">THE NATIVES</td>
+<td class="tdrcon"><a href="#iii">33</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc tdpt" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlcon f9">THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS</td>
+<td class="tdrcon"><a href="#iv">46</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc tdpt" colspan="2">CHAPTER V</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlcon f9">THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH</td>
+<td class="tdrcon"><a href="#v">63</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc tdpt" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlcon f9">THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD</td>
+<td class="tdrcon"><a href="#vi">73</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span>
+<a name="illus" id="illus"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<table summary="List of Illustrations" class="illustrations">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">KANGAROO-HUNTING</td>
+<td class="tdr"><small><em>Frontispiece</em></small></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="tdr"><small><span class="smcap">facing page</span></small></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang">SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL
+CAPITAL</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#snowymountain">viii</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#bluemountain">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">THE GARDEN STREETS OF ADELAIDE</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#garden">16</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#collins">25</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">THE TOWN HALL, SYDNEY</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#townhall">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN CAPTAIN COOK&rsquo;S TIME</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#aboriginal">41</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">THE AUSTRALIAN FOREST AT NIGHT&mdash;&ldquo;MOONING&rdquo;
+OPOSSUMS</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#night">48</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">A SHEEP DROVER</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#drover">57</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">A HUT IN THE BUSH</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#bushhut">64</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">SURF-BATHING&mdash;SHOOTING THE BREAKERS</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#surf">73</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#ride">80</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdlhang tdpt">THE NOMAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR</td>
+<td class="tdri"><a href="#cover"><small><em>On the cover</em></small></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="tdc"><em>Sketch-Map of Australia on pages vi and vii.</em></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="map" id="map">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter map" style="width: 460px; 397px;">
+<img src="images/maps.jpg" width="400" height="347" alt="" title="Map of Australia" />
+<span class="caption"><br />Map of Australia</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view"><a href="images/mapl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="kookaburra" id="kookaburra">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter kooka" style="width: 460px; height: 477px;">
+<img src="images/kookas.jpg" width="400" height="427" alt="" title="Kookaburras" />
+<span class="caption"><br />KOOKABURRAS. <a href="#kooka"><em>Page</em> 59</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view"><a href="images/kookal.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="snowymountain" id="snowymountain">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 660px; height: 445px;">
+<img src="images/snowys.jpg" width="600" height="395" alt="" title="Snowy Mountains" />
+<span class="caption"><br />SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL.
+<a href="#snowy">PAGE 25</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view2"><a href="images/snowyl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+
+
+<h1><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span>
+<a name="AUSTRALIA" id="AUSTRALIA"></a>AUSTRALIA</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="i" id="i"></a>CHAPTER I<br />
+<br />
+<small>ITS BEGINNING</small></h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="c">A &ldquo;Sleeping Beauty&rdquo; land&mdash;The coming of the English&mdash;Early
+explorations&mdash;The resourceful Australian.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">The</span> fairy-story of the Sleeping Beauty might have been thought out by
+someone having Australia in his mind. She was the Sleeping Beauty among
+the lands of the earth&mdash;a great continent, delicately beautiful in her
+natural features, wonderfully rich in wealth of soil and of mine, left
+for many, many centuries hidden away from the life of civilization,
+finally to be wakened to happiness by the courage and daring of English
+sailors, who, though not Princes nor even knights in title, were as
+noble and as bold as any hero of a fairy-tale.</p>
+
+<p>How Australia came to be in her curious isolated position in the very
+beginning is not quite clear. The story of some of the continents is
+told in their rocks almost as clearly as though written in books. But
+Australia is very, very old as a continent&mdash;much older than Europe or
+America or Asia&mdash;and its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> story is a little blurred and uncertain partly
+for that reason.</p>
+
+<p>Look at the map and see its shape&mdash;something like that of a pancake with
+a big bite out of the north-eastern corner. In the very old days
+Australia was joined to those islands on the north&mdash;the East Indies&mdash;and
+through them to Asia; but it was countless ages ago, for the animals and
+the plants of Australia have not the least resemblance to those of Asia.
+They represent a class quite distinct in themselves. That proves that
+for a very long time there has been no land connection between Australia
+and Asia; if there had been, the types of flower and of beasts would be
+more nearly kindred. There would be tigers and elephants in Australia
+and emus in Asia, and the kangaroo and other marsupials would probably
+have disappeared. The marsupial, it may be explained, is one of the
+mammalian order, which carries its young about in a pouch for a long
+time after they are born. With such parental devotion, the marsupials
+would have little chance of surviving in any country where there were
+carnivorous animals to hunt them down; but Australia, with the exception
+of a very few dingoes, had no such animals, so the marsupials survived
+there whilst vanishing from all other parts of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>When Australia was sundered from Asia, probably by some great volcanic
+outburst (the East Indies are to this day much subject to terrible
+earthquakes and volcanic outbreaks, and not so many years ago a whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+island was destroyed in the Straits of Sunda), the new continent
+probably was in the shape somewhat of a ring, with very high mountains
+facing the sea, and, where now is the great central plain, a lake or
+inland sea. As time wore on, the great mountains were ground down by the
+action of the snow and the rain and the wind. The soil which was thus
+made was in part carried towards the centre of the ring, and in time the
+sea or lake vanished, and Australia took its present form of a great
+flat plain, through which flow sluggish rivers&mdash;a plain surrounded by a
+tableland and a chain of coastal mountains. The natives and the animals
+and plants of Australia, when it first became a continent, were very
+much the same, in all likelihood, as now.</p>
+
+<p>Thus separated in some sudden and dramatic way, Australia was quite
+forgotten by the rest of the world. In Asia, near by, the Chinese built
+up a curious civilization, and discovered, among other things, the use
+of the mariner&rsquo;s compass, but they do not seem to have ever attempted to
+sail south to what is now known as Australasia. The Japanese, borrowing
+culture from the Chinese, framed their beautiful and romantic social
+system, and, having a brave and enterprising spirit, became seafarers,
+and are known to have reached as far as the Hawaiian Islands, more than
+halfway across the Pacific Ocean to America; but they did not come to
+Australia. The Indian Empire rose to magnificent greatness; the Empires
+of Babylon, of Nineveh, of Persia,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> came and went. The Greeks, and the
+Romans later, penetrated to Hindustan. The Christian era came, and later
+the opening up of trade with the East Indies and with China.</p>
+
+<p>But still Australia slept, in her out-of-the-way corner, apart from the
+great streams of human traffic, a rich and beautiful land waiting for
+her Fairy Prince to waken her to greatness. There had been, though, some
+vague rumours of a great island in the Southern Seas. A writer of Chios
+(Greece) 300 years before the Christian era mentions that there existed
+an island of immense extent beyond the seas washing Europe, Asia, and
+Africa. It is thought that Greek soldiers who had accompanied Alexander
+the Great to India had brought rumours from the Indians of this new
+land. But if the Indians knew of Australia, there is no trace of their
+having visited the continent.</p>
+
+<p>Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, who explored the East Indies, speaks
+of a Java Major as well as a Java Minor, and in that he may refer to
+Australia; but he made no attempt to reach the land. Some old maps fill
+up the ocean from the East Indies to the South Pole with a vague
+continent called Terra Australis; but plainly they were only guessing,
+and did not have any real knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Spanish and Portuguese sailors
+pushed on bravely with the work of exploring the East Indies, and some
+of their maps of the period give indications of a knowledge of the
+existence of the Australian Continent. But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> definite discovery did
+not come until 1605, when De Quiros and De Torres, Spanish Admirals,
+sailed to the East Indies and heard of the southern continent. They
+sailed in search of it, but only succeeded in touching at some of the
+outlying islands. One of the New Hebrides De Quiros called &ldquo;Terra
+Australis del Espiritu Santo&rdquo; (the Southern Land of the Holy Ghost),
+fancying the island to be Australia. That gave the name &ldquo;Australia,&rdquo;
+which is all that survives to remind us of Spanish exploration.</p>
+
+<p>In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Dutch sailors set to work to
+search for the new southern land, and in 1605, 1616, and 1617
+undoubtedly touched on points of Australia. In 1642 Tasman&mdash;from whom
+Tasmania, a southern island of Australia, gets its name&mdash;made important
+discoveries as to the southern coast. He called the island first Van
+Diemen&rsquo;s Land, after Maria Van Diemen, the girl whom he loved; but this
+name was afterwards changed. Maria Island, off the coast of Tasmania,
+still, however, keeps fresh the memory of the Dutch sailor&rsquo;s sweetheart.</p>
+
+<p>But none of these nations was destined to be the Fairy Prince to waken
+Australia out of her long sleep. That privilege was kept for the British
+race; we cannot but think happily, for no Spanish or Dutch colony has
+ever reached to the greatness and the happiness of an Australia, a
+Canada, or a South Africa. It is in the British blood, it seems, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+colonize happily. The gardeners of the British race know how to &ldquo;plant
+out&rdquo; successfully. They shelter and protect the young trees in their
+far-away countries through the perils of infancy, and then let them grow
+up in healthy and vigorous independence. This wise method is borrowed
+from family life. If a child is either too much coddled, or too much
+kept under in its young days, it will rarely grow to the best and most
+vigorous manhood or womanhood. British colonies grow into healthy
+nations just as British schoolboys grow into healthy men, because they
+are, at an early stage, taught to be self-reliant.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until 1688 that Australia was in any way explored by the
+English Captain, William Dampier. His reports on the new land were not
+very flattering. He spoke of its dry, sandy soil, and its want of water.
+This Sleeping Beauty had a way of pretending to be ugly to the
+new-comer.</p>
+
+<p>From 1769 to 1777 Captain Cook carried on the first thorough British
+exploration of Australia, and took possession of it and New Zealand for
+the British Crown. In 1788, just a century after its first exploration
+by a British seaman, Australia was actually occupied by Great Britain,
+&ldquo;the First Fleet&rdquo; founding a settlement on the shores of Port Jackson,
+by the side of a little creek called the Tank Stream. That was the
+beginning of Sydney, at present one of the greatest cities of the
+British Empire.</p>
+
+<p>A great continent had been thus entered. The Sleeping Beauty was aroused
+from the slumber of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> centuries. But very much had yet to be done before
+she could &ldquo;marry the Prince and then live happily ever afterwards.&rdquo; The
+story of how that was done, and how Australia was explored and settled,
+is one of the most heroic of our British annals. True, no wild animals
+or warlike tribes had to be faced; but vast distances of land which of
+itself produced little or no food for man, the long waterless stretches,
+the savage ruggedness of the mountains, set up obstacles far more
+awesome because more strange. Man had to contend, not with wild animals,
+whose teeth and claws he might evade, nor with wild men whose weapons he
+could overmatch with his own, but with Nature in what seemed always a
+hostile and unrelenting mood. It almost seemed that Nature, unwilling to
+give up to civilization the last of the lonely lands of the earth, made
+a conscious effort to beat back the advance of exploration and
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>On the little coastal settlement famine was soon felt. The colonists did
+not understand how to get crops from the soil. They attempted to follow
+the times and the manners of England; but here they were in the
+Antipodes, where everything was exactly opposite to English conditions.
+There were no natural grain-crops; there were practically no
+food-animals good to eat. The kangaroo and wallaby provide nowadays a
+delicious soup (made from the tails of the animals), but the flesh of
+their bodies is tough and dark and rank. Even so it was in very limited
+supply. The early settlers ate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> kangaroo flesh gladly, but they were not
+able to get enough of it to keep them in meat.</p>
+
+<p>Communication with England, whence all food had to come, was in those
+days of sailing-ships slow and uncertain. At different times the first
+settlement was in actual danger of perishing from starvation and of
+being abandoned in despair at ever making anything useful of a land
+which seemed unable to produce even food for white inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, those thoughts of despair were not allowed to rule. The
+dogged British spirit saved the position. The conquest of Nature in
+Australia was perseveringly carried through, and Great Britain has the
+reward to-day in the existence of an all-British continent having nearly
+5,000,000 of population, who are the richest producers in the world from
+the soil.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="bluemountain" id="bluemountain">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 660px; height: 443px;">
+<img src="images/blue_mountainss.jpg" width="600" height="393" alt="" title="Blue Mountains" />
+<span class="caption"><br />THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. <a href="#blue">PAGES 8</a> &amp; <a href="#blue2">29</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/blue_mountainsl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p>After the early settlers had learned with much painful effort that the
+coast around Sydney would produce some little grain and fruit and grass
+for cattle, there was still another halt in the progress of the
+continent. <a name="blue" id="blue"></a>West of Sydney, about forty miles from the coast, stretched
+the Blue Mountains, and these it was found impossible to cross. No
+passes existed. Though not very lofty, the mountains were savagely wild.
+The explorer, following a ridge or a line of valley with patience for
+many miles, would come suddenly on a vast chasm; a cliff-face falling
+absolutely perpendicularly 1,000 feet or so would declare &ldquo;No road
+here.&rdquo; Nowadays, when the Blue Mountains have been conquered, and they
+are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> traversed by roads and railways, tourists from all parts of the
+world find great joy in looking upon these wonderful gorges; but in the
+days of the explorers they were the cause of many
+disappointments&mdash;indeed, of many tragedies. Men escaping from the
+prisons (Australia was first used as a reformatory by Great Britain)
+would attempt to cross the Blue Mountains on their way, as they thought,
+to China and freedom, always to perish miserably in the wild gorges.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the Blue Mountains were conquered by the explorers Blaxland,
+Lawson, and Wentworth. Two roads were cut across them, one from Sydney,
+one from Windsor, about thirty miles north from Sydney. The passing of
+the Blue Mountains opened up to Australia the great tableland, on which
+the chief mineral discoveries were to be made, and the vast interior
+plains, which were to produce merino wool of such quality as no other
+land can equal.</p>
+
+<p>From that onwards exploration was steadily pushed on. Sometimes the
+explorers went out into the wilderness with horses, sometimes with
+camels; other tracts of land were explored by boat expeditions,
+following the track of one of the slow rivers. The perils always were of
+thirst and hunger. Very rarely did the blacks give any serious trouble.
+But many explorers perished from privation, such as Burke and Wills (who
+led out a great expedition from Melbourne, which was designed to cross
+the continent from north to south) and Dr. Leichhardt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> Even now there
+is some danger in penetrating to some of the wilder parts of the
+interior of Australia without a skilful guide, who knows where water can
+be found, and deaths from thirst in the Bush are not infrequent.</p>
+
+<p>One device has saved many lives. The wildest and loneliest part of the
+continent is traversed by a telegraph line, which brings the European
+cable-messages from Port Darwin, on the north coast, to Adelaide, in the
+south. Men lost in the Bush near to that line make for its route and cut
+the wire. That causes an interruption on the line; a line-repairer is
+sent out from the nearest repairing-station, and finds the lost man
+camped near the break. Sometimes he is too late, and finds him dead.</p>
+
+<p>In the west, around the great goldfields, where water is very scarce,
+white explorers have sometimes adopted a way to get help which is far
+more objectionable. The natives in those regions are very reluctant to
+show the locality of the waterholes. The supply is scanty, and they have
+learned to regard the white man as wasteful and inconsiderate in regard
+to water. But a white explorer or traveller has been known to catch a
+native, and, filling his mouth with salt, to expose him to the heat of
+the sun until the tortures of thirst forced him to lead the white party
+to a native well. But these are rare dark spots on the picture. The
+records of Australian exploration, as a whole, are bright with heroism.</p>
+
+<p>The early pioneer in Australia&mdash;called a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> &ldquo;squatter&rdquo; because he squatted
+on the land where he chose&mdash;enjoyed a picturesque life. Taking all his
+household goods with him, driving his flocks and herds before him, he
+moved out into the wilderness looking for a place to settle or &ldquo;squat.&rdquo;
+It was the experience of the &ldquo;Swiss Family Robinson&rdquo; made real. The
+little community, with its waggons and tents, its horses, oxen, sheep,
+dogs, perhaps also with a few poultry in one of the waggons, would have
+to live for many months an absolutely self-contained life. The family
+and its servants would provide wheelwrights, blacksmiths, carpenters,
+veterinary surgeons, cattle-herds, milkers, shearers, cooks,
+bridge-builders, and the like. The children brought up under those
+conditions won not only fine healthy frames, but an alertness of mind, a
+wideness of resource which made them, and their children after them,
+fine nation-builders.</p>
+
+<p>I am tempted, in illustration of this, to quote from a larger work of
+mine, &ldquo;Australia,&rdquo; an instance of my own observation of the &ldquo;resourceful
+Australian&rdquo;:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Without touch of cap, or sign of servility, the swagman came up.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Gotter a job, boss?&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;No chance; but you can go round and get rations.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;I wanter job pretty bad. Times have been hard. Perhaps you recollect
+me&mdash;Jim Stone. You had me once working on the Paroo.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+&ldquo;It was a blazing hot day in Central Queensland on one of the big cattle
+stations out from the railway line, a station which had not yet reached
+the dignity of fencing. The boss remembered that Jim Stone &lsquo;was a good
+sort,&rsquo; and that it was forty miles to the next chance of a job. And
+there was always something to be done on a station.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;All right, Stone. I think I can put you on to something for a month or
+two.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Thanks. Start now?&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Look. I have got a few men on digging tanks, about thirty miles out.
+It&rsquo;s north-north-east. You can pick up their camp?&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Yes.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Well, I want you to take a bullock-dray out, with stores, and bring
+back anything they want sent back.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Yes. Where are the bullocks?&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t got a team broken in. But there&rsquo;s old Scarlet-Eye and two
+others broken in. You&rsquo;ll pick them up along that little creek there, six
+miles out&rsquo;; he pointed indefinitely into the heat haze on the plain,
+where there seemed to be some trees on the horizon. &lsquo;Collar them, and
+then you&rsquo;ll find the milkers&rsquo; herd right back of the homestead, only a
+few miles. Punch out seven of the biggest and make up your team.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Yes. Where&rsquo;s ther dray?&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Behind the blacksmith&rsquo;s shed there. By the way, there are no yokes,
+but you&rsquo;ll find some bar-iron<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> and some timber at the blacksmith&rsquo;s shed.
+Knock out some yokes. I think there&rsquo;s one chain. You can make up another
+with some fencing wire.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Right-oh.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And this Australian casual worker (at 30s. a week and rations) went his
+way cheerfully. He had to find some odd bullocks six miles out, in the
+flat, grey, illimitable plain; then find the herd of milkers somewhere
+else in that vague vastness, and break seven of them to harness; fix up
+a dray and make cattle yokes; and then go out into the depths to find a
+camp thirty miles out, without a fence or a track, and hardly a tree, to
+guide him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He did it all, because to him it was quite ordinary. The
+freshly-broken-in cattle had to be kept in the yokes for a week, night
+and day, else they would have cleared out. That was the only real
+hardship, in his opinion, and the cattle had to suffer that. He was
+content to be surveyor, waggon-builder, blacksmith, subduer of beasts,
+man of infinite pluck, resource, and energy, for 30s. a week and
+rations! And he was a typical sample of the &lsquo;back-country Australian.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the Australian Bush most children can milk a cow, ride a horse, or
+harness him into a cart, snare or shoot game, kill a snake, find their
+way through the trackless forest by the sun or the stars, and cook a
+meal. In the cities, too, they are, though less skilled in such things,
+used to do far more for themselves than the average European child.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>After the squatters in Australia came the gold-diggers. Gold was
+discovered in Victoria and in New South Wales. At first, strangely
+enough, an effort was made to prevent the fact being known that gold was
+to be found in Australia. Some of the rulers of the colony feared that
+the gold would ruin and not help the country. And certainly in the very
+early days of the gold-digging rushes, much harm was done to the settled
+industries of the land through everybody rushing away to the diggings.
+Farms were abandoned, workshops deserted, the sailors left their ships,
+the shepherds their sheep, the shop-keepers their shops&mdash;all with the
+gold fever. But that early madness soon passed away, and Australia got
+the benefit of the gold discoverers in a great increase of population.
+Most of those who came to dig gold remained to dig potatoes and other
+more certain wealth out of the land.</p>
+
+<p>Do you remember the tale of the ancient wise man whose two sons were
+lazy fellows? He could not get them by any means to work in the
+vineyard. As long as his own hands could toil he tended the vineyard,
+and maintained his idle sons. But on his death-bed he feared for their
+future. So he made them the victims of a pious fraud. &ldquo;There is a great
+sum in gold buried in the vineyard,&rdquo; he told them with his dying breath.
+&ldquo;But I cannot tell you where. You must find that for yourselves.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Tempted by the promise of quick fortune, the idle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> sons dug everywhere
+in the vineyard to find the buried treasure. They never came across any
+actual gold, but the good effect of their digging was such that the
+vineyard prospered wonderfully and they grew rich from its fine crops.</p>
+
+<p>So it was, in a way, with Australia. The gold discoverers did much good
+by attracting people to the country in search of gold who, though they
+found no gold, developed the other resources of a great country.</p>
+
+<p>When the yields from the alluvial goldfields decreased there was a
+great demand from the out-of-work diggers and others for land for
+farming, and the agricultural era began in Australia. Since then the
+growth of the country has been sound, and, if a little slow, sure. It
+has been slow because the ideal of the people has always been a sound
+and a general well-being rather than a too-quick growth. &ldquo;Slow and
+steady&rdquo; is a good motto for a nation as well as an individual.</p>
+
+<p class="backlink"><a href="#con">Back to contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="ii" id="ii"></a>CHAPTER II<br />
+<br />
+<small>AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY</small></h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="c">The diggings&mdash;The Government at Melbourne&mdash;The sheep-runs&mdash;The
+rabbits&mdash;The delights of Sydney.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">If</span>, by good luck, you were to have a trip to Australia now, you would
+find, probably, the sea voyage, which takes up five weeks as a rule, a
+little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> irksome. But fancy that over, and imagine yourself safely into
+Australia of to-day. Fremantle will be the first place of call. It is
+the port of Perth, which is the capital of West Australia. That great
+State occupies nearly a quarter of the continent; but its population is
+as yet the least important of the continental States, and not very much
+ahead of the little island of Tasmania. Still, West Australia is
+advancing very quickly. On the north it has great pearl fisheries;
+inland it has goldfields, which take second rank in the world&rsquo;s list,
+and it is fast developing its agricultural and pastoral riches.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon it will be possible to leave the steamer at Fremantle and go
+by train right across the continent to the Eastern cities. <a name="adelaide" id="adelaide"></a>Now you must
+travel by steamer to Port Adelaide, for Adelaide, the capital of South
+Australia. It is a charming city, surrounded by vineyards, orange
+orchards, and almond and olive groves. In the season you may get for a
+penny all the grapes that you could possibly eat, and oranges and other
+fruit are just as cheap.</p>
+
+<p>Adelaide has the reputation of being a very &ldquo;good&rdquo; city. It was founded
+largely by high-minded colonists from Britain, whose main idea was to
+seek in the new world a place where poverty and its evils would not
+exist. To a very large extent they succeeded. There are no slums in
+Adelaide and no starving children. Everywhere is an air of quiet
+comfort.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="garden" id="garden">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 660px; height: 441px;">
+<img src="images/adelaides.jpg" width="600" height="391" alt="" title="Adelaide" />
+<span class="caption"><br />THE GARDEN STREETS OF ADELAIDE. <a href="#adelaide">PAGE 16</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/adelaidel.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+From Adelaide you may take the train to complete your trip, the end of
+which is, say, Brisbane. Leaving Adelaide, you climb in the train the
+pretty Mount Lofty Mountains and then sweep down on to the plains and
+cross the Murray River near its mouth. The Murray is the greatest of
+Australian rivers. It rises in the Australian Alps, and gathers on its
+way to the sea the Murrumbidgee and the Darling tributaries. There is a
+curious floating life on these rivers. Nomad men follow along their
+banks, making a living by fishing and doing odd jobs on the stations
+they pass. They are called &ldquo;whalers,&rdquo; and follow the life, mainly, I
+think, because of a gipsy instinct for roving, since it is not either a
+comfortable or profitable existence. On the rivers, too, are all sorts
+of curious little colonies, living in barges, and floating down from
+town to town. You may find thus floating, little theatres, cinematograph
+shows, and even circuses.</p>
+
+<p>The fisheries of these rivers are somewhat important, the chief fish
+caught being the Murray cod. It grows sometimes to a vast size, to the
+size almost of a shark; but when the cod is so big its flesh is always
+rank and uneatable by Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>Fishing for a cod is not an occupation calling for very much industry.
+The fisherman baits his line, ties it to a stake fixed on the river
+bank, and on the stake hangs a bell. Then the fisherman gets under the
+shadow of a gum-tree and enjoys a quiet life, reading or just lazing. If
+a cod takes the bait the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> bell will ring, and he will go and collect his
+fish, which obligingly catches itself, and does not need any play to
+bring it to land.</p>
+
+<p>A cruel practice is followed to keep these fish fresh until a boat or
+train to the city markets is due: a line is passed through the cod&rsquo;s
+lip, and it is tethered to a stake in the water near the bank. Thus it
+can swim about and keep alive for some time; but the cruelty is great,
+and efforts are now being made to stop this tethering of codfish.</p>
+
+<p>These Australian inland rivers are slow and sluggish, and fish, such as
+trout, accustomed to clear running waters, will not live in them. But in
+the smaller mountain streams, which feed the big inland rivers, trout
+thrive, and as they have been introduced from England and America they
+provide good sport to anglers.</p>
+
+<p>The plain-country through which the big rivers flow is very flat, and is
+therefore liable to great floods. Australia has the reputation of being
+a very dry country; as a matter of fact, the rainfall over one-third of
+its area is greater than that of England. In most places the rainfall
+is, however, badly distributed. After long spells of very dry weather
+there will come fierce storms, during which the rain sometimes falls at
+the rate of an inch an hour. This fact, and the curious physical
+formation of the continent, about which you already know, makes it very
+liable to floods.</p>
+
+<p>Great floods of the past have been at Brisbane, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> capital of
+Queensland, destroying a section of the city; at Bourke (N.S.W.), and at
+Gundagai (N.S.W.). In the latter a town was destroyed and many lives
+lost. Another flood on the Hunter River (N.S.W.) was marked by the
+drowning of the Speaker of the local Parliament. But great loss of human
+life is rare; sacrifice of stock is sometimes, however, enormous. Cattle
+fare better than sheep, for they will make some wise effort to reach a
+point of safety, whilst sheep will, as likely as not, huddle together in
+a hollow, not having the sense even to seek the little elevations which
+are called &ldquo;hills,&rdquo; though only raised a few feet above the general
+level.</p>
+
+<p>I recall well a flood in the Narrabri (N.S.W.) district some seventeen
+years ago, and its moving perils. The hillocks on which cattle, sheep,
+and in some cases human beings, had taken refuge were crowded, too, with
+kangaroos, emus, brolgas (a kind of crane), koalas (known as the native
+bear), rabbits, and snakes. Mutual hostilities were for a time suspended
+by the common danger, though the snakes and the rabbits were rarely
+given the advantages of the truce if there were human beings present. An
+incident of that flood was that the little township of Terry-hie-hie
+(these aboriginal names are strange!) was almost wiped out by
+starvation. Beleaguered by the waters, it was cut off from all
+communication with the railway and with food-supplies. When the waters
+fell, the mud left on these black-soil plains was just as formidable a
+barrier. Attempt after attempt to send<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> flour through by horse and
+bullock teams failed. It was impossible for thirty horses to get through
+with one ton of flour! The siege was only raised when the population of
+the little town was on the very verge of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>After crossing the Murray the train passes through what is known as &ldquo;the
+desert&rdquo;&mdash;a stretch of country covered with mallee scrub (the mallee is a
+kind of small gum-tree); but nowadays they are finding out that this
+mallee scrub is not hopeless country at all. The scrub is beaten down by
+having great rollers drawn over it by horses; that in time kills it.
+Then the roots are dug up for firewood, and the land is sown with wheat.
