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Fourteenth] Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser.
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THE HONEY OF WISDOM!
WE GATHER THE HONEY OF WISDOM FROM THORNS, NOT FROM FLOWERS.
NOBILITY OF LIFE.
" Who best can suffer, best can-do."—Milton.
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It acts like some magician's charm
At any time a dainty draught.
Which will dispel disease's shaft;
More priceless than the richest gold.
That ever did its wealth unfold:
And all throughout our native land
Should always have It at command."
Prom the late Rev. J. W. NEIL, Holy
Trinity Church, North Shields
"DEAR SIR,—As an illustration of the beneficial effects
of Eno's ' FRUIT SALT,' I give you particulars of the
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ENO'S 'FRUIT SALT' WORKS, LONDON, S.E. [By J. C. Eno 3 Patent.J
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Fourteenth] Rbutledge s Railway Library Advertiser. [Issue.
BEECHAMS
for all
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RECOMMENDS ITSELF.
It is Efficacious, Economical, Cleanses the Teeth, Perfumes
the Breach, and is a Reliable and Pleasant Dentifrice.
In Collapsible Tubes, of all Druggists, or from the Proprietor,
for ONE SHILLING, postage paid.
Vrctxxred only by Ihe Proprietor—
THOMAS BEECHAM, ST. HELENS, LANCASHIRE.
Sold by all Druggists and Patent Medicine Dealers everywhere
TOWN AND BUSH
NAT GOULD'S SPORTING NOVELS
Crown 8vo., Picture Boards.
THE DOUBLE EVENT
RUNNING IT OFF '
JOCKEY JACK
HARRY DALE'S JOCKEY
BANKER AND BROKER
THROWN AWAY
STUCK UP
ONLY A COMMONER
THE MINERS' CUP
THE DOCTOR'S DOUBLE
THE MAGPIE JACKET
WHO DID IT?
A Iso, uniform with the above,
ON AND OFF THE TURF IN AUSTRALIA
TOWN AND BUSH
TOWN AND BUSH
STRA Y NOTES ON AUSTRALIA
by
NAT GOULD
AUTHOR OF
'THE DOUBLE EVENT,' 'ON AND OFF THE TURF IN AUSTRALIA,' ETC.
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED
Broadway, Ludgate Hill
MANCHESTER AND NEW YORK
1896
' A WORD BEFORE IS WORTH
TWO BEHIND.'
Encouraged by the many friendly notices I
have received of 'On and Off the Turf in
Australia,' I venture to supplement it by
these 'Stray Notes on Australia.' I under-
take this, to me, congenial work with con-
siderable diffidence, knowing that far abler
pens than mine have written about this great
country volumes of descriptive and historical
matter of much value. Like the former
volume alluded to, this book has no preten-
sions to historical value ; but it may prove of
some interest to individuals who, like myself,
have been ' through the mill,' and appreciate
writings upon subjects which are not so far
above them as to require an elaborate refer-
erjce library to understand them.
vi
4 A Word Before '
In endeavouring to make what I have
written interesting, I have not distorted facts
or drawn upon my imagination. This is not
intended as a guide-book, and I have not re-
ferred to any work upon Australia in writing
it. I claim, however, to have experienced
all I have described, and have not set down
aught in malice. Australia is a country any
man ought to be proud to call the land of his
birth. Although born an Englishman, my
children are Australians. It will be my duty
to endeavour to teach them to love the land
of their birth as Move mine.
To my many friends and the great reading
public in both hemispheres, and especially to
my fellow-journalists, I take this opportunity
of expressing my appreciation of their kind-
ness in the past, and trust to merit a continu-
ance of it in the future.
NAT GOULD.
London,
October, 1896.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAC«
I. ALL ABOARD ------ g
II. NORTHWARD -24
III. A YEAR OR TWO IN QUEENSLAND - - 40
IV. A YEAR OR TWO IN QUEENSLAND (COH-
tinued) 58
V. BEAUTIFUL SYDNEY 73
VI. THE DARK SIDE OF SYDNEY LIFE - - 99
VII. MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE - - - - Il8
VIII. CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR - - - I31
IX. SUNDAY IN THE DOMAIN - - - "144
X. TRAVELLING 158
XI. CRISIS AND PANIC ' 172
XII. LIVING IN THE COLONIES - - - - I90
XIII. COUNTRY SCENES ----- 203
XIV. UP-COUNTRY RACE-MEETINGS - - - 2l6
viii Contents
CHAPTER
XV. EIGHT-HOURS DAY , -
XVI. POLITICS AND POLITICIANS -
XVII. THE AUSTRALIAN PRESS
XVIII. LITERATURE AND ART
XIX. BUSH FIRES
XX. UP-COUNTRY THEATRICALS -
TOWN AND BUSH
CHAPTER I.
all aboard.
Looking over the stern of the1 R.M.S.
Liguria, I saw the green hills surrounding
Plymouth gradually growing fainter and
fainter in the distance as we steamed on our
way to the Bay of Biscay and to our first
port of call, Naples. This was in the summer
of 1884, and I thought that in another twelve
months I should probably be in Old England
again. Instead of twelve months, it was
nearer twelve years when I set eyes on the
green fields of Plymouth again, in the merrie
month of May.
io Town and Bush
As I stood leaning over the rail watching
the screw churning up the water, and leaving
a bubbling, seething track in our wake, a
voice at my side said :
' Well, youngster, so you're going abroad.
" Between the deil an' the deep sea," I
reckon, and you've decided to leave the old
gentleman in London and take a plunge. Is
it Melbourne or Sydney ?'■
On looking up, I saw a fellow-passenger
standing beside me. He had come on at
Plymouth, and was evidently bent upon
making himself at home. He had a jolly,
jovial face and a cheery smile.
' Sydney,' I answered. ' I hope we have
left your friend in London. I don't care for
travelling in such company.'
' He's no friend of mine, I assure you,' he
replied. ' But you often find his influence
extends even upon ships. I've seen a good
deal of him on these vessels. Take my tip,
and give him a wide berth.'
We became good friends for the remainder
All Aboard
of the voyage, but there was very little to be
seen of' the deil' on board th^.Liguria that trip.
For one thing, we had too many priests
aboard, and had he shown himself at all con-
spicuously, he would have been excommuni-
cated in double-quick time.
There is nothing more enjoyable than a
long voyage on a big liner when you have
good company aboard. We had a very even
lot. Some of the first-salooners put on a
good deal of side, but we gradually levelled
them down straight. There was a select
band of practical jokers on board, and they
are difficult to suppress.
Certain gentlemen were in the habit of
putting their boots outside the cabin doors to
be blacked every morning. Practical jokers
going home late stumbled over them. A
request was made that these obstructions to
progress should be removed. No notice was
taken of this request. Next morning one of
the baths was discovered full of a compound
of salt water and boots. Several gentlemen
12
Town and Bush
were noticed later on in the day limping
about the deck in the most painful manner ;
salt water and boots evidently did not agree.
This happened before we reached Naples.
By the time we landed there these boots had
been greased into a softer mood, and their
owners went ashore in comparative comfort.
We noticed no more boots outside cabin
doors.
The first sight of Naples, approached from
the sea, is strikingly picturesque. It was
early morning when we steamed into the bay,
and Vesuvius was vomiting forth a red flame,
which cast a fiery shadow over the water, and
enveloped the ship in glowing colours. Look-
ing through the port-hole, the flames seemed
to dance round the vessel, and at every
movement of the water a fiery tongue
appeared to lick the Ligurias side. It was
a remarkable scene, and one not easily for-
gotten. A trip ashore was thoroughly
enjoyed.
Pompeii was visited, and one of our party
All Aboard 13
endeavoured to deliver a lecture on these
famous ruins ; but he was hurled from his
pedestal and threatened with dire penalties if
he attempted such a feat again.
It was suggested a petrified relic of some
bygone celebrity should be removed, and
placed in the bunk of a nervous and ob-
noxious passenger. This was not done. We
could not come to terms with the custodian
of the late lamented.
We had a guide; he spoke Italian fluently.
He also spent money with the same ease that
he spoke Italian. The amount of cash he
could find investments for was marvellous.
He informed me in English that he had been
at this business for years. I replied that he
was undoubtedly an expert, and he seemed
pleased. I also said that if he remained at
his present occupation many more years he
would be able to buy Naples, and run it as a
private show-ground on his own account.
