Town Life in Australia Part 7

Many people think that the solution of the Education question remains to be found. A Royal Commission was appointed last session in South Australia to consider the bearings of the existing system, and in Victoria there is already a strong political party opposed to it. After such a complete reversal of a policy which was supposed to be so firmly established as Sir John Robertson's land system, no system in Australia can be said to be finally established if there is any considerable number of sufferers by it. Most sensible people--though they are certainly not numerous--admit that the Catholics are really aggrieved by being obliged to contribute towards a system of education of which they cannot avail themselves, and many others regret the omission from our educational system of so important an element as religion. But the advantage of an uniform system of State education is widely and generally appreciated.

The present system may be modified so as to give ministers of religion greater opportunities for doctrinal teaching out of hours, and to allow of broad Christian morality being taught as part of the educational course. But I cannot think that a return to State aid to denominational schools is at all probable; and if the next half-dozen years pa.s.s over without such a change, the number of electors educated under the existing system will make it impossible. The Church of England was the only Protestant body which originally objected to the secular system, because none of the other Protestant denominations had schools of their own. Now these are beginning to awake to the fact that the secular schools are thinning their flocks, and producing a large number of freethinkers in fact, if not in profession. They are therefore openly becoming more inclined to joint action with the Anglicans, not for the establishment of denominational schools, but for the introduction of broad Christian teaching into the existing schools. The Catholics, of course, hold that just as the existing schools negatively produce Free-thinkers by the absence of any Christian teaching, so broad Christianity would be mere Protestantism; i.e., the negation of Roman Catholic doctrine.

On the Land question we seem as far as ever from finality. The reaction against the selection system will probably not extend to Victoria because the quant.i.ty of land there is limited, and its character for the most part superior. In South Australia the solution will probably be in superior facilities for opening up the interior or unoccupied lands, greater fixity of tenure to the leaseholders, restriction of the land open to the operation of the system of selection, easier terms to the selector, and greater encouragement to both selector and leaseholder to improve their holdings. In New South Wales the change must be more radical, because, in the absence of the South Australian clause which made survey precede selection, the evil which has arisen is much greater.

But the direction of the change will probably be similar, though the selector will be less considered, and there is not much totally unused land needing pastoral occupation. In Victoria the selections are now being increased in size to one square mile, and I think changes will gradually be made which will make the large freeholders find it to their advantage to sell. In Victoria and New South Wales there is a quant.i.ty of freehold property used for pasture which is well fitted for agriculture.

South Australia, on the contrary, has pretty well reached the margin of cultivation, and must seek to improve her wheat-yield, not so much by enlargement of the area cultivated, as by improvement in the cultivation of the area already under crop.

Victoria has completely abandoned Government immigration, but New South Wales, South Australia, and Queensland each grant free or a.s.sisted pa.s.sages to immigrants of a certain cla.s.s. For the last three or four years the immigration policy has been slackened, but there is every sign that another push is going o be made in this direction by South Australia, which had almost entirely stopped free pa.s.sages, and by Queensland. Beyond question, one of the chief needs of Australia at the present moment is a steady stream of immigration, and this can only be obtained by more strenuous efforts on the part of the Colonial Governments to make the position and prospects of the country better known at home. Immigration raises the revenue and helps to pay off the interest on our debt. It reduces the expenditure proportionately to the population. It gives more employment, since the new-comers must be housed and clothed and live; and it supplies more labour, enabling fresh country and new industries to be opened up. Population is the chief element of wealth and progress in a young country like this.

The contract which the Queensland Government has just signed for the construction of a railway from Charleville and Point Parker marks the beginning of an era of transcontinental railways constructed by English companies upon the land-grant system. The next will probably join Albany (King George's Sound) to Perth, and the third will traverse the continent from north to south, i.e. from Port Darwin to Port Augusta, and practically to Adelaide. The advantages of the land-grant system are yet insufficiently appreciated in Australia, but in this system I believe there lies an enormous source of wealth. The Colonial Governments cannot possibly afford to construct these lines themselves; but if the contracts are made with discretion, the advantages which the companies will reap, though sufficient, will be as nothing compared with the enormous increase in the value of the remaining land, and the addition to the productive power of the colony. The railways from capital to capital will, of course, be constructed by the Governments of each colony. Sydney is already united to Melbourne, and in four years' time Adelaide will also be connected. Brisbane, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Mackay, and Townsville will all be joined in due course of time, and by the land-grant system Point Parker, on the northern coast, will be included. The next step must undoubtedly be the connection of Albany with Port Augusta on the land-grant system, and of Perth--or rather Geraldton--with the new settlements in the Kimberley district. All this, I think, we may reasonably expect to be done in the next quarter of a century. After that a line will probably be constructed across the centre of the continent from east to west, and the coastal trunk line completed along the north-west from the Kimberley district to Port Darwin, and thence to Point Parker.