+Quite good crops are now being got from the mallee when the rains are
+favourable, but in dry seasons the wheat scorches off, and the farmer&rsquo;s
+labour is wasted. It is proposed now to carry irrigation channels
+through this and similar country. When that is done there will be no
+more talk of desert in most parts of Australia. It will be conquered for
+the use of man just as the American alkali desert is being conquered.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the mallee, the train comes in time to Ballarat, which used to
+be the great centre of the gold-mining industry. Round here gold was
+discovered in great lumps lying on the ground or just below the roots of
+the grass. People rushed from all parts of the world to pick up fortunes
+when this was heard of. The road from Melbourne was covered with
+waggons, with horsemen, with diggers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> on foot. Most of them knew nothing
+at all about digging, and also lacked the knowledge of how to get along
+comfortably under &ldquo;camping-out&rdquo; conditions, when every man has to be his
+own cook, his own washer-up, his own laundryman, as well as his own
+mining labourer. But the best of the men learned quickly how to look
+after themselves, to pitch a tent, to cook a meal, to drive a shaft, and
+to do without food for long spells when on the search for new
+goldfields. Thus they became resourceful and adventurous, and were of
+great value afterwards in the community. There is nowadays rather a
+tendency in civilized countries to bring children up too softly, to
+guard them too much against the little roughnesses of life. Such
+experiences as those of the Australian goldfields show how good it is
+for men to be taught how to look after themselves under primitive
+conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Life on the Australian goldfields, though wild, was not unruly. There
+was never any lynch law, never any &ldquo;free shooting,&rdquo; as on the American
+goldfields. Public order was generally respected, though there were at
+first no police. The miners, however, kept up Vigilance Committees, the
+main purpose of which was to check thefts. Anyone proved guilty of
+theft, or even seriously suspected of pilfering, was simply ordered out
+of the camp.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese were very early in getting to know of the goldfields in
+Australia, and rushed there in great numbers. They were not welcomed,
+and there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> was an exception to the general rule of good order in the
+Anti-Chinese riots on the goldfields. The result of these was that
+Chinese were prevented by the Government from coming into the country,
+except in very small numbers, and on payment of a heavy poll-tax. When
+this was done the excitement calmed down, and the Chinese already in the
+country were treated fairly enough. They mostly settled down to growing
+vegetables or doing laundry-work, though a few still work as miners.</p>
+
+<p>The objection that the Australians have to the Chinamen and to other
+coloured races is that they do not wish to have in the country any
+people with whom the white race cannot intermarry, and they wish all
+people in Australia to be equal in the eyes of the law and in social
+consideration. As you travel through Australia, you will probably learn
+to recognize the wisdom of this, and you will get to like the Australian
+social idea, which is to carry right through all relations of life the
+same discipline as governs a good school, giving respect to those who
+are most worthy of it, by conduct and by capacity, and not by riches or
+birth.</p>
+
+<p>We have stayed long enough at Ballarat. <a name="melbourne" id="melbourne"></a>Let us move on to
+Melbourne&mdash;&ldquo;marvellous Melbourne,&rdquo; as its citizens like to hear it
+called. Melbourne is built on the shores of the Yarra, where it empties
+into Hudson Bay, and its sea suburbs stretch along the beautiful sandy
+shores of that bay. <a name="beach" id="beach"></a>Few European or American children can enjoy such
+sea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> beaches as are scattered all over the Australian coast. They are
+beautiful white or creamy stretches of firm sand, curving round bays,
+sometimes just a mile in length, sometimes of huge extent, as the Ninety
+Miles Beach in Victoria. The water on the Australian coast is usually of
+a brilliant blue, and it breaks into white foam as it rolls on to the
+shelving sand. Around Carram, Aspendale, Mentone and Brighton, near
+Melbourne; at Narrabeen, Manly, Cronulla, Coogee, near Sydney; and at a
+hundred other places on the Australian coast, are beautiful beaches. You
+may see on holidays hundreds of thousands of people&mdash;men, women, and
+children&mdash;surf-bathing or paddling on the sands. It is quite safe fun,
+too, if you take care not to go out too far and so get caught in the
+undertow. Sharks are common on the Australian coast, but they will not
+venture into the broken water of surf beaches. But you must not bathe,
+except in enclosed baths in the harbours, or you run a serious risk of
+providing a meal for a voracious shark.</p>
+
+<p>Sharks are quite the most dangerous foes of man in Australia. There have
+been some heroic incidents arising from attacks by sharks on human
+beings. An instance: On a New South Wales beach two brothers were
+bathing, and they had gone outside of the broken surf water. One was
+attacked by a shark. The other went to his rescue, and actually beat the
+great fish off, though he lost his arm in doing so. As a rule, however,
+the shark kills with one bite, attacking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> the trunk of its victim, which
+it can sever in two with one great snap of its jaws.</p>
+
+<p>Children on the Australian coast are very fond of the water. They learn
+to swim almost as soon as they can walk. Through exposure to the sun
+whilst bathing their skin gets a coppery colour, and except for their
+Anglo-Saxon eyes you would imagine many Australian youngsters to be
+Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>The beaches of Melbourne are not its only attractions. The city itself
+is a very handsome one, and its great parks are planted with fine
+English trees. You will see as good oaks and elms and beeches in Fitzroy
+Gardens, Melbourne, as in any of the parks of old England. Melbourne,
+too, at present, is the political capital of Australia, and here meet
+the Australian Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>Every young citizen of the Empire should know something of the
+Commonwealth of Australia and its political institutions, because, as
+the idea of Empire grows, it is recognized that all people of British
+race, whether Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, or South Africans,
+or residents of the Mother Country, should know the whole Empire.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="collins" id="collins">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 660px; height: 413px;">
+<img src="images/melbournes.jpg" width="600" height="363" alt="" title="Melbourne" />
+<span class="caption"><br />COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE. <a href="#melbourne">PAGE 22</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/melbournel.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p>After Australia began to prosper it was found that the continent was too
+big to be governed by one Parliament in Sydney, so it split up into
+States, each with a constitution and government of its own. These States
+were New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, West
+Australia, and Tasmania. It was soon seen that a mistake had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> been made
+in splitting up altogether. The States were like children of one family,
+all engaged as partners in one business, who, growing up, decided to set
+up housekeeping each for himself, but neglected to arrange for some
+means by which they could meet together now and again and decide on
+matters which were of common interest to all of them. The separated
+States of Australia were, all alike, interested in making Australia
+great and prosperous, and keeping her safe; but in their hurry to set up
+independent housekeeping they forgot to provide for the safeguarding of
+that common interest.</p>
+
+<p>So soon as this was recognized, patriotic men set themselves to put
+things right, and the result was a Federation of the States, which is
+called the Commonwealth of Australia. The different States are left to
+manage for themselves their local affairs, but the big Australian
+affairs are managed by the Commonwealth Parliament, which at present
+meets in Melbourne, but one day will meet in a new <a name="snowy" id="snowy"></a>Federal capital to be
+built somewhere out in the Bush&mdash;that is to say, the wild, empty
+country. Some people sneer at the idea of a &ldquo;Bush capital,&rdquo; but I think,
+and perhaps you will think with me, that there is something very
+pleasant and very promising of profit in the idea of the country&rsquo;s
+rulers meeting somewhere in the pure air of a quiet little city
+surrounded by the great Australian forest. And as things are now, the
+population of Australia is too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> much centralized in the big cities, and
+it will be a good thing to have another centre of population.</p>
+
+<p>In this railway trip across the continent you are being introduced to
+all the main features of Australian life, so that you will have some
+solid knowledge of the conditions of the country, and can, later on, in
+chapters which will follow, learn of the Bush, the natives, the birds
+and beasts and flowers, the games of Australia.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Melbourne, a fast and luxurious train takes you through the
+farming districts of Victoria, past many smiling towns, growing rich
+from the industry of men who graze cattle, grow wheat and oats and
+barley, make butter, or <a name="sheep" id="sheep"></a>pasture sheep. At Albany the train crosses to
+Murray again, this time near to its source, and New South Wales is
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>For many, many miles now the train will run through flat, grassed
+country, on which great flocks of sheep graze. This is the Riverina
+district, the most notable sheep land in the world. From here, and from
+similar plains running all along the western and northern borders of New
+South Wales, comes the fine merino wool, which is necessary for
+first-class cloth-making. The story of merino wool is one of the
+romances of modern industry. Before the days of Australia, Spain was
+looked upon as the only country in the world which could produce fine
+wool. Spain was not willing that British looms should have any advantage
+of her production, and the British woollen manufacturing industry,
+confined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> to the use of coarser staples, languished. Now Australia, and
+Australia practically alone, produces the fine wool of the world.
+Australia merino wool is finer, more elastic, longer in staple, than any
+wool ever dreamed of a century ago, and its use alone makes possible
+some of the very fine cloths of to-day.</p>
+
+<p>This merino wool is purely a product of Australian cleverness in
+sheep-breeding. The sheep imported have been improved upon again and
+again, quality and quantity of coat being both considered, until to-day
+the Australian sheep is the greatest triumph of modern science as
+applied to the culture of animals, more wonderful and more useful than
+the thoroughbred race-horse. It is only on the hot plains that the
+merino sheep flourishes to perfection. If he is brought to cold
+hill-country in Australia his coat at once begins to coarsen, and his
+wool is therefore not so good.</p>
+
+<p>As you pass the sheep-runs in the train you will probably notice that
+they are divided into paddocks by fine-mesh wire-netting. That is to
+keep the rabbits out. The rabbit is accounted rather a desirable little
+creature in Great Britain. A rabbit-warren on an estate is a source of
+good sport and good food, and the complaint is sometimes of too few
+rabbits rather than too many. A boy may keep rabbits as pets with some
+enjoyment and some profit.</p>
+
+<p>In Australia rabbits were first introduced by an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> emigrant from England,
+who wished to give to his farm a home-like air. They spread over the
+country with such marvellous rapidity as to become soon a serious
+nuisance, then a national danger. Millions of pounds have been spent in
+different parts of Australia fighting the rabbit plague; millions more
+will yet have to be spent, for though the rabbits are now being kept in
+check, constant vigilance is needed to see that they do not get the
+upper hand again. The rabbit in Australia increases its numbers very
+quickly: the doe will have up to eighty or ninety young in a year. There
+is no natural check to this; no winter spell of bitter cold to kill off
+the young and feeble. The only limit to the rabbit life is the
+food-supply, and that does not fail until the pasturage intended for the
+sheep is eaten bare. Not only is the grass eaten, but also the roots of
+the grass, and the rabbit is a further nuisance because sheep dislike to
+eat grass at which bunny has been nibbling.</p>
+
+<p>The campaign against the rabbit in Australia has had all the excitement
+and much of the misery of a great war. The march inland of the rabbit
+was like that of a devastating army. Smiling prosperity was turned into
+black ruin. Where there had been green pastures and bleating sheep there
+was a bare and dusty plain and starving stock.</p>
+
+<p>At first wholesale poisoning was tried as a remedy for the rabbit
+plague. It inflicted a check, but had the evil of killing off many of
+the native birds and animals. There was an idea once of trying to
+spread<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> a disease among the rabbits, so as to kill them off quickly, but
+that was abandoned. Now the method is to enclose the pasture-lands
+within wire-netting, which is rabbit-proof, and within this enclosure to
+destroy all logs and the like which provide shelters for the rabbits, to
+dig up all their burrows, and to hunt down the rabbit with dogs. The
+best of the lands are being thus quite cleared of rabbits. The worst
+lands are for the present left to bunny, who has become a source of
+income, being trapped and his carcase sent frozen to England, and his
+fur utilized for hat-felt. But be sure that if you bring to Australia
+your rabbit pets with you from England they will be destroyed before you
+land, and you may reckon on having to face serious trouble with the law
+for trying to bring them into the country.</p>
+
+<p><a name="sydney" id="sydney"></a>Whilst you have been hearing all this about the rabbit the train has
+climbed up from the plains to the Blue Mountains and is rushing down the
+coast slope towards Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, the chief
+commercial city of Australia, and one of the great ports of the Empire.
+Sydney is, I do really think, the pleasantest place in the world for a
+child to live in, though two hot, muggy months of the year are to be
+avoided for health&rsquo;s sake.</p>
+
+<p><a name="blue2" id="blue2"></a>On the Blue Mountains, as you crossed in the train, you will have seen
+wild &ldquo;gullies,&rdquo; as they are called in Australia&mdash;ravines in the hills
+which rise abruptly all around, sometimes in wild cliffs and sometimes
+in steep wooded slopes. These gullies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> interlace with one another, one
+leading into another, and stretching out little arms in all directions.
+Turn into one and try to follow it up, and you never know where it will
+end. Well, once upon a time there was a particularly wild one of these
+gully systems on the coast hills where Sydney now is. Something sunk the
+level of the land suddenly, and the gullies were depressed below
+sea-level. The Pacific Ocean heard of this, broke a way through a great
+cliff-gate, and that made Sydney Harbour. Entering Sydney by sea, you
+come, as the ocean does, through a narrow gate between two lovely
+cliffs. Turn sharply to the left, and you are in a maze of blue waters,
+fringed with steep hills. On these hills is built Sydney. You may follow
+the harbour in all directions, up Iron Cove a couple of miles to
+Leichhardt suburb; along the Parramatta River (which is not a river at
+all, but one of the long arms of the ocean-filled gully system) ten
+miles to the orange orchard country; along the Lane Cove, through wooded
+hills, to another orchard tract; or, going in another direction, you may
+travel for scores of miles along what is called Middle Harbour, and then
+have North Harbour still to explore. In spite of the nearness of the big
+city, and the presence here and there of lovely suburbs on the
+waterside, the area of Sydney Harbour is so vast, its windings are so
+amazing, that you can get in a boat to the wildest and most lovely
+scenery in an hour or two. The rocky shores abound in caves, where you
+can camp out in dryness and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> comfort. The Bush at every season of the
+year flaunts wildflowers. There are fish to be had everywhere; in many
+places oysters; in some places rabbits, hares, and wallabies to be
+hunted. Does it not sound like a children&rsquo;s paradise&mdash;all this within
+reach of a vast city?</p>
+
+<p>But let us tear ourselves away from Sydney, and go on to Brisbane,
+passing on the way through Kurringai Chase, one of the great National
+Parks of New South Wales; along the fertile Hawkesbury and Hunter
+valleys, which grow Indian corn and lucerne, and oranges and melons, and
+men who are mostly over six feet high; up the New England Mountains,
+through a country which owes its name to the fact that the high
+elevation gives it a climate somewhat like that of England; then into
+Queensland along the rich Darling Down studded with wheat-farms,
+dairy-farms, and cattle-ranches; and finally to Brisbane, a prospering
+semi-tropical town which is the capital of the Northern State of
+Queensland. At Brisbane you will be able to buy fine pineapples for a
+penny each, and that alone should endear it to your heart.</p>
+
+<p>Thus you will have seen a good deal of the Australia of to-day. You
+might have followed other routes. Coming via Canada, you would reach
+Brisbane first. Taking a &ldquo;British India&rdquo; boat you would have come down
+the north coast of Queensland and seen something of its wonderful
+tropical vegetation, its sugar-fields, banana and coffee plantations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+and the meat works which ship abroad the products of the great cattle
+stations.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="townhall" id="townhall">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 460px; height: 641px;">
+<img src="images/sydneys.jpg" width="400" height="591" alt="" title="Sydney" />
+<span class="caption"><br />THE TOWN HALL SYDNEY. <a href="#sydney">PAGE 29</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/sydneyl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+<p>This tropical part of Australia really calls for a long book of its own.
+But as it is hardly the Australia of to-day, though it may be the
+Australia of the future, we must hurry through its great forests and its
+rich plains. There are wild buffalo to be found on these plains, and in
+the rivers that flow through them crocodiles lurk. The crocodile is a
+very cunning creature. It rests near the surface of the water like a
+half-submerged log waiting for a horse or an ox or a man to come into
+the water. Then a rush and a meal.</p>
+
+<p>If, instead of coming along the north, you had travelled via South
+Africa you might have landed first at Hobart and seen the charms of dear
+little Tasmania, a land of apple-orchards and hop-gardens, looking like
+the best parts of Kent. But you have been introduced to a good deal of
+Australia and heard much of its industries and its history. It is time
+now to talk of savages, and birds, and beasts, and games, and the like.</p>
+
+<p class="backlink"><a href="#con">Back to contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+<a name="iii" id="iii"></a>CHAPTER III<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE NATIVES</small></h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="c">A dwindling race; their curious weapons&mdash;The Papuan
+tree-dwellers&mdash;The cunning witch-doctors.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">The</span> natives of Australia were always few in number. The conditions of
+the country secured that Australia, kept from civilization for so long,
+is yet the one land of the world which, whilst capable of great
+production with the aid of man&rsquo;s skill, is in its natural state
+hopelessly sterile. Australia produced no grain of any sort naturally;
+neither wheat, oats, barley nor maize. It produced practically no edible
+fruit, excepting a few berries, and one or two nuts, the outer rind of
+which was eatable. There were no useful roots such as the potato, the
+turnip, or the yam, or the taro. The native animals were few and just
+barely eatable, the kangaroo, the koala (or native bear) being the
+principal ones. In birds alone was the country well supplied, and they
+were more beautiful of plumage than useful as food. Even the fisheries
+were infrequent, for the coast line, as you will see from the map, is
+unbroken by any great bays, and there is thus less sea frontage to
+Australia than to any other of the continents, and the rivers are few in
+number.</p>
+
+<p>Where the land inhabited by savages is poor in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> food-supply their number
+is, as a rule, small and their condition poor. It is not good for a
+people to have too easy times; that deprives them of the incentive to
+work. But also it is not good for people who are backward in
+civilization to be kept to a land which treats them too harshly; for
+then they never get a fair chance to progress in the scale of
+civilization. The people of the tropics and the people near the poles
+lagged behind in the race for exactly opposite but equally powerful
+reasons. The one found things too easy, the other found things too hard.
+It was in the land between, the Temperate Zone, where, with proper
+industry, man could prosper, that great civilizations grew up.</p>
+
+<p><a name="cook" id="cook"></a>The Australian native had not much to complain of in regard to his
+climate. It was neither tropical nor polar. But the unique natural
+conditions of his country made it as little fruitful to an uncivilized
+inhabitant as was Lapland. When Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay
+probably there were not 500,000 natives in all Australia. And if the
+white man had not come, there probably would never have been any
+progress among the blacks. As they were then they had been for countless
+centuries, and in all likelihood would have remained for countless
+centuries more. They had never, like the Chinese, the Hindus, the
+Peruvians, the Mexicans, evolved a civilization of their own. There was
+not the slightest sign that they would be able to do so in the future.
+If there was ever a country on earth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> which the white man had a right to
+take on the ground that the black man could never put it to good use, it
+was Australia.</p>
+
+<p>Allowing that, it is a pity to have to record that the early treatment
+of the poor natives of Australia was bad. The first settlers to
+Australia had learned most of the lessons of civilization, but they had
+not learned the wisdom and justice of treating the people they were
+supplanting fairly. The officials were, as a rule, kind enough; but some
+classes of the new population were of a bad type, and these, coming into
+contact with the natives, were guilty of cruelties which led to
+reprisals and then to further cruelties, and finally to a complete
+destruction of the black people in some districts.</p>
+
+<p>In Tasmania, for instance, where the blacks were of a fine robust type,
+convicts in the early days, escaping to the Bush, by their cruelties
+inflamed the natives to hatred of the white disturbers, and outrages
+were frequent. The state of affairs got to be so bad that the Government
+formed the idea of capturing all the natives of Tasmania and putting
+them on a special reserve on Tasman Peninsula. That was to be the black
+man&rsquo;s part of the country, where no white people would be allowed. The
+help of the settlers was enlisted, and a great cordon was formed around
+the whole island, as if it were to be beaten for game. The cordon
+gradually closed in on Tasman Peninsula after some weeks of &ldquo;beating&rdquo;
+the forests. It was found, then, that one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> aboriginal woman had been
+captured, and that was all. Such a result might have been foreseen.
+Tasmania is about as large as Scotland. Its natural features are just as
+wild. The cordon did not embrace 2,000 settlers. The idea of their being
+able to drive before them a whole native race familiar with the Bush was
+absurd.</p>
+
+<p>After that the old conditions ruled in Tasmania. Blacks and whites were
+in constant conflict, and the black race quickly perished. To-day there
+is not a single member of that race alive, Truganini, its last
+representative, having died about a quarter of a century ago.</p>
+
+<p>On the mainland of Australia many blacks still survive; indeed, in a few
+districts of the north, they have as yet barely come into contact with
+the white race. A happier system in dealing with them prevails. The
+Government are resolute that the blacks shall be treated kindly, and
+aboriginal reserves have been formed in all the States. One hears still
+of acts of cruelty in the back-blocks (as the far interior of Australia
+is called), but, so far as the Government can, it punishes the
+offenders. In several of the States there is an official known as the
+Protector of the Aborigines, and he has very wide powers to shield these
+poor blacks from the wickedness of others, and from their own weakness.
+In the Northern States now, the chief enemies of the blacks are Asiatics
+from the pearl-shelling fleets, who land in secret and supply the blacks
+with opium and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> drink. When the Commonwealth Navy, now being
+constructed, is in commission, part of its duty will be to patrol the
+northern coast and prevent Asiatics landing there to victimize the
+blacks.</p>
+
+<p>The official statistics of the Commonwealth reported, in regard to the
+aborigines, in the year 1907:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, on the other
+hand, there are considerable numbers of natives still in the &lsquo;savage&rsquo;
+state, numerical information concerning whom is of a most unreliable
+nature, and can be regarded as little more than the result of mere
+guessing. Ethnologically interesting as is this remarkable and rapidly
+disappearing race, practically all that has been done to increase our
+knowledge of them, their laws, habits, customs, and language, has been
+the result of more or less spasmodic and intermittent effort on the part
+of enthusiasts either in private life or the public service. Strange to
+say, an enumeration of them has never been seriously undertaken in
+connection with any State census, though a record of the numbers who
+were in the employ of whites, or living in contiguity to the settlements
+of whites, has usually been made. As stated above, various guesses at
+the number of aboriginal natives at present in Australia have been made,
+and the general opinion appears to be that 150,000 may be taken as a
+rough approximation to the total. It is proposed to make an attempt to
+enumerate the aboriginal population of Australia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> in connection with the
+first Commonwealth Census to be taken in 1911.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A very primitive savage was the Australian aboriginal. He had no
+architecture, but in cold or wet weather built little break-winds,
+called mia-mias. He had no weapons of steel or any other metal. His
+spears were tipped with the teeth of fish, the bones of animals, and
+with roughly sharpened flints. He had no idea of the use of the bow and
+arrow, but had a curious throwing-stick, which, working on the principle
+of a sling, would cast a missile a great distance. These were his
+weapons&mdash;rough spears, throwing-sticks, and clubs called nullahs, or
+waddys. (I am not sure that these latter are original native words. The
+blacks had a way of picking up white men&rsquo;s slang and adding it to their
+very limited vocabulary; thus the evil spirit is known among them as the
+&ldquo;debbil-debbil.&rdquo;) Another weapon the aboriginal had, the boomerang, a
+curiously curved missile stick which, if it missed the object at which
+it was aimed, would curve back in the air and return to the feet of the
+thrower; thus the black did not lose his weapon. The boomerang shows an
+extraordinary knowledge of the effects of curves on the flight of an
+object; it is peculiar to the Australian natives, and proves that they
+had skill and cunning in some respects, though generally low in the
+scale of human races.</p>
+
+<p>The Australian aboriginals were divided into tribes, and these tribes,
+when food supplies were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> good, amused themselves with tribal warfare.
+From what can be gathered, their battles were not very serious affairs.
+There was more yelling and dancing and posing than bloodshed. The braves
+of a tribe would get ready for battle by painting themselves with red,
+yellow, and white clay in fantastic patterns. They would then hold
+war-dances in the presence of the enemy; that, and the exchange of
+dreadful threats, would often conclude a campaign. But sometimes the
+forces would actually come to blows, spears would be thrown, clubs used.
+The wounds made by the spears would be dreadfully jagged, for about half
+a yard of the end of the spear was toothed with bones or fishes&rsquo; teeth.
+But the black fellows&rsquo; flesh healed wonderfully. A wound that would kill
+any European the black would plaster over with mud, and in a week or so
+be all right.</p>
+
+<p>Duels between individuals were not uncommon among the natives, and even
+women sometimes settled their differences in this way. A common method
+of duelling was the exchange of blows from a nullah. One party would
+stand quietly whilst his antagonist hit him on the head with a club;
+then the other, in turn, would have a hit, and this would be continued
+until one party dropped. It was a test of endurance rather than of
+fighting power.</p>
+
+<p>The women of the aboriginals were known as gins, or lubras, the children
+as picaninnies&mdash;this last, of course, not an aboriginal name. The women
+were not treated very well by their lords: they had to do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> all the
+carrying when on the march. At mealtimes they would sit in a row behind
+the men. The game&mdash;a kangaroo, for instance&mdash;would be roughly roasted at
+the camp fire with its fur still on. The men would devour the best
+portions and throw the rest over their shoulders to the waiting women.</p>
+
+<p>Fish was a staple article of diet for the Australian natives. Wherever
+there were good fishing-places on the coast or good oyster-beds powerful
+tribes were camped, and on the inland rivers are still found weirs
+constructed by the natives to trap fish. So far as can be ascertained,
+the Australian native was rarely if ever a cannibal. His neighbours in
+the Pacific Ocean were generally cannibals. Perhaps the scanty
+population of the Australian continent was responsible for the absence
+of cannibalism; perhaps some ethical sense in the breasts of the
+natives, who seem to have always been, on the whole, good-natured and
+little prone to cruelty.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="aboriginal" id="aboriginal">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 460px; height: 617px;">
+<img src="images/aboriginals.jpg" width="400" height="567" alt="" title="Aboriginals" />
+<span class="caption"><br />THE AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN CAPTAIN COOK&rsquo;S TIME. <a href="#cook">PAGE 34</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/aboriginall.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p>The religious ideas of these natives were very primitive. They believed
+strongly in evil spirits, and had various ceremonial dances and
+practices of witchcraft to ward off the influence of these. But they had
+little or no conception of a Good Spirit. Their idea of future happiness
+was, after they had come into contact with the whites: &ldquo;Fall down black
+fellow, jump up white fellow.&rdquo; Such an idea of heaven was, of course, an
+acquired one. What was their original notion on the subject is not at
+all clear. The Red Indians of America had a very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> definite idea of a
+future happy state. The aboriginals of Australia do not seem to have
+been able to brighten their poor lives with such a hope.</p>
+
+<p>Various books have been written about the folklore of the Australian
+aboriginals, but most of the stories told as coming from the blacks seem
+to me to have a curious resemblance to the stories of white folk. A
+legend about the future state, for instance, is just Bunyan&rsquo;s &ldquo;Pilgrim&rsquo;s
+Progress&rdquo; put crudely to fit in with Australian conditions. I may be
+quite wrong in this, but I think that most of the folk-stories coming
+from the natives are just their attempts to imitate white-man stories,
+and not original ideas of their own. The conditions or life in Australia
+for the aboriginal were so harsh, the struggle for existence was so
+keen, that he had not much time to cultivate ideas. Life to him was
+centred around the camp-fire, the baked &rsquo;possum, and a few crude tribal
+ceremonies.</p>
+
+<p>Usually the Australian black is altogether spoilt by civilization. He
+learns to wear clothes, but he does not learn that clothes need to be
+changed and washed occasionally, and are not intended for use by day and
+night. He has an insane veneration for the tall silk hat which is the
+badge of modern gentility, and, given an old silk hat, he will never
+allow it off his head. He quickly learns to smoke and to drink, and,
+when he comes into contact with the Chinese, to eat opium. He cannot be
+broken into any steady habits of industry, but where by wise kindness
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> black fellow has been kept from the vices of civilization he is a
+most engaging savage. Tall, thin, muscular, with fine black beard and
+hair and a curiously wide and impressive forehead, he is not at all
+unhandsome. He is capable of great devotion to a white master, and is
+very plucky by daylight, though his courage usually goes with the fall
+of night. He takes to a horse naturally, and some of the finest riders
+in Australia are black fellows.</p>
+
+<p>An attempt is now being made to Christianize the Australian blacks. It
+seems to prosper if the blacks can be kept away from the debasing
+influence of bad whites. They have no serious vices of their own, very
+little to unlearn, and are docile enough. In some cases black children
+educated at the mission schools are turning out very well. But, on the
+other hand, there are many instances of these children conforming to the
+habits of civilization for some years and then suddenly feeling &ldquo;the
+call of the wild,&rdquo; and running away into the Bush to join some nomad
+tribe.</p>
+
+<p>It is not possible to be optimistic about the future of the Australian
+blacks. The race seems doomed to perish. Something can be done to
+prolong their life, to make it more pleasant; but they will never be a
+people, never take any share in the development of the continent which
+was once their own.</p>
+
+<p>A quite different type of native comes under the rule of the Australian
+Commonwealth&mdash;the Papuan.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> Though Papua, or New Guinea, as it was once
+called, is only a few miles from the north coast of Australia, its race
+is distinct, belonging to the Polynesian or Kanaka type, and resembling
+the natives of Fiji and Tahiti.</p>
+
+<p>Papua is quite a tropical country, producing bananas, yams, taro, sago,
+and cocoa-nuts. The natives, therefore, have always had plenty of food,
+and they reached a higher stage of civilization than the Australian
+aborigines. But their food came too easily to allow them to go very far
+forward. &ldquo;Civilization is impossible where the banana grows,&rdquo; some
+observer has remarked. He meant that since the banana gave food without
+any culture or call on human energy, the people in banana-growing
+countries would be lazy, and would not have the stimulus to improve
+themselves that is necessary for progress. To get a good type of man he
+must have the need to work.</p>
+
+<p>The Papuan, having no need of industry, amused himself with head-hunting
+as a national sport. Tribes would invade one another&rsquo;s districts and
+fight savage battles. The victors would eat the bodies of the
+vanquished, and carry home their heads as trophies. A chief measured his
+greatness by the number of skulls he had to adorn his house.</p>
+
+<p>Since the British came to Papua head-hunting and cannibalism have been
+forbidden. But all efforts to instil into the minds of the Papuan a
+liking for work have so far failed. So the condition of the natives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> is
+not very happy. They have lost the only form of exercise they cared for,
+and sloth, together with contact with the white man, has brought to them
+new and deadly diseases. Several missionary bodies are working to
+convert the Papuan to Christianity, and with some success.</p>
+
+<p>The Papuan builds houses and temples. His tree-dwellings are very
+curious. They are built on platforms at the top of lofty palm-trees.