From his countenance, I judged that he did
not think this at all improbable. Despite his
14 Town and Bush
manner of handling other people's money, he
was by no means uninteresting, and he was
decidedly useful. Any place that man did
not know in Naples I came to the con-
elusion was not worth knowing. He was
also a model of politeness. The more
money he spent, the politer he became.
Had we remained at Naples a week, he
would have died from a dose of over-
politeness.
It was very hot—July—and he took us
into a vast cathedral to cool. The building
was cool, but the pace at which our Italian
vendor of information travelled from one
object of interest to another soon made things
uncomfortably hot. We were shown St.
Peter's thumb in a bottle. I believe it was
the thumb, but couldn't swear to it. Any
way, it belonged to St. Peter, and he must
have had a tremendous fist, even for an
Apostle. What the thumb was preserved in
we were not informed ; it resembled a certain
Highland blend in colour. After much per-
All Aboard 15
suasion, our guide permitted us to remain
seated in the vast edifice for a few moments.
It was a relief to sit down and contemplate
the solid, splendid massiveness of the build-
ing. Churches, especially these huge edi-
fices, always feel cool, even on the hottest
day. Thus do they afford rest for the body
as well as the mind.
Leaving the church, we proceeded to in-
vestigate sundry parts of Naples. Some
portions of it reminded me of Old Edinburgh
as seen near Holyrood Palace. The people
were not at all particular where they threw
the refuse out of their houses. Heaps of it
lay about, festering and decaying in the sun.
A hot-bed of disease, I thought, and such it
turned out to be ; for a terrible scourge of
cholera broke out there about a fortnight after
we left. It was a case of 'see Naples and
die' then.
What a motley crowd one sees at
Port Said ! And a viler-looking set of
scoundrels never herded together. It was
Town and Bush
a treat to leave them behind. In those
days vessels could not go through the
Suez Canal at night, so we halted at one
of the stations—Kantara, I believe it was
called.
During the night dogs howled all round,
and camels made a mournful sound. It was
a place of desolation, nothing but sandy
waste and dreariness unutterable. One of
our party, feeling uncomfortably hot during
the night, went on deck and dived into the
canal.. It was a foolhardy trick, for he might
have broken his neck. However, ' all's well
that ends well,' and he returned aboard
safely ; but he had not a high opinion of the
sweetness and purity of the waters of the
canal. I do not recommend it as a bathing-
ground.
At the lakes at Ismailia we remained for
the night. We had an adventure ashore.
A party of natives declined to allow us to
put off for the steamer, so we had to impress
upon them that Britons never will be slaves.
All Aboard 17
I am certain they fully realized the truth of
the saying.
It was one of the most lovely nights I
ever remember; the moon was shining down
upon the still waters of the lake as we sailed
back to the Liguria, the big steamer looking
like a phantom ship in the distance. There
was hardly a breath of wind—just an occa-
sional puff to fill out the sail, which then
flapped back again on to the mast. Our
progress was slow, but pleasant, and long
before we reached the steamer the sound of
music and singing came wafted towards us.
Far behind a few solitary lights shone on the
shore, and several boats were dotted about
on the surface of the lake. The stars shone
brilliantly, and such a peaceful scene natur-
ally had a quieting effect upon us.
Voyagers have a wholesome dread of the
Red Sea, and not without just cause. At
certain times of the year it is not so hot, but
there is generally a stifling feeling about the
air. The water of the Red Sea appears
2
18 Town and Bush
sluggish, although sailors tell stories of great
storms encountered there, and of the dangers
of being wrecked on the savage coast.
We had a terrible passage through this
sea. The wind was aft, and not a breath of
air could be obtained. The heat was un-
bearable, and yet everything on deck felt
damp and clammy. It was like being slowly
suffocated in a damp vault. There is nothing
more melancholy than a funeral at sea. We
had three during that awful time, and quite a
gloom was cast over the ship. With a fresh
breeze after leaving Aden, our spirits revived,
and the merry song and dance were heard
again. How soon the memory of that fear-
some thing, launched over the side of the
steamer as the engines slowed down, and
plunged into the depths of the sea, was for-
gotten!
We did not call at Colombo, but we
stopped to coal at the small island of Diego
Garcia, in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
We heard of this a few days before our
All Aboard 19
arrival there, and a picnic was organized
ashore. The break in the voyage was
thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks to our good
captain, Conlon, we were towed ashore in a
couple of boats by his steam-launch. Need-
less to say, the chief steward had been inter-
viewed with success, and under the spreading
cocoanut-tree was a goodly repast, the inevit-
able Bass showing up prominently.
The sand on the shore and also on land was
of a silvery brightness, that made the scene
reflect a thousand prismatic hues. Coral could
be seen too far out to reach, and lovely shells
were rolled up on to the beach by the rippling
waves of the azure water. Lizards darted to
and fro, and the harsh screams of birds could
be heard.
Presiding at the head of our feast was
Henry V., in the person of Mr. George
Rignold, the well-known actor, and he was
the life and soul of the party. I saw him go
through a performance he has never given to
the public. He selected a gentle incline on
20
Town and Bush
the beach, and rolled into the sea, where he
splashed about in 'kingly' glory. It re-
minded me of this scene when I saw him
some years afterwards at Her Majesty's
Theatre, Sydney, plunge from the bridge
into the huge tank of water under the stage,
in his great scene in ' The Lights o' London.'
I feel sure he enjoyed his impromptu bath at
Diego Garcia much more than the tank in
Sydney.
But to resume, or readers will be wearied
with a voyage that has been often described,
and begin to think I have very little fresh
to tell them. Bear with me a few moments
longer until we reach Australia, and then
I promise something new, or, at all events,
something I have never read about in the
numerous books upon Australia I have from
time to time perused.
That picnic increased the good-fellowship
among the members of ' our party' on board,
and when we reached the coast of Australia,
a dinner was given, at which we bid Mr.
All Aboard
21
George Rignold, his wife, and Miss Kate
Bishop a hearty good-bye, as they left the
steamer at Adelaide, having an engagement
at the theatre there.
Colonial passengers came aboard at Mel-
bourne to proceed to Sydney. One of them,
a jovial old Queenslander—since dead, poor
fellow !—sat next to me in the saloon, and
amused me vastly. His yarns were funny,
but I am afraid they were not famed for their
veracity.
He saw I was a new-chum, and treated
me accordingly. Determined not to be out-
done, I gave him an account of an imaginary
trip in a balloon I had taken that fairly
staggered him. He told me before we
parted that he could have given me a lot of
information about Queensland, but that, after
hearing my balloon story, he doubted whether
I should believe him.
Pulling out a huge watch, he announced
that we should enter Sydney Heads early in
the morning, and that the sight was one he
22
Town and Bush
firmly believed could not be equalled in the
world. He promised to call me, and did so,
much to the disgust of a colonial in our cabin,
who had come aboard at Melbourne.
'Get up, you young beggar, and see the
Heads! They are the most glorious heads
in the world !' said a cheery voice ; and I
hastened to obey.
' I wish that old fool would remember
there are more heads than Sydney Heads
to be considered,' growled my colonial cabin
companion.
' Got one this morning ?' I inquired.
' Awful!' he replied. ' The sea-air always
gives me a headache; it is too strong for
me.'
Having seen him arrive in the cabin last
night, I must confess I did not believe his
tale about sea-air. Whisky is a good deal
more potent at producing heads than sea-air.
It was a lovely sight on deck, and well
repaid for the early rising. How grand and
majestic those two famous Heads looked,
All Aboard 23
with the narrow.opening between admitting
to the famous harbour of Sydney, Port Jack-
son ! Nature has indeed done all in her
power to make Port Jackson a harbour of
refuge from the storms and perils of the sea.
As the steamer slowly curved round, and
then headed direct for the channel, the sharp,
clear-cut outline of the Heads was seen to
perfection. The north Head seemed to
taper off keen as a knife-blade; the south
Head, with its lighthouse, battery and more
uneven ground, sloped gradually from a
great height to the water's edge. As we
sailed through the channel and entered the
harbour, the sudden change from sea to
peaceful bay was remarkable.
No sooner was the steamer through the
-Heads, than her motion was not felt, and
we might have been on a vast inland lake.
There are few more lovely sights than the
entrance to Sydney Harbour as seen in the
early morning for the first time. My heart
warmed to this lovely spot, and I felt it was
24 Town and Bush
more like ' home' than anything I had yet
seen on the voyage.