Just before the last mail left with this letter, the Parkes Government in New South Wales exploded like a bomb-sh.e.l.l. A fortnight after it was posted, Sir Bryan O'Loghlen wrought a _coup d'etat_. On the last day of January, Victoria was amazed by the altogether unexpected news that the Ministry had advised, and the Governor granted, a dissolution. The morning papers had not contained even a hint of such a catastrophe, and the publication of the Government _Gazette_ containing the proclamation was the first intimation of it which anybody outside the Cabinet received. The grounds upon which the request of the Ministry was granted were, that the House was so divided into sections of parties that it was impossible to carry on the public business; that the Parliament was moribund, having only six months to live; and that the Government, which asked for the dissolution, was undefeated. Both the Conservatives and Liberals, and their leaders the _Argus_ and _Age_, alike blame the Governor for granting the dissolution, on the grounds that the House was just as incompetent to transact business six months ago as now, and that the Government would never have applied for a dissolution but for the certain defeat which awaited them directly the House met, on account of the failure of the loan. To me, however, it seems that the Governor was perfectly right. Admitting the undeniable truth of the objections I have just quoted, it remains to be said that if the Government had waited to be defeated in the House, no Government capable of carrying on business could have been formed in such a House. As it is the Government are absolutely certain to be defeated in the country, and in a new House there is every chance of a strong Government being formed. Mr. Service, the ablest of Australian politicians, who led the Conservative Opposition to Mr. Berry's Government throughout the const.i.tutional struggle, and who has been on a holiday in England during the present Minister's tenure of office, has resolved to re-enter into politics. Although a resolute opponent of the excesses of Berryism, Mr. Service is more of a Liberal than of a Conservative, and I confidently expect that the general elections will result in a Coalition Government formed of the ablest men of either side, under Mr. Service's leadership. Even Mr. Berry, in his election speech, has announced 'moderation' as his watchword, and a longing for the loaves and fishes of office will probably induce him to serve under Mr. Service. Mr. Patterson, the ablest of the Radicals, may be p.r.o.nounced a certainty for the Ministry of Public Works. Mr. Francis, the leader of the Conservatives whilst Mr. Service was away, will be a fourth. For the remaining offices, Messrs. Pearson and Deakin of the Radicals, and Gillies of the Conservatives, are the most likely men. Such a Government of all the talents, with Civil Service Reform as the first plank in its platform, should rival the length and strength of the Parkes-Robertson Coalition, which lasted four years, and would be infinitely superior to it in ability. As for poor Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, the services he has rendered to the country are little likely to be appreciated at the poll, and all he will be able to do is to rally into opposition the men who think Mr. Service ought to have offered them portfolios.

BUSINESS.

The _Australian Insurance Banking Record_ informs me that there are no less than 24 joint-stock banking companies, with 750 branches doing business in Australia. They all pay dividends of from 6 to 18 per cent.

to their shareholders, besides putting handsome sums every year to their reserve funds, so that banking business is fairly profitable here. The existence and prosperity of so many banks in a community which, all told, is considerably smaller than the population of London, is chiefly due to the wealth of the small number of people who form it, and also to the wider range of business which the banks undertake. Nearly everybody who is worth 100 has a banking account, and most people who have an account have overdrafts, which are given for the most part on purely personal security. The banks also advance freely on growing crops, wool on the sheep's back, and all kinds of intangible security. Many of the largest merchants are to all intents and purposes mere bank-agents. It is quite a common thing for ordinary working-men to keep bank accounts; and all farmers, even the smallest, are obliged to keep them; for in the country specie payments are almost unknown, and the smallest sums are paid by cheque. Even in the towns, residents usually pay any sum over a pound by cheque. Although this practice has opened the door to a good deal of fraud, its convenience is obvious. You need never keep more than a few shillings in your pocket, and your bank keeps all your accounts for you.

In a community in which every cla.s.s is largely dependent upon his goodwill, the banker occupies the highest social position, almost irrespective of his merits. It is this excessive dependence upon the banks which largely accounts for the excessive ups and downs of colonial life. In times when money is easy the banks almost force it upon their customers. When it is tight, many people who are really solvent are forced into the _Gazette_, and a panic ensues, from which it takes the country some time to recover.