+Probably the Papuan first designed the tree-dwelling as a refuge from
+possible enemies. Having climbed up to his house with the aid of a rope
+ladder and drawn the ladder up after him, he was fairly safe from
+molestation, for the long, smooth, branchless trunks of the palm-trees
+do not make them easy to scale. In time the Papuan learned the
+advantages of the tree-dwelling in marshy ground, and you will find
+whole villages on the coast built of trees. Herodotus states of the
+ancient Egyptians that in some parts they slept on top of high towers to
+avoid mosquitoes and the malaria that they brought. The Papuan seems to
+have arrived at the same idea.</p>
+
+<p>Sorcery is a great evil among the Papuans. In every village almost, some
+crafty man pretends to be a witch and to have the power to destroy those
+who are his enemies. This is a constant thorn in the side of the
+Government official and the missionary. The poor Papuan goes all his
+days beset by the Powers of Darkness. The sorcerer, the &ldquo;pourri-pourri&rdquo;
+man, can blast him and his pigs, crops, family (that is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> Papuan
+order of valuation) at will. The sorcerer is generally an old man. He
+does not, as a rule, deck himself in any special garb, or go through
+public incantations, as do most savage medicine-men. But he hints and
+threatens, and lets inference take its course, till eventually he
+becomes a recognized power, feared and obeyed by all. Extortion, false
+swearing, quarrels and murders, and all manner of iniquity, follow in
+his train. No native but fears him, however complete the training and
+education of civilization. For the Papuan never thinks of death, plague,
+pestilence or famine as arising from natural causes. Every little
+misfortune (much more every great one) is credited to a &ldquo;pourri-pourri&rdquo;
+or magic. The Papuan, when he comes &ldquo;under the Evil Eye&rdquo; of the
+witch-doctor, will wilt away and die, though, apparently, he has nothing
+at all the matter with him; and since Europeans are apt to suffer from
+malarial fever in Papua, the witch-doctors are prompt to put this down
+to their efforts, and so persuade the natives that they have power even
+over Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>A gentleman who was a resident magistrate in Papua tells an amusing tale
+of how one witch-doctor was very properly served. &ldquo;A village constable
+of my acquaintance, wearied with the attentions of a magician of great
+local repute, who had worked much harm with his friends and relations,
+tied him up with rattan ropes, and sank him in 20 feet of water against
+the morning. He argued, as he explained at his trial for murder, &lsquo;If
+this man is the genuine article,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> well and good, no harm done. If he is
+not&mdash;well, it&rsquo;s a good riddance!&rsquo; On repairing to the spot next morning,
+and pulling up his night-line, he found that the magician had failed to
+&lsquo;make his magic good,&rsquo; and was quite dead. The constable&rsquo;s punishment
+was twelve months&rsquo; hard labour. It was a fair thing to let him off
+easily, as in killing a witch-doctor he had really done the community a
+service.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The future of the Papuan is more hopeful than that of the Australian
+aboriginal, and he may be preserved in something near to his natural
+state if means can be found to make him work.</p>
+
+<p class="backlink"><a href="#con">Back to contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="iv" id="iv"></a>CHAPTER IV<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS</small></h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="c">The kangaroo&mdash;The koala&mdash;The bulldog ant&mdash;Some quaint and
+delightful birds&mdash;The kookaburra&mdash;Cunning crows and cockatoo.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Australia</span> has most curious animals, birds, and flowers. This is due to
+the fact that it is such an old, old place, and has been cut off so long
+from the rest of the world. The types of animals that lived in Europe
+long before Rome was built, before the days, indeed, of the Egyptian
+civilization, animals of which we find traces in the fossils of very
+remote periods&mdash;those are the types living in Australia to-day. They
+belong to the same epoch as the mammoth and the great flying lizards and
+other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> creatures of whom you may learn something in museums. Indeed,
+Australia, as regards its fauna, may be considered as a museum, with the
+animals of old times alive instead of in skeleton form.</p>
+
+<p><a name="kanga" id="kanga"></a>The kangaroo is always taken as a type of Australian animal life. When
+an Australian cricket team succeeds in vanquishing in a Test Match an
+English one (which happens now and again), the comic papers may be
+always expected to print a picture of a lion looking sad and sorry, and
+a kangaroo proudly elate. The kangaroo, like practically all Australian
+animals, is a marsupial, carrying its young about in a pouch after their
+birth until they reach maturity. The kangaroo&rsquo;s forelegs are very small;
+its hindlegs and its tail are immensely powerful, and these it uses for
+progression, rushing with huge hops over the country. There are very
+many animals which may be grouped as kangaroos, from the tiny kangaroo
+rat, about the size of an English water-rat, to the huge red kangaroo,
+which is over six feet high and about the weight of a sucking calf. The
+kangaroo is harmless and inoffensive as a rule, but it can inflict a
+dangerous kick with its hindlegs, and when pursued by dogs or men and
+cornered, the &ldquo;old man&rdquo; kangaroo will sometimes fight for its life. Its
+method is to take a stand in a water-hole or with its back to a tree,
+standing on its hindlegs and balanced on its tail. When a dog approaches
+it is seized in the kangaroo&rsquo;s forearms and held under water or torn to
+pieces. Occasionally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> men&rsquo;s lives have been lost through approaching
+incautiously an old man kangaroo.</p>
+
+<p>The kangaroo&rsquo;s method of self-defence has been turned to amusing account
+by circus-proprietors. The &ldquo;boxing kangaroo&rdquo; was at one time quite a
+common feature at circuses and music-halls. A tame kangaroo would have
+its forefeet fitted with boxing-gloves. Then when lightly punched by its
+trainer, it would, quite naturally, imitate the movements of the boxer,
+fending off blows and hitting out with its forelegs. One boxing kangaroo
+I had a bout with was quite a clever pugilist. It was very difficult to
+hit the animal, and its return blows were hard and well directed.</p>
+
+<p>The different sorts of kangaroo you may like to know. There is the
+kangaroo rat, very small; the &ldquo;flying kangaroo,&rdquo; a rare animal of the
+squirrel species, but marsupial, which lives in trees; the wallaby, the
+wallaroo, the paddy-melon (medium varieties of kangaroo); the grey and
+the red kangaroo, the last the biggest and finest of the species.</p>
+
+<p>The kangaroo, as I have said, is not of much use for meat. Its flesh is
+very dark and rank, something like that of a horse. However, chopped up
+into a fine sausage-meat, with half its weight of fat bacon, kangaroo
+flesh is just eatable. The tail makes a very rich soup. The skin of the
+kangaroo provides a soft and pliant leather which is excellent for
+shoes. Kangaroo furs are also of value for rugs and overcoats.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="night" id="night">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 452px; height: 650px;">
+<img src="images/forests.jpg" width="392" height="600" alt="" title="The Australian forest at night" />
+<span class="caption"><br />THE AUSTRALIAN FOREST AT NIGHT &ldquo;MOONING&rdquo;<br />
+OPOSSUMS. <a href="#possum1">PAGES 49</a> &amp; <a href="#forest">71</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/forestl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+<a name="possum1" id="possum1"></a>Of tree-inhabiting animals the chief in Australia is the &rsquo;possum (which
+is not really an opossum, but is somewhat like that American rodent, and
+so got its name), and the koala, or native bear. Why this little animal
+was called a &ldquo;bear&rdquo; it is hard to say, for it is not in the least like a
+bear. It is about the size of a very large and fat cat, is covered with
+a very thick, soft fur, and its face is shaped rather like that of an
+owl, with big saucer-eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The koala is the quaintest little creature imaginable. It is quite
+harmless, and only asks to be let alone and allowed to browse on
+gum-leaves. Its flesh is uneatable except by an aboriginal or a victim
+to famine. Its fur is difficult to manipulate, as it will not lie flat,
+so the koala should have been left in peace. But its confiding and
+somewhat stupid nature, and the senseless desire of small boys and
+&ldquo;children of larger growth&rdquo; to kill something wild just for the sake of
+killing, has led to the koala being almost exterminated in many places.
+Now it is protected by the law, and may get back in time to its old
+numbers. I hope so. There is no more amusing or pretty sight than that
+of a mother koala climbing sedately along a gum-tree limb, its young
+ones riding on it pick-a-back, their claws dug firmly into its soft fur.</p>
+
+<p>The &rsquo;possum is much hunted for its fur. The small black &rsquo;possum found in
+Tasmania and in the mountainous districts is the most valuable, its fur
+being very close and fine. Dealers in skins will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> sometimes dye the grey
+&rsquo;possum&rsquo;s skin black and trade it off as Tasmanian &rsquo;possum. It is a
+trick to beware of when buying furs. Bush lads catch the &rsquo;possum with
+snares. Finding a tree, the scratched bark of which tells that a &rsquo;possum
+family lives upstairs in one of its hollows, they fix a noose to the
+tree. The &rsquo;possum, coming down at night to feed or to drink, is caught
+in the noose. Another way of getting &rsquo;possum skins is to shoot the
+little creatures on moonlight nights. (The &rsquo;possum is nocturnal in its
+habits, and sleeps during the day.) When there is a good moon the
+&rsquo;possums may be seen as they sit on the boughs of the gum-trees, and
+brought down with a shot-gun.</p>
+
+<p>Besides its human enemies, the &rsquo;possum has the &rsquo;goanna (of which more
+later) to contend with. The &rsquo;goanna&mdash;a most loathsome-looking
+lizard&mdash;can climb trees, and is very fond of raiding the &rsquo;possum&rsquo;s home
+when the young are there. Between the men who want its coat and the
+&rsquo;goannas who want its young the &rsquo;possum is fast being exterminated.</p>
+
+<p>Two other characteristic Australian animals you should know about. The
+wombat is like a very large pig; it lives underground, burrowing vast
+distances. The wombat is a great nuisance in districts where there are
+irrigation canals; its burrows weaken the banks of the water-channels,
+and cause collapses. The dugong is a sea mammal found on the north coast
+of Australia. It is said to be responsible for the idea of the mermaid.
+Rising<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> out of the water, the dugong&rsquo;s figure has some resemblance to
+that of a woman.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is the bunyip&mdash;or, rather, there isn&rsquo;t the bunyip, so far as
+we know as yet. The bunyip is the legendary animal of Australia. It is
+supposed to be of great size&mdash;as big as a bullock&mdash;and of terrible
+ferocity. The bunyip is represented as living in lakes and marshes, but
+it has never been seen by any trustworthy observer. The blacks believe
+profoundly in the bunyip, and white children, when very young, are
+scared with bunyip tales. There may have been once an animal answering
+to its description in Australia; if so, it does not seem to have
+survived.</p>
+
+<p>In Tasmania, however, are found, though very rarely, two savage and
+carnivorous marsupials called the Tasmanian tiger and the Tasmanian
+devil. The tiger is almost as large as the female Bengal tiger, and has
+a few little stripes near its tail, from which fact it gets its name.
+The Tasmanian tiger will create fearful havoc if it gets among sheep,
+killing for the sheer lust of killing. At one time a price of &pound;100 was
+put on the head of the Tasmanian tiger. As settlement progressed it
+became rarer and rarer, and I have not heard of one having been seen for
+some years. The Tasmanian devil is a marsupial somewhat akin to the wild
+cat, and of about the same size. It is very ferocious, and has been
+known to attack man, springing on him from a tree branch. The Tasmanian
+devil is likewise becoming very rare.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+The existence of these two animals in Tasmania and not in Australia
+shows that that island has been a very long time separated from the
+mainland.</p>
+
+<p>Australia is very well provided with serpents&mdash;rather too well
+provided&mdash;and the Bush child has to be careful in regard to putting his
+hand into rabbit burrows or walking barefoot, as there are several
+varieties of venomous snake. But the snakes are not at all the great
+danger that some imagine. You might live all your life in Australia and
+never see one; but in a few country parts it has been found necessary to
+enclose the homesteads on the stations with snake-proof wire-fencing, so
+as to make some place of safety in which young children may play. The
+most venomous of Australian snakes are the death-adder, fortunately a
+very sluggish variety; the tiger-snake, a most fierce serpent, which,
+unlike other snakes, will actually turn and pursue a man if it is
+wounded or angered; the black snake, a handsome creature with a vivid
+scarlet belly; and the whip-snake, a long, thin reptile, which may be
+easily mistaken for a bit of stick, and is sometimes picked up by
+children. But no Australian snake is as deadly as the Indian jungle
+snakes, and it is said that the bite of no Australian snake can cause
+death if the bite has been given through any cloth. So the only real
+danger is in walking through the Bush barefooted, or putting the hand
+into holes where snakes may be lurking.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the non-venomous snakes of Australia are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> very handsome, the
+green tree-snake and the carpet-snake (a species of python) for
+examples. The carpet-snake is occasionally kept in the house or in the
+barn to destroy mice and other small vermin.</p>
+
+<p>Lizards in great variety are found in Australia, the chief being one
+incorrectly called an iguana, which colloquial slang has changed to
+&rsquo;goanna. The &rsquo;goanna is an altogether repulsive creature. It feasts on
+carrion, on the eggs of birds, on birds themselves, on the young of any
+creature. Growing to a great size&mdash;I have seen one 9 feet long and as
+thick in the body as a small dog&mdash;the &rsquo;goanna looks very dangerous, and
+it will bite a man when cornered. Though not venomous in the strict
+sense of the word, the &rsquo;goanna&rsquo;s bite generally causes a festering wound
+on account of the loathsome habits of the creature. The Jew-lizard and
+the devil-lizard are two other horrid-looking denizens of the Australian
+forest, but in their cases an evil character does not match an evil
+face, for they are quite harmless.</p>
+
+<p>Spiders are common, but there is, so far as I know, only one dangerous
+one&mdash;a little black spider with a red spot on its back. Large spiders,
+called (incorrectly) tarantulas, credited by some with being poisonous,
+come into the houses. But they are really not in any way dangerous. I
+knew a man who used to keep tarantulas under his mosquito-nets so that
+they might devour any stray mosquitoes that got in. The example is
+hardly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> worth following. The Australian tarantula, though innocent of
+poison, is a horrible object, and would, I think, give you a bad fright
+if it flopped on to your face.</p>
+
+<p>Australia is rich in ants. There is one specially vicious ant called the
+bulldog ant, because of its pluck. Try to kill the bulldog ant with a
+stick, and it will face you and try to bite back until the very last
+gasp, never thinking of running away. The bulldog ant has a liking for
+the careless picnicker, whom she&mdash;the male ant, like the male bee, is
+not a worker&mdash;bites with a fierce energy that suggests to the victim
+that his flesh is being torn with red-hot pincers. I have heard it said
+that but for the fact that Australia is so large an island, a great
+proportion of its population would by this time have been lost through
+bounding into the surrounding sea when bitten by bulldog ants. It is
+wise when out for a picnic in Australia to camp in some spot away from
+ant-beds, for the ant, being such an industrious creature, seems to take
+a malicious delight in spoiling the day for pleasure-seekers.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect, the ant, unwillingly enough, contributes to the pleasure
+and amusement of the Australian people. In the dry country it would not
+be possible to keep grass lawns for tennis. But an excellent substitute
+has been found in the earth taken from ant-beds. This earth, which has
+been ground fine by the industrious little insects, makes a beautifully
+firm tennis-court.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+It is not possible to leave the ant without mention of the termite, or
+white ant, which is very common and very mischievous in most parts of
+Australia. A colony of termites keeps its headquarters underground, and
+from these headquarters it sends out foraging expeditions to eat up all
+the wood in the neighbourhood. If you build a house in Australia, you
+must be very careful indeed that there is no possibility of the termites
+being able to get to its timbers. Otherwise the joists will be eaten,
+the floors eaten, even the furniture eaten, and one day everything that
+is made of wood in the house will collapse. All the mischief, too, will
+have been concealed until the last moment. A wooden beam will look to be
+quite sound when really its whole heart has been eaten out by the
+termites. Nowadays the whole area on which a house is to be raised is
+covered with cement or with asphalt, and care taken that no timber
+joists are allowed to touch the earth and thus give entry to the
+termites. Fortunately, these destructive insects cannot burrow through
+brick or stone.</p>
+
+<p>In the Northern Territory there are everywhere gigantic mounds raised by
+these termites, long, narrow, high, and always pointing due north and
+south. You can tell infallibly the points of the compass from the mounds
+of this white ant, which has been called the &ldquo;meridian termite.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Australia has a wild bee of her own (of course, too, there are European
+bees introduced by apiarists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> distilling splendid honey from the wild
+flowers of the continent). The aborigines had an ingenious way of
+finding the nests of the wild bee. They would catch a bee, preferably at
+some water-hole where the bees went to drink, and fix to its body a
+little bit of white down. The bee would be then released, and would fly
+straight for home, and the keen-eyed black would be able to follow its
+flight and discover the whereabouts of its hive&mdash;generally in the hollow
+of a tree. The Australian black, having found a hive, would kill the
+bees with smoke and then devour the whole nest, bees, honeycomb, and
+honey.</p>
+
+<p>Australian birds are very numerous and very beautiful. The famous
+bird-of-paradise is found in several varieties in Papua and other
+islands along Australia&rsquo;s northern coast. The bird-of-paradise was
+threatened with extinction on account of the demand for its plumes for
+women&rsquo;s hats. So the Australian Government has recently passed
+legislation to protect this most beautiful of all birds, which on the
+tiniest of bodies carries such wonderful cascades of plumage, silver
+white in some cases, golden brown in others.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="drover" id="drover">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 660px; height: 486px;">
+<img src="images/drovers.jpg" width="600" height="436" alt="" title="Sheep drover" />
+<span class="caption"><br />A SHEEP DROVER. <a href="#sheep">PAGE 26</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/droverl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p>Some very beautiful parrots flash through the Australian forest. It
+would not be possible to tell of all of them. The smallest, which is
+known as the grass parrakeet, or &ldquo;the love-bird,&rdquo; is about the size of a
+sparrow. I notice it in England carried around by gipsies and trained to
+pick out a card which &ldquo;tells<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> you your fortune.&rdquo; From that tiny little
+green bird the range of parrots runs up to huge fowl with feathers of
+all the colours of the rainbow. There are two fine cockatoos also in
+Australia&mdash;the white with a yellow crest, and the black, which has a
+beautiful red lining to its sable wings. A flock of black cockatoos in
+flight gives an impression of a sunset cloud, its under surface shot
+with crimson.</p>
+
+<p>Cockatoos can be very destructive to crops, especially to maize, so the
+farmers have declared war upon them. The birds seem to be able to hold
+their own pretty well in this campaign, for they are of wonderful
+cunning. When a crowd of cockatoos has designs on a farmer&rsquo;s
+maize-patch, the leader seems to prospect the place thoroughly; he acts
+as though he were a general, providing a safe bivouac for an army; he
+sets sentinels on high trees commanding a view of all points of danger.
+Then the flock of cockatoos settles on the maize and gorges as fast as
+it can. If the farmer or his son tries to approach with a gun, a
+sentinel cockatoo gives warning and the whole flock clears out to a
+place of safety. As soon as the danger is over they come back to the
+feast.</p>
+
+<p>Even more cunning is the Australian crow. It is a bird of prey and
+perhaps the best-hated bird in the world. An Australian bushman will
+travel a whole day to kill a crow. For he has, at the time when the
+sheep were lambing, or when, owing to drought, they were weak, seen the
+horrible cruelties of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> crow. This evil bird will attack weak sheep
+and young lambs, tearing out their eyes and leaving them to perish
+miserably. There have even been terrible cases where men lost in the
+Bush and perishing of thirst have been attacked by crows and have been
+found still alive, but with their eyes gone.</p>
+
+<p>It is no wonder that there is a deadly feud between man and crow. But
+the crow is so cunning as to be able to overmatch man&rsquo;s superior
+strength. A crow knows when a man is carrying a gun, and will keep out
+of range then; if a man is without a gun the crow will let him approach
+quite near. One can never catch many crows in the same district with the
+same device; they seem to learn to avoid what is dangerous. Very rarely
+can they be poisoned, no matter how carefully the bait is prepared.</p>
+
+<p>Bushmen tell all sorts of stories of the cunning of the crow. One is
+that of a man who suffered severely from a crow&rsquo;s depredations on his
+chickens. He prepared a poisoned bait and noticed the bird take it, but
+not devour it; that crow carefully took the poisoned tit-bit and put it
+in front of the man&rsquo;s favourite dog, which ate it, and was with
+difficulty saved from death! Another story is that of a man who thought
+to get within reach of a crow by taking out a gun, lying down under a
+tree, and pretending to be dead. True enough, the crow came up and
+hopped around, as if waiting for the man to move, and so to see if he
+were really dead. After awhile, the crow, to make quite sure, perched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+on a branch above the man&rsquo;s head and dropped a piece of twig on to his
+face! It was at this stage that the man decided to be alive, and, taking
+up his gun, shot the crow.</p>
+
+<p>There may be some exaggeration in the bushmen&rsquo;s tales of the crow&rsquo;s
+cunning, but there is quite enough of ascertained fact to show that the
+bird is as devilish in its ingenuity as in its cruelty. In most parts of
+Australia there is a reward paid for every dead crow brought into the
+police offices. Still, in spite of constant warfare, the bird holds its
+own, and very rarely indeed is its nest discovered&mdash;a signal proof of
+its precautions against the enmity of man.</p>
+
+<p><a name="kooka" id="kooka"></a>To turn to a more pleasant type of feathered animal. On the whole, the
+most distinctly Australian bird is the kookaburra, or &ldquo;laughing
+jackass.&rdquo; (A picture of two kookaburras faces page 1 of this volume.
+They were drawn for me by a very clever Australian black-and-white
+artist, Mr. Norman Lindsay.) The kookaburra is about the size of an owl,
+of a mottled grey colour. Its sly, mocking eye prepares you for its
+note, which is like a laugh, partly sardonic, partly rollicking. The
+kookaburra seems to find much grim fun in this world, and is always
+disturbing the Bush quiet with its curious &ldquo;laughter.&rdquo; So near in sound
+to a harsh human laugh is the kookaburra&rsquo;s call that there is no
+difficulty in persuading new chums that the bird is deliberately mocking
+them. The kookaburra has the reputation of killing snakes; it certainly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+is destructive to small vermin, so its life is held sacred in the Bush.
+And very well our kookaburra knows the fact. As he sits on a fence and
+watches you go past with a gun, he will now and again break out into his
+discordant &ldquo;laugh&rdquo; right in your face.</p>
+
+<p>The Australian magpie, a black-and-white bird of the crow family, is
+also &ldquo;protected,&rdquo; as it feeds mainly on grubs and insects, which are
+nuisances to the farmer. The magpie has a very clear, well-sustained
+note, and to hear a group of them singing together in the early morning
+suggests a fine choir of boys&rsquo; voices. They will tell you in Australia
+that the young magpie is taught by its parents to &ldquo;sing in tune&rdquo; in
+these bird choirs, and is knocked off the fence at choir practice if it
+makes a mistake. You may believe this if you wish to. I don&rsquo;t. But it
+certainly is a fact that a group of magpies will sing together very
+sweetly and harmoniously.</p>
+
+<p>One could not exhaust the list of Australian birds in even a big book.
+But a few more call for mention. There is the emu, like an ostrich, but
+with coarse wiry hair. The emu does damage on the sheep-runs by breaking
+down the wire fences. (Some say the emu likes fencing wire as an article
+of diet; but that is an exaggeration founded on the fact that, like all
+great birds, it can and does eat nails, pebbles, and other hard
+substances, which lodge in its gizzard and help it to digest its food.)
+On account of its mischievous habit of breaking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> fences the emu is
+hunted down, and is now fast dwindling. In Tasmania it is altogether
+extinct. Another danger to its existence is that it lays a very handsome
+egg of a dark green colour. These eggs are sought out for ornaments, and
+the emu&rsquo;s nest, built in the grass of the plain (for the emu cannot fly
+nor climb trees), is robbed wherever found.</p>
+
+<p>The brush turkey of Australia is strange in that it does not take its
+family duties at all seriously. The bird does not hatch out its eggs by
+sitting on them, but builds a mound of decaying vegetation over the
+eggs, and leaves them to come out with the sun&rsquo;s heat.</p>
+
+<p>The brolga, or native companion, is a handsome Australian bird of the
+crane family. It is of a pretty grey colour, with red bill and red legs.
+The brolga has a taste for dancing; flocks of this bird may be seen
+solemnly going through quadrilles and lancers&mdash;of their own
+invention&mdash;on the plains.</p>
+
+<p>Another strange Australian bird is called the bower-bird, because when a
+bower-bird wishes to go courting he builds in the Bush a little
+pavilion, and adorns it with all the gay, bright objects he can&mdash;bits of
+rag or metal, feathers from other birds, coloured stones and flowers. In
+this he sets himself to dancing until some lady bower-bird is attracted,
+and they set up housekeeping together. The bower-bird is credited with
+being responsible for the discovery of a couple of goldfields, the birds
+having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> picked up nuggets for their bowers, these, discovered by
+prospectors, telling that gold was near.</p>
+
+<p>If the bower-bird wishes for wedding chimes to grace his picturesque
+mating, another bird will be able to gratify the wish&mdash;the bell-bird
+which haunts quiet, cool glens, and has a note like a bell, and yet more
+like the note of one of those strange hallowed gongs you hear from the
+groves of Eastern temples. Often riding through the wild Australian Bush
+you hear the chimes of distant bells, hear and wonder until you learn
+that the bell-bird makes the clear, sweet music.</p>
+
+<p>One more note about Australian nature life. In the summer the woods are
+full of locusts (cicad&aelig;), which jar the air with their harsh note. The
+locust season is always a busy one for the doctors. The Australian small
+boy loves to get a locust to carry in his pocket, and he has learned, by
+a little squeezing, to induce the unhappy insect to &ldquo;strike up,&rdquo; to the
+amusing interruption of school or home hours. Now, to get a locust it is
+necessary to climb a tree, and Australian trees are hard to climb and
+easy to fall out of. So there are many broken limbs during the locust
+season. They represent a quite proper penalty for a cruel and unpleasant
+habit.</p>
+
+<p class="backlink"><a href="#con">Back to contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="v" id="v"></a>CHAPTER V<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH</small></h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="c">An introduction to an Australian home&mdash;Off to a picnic&mdash;The
+wattle, the gum, the waratah&mdash;The joys of the forest.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">The</span> Australian child wakens very often to the fact that &ldquo;to-day is a
+holiday.&rdquo; The people of the sunny southern continent work very hard
+indeed, but they know that &ldquo;all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy&rdquo;;
+and Jill a dull girl too. So they have very frequent holidays&mdash;far more
+frequent than in Great Britain. The Australian child, rising on a
+holiday morning, and finding it fine and bright&mdash;very rarely is he
+disappointed in the weather of his sunny climate&mdash;gives a whoop of joy
+as he remembers that he is going on a picnic into the forest, or the
+&ldquo;Bush,&rdquo; as it is called invariably in Australia. The whoop is, perhaps,
+more joyful than it is musical. The Australian youngster is not trained,
+as a rule, to have the nice soft voice of the English child. Besides,
+the dry, invigorating climate gives his throat a strength which simply
+must find expression in loud noise.</p>
+
+<p><a name="hut" id="hut"></a>Let us follow the Australian child on his picnic and see something of
+the Australian Bush, also of an Australian home.</p>
+
+<p>Suppose him starting from Wahroonga, a pretty suburb about ten miles
+from Sydney, the biggest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> city of Australia. Jim lives there with his
+brothers and sisters and parents in a little villa of about nine rooms,
+and four deep shady verandas, one for each side of the house. On these
+verandas in summer the family will spend most of the time. Meals will be
+served there, reading, writing, sewing done there; in many households
+the family will also sleep there, the little couches being protected by
+nets to keep off mosquitoes which may be hovering about in thousands.