You have been 'all aboard' with me,
readers, and we have reached port safely.
I shall have a good deal to say about Sydney
and its people and surroundings later on.
Consider, therefore, readers, you are all
landed at Circular Quay, and I will com-
mence to make a few stray notes about
experiences in Australia that I hope will not
prove wearisome or uninstructive.
CHAPTER II.
northward.
The first impression of Sydney was favour-
able. It reminded me of an English city
transplanted in its entirety to the other side
of the world. There is an Old-World look
about Sydney that English visitors are, as a
rule, surprised to see in Australia. I say as
a rule, because I have met men who profess
never to be surprised at anything, who think
outward manifestations of interest and de-
light absurd, and who hide what few brains
they possess under a mask as hard and im-
penetrable as the shell of a tortoise. Have
such men ever experienced what it is to
live ? I doubt it, and I doubt them when I
come across them. They are men to be
26
Town and Bush
avoided. The man who shows unmistakable
signs of delight when he looks upon one of
Nature's fairest scenes is a truer artist and a
more honest man than the individual who
gazes upon His work with a supercilious
smile which seems to say, ' I could have
done it a lot better had I had the handling
of the job.' Such men deserve to be
.kicked.
As I stood on Circular Quay, Sydney, for
the first time, and looked down her magni-
ficent harbour, I could not control, nor had
I any desire to do so, my expressions of
delight. For the moment all thought that
I was in a strange land, thousands of miles
distant from home and friends, vanished. I
was oblivious to everything but the beauty
of the scene. I must have been standing
lost in contemplation for some considerable
time, when a man came up and said :
' Stranger here, sir ? What do you think
of it ?'
I was honest enough to confess I thought
N ORTHWARD 2 7
it the most beautiful sight I had ever
seen.
' Not many like it in England, are there,
sir ?'
'No,' I replied. ' Do you come from the
old country ?'
'Yes; from Nottingham.'
I grasped him by the hand, and said :
' Nottingham ! I know it well. I was there
eight or nine weeks ago.'
'The deuce you were !' He had dropped
the ' sir' now. ' Do you know R ?'
' Rather,' I said. * Runs the -j
mentioning the name of the newspaper.
' But surely you are not a pressman ?' he
asked.
' I am,' I replied, ' and glad of it.'
' It's not done me much good,' he said.
I looked at Tim, and saw why it had not
done him much good. He was a pressman
who wrote - articles with a damp towel round
his head, and had to hold on to his pen with
an iron grip to steady himself.
28 Town and Bush
Like many such men, he was well informed,
possibly clever, and he described Sydney to
me graphically.
4 You'll find a heap of men out here fit
for nothing,' he said. 4 It's their own fault.
It's my fault to a great extent, although not
wholly so.'
During an experience of close upon eleven
years in the colonies, I found his words were
true. I am sorry to say the bulk of these
dire failures were imported articles. It is
not the native-born Australian who is the
heavy drinker, although he can take his
share ; it is the man who comes out to make
a living there. It is the principal reason why
he fails to make that living. I mention the
trivial incident of meeting 4 the man from
Nottingham' as it is typical of the country.
Men strike up friendships because they hail
from the same town in England, or because
they happen to know places where each has
frequently visited.
This man, almost the first I spoke to in
Northward 29
Sydney, I had in after-years opportunities
of helping along. I don't think much of a
man who will not give one of his fellow-
workers a ' leg-up' when he can. I have
met men, many of them, who seem to take a
delight in getting a man down and sitting
upon him. When he manages to throw
them off, and gets on to his legs again, they
are only too happy to hang on to his coat-
tails, to be dragged along in the rear.
I did not remain long in Sydney on this
occasion—barely a week—when I received
an appointment on a daily newspaper in
Brisbane, Queensland, that called me North-
ward.
Everything goes by contraries in Australia.
Proceeding north means going into a hotter
climate, and the farther north you go the
hotter it becomes, until, when Normanton, in
North Queensland, is reached, the heat is
well-nigh unbearable. If the wind blows
from the east, you imagine it comes from the
west, and if it is hailing from the north you
30 Town and Bush
wonder why it does not come from the south,
so balmy is the breeze. It takes a traveller
from Northern climes a considerable time to
become used to this contrary state of things.
A particular friend of mine, now a well-
known theatrical manager in the colonies
and the husband of that talented lady, Miss
Kate Bishop, accompanied me on this our
first journey to Queensland. On that occa-
sion Mr. Lohr was not connected with the
stage in any way, although I know he had a
decidedly soft spot in his heart for the talented
actress who afterwards became his wife. Mr.
Lohr was at that time on his way North to
undertake a responsible position on a sugar
plantation.
He had been for several years ' nigger-
driving ' on the Demerara plantations, and I
am sure he will pardon me if I state that, at
this particular time, he knew more about
sugar than he. did about a certain metal, used
as coinage of the realm, and which is often
termed by that name. We neither of us had
N ORTHWARI) 3 I
a vast amount of ' sugar' in our possession,
but we had what stands a man in almost as
good stead in the colonies—plenty of self-
confidence, and a buoyancy of spirits that
took a heap of crushing.
Lewis John Lohr, such is his name, and a
very popular one it is in Australasia, was my
best chum on the way out from England.
We stayed at the same place in Sydney, and
one morning he said, looking up from the
copy of the Sydney Morning Herald:
' Have you seen this advertisement ?'
He handed me the paper, and I saw it was
an announcement such as would suit me, on
a Brisbane daily. I applied for it, and
received a reply. When I entered the
Herald office, the gentleman who had the
selecting of the pressman required eyed me
over carefully.
'Just out from England, I believe?'
'Yes,' I said ; ' came in the Ligurial
' What sort of press work can you do ?'
'Any kind,' I replied, 'from the description
32 Town and Bush
of a hanging to the compressing of a long
sermon into a smart par.'
He smiled. I fancy he thought the range
wide. Some time afterwards I found out
why he seemed tickled at my answer. He,
strangely enough, came up to Brisbane to
edit the paper he sent me to, and I then dis-
covered he was a clergyman. As a rule, men
of the black cloth do not make good editors
of smart dailies, but he was an exception.
• When can you go ?' was his next ques-
tion.
I was ready for him. My friend Lohr was
going by the Leura that afternoon, so I
said :
' By the Leura, at 2 p.m. to-day.'
He glanced up quickly, and said :
' You seem to know your way about.'
' I am, I hope, a journalist,' I replied.
' You are engaged,' and, shaking me heartily
by the hand, he added, 'And I wish you
every success.'
That was my first experience of how they
Northward. 33
managed these matters in the colonies. My
advice to young men going out there is—take
it for what it is worth : When you are apply-
ing for a situation, go for it as though you
knew your business, which, of course, you
ought to do, and that it will be to quite as
much advantage for the advertiser to secure
your services as it is to yourself to get the
situation. If you are a competent man,
estimate yourself at your full worth, and
employers will think a lot more of you.
Several old shipmates came to bid us fare-
well. We nearly missed the Leura, one of
Howard Smith's line, through them, owing
to ' just one more before you leave us.' It
was a hearty send-off, and if we had not
much money in those days, we had lots of
fun.
We had a good run to Brisbane. I pro-
ceeded to report myself, and Lohr prepared
to go farther North. I felt I had lost a real
good mate when I bid him good-bye. He
remained about six months up North on the
34 Town and Bush
Burdekin, and then came South to Brisbane.
Sugar, he found, was almost worked out, as
black labour was scarce, and the canefield is
no fit place for a white man. He had
knocked up a cheque, which, with his usual
generosity, we proceeded to ' knock down,'
and then he went South.
In twelve months he was one of the.
managers for Mr. George Rignold, and had
married Miss Kate Bishop, Mr. Rignold's
leading lady. These sudden transitions are
not at all uncommon in the colonies. One
day a man may be a coach-driver ; next time
you meet him he has made a lucky rise, and
has a fortune. To me, there is a peculiar
charm about the ups and downs of colonial
life, and the chances are, if a man keeps his
wits about him, he will have more ups than
downs.
Being connected with the press, I had
ample opportunities of seeing various phases
of life in the Queensland capital. Brisbane
is a pleasant city, and would by this time
Northward. 35
have been far more prosperous than it is at
present but for the terrible floods that have
devastated the place. If you have not seen
a flood in a tropical country, mere word-
painting can give a very inadequate idea of
what such a disaster is like. I have seen
two in Queensland, not the worst by any
means, and I have no desire to see another.