The tendency to merge large firms into limited liability companies, which has extended lately from America to England, has also been felt in Australia, though not to the same extent as in New Zealand. In certain cla.s.ses of business these come into compet.i.tion with the smaller banks, but each, as a rule, runs hand in glove with a large bank, undertaking certain cla.s.ses of loans and supplementing the bank's business. They buy wool and wheat freely in Melbourne, hold auction sales there, sell on commission in England, advance upon wool on the sheep's back and standing crops onwards; in short, merit their usual description of loan, mercantile, and agency houses. Mortgage and land investment companies are another cla.s.s which has been springing up of late. One company has been started professedly to deal solely with wheat: several already exist which make wool their only concern. Besides these, there are the usual run of mining companies, which spring up epidemically and mostly have their headquarters in Victoria. It is needless to say, that in these companies it is a case of neck or nothing.

Land is naturally the safest investment of any that offer themselves in the colonies. Although every ten years or so there comes to each colony a period of intense speculation in land, with a consequent reaction, it is a generally accepted maxim, that 'you cannot go far wrong in buying land.' There is always the chance of making 50 to 100 per cent. in the year by a land purchase, and at the worst you will get 10 to 20 per cent.

per annum, if you can only afford to tide over one, or at most two bad years.

On first-cla.s.s mortgages the rate of interest varies from 6 1/2 to 8 per cent. for large amounts. For small amounts 8 per cent. is always obtainable by a man who keeps his eyes open. But, beyond this absolutely secure cla.s.s of investments, one thousand-and-one small chances of making large profits with little risk occur to every man who has got a few hundreds; and if he fails to turn them to account he will have nothing but himself to blame.

In the early days there was of course no distinction between wholesale and retail business, and in country towns the largest firms still keep stores where you can buy sixpennyworth of anything you want. Even in the towns the distinction is not firmly established, and many of the wealthiest importers still keep shops. Nor are the trades specialized to anything like the same extent as at home; though, in wholesale trade, they are becoming more so every day. Nearly the whole of the extra-Australian trade is still with England--chiefly London--though there is a small import trade with America and China, and export to India and the Cape. The French and Germans are both making strenuous efforts to establish a market here, and the Germans especially are succeeding. A great deal of business has been done of late by agents working on commission for English manufacturers; but most of the larger importers have their buyers in England. The tendency, however, is towards buying in Australia, although it is opposed by the large wholesale importers who are injured by closer connection between manufacturers and small buyers.

If, on the one hand, there are fewer of those old-established firms in which strict traditions of honour descend from generation to generation, so, on the other hand, the smaller size of the towns gives less scope for barefaced swindlers. And thus, if the standard of commercial morality is lower here than at home, people are not taken in so easily, or to so great an extent. Everyone is expected to be more or less of a business man, and is looked upon as a blockhead and deserving to be cheated, if he does not understand and allow for the tricks of the trade. In Melbourne the heavy protectionist tariff has brought about an almost universal practice of presenting the customs with false invoices so skilfully concocted as to make detection impossible. Within my knowledge this practice has been resorted to by firms of the highest standing. Sharp practice amongst respectable firms is also very common, and verbal agreements are less trustworthy than in England. You are expected to be on your guard against being 'taken in;' and if you are taken in, no one has any compa.s.sion for you, the general opinion being that a man who trusts to anything less than the plainest black-and-white is a fool.

Liberality to _employes_ and in the details of business is little known or appreciated. Exactly contrary to the prevalent idea in America, the Australian merchant is most averse to casting bread on the waters with a view to its return after many days. He distrusts courtesy and liberality as cloaks for the knave, or as the appurtenances of the fool. Loyalty is a phrase little understood, and the merchant leaves as little to his clerks' honesty or honour as he can possibly help. In business he holds that 'Every man's hand is against his neighbour, and his neighbour's against him;' and he pushes the aphorism to its fullest logical conclusion, i.e., not merely to 'Believe every man to be a knave until you find he is honest,' but 'Believe that when a man is honest it is merely the more successfully to carry out some rascality.'

The old-fashioned English prejudice against bankruptcy has been improved out of existence by the speculative nature of all business, and the consequent frequency of insolvencies. Some of the largest merchants have 'been through the Court,' as it is termed, more than once; and provided there has been no open swindle in the case, no opprobium attaches. Even when there has been swindling, it is soon forgiven and forgotten. A man who has been caught swindling is denounced at the time with an exaggerated ardour which would make a stranger think that swindles were almost as rare as the cases in which they are discovered; but it is only just to recognise that the exposed swindler has a fair chance given him of retrieving his reputation, and perhaps of setting himself up again.