+And in the morning, as the sun peeps through the bare beautiful trunks
+of the white gums, the magpies will begin to carol and the kookaburras
+to laugh, and the family will wake to a freshness which is divine.</p>
+
+<p>Around the house are lawns, of coarser grass than that of England, but
+still looking smooth and green, and many flower-beds in which all the
+flowers of earth seem to bloom. There are roses in endless
+variety&mdash;Jim&rsquo;s mother boasts that she has sixty-five different
+sorts&mdash;and some of them are blooming all the year round, so mild is the
+climate. Phlox, verbenas, bouvardias, pelargoniums, geraniums, grow side
+by side with such tropical plants as gardenias, tuberoses, hibisci,
+jacarandas, magnolias. In season there are daffodils, and snowdrops, and
+narcissi, and dahlias, and chrysanthemums. Recall all the flowers of
+England; add to them the flowers of Southern Italy and many from India,
+from Mexico, from China, from the Pacific Islands, and you have an idea
+of the fine garden Jim enjoys.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="bushhut" id="bushhut">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 451px; height: 650px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+<img src="images/bushhuts.jpg" width="391" height="600" alt="" title="Bush hut" />
+<span class="caption"><br />A HUT IN THE BUSH. <a href="#hut">PAGE 63</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/bushhutl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+Beyond the garden is a tennis-court, and around its high wire fences are
+trained grape-vines of different kinds, muscatels and black amber and
+shiraz, and lady&rsquo;s-fingers, which yield splendidly without any shelter
+or artificial heat. On the other side of the house is a little orchard,
+not much more than an acre, where, all in the open air, grow melons,
+oranges, lemons, persimmons (or Japanese plums), apples, pears, peaches,
+apricots, custard-apples (a curious tropical fruit, which is soft inside
+and tastes like a sweet custard), guavas (from which delicious jelly is
+made), and also strawberries and raspberries.</p>
+
+<p>The far corner is taken up with a paddock, for the horses are not kept
+in a stable, night or day, except occasionally when a very wet, cold
+night comes.</p>
+
+<p>That is the surrounding of Jim&rsquo;s home. Inside the house there is to-day
+a great deal of bustle. Everybody is working&mdash;all the members of the
+family as well as the two maid-servants, for in Australia it is the rule
+to do things for yourself and not to rely too much on the labour of
+servants (who are hard to get and to keep). Even baby pretends to help,
+and has to be allowed to carry about a &ldquo;billy&rdquo; to give her the idea that
+she is useful. This &ldquo;billy&rdquo; is a tin pot in which, later on, water will
+be boiled over a little fire in the forest, and tea made. Food is packed
+up&mdash;perhaps cold meats, perhaps chops or steaks which will be grilled in
+the bush-fire. Always there are salads, cold fruit pies, home-made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+cakes, fruit; possibly wine for the elders. But tea is never forgotten.
+It would not be a picnic without tea.</p>
+
+<p>Now a drag is driven around to the front gate by the one man-servant of
+the house, who has harnessed up the horses and put food for them in the
+drag. Some neighbours arrive; a picnic may be made up of just the
+members of one family, but usually there is a mingling of families, and
+that adds to the fun. The fathers of the families, as like as not, ride
+saddle-horses and do not join the others in the drag; some of the elder
+children, too, boys and girls, may ride their ponies, for in Australia
+it is common for children to have ponies. The party starts with much
+laughter, with inquiries as to the safety of the &ldquo;billy&rdquo; and the
+whereabouts of the matches. It is a sad thing to go out in the Bush for
+a picnic and find at the last moment that no one has any matches with
+which to light a fire. The black fellows can start a flare by rubbing
+two sticks together, but the white man has not mastered that art.</p>
+
+<p>The picnic makes its way along a Bush road four or five miles through
+pretty orchard country, given up mostly to growing peaches, grapes, and
+oranges, the cultivated patches in their bright colours showing in vivid
+contrast against the quiet grey-green of the gum-trees. It is spring,
+and all the peach-trees are dressed in gay pink bloom, and belts of this
+colour stretch into the forest for miles around.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+The road leaves the cultivated area. The ground becomes rocky and
+sterile. The gum-trees still grow sturdily, but there is no grass
+beneath; instead a wild confusion of wiry heather-like brush, bearing
+all sorts of curious flowers, white, pink, purple, blue, deep brown. One
+flower called the flannel-daisy is like a great star, and its petals
+seem to be cut of the softest white flannel. The boronia and the native
+rose compel attention by their piercing, aromatic perfume, which is
+strangely refreshing. The exhaling breath of the gum-trees, too, is keen
+and exhilarating.</p>
+
+<p>Now the path dips into a little hollow. What is that sudden blaze of
+glowing yellow? It is a little clump of wattle-trees, about as big as
+apple-trees, covered all over with soft flossy blossom of the brightest
+yellow. I like to imagine that the wattle is just prisoned sunlight;
+that one early morning the sun&rsquo;s rays came stealing over the hill to
+kiss the wattle-trees while they seemed to sleep; but the trees were
+really quite wide-awake, and stretched out their pretty arms and caught
+the sunbeams and would never let them go; and now through the winter the
+wattles hide the sun rays away in their roots, cuddling them softly; but
+in spring they let them come out on the branches and play wild games in
+the breeze, but will never let them escape.</p>
+
+<p>Past the little wattle grove there is a hill covered with the white
+gums. The young bark of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> trees is of a pinky white, like the arms
+of a baby-girl. As the season advances and the sun beats more and more
+fiercely on the trees, the bark deepens in colour into red and brown,
+and deep brown-pink. After that the bark dies (in Australia most of the
+trees shed their bark and not their leaves), and as it dies strips off
+and shows the new fair white bark underneath.</p>
+
+<p>Our party has now come to a gully (ravine) which carries a little
+fresh-water creek (stream) to an arm of the sea near by. This is the
+camping-place. A nice soft bit of meadow will be found in the shade of
+the hillside. The fresh-water stream will give water for the &ldquo;billy&rdquo; tea
+and for the horses to drink. Down below a dear little beach, not more
+than 100 yards long, but of the softest sand, will allow the youngsters
+to paddle their feet, but they must not go in to swim, for fear of
+sharks. The beach has on each side a rocky, steeply-shelving shore, and
+on the rocks will be found any number of fine sweet oysters. Jim and his
+mate Tom have brought oyster-knives, and are soon down on the shore, and
+in a very short while bring, ready-opened, some dozens of oysters for
+their mothers and fathers. The girls of the party are quite able to
+forage oysters for themselves. Some of them do so; others wander up the
+sides of the gully and collect wildflowers for the table, which will not
+be a table at all, but just a cloth spread over the grass.</p>
+
+<p>They come back with the news that they have seen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> waratahs growing. That
+is exciting enough to take attention away even from the oysters, for the
+waratah, the handsomest wildflower of the world, is becoming rare around
+the cities. All the party follow the girl guides over a slope into
+another gully. There has been a bush-fire in this gully. All the
+undergrowth has been burned away, and the trunks of the trees badly
+charred, but the trees have not been killed. The gum has a very thick
+bark, purposely made to resist fire. This bark gets scorched in a
+bush-fire, but unless the fire is a very fierce one indeed, the tree is
+not vitally hurt. Around the blackened tree-trunks tongues of fire seem
+to be still licking. At a height of about six feet from the ground,
+those scarlet heart-shapes are surely flames? No, they are the waratahs,
+which love to grow where there have been bush-fires. The waratah is of a
+brilliant red colour, growing single and stately on a high stalk. Its
+shape is of a heart; its size about that of a pear. The waratah is not
+at all a dainty, fragile flower, but a solid mass of bloom like the
+vegetable cauliflower; indeed, if you imagine a cauliflower of a vivid
+red colour, about the size of a pear and the shape of a heart, growing
+on a stalk six feet high, you will have some idea of the waratah.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the flowers are picked&mdash;Tim&rsquo;s father will not allow more&mdash;and
+they are brought to help the decoration of the picnic meal. Carried thus
+over the shoulder of an eager, flushed child, the waratah suggests
+another idea: it represents<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> exactly the thyrsus of the Bacchanals of
+ancient legends.</p>
+
+<p>The picnickers find that their appetites have gained zest from the sweet
+salty oysters. They are ready for lunch. A fire is started, with great
+precaution that it does not spread; meat is roasted on spits (perhaps,
+too, some fish got from the sea near by); and a hearty, jolly meal is
+eaten. Perhaps it would be better to say devoured, for at a picnic there
+is no nice etiquette of eating, and you may use your fingers quite
+without shame as long as you are not &ldquo;disgusting.&rdquo; The nearest sister to
+Jim will tell him promptly if he became &ldquo;disgusting,&rdquo; but I can&rsquo;t tell
+you all the rules. It isn&rsquo;t &ldquo;disgusting&rdquo; to hold a chop in your fingers
+as you eat it, or to stir your tea with a nice clean stick from a gum
+tree. But it is &ldquo;disgusting&rdquo; to put your fingers on what anyone else
+will have to eat, or to cut at the loaf of bread with a soiled knife. I
+hope that you will get from this some idea of Australian picnic
+etiquette. But you really cannot get any real idea of picnic fun until
+you have taken your picnic meal out in the Australian Bush; no
+description can do justice to that fun. The picnic habit is not one for
+children only. The Jim whom we have followed will be still eager for a
+picnic when he is the father of a big Jim of his own; that is, if he is
+the right kind of a human being and keeps the Australian spirit.</p>
+
+<p>After the midday meal, all sorts of games until the lengthening shadows
+tell that homeward time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> comes near. Then the &ldquo;billy&rdquo; is boiled again
+and tea made, the horses harnessed up and the picnickers turn back
+towards civilization. <a name="forest" id="forest"></a>The setting sun starts a beautiful game of shine
+and shadow in among the trees of the gum forest; the aromatic
+exhalations from the trees give the evening air a hint of balm and
+spice; the people driving or riding grow a little pensive, for the spell
+of the Australian forest, &ldquo;tender, intimate, spiritual,&rdquo; is upon them.
+But it is a pensiveness of pure, quiet joy, of those who have come near
+to Nature and enjoyed the peace of her holy places.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>I took you from near Sydney to see the Australian forest and to learn
+something of its trees and flowers, because that part I know best, and
+its beauties are the typical beauties of the Bush. Almost anywhere else
+in the continent where settlement is, something of the same can be
+enjoyed. A Hobart picnic-party would turn its face towards Mount
+Wellington, and after passing over the foothills devoted to orchards,
+scale the great gum-forested mountain, and thus have added to the
+delights of the woods the beautiful landscape which the height affords.
+From Melbourne a party would take train to Fern-tree Gully and picnic
+among the giant eucalyptus there, or, without going so far afield, would
+make for one of the beautiful Hobson&rsquo;s Bay beaches. Farther north than
+Sydney, a note of tropical exuberance comes into the forest. You may see
+a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> gully filled with cedars in sweet wealth of lavender-coloured
+blossom; or with flame trees, great giants covered all over with a
+curious flowerlike red coral.</p>
+
+<p>But everywhere in Australia, the hot north and cool south, on the bleak
+mountains and the sunny coasts, will be found the gum-tree. It is the
+national tree of this curious continent, the oldest and the youngest of
+the countries of the earth. Some find the gum-tree &ldquo;dull,&rdquo; because it
+has no flaring, flaunting brightness. But it is not dull to those who
+have eyes to see. Its spiritual lightness of form, its quiet artistry of
+colour, weave a spell around those who have any imagination. Australians
+abroad, who <em>are</em> Australians (there are some people who, though they
+have lived in Australia&mdash;perhaps have been born there&mdash;are too coarse in
+fibre to be ever really Australians), always welcome with gladness the
+sight of a gum-tree; and Australians in London sometimes gather in some
+friend&rsquo;s house for a burning of gum-leaves. In a brazier the aromatic
+leaves are kindled, the thin, blue smoke curls up (gum-leaf smoke is
+somehow different to any other sort of smoke), and the Australians think
+tenderly of their far-away home.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="surf" id="surf">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 660px; height: 434px;">
+<img src="images/beachs.jpg" width="600" height="384" alt="" title="Surf bathing" />
+<span class="caption"><br />SURF BATHING SHOOTING THE BREAKERS. <a href="#beach">PAGES 23</a> &amp; <a href="#swim">73</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/beachl.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p>One may meet gum-trees in many parts of the world nowadays&mdash;in Africa,
+in America, in Italy and other parts of Europe; for the gum-tree has the
+quality of healing marshy soil and banishing malaria from the air. They
+are, therefore, much planted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> for health&rsquo;s sake, and the wandering
+Australian meets often his national tree.</p>
+
+<p>A very potent medicine called eucalyptus oil is brewed from gum-leaves,
+and a favourite Australian &ldquo;house-wives&rsquo;&rdquo; remedy for rheumatism is a bed
+stuffed with gum-leaves. So the gum-tree is useful as well as beautiful.</p>
+
+<p class="backlink"><a href="#con">Back to contents</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="vi" id="vi"></a>CHAPTER VI<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD</small></h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="c">His school and his games&mdash;&ldquo;Bobbies and bushrangers&rdquo;&mdash;Riding to
+school.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Australia</span> is the child among civilized nations, and her life throughout
+is a good deal like that of a child in some regards&mdash;more gay and free,
+less weighed down with conventions and thoughts of rules than the life
+of an older community. So Australia is a very happy place for children.
+There is not so much of the &ldquo;clean pinny&rdquo; in life&mdash;and what wholesome
+child ever really enjoyed the clean pinny and the tidied hair part of
+life?</p>
+
+<p>But don&rsquo;t run away with the idea that the Australians, either adults or
+children, are a dirty people. That would be just the opposite to the
+truth. Australians are passionately fond of the bath. In the poorest
+home there is always a bath-room, which is used daily by every member of
+the family. <a name="swim" id="swim"></a>On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> the sea-coast swimming is the great sport, though it is
+dangerous to swim in the harbours because of sharks, and protected baths
+are provided where you may swim in safety; still children have to be
+carefully watched to prevent them from going in for a swim in unsafe
+places. The love of the water is greater than the fear of the sharks.
+The little Australian is not dirty, but he has a child&rsquo;s love of being
+untidy, and he can generally gratify it in his country, where conditions
+are so free and easy.</p>
+
+<p>I am sorry to say that the Australian child is rather inclined to be a
+little too &ldquo;free and easy&rdquo; in his manners. The climate makes him grow up
+more quickly than in Great Britain. He is more precocious both mentally
+and physically. At a very early age, he (or she) is entrusted with some
+share of responsibility. That is quite natural in a new country where
+pioneering work is being done. You will see children of ten and twelve
+and fourteen years of age taking quite a part in life, entrusted with
+some little tasks, and carrying them through in grown-up fashion. The
+effect of all this is that in their relations with their parents
+Australian children are not so obedient and respectful as they might be.
+This does not work for any great harm while the child is young. Up to
+fifteen or sixteen the son or daughter is perhaps more helpful and more
+companionable because of the somewhat relaxed discipline. Certainly the
+child has learned more how to use its own judgment. After that age,
+however, the fact of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> a loose parental discipline may come to be an
+evil. But there is, after all, no need to croak about the Australian
+child, who grows up to be a good average sort of woman or man as a
+general rule.</p>
+
+<p><a name="school" id="school"></a>It is very difficult indeed for a child in Australia to avoid school.
+Education is compulsory, the Government providing an elaborate system to
+see that every child gets at least the rudiments of education; even in
+the far back-blocks, where settlement is much scattered, it is necessary
+and possible to go to school. The State will carry the children to
+school on its railways free. If there is no railway it will send a &rsquo;bus
+round to collect children in scattered localities. Failing that, in the
+case of families which are quite isolated, and which are poor, the State
+will try to persuade the parents to keep a governess or tutor, and will
+help to pay the cost of this. The effect of all this effort is that in
+Australia almost every child can read and write.</p>
+
+<p>Going to school in the Bush parts of Australia is sometimes great fun.
+Often the children will have the use of one of the horses, and on this
+two, or three, or even four children will mount and ride off. When the
+family number more than four, the case calls for a buggy of some sort;
+and a child of ten or twelve will be quite safely entrusted with the
+harnessing of the horse and driving it to school.</p>
+
+<p>In the school itself, a great effort is made to have the lessons as
+interesting as possible. Nature-study is taught, and the children learn
+to observe the facts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> about the life in the Bush. There is a very
+charming writer about Australian children, Ethel Turner, who in one of
+her stories gives a picture of a little Bush school in one of the most
+dreary places in Australia&mdash;a little township out on the hot plains. I
+quote a little of it to show the sort of spirit which animates the
+school-teachers of Australia:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A new teacher had been appointed to the half-time school, which was all
+the Government could manage for so unimportant and dreary a place. His
+name was Eagar, and his friends said that he suited the sound of it.
+Alert of eye, energetic in movement, it may be safely said that in his
+own person was stored up more motive power than was owned conjointly by
+the two hundred odd souls who comprised the population of Ninety Mile.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There was room in Ninety Mile for an eager person. In fact, a dozen
+such would have sufficed long since to have carried it clean off its
+feet, and to have deposited it in some more likely position. But
+everyone touched in any way with the fire of life had long since
+departed from the place, and gone to set their homesteads and
+stackyards, their shops or other businesses elsewhere. So there were
+only a few limpets, who clung tenaciously to their spot, assured that
+all other spots on the globe were already occupied; and a few absolutely
+resigned persons. There is no clog on the wheel of progress that may be
+so absolutely depended upon to fulfil its purpose as resignation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+&ldquo;It was to this manner of a village that Eagar came. In a month he had
+established a cricket club; in two months a football club. The
+establishment of neither was attended with any great difficulty. In
+three months he had turned his own box of books into a free circulating
+library, and many of his leisure hours went in trying to induce the boys
+to borrow from him, and in seeing to it that, having borrowed, they
+actually read the books chosen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But his success with this was doubtful. The boys regarded &lsquo;Westward
+Ho!&rsquo; as a home-lesson, while the &lsquo;Three Musketeers&rsquo; set fire to none of
+them. Even &lsquo;Treasure Island&rsquo; left most of them cold; though Eagar,
+reading it aloud, had tried to persuade himself that little Rattray had
+breathed a trifle quicker as the blind man&rsquo;s stick came tap tapping
+along the road. The sea was nothing but a name to the whole number of
+scholars (eighteen of them, boys and girls all told). Not one of them
+had pierced past the township that lay ninety miles away to the right of
+them; indeed, half the number had never journeyed beyond Moonee, where
+the coach finished its journey.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Eagar got up collections&mdash;moths, butterflies, birds&rsquo; eggs; he tried to
+describe museums, picture-galleries, and such, to his pupils. At that
+time he had no greater wish on earth than to have just enough money to
+take the whole school to Sydney for a week, and see what a suddenly
+widened horizon would do for them all. Had his salary come at that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> time
+in one solid cheque for the whole year, there is no knowing to what
+heights of recklessness he would have mounted, but the monthly driblets
+keep the temptation far off.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One morning he had a brilliant notion. In another week or two the
+yearly &lsquo;sweep&rsquo; fever for far-distant races would attack the place, and
+the poorest would find enough to take a part at least in a ticket.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He seized a piece of paper, and instituted what he called &lsquo;Eagar&rsquo;s
+Consultation.&rsquo; He explained that he was out to collect sixty shillings.
+Sixty shillings, he explained, would pay the fare-coach and train&mdash;to
+Sydney of one schoolboy, give him money in his pocket to see all the
+sights, and bring him back the richer for life for the experience, and
+leaven for the whole loaf of them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Which schoolboy?&rsquo; said Ninety Mile doubtfully, expecting to be met
+with &lsquo;top boy.&rsquo; And never having been &lsquo;top boy&rsquo; itself at any time of
+its life, it had but a distrustful admiration for the same.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;We must draw lots,&rsquo; said Eagar.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Upon which Ninety Mile, being attracted by the sporting element in the
+affair, slowly subscribed its shilling a-piece, and the happy lot fell
+to Rattray.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He was a sober, freckled little fellow of ten, who walked five miles
+into Ninety Mile every morning, and five miles back again at night all
+the six months<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> of the year during which Government held the cup of
+learning there for small drinkers to sip.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I need not quote further about young Rattray&rsquo;s trip to Sydney and to the
+great ocean which Bush children, seeing for the first time, often think
+is just a big dam built up by some great squatter to hold water for his
+sheep. That extract shows the Bush school at its very hardest in the hot
+back-country. Of course, not one twentieth of the population lives in
+such places. I must give you a little of a description of a day in a
+Bush school in Gippsland, by E. S. Emerson, to correct any impression
+that all Australia, or even much of it, is like Ninety Mile:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A rough red stave in a God-writ song was the narrow, water-worn Bush
+track, and the birds knew the song and gloried in it, and the trees gave
+forth an accompaniment under the unseen hands of the wind until all the
+hillside was a living melody. Child voices joined in, and presently from
+a bend in the track, &lsquo;three ha&rsquo;pence for tuppence, three ha&rsquo;pence for
+tuppence,&rsquo; came a lumbering old horse, urged into an unwonted canter.
+Three kiddies bestrode the ancient, and as they swung along they sang
+snatches of Kipling&rsquo;s &lsquo;Recessional,&rsquo; to an old hymn-tune that lingers in
+the memory of us all. As they drew near to me the foremost urchin
+suddenly reined up. The result was disastrous, for the ancient
+&lsquo;propped,&rsquo; and the other two were emptied out on the track. From the
+dust they called their brother many names that are not to be found in
+school<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> books; but he, laughing, had slid down and was cutting a twig
+from a neighbouring tree. &lsquo;A case-moth! A case-moth!&rsquo; he cried. The
+fallen ones scrambled to their feet. &lsquo;What sort, Teddy? What sort?&rsquo; they
+asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But Teddy had caught sight of me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Well, what will you do with that?&rsquo; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Take it to school, sir; teacher tells us all about them at school.&rsquo;
+The answer was spoken naturally and without any trace of shyness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Did you learn that hymn you were singing at school, too?&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;&rsquo;Tain&rsquo;t a hymn, sir. It&rsquo;s the &ldquo;Recessional&rdquo;!&rsquo; This, proudly, from the
+youngest.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But they had learned it at school, and when I had given them a leg-up
+and stood watching them urge the ancient down the hillside, I made up my
+mind that I would visit the school where the teacher told the scholars
+all about case-moths and taught them to sing the &lsquo;Recessional&rsquo;; and a
+morning or two later I did.</p>
+
+<div class="imglink">
+<a name="ride" id="ride">&nbsp;</a>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter border" style="width: 660px; height: 442px;">
+<img src="images/schools.jpg" width="600" height="392" alt="" title="Riding to school" />
+<span class="caption"><br />AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL. <a href="#school">PAGE 75</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="view3"><a href="images/schooll.jpg">View larger image</a></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The school stands on the skirt of a thinly-clad Gippsland township, and
+is attended by from forty to fifty children. Fronting it is a garden&mdash;a
+sloping half-acre set out into beds, many of which are reserved for
+native flowering plants and trees. School is not &lsquo;in&rsquo; yet, and a few
+early comers are at work on the beds, which are dry and dusty from a
+long, hot spell. Little tots of six and seven years stroll up and watch
+the workers, or romp about on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> grass plots in close proximity.
+Presently the master&rsquo;s voice is heard. &lsquo;Fall in!&rsquo; There is a gathering
+up of bags, a hasty shuffling of feet, the usual hurry-scurry of
+laggards, and in a few moments two motionless lines stand at attention.
+&lsquo;Good-morning, girls! Good-morning, boys!&rsquo; says the master. A chorused
+&lsquo;Good-morning, Mr. Morgan!&rsquo; returns his salutation, and then the work of
+the day begins.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But do the scholars look upon it as work? Something over thirty years
+ago Herbert Spencer wrote: &lsquo;She was at school, where her memory was
+crammed with words and names and dates, and her reflective faculties
+scarcely in the slightest degree exercised.&rsquo; In those days, as many old
+State-school boys well remember, to learn was, indeed, to work, and when
+fitting occasion offered, we &lsquo;wagged it&rsquo; conscientiously, even though we
+did have to &lsquo;touch our toes&rsquo; for it when we returned. But under our
+modern educational system the teacher can make the school work
+practically a labour of love.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The morning being bright, the children are put through some simple
+exercises and encouraged to take a few &lsquo;deep breathings.&rsquo; Then the lines
+are formed again. &lsquo;Left turn! Quick march!&rsquo; and the scholars file into
+the schoolhouse.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But we need not follow the school in its day&rsquo;s work, except to say that
+the ideal always is to make the work alive and interesting. Naturally,
+Australian children get to like school.</p>
+
+<p>In the cities the schools are very good. All the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> State schools are
+absolutely free, and even books are provided. A smart child can win
+bursaries, and go from the primary school to the high school, and then
+on to the University, and win to a profession without his education
+costing his parents anything at all. When I was a boy the State of
+Tasmania used to send every year two Tasmanian scholars to Oxford
+University, giving them enough to pay for a course there. That has since
+been stopped, but many Australians come to British Universities
+now&mdash;mostly to Oxford and Edinburgh&mdash;with money provided by their
+parents. There are, however, excellent Universities in the chief cities
+of Australia, and there is no actual need to leave the Commonwealth to
+complete one&rsquo;s education.</p>
+
+<p>In the Bush, and indeed almost everywhere&mdash;for there is no city life
+which has not a touch of the Bush life&mdash;Australian children grow to be
+very hardy and very stoical. They can endure great hardship and great
+pain. I remember hearing of a boy in the Maitland (N.S.W.) district
+whose horse stumbled in a rabbit-hole and fell with him. The boy&rsquo;s thigh
+was broken and the horse was prostrate on top of him, and did not seem
+to wish to move. The boy stretched out his hand and got a stick, with
+which he beat the horse until it rose, keeping the while a hold of the
+reins. Then, with his broken thigh, that boy mounted the horse (which
+was not much hurt), rode home, and read a book whilst waiting for the
+doctor to come and set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> his limb. Another boy I knew in Australia was
+bitten by a snake on the finger; with his blunt pocket-knife he cut the
+finger off and walked home. He suffered no ill effects from the
+snake-poison.</p>
+
+<p>Endurance of hardship and pain is taught by the life of the Australian
+Bush. It is no place for the cowardly or for the tender. You must learn
+to face and to subdue Nature.</p>
+
+<p>The games of the Australian child are just the British games, changed a
+little to meet local conditions. A very favourite game is that of
+&ldquo;Bushrangers and Bobbies&rdquo; (&ldquo;bobbies&rdquo; meaning policemen). In this the
+boys imitate as nearly as they can the old hunting down of the
+bushrangers by the mounted police.</p>
+
+<p>The bushranger made a good deal of exciting history in Australia.
+Generally he was a scoundrel of the lowest type, an escaped murderer who
+took to the Bush to escape hanging, and lived by robbery and violence.
+But a few&mdash;a very few&mdash;were rather of the type of the English Robin Hood
+or the Scotch Rob Roy, living a lawless life, but not being needlessly
+cruel. It is those few who have given basis to the tradition of the
+Australian bushranger as a noble and chivalrous fellow who only robbed
+the rich (who, people argue, could well afford to be robbed), and who
+atoned for that by all sorts of kindness to the poor. Many books have
+been written on this tradition, glorifying the bushranger. But the plain
+fact is that most of the bushrangers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> were infamous wretches for whom
+hanging was a quite inadequate punishment.</p>
+
+<p>The bushranger, as a rule, was an escaped convict or a criminal fleeing
+from justice. Sometimes he acted singly, sometimes he had a gang of
+followers. A cave in some out-of-the-way spot, good horses and guns,
+were his necessary equipment. The site of the cave was important. It
+needed to be near a coaching-road, so that the bushranger&rsquo;s headquarters
+should be near to his place of business, which was to stick-up
+mail-coaches and rob them of gold, valuables, weapons, and ammunition.
+It also needed to be in a position commanding a good view, and with more
+than one point of entrance. Two bushrangers&rsquo; caves I remember well, one
+near to Armidale, on the great northern high-road. It was at the top of
+a lofty hill, commanding a wide view of the country. There was no
+outward sign of a cave even to the close observer. A great granite hill
+seemed to be crowned with just loose boulders. But in between those
+boulders was a winding passage which gave entrance to a big cave with a
+little fresh-water stream. A man and his horse could take shelter there.</p>
+
+<p>Another famous bushranger&rsquo;s cave was near Medlow, on the Blue Mountains
+(N.S.W.), in a position to command the Great Western Road, along which
+the gold from Lambing Flat and Sofala had to go to Sydney. This was
+quite a perfect cave for its purpose. Climbing down a mountain gully,
+you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> came to its end, apparently, in a stream of water gushing from out
+a wall of rock. But behind that rock was a narrow passage leading to a
+cave which opened out into a little valley with another stream, and some
+good grass-land. To this valley the only means of access was the secret
+passage through the cave, which allowed a man and his horse to pass
+through. A gang of bushrangers kept this eyrie for many years
+undiscovered.</p>
+
+<p>The latest big gang of bushrangers were the Kelly brothers, who infested
+Victoria. Ned Kelly was famous because he wore a suit of armour
+sufficiently strong to resist the rifle bullet of that day. The Kellys
+were finally driven to cover in a little country hotel in Victoria. They
+held the place against a siege by the police until the police set fire
+to it. Some of the gang perished in the flames. Others, including Ned
+Kelly himself, broke out and were shot or captured. He was hanged in
+Melbourne gaol.</p>
+
+<p>But this is getting far away from the Australian children&rsquo;s games. It is
+a curious fact that when the Australian children assemble to play
+&ldquo;Bushrangers and Bobbies,&rdquo; everybody wants to be a bushranger, and the
+guardian of the law is looked upon as quite an inferior character. Lots
+decide, however, the cast. The bushrangers sally forth and stick up an
+imaginary coach, or rob an imaginary country bank. The &ldquo;bobbies&rdquo; go in
+pursuit, and there is a desperate mock battle, which allows of much
+yelling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> and running about, and generally causes great joy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Camping out&rdquo; is another characteristic amusement of the Australian
+child. In his school holidays, parties go out, sometimes for weeks at a
+time, sailing around the reaches of the sea inlets, or, inland,
+following the course of some river, and hunting kangaroos and other game
+as they go. Generally adults accompany these parties, but when an
+Australian boy has reached the age of fifteen or sixteen he is credited
+with being able to look after himself, and is trusted to sail a boat and
+to carry a firearm. I can remember once on the way down to National Park
+(N.S.W.) for the Field Artillery camp, at one of the suburban stations
+there broke into the carriage reserved for officers, with a cheerful
+impudence that defied censure, a little band of boys. They had not a
+shoe among them, nor had anyone a whole suit of clothes. But they
+carried proudly fishing tackle and some rags of canvas which would help,
+with boughs, to build a rough shelter hut. The remainder of the train
+being full, they invaded the officers&rsquo; carriage and made themselves
+comfortable. They were out for a few days&rsquo; &ldquo;camp&rdquo; in the National Park.
