Australia Or England in the South
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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http : //books . google . com/ NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES I Mill II Illl MM ll Illl lllll Illl Illl Midi III 3 3433 08245188 5 H it Jits DH- • %%\ * Stockman yarding Cattie. Australia or ENGLAND IN THE SOUTH GEORGE SUTHERLAND, M.A. of Melbourne University With Twenty-seven Illustrations i LONDON SEELEY fcf Co., 46, 47, ef 48, ESSEX STREET, STRAND . • • - »" * (LATE OF 54, FLEET STREET) 1886 , . - Att Rights Rtstrvtd TO NEW YORK PUBLIC l/niAF.Y &11509A ASTOR, LEW'"' *™D TILDEN FOU O..*: . IS R 1923 L CONTENTS. Introduction I.—A Trip to Australia II.—Melbourne and Adelaide III.—Sydney and Brisbane . IV.—The Island Continent V.—Vegetation and Animals VI.—The Australian Climate VII.—The People of Australia VIII.—Farming in Australia IX.—Australian Townships . X.—Sheep-breeding Country XI.—Australian Squatters XII.—Gold-mining XIII.—Australian Millionaires XIV.—Society in Australia XV.—Changes of Fortune . XVI.—Education in Australia XVII.—Art, Literature, and Science XVIII.—Theatricals and Music XIX.—Politics in Australia XX.—Australian Governors XXI.—Railways and Public Debts XXII.—Church and State . XXIII.—Journalism in Australia XXIV.—Law and Legislation XXV.—The Native Blacks 4N9 XXVI.—Wages and Expenses XXVII.—Sports in Australia XXVIII.—Emigrants, Old and New AUSTRALIA OR ENGLAND IN THE SOUTH INTRODUCTION. IT has been well said by an eminent writer of recent date that the expansion of the Anglo-Saxon race over the distant regions of the earth's surface is probably the most interesting study and the most momentous fact of modern English History.* Wherever the Englishman goes he is constantly reminded of the importance of the great race of mankind to which he belongs. While he stays at home he is proud of his country ; but after he has travelled he becomes proud of his race. He finds in the New World that his American cousins exhibit an energy and an intelligence which are simply unparalleled in any other part of the world. He finds that in India and the East the English language, English literature, English trade and commerce are rapidly becoming cos mopolitan, and the name of the British nation is synonymous with greatness. * Professor Seele/s Expansion of England. 8 Income of Australians. But it is in Australia that he finds, perhaps, the most instructive study of all. There, in the uttermost parts of the earth, he sees an English nation unaltered by the intermixture of races and unestranged by wars or quarrels. He sees an island continent, embracing an area of nearly three million square miles, peopled by his own countrymen, who from one end of the land to the other are as loyal to their fatherland and to the race to which they belong as if they lived in Kent or Middlesex. In their purely British character and tenacious attach ment to British memories and customs the Australian people are unique among Colonials of all parts of the globe ; and it is a significant fact, too, that in the race for material prosperity they have outstripped their relatives, and taken the very first position among mankind. The average earnings of the Australian population are greater than those of any other country on the face of the earth. Their State income now exceeds a total of £20,000,000 per annum. At the same rate, in propor tion to population, the revenue of the United Kingdom would be somewhat over £300,000,000, instead of being, as it is, less than £90,000,000. The explanation is not to be found in excessive taxation, but in the fact that many valuable sources of revenue, and notably the railways—worth at a low estimate about £70,000,000 —are the property of the people. The national debt of Australia, instead of representing only so much gun powder, blown away hundreds of years ago, is for the most part only a mortgage on a splendid property which increases in value from year to year. Nor is the individual wealth of the people less re- A Prosperous People. 9 markable than that of their Governments. The total assets of the twenty-eight banks of issue were in 1884 no less than £93,404,224, and at the present moment certainly exceed a hundred millions sterling; while deposits at savings banks amount to considerably over ten millions, the average balance to the credit of each depositor being about £28. Turning to the figures showing the extent of trade, it will be found that in this respect also the Australian colonies are far ahead of any other portion of the British Empire. The com bined exports and imports of the United Kingdom amount to a little over £20 per head of the population. In Australia the figure is almost exactly double that amount, or £40 per head. These few facts will at once show that in some respects, at all events, the Australians are a remarkable people. But it is not to their material prosperity or their commercial success that I wish to draw attention. Facts and figures can give but a scanty notion as to how the people of any country live—their occupations and amusements, their virtues and their failings, and the thousand details and incidents which go to make up the sum of human existence. It is to the delineation of the character of the Australian people and their conditions of life, as observed by one who has spent a large proportion of his years in the prin cipal colonies, that the following pages will be devoted, in the hope that they may prove interesting not only to those who may never have an opportunity of visiting Greater Britain at the Antipodes, but also to those who can find time and leisure to go and see for themselves. IO Smart Globe-trotting. CHAPTER I. A Trip to Australia—A Smart Globe Trotter—Life on an Ocean Steamer—Artemus Ward on the Voyage to Australia—Escap ing an English Winter. A VISIT to Australia may very comfortably be accom plished in about four or five months. It is certainly wonderful how much may be seen in that short space of time. I knew a professor in one of the Australian Universities who started from Melbourne on a trip to the old countries in the month of November and reached Australia on the return voyage during the course of the next March. In the interval he had visited all the leading centres of population in Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and America. He had inspected all the great engineering works of the Old and the New World, and collected an immense amount of information, the mere mention of which would afford occupation for many an interesting hour.