The fact is, that so much sharp practice goes on, that the discovered swindler is rarely a sinner above his neighbours: he has simply had the bad luck to be found out. If half the stories one hears are true, half the business people in the colonies must be more or less swindlers in small matters. I don't mean that they commit legal swindles, but merely what may be called dirty tricks. On the other hand, I know many business men in whose probity I could put full confidence. But you require to live in a place some time, and must probably buy your experience pretty dearly, before you find these out. And even they in many trades cannot help contamination. It is very difficult to mix thoroughly in business without dirtying your hands; it requires no ordinary moral courage to keep them clean when there is so much filthy lucre about. A man who is determined never to diverge from the strict path of honour finds himself of necessity at a disadvantage in the commercial maze, and the best thing he can do is never to go into it. His sense of what is right cannot but be dulled by the continual grating of petty trickery. He is led almost before he knows it into things from which he recoils with disgust, perhaps too late to prevent them, and he has continually to be on the watch for and to combat the trickery of others. I cannot say that, generally speaking, I have much sympathy with the somewhat smug self-righteousness of Young Men's Christian a.s.sociations, but I must say that they have done a great deal of good in putting a leaven of honesty into the commercial lump.

The way in which a man changes his trade and occupation is remarkable.

One year he is a wine-merchant; the next he deals in soft goods; and the year after he becomes an auctioneer. The consequence of this is, that, although colonists acquire a peculiar apt.i.tude for turning their hand to anything, and a great deal of general commercial knowledge, that knowledge is for the most part very superficial. This accounts for the phenomenal success which a newcomer who is a specialist occasionally meets with in a line of business in which he is an expert, and also for the failure which often attends the efforts of competent specialists, who become discredited because they are not able to do something properly, which in England would not be considered to come within their province.

To a man coming here to establish himself in any business I would always give the advice to take a subordinate position for a year in a similar business already established. This will give him what is called 'colonial experience,' for want of which many an able man fails at the threshold.

Amongst the peculiarities of colonial trade is a strong preference for local manufactures, with the exception of wine. A large manufacturer of agricultural machinery, who has just been making a tour of the colonies, tells me that he finds merchants actually prefer an inferior and dearer article locally made, if it appears at all equal to the English one in appearance. In a certain measure I believe this to be true. It is not merely a patriotic or protective feeling of sentiment, but is to a great extent due to the untrustworthiness of European manufacturers, who constantly send out articles inferior to those ordered. The French in particular sin in this respect. The Americans seem to be most to be relied upon. Owing partly to the duty on wool, and to the small number of articles which can be exported to America, there is not nearly so much trade with the United States as might be expected. If freights were lower, or our social relations with America closer, there would certainly be many more American manufactures in use than there are now.

Generally speaking, it may be said that trade is far more speculative and profits far larger than in Europe. Capital requires and obtains at least half as much again in interest. The openings for profitable speculation are greater. In squatting, the losses are occasionally very large; but during a good season the gains are beyond all English conception, if the rate of increase of the flock, which is sometimes from 100 to 120 per cent., be taken into consideration. You hear people say that the day of the squatter is coming to an end in Australia, and that money can no longer be profitably invested in sheep-runs. If this be so, how is it that nearly every Melbourne merchant is also an owner of stations? That sheep-farming can no longer be carried on with so small a capital as in the early days may be true; but if a man has the experience, and can endure the hardships of taking up new country, he has still every prospect of success. It is in the towns only that the acquisition of wealth is becoming more difficult; but it may be laid down as a general rule, that in town or country any man with over 5,000 will, if he goes the right way to work and has ordinary luck, multiply his capital by twelve in less than a score of years; and that the impecunious man can at least find more elbow-room than at home. Clerks are said to be a drug in the market; but that is a mere _farcon de parler_, expressing the fact that they are the worst-paid cla.s.s in Australia. It does not prevent them from getting better pay for less work than they do in England.

In the professions, as may be imagined, first-cla.s.s men are rare. When we get them, it is either on account of their health or their habits. A first-rate man can do better in England than here, not only because the field is wider, but because the standard of comparison is higher. Even a second-cla.s.s man should do better at home in the long-run, though for immediate results there is no place like Australia. But the man who will do well to emigrate is he who is just above the ordinary rank and file--the _junior optime_ of his profession. The rank and file will probably do better out here, but not so much better as to compensate them for the change of scene and life; and the Australian public will take little account of a man who cannot show ability in some direction. For specialists there is not yet much scope. Our social organism has not yet become sufficiently heterogeneous, as the evolutionists would say, though it is gradually progressing every day.