It would take a Sir Edwin Arnold's descrip-
tive powers' to do justice to a Queensland
flood.
The first I saw occurred when I was
residing on the south side of the Brisbane
river on Kangaroo Point, near Woolloon-
gabba. Rain had not fallen for some weeks.
Then one morning, on stepping on to the
veranda, I saw a sight that startled me.
Overhead the clouds were massing, not
calmly rolling on and taking up a uniform
position like a well-drilled body of troops, but
charging pell-mell at each other, hurling
huge mountains one upon another in endless
chaos, and then bursting out again with the
36 Town and Bush
force of their own concussion, and spreading
in all directions in a hundred fantastic shapes.
I sat watching this wondrous movement
in cloudland for a considerable time, when the
door at the rear of the house crashed to with
a bang. I thought this strange, as there was
very little air or wind on the veranda. In a
few moments there was another crash. This
time I went to ascertain the cause. I soon
found it out. The wind was coming up and
taking the house in the rear, while the front
part seemed peaceful. In ten minutes the
wind howled and tore furiously all round the
place. The galvanized iron roof groaned
and creaked and clanged, the house shook
on its piles, and the flower-pots were dashed
on to the veranda. This was a trifle, a
mere herald of the approach of the storm.
Rain commenced to patter on the roof.
Huge drops the size of a shilling and larger
came down thick. I looked up at the clouds.
They had burst, and a vast volume of water
could be seen pouring out of* them. The
Northward. 37
heaviest downfall I ever experienced in Eng-
land was a mere trifle to it. There was no
comparison, so I will not attempt any. Suffice
it to say that for three whole days and nights
the rain came down in sheets. Umbrellas
and mackintoshes were useless. The best
plan was to prepare to go out and get
saturated. Before ten yards could be walked
your garments were wringing wet. The
tram-lines were flooded. Small creeks be-
came rivers ; the Brisbane River turned into
a noisy turbulent sea, with a perpetual rush
downwards.
Higher and higher rose the water, and
faster and faster came the rain. Boats were
washed away from the wharves ; steamers
could not face the current and get up the
river, so had to remain in Moreton Bay.
Debris of all kinds floated on the water.
Houses were washed away and homes ruined.
There is nothing so pitiless as water. I
think it beats fire. There is a chance of
getting a fire under, water never. I stood on
38 Town and Bush
the bridge dividing North from South
Brisbane, and felt it sway and rock beneath
me. This same bridge has since been washed
away in a still more terrible flood than the
one 1 am feebly attempting to describe.
Along the banks of the river everything was
swept away. Hotels were flooded out, busi-
ness was wellnigh at a standstill. My house
stood fairly high, but the water reached the
back entrance, and we were preparing to
decamp, when the rain suddenly ceased to
fall.
It is a pitiable sight to look round after a
flood. There is such utter ruin and desola-
tion left by the angry water to mark its track.
No march of a mighty army could so utterly
efface landmarks and blot out familiar scenes.
Brisbane has suffered terribly from floods.
The waters have washed the life out of her,
but, with wonderful spirit, she recovers time
after time. It is characteristic of most
colonial people that no calamity, however
great, daunts them for long. With a grand
Northward 39
vitality worthy of all praise, the greater the
knock-down blow, the more rapidly the re-
covery is made. Brisbane is a good example
of what calamities a city can suffer and over-
come.
More about Brisbane in another chapter,
and also about the colony of which it is the
capital.
CHAPTER III.
a year or two in queensland.
Naturally, in a book of this description, of
stray notes, made only on the tablet of
memory, it is impossible to do full justice to
the importance of the large cities of Aus-
tralia.
Brisbane is advantageously situated on a
splendid river, which runs into Moreton Bay.
A dozen years ago it was not so safely navig-
able by large mail-steamers as at the present
time. The sand in it shifts about, and
dredges are constantly at work keeping the
channel clear. Pilots w^re then employed
to bring up the mail-boats of the B.I.S.N.
Co., but now the skippers navigate the river
safely enough.
A Year or Two in Queensland 41
In those days assisted emigration was
in force, and it was amusing to watch
the landing of the people of both sexes
who came out in these boats. They
were generally transhipped into a steam-
tender and taken round to the depot, where
they awaited the arrival of persons in search
of domestic servants, or labourers and
mechanics. It was a curious sight at the
depot to watch these raw recruits. Most of
them looked, and no doubt felt, uncomfortably
hot. They came out from home clothed in
garments calculated to stand a severe winter
in the old country, and found themselves
roasting in a broiling sun, and the thermo-
meter at 98° or so in the shade. In a few
days their faces underwent a change, and
their best friends would hardly have recog-
nised them. The gay and festive mosquito
had paid them a lot,of attention, and spotted
their countenances in a manner at once imta-
ting and unbecoming.
Assisted emigration is all very well if the
42
Town and Bush
right class of people are selected, but many
of those who came out to Brisbane were
unfitted for colonial life. Occasionally a
lunatic put in an appearance, sent out by the
Government at home, or a Board of
Guardians, as a gift to the colony. Such
gifts were not accepted with any manifesta-
tions of joy on the part of the Queensland
Government.
I noticed a speedy desire on the part of
the Queensland officials to allow this indi-
vidual to proceed South, so that the inesti-
mable boon of his presence might be conferred
upon another colony. Many of these assisted
emigrants had no right to have been assisted at
all. Some of them came out to Brisbane at the
expense of the Queensland Government, and
rio sooner had they landed than they com-
"menced to scheme how they could reach
their friends in New South Wales or Victoria.
A strict watch was kept upon them, but
scores of them left the colony in a few weeks
after they landed.
A Year or Two in Queensland 43
Thus Queensland bore the expense of their
passage out, while another colony reaped the
benefit of their presence to swell the popula-
tion.
Brisbane possesses many fine public build-
ings, and the Government offices are worthy
of the colony. A mere description of build-
ings would be uninteresting, and they can be
found in any decent guide-book. Queen
Street, the principal street of the city, is a fine
wide thoroughfare, with large shops and
buildings on either side. I was there before
the trams were laid, but they now run from
Woolloongabba to Breakfast Creek, a distance
of several miles.
The post-office is in Queen Street, and is,
as usual with such buildings in the colonies,
large and well managed. It is an instructive
sight to watch the delivery windows on the
arrival of the home mail. There is an eager
look of inquiry on the faces of the applicants
as they ask for letters from the old country.
The farther one gets from Old England, the
44 Town and Bush
dearer the country seems to become. Here
is a typical illustration.
A man walks up the steps of the post-
office, and halts under the colonnade. He
hesitates for some minutes, an'd watches the
crowd surging round the delivery windows.
He sees men and women turn away, some
with faces indicating they have drawn a
blank, and there is no letter for them this
trip. There goes a woman with a letter
pressed tightly in her hand. It is too pre-
cious to open before the eyes of the crowd.
She anticipates the pleasure it will give her
when she can gently tear the envelope in the
privacy of her own room, and read the
contents with tears of joy in her eyes. As
the man still hesitates and watches, he sees a
young fellow receive a letter, tear it open
hurriedly, turn it hastily inside out, find
there is an enclosure, and with a rush and a
bound down the steps he is off to cash the
remittance he has been anxiously anticipating
for weeks. Presently the man who has been
A Year or Two in Queensland 45
watching this throng sees the window is clear.
He looks round, then walks up slowly. The
usual inquiry is made. No letter.
' Are you quite sure there is no mistake ?'
he asks.
' Yes,' sharply answers the clerk.
' Would you mind looking again ?' asks the
man.
The clerk mutters something, dives his»
hand into a pigeon-hole, pulls out a bundle of
letters, and runs rapidly through them, the
man watching him with eager eyes. He
comes to the last, and handles it carefully for
a moment to increase the watcher's suspense,
and then, flinging it down before the man,
says:
' Perhaps that's yours ; but it's such infernal
bad writing I can't make it out.'
The man clutches it eagerly.
' Yes, that's mine,' he gasps—'that's mine.
I'd tell the writing anywhere.'
' More than I could,' says the clerk ; 4 but
if it's yours you're welcome to it.'
46 Town and Bush
Bad as the handwriting was, it was
precious to that man, for it was his
mother's.
Probably he had been a bad lot, and had
come out to Queensland to try and reform.
