IF the British public is as ignorant of other things
as it is about Australia, it must be quite as ignorant a public as Mr. Matthew Arnold would have us believe. It appears to be under an impression that Australians habitually carry revolvers. It has always persisted in believing that Botany Bay was the place to which convicts were sent out, and has a misty idea that that much libelled bay is the port of Sydney. A person at Mel- bourne is requested by an English friend to invite to dinner occasionally a man who lives at Sydney. And so on. But the most remarkable blunder I have seen was made by the Saturday Review. It had an article criticizing the appointment of Lord Belmore to the office of " Governor-General of the Australian Colonies," in blissful ignorance that no such office exists, or has existed for some years past. The office referred to was that of Governor of New South Wales. But it was not only a mistake in a name. The writer laid so much stress on the paramount import- ance of the appointment and the power it conferred, that it is evident that he was under the impression that a Governor residing at Sydney possesses authority over the other Australian colonies. I need hardly say that this is no more true than it is true that the Queen possesses authority over the United States of America.
Sydney, though no longer the capital or even the first city of Australia, is an important and increasing town. The more rapid growth of Melbourne has thrown it into the shade, and no doubt Melbourne will maintain its position, and owing to its central situation continue to be the commercial emporium of the other colonies. But it may be doubted whether Victoria will maintain its lead over New South Wales. The good land of Victoria extends to the very shores of Port Phillip , the country is small comparatively, and has been easily opened up. In New South 1Vales three trunk lines are in progress and are open for some distance, but hundreds of miles of railway must be made before many fertile districts can be even known, except by report, and before even the inhabitants,—much more, possible emigrants at home,—begin to realize the enormous resources of the country. Gold is found in all directions, though as yet not often in quantities which repay the digger. I rou is plentiful. There is an unlimited supply of coal close to the mouth of the Hunter. Kerosene is being procured in abundance. The English cereals flourish, as well as maize and arrowroot. AlmOst any quantity of wine might be grown, and some of it is, at least, as good as average French claret. There are several varieties of climate, for climate depends more upon height above the sea level than upon latitude. From the mountainous district of Kiandra the telegraph day after day even to the end of September reports "snow falling," while at Sydney we are broiling. In New England, close to the borders of Queensland, there is almost an English climate, and strawberries and other English fruits and vegetables grow in perfection ; while a short distance off, on the Clarence, and on the vast plains to the westward, the heat, though dry and comparatively healthy, is intense, and men will put away their coats and waistcoats in a box, only to be taken out if they want to go to Sydney or to look specially respectable. To the number of sheep and cattle which may be kept there is practically no limit. Only there is a distance beyond which the expense of carting wool or driving cattle to a market eats up all the profit. For wool, railways will at once extend this distance. As for cattle, there is a new invention for freezing meat by means of ammonia, and thus preserving it entirely unchanged for any number of weeks or mouths. If this is successful, as there is every reason to hope, frozen meat may be brought down to the nearest port and kept frozen for a voyage of any length, and thus the English market may be supplied with fresh meat from the heart of Australia.
Sydney is specially deserving of attention as being a fair average type of an Australian city. It is more like what most other Aus- tralian towns are likely to become than any other place. For the colony is nearly eighty years old. It has a history by no means uneventful or uninteresting. Among its early heroes it can point to many men of conspicuous ability, energy, and integrity. Most of the population are natives of the colony, real colonials, and not emigrants from the old country. They are less restless, less excit- able, perhaps less energetic, than their neighbours at Melbourne. Some Sydney people have hardly ever been ten miles off.
The English, Scotch, and Irish in most of the Australian colonies are pretty nearly equal in numbers, the English being rather more than a third, and the Scotch rather less. The English and Scotch soon amalgamate, and become indistinguish- able. The Irish remain apart. Domestic servants everywhere are Irish, in town as well as in the country. But in general the Irish keep to the country, where they make up a majority of the small settlers and "free selectors." Their great ambition is to possess land. In New South Wales that is a very easy matter. When once they possess a few acres their ambition ends. There is no reason why a small settler should not earn money to live in comfort and even luxury by occasionally combining labour for wages with the cultivation of his own land. But too often they do not care to take the trouble. A man will just run up a rude slab but for himself and his family, often with room enough between the slabs to put a hand through. The roof is made of sheets of bark loosely tied on. Sometimes there is not even a window, and only one hole in the roof for the light to come in and the smoke to go out. The floor is the bare ground, good enough in dry weather, in wet weather very likely killing off a child or two with consumption or rheumatic fever. The mor- tality among children is very great. In the last autumn quarter
the deaths in Victoria actually exceeded the births, chiefly owing to children's deaths. The bread they eat is so sour that no one
unused to it can digest it, though any good bushman can make a damper in the sand as sweet and wholesome as possible. Their mutton is cooked so that half is wasted and the rest like leather.