Of all the professions, medicine certainly is the best remunerated. It is not merely that a certain Melbourne surgeon--a man, however, who would have made his mark in London--is making from 8,000 to 10,000 a Year, and several other leading doctors from 4,000 to 6,000; but that the general average income is about 2,000 a year, and an unknown M.R.C.S.

can within a month of his landing walk into a practice of 600 for the asking. Exceptions of course there are to the prevailing high rate of income; but they proceed mostly, not from incapacity--for there is plenty of that at 2,000 a year and of drunkenness also--but from an unwillingness to begin with the hardships of a bush life. To start well from the first in town is possible, as has been proved, but only under exceptional conditions; whereas the most mediocre medico, with a mere license from Apothecaries' Hall, can land himself in a good country practice. Provided he can stand that life for three or four years without becoming a drunkard or breaking down in health, his fortune is made. At the end of that time he either takes an opportunity to buy a town practice for a small sum, which, if he has either friends or ability, is his best course, or if he has neither, he stays up in the country, and equally obtains a fortune, though with much harder work. Bush fees are large, but bush work is hard. The bush doctor may at any moment be called upon to ride fifty miles to see a patient. In town he would only get a half-guinea fee, or in Adelaide only five shillings; but the circle is circ.u.mscribed, and it is astonishing how many five shillings can be obtained in a day.

In Melbourne and Sydney the bar still exists as a distinct inst.i.tution.

In Adelaide, solicitors, attorneys, conveyancers, proctors, barristers, are all united, and this reform, which works admirably, will probably soon be extended to the other colonies. What generally happens is, that one man with a penchant for the forum goes into partnership with another whose forte lies in the office; and thus, though all lawyers meet on an equality, the two branches of the profession practically remain apart.

But the new regime offers great advantages to juniors, who are thus no longer dependent upon attorneys, but are brought face to face with their clients. The latter, in whose interest the reform was chiefly made, have thus, also, far more freedom of choice as regards their advocates.

Comparatively easy as it is for a junior to get a fair practice, the bar has too few prizes to make it worth the while of the best men to stay out in Melbourne and Sydney. There are a few exceptions, but very few, who make over 4,000 a year, and in New South Wales the Chief Justice only gets 3,000 a year. Hence a marked weakness in the colonial bench of every colony, except Victoria, where the salaries are higher. Here and there you see a first-rate judge, but for the most part judges are ex-attorney-generals of the administration which happened to be in office when the judgeships fell vacant. Political distinction has become a _sine qua non_ for a candidate for the bench. The leading counsel often would not accept the office if it were offered them, and thus the just-above-the-averages form the majority of judges.

The worst paid of all professions are the clergy, and not only are they the worst paid, but the hardest worked. The bishops get from 800 to 2,000 a year, but there are very few clergy whose stipends exceed 600, and the majority live and die without getting any higher than the 350 to 400 stage. Nor have they here the social compensation which they enjoy in England. There is no Established Church, and their position is not many degrees superior to that of the ministers of other denominations.

The latter, whose wants are naturally less, are quite as well, and on the whole probably better, paid. If they have any ability, 500 to 700 is easily within their reach, and one or two distinguished preachers get as much as 1,500 to 2,000.

SHOPS.

The princ.i.p.al shops are noticeable for their size and the heterogeneity of their contents. At first I used to think that this want of specializing was a relic of the days of 'general stores,' which still reign supreme in the country towns. But, on the contrary, the tendency is decidedly to increase the range of retail business rather than to specialize it. For instance, it is within the last five years that furniture, china and fancy goods have become attributes of all the large drapery 'establishments, and that the ironmongers have gone seriously into the agricultural machinery, clock, china and fancy goods business.

Amongst these ironmongers there are two shops--La.s.setter's at Sydney, and McEwan's in Melbourne--which would attract attention in London; and in Adelaide, Messrs. Steiner and Wendt's silver-ware and jewellery shops have a style of their own which does them immense credit. But, on the whole, Melbourne is _facile princeps_ in shops as in everything that may be said to enter into the ladies' department. The windows' in the fashionable part of the town are dressed anew every week, and with a taste which reminds one of Paris. But in spite of this, the best cla.s.s of articles are difficult to get, and the few shops that keep them charge almost ridiculous prices. One would suppose that a better cla.s.s of things would be obtainable in free-trade Sydney than in protected Melbourne, for while freights and commissions fall equally upon the just and upon the unjust, an _ad valorem_ tariff such as that of Victoria presses very hard upon high-priced goods. But, as a matter of fact, the metropolitan and fashionable character of Melbourne more than counterbalances the tariff; and, so far as I can judge, you have as good if not a better chance of getting an article _de luxe_ in the protectionist as in the free-trade city. Of course the latter is the cheapest, but by no means so much cheaper as the difference in tariff would imply, compet.i.tion being much keener in Melbourne.