The clerk thought nothing of that badly-
directed letter, but to this man, as he
walked away looking fondly at it, it was
the finest writing in the world. This
almost illegible scrawl gave him hope and
comfort, and when he read the contents
he received courage to battle on, and re-
trieve a character damaged but not entirely
lost.
Yes, every English mail brings joy and
sorrow to thousands of men and women, and
a whole history might be written from the
faces of the people who crowd round the
delivery window.
Upstairs in a small room in the Brisbane
post-office I first met the man who is acknow-
ledged throughout Australasia as a wonderful
prophet. He has a peculiar business. He
A Year or Two in Queensland 47
deals in elements such as wind and rain,
calm and storm, thunder and lightning, and
such-like commodities. His name is Clement
Wragge, and he is the Queensland Govern-
ment meteorologist. Professor Wragge came
from Adelaide to Brisbane, where he quickly
made a name for himself. I never met a
more enthusiastic man in my life, and he loves
his work. Unless a man loves his work, he
can never succeed in it. Mr. Wragge is a
tall, thin man, and no amount of labour daunts
him. He seems to be in communication with
all points of the compass. Hundreds of years
ago he would have been accounted a great
magician.
Mr. Wragge's weather prognostications are
regarded by all seamen as thoroughly reliable,
and his accuracy is marvellous. Constant
study has made him wellnigh perfect in this
department. He has a nickname, and is
often called Inclement Wragge. He acquired
it in this way:
There had been a severe drought, and
48 Town and Bush
Mr. Wragge went up the line to the Darling
Downs. He broke up that drought com-
pletely. Wherever he went it poured with
rain. At one place he had not been in the
local post-office long before it was flooded
out. Rain followed him everywhere. He
came back to Brisbane, and went North, and
rain was his companion. No monarch ever
had such a prolonged ' rain.'
' Call him Clement Wragge, do you ?' said
a traveller in Brisbane. ' Better call him
Inclement Wraggeand they did, and the
name stuck to him, and now there are
hundreds of men who will boldly say, ' I
gave him that name,' and smile proudly.
The Queensland Government did a good
stroke of business when they got Mr.
Wragge to leave the South for the North.
This reminds me of another incident in
connection with ' weather tipping,' I may as
well bring in here, although it refers to New
South Wales. A gentleman in the meteoro-
logical department ventured to publish
A Year or Two in Queensland 49
articles in a Sydney daily, in which he made
a wonderful prophecy. He stuck to his
prophecy, and left the service. That
prophecy did not come off. It was a failure,
like a good many other select tips. The
weather is about as uncertain as horse-racing,
to give the correct tip about. Clement
Wragge is certainly a champion in foretelling
the movement of storms and hurricanes.
Life in Brisbane is very much on a par
with an existence in any large city. The
weather is hot, but people in Queensland have
the sense to wear suitable clothes, which
cannot be said of the citizens of Sydney and
Melbourne. Although the sun is so powerful,
I have felt the heat more in Sydney than
Brisbane. In the Queensland capital the air
feels purer and lighter, and it is bright and
dry, and not at all humid.
From 1884 to 1886, including those years,
times in Brisbane were good, and everything
went with a swing. Compared with times
in Brisbane five or six years later, they were
4
50 Town and Bush
wonderfully good. There was plenty of
money in those days, and men spent it like
water. Mount Morgans were booming, and
men made huge fortunes in the course of a
few days, speculating on the Stock Ex-
change.
Land was booming, and the news-
papers must have coined money from the
columns upon columns of land sales which
appeared in almost every issue. Once get
men fairly going on a land boom racket, and
it beats all the rash and idiotic speculation I
ever saw or heard of. The fever to buy land
is catching. ' Every man his own landlord '
certainly has a nice healthy, enticing ring
about it, but if the man is not very careful
the *land becomes his landlord, and a remark-
ably severe one. When land fetches more
per foot in a colonial city than it does in the
heart of London, there must be something
radically wrong about the price to the buyer.
They have two great faults in Australian
cities. They overbuild—that'is, build build-
A Year or Two in Queensland 51
ings large enough to come in handy at the
end of another half-century—and they over-
estimate the value of land.
Land sales in the colonies are carried out
on an extensive scale, and somewhat resemble
a huge picnic on a Bank holiday at one of
the numerous resorts near London. In
glowing terms the auctioneer sets forth the
wonderful advantages that follow the pur-
chase of an allotment at the sale of, to use a
fictitious name, the Tamberoora estate. To
read the advertisement of the Tamberoora
estate is a revelation. It sets forth how the
syndicate who have purchased the estate
have done so purely in a philanthropic spirit,
in order to give the public a chance of buying
an allotment upon such ridiculously easy
terms that it amounts almost to a free gift.
Every convenience will be afforded the lucky
purchaser to borrow money to build upon the
allotment he is fortunate enough to procure.
So manifold are the advantages to be ob-
tained from speculating in the Tamberoora
52 Town and Bush
estate that the wonder is the auctioneer does
not secure the bulk of it for himself. Strange
to say, he seldom sees his way clear to invest
even in a small allotment. The description
of this estate would do credit to a writer
well practised in this department of literature.
If ever there was a paradise on earth, it must
be the Tamberoora estate.
On the day of the sale great preparations
are made for buyers, who are given free
railway passes to this land of promise. On
the estate a huge marquee is erected, and
before the auctioneer proceeds to business,
intending buyers and others, mostly others,
are regaled with solids and liquids, especially
liquids of a fiery and inspiriting nature,
calculated to make consumers soar higher in
their bids. Hundreds of people avail them-
selves of a free excursion and a free luncheon,
but not a fourth of them have the slightest
idea of investing in the Tamberoora estate.
When the multitude has been refreshed, the
auctioneer ascends his rostrum, fixed up
A Year or Two in Queensland 53
against an ancient gum-tree, and eyes the
crowd with a solemn air. He reads the con-
ditions of sale in a methodical sort of way,
much as the average parson drones out the
beautiful Church services, and spoils the
effect and renders dull the meaning. But
what do people who have been so liberally
regaled care about conditions ? They want
the land ; to the four winds with the condi-
tions! The first lots go off slowly. The
slower the bids, the more heated becomes the
auctioneer, on the principle that a slow fire
adds fuel to the flame. He holds up his
hands in pious horror, and wonders how
people can be so unutterably ignorant as to
their own advantages—and the increasing
of his commission. As the afternoon wears
on and the tropical sun melts the hearts of
the people, they become more liberal. Bids
come freely.
Mr. Ferguson has purchased an allot-
ment and become a landowner, and his
fellow-workman, Mr. Smith, does not mean
54 Town and Bush
to be behind him. Ferguson has bought an
allotment because he's a carpenter and fancies
he can run up' a house cheap. Smith has a
faint idea that perhaps he may get a helping
hand from Ferguson, who is his foreman, so
buys the next allotment. At this Ferguson
is mad, because, being a thorough democrat,
and ambitious of becoming a labour member,
he thinks it a confounded piece of cheek on
Smith's part to have the audacity to enter-
tain the notion of living in such close
proximity to his foreman. Before the after-
noon is over he offers to buy Smith out.
Smith, having become a landowner, has
drunk his own health freely, and conse-
quently declines Ferguson's offer, and says
he'll see him in ' Enoggera' first. When
the auctioneer has sold all he can of the
Tamberoora estate, he clears for home as
rapidly as possible.
His customers can return when they
please. He has earned a good round
sum, and wants to get back to his garden
A Year or Two in Queensland 55
and cultivate flowers and pineapples.
He would be sorry to exchange his snug
retreat for the whole of the Tamberoora
estate.
And the new landowners—what of them ?
What is the extent of their estate in this vast
colony of millions upon millions of spare
acres ? Ferguson and Smith have thirty
perches each. • Think of it 1 Land must in-
deed be precious. Upon this thirty perches
they mean to erect a house, and in this house
to stow away a wife and family. They have
their thirty perches on easy terms. So much
cash down, the balance in instalments ex-
tending over a period of so many years—
three or five. Something like purchasing
a piano on the hire system. Also like the
piano, if the payments are not kept up the
land goes back to its original possessors.
This is awkward if there happens to have
been a house put upon it.
Suppose all is plain sailing, and Ferguson
and Smith are living on their thirty perches.