The bones are thrown away, for who ever heard of soup in the Bush? It is too much trouble to grow vegetables. Probably there is a cow and plenty of milk, but it is too much trouble to drive her in out of the bush, or even to tie up her calf so that she may not stray ; and so the children drink their abominable tea without ever getting a drop of milk.
De Tocqueville remarked on the depression and melancholy expressed on the face of the American backwoodsman, and the harassed, prematurely aged, look of the wife. Something of this is to be seen in the settler in the bush. You seldom see a smile or hear a laugh. It is not that there is any need to work harder than is good for health. But the great loneliness is very trying to most minds. I have been told by a shepherd's wife that she did not see any one but her husband much oftener than once in three months, and he was generally away all day, and often all night. Possibly she may have exaggerated a little. But this was within four miles of a township and a main road. What must it be in remote districts, where stations are sometimes twenty miles apart? Shepherding is the most lonely occupation of any, and a large proportion of the inmates of colonial lunatic asylums have been shepherds. If you ask any one not born in the colony if he or she would like to go home again, not one in twenty but will wistfully answer " Yes." Yet not one in twenty but is richer, and has greater means of living in comfort now, than before leaving home. But it would be a mistake to make too much of this preference. Those whom you ask are old now probably, and were young when they were at home ; and what they really mean (though they don't exactly know it) is that they liked being young better than they like being old.
The Irish here, as everywhere, multiply much faster than the rest of the population. There is no doubt that at one time great efforts were made to swamp the rest of the population with Irish emigrants, and make New South Wales a Roman Catholic colony. That this should happen does not seem probable now ; but there is an element of disturbance and lawlessness in their separate and sectarian organization which in critical times might be dangerous, and is at all times injurious to political morality. Roman Catho- licism among the Irish in Australia is becoming less a Church than a political society. It may be compared to the Wehmgericht, the Jacobin Society, the Evangelical Alliance, the Reform League, or the Trades' Unions. All these have, or pretend to have, a germ of religion or quasi-religion in them which gives them their strength and coherence. All have set up an authority unrecog- nized by the law, and exercised influence chiefly by open or dis- guised intimidation. The priests are said to care but little what a man's morals are, bow often he goes to mass or confesses. If he votes as he is told, and pays his subscription to a new chapel when it is demanded, he is a good Roman Catholic.
Their ecclesiastical organization gives the Irish more political power than naturally belongs to them. At elections they obey orders, and if it is required of them vote as one man. Any " pri- vate judgment" in such a case would be a grievous offence. A candidate at a coming election in New South Wales was once asked for a subscription to a Roman Catholic charity. He promised a liberal donation, on condition that the money should not be used for proselytizing purposes. This, however, the appli- cant for the subscription refused to promise,—in fact it was admitted that the money would be so employed,—and so the candidate declined to give it. This was at Sydney. A few days later he went to the town where the election was to be, at some distance up the country. He was unquestionably the popular candidate, and justly so, for he had been a benefactor to the neighbourhood. To his surprise one or two of his supporters came to express their regret that they could not vote for him, but assigned no reason. The election took place, and he was left behind in a small minority. The electors had obeyed ecclesiastical orders at the poll. Now they were free to express their own sympathies, and nothing would satisfy them till they had seated the defeated candidate in a carriage by the side of the successful one, and made him share in the triumphal progress round the town.
A few months ago the Roman Catholic chaplain of one of the Sydney convict establishments was found to be systematically inculcating Fenianism on his flock of gaol birds. He was dis- missed. But from the outcry made in the House of Assembly and elsewhere about certain formalities or informalities in the manner of his dismissal, it was evident that the sympathies of many were with him. This is the more significant., from the fact that the priests in Ireland have been without exception hostile to the Fenian movement.
Not twenty years ago an Irishman who for a seditious libel had become acquainted with the inside of a gaol, and through a technical legal mistake had narrowly escaped a second conviction, emigrated to Melbourne. His reputation had preceded him, and he was received on landing with an ovation and a very handsome present of several thousand pounds. In responding he showed his sense of the course of conduct which had procured him this popularity, and announced with emphasis that he always had been and always should be a rebel to the backbone. Within a few years he was a member of the Ministry, and holding one of the most important offices in it. Being now comparatively wealthy and enjoying a very large pension for not very arduous services, he has become rather conservative than otherwise,—does not altogether go with the present Government in the matter of the Lady Darling vote, for instance,—and would fain have it for- gotten, it is said, that he is pledged for life to ceaseless rebellion.
WILD Ass.
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