In Sydney, however, there is less adulteration and palming off of inferior for good articles. A curious instance of this came under my notice. Shortly after a recent imposition of an extra five per cent upon boots, I bought a pair exactly similar to some I had previously got at the same shop. The charge was exactly the same as before; and on my asking the shopman how it was possible for him to avoid raising his price, he candidly told me that people were accustomed to pay a certain price for a certain article, and that therefore he had been obliged to order an inferior boot, made to look exactly the same. 'My customers won't pay more, sir,' he added; 'and if I were to stick to the same quality as before, they would go to other shops, where they could get an inferior boot, looking just as good, for the old price.

Although there are some dozen places in Melbourne and half-a-dozen in Sydney which are equal, if not superior, to any in Birmingham or Manchester, the general run of colonial shops are little better than in English towns of equal size, and their style is as English as English can be, especially the smaller shops.

But in one respect there is a great difference. The English shopman generally knows his business thoroughly, the colonial rarely. Supposing, for instance, you want some article of ironmongery in an English shop, the attendant shows you an a.s.sortment to choose from, pointing out the special merits of each variety of the article as made by different manufacturers, and guiding, but not presuming to dictate, your choice.

The colonial, on the contrary, begins by asking an exact description of what you want; and then, feeling sure that he knows much more about your requirements than you do yourself, brings you very likely something that will 'do,' but is not exactly what you want. He does not enjoy the trouble of laying before you a variety of things to choose from, and except in first-cla.s.s shops he does not seem to care much whether you buy or not. The result often is, that you either are strong-minded enough not to buy at all, or so weak-minded as to take _das erste beste_ that is put before you. Either is unsatisfactory. So far has this custom of knowing everything proceeded, that at a leading dressmaking establishment in Melbourne when a friend of mine was ordering a dress, the fitter after the lady had chosen the stuff, and pattern, said, 'Of course you'll leave the details to me, ma'am,' the details including the length of the skirt and all the gatherings and miscellaneous ornamentations, which make all the difference between a pretty and a tasteless dress, and in which individuality has a chance of showing itself. As regards civility in the first-cla.s.s establishments, there is little difference from the obsequiousness of the old country; but what difference there is, is in favour of the colony. In the second-rate shops there is often an unnecessary a.s.sertion of the shopman's equality with his customer, and a great indifference as to whether he buys or not. In the small shops where the proprietor or his family serve you themselves, the thermometer of civility registers a rise again, though sometimes after a rough fashion.

No mention of Australian shops is complete without an allusion to the fruit and vegetable shops and markets, where every kind of fruit and vegetable can be obtained at a very low price; the varying climates obtainable within a small area enabling each fruit to remain much longer in season than in England.

AMUs.e.m.e.nTS.

The change to a more genial climate and clearer skies has not been altogether without effect upon the temperament of the colonists. Like the stock from which they spring their ideas of pleasure are still limited.

They are still, above all, a serious people; no disposition to abate this seriousness has shown itself, even in the rising generation. On the contrary, brought up in a country where idleness is a reproach, they have the serious side of life always before them. To 'get on' is the watchword of young Australia, and getting-on means hard work. But the more ample reward attaching to labour out here leaves the colonist more leisure. And this leisure he devotes to working at play.

That 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' is already an accepted maxim, is exemplified by the numerous holidays and the way in which they are spent. There must be pretty nearly a dozen public holidays in the year. Sat.u.r.day is always a half-holiday. Nine till five are the accepted hours for the clerk; half-past nine till six for the shop-a.s.sistant. The eight-hour system is generally accepted in all cla.s.ses of manual labour.

Some shops are open on Sat.u.r.day evenings; but there is a strong movement to abolish this system. The clerk is rarely called back to work after hours. In all trades and professions the hours and work of the subordinates are much less than in England. When a public holiday falls on a Monday, Sat.u.r.day for most purposes becomes a whole holiday also.