56 Town and Bush
A flood comes. There was nothing in that
glowing advertisement of the Tamberoora
estate about the advantages or disadvantages
of an ample water-supply. What happens
to Smith and Ferguson when the flood
comes? Like Noah in the ark, they are
surrounded with water. They have not
Noah's advantage, though. There is no
Mount Ararat handy. So Smith and Fer-
guson, sticking to their property to the last,
ascend to the roof of their houses and quietly
await results. Their families have been care-
fully taken off in boats.
Eventually Smith and Ferguson find their
house property moving, and they calmly sit
astride the roof and are floated off the Tarn-
beroora estate. This is no exaggeration. I
saw an eligible building estate submerged
when I was in Brisbane. Of course the
thirty perches of the Tamberoora estate
remained, and Messrs. Smith and Fer-
guson no doubt wished it had been floated
A Year or Two in Queensland 57
on to higher ground with their house
property.
Huge profits were made by men who pur-
chased estates and cut them up into these
wretched little allotments.
CHAPTER IV.
a year or two in Queensland (continued).
Continuing my remarks on land sales, I may
say there was very little restriction as to
building. Thus, it occasionally arises that a
man may find his neighbour's back - yard
opposite his front-gate. In this way he may
take his neighbour unawares in the rear, but
the outlook is not pleasant.
It is monstrous that such a state of things
is permitted in a colony where there is room
and to spare for everyone. And Queens-
land is not alone in this respect. Sydney
and Melbourne are troubled with the same
kind of cramp. More about them later on.
Some limit ought to be put on the cutting
up of these estates into allotments. The
A Year or Two in Queensland 59
size is ridiculously small, and the price paid
absurdly high. Much of the depression in
the colonies has been caused by these ficti-
tious values. Land booms, or any other
booms, do no permanent good. They sap
the life out of the many to swell the wealth
of the few. If a man buys an estate one
week for a certain sum, and sells it the next
week for four or more times the price he
gave for it, I maintain it is a fictitious rise in
value. The land cannot possibly be worth
the increase in price, except as a speculation.
The buyers who have given this enormous
profit have to realize at a profit again ; and
this is done by tempting people to buy who
cannot afford to pay even for small allot-
ments. The inevitable crash must come,
and then land and investment companies,
building societies, and banks find themselves
called upon to either shut up shop or go in
for reconstruction. No country encouraging
such a pernicious system can prosper.
I alluded to the mining boom in Queens-
6o
Town and Bush
land, and to the Mount Morgan shares.
These shares went up by leaps and bounds
to an absurdly high price. Undoubtedly,
Mount Morgan is a wonderful mountain of
gold. I know one gentleman, who at that time
occupied a prominent position in a bank in
Brisbane, who got wind of the coming boom
and cleared ,£50,000. He told me this him-
self. Three years later, happening to be in
Brisbane again, I called upon him. He had
a small office then, and he told me he had
lost nearly all he had made.
In those days, 1884 to 1886, I never saw
money spent so freely anywhere as in Bris-
bane. The late Mr. Fred Jordan, who
owned the Australian Hotel, where Tatter-
sails' Club held their meetings, told me he
made a fortune there in a shade over twelve
months. He sold out, and I fancy his sue-
cessor would like a return of those good old
times. Racing at that time was at its height.
The Queensland Turf Club went ahead, and
the Brisbane Cup became a race of importance.
A Year or Two in Queensland 61
There were good fields and good races, and
Tattersalls' flourished despite the Totalizator.
Thousands of people visited Eagle Farm,
and thousands of pounds passed through the
Totalizator.
This was in the days when John Finnie,
W. H. Kent, James McGill, J. P. Jost,
Durack Mooney, W. Flynn, Herbert Hunter,
C. Baker, D'Arcy, J. Williams, Harry Walsh,
and Nesbitt—names dotted down at random
—were all strong racing men, and owned
good horses, many of them. I remember
John Finnie's splendid black mare My Love,
by Yattendon, winning. What a gem she
was ! She went into the Hon. James White's
stud, but was not a success as a brood-mare.
Then there was Yabba and Lancer, Sarabanda
and Friendless, Petronel, Le Grange, Pirate,
Medusa, Theorist, Lyndhurst, F'ano, Ormond,
B. Y., Bonnie Bee, Touchstone, Lord Head-
ington, and a heap of other good horses. It
was a treat then to go out to the track in the
early morning and see the gallops. I am
62
Town and Bush
afraid there is not much interest in it now.
What gatherings there used to be at Tatter-
sails' Club, and what brisk wagering ! Those
were indeed good times for Brisbane, and
may she have them again!
Like all Australians, the Queenslanders
are good sportsmen and fond of theatricals.
Although the climate is all against the manly
sports, on account of the intense heat, there
is quite as much enthusiasm over athletics
—cricket, football, rowing, and yachting—as
in much cooler countries. They turn out
some good cricketers and footballers, and
also runners. On one occasion I was asked
to go to Kedron Park to see a match between
a darkie named Kingsmill, and a runner from
Sydney. The backers of the Sydney man
fancied they had a good thing on, as Kings-
mill was then unknown, this, I believe, being
his first run for a stake of any amount.
There is a good deal of sharp practice in
running circles, and it was not absent on this
occasion. The Sydney man walked down to
A Year or Two in Queensland 63
the mark with a confident air, and seemed
inclined to underestimate the powers of his
opponent. This is not a safe thing to do in
any case. Kingsmill left the mark like an
arrow, and won easily, but an objection was
lodged because it was stated he had broken
the tape with his hand. I was at the winning-
post, and did not see him do this, but the
defeated party declined to pay over. Kings-
mill afterwards went to Sydney, and did well
there, as he was a first-class runner. The
bicycle sports at Toowong were always a
great success, riders from all parts being
among the competitors.
One of the pleasant trips from Brisbane is
down Moreton Bay to Humpy Bong and
Redcliffe, and from Saturday to Monday it
was a favourite resort with a party I
generally found myself included in. By this
time, no doubt, Humpy Bong has become
quite a populated seaside resort, but when I
first went there it was a wild place. At
Redcliffe, a short distance down the shores
64 Town and Bush
of the bay, we had good porpoise-shooting
and excellent fishing. It was no uncommon
thing to leave O'Leary's hotel at six in the
morning, and come back an hour later with a
splendid lot of fish for breakfast. I have
seen the whiting come so close into the shore
that it was an easy matter to wade in the
water and haul them out as fast as we could
bait the hooks. Porpoise could easily be
shot off the rocks with a rifle, as they came
very close inshore.
Inland there were heaps of parrots, and it
takes a good shot to bring them down. They
fly swiftly and at a great height. They have
their favourite haunts and trees, and, once
find them out, it is not a difficult matter to
secure a fair bag. The best way to get at
them is to lie in wait under a tree where they
cannot see you, much in the same manner as
wood-pigeons are shot. After perhaps half
an hour's rest, a shrill chattering in the top-
most branches of the tree denotes the arrival
of game. Half a dozen brilliantly-plumaged
A Year or Two in Queensland 65
birds may sometimes be brought down at a
shot. They are excellent eating, and, when
young, make as good a pie as pigeons. It is
curious to hear the crickets, insects and
locusts. When the sun is at full power the
noise they make is deafening, and somewhat
resembles the row a whole school of children
would make if let loose with rattles in their
hands.
Another pleasant trip from Brisbane is up
the range to Toowoomba, and the skill of
the engineers must have been taxed to the
utmost to take the railway line along the
ed^es of precipices and up the steepest
gradients. On the Darling Downs there is
splendid squatting country, and plenty of
grass when rain falls. The Germans in this
part grow grapes and make excellent wine.
They are hospitable, and entertain a traveller,
even if a stranger, liberally. The race-meet-
ing at Toowoomba attracts many visitors
from Brisbane. Handicappers do peculiar
things at times. It is related of one handi-
5
66 Town and Bush
capper at Toowoomba, some years ago, that
he arranged to give a certain horse a light
weight, so that he could win comfortably.
The owner wanted 7 st. 6 lb. or some such
weight up, so that his jockey could get down
to the weight to ride. In order, as he
thought, to make victory doubly sure, the
handicapper gave the horse 6 st. 6 lb. When
the owner saw his weight he was mad. The
horse was a difficult one to ride, and no boy
could manage him. He made use of strong
language, but the handicapper dare not alter
the weight. Result: A lad rode the horse
and it bolted and lost the race, and thus did
the handicapper and others come to grief
because the horse had a stone too little on
his back.