+For about ten shillings they would hire a rowing-boat for three days.
+Railway fares would be sixpence or ninepence per head. A good deal of
+their food they would catch with fishing lines; bread, jam, a little
+bacon, and, of course, the &ldquo;billy&rdquo; and its tea were brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> with them.
+This was the great yearly festival, planned probably for many weeks
+beforehand, calling for much thought for its accomplishment, showing the
+sturdy spirit which is characteristic of the young Australian.</p>
+
+<p>All the usual British games are played in Australia: tops, hoops,
+marbles among the younger children; cricket, football, lawn-tennis among
+their elders. The climate is especially suited for cricket, as it is
+warm and bright and sunny for so long a term of the year. On a holiday
+in the parks around the Australian cities may be seen many hundreds of
+cricket matches. All the schools have their teams. Most of the shops and
+factories keep up teams among the employees. These teams play in
+competitions with all the earnestness of big cricket. As the players
+grow better they join the electorate clubs. In every big parliamentary
+division there is an electorate club, made up of residents in that
+electorate. The club may put into the field as many as four teams in a
+day&mdash;its senior team and three junior teams. So there is an enormous
+amount of play&mdash;real serious match play&mdash;every Saturday afternoon and
+public holiday. Australia thus trains some of the finest cricketers of
+the world. For some years now (1911) the Australian Eleven has held the
+championship of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The Australian child of the poorer classes usually leaves school at
+fourteen. The children of the richer may stay at school and the
+University until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> nineteen or twenty. Usually they launch out into life
+by then. Australia is a young country, and its conditions call for young
+work.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>That finishes this &ldquo;Peep at Australia.&rdquo; I have tried to give the young
+readers some little indication of what features of Australian life will
+most interest them. The picture is of a land which appeals very strongly
+to the adventurous type of the Anglo-Celtic race. I have never yet met a
+British man or boy who was of the right manly type who did not love
+Australian life after a little experience. The great distances, the
+cheery hospitality, the sunny climate, the sense of social freedom, the
+generous return which Nature gives to the man who offers her honest
+service&mdash;all these appeal and make up the sum of that strong attraction
+Australia has to her own children and to colonists from the Motherland.</p>
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+
+
+<p class="c bt">BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD</p>
+
+
+<table summary="List of books" class="books tt">
+<tr>
+<td  class="tdc tdbottom" colspan="2">LIST OF VOLUMES IN THE<br />
+PEEPS AT MANY LANDS<br />
+AND CITIES SERIES<br />
+<br />
+<small>EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE<br />
+ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR</small></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">BELGIUM</td>
+<td class="tdl">IRELAND</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">BURMA</td>
+<td class="tdl">ITALY</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">CANADA</td>
+<td class="tdl">JAMAICA</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">CEYLON</td>
+<td class="tdl">JAPAN</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">CHINA</td>
+<td class="tdl">KOREA</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">CORSICA</td>
+<td class="tdl">MOROCCO</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">DENMARK</td>
+<td class="tdl">NEW ZEALAND</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">EDINBURGH</td>
+<td class="tdl">NORWAY</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">EGYPT</td>
+<td class="tdl">PARIS</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">ENGLAND</td>
+<td class="tdl">PORTUGAL</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">FINLAND</td>
+<td class="tdl">RUSSIA</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">FRANCE</td>
+<td class="tdl">SCOTLAND</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">GERMANY</td>
+<td class="tdl">SIAM</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">GREECE</td>
+<td class="tdl">SOUTH AFRICA</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">HOLLAND</td>
+<td class="tdl">SOUTH SEAS</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">HOLY LAND</td>
+<td class="tdl">SPAIN</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">ICELAND</td>
+<td class="tdl">SWITZERLAND</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">INDIA</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2"><hr class="hrtable" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2"><small>A LARGER VOLUME IN THE SAME STYLE</small><br />
+THE WORLD<br />
+<small>Containing 37 full-page illustrations in colour</small></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td  class="tdc tdtop" colspan="2"><small>PUBLISHED BY ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK<br />
+SOHO SQUARE, LONDON. W.</small></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<table summary="Agents" class="tt agents">
+<tr>
+<th colspan="2" class="tdc tdpb">AGENTS</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">AMERICA</td>
+<td class="tdl tdpb">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
+64 &amp; 66 <span class="smcap">Fifth Avenue</span>, NEW YORK</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">AUSTRALASIA</td>
+<td class="tdl tdpb">OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS<br />
+205 <span class="smcap">Flinders Lane</span>, MELBOURNE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">CANADA</td>
+<td class="tdl tdpb">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LTD.<br />
+<span class="smcap">St. Martin&rsquo;s House, 70 Bond Street</span>, TORONTO</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">INDIA</td>
+<td class="tdl tdpb">MACMILLAN &amp; COMPANY, LTD.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Macmillan Building</span>, BOMBAY<br />
+309 <span class="smcap">Bow Bazaar Street</span>, CALCUTTA</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="hrend" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Peeps At Many Lands: Australia, by Frank Fox
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peeps At Many Lands: Australia, by Frank Fox
+
+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: Peeps At Many Lands: Australia
+
+Author: Frank Fox
+
+Illustrator: Percy F. S. Spence (etc.)
+
+Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25976]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEEPS AT MANY LANDS: AUSTRALIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
+
+AUSTRALIA
+
+
+[Illustration: THE NOMAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR]
+
+
+[Illustration: KANGAROO HUNTING. PAGE 47.]
+
+
+
+
+    PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
+    AUSTRALIA
+
+    BY
+
+    FRANK FOX
+
+    WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
+    IN COLOUR
+
+    BY
+
+    PERCY F. S. SPENCE, ETC.
+
+    LONDON
+    ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+    1911
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER I                     PAGE
+    AUSTRALIA, ITS BEGINNING        1
+
+    CHAPTER II
+    AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY            15
+
+    CHAPTER III
+    THE NATIVES                    33
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+    THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS          46
+
+    CHAPTER V
+    THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH            63
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+    THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD           73
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+    KANGAROO-HUNTING                                     _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                            FACING PAGE
+    SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL           viii
+
+    THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS                                 9
+
+    THE GARDEN STREETS OF ADELAIDE                                   16
+
+    COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE                                        25
+
+    THE TOWN HALL, SYDNEY                                            32
+
+    AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN CAPTAIN COOK'S TIME                        41
+
+    THE AUSTRALIAN FOREST AT NIGHT--"MOONING" OPOSSUMS               48
+
+    A SHEEP DROVER                                                   57
+
+    A HUT IN THE BUSH                                                64
+
+    SURF-BATHING--SHOOTING THE BREAKERS                              73
+
+    AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL                             80
+
+    THE NOMAD OF THE AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR                 _On the cover_
+
+             _Sketch-Map of Australia on pages vi and vii._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Map of Australia]
+
+
+[Illustration: KOOKABURRAS. _Page_ 59.]
+
+
+[Illustration: SNOWY MOUNTAINS NEAR THE SITE OF THE FEDERAL CAPITAL.
+PAGE 25.]
+
+
+
+
+AUSTRALIA
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ITS BEGINNING
+
+    A "Sleeping Beauty" land--The coming of the English--Early
+    explorations--The resourceful Australian.
+
+
+The fairy-story of the Sleeping Beauty might have been thought out by
+someone having Australia in his mind. She was the Sleeping Beauty among
+the lands of the earth--a great continent, delicately beautiful in her
+natural features, wonderfully rich in wealth of soil and of mine, left
+for many, many centuries hidden away from the life of civilization,
+finally to be wakened to happiness by the courage and daring of English
+sailors, who, though not Princes nor even knights in title, were as
+noble and as bold as any hero of a fairy-tale.
+
+How Australia came to be in her curious isolated position in the very
+beginning is not quite clear. The story of some of the continents is
+told in their rocks almost as clearly as though written in books. But
+Australia is very, very old as a continent--much older than Europe or
+America or Asia--and its story is a little blurred and uncertain partly
+for that reason.
+
+Look at the map and see its shape--something like that of a pancake with
+a big bite out of the north-eastern corner. In the very old days
+Australia was joined to those islands on the north--the East Indies--and
+through them to Asia; but it was countless ages ago, for the animals and
+the plants of Australia have not the least resemblance to those of Asia.
+They represent a class quite distinct in themselves. That proves that
+for a very long time there has been no land connection between Australia
+and Asia; if there had been, the types of flower and of beasts would be
+more nearly kindred. There would be tigers and elephants in Australia
+and emus in Asia, and the kangaroo and other marsupials would probably
+have disappeared. The marsupial, it may be explained, is one of the
+mammalian order, which carries its young about in a pouch for a long
+time after they are born. With such parental devotion, the marsupials
+would have little chance of surviving in any country where there were
+carnivorous animals to hunt them down; but Australia, with the exception
+of a very few dingoes, had no such animals, so the marsupials survived
+there whilst vanishing from all other parts of the earth.
+
+When Australia was sundered from Asia, probably by some great volcanic
+outburst (the East Indies are to this day much subject to terrible
+earthquakes and volcanic outbreaks, and not so many years ago a whole
+island was destroyed in the Straits of Sunda), the new continent
+probably was in the shape somewhat of a ring, with very high mountains
+facing the sea, and, where now is the great central plain, a lake or
+inland sea. As time wore on, the great mountains were ground down by the
+action of the snow and the rain and the wind. The soil which was thus
+made was in part carried towards the centre of the ring, and in time the
+sea or lake vanished, and Australia took its present form of a great
+flat plain, through which flow sluggish rivers--a plain surrounded by a
+tableland and a chain of coastal mountains. The natives and the animals
+and plants of Australia, when it first became a continent, were very
+much the same, in all likelihood, as now.
+
+Thus separated in some sudden and dramatic way, Australia was quite
+forgotten by the rest of the world. In Asia, near by, the Chinese built
+up a curious civilization, and discovered, among other things, the use
+of the mariner's compass, but they do not seem to have ever attempted to
+sail south to what is now known as Australasia. The Japanese, borrowing
+culture from the Chinese, framed their beautiful and romantic social
+system, and, having a brave and enterprising spirit, became seafarers,
+and are known to have reached as far as the Hawaiian Islands, more than
+halfway across the Pacific Ocean to America; but they did not come to
+Australia. The Indian Empire rose to magnificent greatness; the Empires
+of Babylon, of Nineveh, of Persia, came and went. The Greeks, and the
+Romans later, penetrated to Hindustan. The Christian era came, and later
+the opening up of trade with the East Indies and with China.
+
+But still Australia slept, in her out-of-the-way corner, apart from the
+great streams of human traffic, a rich and beautiful land waiting for
+her Fairy Prince to waken her to greatness. There had been, though, some
+vague rumours of a great island in the Southern Seas. A writer of Chios
+(Greece) 300 years before the Christian era mentions that there existed
+an island of immense extent beyond the seas washing Europe, Asia, and
+Africa. It is thought that Greek soldiers who had accompanied Alexander
+the Great to India had brought rumours from the Indians of this new
+land. But if the Indians knew of Australia, there is no trace of their
+having visited the continent.
+
+Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, who explored the East Indies, speaks
+of a Java Major as well as a Java Minor, and in that he may refer to
+Australia; but he made no attempt to reach the land. Some old maps fill
+up the ocean from the East Indies to the South Pole with a vague
+continent called Terra Australis; but plainly they were only guessing,
+and did not have any real knowledge.
+
+In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Spanish and Portuguese sailors
+pushed on bravely with the work of exploring the East Indies, and some
+of their maps of the period give indications of a knowledge of the
+existence of the Australian Continent. But the definite discovery did
+not come until 1605, when De Quiros and De Torres, Spanish Admirals,
+sailed to the East Indies and heard of the southern continent. They
+sailed in search of it, but only succeeded in touching at some of the
+outlying islands. One of the New Hebrides De Quiros called "Terra
+Australis del Espiritu Santo" (the Southern Land of the Holy Ghost),
+fancying the island to be Australia. That gave the name "Australia,"
+which is all that survives to remind us of Spanish exploration.
+
+In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Dutch sailors set to work to
+search for the new southern land, and in 1605, 1616, and 1617
+undoubtedly touched on points of Australia. In 1642 Tasman--from whom
+Tasmania, a southern island of Australia, gets its name--made important
+discoveries as to the southern coast. He called the island first Van
+Diemen's Land, after Maria Van Diemen, the girl whom he loved; but this
+name was afterwards changed. Maria Island, off the coast of Tasmania,
+still, however, keeps fresh the memory of the Dutch sailor's sweetheart.
+
+But none of these nations was destined to be the Fairy Prince to waken
+Australia out of her long sleep. That privilege was kept for the British
+race; we cannot but think happily, for no Spanish or Dutch colony has
+ever reached to the greatness and the happiness of an Australia, a
+Canada, or a South Africa. It is in the British blood, it seems, to
+colonize happily. The gardeners of the British race know how to "plant
+out" successfully. They shelter and protect the young trees in their
+far-away countries through the perils of infancy, and then let them grow
+up in healthy and vigorous independence. This wise method is borrowed
+from family life. If a child is either too much coddled, or too much
+kept under in its young days, it will rarely grow to the best and most
+vigorous manhood or womanhood. British colonies grow into healthy
+nations just as British schoolboys grow into healthy men, because they
+are, at an early stage, taught to be self-reliant.
+
+It was not until 1688 that Australia was in any way explored by the
+English Captain, William Dampier. His reports on the new land were not
+very flattering. He spoke of its dry, sandy soil, and its want of water.
+This Sleeping Beauty had a way of pretending to be ugly to the
+new-comer.
+
+From 1769 to 1777 Captain Cook carried on the first thorough British
+exploration of Australia, and took possession of it and New Zealand for
+the British Crown. In 1788, just a century after its first exploration
+by a British seaman, Australia was actually occupied by Great Britain,
+"the First Fleet" founding a settlement on the shores of Port Jackson,
+by the side of a little creek called the Tank Stream. That was the
+beginning of Sydney, at present one of the greatest cities of the
+British Empire.
+
+A great continent had been thus entered. The Sleeping Beauty was aroused
+from the slumber of centuries. But very much had yet to be done before
+she could "marry the Prince and then live happily ever afterwards." The
+story of how that was done, and how Australia was explored and settled,
+is one of the most heroic of our British annals. True, no wild animals
+or warlike tribes had to be faced; but vast distances of land which of
+itself produced little or no food for man, the long waterless stretches,
+the savage ruggedness of the mountains, set up obstacles far more
+awesome because more strange. Man had to contend, not with wild animals,
+whose teeth and claws he might evade, nor with wild men whose weapons he
+could overmatch with his own, but with Nature in what seemed always a
+hostile and unrelenting mood. It almost seemed that Nature, unwilling to
+give up to civilization the last of the lonely lands of the earth, made
+a conscious effort to beat back the advance of exploration and
+civilization.
+
+On the little coastal settlement famine was soon felt. The colonists did
+not understand how to get crops from the soil. They attempted to follow
+the times and the manners of England; but here they were in the
+Antipodes, where everything was exactly opposite to English conditions.
+There were no natural grain-crops; there were practically no
+food-animals good to eat. The kangaroo and wallaby provide nowadays a
+delicious soup (made from the tails of the animals), but the flesh of
+their bodies is tough and dark and rank. Even so it was in very limited
+supply. The early settlers ate kangaroo flesh gladly, but they were not
+able to get enough of it to keep them in meat.
+
+Communication with England, whence all food had to come, was in those
+days of sailing-ships slow and uncertain. At different times the first
+settlement was in actual danger of perishing from starvation and of
+being abandoned in despair at ever making anything useful of a land
+which seemed unable to produce even food for white inhabitants.
+
+Fortunately, those thoughts of despair were not allowed to rule. The
+dogged British spirit saved the position. The conquest of Nature in
+Australia was perseveringly carried through, and Great Britain has the
+reward to-day in the existence of an all-British continent having nearly
+5,000,000 of population, who are the richest producers in the world from
+the soil.
+
+[Illustration: THE BARRIER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. PAGES 8 & 29.]
+
+After the early settlers had learned with much painful effort that the
+coast around Sydney would produce some little grain and fruit and
+grass for cattle, there was still another halt in the progress of the
+continent. West of Sydney, about forty miles from the coast, stretched
+the Blue Mountains, and these it was found impossible to cross. No
+passes existed. Though not very lofty, the mountains were savagely
+wild. The explorer, following a ridge or a line of valley with
+patience for many miles, would come suddenly on a vast chasm; a
+cliff-face falling absolutely perpendicularly 1,000 feet or so would
+declare "No road here." Nowadays, when the Blue Mountains have been
+conquered, and they are traversed by roads and railways, tourists
+from all parts of the world find great joy in looking upon these
+wonderful gorges; but in the days of the explorers they were the cause
+of many disappointments--indeed, of many tragedies. Men escaping from
+the prisons (Australia was first used as a reformatory by Great
+Britain) would attempt to cross the Blue Mountains on their way, as
+they thought, to China and freedom, always to perish miserably in the
+wild gorges.
+
+Finally, the Blue Mountains were conquered by the explorers Blaxland,
+Lawson, and Wentworth. Two roads were cut across them, one from Sydney,
+one from Windsor, about thirty miles north from Sydney. The passing of
+the Blue Mountains opened up to Australia the great tableland, on which
+the chief mineral discoveries were to be made, and the vast interior
+plains, which were to produce merino wool of such quality as no other
+land can equal.
+
+From that onwards exploration was steadily pushed on. Sometimes the
+explorers went out into the wilderness with horses, sometimes with
+camels; other tracts of land were explored by boat expeditions,
+following the track of one of the slow rivers. The perils always were of
+thirst and hunger. Very rarely did the blacks give any serious trouble.
+But many explorers perished from privation, such as Burke and Wills (who
+led out a great expedition from Melbourne, which was designed to cross
+the continent from north to south) and Dr. Leichhardt. Even now there
+is some danger in penetrating to some of the wilder parts of the
+interior of Australia without a skilful guide, who knows where water can
+be found, and deaths from thirst in the Bush are not infrequent.
+
+One device has saved many lives. The wildest and loneliest part of the
+continent is traversed by a telegraph line, which brings the European
+cable-messages from Port Darwin, on the north coast, to Adelaide, in the
+south. Men lost in the Bush near to that line make for its route and cut
+the wire. That causes an interruption on the line; a line-repairer is
+sent out from the nearest repairing-station, and finds the lost man
+camped near the break. Sometimes he is too late, and finds him dead.
+
+In the west, around the great goldfields, where water is very scarce,
+white explorers have sometimes adopted a way to get help which is far
+more objectionable. The natives in those regions are very reluctant to
+show the locality of the waterholes. The supply is scanty, and they have
+learned to regard the white man as wasteful and inconsiderate in regard
+to water. But a white explorer or traveller has been known to catch a
+native, and, filling his mouth with salt, to expose him to the heat of
+the sun until the tortures of thirst forced him to lead the white party
+to a native well. But these are rare dark spots on the picture. The
+records of Australian exploration, as a whole, are bright with heroism.
+
+The early pioneer in Australia--called a "squatter" because he squatted
+on the land where he chose--enjoyed a picturesque life. Taking all his
+household goods with him, driving his flocks and herds before him, he
+moved out into the wilderness looking for a place to settle or "squat."
+It was the experience of the "Swiss Family Robinson" made real. The
+little community, with its waggons and tents, its horses, oxen, sheep,
+dogs, perhaps also with a few poultry in one of the waggons, would have
+to live for many months an absolutely self-contained life. The family
+and its servants would provide wheelwrights, blacksmiths, carpenters,
+veterinary surgeons, cattle-herds, milkers, shearers, cooks,
+bridge-builders, and the like. The children brought up under those
+conditions won not only fine healthy frames, but an alertness of mind, a
+wideness of resource which made them, and their children after them,
+fine nation-builders.
+
+I am tempted, in illustration of this, to quote from a larger work of
+mine, "Australia," an instance of my own observation of the "resourceful
+Australian":
+
+"Without touch of cap, or sign of servility, the swagman came up.
+
+"'Gotter a job, boss?'
+
+"'No chance; but you can go round and get rations.'
+
+"'I wanter job pretty bad. Times have been hard. Perhaps you recollect
+me--Jim Stone. You had me once working on the Paroo.'
+
+"It was a blazing hot day in Central Queensland on one of the big cattle
+stations out from the railway line, a station which had not yet reached
+the dignity of fencing. The boss remembered that Jim Stone "was a good
+sort," and that it was forty miles to the next chance of a job. And
+there was always something to be done on a station.
+
+"'All right, Stone. I think I can put you on to something for a month or
+two.'
+
+"'Thanks. Start now?'
+
+"'Look. I have got a few men on digging tanks, about thirty miles out.
+It's north-north-east. You can pick up their camp?'
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'Well, I want you to take a bullock-dray out, with stores, and bring
+back anything they want sent back.'
+
+"'Yes. Where are the bullocks?'
+
+"'I haven't got a team broken in. But there's old Scarlet-Eye and two
+others broken in. You'll pick them up along that little creek there, six
+miles out'; he pointed indefinitely into the heat haze on the plain,
+where there seemed to be some trees on the horizon. 'Collar them, and
+then you'll find the milkers' herd right back of the homestead, only a
+few miles. Punch out seven of the biggest and make up your team.'
+
+"'Yes. Where's ther dray?'
+
+"'Behind the blacksmith's shed there. By the way, there are no yokes,
+but you'll find some bar-iron and some timber at the blacksmith's shed.
+Knock out some yokes. I think there's one chain. You can make up another
+with some fencing wire.'
+
+"'Right-oh.'
+
+"And this Australian casual worker (at 30s. a week and rations) went his
+way cheerfully. He had to find some odd bullocks six miles out, in the
+flat, grey, illimitable plain; then find the herd of milkers somewhere
+else in that vague vastness, and break seven of them to harness; fix up
+a dray and make cattle yokes; and then go out into the depths to find a
+camp thirty miles out, without a fence or a track, and hardly a tree, to
+guide him.
+
+"He did it all, because to him it was quite ordinary. The
+freshly-broken-in cattle had to be kept in the yokes for a week, night
+and day, else they would have cleared out. That was the only real
+hardship, in his opinion, and the cattle had to suffer that. He was
+content to be surveyor, waggon-builder, blacksmith, subduer of beasts,
+man of infinite pluck, resource, and energy, for 30s. a week and
+rations! And he was a typical sample of the 'back-country Australian.'"
+
+In the Australian Bush most children can milk a cow, ride a horse, or
+harness him into a cart, snare or shoot game, kill a snake, find their
+way through the trackless forest by the sun or the stars, and cook a
+meal. In the cities, too, they are, though less skilled in such things,
+used to do far more for themselves than the average European child.
+
+After the squatters in Australia came the gold-diggers. Gold was
+discovered in Victoria and in New South Wales. At first, strangely
+enough, an effort was made to prevent the fact being known that gold was
+to be found in Australia. Some of the rulers of the colony feared that
+the gold would ruin and not help the country. And certainly in the very
+early days of the gold-digging rushes, much harm was done to the settled
+industries of the land through everybody rushing away to the diggings.
+Farms were abandoned, workshops deserted, the sailors left their ships,
+the shepherds their sheep, the shop-keepers their shops--all with the
+gold fever. But that early madness soon passed away, and Australia got
+the benefit of the gold discoverers in a great increase of population.
+Most of those who came to dig gold remained to dig potatoes and other
+more certain wealth out of the land.
+
+Do you remember the tale of the ancient wise man whose two sons were
+lazy fellows? He could not get them by any means to work in the
+vineyard. As long as his own hands could toil he tended the vineyard,
+and maintained his idle sons. But on his death-bed he feared for their
+future. So he made them the victims of a pious fraud. "There is a great
+sum in gold buried in the vineyard," he told them with his dying breath.
+"But I cannot tell you where. You must find that for yourselves."
+
+Tempted by the promise of quick fortune, the idle sons dug everywhere
+in the vineyard to find the buried treasure. They never came across any
+actual gold, but the good effect of their digging was such that the
+vineyard prospered wonderfully and they grew rich from its fine crops.
+
+So it was, in a way, with Australia. The gold discoverers did much good
+by attracting people to the country in search of gold who, though they
+found no gold, developed the other resources of a great country.
+
+When the yields from the alluvial goldfields decreased there was a
+great demand from the out-of-work diggers and others for land for
+farming, and the agricultural era began in Australia. Since then the
+growth of the country has been sound, and, if a little slow, sure. It
+has been slow because the ideal of the people has always been a sound
+and a general well-being rather than a too-quick growth. "Slow and
+steady" is a good motto for a nation as well as an individual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY
+
+    The diggings--The Government at Melbourne--The sheep-runs--The
+    rabbits--The delights of Sydney.
+
+
+If, by good luck, you were to have a trip to Australia now, you would
+find, probably, the sea voyage, which takes up five weeks as a rule, a
+little irksome. But fancy that over, and imagine yourself safely into
+Australia of to-day. Fremantle will be the first place of call. It is
+the port of Perth, which is the capital of West Australia. That great
+State occupies nearly a quarter of the continent; but its population is
+as yet the least important of the continental States, and not very much
+ahead of the little island of Tasmania. Still, West Australia is
+advancing very quickly. On the north it has great pearl fisheries;
+inland it has goldfields, which take second rank in the world's list,
+and it is fast developing its agricultural and pastoral riches.
+
+Very soon it will be possible to leave the steamer at Fremantle and go
+by train right across the continent to the Eastern cities. Now you must
+travel by steamer to Port Adelaide, for Adelaide, the capital of South
+Australia. It is a charming city, surrounded by vineyards, orange
+orchards, and almond and olive groves. In the season you may get for a
+penny all the grapes that you could possibly eat, and oranges and other
+fruit are just as cheap.
+
+Adelaide has the reputation of being a very "good" city. It was founded
+largely by high-minded colonists from Britain, whose main idea was to
+seek in the new world a place where poverty and its evils would not
+exist. To a very large extent they succeeded. There are no slums in
+Adelaide and no starving children. Everywhere is an air of quiet
+comfort.
+
+[Illustration: THE GARDEN STREETS OF ADELAIDE. PAGE 16.]
+
+From Adelaide you may take the train to complete your trip, the end of
+which is, say, Brisbane. Leaving Adelaide, you climb in the train the
+pretty Mount Lofty Mountains and then sweep down on to the plains and
+cross the Murray River near its mouth. The Murray is the greatest of
+Australian rivers. It rises in the Australian Alps, and gathers on its
+way to the sea the Murrumbidgee and the Darling tributaries. There is a
+curious floating life on these rivers. Nomad men follow along their
+banks, making a living by fishing and doing odd jobs on the stations
+they pass. They are called "whalers," and follow the life, mainly, I
+think, because of a gipsy instinct for roving, since it is not either a
+comfortable or profitable existence. On the rivers, too, are all sorts
+of curious little colonies, living in barges, and floating down from
+town to town. You may find thus floating, little theatres, cinematograph
+shows, and even circuses.
+
+The fisheries of these rivers are somewhat important, the chief fish
+caught being the Murray cod. It grows sometimes to a vast size, to the
+size almost of a shark; but when the cod is so big its flesh is always
+rank and uneatable by Europeans.
+
+Fishing for a cod is not an occupation calling for very much industry.
+The fisherman baits his line, ties it to a stake fixed on the river
+bank, and on the stake hangs a bell. Then the fisherman gets under the
+shadow of a gum-tree and enjoys a quiet life, reading or just lazing. If
+a cod takes the bait the bell will ring, and he will go and collect his
+fish, which obligingly catches itself, and does not need any play to
+bring it to land.
+
+A cruel practice is followed to keep these fish fresh until a boat or
+train to the city markets is due: a line is passed through the cod's
+lip, and it is tethered to a stake in the water near the bank. Thus it
+can swim about and keep alive for some time; but the cruelty is great,
+and efforts are now being made to stop this tethering of codfish.
+
+These Australian inland rivers are slow and sluggish, and fish, such as
+trout, accustomed to clear running waters, will not live in them. But in
+the smaller mountain streams, which feed the big inland rivers, trout
+thrive, and as they have been introduced from England and America they
+provide good sport to anglers.