Christmas Day falling on Monday in 1882, business did not begin again till Wednesday. So on Friday everybody had to lay in their stock of bread and meat to last till Wednesday morning. In wholesale business, in the professions and amongst the working-cla.s.ses, the whole week from Christmas Eve to the 2nd of January is practically a holiday. It is quite useless to attempt to do any business during that period. In most places it is about Twelfth Day before things get into trim again. During the first few days of the year the work is done by half the ordinary staff The colonist certainly endeavours to get as much pleasure as he can out of existence. He has a full appreciation of the value of amus.e.m.e.nt. He is not himself amusing, but he thoroughly enjoys amusing himself.

The abundance of fine and temperate weather makes outdoor life preferable to indoor during eight months of the year. Perhaps this is a reason why the colonists live in such poor houses and care so little how they are furnished. Town-life is a recent invention in Australia; and town-life as it is known at home, in the sense that numbers of people live in a town all their lives and only go into the country for an airing, is quite unknown. The majority of the population still lives, more or less, in the bush. Our ideals are country ideals and not town ideals. For all these reasons the princ.i.p.al amus.e.m.e.nts of the Australians are outdoor sports of one kind or another; and if the interest taken in them proportionate to the population be the criterion, this may fairly claim to be the most sporting country in the world. In Australia alone, of all countries, can any sport be called national in the sense that the whole nation, from the oldest greybeard to the youngest child, takes an interest in it.

Cricket must, I suppose, take the first place amongst Australian sports, because all ages and all cla.s.ses are interested in it; and not to be interested in it amounts almost to a social crime. The quality of Australian cricket has already spoken for itself in England. Of its quant.i.ty it is difficult to give any idea. Cricket clubs are perhaps numerable, though yearly increasing; but of the game itself there is no end. There is no cla.s.s too poor to play, as at home. Every little Australian that is 'born alive' is a little cricketer, a bat, or bowler, or field. Cricket is the colonial _carriere ouverte aux talents_. As Napoleon's soldiers remembered that they carried a marshal's _baton_ in their knapsacks, so the young Australians all remember that they have a chance of becoming successors of that ill.u.s.trious band of heroes who have recently conquered the mother-country and looted her into the bargain, though the idea of gain certainly never enters into their heads in connection with cricket. It may be, and it is most probable, that English cricket will soon recover the laurels which the Australians carried away in 1882; but I venture to prophesy that from 1890 onwards, the cricket championship will, except through occasional bad-luck, become permanently resident in Australia. The success of the first Australian Eleven bred cricketers by the thousand. If that eleven was picked out of, say, 10,000 men and boys playing cricket, the present has been chosen from 20,000, and by 1890 the eleven will be chosen from 100,000. Certainly, very few of these can afford to devote themselves solely to cricket; but most of them will play from five to seven o'clock through six months of the year, and on holidays, half-holidays, and odd moments through nine months. Some measure of the interest which attaches to cricket can be gathered from the s.p.a.ce devoted to it in every paper, and the fact that during the tour of the Australian Elevens the full scores of every match they played, together with details of the more important matches, were cabled from London every day, and this at 10s. 6d. a word. At the intercolonial and international cricket matches in Melbourne, as many as 23,000 persons have, on one day, paid their shilling to gain admittance into the cricket ground, and 10,000 is about an average attendance.

The other day Parliament was most suddenly and unexpectedly dissolved in Melbourne. In a place where political feeling runs so high, the greatest excitement might have been expected over such an occurrence. But 'Reuter,' who may be considered an impartial authority, merely cabled to New Zealand, 'The dissolution.'

Chiefly owing to the impossibility of bringing about an international football match, the popularity of football is more local than that of cricket; but in Melbourne I think it is more intense. Patriotism cannot, of course, be roused when no national interests are at stake, but club rivalry is decidedly stronger. Some measure of the popularity of the game may be gathered from the fact, that the member who has sat in the last three parliaments for the most important working-man's const.i.tuency, owes his seat entirely to his prowess on behalf of the local football club. In no other way has he, or does he pretend to have the slightest qualifications. Of course there are numbers of people amongst the upper and middle cla.s.ses who still have a holy horror of football as a dangerous game, and the want of unanimity in rules prevents the two princ.i.p.al colonies from meeting on equal terms. In the older colony the Rugby Union rules are played. Victoria has invented a set of rules for herself--a kind of compound between the Rugby Union and a.s.sociation.