Labour schooners often left Brisbane to go
recruiting in the islands for native labour for
the sugar plantations of Queensland. On
each of these schooners was a labour agent,
whose duty it was to see everything was
carried on fairly, and that there was no kid-
A Year or Two in Queensland 67
napping. Many members of Parliament were
opposed to the use of black labour on sugar
plantations, on the ground that the employ-
ment of blacks kept white men out of work.
I have interviewed men who know thoroughly
all about sugar-growing, and not one of them
was in favour of white labour—not because
black labour was cheaper, but because white
men could not stand the work of the cane-
fields. No doubt this recruiting was not
always carried on in legitimate fashion.
4 Blackbirding' was rife, and many abuses
had crept into the traffic. This was a reason
for reform, but not for abolishing black labour
altogether.
There was a trial in Brisbane of the
captain and recruiting agent of a schooner in
which people were much interested. During
her voyage to the islands this schooner had,
according to certain statements made, earried
an unenviable reputation. She was a noto-
rious 4 blackbirder/ so it was said. When
she arrived in port after.a cruise, her captain,
68 - . Town and Bush
the labour agent, and others, were placed
under arrest for murder. The evidence
against them mainly depended upon a black
fellow who acted as steward on board. This
fellow was, in my opinion—and I watched
him closely during the trial—cunning and
unscrupulous. Every word he uttered showed
his animus against the prisoners. That
irregularities had taken place during the
cruise- was clearly proved, but to hang men
on the evidence of this man was going too
far. The death sentence was passed, if
memory serves me rightly, on the captain, or
mate, and labour agent. Then a revulsion of
feeling set in, and the agitation for a reprieve
commenced. A monster meeting was held
on the slopes of Gregory Terrace, and thou-
sands of people signed the petition for a
reprieve. The Executive granted it, and
the men were not hanged. One of them
died in chains, and what his sufferings
must have been I will not attempt to
describe. It was an awful responsibility to
A Year or Two in Queensland 69
torture these men on the word of that black
steward.
Some years afterwards I happened to come
across this black steward in Sydney. I taxed
him with being the man who had given evi-
dence in this case. At first he denied it, but
afterwards owned to it, and, with a diabolical
grin, said he had ' got even' on , men-
tioning one of the men's names. This black
steward had developed into a patent medicine
seller, and he earned his living by selling
small bottles of a mixture he concocted him-
self. He was showily dressed, and looked
sleek and prosperous.
I did not hesitate to tell him what I thought
of him, and had he dared he would have
struck me. He looked very savage, and his
face was not a pleasant sight. Several times
afterwards he denied being the man, but I
am confident his acknowledgment in the first
instance was correct. Black labour must be
employed on the Queensland sugar planta-
tions if the industry is to be a success.
70 Town and Bush
Queensland is a wonderful colony, and
will, I firmly believe, develop into the richest
of the group. Her wealth is untold, and, to
a great extent, undiscovered ; her land teems
with precious stones and metals. Queens-
land opals are the finest I have ever seen ;
their lustre is extraordinary, and in a single
stone of value may be seen all the colours
of the rainbow, which flash and glitter in a
remarkable manner. As far as mere looks
and beauty are concerned, the opal is more
attractive than the diamond. The absurd
nonsense about opals being unlucky is dying
out, and once they become popular, no stone
will be more sought after. Opals and dia-
monds together are brilliant, and no two gems
mate better or with more effect in handsome
jewellery.
During the three and a half years I spent
in Queensland, I conversed with all manner
of men, and got a fair insight into the political
and commercial working of the colony. Dry
statistics are not in my line, although I have
A Year or Two in Queensland 71
waded through shoals of them, and found
them in Queensland quite as deceptive as
elsewhere. It is wonderful how the party in
power can prove they have a surplus ; and it
is equally extraordinary how those in opposi-
tion can demolish that surplus, and show the
Government has a large deficit.
A word more, and I will conclude this
somewhat rambling chapter.
I was in Brisbane when the Queen's
Jubilee was celebrated. If proof of loyalty
to the Crown were wanted, this occasion
gave ample evidence that Queenslanders
were loyal to the backbone. The illumina-
tions were carried out on an extensive scale,
and the day and night were given over to
feasting and enjoyment. The streets were
crammed with people, and traffic was stopped.
All the principal buildings were illuminated,
and private citizens did all in their power to
show their loyalty. At the exhibition build-
ing the Mayor gave a ball, which was attended
by all the leading citizens, and the cheering
72
Town and Bush
at supper when the Queen's health was pro-
posed was deafening. It was indeed a
glorious day and night, and proved that
there are thousands of loyal hearts beating
under Queensland's burning sun.
CHAPTER V.
beautiful sydney.
Sydney is a city of which Australia may well
be proud. It'is the queen of the Southern
Hemisphere, and the centre of commerce for
this vast continent. In making this state-
ment, no injustice is done to Melbourne, but,
owing to its geographical position, Sydney is
entitled to the claim of the most important
port. It is a delightful city to live in, and, as
I resided there off and on for several years,
I can fairly claim to be well acquainted with
it. Built on old-fashioned lines, Sydney
will always have a charm for visitors from
the old country that Melbourne does not
possess. Its streets are narrow, although
whenever possible the authorities have
74 Town and Bush
them widened. It is a picturesque city,
hilly, full of variety, and its suburbs are
charming.
Sydney possesses several healthy lungs, in
the shape of spacious parks and reserves.
Hyde Park and Cook Park, in the heart of
the city, improve its appearance wonderfully.
The giant fig-trees are seen to perfection in
these parks, and their vast leafy boughs
afford ample shade from the sun. On any
ordinary afternoon the parks are thronged
with people eager to get a breath of fresh
air, for in summer it is occasionally un-
pleasantly hot, although for nine months out
of the twelve it is a delightful place to
live in.
The spacious domain leading to the
Botanical Gardens, and the walk round Lady
Macquarie's Chair, is a favourite resort. A
more lovely spot than the Botanical Gardens
it would be difficult to find. Entering them
through the large gates near Macquarie
Street, the visitor finds himself standing on
Beautiful Sydney 75
an eminence overlookingth£ spacious grounds,
which slope down in a succession of terraces,
steps, and walks, to the harbour.
As he stands on this spot, he sees mapped
out before him a magnificent panorama. The
gardens themselves are full of interest and
resplendent with a variety of brilliant colours.
Tropical plants grow in profusion, favoured
by Nature and carefully tended by man.
Hundreds of giant ferns and palms wave
their graceful foliage in the soft, zephyr-like
breeze. Dark and light shades of green
mingle together, and crimson and purple
flowers peep in and out of the ever-varying
mass. The beds on the well-kept grass
slopes are covered with flowers in full bloom,
with almost as diversified colours as a prism.
Looking over this scene of beauty—
the' gardens — the eyes rest on the blue
waters of the harbour and the landscape
beyond. Anyone familiar with the scene
will point out the various places of interest
on the shores of the harbour and on the high
76 Town and Bush
ground beyond. Hundreds of yachts are
sailing to and fro ; ferry boats glide along to
the various bays and inlets ; men-of-war lie
at anchor opposite Government House. A
passing mail-steamer lends additional interest
to the scene, overhead a cloudless sky
and a glaring sun touching up the picture
with a light no painter could give.
As we walk down the slopes, many shady
nooks are to be found, and numerous seats
placed in spots where the best views are
obtained. At the base of the gardens a
substantial wall is built round the edge of the
harbour, and a wide gravel walk is laid for
pedestrians. It is a pity that such a spot
should not be sacred from the larrikin
element.
These pests of Australian cities I shall
have more to say about, but I may remark
here that these ' hoodlums ' take a peculiar
delight in annoying respectable people when-
ever they can do so with impunity. On
Sunday morning the larrikin loves to invade
Beautiful Sydney 77
the spots where people stroll for pleasure,
and the Botanical Gardens are not free from
his baneful presence. The police do all in
their power to stop this, but they cannot be
everywhere, and the larrikin always bides
his time, and seizes a favourable opportunity
for operations. These human brutes look
like some foul excrescence upon the earth
when seen in such a spot as the Botanical
Gardens.
There is ample evidence that the public
fully appreciate the boon such a pleasure-
ground as this affords them. The flowers
and plants are seldom touched, and very little
damage is done in any part of the gardens.