+
+The plain-country through which the big rivers flow is very flat, and is
+therefore liable to great floods. Australia has the reputation of being
+a very dry country; as a matter of fact, the rainfall over one-third of
+its area is greater than that of England. In most places the rainfall
+is, however, badly distributed. After long spells of very dry weather
+there will come fierce storms, during which the rain sometimes falls at
+the rate of an inch an hour. This fact, and the curious physical
+formation of the continent, about which you already know, makes it very
+liable to floods.
+
+Great floods of the past have been at Brisbane, the capital of
+Queensland, destroying a section of the city; at Bourke (N.S.W.), and at
+Gundagai (N.S.W.). In the latter a town was destroyed and many lives
+lost. Another flood on the Hunter River (N.S.W.) was marked by the
+drowning of the Speaker of the local Parliament. But great loss of human
+life is rare; sacrifice of stock is sometimes, however, enormous. Cattle
+fare better than sheep, for they will make some wise effort to reach a
+point of safety, whilst sheep will, as likely as not, huddle together in
+a hollow, not having the sense even to seek the little elevations which
+are called "hills," though only raised a few feet above the general
+level.
+
+I recall well a flood in the Narrabri (N.S.W.) district some seventeen
+years ago, and its moving perils. The hillocks on which cattle, sheep,
+and in some cases human beings, had taken refuge were crowded, too, with
+kangaroos, emus, brolgas (a kind of crane), koalas (known as the native
+bear), rabbits, and snakes. Mutual hostilities were for a time suspended
+by the common danger, though the snakes and the rabbits were rarely
+given the advantages of the truce if there were human beings present. An
+incident of that flood was that the little township of Terry-hie-hie
+(these aboriginal names are strange!) was almost wiped out by
+starvation. Beleaguered by the waters, it was cut off from all
+communication with the railway and with food-supplies. When the waters
+fell, the mud left on these black-soil plains was just as formidable a
+barrier. Attempt after attempt to send flour through by horse and
+bullock teams failed. It was impossible for thirty horses to get through
+with one ton of flour! The siege was only raised when the population of
+the little town was on the very verge of starvation.
+
+After crossing the Murray the train passes through what is known as "the
+desert"--a stretch of country covered with mallee scrub (the mallee is a
+kind of small gum-tree); but nowadays they are finding out that this
+mallee scrub is not hopeless country at all. The scrub is beaten down by
+having great rollers drawn over it by horses; that in time kills it.
+Then the roots are dug up for firewood, and the land is sown with wheat.
+Quite good crops are now being got from the mallee when the rains are
+favourable, but in dry seasons the wheat scorches off, and the farmer's
+labour is wasted. It is proposed now to carry irrigation channels
+through this and similar country. When that is done there will be no
+more talk of desert in most parts of Australia. It will be conquered for
+the use of man just as the American alkali desert is being conquered.
+
+Leaving the mallee, the train comes in time to Ballarat, which used to
+be the great centre of the gold-mining industry. Round here gold was
+discovered in great lumps lying on the ground or just below the roots of
+the grass. People rushed from all parts of the world to pick up fortunes
+when this was heard of. The road from Melbourne was covered with
+waggons, with horsemen, with diggers on foot. Most of them knew nothing
+at all about digging, and also lacked the knowledge of how to get along
+comfortably under "camping-out" conditions, when every man has to be his
+own cook, his own washer-up, his own laundryman, as well as his own
+mining labourer. But the best of the men learned quickly how to look
+after themselves, to pitch a tent, to cook a meal, to drive a shaft, and
+to do without food for long spells when on the search for new
+goldfields. Thus they became resourceful and adventurous, and were of
+great value afterwards in the community. There is nowadays rather a
+tendency in civilized countries to bring children up too softly, to
+guard them too much against the little roughnesses of life. Such
+experiences as those of the Australian goldfields show how good it is
+for men to be taught how to look after themselves under primitive
+conditions.
+
+Life on the Australian goldfields, though wild, was not unruly. There
+was never any lynch law, never any "free shooting," as on the American
+goldfields. Public order was generally respected, though there were at
+first no police. The miners, however, kept up Vigilance Committees, the
+main purpose of which was to check thefts. Anyone proved guilty of
+theft, or even seriously suspected of pilfering, was simply ordered out
+of the camp.
+
+The Chinese were very early in getting to know of the goldfields in
+Australia, and rushed there in great numbers. They were not welcomed,
+and there was an exception to the general rule of good order in the
+Anti-Chinese riots on the goldfields. The result of these was that
+Chinese were prevented by the Government from coming into the country,
+except in very small numbers, and on payment of a heavy poll-tax. When
+this was done the excitement calmed down, and the Chinese already in the
+country were treated fairly enough. They mostly settled down to growing
+vegetables or doing laundry-work, though a few still work as miners.
+
+The objection that the Australians have to the Chinamen and to other
+coloured races is that they do not wish to have in the country any
+people with whom the white race cannot intermarry, and they wish all
+people in Australia to be equal in the eyes of the law and in social
+consideration. As you travel through Australia, you will probably learn
+to recognize the wisdom of this, and you will get to like the Australian
+social idea, which is to carry right through all relations of life the
+same discipline as governs a good school, giving respect to those who
+are most worthy of it, by conduct and by capacity, and not by riches or
+birth.
+
+We have stayed long enough at Ballarat. Let us move on to
+Melbourne--"marvellous Melbourne," as its citizens like to hear it
+called. Melbourne is built on the shores of the Yarra, where it empties
+into Hudson Bay, and its sea suburbs stretch along the beautiful sandy
+shores of that bay. Few European or American children can enjoy such
+sea beaches as are scattered all over the Australian coast. They are
+beautiful white or creamy stretches of firm sand, curving round bays,
+sometimes just a mile in length, sometimes of huge extent, as the Ninety
+Miles Beach in Victoria. The water on the Australian coast is usually of
+a brilliant blue, and it breaks into white foam as it rolls on to the
+shelving sand. Around Carram, Aspendale, Mentone and Brighton, near
+Melbourne; at Narrabeen, Manly, Cronulla, Coogee, near Sydney; and at a
+hundred other places on the Australian coast, are beautiful beaches. You
+may see on holidays hundreds of thousands of people--men, women, and
+children--surf-bathing or paddling on the sands. It is quite safe fun,
+too, if you take care not to go out too far and so get caught in the
+undertow. Sharks are common on the Australian coast, but they will not
+venture into the broken water of surf beaches. But you must not bathe,
+except in enclosed baths in the harbours, or you run a serious risk of
+providing a meal for a voracious shark.
+
+Sharks are quite the most dangerous foes of man in Australia. There have
+been some heroic incidents arising from attacks by sharks on human
+beings. An instance: On a New South Wales beach two brothers were
+bathing, and they had gone outside of the broken surf water. One was
+attacked by a shark. The other went to his rescue, and actually beat the
+great fish off, though he lost his arm in doing so. As a rule, however,
+the shark kills with one bite, attacking the trunk of its victim, which
+it can sever in two with one great snap of its jaws.
+
+Children on the Australian coast are very fond of the water. They learn
+to swim almost as soon as they can walk. Through exposure to the sun
+whilst bathing their skin gets a coppery colour, and except for their
+Anglo-Saxon eyes you would imagine many Australian youngsters to be
+Arabs.
+
+The beaches of Melbourne are not its only attractions. The city itself
+is a very handsome one, and its great parks are planted with fine
+English trees. You will see as good oaks and elms and beeches in Fitzroy
+Gardens, Melbourne, as in any of the parks of old England. Melbourne,
+too, at present, is the political capital of Australia, and here meet
+the Australian Parliament.
+
+Every young citizen of the Empire should know something of the
+Commonwealth of Australia and its political institutions, because, as
+the idea of Empire grows, it is recognized that all people of British
+race, whether Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, or South Africans,
+or residents of the Mother Country, should know the whole Empire.
+
+[Illustration: COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE. PAGE 22.]
+
+After Australia began to prosper it was found that the continent was too
+big to be governed by one Parliament in Sydney, so it split up into
+States, each with a constitution and government of its own. These States
+were New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, West
+Australia, and Tasmania. It was soon seen that a mistake had been made
+in splitting up altogether. The States were like children of one family,
+all engaged as partners in one business, who, growing up, decided to set
+up housekeeping each for himself, but neglected to arrange for some
+means by which they could meet together now and again and decide on
+matters which were of common interest to all of them. The separated
+States of Australia were, all alike, interested in making Australia
+great and prosperous, and keeping her safe; but in their hurry to set up
+independent housekeeping they forgot to provide for the safeguarding of
+that common interest.
+
+So soon as this was recognized, patriotic men set themselves to put
+things right, and the result was a Federation of the States, which is
+called the Commonwealth of Australia. The different States are left to
+manage for themselves their local affairs, but the big Australian
+affairs are managed by the Commonwealth Parliament, which at present
+meets in Melbourne, but one day will meet in a new Federal capital to be
+built somewhere out in the Bush--that is to say, the wild, empty
+country. Some people sneer at the idea of a "Bush capital," but I think,
+and perhaps you will think with me, that there is something very
+pleasant and very promising of profit in the idea of the country's
+rulers meeting somewhere in the pure air of a quiet little city
+surrounded by the great Australian forest. And as things are now, the
+population of Australia is too much centralized in the big cities, and
+it will be a good thing to have another centre of population.
+
+In this railway trip across the continent you are being introduced to
+all the main features of Australian life, so that you will have some
+solid knowledge of the conditions of the country, and can, later on, in
+chapters which will follow, learn of the Bush, the natives, the birds
+and beasts and flowers, the games of Australia.
+
+Leaving Melbourne, a fast and luxurious train takes you through the
+farming districts of Victoria, past many smiling towns, growing rich
+from the industry of men who graze cattle, grow wheat and oats and
+barley, make butter, or pasture sheep. At Albany the train crosses to
+Murray again, this time near to its source, and New South Wales is
+entered.
+
+For many, many miles now the train will run through flat, grassed
+country, on which great flocks of sheep graze. This is the Riverina
+district, the most notable sheep land in the world. From here, and from
+similar plains running all along the western and northern borders of New
+South Wales, comes the fine merino wool, which is necessary for
+first-class cloth-making. The story of merino wool is one of the
+romances of modern industry. Before the days of Australia, Spain was
+looked upon as the only country in the world which could produce fine
+wool. Spain was not willing that British looms should have any advantage
+of her production, and the British woollen manufacturing industry,
+confined to the use of coarser staples, languished. Now Australia, and
+Australia practically alone, produces the fine wool of the world.
+Australia merino wool is finer, more elastic, longer in staple, than any
+wool ever dreamed of a century ago, and its use alone makes possible
+some of the very fine cloths of to-day.
+
+This merino wool is purely a product of Australian cleverness in
+sheep-breeding. The sheep imported have been improved upon again and
+again, quality and quantity of coat being both considered, until to-day
+the Australian sheep is the greatest triumph of modern science as
+applied to the culture of animals, more wonderful and more useful than
+the thoroughbred race-horse. It is only on the hot plains that the
+merino sheep flourishes to perfection. If he is brought to cold
+hill-country in Australia his coat at once begins to coarsen, and his
+wool is therefore not so good.
+
+As you pass the sheep-runs in the train you will probably notice that
+they are divided into paddocks by fine-mesh wire-netting. That is to
+keep the rabbits out. The rabbit is accounted rather a desirable little
+creature in Great Britain. A rabbit-warren on an estate is a source of
+good sport and good food, and the complaint is sometimes of too few
+rabbits rather than too many. A boy may keep rabbits as pets with some
+enjoyment and some profit.
+
+In Australia rabbits were first introduced by an emigrant from England,
+who wished to give to his farm a home-like air. They spread over the
+country with such marvellous rapidity as to become soon a serious
+nuisance, then a national danger. Millions of pounds have been spent in
+different parts of Australia fighting the rabbit plague; millions more
+will yet have to be spent, for though the rabbits are now being kept in
+check, constant vigilance is needed to see that they do not get the
+upper hand again. The rabbit in Australia increases its numbers very
+quickly: the doe will have up to eighty or ninety young in a year. There
+is no natural check to this; no winter spell of bitter cold to kill off
+the young and feeble. The only limit to the rabbit life is the
+food-supply, and that does not fail until the pasturage intended for the
+sheep is eaten bare. Not only is the grass eaten, but also the roots of
+the grass, and the rabbit is a further nuisance because sheep dislike to
+eat grass at which bunny has been nibbling.
+
+The campaign against the rabbit in Australia has had all the excitement
+and much of the misery of a great war. The march inland of the rabbit
+was like that of a devastating army. Smiling prosperity was turned into
+black ruin. Where there had been green pastures and bleating sheep there
+was a bare and dusty plain and starving stock.
+
+At first wholesale poisoning was tried as a remedy for the rabbit
+plague. It inflicted a check, but had the evil of killing off many of
+the native birds and animals. There was an idea once of trying to
+spread a disease among the rabbits, so as to kill them off quickly, but
+that was abandoned. Now the method is to enclose the pasture-lands
+within wire-netting, which is rabbit-proof, and within this enclosure to
+destroy all logs and the like which provide shelters for the rabbits, to
+dig up all their burrows, and to hunt down the rabbit with dogs. The
+best of the lands are being thus quite cleared of rabbits. The worst
+lands are for the present left to bunny, who has become a source of
+income, being trapped and his carcase sent frozen to England, and his
+fur utilized for hat-felt. But be sure that if you bring to Australia
+your rabbit pets with you from England they will be destroyed before you
+land, and you may reckon on having to face serious trouble with the law
+for trying to bring them into the country.
+
+Whilst you have been hearing all this about the rabbit the train has
+climbed up from the plains to the Blue Mountains and is rushing down the
+coast slope towards Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, the chief
+commercial city of Australia, and one of the great ports of the Empire.
+Sydney is, I do really think, the pleasantest place in the world for a
+child to live in, though two hot, muggy months of the year are to be
+avoided for health's sake.
+
+On the Blue Mountains, as you crossed in the train, you will have seen
+wild "gullies," as they are called in Australia--ravines in the hills
+which rise abruptly all around, sometimes in wild cliffs and sometimes
+in steep wooded slopes. These gullies interlace with one another, one
+leading into another, and stretching out little arms in all directions.
+Turn into one and try to follow it up, and you never know where it will
+end. Well, once upon a time there was a particularly wild one of these
+gully systems on the coast hills where Sydney now is. Something sunk the
+level of the land suddenly, and the gullies were depressed below
+sea-level. The Pacific Ocean heard of this, broke a way through a great
+cliff-gate, and that made Sydney Harbour. Entering Sydney by sea, you
+come, as the ocean does, through a narrow gate between two lovely
+cliffs. Turn sharply to the left, and you are in a maze of blue waters,
+fringed with steep hills. On these hills is built Sydney. You may follow
+the harbour in all directions, up Iron Cove a couple of miles to
+Leichhardt suburb; along the Parramatta River (which is not a river at
+all, but one of the long arms of the ocean-filled gully system) ten
+miles to the orange orchard country; along the Lane Cove, through wooded
+hills, to another orchard tract; or, going in another direction, you may
+travel for scores of miles along what is called Middle Harbour, and then
+have North Harbour still to explore. In spite of the nearness of the big
+city, and the presence here and there of lovely suburbs on the
+waterside, the area of Sydney Harbour is so vast, its windings are so
+amazing, that you can get in a boat to the wildest and most lovely
+scenery in an hour or two. The rocky shores abound in caves, where you
+can camp out in dryness and comfort. The Bush at every season of the
+year flaunts wildflowers. There are fish to be had everywhere; in many
+places oysters; in some places rabbits, hares, and wallabies to be
+hunted. Does it not sound like a children's paradise--all this within
+reach of a vast city?
+
+But let us tear ourselves away from Sydney, and go on to Brisbane,
+passing on the way through Kurringai Chase, one of the great National
+Parks of New South Wales; along the fertile Hawkesbury and Hunter
+valleys, which grow Indian corn and lucerne, and oranges and melons, and
+men who are mostly over six feet high; up the New England Mountains,
+through a country which owes its name to the fact that the high
+elevation gives it a climate somewhat like that of England; then into
+Queensland along the rich Darling Down studded with wheat-farms,
+dairy-farms, and cattle-ranches; and finally to Brisbane, a prospering
+semi-tropical town which is the capital of the Northern State of
+Queensland. At Brisbane you will be able to buy fine pineapples for a
+penny each, and that alone should endear it to your heart.
+
+Thus you will have seen a good deal of the Australia of to-day. You
+might have followed other routes. Coming via Canada, you would reach
+Brisbane first. Taking a "British India" boat you would have come down
+the north coast of Queensland and seen something of its wonderful
+tropical vegetation, its sugar-fields, banana and coffee plantations,
+and the meat works which ship abroad the products of the great cattle
+stations.
+
+[Illustration: THE TOWN HALL SYDNEY. PAGE 29.]
+
+This tropical part of Australia really calls for a long book of its own.
+But as it is hardly the Australia of to-day, though it may be the
+Australia of the future, we must hurry through its great forests and its
+rich plains. There are wild buffalo to be found on these plains, and in
+the rivers that flow through them crocodiles lurk. The crocodile is a
+very cunning creature. It rests near the surface of the water like a
+half-submerged log waiting for a horse or an ox or a man to come into
+the water. Then a rush and a meal.
+
+If, instead of coming along the north, you had travelled via South
+Africa you might have landed first at Hobart and seen the charms of dear
+little Tasmania, a land of apple-orchards and hop-gardens, looking like
+the best parts of Kent. But you have been introduced to a good deal of
+Australia and heard much of its industries and its history. It is time
+now to talk of savages, and birds, and beasts, and games, and the like.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE NATIVES
+
+    A dwindling race; their curious weapons--The Papuan
+    tree-dwellers--The cunning witch-doctors.
+
+
+The natives of Australia were always few in number. The conditions of
+the country secured that Australia, kept from civilization for so long,
+is yet the one land of the world which, whilst capable of great
+production with the aid of man's skill, is in its natural state
+hopelessly sterile. Australia produced no grain of any sort naturally;
+neither wheat, oats, barley nor maize. It produced practically no edible
+fruit, excepting a few berries, and one or two nuts, the outer rind of
+which was eatable. There were no useful roots such as the potato, the
+turnip, or the yam, or the taro. The native animals were few and just
+barely eatable, the kangaroo, the koala (or native bear) being the
+principal ones. In birds alone was the country well supplied, and they
+were more beautiful of plumage than useful as food. Even the fisheries
+were infrequent, for the coast line, as you will see from the map, is
+unbroken by any great bays, and there is thus less sea frontage to
+Australia than to any other of the continents, and the rivers are few in
+number.
+
+Where the land inhabited by savages is poor in food-supply their number
+is, as a rule, small and their condition poor. It is not good for a
+people to have too easy times; that deprives them of the incentive to
+work. But also it is not good for people who are backward in
+civilization to be kept to a land which treats them too harshly; for
+then they never get a fair chance to progress in the scale of
+civilization. The people of the tropics and the people near the poles
+lagged behind in the race for exactly opposite but equally powerful
+reasons. The one found things too easy, the other found things too hard.
+It was in the land between, the Temperate Zone, where, with proper
+industry, man could prosper, that great civilizations grew up.
+
+The Australian native had not much to complain of in regard to his
+climate. It was neither tropical nor polar. But the unique natural
+conditions of his country made it as little fruitful to an uncivilized
+inhabitant as was Lapland. When Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay
+probably there were not 500,000 natives in all Australia. And if the
+white man had not come, there probably would never have been any
+progress among the blacks. As they were then they had been for countless
+centuries, and in all likelihood would have remained for countless
+centuries more. They had never, like the Chinese, the Hindus, the
+Peruvians, the Mexicans, evolved a civilization of their own. There was
+not the slightest sign that they would be able to do so in the future.
+If there was ever a country on earth which the white man had a right to
+take on the ground that the black man could never put it to good use, it
+was Australia.
+
+Allowing that, it is a pity to have to record that the early treatment
+of the poor natives of Australia was bad. The first settlers to
+Australia had learned most of the lessons of civilization, but they had
+not learned the wisdom and justice of treating the people they were
+supplanting fairly. The officials were, as a rule, kind enough; but some
+classes of the new population were of a bad type, and these, coming into
+contact with the natives, were guilty of cruelties which led to
+reprisals and then to further cruelties, and finally to a complete
+destruction of the black people in some districts.
+
+In Tasmania, for instance, where the blacks were of a fine robust type,
+convicts in the early days, escaping to the Bush, by their cruelties
+inflamed the natives to hatred of the white disturbers, and outrages
+were frequent. The state of affairs got to be so bad that the Government
+formed the idea of capturing all the natives of Tasmania and putting
+them on a special reserve on Tasman Peninsula. That was to be the black
+man's part of the country, where no white people would be allowed. The
+help of the settlers was enlisted, and a great cordon was formed around
+the whole island, as if it were to be beaten for game. The cordon
+gradually closed in on Tasman Peninsula after some weeks of "beating"
+the forests. It was found, then, that one aboriginal woman had been
+captured, and that was all. Such a result might have been foreseen.
+Tasmania is about as large as Scotland. Its natural features are just as
+wild. The cordon did not embrace 2,000 settlers. The idea of their being
+able to drive before them a whole native race familiar with the Bush was
+absurd.
+
+After that the old conditions ruled in Tasmania. Blacks and whites were
+in constant conflict, and the black race quickly perished. To-day there
+is not a single member of that race alive, Truganini, its last
+representative, having died about a quarter of a century ago.
+
+On the mainland of Australia many blacks still survive; indeed, in a few
+districts of the north, they have as yet barely come into contact with
+the white race. A happier system in dealing with them prevails. The
+Government are resolute that the blacks shall be treated kindly, and
+aboriginal reserves have been formed in all the States. One hears still
+of acts of cruelty in the back-blocks (as the far interior of Australia
+is called), but, so far as the Government can, it punishes the
+offenders. In several of the States there is an official known as the
+Protector of the Aborigines, and he has very wide powers to shield these
+poor blacks from the wickedness of others, and from their own weakness.
+In the Northern States now, the chief enemies of the blacks are Asiatics
+from the pearl-shelling fleets, who land in secret and supply the blacks
+with opium and drink. When the Commonwealth Navy, now being
+constructed, is in commission, part of its duty will be to patrol the
+northern coast and prevent Asiatics landing there to victimize the
+blacks.
+
+The official statistics of the Commonwealth reported, in regard to the
+aborigines, in the year 1907:
+
+"In Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, on the other
+hand, there are considerable numbers of natives still in the 'savage'
+state, numerical information concerning whom is of a most unreliable
+nature, and can be regarded as little more than the result of mere
+guessing. Ethnologically interesting as is this remarkable and rapidly
+disappearing race, practically all that has been done to increase our
+knowledge of them, their laws, habits, customs, and language, has been
+the result of more or less spasmodic and intermittent effort on the part
+of enthusiasts either in private life or the public service. Strange to
+say, an enumeration of them has never been seriously undertaken in
+connection with any State census, though a record of the numbers who
+were in the employ of whites, or living in contiguity to the settlements
+of whites, has usually been made. As stated above, various guesses at
+the number of aboriginal natives at present in Australia have been made,
+and the general opinion appears to be that 150,000 may be taken as a
+rough approximation to the total. It is proposed to make an attempt to
+enumerate the aboriginal population of Australia in connection with the
+first Commonwealth Census to be taken in 1911."
+
+A very primitive savage was the Australian aboriginal. He had no
+architecture, but in cold or wet weather built little break-winds,
+called mia-mias. He had no weapons of steel or any other metal. His
+spears were tipped with the teeth of fish, the bones of animals, and
+with roughly sharpened flints. He had no idea of the use of the bow and
+arrow, but had a curious throwing-stick, which, working on the principle
+of a sling, would cast a missile a great distance. These were his
+weapons--rough spears, throwing-sticks, and clubs called nullahs, or
+waddys. (I am not sure that these latter are original native words. The
+blacks had a way of picking up white men's slang and adding it to their
+very limited vocabulary; thus the evil spirit is known among them as the
+"debbil-debbil.") Another weapon the aboriginal had, the boomerang, a
+curiously curved missile stick which, if it missed the object at which
+it was aimed, would curve back in the air and return to the feet of the
+thrower; thus the black did not lose his weapon. The boomerang shows an
+extraordinary knowledge of the effects of curves on the flight of an
+object; it is peculiar to the Australian natives, and proves that they
+had skill and cunning in some respects, though generally low in the
+scale of human races.
+
+The Australian aboriginals were divided into tribes, and these tribes,
+when food supplies were good, amused themselves with tribal warfare.
+From what can be gathered, their battles were not very serious affairs.
+There was more yelling and dancing and posing than bloodshed. The braves
+of a tribe would get ready for battle by painting themselves with red,
+yellow, and white clay in fantastic patterns. They would then hold
+war-dances in the presence of the enemy; that, and the exchange of
+dreadful threats, would often conclude a campaign. But sometimes the
+forces would actually come to blows, spears would be thrown, clubs used.
+The wounds made by the spears would be dreadfully jagged, for about half
+a yard of the end of the spear was toothed with bones or fishes' teeth.
+But the black fellows' flesh healed wonderfully. A wound that would kill
+any European the black would plaster over with mud, and in a week or so
+be all right.
+
+Duels between individuals were not uncommon among the natives, and even
+women sometimes settled their differences in this way. A common method
+of duelling was the exchange of blows from a nullah. One party would
+stand quietly whilst his antagonist hit him on the head with a club;
+then the other, in turn, would have a hit, and this would be continued
+until one party dropped. It was a test of endurance rather than of
+fighting power.
+
+The women of the aboriginals were known as gins, or lubras, the children
+as picaninnies--this last, of course, not an aboriginal name. The women
+were not treated very well by their lords: they had to do all the
+carrying when on the march. At mealtimes they would sit in a row behind
+the men. The game--a kangaroo, for instance--would be roughly roasted at
+the camp fire with its fur still on. The men would devour the best
+portions and throw the rest over their shoulders to the waiting women.
+
+Fish was a staple article of diet for the Australian natives. Wherever
+there were good fishing-places on the coast or good oyster-beds powerful
+tribes were camped, and on the inland rivers are still found weirs
+constructed by the natives to trap fish. So far as can be ascertained,
+the Australian native was rarely if ever a cannibal. His neighbours in
+the Pacific Ocean were generally cannibals. Perhaps the scanty
+population of the Australian continent was responsible for the absence
+of cannibalism; perhaps some ethical sense in the breasts of the
+natives, who seem to have always been, on the whole, good-natured and
+little prone to cruelty.
+
+[Illustration: THE AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN CAPTAIN COOK'S TIME. PAGE 34.]
+
+The religious ideas of these natives were very primitive. They believed
+strongly in evil spirits, and had various ceremonial dances and
+practices of witchcraft to ward off the influence of these. But they had
+little or no conception of a Good Spirit. Their idea of future happiness
+was, after they had come into contact with the whites: "Fall down black
+fellow, jump up white fellow." Such an idea of heaven was, of course, an
+acquired one. What was their original notion on the subject is not at
+all clear. The Red Indians of America had a very definite idea of a
+future happy state. The aboriginals of Australia do not seem to have
+been able to brighten their poor lives with such a hope.
+
+Various books have been written about the folklore of the Australian
+aboriginals, but most of the stories told as coming from the blacks seem
+to me to have a curious resemblance to the stories of white folk. A
+legend about the future state, for instance, is just Bunyan's "Pilgrim's
+Progress" put crudely to fit in with Australian conditions. I may be
+quite wrong in this, but I think that most of the folk-stories coming
+from the natives are just their attempts to imitate white-man stories,
+and not original ideas of their own. The conditions or life in Australia
+for the aboriginal were so harsh, the struggle for existence was so
+keen, that he had not much time to cultivate ideas. Life to him was
+centred around the camp-fire, the baked 'possum, and a few crude tribal
+ceremonies.
+
+Usually the Australian black is altogether spoilt by civilization. He
+learns to wear clothes, but he does not learn that clothes need to be
+changed and washed occasionally, and are not intended for use by day and
+night. He has an insane veneration for the tall silk hat which is the
+badge of modern gentility, and, given an old silk hat, he will never
+allow it off his head. He quickly learns to smoke and to drink, and,
+when he comes into contact with the Chinese, to eat opium. He cannot be
+broken into any steady habits of industry, but where by wise kindness
+the black fellow has been kept from the vices of civilization he is a
+most engaging savage. Tall, thin, muscular, with fine black beard and
+hair and a curiously wide and impressive forehead, he is not at all
+unhandsome. He is capable of great devotion to a white master, and is
+very plucky by daylight, though his courage usually goes with the fall
+of night. He takes to a horse naturally, and some of the finest riders
+in Australia are black fellows.
+
+An attempt is now being made to Christianize the Australian blacks. It
+seems to prosper if the blacks can be kept away from the debasing
+influence of bad whites. They have no serious vices of their own, very
+little to unlearn, and are docile enough. In some cases black children
+educated at the mission schools are turning out very well. But, on the
+other hand, there are many instances of these children conforming to the
+habits of civilization for some years and then suddenly feeling "the
+call of the wild," and running away into the Bush to join some nomad
+tribe.
