Girl-Life in Australia. By a Resident. (Rowland A. Elliott, Liver-
pooL)—The story is spoilt, to our liking, by the intrusion of a sensa- tional element, which does not look as if it belonged to the region of facts. For some reason which it is impossible to understand, the heroine assists a stockman who has murdered his mate to escape. The wretch continues to weary her life with his exactions, and finally kills her husband. As to these exactions, it is difficult to see why she does not resist them, seeing that to tell the truth would have certainly brought the offender to justice, without bringing down any severe penalties upon herself. A woman with so much .sense and knowledge of the world as the heroine is described as having could hardly have hesitated about her course. There is some vigorous and interesting description of life and scenery, and some plain-spoken counsel about emigration which is quite worth reading. But has the "Resident's" work passed through any manipulating process since it left his hands? The tale opens on a sultry day in December. This is, of course, quite appropriate to the conditions of Australian life, but how is it that a few pages further on we find one of the personages described as still" sitting over a fire "? That looks like the hand of one whose notions of December are of the Northern hemisphere.
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