Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 14

The English sparrow was taken to Australia by settlers from the British Isles, and he has proved a source of annoyance to the people of that country, as well as that of others. Another bird imported from England, the starling, a very dirty and destructive one to berries, is also an eyesore to the people. This bird is numerous in Adelaide.

Rabbits were unknown in Australia before settlers from the North made that country their home. Being very destructive to crops, large sums of money are expended to build rabbit-proof fences about tracts of farming land owing to the millions of these creatures that infest the country. The moderate climate admits of perpetual breeding.

Australians do not eat rabbit meat.

The rabbit trapper of Australia is an independent sort of a citizen.

His disposition is akin to that of the fellow who will sit on a log all day to catch a six-inch fish, and considers his time well spent when he walks into his home, carrying his quarry by a spear of long gra.s.s pulled through the vent in the gills. Ships loaded with frozen rabbits leave Australian ports for England at frequent sailings.

The kangaroo is termed in Australia "the native," and is harmless when met with under any circ.u.mstances. The smaller specie is known as the wallaby. Kangaroo is the biggest game on the Australian continent. Its tail is the only part used as food, and then only for soup.

A story is told of an English woman who became engaged to a native Australian. She started from England to meet her fiance at Adelaide.

She had told her friends she was to be married to an Australian native. When she reached the end of her long journey and came ash.o.r.e friends in Australia who met her, pointing to a kangaroo close by, remarked that the animal was the native Australian. "What!" shouted the bride-to-be. "Am I engaged to marry a kangaroo?"

The national flower is that of the wattle tree. This tree grows large, its leaves are small and of a very dark green color, and the limbs are dense. Blossoms come out very thick, and leaves, limbs and body of the tree are hidden from view under a profusion of rich, gold-colored flowers. Tracts of wattle-tree groves extend for miles, and when all the trees are in bloom it is a treat for the eyes seeking floral beauty.

Mutton and lamb are the meats chiefly eaten. One seldom gets a good cup of coffee in British territory, for the reason that the British are a tea-drinking race, and the same applies to Australia. As evidence of the hospitality met with in homes of British colonists, food dainties are always served with tea to callers.

After having said good-by to Adelaide, we boarded a train going to Melbourne. Upon reaching Ballarat, having heard of the Eureka Stockade, behind which gold miners defied militia in 1854, induced a longing to see this historical spot on the Australian continent where men faced each other with firearms. The skirmish between miners and troops came about through the authorities charging miners exorbitant sums for gold mining licenses. A stockade was thrown up--it is there to-day--and from that shelter bullets whizzed at the troops, and soldiers' bullets whizzed at the miners. The battle lasted ten minutes, after two dozen miners had been killed. With this exception, Australia is as barren of warfare lore as a large part of the country is of vegetation. Gold mining is still in active operation, and profitable. While gold is mined in all the States of the Commonwealth, the output of the West Australia mines is greater than the combined production of the other five.

When gold was discovered in Ballarat, in 1850, 65,000 people landed in Melbourne the next year, and in five years 337,000 had found their way to the diggings, although in those days vessels were small and slow, and the distance from Europe to Melbourne is 13,000 miles.

Ballarat has a population of 50,000, is in the State of Victoria, and 75 miles west of Melbourne. One of the princ.i.p.al streets is 168 feet wide. How many cities are there in the United States, the size of Ballarat, having an art gallery, a museum and creditable botanical garden? Ballarat has these. A nice lake also is within the city limits. The attractiveness of this place is unusual for a gold mining center.

With an acquaintance, a football game between two crack elevens was attended, and the price of admission to the grounds was 12 cents.

Ballarat holds her own in the matter of buildings, good lighting and street car systems.

CHAPTER III

Pa.s.sing from the ocean through The Heads to Sydney Harbor, there unfolds to the eye perhaps the grandest foreground of a city, landscape and soft-water scene to be found in any part of the world.