+
+It is not possible to be optimistic about the future of the Australian
+blacks. The race seems doomed to perish. Something can be done to
+prolong their life, to make it more pleasant; but they will never be a
+people, never take any share in the development of the continent which
+was once their own.
+
+A quite different type of native comes under the rule of the Australian
+Commonwealth--the Papuan. Though Papua, or New Guinea, as it was once
+called, is only a few miles from the north coast of Australia, its race
+is distinct, belonging to the Polynesian or Kanaka type, and resembling
+the natives of Fiji and Tahiti.
+
+Papua is quite a tropical country, producing bananas, yams, taro, sago,
+and cocoa-nuts. The natives, therefore, have always had plenty of food,
+and they reached a higher stage of civilization than the Australian
+aborigines. But their food came too easily to allow them to go very far
+forward. "Civilization is impossible where the banana grows," some
+observer has remarked. He meant that since the banana gave food without
+any culture or call on human energy, the people in banana-growing
+countries would be lazy, and would not have the stimulus to improve
+themselves that is necessary for progress. To get a good type of man he
+must have the need to work.
+
+The Papuan, having no need of industry, amused himself with head-hunting
+as a national sport. Tribes would invade one another's districts and
+fight savage battles. The victors would eat the bodies of the
+vanquished, and carry home their heads as trophies. A chief measured his
+greatness by the number of skulls he had to adorn his house.
+
+Since the British came to Papua head-hunting and cannibalism have been
+forbidden. But all efforts to instil into the minds of the Papuan a
+liking for work have so far failed. So the condition of the natives is
+not very happy. They have lost the only form of exercise they cared for,
+and sloth, together with contact with the white man, has brought to them
+new and deadly diseases. Several missionary bodies are working to
+convert the Papuan to Christianity, and with some success.
+
+The Papuan builds houses and temples. His tree-dwellings are very
+curious. They are built on platforms at the top of lofty palm-trees.
+Probably the Papuan first designed the tree-dwelling as a refuge from
+possible enemies. Having climbed up to his house with the aid of a rope
+ladder and drawn the ladder up after him, he was fairly safe from
+molestation, for the long, smooth, branchless trunks of the palm-trees
+do not make them easy to scale. In time the Papuan learned the
+advantages of the tree-dwelling in marshy ground, and you will find
+whole villages on the coast built of trees. Herodotus states of the
+ancient Egyptians that in some parts they slept on top of high towers to
+avoid mosquitoes and the malaria that they brought. The Papuan seems to
+have arrived at the same idea.
+
+Sorcery is a great evil among the Papuans. In every village almost, some
+crafty man pretends to be a witch and to have the power to destroy those
+who are his enemies. This is a constant thorn in the side of the
+Government official and the missionary. The poor Papuan goes all his
+days beset by the Powers of Darkness. The sorcerer, the "pourri-pourri"
+man, can blast him and his pigs, crops, family (that is the Papuan
+order of valuation) at will. The sorcerer is generally an old man. He
+does not, as a rule, deck himself in any special garb, or go through
+public incantations, as do most savage medicine-men. But he hints and
+threatens, and lets inference take its course, till eventually he
+becomes a recognized power, feared and obeyed by all. Extortion, false
+swearing, quarrels and murders, and all manner of iniquity, follow in
+his train. No native but fears him, however complete the training and
+education of civilization. For the Papuan never thinks of death, plague,
+pestilence or famine as arising from natural causes. Every little
+misfortune (much more every great one) is credited to a "pourri-pourri"
+or magic. The Papuan, when he comes "under the Evil Eye" of the
+witch-doctor, will wilt away and die, though, apparently, he has nothing
+at all the matter with him; and since Europeans are apt to suffer from
+malarial fever in Papua, the witch-doctors are prompt to put this down
+to their efforts, and so persuade the natives that they have power even
+over Europeans.
+
+A gentleman who was a resident magistrate in Papua tells an amusing tale
+of how one witch-doctor was very properly served. "A village constable
+of my acquaintance, wearied with the attentions of a magician of great
+local repute, who had worked much harm with his friends and relations,
+tied him up with rattan ropes, and sank him in 20 feet of water against
+the morning. He argued, as he explained at his trial for murder, 'If
+this man is the genuine article, well and good, no harm done. If he is
+not--well, it's a good riddance!' On repairing to the spot next morning,
+and pulling up his night-line, he found that the magician had failed to
+'make his magic good,' and was quite dead. The constable's punishment
+was twelve months' hard labour. It was a fair thing to let him off
+easily, as in killing a witch-doctor he had really done the community a
+service."
+
+The future of the Papuan is more hopeful than that of the Australian
+aboriginal, and he may be preserved in something near to his natural
+state if means can be found to make him work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS
+
+    The kangaroo--The koala--The bulldog ant--Some quaint and
+    delightful birds--The kookaburra--Cunning crows and cockatoo.
+
+
+Australia has most curious animals, birds, and flowers. This is due to
+the fact that it is such an old, old place, and has been cut off so long
+from the rest of the world. The types of animals that lived in Europe
+long before Rome was built, before the days, indeed, of the Egyptian
+civilization, animals of which we find traces in the fossils of very
+remote periods--those are the types living in Australia to-day. They
+belong to the same epoch as the mammoth and the great flying lizards and
+other creatures of whom you may learn something in museums. Indeed,
+Australia, as regards its fauna, may be considered as a museum, with the
+animals of old times alive instead of in skeleton form.
+
+The kangaroo is always taken as a type of Australian animal life. When
+an Australian cricket team succeeds in vanquishing in a Test Match an
+English one (which happens now and again), the comic papers may be
+always expected to print a picture of a lion looking sad and sorry, and
+a kangaroo proudly elate. The kangaroo, like practically all Australian
+animals, is a marsupial, carrying its young about in a pouch after their
+birth until they reach maturity. The kangaroo's forelegs are very small;
+its hindlegs and its tail are immensely powerful, and these it uses for
+progression, rushing with huge hops over the country. There are very
+many animals which may be grouped as kangaroos, from the tiny kangaroo
+rat, about the size of an English water-rat, to the huge red kangaroo,
+which is over six feet high and about the weight of a sucking calf. The
+kangaroo is harmless and inoffensive as a rule, but it can inflict a
+dangerous kick with its hindlegs, and when pursued by dogs or men and
+cornered, the "old man" kangaroo will sometimes fight for its life. Its
+method is to take a stand in a water-hole or with its back to a tree,
+standing on its hindlegs and balanced on its tail. When a dog approaches
+it is seized in the kangaroo's forearms and held under water or torn to
+pieces. Occasionally men's lives have been lost through approaching
+incautiously an old man kangaroo.
+
+The kangaroo's method of self-defence has been turned to amusing account
+by circus-proprietors. The "boxing kangaroo" was at one time quite a
+common feature at circuses and music-halls. A tame kangaroo would have
+its forefeet fitted with boxing-gloves. Then when lightly punched by its
+trainer, it would, quite naturally, imitate the movements of the boxer,
+fending off blows and hitting out with its forelegs. One boxing kangaroo
+I had a bout with was quite a clever pugilist. It was very difficult to
+hit the animal, and its return blows were hard and well directed.
+
+The different sorts of kangaroo you may like to know. There is the
+kangaroo rat, very small; the "flying kangaroo," a rare animal of the
+squirrel species, but marsupial, which lives in trees; the wallaby, the
+wallaroo, the paddy-melon (medium varieties of kangaroo); the grey and
+the red kangaroo, the last the biggest and finest of the species.
+
+The kangaroo, as I have said, is not of much use for meat. Its flesh is
+very dark and rank, something like that of a horse. However, chopped up
+into a fine sausage-meat, with half its weight of fat bacon, kangaroo
+flesh is just eatable. The tail makes a very rich soup. The skin of the
+kangaroo provides a soft and pliant leather which is excellent for
+shoes. Kangaroo furs are also of value for rugs and overcoats.
+
+[Illustration: THE AUSTRALIAN FOREST AT NIGHT "MOONING" OPOSSUMS.
+PAGES 49 & 71.]
+
+Of tree-inhabiting animals the chief in Australia is the 'possum (which
+is not really an opossum, but is somewhat like that American rodent, and
+so got its name), and the koala, or native bear. Why this little animal
+was called a "bear" it is hard to say, for it is not in the least like a
+bear. It is about the size of a very large and fat cat, is covered with
+a very thick, soft fur, and its face is shaped rather like that of an
+owl, with big saucer-eyes.
+
+The koala is the quaintest little creature imaginable. It is quite
+harmless, and only asks to be let alone and allowed to browse on
+gum-leaves. Its flesh is uneatable except by an aboriginal or a victim
+to famine. Its fur is difficult to manipulate, as it will not lie flat,
+so the koala should have been left in peace. But its confiding and
+somewhat stupid nature, and the senseless desire of small boys and
+"children of larger growth" to kill something wild just for the sake of
+killing, has led to the koala being almost exterminated in many places.
+Now it is protected by the law, and may get back in time to its old
+numbers. I hope so. There is no more amusing or pretty sight than that
+of a mother koala climbing sedately along a gum-tree limb, its young
+ones riding on it pick-a-back, their claws dug firmly into its soft fur.
+
+The 'possum is much hunted for its fur. The small black 'possum found in
+Tasmania and in the mountainous districts is the most valuable, its fur
+being very close and fine. Dealers in skins will sometimes dye the grey
+'possum's skin black and trade it off as Tasmanian 'possum. It is a
+trick to beware of when buying furs. Bush lads catch the 'possum with
+snares. Finding a tree, the scratched bark of which tells that a 'possum
+family lives upstairs in one of its hollows, they fix a noose to the
+tree. The 'possum, coming down at night to feed or to drink, is caught
+in the noose. Another way of getting 'possum skins is to shoot the
+little creatures on moonlight nights. (The 'possum is nocturnal in its
+habits, and sleeps during the day.) When there is a good moon the
+'possums may be seen as they sit on the boughs of the gum-trees, and
+brought down with a shot-gun.
+
+Besides its human enemies, the 'possum has the 'goanna (of which more
+later) to contend with. The 'goanna--a most loathsome-looking
+lizard--can climb trees, and is very fond of raiding the 'possum's home
+when the young are there. Between the men who want its coat and the
+'goannas who want its young the 'possum is fast being exterminated.
+
+Two other characteristic Australian animals you should know about. The
+wombat is like a very large pig; it lives underground, burrowing vast
+distances. The wombat is a great nuisance in districts where there are
+irrigation canals; its burrows weaken the banks of the water-channels,
+and cause collapses. The dugong is a sea mammal found on the north coast
+of Australia. It is said to be responsible for the idea of the mermaid.
+Rising out of the water, the dugong's figure has some resemblance to
+that of a woman.
+
+Then there is the bunyip--or, rather, there isn't the bunyip, so far as
+we know as yet. The bunyip is the legendary animal of Australia. It is
+supposed to be of great size--as big as a bullock--and of terrible
+ferocity. The bunyip is represented as living in lakes and marshes, but
+it has never been seen by any trustworthy observer. The blacks believe
+profoundly in the bunyip, and white children, when very young, are
+scared with bunyip tales. There may have been once an animal answering
+to its description in Australia; if so, it does not seem to have
+survived.
+
+In Tasmania, however, are found, though very rarely, two savage and
+carnivorous marsupials called the Tasmanian tiger and the Tasmanian
+devil. The tiger is almost as large as the female Bengal tiger, and has
+a few little stripes near its tail, from which fact it gets its name.
+The Tasmanian tiger will create fearful havoc if it gets among sheep,
+killing for the sheer lust of killing. At one time a price of L100 was
+put on the head of the Tasmanian tiger. As settlement progressed it
+became rarer and rarer, and I have not heard of one having been seen for
+some years. The Tasmanian devil is a marsupial somewhat akin to the wild
+cat, and of about the same size. It is very ferocious, and has been
+known to attack man, springing on him from a tree branch. The Tasmanian
+devil is likewise becoming very rare.
+
+The existence of these two animals in Tasmania and not in Australia
+shows that that island has been a very long time separated from the
+mainland.
+
+Australia is very well provided with serpents--rather too well
+provided--and the Bush child has to be careful in regard to putting his
+hand into rabbit burrows or walking barefoot, as there are several
+varieties of venomous snake. But the snakes are not at all the great
+danger that some imagine. You might live all your life in Australia and
+never see one; but in a few country parts it has been found necessary to
+enclose the homesteads on the stations with snake-proof wire-fencing, so
+as to make some place of safety in which young children may play. The
+most venomous of Australian snakes are the death-adder, fortunately a
+very sluggish variety; the tiger-snake, a most fierce serpent, which,
+unlike other snakes, will actually turn and pursue a man if it is
+wounded or angered; the black snake, a handsome creature with a vivid
+scarlet belly; and the whip-snake, a long, thin reptile, which may be
+easily mistaken for a bit of stick, and is sometimes picked up by
+children. But no Australian snake is as deadly as the Indian jungle
+snakes, and it is said that the bite of no Australian snake can cause
+death if the bite has been given through any cloth. So the only real
+danger is in walking through the Bush barefooted, or putting the hand
+into holes where snakes may be lurking.
+
+Some of the non-venomous snakes of Australia are very handsome, the
+green tree-snake and the carpet-snake (a species of python) for
+examples. The carpet-snake is occasionally kept in the house or in the
+barn to destroy mice and other small vermin.
+
+Lizards in great variety are found in Australia, the chief being one
+incorrectly called an iguana, which colloquial slang has changed to
+'goanna. The 'goanna is an altogether repulsive creature. It feasts on
+carrion, on the eggs of birds, on birds themselves, on the young of any
+creature. Growing to a great size--I have seen one 9 feet long and as
+thick in the body as a small dog--the 'goanna looks very dangerous, and
+it will bite a man when cornered. Though not venomous in the strict
+sense of the word, the 'goanna's bite generally causes a festering wound
+on account of the loathsome habits of the creature. The Jew-lizard and
+the devil-lizard are two other horrid-looking denizens of the Australian
+forest, but in their cases an evil character does not match an evil
+face, for they are quite harmless.
+
+Spiders are common, but there is, so far as I know, only one dangerous
+one--a little black spider with a red spot on its back. Large spiders,
+called (incorrectly) tarantulas, credited by some with being poisonous,
+come into the houses. But they are really not in any way dangerous. I
+knew a man who used to keep tarantulas under his mosquito-nets so that
+they might devour any stray mosquitoes that got in. The example is
+hardly worth following. The Australian tarantula, though innocent of
+poison, is a horrible object, and would, I think, give you a bad fright
+if it flopped on to your face.
+
+Australia is rich in ants. There is one specially vicious ant called the
+bulldog ant, because of its pluck. Try to kill the bulldog ant with a
+stick, and it will face you and try to bite back until the very last
+gasp, never thinking of running away. The bulldog ant has a liking for
+the careless picnicker, whom she--the male ant, like the male bee, is
+not a worker--bites with a fierce energy that suggests to the victim
+that his flesh is being torn with red-hot pincers. I have heard it said
+that but for the fact that Australia is so large an island, a great
+proportion of its population would by this time have been lost through
+bounding into the surrounding sea when bitten by bulldog ants. It is
+wise when out for a picnic in Australia to camp in some spot away from
+ant-beds, for the ant, being such an industrious creature, seems to take
+a malicious delight in spoiling the day for pleasure-seekers.
+
+In one respect, the ant, unwillingly enough, contributes to the pleasure
+and amusement of the Australian people. In the dry country it would not
+be possible to keep grass lawns for tennis. But an excellent substitute
+has been found in the earth taken from ant-beds. This earth, which has
+been ground fine by the industrious little insects, makes a beautifully
+firm tennis-court.
+
+It is not possible to leave the ant without mention of the termite, or
+white ant, which is very common and very mischievous in most parts of
+Australia. A colony of termites keeps its headquarters underground, and
+from these headquarters it sends out foraging expeditions to eat up all
+the wood in the neighbourhood. If you build a house in Australia, you
+must be very careful indeed that there is no possibility of the termites
+being able to get to its timbers. Otherwise the joists will be eaten,
+the floors eaten, even the furniture eaten, and one day everything that
+is made of wood in the house will collapse. All the mischief, too, will
+have been concealed until the last moment. A wooden beam will look to be
+quite sound when really its whole heart has been eaten out by the
+termites. Nowadays the whole area on which a house is to be raised is
+covered with cement or with asphalt, and care taken that no timber
+joists are allowed to touch the earth and thus give entry to the
+termites. Fortunately, these destructive insects cannot burrow through
+brick or stone.
+
+In the Northern Territory there are everywhere gigantic mounds raised by
+these termites, long, narrow, high, and always pointing due north and
+south. You can tell infallibly the points of the compass from the mounds
+of this white ant, which has been called the "meridian termite."
+
+Australia has a wild bee of her own (of course, too, there are European
+bees introduced by apiarists, distilling splendid honey from the wild
+flowers of the continent). The aborigines had an ingenious way of
+finding the nests of the wild bee. They would catch a bee, preferably at
+some water-hole where the bees went to drink, and fix to its body a
+little bit of white down. The bee would be then released, and would fly
+straight for home, and the keen-eyed black would be able to follow its
+flight and discover the whereabouts of its hive--generally in the hollow
+of a tree. The Australian black, having found a hive, would kill the
+bees with smoke and then devour the whole nest, bees, honeycomb, and
+honey.
+
+Australian birds are very numerous and very beautiful. The famous
+bird-of-paradise is found in several varieties in Papua and other
+islands along Australia's northern coast. The bird-of-paradise was
+threatened with extinction on account of the demand for its plumes for
+women's hats. So the Australian Government has recently passed
+legislation to protect this most beautiful of all birds, which on the
+tiniest of bodies carries such wonderful cascades of plumage, silver
+white in some cases, golden brown in others.
+
+[Illustration: A SHEEP DROVER. PAGE 26.]
+
+Some very beautiful parrots flash through the Australian forest. It
+would not be possible to tell of all of them. The smallest, which is
+known as the grass parrakeet, or "the love-bird," is about the size of a
+sparrow. I notice it in England carried around by gipsies and trained to
+pick out a card which "tells you your fortune." From that tiny little
+green bird the range of parrots runs up to huge fowl with feathers of
+all the colours of the rainbow. There are two fine cockatoos also in
+Australia--the white with a yellow crest, and the black, which has a
+beautiful red lining to its sable wings. A flock of black cockatoos in
+flight gives an impression of a sunset cloud, its under surface shot
+with crimson.
+
+Cockatoos can be very destructive to crops, especially to maize, so the
+farmers have declared war upon them. The birds seem to be able to hold
+their own pretty well in this campaign, for they are of wonderful
+cunning. When a crowd of cockatoos has designs on a farmer's
+maize-patch, the leader seems to prospect the place thoroughly; he acts
+as though he were a general, providing a safe bivouac for an army; he
+sets sentinels on high trees commanding a view of all points of danger.
+Then the flock of cockatoos settles on the maize and gorges as fast as
+it can. If the farmer or his son tries to approach with a gun, a
+sentinel cockatoo gives warning and the whole flock clears out to a
+place of safety. As soon as the danger is over they come back to the
+feast.
+
+Even more cunning is the Australian crow. It is a bird of prey and
+perhaps the best-hated bird in the world. An Australian bushman will
+travel a whole day to kill a crow. For he has, at the time when the
+sheep were lambing, or when, owing to drought, they were weak, seen the
+horrible cruelties of the crow. This evil bird will attack weak sheep
+and young lambs, tearing out their eyes and leaving them to perish
+miserably. There have even been terrible cases where men lost in the
+Bush and perishing of thirst have been attacked by crows and have been
+found still alive, but with their eyes gone.
+
+It is no wonder that there is a deadly feud between man and crow. But
+the crow is so cunning as to be able to overmatch man's superior
+strength. A crow knows when a man is carrying a gun, and will keep out
+of range then; if a man is without a gun the crow will let him approach
+quite near. One can never catch many crows in the same district with the
+same device; they seem to learn to avoid what is dangerous. Very rarely
+can they be poisoned, no matter how carefully the bait is prepared.
+
+Bushmen tell all sorts of stories of the cunning of the crow. One is
+that of a man who suffered severely from a crow's depredations on his
+chickens. He prepared a poisoned bait and noticed the bird take it, but
+not devour it; that crow carefully took the poisoned tit-bit and put it
+in front of the man's favourite dog, which ate it, and was with
+difficulty saved from death! Another story is that of a man who thought
+to get within reach of a crow by taking out a gun, lying down under a
+tree, and pretending to be dead. True enough, the crow came up and
+hopped around, as if waiting for the man to move, and so to see if he
+were really dead. After awhile, the crow, to make quite sure, perched
+on a branch above the man's head and dropped a piece of twig on to his
+face! It was at this stage that the man decided to be alive, and, taking
+up his gun, shot the crow.
+
+There may be some exaggeration in the bushmen's tales of the crow's
+cunning, but there is quite enough of ascertained fact to show that the
+bird is as devilish in its ingenuity as in its cruelty. In most parts of
+Australia there is a reward paid for every dead crow brought into the
+police offices. Still, in spite of constant warfare, the bird holds its
+own, and very rarely indeed is its nest discovered--a signal proof of
+its precautions against the enmity of man.
+
+To turn to a more pleasant type of feathered animal. On the whole, the
+most distinctly Australian bird is the kookaburra, or "laughing
+jackass." (A picture of two kookaburras faces page 1 of this volume.
+They were drawn for me by a very clever Australian black-and-white
+artist, Mr. Norman Lindsay.) The kookaburra is about the size of an owl,
+of a mottled grey colour. Its sly, mocking eye prepares you for its
+note, which is like a laugh, partly sardonic, partly rollicking. The
+kookaburra seems to find much grim fun in this world, and is always
+disturbing the Bush quiet with its curious "laughter." So near in sound
+to a harsh human laugh is the kookaburra's call that there is no
+difficulty in persuading new chums that the bird is deliberately mocking
+them. The kookaburra has the reputation of killing snakes; it certainly
+is destructive to small vermin, so its life is held sacred in the Bush.
+And very well our kookaburra knows the fact. As he sits on a fence and
+watches you go past with a gun, he will now and again break out into his
+discordant "laugh" right in your face.
+
+The Australian magpie, a black-and-white bird of the crow family, is
+also "protected," as it feeds mainly on grubs and insects, which are
+nuisances to the farmer. The magpie has a very clear, well-sustained
+note, and to hear a group of them singing together in the early morning
+suggests a fine choir of boys' voices. They will tell you in Australia
+that the young magpie is taught by its parents to "sing in tune" in
+these bird choirs, and is knocked off the fence at choir practice if it
+makes a mistake. You may believe this if you wish to. I don't. But it
+certainly is a fact that a group of magpies will sing together very
+sweetly and harmoniously.
+
+One could not exhaust the list of Australian birds in even a big book.
+But a few more call for mention. There is the emu, like an ostrich, but
+with coarse wiry hair. The emu does damage on the sheep-runs by breaking
+down the wire fences. (Some say the emu likes fencing wire as an article
+of diet; but that is an exaggeration founded on the fact that, like all
+great birds, it can and does eat nails, pebbles, and other hard
+substances, which lodge in its gizzard and help it to digest its food.)
+On account of its mischievous habit of breaking fences the emu is
+hunted down, and is now fast dwindling. In Tasmania it is altogether
+extinct. Another danger to its existence is that it lays a very handsome
+egg of a dark green colour. These eggs are sought out for ornaments, and
+the emu's nest, built in the grass of the plain (for the emu cannot fly
+nor climb trees), is robbed wherever found.
+
+The brush turkey of Australia is strange in that it does not take its
+family duties at all seriously. The bird does not hatch out its eggs by
+sitting on them, but builds a mound of decaying vegetation over the
+eggs, and leaves them to come out with the sun's heat.
+
+The brolga, or native companion, is a handsome Australian bird of the
+crane family. It is of a pretty grey colour, with red bill and red legs.
+The brolga has a taste for dancing; flocks of this bird may be seen
+solemnly going through quadrilles and lancers--of their own
+invention--on the plains.
+
+Another strange Australian bird is called the bower-bird, because when a
+bower-bird wishes to go courting he builds in the Bush a little
+pavilion, and adorns it with all the gay, bright objects he can--bits of
+rag or metal, feathers from other birds, coloured stones and flowers. In
+this he sets himself to dancing until some lady bower-bird is attracted,
+and they set up housekeeping together. The bower-bird is credited with
+being responsible for the discovery of a couple of goldfields, the birds
+having picked up nuggets for their bowers, these, discovered by
+prospectors, telling that gold was near.
+
+If the bower-bird wishes for wedding chimes to grace his picturesque
+mating, another bird will be able to gratify the wish--the bell-bird
+which haunts quiet, cool glens, and has a note like a bell, and yet more
+like the note of one of those strange hallowed gongs you hear from the
+groves of Eastern temples. Often riding through the wild Australian Bush
+you hear the chimes of distant bells, hear and wonder until you learn
+that the bell-bird makes the clear, sweet music.
+
+One more note about Australian nature life. In the summer the woods are
+full of locusts (cicadae), which jar the air with their harsh note. The
+locust season is always a busy one for the doctors. The Australian small
+boy loves to get a locust to carry in his pocket, and he has learned, by
+a little squeezing, to induce the unhappy insect to "strike up," to the
+amusing interruption of school or home hours. Now, to get a locust it is
+necessary to climb a tree, and Australian trees are hard to climb and
+easy to fall out of. So there are many broken limbs during the locust
+season. They represent a quite proper penalty for a cruel and unpleasant
+habit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH
+
+    An introduction to an Australian home--Off to a picnic--The
+    wattle, the gum, the waratah--The joys of the forest.
+
+
+The Australian child wakens very often to the fact that "to-day is a
+holiday." The people of the sunny southern continent work very hard
+indeed, but they know that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy";
+and Jill a dull girl too. So they have very frequent holidays--far more
+frequent than in Great Britain. The Australian child, rising on a
+holiday morning, and finding it fine and bright--very rarely is he
+disappointed in the weather of his sunny climate--gives a whoop of joy
+as he remembers that he is going on a picnic into the forest, or the
+"Bush," as it is called invariably in Australia. The whoop is, perhaps,
+more joyful than it is musical. The Australian youngster is not trained,
+as a rule, to have the nice soft voice of the English child. Besides,
+the dry, invigorating climate gives his throat a strength which simply
+must find expression in loud noise.
+
+Let us follow the Australian child on his picnic and see something of
+the Australian Bush, also of an Australian home.
+
+Suppose him starting from Wahroonga, a pretty suburb about ten miles
+from Sydney, the biggest city of Australia. Jim lives there with his
+brothers and sisters and parents in a little villa of about nine rooms,
+and four deep shady verandas, one for each side of the house. On these
+verandas in summer the family will spend most of the time. Meals will be
+served there, reading, writing, sewing done there; in many households
+the family will also sleep there, the little couches being protected by
+nets to keep off mosquitoes which may be hovering about in thousands.
+And in the morning, as the sun peeps through the bare beautiful trunks
+of the white gums, the magpies will begin to carol and the kookaburras
+to laugh, and the family will wake to a freshness which is divine.
+
+Around the house are lawns, of coarser grass than that of England, but
+still looking smooth and green, and many flower-beds in which all the
+flowers of earth seem to bloom. There are roses in endless
+variety--Jim's mother boasts that she has sixty-five different
+sorts--and some of them are blooming all the year round, so mild is the
+climate. Phlox, verbenas, bouvardias, pelargoniums, geraniums, grow side
+by side with such tropical plants as gardenias, tuberoses, hibisci,
+jacarandas, magnolias. In season there are daffodils, and snowdrops, and
+narcissi, and dahlias, and chrysanthemums. Recall all the flowers of
+England; add to them the flowers of Southern Italy and many from India,
+from Mexico, from China, from the Pacific Islands, and you have an idea
+of the fine garden Jim enjoys.
+
+[Illustration: A HUT IN THE BUSH. PAGE 63.]
+
+Beyond the garden is a tennis-court, and around its high wire fences are
+trained grape-vines of different kinds, muscatels and black amber and
+shiraz, and lady's-fingers, which yield splendidly without any shelter
+or artificial heat. On the other side of the house is a little orchard,
+not much more than an acre, where, all in the open air, grow melons,
+oranges, lemons, persimmons (or Japanese plums), apples, pears, peaches,
+apricots, custard-apples (a curious tropical fruit, which is soft inside
+and tastes like a sweet custard), guavas (from which delicious jelly is
+made), and also strawberries and raspberries.
+
+The far corner is taken up with a paddock, for the horses are not kept
+in a stable, night or day, except occasionally when a very wet, cold
+night comes.
+
+That is the surrounding of Jim's home. Inside the house there is to-day
+a great deal of bustle. Everybody is working--all the members of the
+family as well as the two maid-servants, for in Australia it is the rule
+to do things for yourself and not to rely too much on the labour of
+servants (who are hard to get and to keep). Even baby pretends to help,
+and has to be allowed to carry about a "billy" to give her the idea that
+she is useful. This "billy" is a tin pot in which, later on, water will
+be boiled over a little fire in the forest, and tea made. Food is packed
+up--perhaps cold meats, perhaps chops or steaks which will be grilled in
+the bush-fire. Always there are salads, cold fruit pies, home-made
+cakes, fruit; possibly wine for the elders. But tea is never forgotten.