South Australia plays the Victorian game. I suppose it is a heresy for an old Marlburian to own it, but after having played all three games, Rugby, a.s.sociation and Victorian--the first several hundred times, the second a few dozen times, and the third a couple of score of times--I feel bound to say that the Victorian game is by far the most scientific, the most amusing both to players and onlookers, and altogether the best; and I believe I may say that on this point my opinion is worth having. Of course, men who are accustomed to the English games, and have not played the Victorian, will hold it ridiculous that the solution of the best game of football problem should be found, as I believe it has been found, in Melbourne. But I would ask them to remember that the Victorian game was founded by rival public school men, who, finding that neither party was strong enough to form a club of its own, devised it--of course not in its present elaborate state--as a compromise between the two. In corroboration of my opinion I would point to the facts that, while Sydney is at least as good at cricket as Melbourne, there are not a dozen football clubs in Sydney (where they play Rugby Union), as against about a hundred in Melbourne; that the attendance at the best matches in Sydney is not one-third of what it is in Melbourne; that the average number of people who go to see football matches on a Sat.u.r.day afternoon in Sydney is not one-tenth of that in Melbourne; and that in Sydney people will not pay to see the game, while in Melbourne the receipts from football matches are larger than they are from cricket matches. The quality of the attendance, also, in Melbourne is something remarkable; but of some 10,000 people, perhaps, who pay their sixpences to see the Melbourne and Carlton Clubs play of an afternoon, there are not a thousand who are not intensely interested in the match, and who do not watch its every turn with the same intentness which characterizes the boys at Lord's during the Eton and Harrow match. A good football match in Melbourne is one of the sights of the world. Old men and young get equally excited. The quality of the play, too, is much superior to anything the best English clubs can produce. Of course it is not easy to judge of this when the games played are different, but on such points as drop-kicking, dodging, and catching, comparison can be made with the Rugby game; and every 'footballer' (the word, if not coined, has become commonly current here) knows what I mean when I say, that there is much more 'style' about the play of at least half a dozen clubs in Victoria, than about the 'Old Etonians' or the 'Blackheath', which are the two best clubs I have seen play in England.

Of athletic meetings there are plenty, but they do not attract much interest as compared with cricket and football. Nor can rowing be called a thoroughly national pastime, though both in Sydney and Melbourne there are good rivers. The two colonies row each other annually; and in Sydney, more especially, there is a good deal of excitement over this event. But the interest felt in rowing is not much greater than in England. It is a popular sport, and that is all.

Yachting is very popular in Sydney, the harbour being almost made on purpose for it; but yachting is only a rich man's pleasure. Lawn-tennis is as much in fashion here as at home, but it is not cultivated with the same ardour. The best players in Sydney and Melbourne would not be considered as more than third-rate at home. Bicycling is gaining in favour in Melbourne and Adelaide; Sydney is rather hilly for it. There are polo and gun clubs in all three towns, but they are, of course, small and aristocratic rather than popular.

Fox-hunting there is none; but there are hunt clubs in the princ.i.p.al towns who run after a drag--in Melbourne after a kangaroo, and occasionally even after a deer. The country is of course monotonous, and wants very good riding. There are no sensational water-jumps even at steeplechase meetings, the colonial horse not being accustomed to water.

But it wants a good horse to get over the unvarying succession of post and rail fences. People who talk about the jumps in steeplechases at home being hard should try a run over a colonial course of 4-feet-6-inch post and rails. The horses are accustomed to it, but not so always the riders.

Up in the bush there is plenty of kangaroo-hunting to be got at almost any station. The squatters often pay a shilling a head for kangaroos, and very fair sport they afford when not too numerous. The wallaby is a smaller kind of kangaroo which is also hunted.

There are snipe to be shot in Australia; but wild duck is really the best kind of shooting we get, and far more easily obtainable. They are much more varied in kind than at home. Rabbits are generally too plentiful to afford much fun. I have pelted them by the score from the veranda of a station-house in South Australia. At best they are poor sport. The kangaroos and wallaby are generally too tame. Amongst other animals shootable are the native bear--a sluggish creature looking like a small bear; the bandicoot, a small animal with a pig's head and snout; the native cat; c.o.c.katoos, parrots, eagles, hawks, owls, parroquets, wild turkey, quail, native pheasants, teal, native companions, water-hens, and the black swan and the opossum. Of these the wild turkey affords the best fun. You have to stalk them in a buggy, and drive in a gradually narrowing circle round them till you get within shot. The opossum you shoot by moonlight, getting them between your gun and the moon as they jump from tree to tree. Teal are fairly numerous. Pheasants, partridges, and quail, like the deer, were imported, and have bred rapidly; but they are not sufficiently preserved.

On fishing I am no authority; but I have always understood that the fishing in Australia was very poor. Trout are being acclimatized in Victoria, but the day of the angler has yet to come.