From the harbor--scalloped with pretty bays--to the left rise, on a gentle slope, bright-colored brick and red-sandstone homes with red-tiled roofs, the openings carpeted with ever-green lawns, animated by flowering gardens, a soft brush-grown s.p.a.ce here and there, or a blushing cove, walled by friendly rock--a willing partner to molding the frame incasing this splendid picture. Traveling toward the city, the vessel circuits evergreen islands, pa.s.sing smart sailing craft and swift-moving launches, when a point of land, part of an attractive park, invitingly juts its gra.s.sy s.p.a.ce into the noted harbor. The Botanical Garden next comes to view, when the Norfolk Island pine tree--none more shapely in the world--seems to suggest to the visitor that there is something good even beyond. To the right of the harbor--also fringed with cozy bays and rippling coves--on another slope, there spreads out a grand landscape that can come only from gum bush and tropical foliage, the former in this instance. The harbor becomes dotted with hurrying ferry boats, carrying people from one side to the other. The city of Sydney then becomes outlined, and, from the striking panorama of red-sandstone structures, there is revealed a galaxy of towers, turrets, spires and domes that unerringly suggest the highest industrial ideal of a people living in a center of civilization and modern achievement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PARLIAMENT HOUSE, MELBOURNE (top), and VICTORIA MARKETS, SYDNEY (bottom).

AUSTRALIA.]

As Capetown is the cradle of South Africa, so is Sydney the cradle of Australia. Nine miles from Sydney, in Botany Bay, James Cook, an Englishman, anch.o.r.ed his ship _Endeavor_. That was in 1770, six years before the Declaration of Independence was signed by the American colonists. For two hundred years previous to Captain Cook's raising the British flag on the sh.o.r.es of Botany Bay, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish navigators had gotten glimpses of that great continent, but failed to implant the ensigns of their respective countries on it as Cook did. It was anybody's country up to the year 1770. Section after section had been annexed by the English from time to time, until all the continent and islands close by had become British territory. Not a shot was fired to acquire these different sections. Eight years after Captain Cook reached Botany Bay, Arthur Phillips landed and formed a convict settlement on the site from which Sydney had grown.

In 1788 there were but six head of cattle in Australia; to-day there are over 15,000,000. In the same year there were but 29 sheep; to-day nearly 100,000,000.

Heated arguments take place frequently anent the merits of Sydney harbor and that of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said to be the two best harbors in the world. The distinction between these two grand havens is similar to that existing between Victoria and Niagara Falls. Where the land about Sydney harbor gracefully slopes and admits of the striking panorama from The Heads, or entrance to the Harbor, to Circular Quay, hills shut from view the attractive city of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian capital cannot be seen at a point where Sydney harbor's beauty reaches its climax. On the other hand, Rio de Janeiro's harbor is twice larger, dotted with over a hundred tropical islands, and of good depth. The length of Sydney harbor is eight miles, with comparatively few green islands, and at places the water is none too deep for ships of great draught. Also The Heads of Sydney harbor are squatty compared to the high, bold stone pillars between which vessels sail through a narrow but deep channel into Rio de Janeiro's haven. It would seem that Sydney's harbor is the prettier, Rio de Janeiro's the greater and better.

Three-quarters of a million busy and industrious people are engaged in factory, mill, shop, office and store in modern Sydney. Every one of these will do any task with pleasure that tends to enhance the commercial prestige and attractive appearance not only of their city but of the Commonwealth. In no other country will one find a more patriotic race of people; but, though British subjects, their patriotism seemed to be for Australia. They have a national flag, national emblems on their money coins--in fact, Australia is deeply stamped on any and every thing Australian.

Travelers are often disappointed when visiting points of interest based on local reputation; but Sydney is the exception to the rule.

One can spend at least two weeks in the State capital, going to different attractions from day to day, and will find everything reputed to be of interest worth one's time going to see. For this reason it has become known as the "holiday city." Sydney is one of the most difficult cities in the world to describe, because everything is so good. One would be justified to begin and finish an account of Sydney with the word "Splendid."