+It would not be a picnic without tea.
+
+Now a drag is driven around to the front gate by the one man-servant of
+the house, who has harnessed up the horses and put food for them in the
+drag. Some neighbours arrive; a picnic may be made up of just the
+members of one family, but usually there is a mingling of families, and
+that adds to the fun. The fathers of the families, as like as not, ride
+saddle-horses and do not join the others in the drag; some of the elder
+children, too, boys and girls, may ride their ponies, for in Australia
+it is common for children to have ponies. The party starts with much
+laughter, with inquiries as to the safety of the "billy" and the
+whereabouts of the matches. It is a sad thing to go out in the Bush for
+a picnic and find at the last moment that no one has any matches with
+which to light a fire. The black fellows can start a flare by rubbing
+two sticks together, but the white man has not mastered that art.
+
+The picnic makes its way along a Bush road four or five miles through
+pretty orchard country, given up mostly to growing peaches, grapes, and
+oranges, the cultivated patches in their bright colours showing in vivid
+contrast against the quiet grey-green of the gum-trees. It is spring,
+and all the peach-trees are dressed in gay pink bloom, and belts of this
+colour stretch into the forest for miles around.
+
+The road leaves the cultivated area. The ground becomes rocky and
+sterile. The gum-trees still grow sturdily, but there is no grass
+beneath; instead a wild confusion of wiry heather-like brush, bearing
+all sorts of curious flowers, white, pink, purple, blue, deep brown. One
+flower called the flannel-daisy is like a great star, and its petals
+seem to be cut of the softest white flannel. The boronia and the native
+rose compel attention by their piercing, aromatic perfume, which is
+strangely refreshing. The exhaling breath of the gum-trees, too, is keen
+and exhilarating.
+
+Now the path dips into a little hollow. What is that sudden blaze of
+glowing yellow? It is a little clump of wattle-trees, about as big as
+apple-trees, covered all over with soft flossy blossom of the brightest
+yellow. I like to imagine that the wattle is just prisoned sunlight;
+that one early morning the sun's rays came stealing over the hill to
+kiss the wattle-trees while they seemed to sleep; but the trees were
+really quite wide-awake, and stretched out their pretty arms and caught
+the sunbeams and would never let them go; and now through the winter the
+wattles hide the sun rays away in their roots, cuddling them softly; but
+in spring they let them come out on the branches and play wild games in
+the breeze, but will never let them escape.
+
+Past the little wattle grove there is a hill covered with the white
+gums. The young bark of these trees is of a pinky white, like the arms
+of a baby-girl. As the season advances and the sun beats more and more
+fiercely on the trees, the bark deepens in colour into red and brown,
+and deep brown-pink. After that the bark dies (in Australia most of the
+trees shed their bark and not their leaves), and as it dies strips off
+and shows the new fair white bark underneath.
+
+Our party has now come to a gully (ravine) which carries a little
+fresh-water creek (stream) to an arm of the sea near by. This is the
+camping-place. A nice soft bit of meadow will be found in the shade of
+the hillside. The fresh-water stream will give water for the "billy" tea
+and for the horses to drink. Down below a dear little beach, not more
+than 100 yards long, but of the softest sand, will allow the youngsters
+to paddle their feet, but they must not go in to swim, for fear of
+sharks. The beach has on each side a rocky, steeply-shelving shore, and
+on the rocks will be found any number of fine sweet oysters. Jim and his
+mate Tom have brought oyster-knives, and are soon down on the shore, and
+in a very short while bring, ready-opened, some dozens of oysters for
+their mothers and fathers. The girls of the party are quite able to
+forage oysters for themselves. Some of them do so; others wander up the
+sides of the gully and collect wildflowers for the table, which will not
+be a table at all, but just a cloth spread over the grass.
+
+They come back with the news that they have seen waratahs growing. That
+is exciting enough to take attention away even from the oysters, for the
+waratah, the handsomest wildflower of the world, is becoming rare around
+the cities. All the party follow the girl guides over a slope into
+another gully. There has been a bush-fire in this gully. All the
+undergrowth has been burned away, and the trunks of the trees badly
+charred, but the trees have not been killed. The gum has a very thick
+bark, purposely made to resist fire. This bark gets scorched in a
+bush-fire, but unless the fire is a very fierce one indeed, the tree is
+not vitally hurt. Around the blackened tree-trunks tongues of fire seem
+to be still licking. At a height of about six feet from the ground,
+those scarlet heart-shapes are surely flames? No, they are the waratahs,
+which love to grow where there have been bush-fires. The waratah is of a
+brilliant red colour, growing single and stately on a high stalk. Its
+shape is of a heart; its size about that of a pear. The waratah is not
+at all a dainty, fragile flower, but a solid mass of bloom like the
+vegetable cauliflower; indeed, if you imagine a cauliflower of a vivid
+red colour, about the size of a pear and the shape of a heart, growing
+on a stalk six feet high, you will have some idea of the waratah.
+
+Two of the flowers are picked--Tim's father will not allow more--and
+they are brought to help the decoration of the picnic meal. Carried thus
+over the shoulder of an eager, flushed child, the waratah suggests
+another idea: it represents exactly the thyrsus of the Bacchanals of
+ancient legends.
+
+The picnickers find that their appetites have gained zest from the sweet
+salty oysters. They are ready for lunch. A fire is started, with great
+precaution that it does not spread; meat is roasted on spits (perhaps,
+too, some fish got from the sea near by); and a hearty, jolly meal is
+eaten. Perhaps it would be better to say devoured, for at a picnic there
+is no nice etiquette of eating, and you may use your fingers quite
+without shame as long as you are not "disgusting." The nearest sister to
+Jim will tell him promptly if he became "disgusting," but I can't tell
+you all the rules. It isn't "disgusting" to hold a chop in your fingers
+as you eat it, or to stir your tea with a nice clean stick from a gum
+tree. But it is "disgusting" to put your fingers on what anyone else
+will have to eat, or to cut at the loaf of bread with a soiled knife. I
+hope that you will get from this some idea of Australian picnic
+etiquette. But you really cannot get any real idea of picnic fun until
+you have taken your picnic meal out in the Australian Bush; no
+description can do justice to that fun. The picnic habit is not one for
+children only. The Jim whom we have followed will be still eager for a
+picnic when he is the father of a big Jim of his own; that is, if he is
+the right kind of a human being and keeps the Australian spirit.
+
+After the midday meal, all sorts of games until the lengthening shadows
+tell that homeward time comes near. Then the "billy" is boiled again
+and tea made, the horses harnessed up and the picnickers turn back
+towards civilization. The setting sun starts a beautiful game of shine
+and shadow in among the trees of the gum forest; the aromatic
+exhalations from the trees give the evening air a hint of balm and
+spice; the people driving or riding grow a little pensive, for the spell
+of the Australian forest, "tender, intimate, spiritual," is upon them.
+But it is a pensiveness of pure, quiet joy, of those who have come near
+to Nature and enjoyed the peace of her holy places.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I took you from near Sydney to see the Australian forest and to learn
+something of its trees and flowers, because that part I know best, and
+its beauties are the typical beauties of the Bush. Almost anywhere else
+in the continent where settlement is, something of the same can be
+enjoyed. A Hobart picnic-party would turn its face towards Mount
+Wellington, and after passing over the foothills devoted to orchards,
+scale the great gum-forested mountain, and thus have added to the
+delights of the woods the beautiful landscape which the height affords.
+From Melbourne a party would take train to Fern-tree Gully and picnic
+among the giant eucalyptus there, or, without going so far afield, would
+make for one of the beautiful Hobson's Bay beaches. Farther north than
+Sydney, a note of tropical exuberance comes into the forest. You may see
+a gully filled with cedars in sweet wealth of lavender-coloured
+blossom; or with flame trees, great giants covered all over with a
+curious flowerlike red coral.
+
+But everywhere in Australia, the hot north and cool south, on the bleak
+mountains and the sunny coasts, will be found the gum-tree. It is the
+national tree of this curious continent, the oldest and the youngest of
+the countries of the earth. Some find the gum-tree "dull," because it
+has no flaring, flaunting brightness. But it is not dull to those who
+have eyes to see. Its spiritual lightness of form, its quiet artistry of
+colour, weave a spell around those who have any imagination. Australians
+abroad, who _are_ Australians (there are some people who, though they
+have lived in Australia--perhaps have been born there--are too coarse in
+fibre to be ever really Australians), always welcome with gladness the
+sight of a gum-tree; and Australians in London sometimes gather in some
+friend's house for a burning of gum-leaves. In a brazier the aromatic
+leaves are kindled, the thin, blue smoke curls up (gum-leaf smoke is
+somehow different to any other sort of smoke), and the Australians think
+tenderly of their far-away home.
+
+[Illustration: SURF BATHING SHOOTING THE BREAKERS. PAGES 23 & 73.]
+
+One may meet gum-trees in many parts of the world nowadays--in Africa,
+in America, in Italy and other parts of Europe; for the gum-tree has the
+quality of healing marshy soil and banishing malaria from the air. They
+are, therefore, much planted for health's sake, and the wandering
+Australian meets often his national tree.
+
+A very potent medicine called eucalyptus oil is brewed from gum-leaves,
+and a favourite Australian "house-wives'" remedy for rheumatism is a bed
+stuffed with gum-leaves. So the gum-tree is useful as well as beautiful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE AUSTRALIAN CHILD
+
+    His school and his games--"Bobbies and bushrangers"--Riding to
+    school.
+
+
+Australia is the child among civilized nations, and her life throughout
+is a good deal like that of a child in some regards--more gay and free,
+less weighed down with conventions and thoughts of rules than the life
+of an older community. So Australia is a very happy place for children.
+There is not so much of the "clean pinny" in life--and what wholesome
+child ever really enjoyed the clean pinny and the tidied hair part of
+life?
+
+But don't run away with the idea that the Australians, either adults or
+children, are a dirty people. That would be just the opposite to the
+truth. Australians are passionately fond of the bath. In the poorest
+home there is always a bath-room, which is used daily by every member of
+the family. On the sea-coast swimming is the great sport, though it is
+dangerous to swim in the harbours because of sharks, and protected baths
+are provided where you may swim in safety; still children have to be
+carefully watched to prevent them from going in for a swim in unsafe
+places. The love of the water is greater than the fear of the sharks.
+The little Australian is not dirty, but he has a child's love of being
+untidy, and he can generally gratify it in his country, where conditions
+are so free and easy.
+
+I am sorry to say that the Australian child is rather inclined to be a
+little too "free and easy" in his manners. The climate makes him grow up
+more quickly than in Great Britain. He is more precocious both mentally
+and physically. At a very early age, he (or she) is entrusted with some
+share of responsibility. That is quite natural in a new country where
+pioneering work is being done. You will see children of ten and twelve
+and fourteen years of age taking quite a part in life, entrusted with
+some little tasks, and carrying them through in grown-up fashion. The
+effect of all this is that in their relations with their parents
+Australian children are not so obedient and respectful as they might be.
+This does not work for any great harm while the child is young. Up to
+fifteen or sixteen the son or daughter is perhaps more helpful and more
+companionable because of the somewhat relaxed discipline. Certainly the
+child has learned more how to use its own judgment. After that age,
+however, the fact of a loose parental discipline may come to be an
+evil. But there is, after all, no need to croak about the Australian
+child, who grows up to be a good average sort of woman or man as a
+general rule.
+
+It is very difficult indeed for a child in Australia to avoid school.
+Education is compulsory, the Government providing an elaborate system to
+see that every child gets at least the rudiments of education; even in
+the far back-blocks, where settlement is much scattered, it is necessary
+and possible to go to school. The State will carry the children to
+school on its railways free. If there is no railway it will send a 'bus
+round to collect children in scattered localities. Failing that, in the
+case of families which are quite isolated, and which are poor, the State
+will try to persuade the parents to keep a governess or tutor, and will
+help to pay the cost of this. The effect of all this effort is that in
+Australia almost every child can read and write.
+
+Going to school in the Bush parts of Australia is sometimes great fun.
+Often the children will have the use of one of the horses, and on this
+two, or three, or even four children will mount and ride off. When the
+family number more than four, the case calls for a buggy of some sort;
+and a child of ten or twelve will be quite safely entrusted with the
+harnessing of the horse and driving it to school.
+
+In the school itself, a great effort is made to have the lessons as
+interesting as possible. Nature-study is taught, and the children learn
+to observe the facts about the life in the Bush. There is a very
+charming writer about Australian children, Ethel Turner, who in one of
+her stories gives a picture of a little Bush school in one of the most
+dreary places in Australia--a little township out on the hot plains. I
+quote a little of it to show the sort of spirit which animates the
+school-teachers of Australia:
+
+"A new teacher had been appointed to the half-time school, which was all
+the Government could manage for so unimportant and dreary a place. His
+name was Eagar, and his friends said that he suited the sound of it.
+Alert of eye, energetic in movement, it may be safely said that in his
+own person was stored up more motive power than was owned conjointly by
+the two hundred odd souls who comprised the population of Ninety Mile.
+
+"There was room in Ninety Mile for an eager person. In fact, a dozen
+such would have sufficed long since to have carried it clean off its
+feet, and to have deposited it in some more likely position. But
+everyone touched in any way with the fire of life had long since
+departed from the place, and gone to set their homesteads and
+stackyards, their shops or other businesses elsewhere. So there were
+only a few limpets, who clung tenaciously to their spot, assured that
+all other spots on the globe were already occupied; and a few absolutely
+resigned persons. There is no clog on the wheel of progress that may be
+so absolutely depended upon to fulfil its purpose as resignation.
+
+"It was to this manner of a village that Eagar came. In a month he had
+established a cricket club; in two months a football club. The
+establishment of neither was attended with any great difficulty. In
+three months he had turned his own box of books into a free circulating
+library, and many of his leisure hours went in trying to induce the boys
+to borrow from him, and in seeing to it that, having borrowed, they
+actually read the books chosen.
+
+"But his success with this was doubtful. The boys regarded 'Westward
+Ho!' as a home-lesson, while the 'Three Musketeers' set fire to none of
+them. Even 'Treasure Island' left most of them cold; though Eagar,
+reading it aloud, had tried to persuade himself that little Rattray had
+breathed a trifle quicker as the blind man's stick came tap tapping
+along the road. The sea was nothing but a name to the whole number of
+scholars (eighteen of them, boys and girls all told). Not one of them
+had pierced past the township that lay ninety miles away to the right of
+them; indeed, half the number had never journeyed beyond Moonee, where
+the coach finished its journey.
+
+"Eagar got up collections--moths, butterflies, birds' eggs; he tried to
+describe museums, picture-galleries, and such, to his pupils. At that
+time he had no greater wish on earth than to have just enough money to
+take the whole school to Sydney for a week, and see what a suddenly
+widened horizon would do for them all. Had his salary come at that time
+in one solid cheque for the whole year, there is no knowing to what
+heights of recklessness he would have mounted, but the monthly driblets
+keep the temptation far off.
+
+"One morning he had a brilliant notion. In another week or two the
+yearly 'sweep' fever for far-distant races would attack the place, and
+the poorest would find enough to take a part at least in a ticket.
+
+"He seized a piece of paper, and instituted what he called 'Eagar's
+Consultation.' He explained that he was out to collect sixty shillings.
+Sixty shillings, he explained, would pay the fare-coach and train--to
+Sydney of one schoolboy, give him money in his pocket to see all the
+sights, and bring him back the richer for life for the experience, and
+leaven for the whole loaf of them.
+
+"'Which schoolboy?' said Ninety Mile doubtfully, expecting to be met
+with 'top boy.' And never having been 'top boy' itself at any time of
+its life, it had but a distrustful admiration for the same.
+
+"'We must draw lots,' said Eagar.
+
+"Upon which Ninety Mile, being attracted by the sporting element in the
+affair, slowly subscribed its shilling a-piece, and the happy lot fell
+to Rattray.
+
+"He was a sober, freckled little fellow of ten, who walked five miles
+into Ninety Mile every morning, and five miles back again at night all
+the six months of the year during which Government held the cup of
+learning there for small drinkers to sip."
+
+I need not quote further about young Rattray's trip to Sydney and to the
+great ocean which Bush children, seeing for the first time, often think
+is just a big dam built up by some great squatter to hold water for his
+sheep. That extract shows the Bush school at its very hardest in the hot
+back-country. Of course, not one twentieth of the population lives in
+such places. I must give you a little of a description of a day in a
+Bush school in Gippsland, by E. S. Emerson, to correct any impression
+that all Australia, or even much of it, is like Ninety Mile:
+
+"A rough red stave in a God-writ song was the narrow, water-worn Bush
+track, and the birds knew the song and gloried in it, and the trees gave
+forth an accompaniment under the unseen hands of the wind until all the
+hillside was a living melody. Child voices joined in, and presently from
+a bend in the track, 'three ha'pence for tuppence, three ha'pence for
+tuppence,' came a lumbering old horse, urged into an unwonted canter.
+Three kiddies bestrode the ancient, and as they swung along they sang
+snatches of Kipling's 'Recessional,' to an old hymn-tune that lingers in
+the memory of us all. As they drew near to me the foremost urchin
+suddenly reined up. The result was disastrous, for the ancient
+'propped,' and the other two were emptied out on the track. From the
+dust they called their brother many names that are not to be found in
+school books; but he, laughing, had slid down and was cutting a twig
+from a neighbouring tree. 'A case-moth! A case-moth!' he cried. The
+fallen ones scrambled to their feet. 'What sort, Teddy? What sort?' they
+asked eagerly.
+
+"But Teddy had caught sight of me.
+
+"'Well, what will you do with that?' I asked.
+
+"'Take it to school, sir; teacher tells us all about them at school.'
+The answer was spoken naturally and without any trace of shyness.
+
+"'Did you learn that hymn you were singing at school, too?'
+
+"''Tain't a hymn, sir. It's the "Recessional"!' This, proudly, from the
+youngest.
+
+"But they had learned it at school, and when I had given them a leg-up
+and stood watching them urge the ancient down the hillside, I made up my
+mind that I would visit the school where the teacher told the scholars
+all about case-moths and taught them to sing the 'Recessional'; and a
+morning or two later I did.
+
+[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN RIDING TO SCHOOL. PAGE 75.]
+
+"The school stands on the skirt of a thinly-clad Gippsland township, and
+is attended by from forty to fifty children. Fronting it is a garden--a
+sloping half-acre set out into beds, many of which are reserved for
+native flowering plants and trees. School is not 'in' yet, and a few
+early comers are at work on the beds, which are dry and dusty from a
+long, hot spell. Little tots of six and seven years stroll up and watch
+the workers, or romp about on grass plots in close proximity.
+Presently the master's voice is heard. 'Fall in!' There is a gathering
+up of bags, a hasty shuffling of feet, the usual hurry-scurry of
+laggards, and in a few moments two motionless lines stand at attention.
+'Good-morning, girls! Good-morning, boys!' says the master. A chorused
+'Good-morning, Mr. Morgan!' returns his salutation, and then the work of
+the day begins.
+
+"But do the scholars look upon it as work? Something over thirty years
+ago Herbert Spencer wrote: 'She was at school, where her memory was
+crammed with words and names and dates, and her reflective faculties
+scarcely in the slightest degree exercised.' In those days, as many old
+State-school boys well remember, to learn was, indeed, to work, and when
+fitting occasion offered, we 'wagged it' conscientiously, even though we
+did have to 'touch our toes' for it when we returned. But under our
+modern educational system the teacher can make the school work
+practically a labour of love.
+
+"The morning being bright, the children are put through some simple
+exercises and encouraged to take a few 'deep breathings.' Then the lines
+are formed again. 'Left turn! Quick march!' and the scholars file into
+the schoolhouse."
+
+But we need not follow the school in its day's work, except to say that
+the ideal always is to make the work alive and interesting. Naturally,
+Australian children get to like school.
+
+In the cities the schools are very good. All the State schools are
+absolutely free, and even books are provided. A smart child can win
+bursaries, and go from the primary school to the high school, and then
+on to the University, and win to a profession without his education
+costing his parents anything at all. When I was a boy the State of
+Tasmania used to send every year two Tasmanian scholars to Oxford
+University, giving them enough to pay for a course there. That has since
+been stopped, but many Australians come to British Universities
+now--mostly to Oxford and Edinburgh--with money provided by their
+parents. There are, however, excellent Universities in the chief cities
+of Australia, and there is no actual need to leave the Commonwealth to
+complete one's education.
+
+In the Bush, and indeed almost everywhere--for there is no city life
+which has not a touch of the Bush life--Australian children grow to be
+very hardy and very stoical. They can endure great hardship and great
+pain. I remember hearing of a boy in the Maitland (N.S.W.) district
+whose horse stumbled in a rabbit-hole and fell with him. The boy's thigh
+was broken and the horse was prostrate on top of him, and did not seem
+to wish to move. The boy stretched out his hand and got a stick, with
+which he beat the horse until it rose, keeping the while a hold of the
+reins. Then, with his broken thigh, that boy mounted the horse (which
+was not much hurt), rode home, and read a book whilst waiting for the
+doctor to come and set his limb. Another boy I knew in Australia was
+bitten by a snake on the finger; with his blunt pocket-knife he cut the
+finger off and walked home. He suffered no ill effects from the
+snake-poison.
+
+Endurance of hardship and pain is taught by the life of the Australian
+Bush. It is no place for the cowardly or for the tender. You must learn
+to face and to subdue Nature.
+
+The games of the Australian child are just the British games, changed a
+little to meet local conditions. A very favourite game is that of
+"Bushrangers and Bobbies" ("bobbies" meaning policemen). In this the
+boys imitate as nearly as they can the old hunting down of the
+bushrangers by the mounted police.
+
+The bushranger made a good deal of exciting history in Australia.
+Generally he was a scoundrel of the lowest type, an escaped murderer who
+took to the Bush to escape hanging, and lived by robbery and violence.
+But a few--a very few--were rather of the type of the English Robin Hood
+or the Scotch Rob Roy, living a lawless life, but not being needlessly
+cruel. It is those few who have given basis to the tradition of the
+Australian bushranger as a noble and chivalrous fellow who only robbed
+the rich (who, people argue, could well afford to be robbed), and who
+atoned for that by all sorts of kindness to the poor. Many books have
+been written on this tradition, glorifying the bushranger. But the plain
+fact is that most of the bushrangers were infamous wretches for whom
+hanging was a quite inadequate punishment.
+
+The bushranger, as a rule, was an escaped convict or a criminal fleeing
+from justice. Sometimes he acted singly, sometimes he had a gang of
+followers. A cave in some out-of-the-way spot, good horses and guns,
+were his necessary equipment. The site of the cave was important. It
+needed to be near a coaching-road, so that the bushranger's headquarters
+should be near to his place of business, which was to stick-up
+mail-coaches and rob them of gold, valuables, weapons, and ammunition.
+It also needed to be in a position commanding a good view, and with more
+than one point of entrance. Two bushrangers' caves I remember well, one
+near to Armidale, on the great northern high-road. It was at the top of
+a lofty hill, commanding a wide view of the country. There was no
+outward sign of a cave even to the close observer. A great granite hill
+seemed to be crowned with just loose boulders. But in between those
+boulders was a winding passage which gave entrance to a big cave with a
+little fresh-water stream. A man and his horse could take shelter there.
+
+Another famous bushranger's cave was near Medlow, on the Blue Mountains
+(N.S.W.), in a position to command the Great Western Road, along which
+the gold from Lambing Flat and Sofala had to go to Sydney. This was
+quite a perfect cave for its purpose. Climbing down a mountain gully,
+you came to its end, apparently, in a stream of water gushing from out
+a wall of rock. But behind that rock was a narrow passage leading to a
+cave which opened out into a little valley with another stream, and some
+good grass-land. To this valley the only means of access was the secret
+passage through the cave, which allowed a man and his horse to pass
+through. A gang of bushrangers kept this eyrie for many years
+undiscovered.
+
+The latest big gang of bushrangers were the Kelly brothers, who infested
+Victoria. Ned Kelly was famous because he wore a suit of armour
+sufficiently strong to resist the rifle bullet of that day. The Kellys
+were finally driven to cover in a little country hotel in Victoria. They
+held the place against a siege by the police until the police set fire
+to it. Some of the gang perished in the flames. Others, including Ned
+Kelly himself, broke out and were shot or captured. He was hanged in
+Melbourne gaol.
+
+But this is getting far away from the Australian children's games. It is
+a curious fact that when the Australian children assemble to play
+"Bushrangers and Bobbies," everybody wants to be a bushranger, and the
+guardian of the law is looked upon as quite an inferior character. Lots
+decide, however, the cast. The bushrangers sally forth and stick up an
+imaginary coach, or rob an imaginary country bank. The "bobbies" go in
+pursuit, and there is a desperate mock battle, which allows of much
+yelling and running about, and generally causes great joy.
+
+"Camping out" is another characteristic amusement of the Australian
+child. In his school holidays, parties go out, sometimes for weeks at a
+time, sailing around the reaches of the sea inlets, or, inland,
+following the course of some river, and hunting kangaroos and other game
+as they go. Generally adults accompany these parties, but when an
+Australian boy has reached the age of fifteen or sixteen he is credited
+with being able to look after himself, and is trusted to sail a boat and
+to carry a firearm. I can remember once on the way down to National Park
+(N.S.W.) for the Field Artillery camp, at one of the suburban stations
+there broke into the carriage reserved for officers, with a cheerful
+impudence that defied censure, a little band of boys. They had not a
+shoe among them, nor had anyone a whole suit of clothes. But they
+carried proudly fishing tackle and some rags of canvas which would help,
+with boughs, to build a rough shelter hut. The remainder of the train
+being full, they invaded the officers' carriage and made themselves
+comfortable. They were out for a few days' "camp" in the National Park.
+For about ten shillings they would hire a rowing-boat for three days.
+Railway fares would be sixpence or ninepence per head. A good deal of
+their food they would catch with fishing lines; bread, jam, a little
+bacon, and, of course, the "billy" and its tea were brought with them.
+This was the great yearly festival, planned probably for many weeks
+beforehand, calling for much thought for its accomplishment, showing the
+sturdy spirit which is characteristic of the young Australian.
+
+All the usual British games are played in Australia: tops, hoops,
+marbles among the younger children; cricket, football, lawn-tennis among
+their elders. The climate is especially suited for cricket, as it is
+warm and bright and sunny for so long a term of the year. On a holiday
+in the parks around the Australian cities may be seen many hundreds of
+cricket matches. All the schools have their teams. Most of the shops and
+factories keep up teams among the employees. These teams play in
+competitions with all the earnestness of big cricket. As the players
+grow better they join the electorate clubs. In every big parliamentary
+division there is an electorate club, made up of residents in that
+electorate. The club may put into the field as many as four teams in a
+day--its senior team and three junior teams. So there is an enormous
+amount of play--real serious match play--every Saturday afternoon and
+public holiday. Australia thus trains some of the finest cricketers of
+the world. For some years now (1911) the Australian Eleven has held the
+championship of the world.
+
+The Australian child of the poorer classes usually leaves school at
+fourteen. The children of the richer may stay at school and the
+University until nineteen or twenty. Usually they launch out into life
+by then. Australia is a young country, and its conditions call for young
+work.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That finishes this "Peep at Australia." I have tried to give the young
+readers some little indication of what features of Australian life will
+most interest them. The picture is of a land which appeals very strongly
+to the adventurous type of the Anglo-Celtic race. I have never yet met a
+British man or boy who was of the right manly type who did not love
+Australian life after a little experience. The great distances, the
+cheery hospitality, the sunny climate, the sense of social freedom, the
+generous return which Nature gives to the man who offers her honest
+service--all these appeal and make up the sum of that strong attraction
+Australia has to her own children and to colonists from the Motherland.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
+
+
+
+
+    LIST OF VOLUMES IN THE PEEPS AT MANY LANDS AND CITIES SERIES
+
+    EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+    BELGIUM        IRELAND
+    BURMA          ITALY
+    CANADA         JAMAICA
+    CEYLON         JAPAN
+    CHINA          KOREA
+    CORSICA        MOROCCO
+    DENMARK        NEW ZEALAND
+    EDINBURGH      NORWAY
+    EGYPT          PARIS
+    ENGLAND        PORTUGAL
+    FINLAND        RUSSIA
+    FRANCE         SCOTLAND
+    GERMANY        SIAM
+    GREECE         SOUTH AFRICA
+    HOLLAND        SOUTH SEAS
+    HOLY LAND      SPAIN
+    ICELAND        SWITZERLAND
+    INDIA
+
+    A LARGER VOLUME IN THE SAME STYLE
+    THE WORLD
+    Containing 37 full-page illustrations in colour
+
+    PUBLISHED BY ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+    SOHO SQUARE, LONDON. W.
+
+
+    AGENTS
+
+    AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+    AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
+    205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
+
+    CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LTD.
+    ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO
+
+    INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
+    MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
+    309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Peeps At Many Lands: Australia, by Frank Fox
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