Not until I reached the capital of the State of New South Wales did I find government or munic.i.p.al ownership of public utilities meant anything in the way of cheaper or better service. The street-car service of Sydney is, I believe, the cheapest in the world. The charge is two cents for each "stage," but the "stages" in Sydney are far apart. The clumsy, slow, double-decked car is not to be seen.

An express train leaves Sydney for Melbourne at 8 o'clock every evening, and had one decided to start that journey on a Sunday and depended on street car travel to the railway station, he would surely miss his train. The cars come to a standstill from 7 to 8 o'clock, while church services are being held.

A loaf of bread in Sydney must be a loaf of bread. The legal weight is two pounds, and employes of the city bureau who look after the staff of life keep a close watch on bakers to see that customers are not cheated. An inspector is apt to halt a driver of a baker's wagon at any point, jump into the vehicle, pick up a loaf of bread, take from his pocket a collapsible scale, put the loaf in the tray and particularly note its weight. If the bread should be an ounce under weight the baker will be fined $5, and should the loaf be two ounces short of weight he would be fined $10--$5 for every ounce under two pounds. The quality of the bread, by the way, is, like everything that goes to make up Sydney, excellent.

Vulgarity or profanity is not heard about the streets. Any unsavory remark that reaches the ears of a policeman will cost the careless one at least $2.50.

Stopping at a small and tidy hotel, located three squares from the postoffice, the rate was but $1.50 a day. Good meals were served at restaurants about the city at 25 cents. Serviette is the word always used in British territory for table napkin.

House rent for working cla.s.ses ranged in price from $15 to $20 a month, payable weekly. Meat sold at 6 to 12 cents a pound. Clothes are cheaper in Australia than in South Africa, because Australia uses its own wool.

"When you will have brains enough to owe your butcher $15, you'll get a better grade of meat." Two women were seated on a bench in a park, talking about dresses, hats, engagements, marriages and babies, when they touched on household matters. One told the other her troubles with her butcher--could not understand why she got inferior meat. Her companion asked if she paid cash for her goods, and the complaining one answered, "Yes." It was then that the suggestion contained in the first sentence was made.

Concerning freedom of speech and liberty in a general sense, one sees no difference from what he has been used to in his own country while traveling about, but does admire the quality of law that is dispensed and maintained in British territory.

While looking about the exhibits at a State agricultural fair one can reach a fair conclusion as to the nature of a country by the products shown, more particularly if one has been raised on a farm. At a fair visited there were cattle with backs almost as broad as a full-sized bed. The weight of some of these animals was 2,500 pounds down to 2,000. It seemed as if an exhibitor would be laughed at were he to enter a steer that weighed under a ton. Horses on exhibit were of the same high cla.s.s. The reputation of the Australian horse extends beyond local bounds, and he is known as the Australian "whaler."

Sheep, chickens, pigs--from the top of the list to the last only the best of each kind were exhibited. Australian cattle and horses are aristocrats compared to South African breeds.

Education for children living in the "back blocks," as distant parts of Australia are termed, is hauled on wagons. A government teacher travels about in a wagon covered with a tent and stops at the home of every settler who has children. The tent is lifted from the wagon to the ground, and school exercises are gone through. Would not the trouble and expense that the Commonwealth of Australia goes to for fitting its people to meet the struggles of life "warm the c.o.c.kles of your heart" to such a government! This is called the "traveling school," and it would be a waste of time to dwell in detail on universities, colleges, technical and the lower-grade schools of the educational department of New South Wales.

The conditions of giving land to settlers by the State of New South Wales are liberal. If one is a white man, is willing to work, and wants a farm, he will get the land, and money to make a start with, too.

The English system of money is in use. That system is not on a decimal basis, which deficiency seems out of place in an advanced country like that of the Commonwealth. For this reason efforts are being put forth to change the system to a decimal basis. The kangaroo and emu are stamped on the face of some of the money coins in use, but these will not be accepted as legal tender in other British countries.

"Smoke, ho," is the term one might hear were he to pa.s.s a gang of men working on a railroad or at any work where a group of men are employed. The weather gets very hot in summer, and rests are taken at intervals. When the foreman of the gang says "Smoke, ho," that means a breathing spell, or quitting time.

The State of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, is the richest in the Commonwealth. The sheep industry is the greatest.

Smokestacks from factory and mill are thickly dotted not only about the city but far into the suburbs. Great quant.i.ties of b.u.t.ter, beef, mutton and wool, wheat and flour are exported from that State, besides ores and coal. The exports from Australia now are very large, but what will they be when the country becomes even one quarter settled?

Wages have increased from time to time in Sydney, until now bricklayers receive $5 a day. That figure is good wages in Australia, for the climate permits of outside work the year round. The city is growing all the time, the demand for mechanics naturally increasing.

Few mechanics receive less than $3. The lowest wages laborers receive are $2, but that figure is often exceeded. Printers on newspapers earn $27 to $30 a week, the working time not exceeding 36 hours. Good board can be had at $4 to $6 a week. No one works Sat.u.r.day afternoons in the British colonies visited.

Excellent newspapers are published in Sydney--fully in keeping with the city. On looking over their pages, one must give much credit to the publishers for the cable dispatches printed, as the news rate must be high when sent from centers 6,000 to 13,000 miles away.

A thousand acres of splendid park area are located in and close to Sydney, divided into 37 parks. Within a radius of 25 miles are 70,000 acres of park land. Besides, there are half a dozen good bathing beaches within easy reach.

Over a hundred miles from Sydney, in the Blue Mountain range, is located a tract of stalact.i.te and stalagmite caves. These are the property of the government, and known as Jenolan Caves. The caves cover a large area of land, and exploration is going on all the time.

Over a dozen of these are now open to visitors, and the trip is well worth while taking. But while Jenolan Caves are much greater than those of Luray Caverns, Virginia, one will find in Luray better formations and a prettier grade of that mineral than can be seen in Jenolan. It is another case of Victoria Falls and Niagara. Jenolan Caves are much the greater, but Luray Caverns are the prettier. In caves of this character columns of stalact.i.te and stalagmite a foot in diameter may be seen, and when it is remembered that, in one instance at Jenolan, a stem of stalact.i.te has grown but one-thirty-second part of an inch in 30 years, what a tremendous age the larger columns must have attained! The atmosphere in this section of the Blue Mountains is of a deep blue color. Mount Kosciusko is the highest peak of Australia, rising 7,308 feet.

In that section of country kangaroo may be seen hopping about the hills, feeding on gra.s.s and sprouts, or standing up on their hind legs to watch if any one is coming their way. Timidity starts them, at the slightest alarm, to holes in the mountain, and where rocks are located at the place of concealment these are as polished granite from their heavy tails pa.s.sing over them on coming out and going in.

The difference in railroad gauges is proving a source of much inconvenience to transportation. In New South Wales the gauge is standard, 4 feet 8 inches, and in Queensland the railroad is narrow-gauge, 3 feet 6 inches. So, going from Sydney to Brisbane, pa.s.sengers, cars and freight must be changed; also in going from Sydney to Melbourne, when the Victoria border has been reached, a complete change has to be made, as the Victoria gauge is broad, 5 feet 3 inches. The width of South Australia railroads is 5 feet 3 inches and also 4 feet 8 inches, but those of West Australia are again narrow-gauge.

One not familiar with the population of American cities would come to the conclusion that San Francisco, Cal., was the greatest in the United States, judged from the number of times it is mentioned by Australians. As a matter of fact, both Melbourne and Sydney have a greater population than the Californian metropolis. Seldom are New York, Philadelphia and Chicago mentioned. This is accounted for by San Francis...o...b..ing nearer to Australia than any other American city.

"Two years before the fleet came," and "About a year after the fleet was here," are instances of how recent great events are referred to.

Evidently the visit of the American battleships to Australia, when the fleet made its trip around the world, proved an epoch in this country.

Before leaving the "mainland," I want to acknowledge my grat.i.tude to Australians for the many courtesies extended and kindnesses bestowed.