The grounds are always in perfect order, and
the variety of different plants, shrubs, trees
and ferns to be seen is enormous. It is not
many months since I was in the large glass
house at that most princely * palace of the
Peak Chatsworth; the inside of this house,
with its splendid collection of tropical trees,
ferns, plants, etc., reminded me of a nook in
78 Town and Bush
the Botanical Gardens, Sydney. If the
visitor to Chatsworth will stand in this house
and imagine the scene magnified a hundred-
fold, he will have some faint idea of the
beauty and grandeur of Sydney's Botanical
Gardens.
This is a chapter of pleasant spots and
sights amongst the numerous beauties of
Sydney. I will endeavour to give an idea
of the darker side of Sydney in the next
chapter, in order to show I do not wish to
paint the picture in too glowing colours.
From the Botanical Gardens we will walk
through the Domain, have a look at the
Art Gallery, and then, walking past the
Museum and Boys' High School, catch the
Randwick tram at the corner of College and
Oxford Streets.
It is a hot day, and the walk produces
thirst. There is time before the tram arrives
to step over the way and see Mr. James
Rainford, at the Cambridge Hotel. Mr.
James Rainford is one of the identities of
Beautiful Sydney 79
Sydney. If he happened to leave Sydney, a
vast number of people would feel they had
lost something. Many a pleasant chat I
have had in 'Jim's' private sanctum. Get
him in here and thoroughly wind him up, and
he will relate the history of the Australian
stage in graphic style. He has been on the
stage himself in various capacities. The last
time I saw him he was Bob Brierley, in ' The
Ticket-of-Leave Man,' at the Royal. He
was also manager, and running the show as a
spec. James Rainford ran for the Alder-
manic Stakes one election, and got in. He
made a good alderman. I believe he would
make a good bishop, Anglican or Roman, if
they would only give him a chance. He has
told me he would rather act before the Mayor
in the theatre than in the Council Chamber.
James Rainford certainly deserves mention-
ing in a few stray notes, and many a stray
note has he given to a hard-up brother pro.
Although there are men in Sydney who
consider themselves no end of ' bigwigs,' a
8o Town and Bush
heap of them are not fit to hold a candle
to a man like ' Jim' Rainford.
Having polished off James Rainford and
what he has provided, we catch the Randwick
tram and quickly reach Moore Park. It is
Saturday afternoon, and the scene is animated.
I have often attempted to calculate how
many cricket matches have been played at
the same time in Moore Park. I started upon
the task one Saturday afternoon, but gave it
up in despair. There are many pitches, and
on most of these pitches matting is used. If
a fielder is sent out from one team, say to
long leg, he has a good chance of being
mixed up with the fielders of another team.
A yarn related to me as a fact will illustrate
what I mean. In a certain match a big hitter
was at the wicket; the field was put out as
far as possible. The batsman was dismissed
as follows : he skied a ball a tremendous dis-
tance. It was caught by a fielder playing in
another match. He fancied he had caught
out one of the batsmen opposed to him, until
Beautiful Sydney 81
the fielder who ought to have caught the
ball, had he been far enough out, said, ' Hand
it over; it's our ball.' The ball was duly
handed over, the fielder flung it high into the
air' in token of a catch, and the batsman
walked away quite satisfied he was out.
Considering the crowded state of the
ground at times, I believe this to be quite
possible. It is a marvel how the players and
spectators escape being hurt. I have seen a
man quietly walk across a pitch during the
middle of a game, utterly unconscious he was
doing wrong, until he was apprised of the
fact by a volley of powerful vocal artillery.
Cricket balls seem to be flying about in all
directions. In addition to the numerous
matches in progress, there are the youngsters
with a bat and a ball and an old tree stump,
or bricks, for a wicket. These young people
are quite as enthusiastic as their elders, and
labour to make big hits at other people's
expense—more especially if the ball comes
into contact with a shin or eye. It is a
6
82
Town and Bush
bustling scene in Moore Park, and one of
the pleasantest of Sydney sights. Many a
good cricketer has first come into notice in
these matches at Moore Park.
It is not often a yacht club can be found
to carry on sailing operations in a park; there
is, however, a M'oore Park yacht club. The
club sail matches on a pond in the park, and
it is amusing to watch the owners of these
miniature yachts during an exciting contest.
These said owners carry their yachts in their
arms, and, having their trousers rolled up
above their knees, proceed to wade into the
pond and launch their craft. Several pounds
depend upon these matches, and many of
these model yachts are built by their owners.
Round this pond, on Sunday morning, may
be seen a collection of dogs of all sizes,
shapes, and breeds, accompanied by their
owners. It is the dogs' bathing-time, and
they know it. There is enough yelping to
do credit to a dog-show of considerable
dimensions. Having washed their dogs, the
Beautiful Sydney 83
owners sit down and talk over the respective
merits of their canine friends. If the dogs
under discussion are of a pugnacious breed, it
generally ends in a fight between the dogs—
sometimes between the owners. I have seen
several desperate combats of this description,
always from a safe distance. This may not
be considered a proper mode of spending
Sunday morning, but I am writing of things
as they are, not as they ought to be. There
are many worse operations carried on during
Sunday morning than the washing of dogs.
When a huge retriever has had his bath, he
generally selects a spot to shake himself dry
that is utterly unsuitable for the purpose. As
a rule, he wrings himself out, so to speak,
where people most do congregate. The con-
sequences are disastrous to polished boots
and Sunday clothes. A wet retriever
rubbing against the leg of a man's Sunday
trousers may be a sign of affection on the
part of the dog, but it is an action not appre-
ciated by the man.
84 Town and Bush
But to move on.. A shprt walk, and the
Zoo is reached. Not a bad Zoo, either. It
is small, but compact, and contains a choice
collection of animals. The grounds are well
laid out, but the place does not pay expenses,
or did not in my time. There is one animal
in this Zoo deserves notice. He is not a
lion—a king of beasts—not an elephant of
enormous size, or even a camel with a p£o-
digious hump. He is not a tiger or a
leopard, or even a monkey. He is an ass.
This animal was, so the legend goes, captured
after severe fighting by the New South
Wales contingent in the Soudan. This cele-
brated donkey is a living monument of the
success which attended the arms of the New
South Wales contingent in that memorable
campaign. I have seen this donkey on many
occasions. He has a contemplative look
about him. When in this mood he seems to
meditate over his relations—by name—who
were responsible for effecting his capture#
Overlooking the Zoo is Mount Rennie, a
Beautiful Sydney.* 85
healthy spot, but of an unenviable notoriety,
owing to a desperate outrage perpetrated
therevsome years ago on an unfortunate girl.
Several young fellows were convicted ; some
were hanged, and others sentenced to im-
prisonment for life. One of these miserable
wretches I saw in Bathurst Gaol, and I could
not help thinking of aM he had lost for the
sake of a few brief moments of terrible
outrage.
Leaving Moore Park and the Zoo behind,
and proceeding in the direction of Rand-
wick, the Centennial Park is reached. This
will in time be the grandest public park in
the coldhies. It covers a large area of
ground, extending from Randwick roa4 to
Waverley, and there is a well-formed carriage-
drive about four miles round. In years to
come, fhis drive should be the Rotten Row
of Sydney. The park is well laid out, and
trees have been planted liberally. There
are%umerous lakes, the old reservoir, from
which the city supply was formerly drawn,
86
Town and Bush
having come in handy for the purpose.
Hundreds of cyclists may be seen here every
Sunday morning, either ' scorching' round the
drive, or taking their pleasure in a more
peaceful way. Cycling has taken a firm hold
of the people in the colonies, and very few
young men are without a machine of some
kind.
A proposal was made in Parliament to
erect a kind of Parliamentary mausoleum in
the Centennial Park, in order that the remains
of deceased politicians might find a fitting rest-
ing place therein. Happily, this folly was not
perpetrated. Dead politicians would certainly
not be an addition to the Centennial P^rk,
although it would be a relief to know they
would, at all events, be silent in the tomb.
The late Sir Henry Parkes was a firm sup-
porter of the mausoleum idea. Sir Henry
was a wonderful man, and I believe did a
great deal of good to the colony; but he was
possessed of an enormous amount of vanity,
and the idea of being buried with State
Beautiful Sydney 87
honours in such a place no doubt pleased
him.
Passing through Randwick, one of the
most charming of Sydney's suburbs, we
come to the favourite haunt of holiday folk
and pleasure-seekers, Coogee Bay. It is a
charming little spot. Great improvements
have been made there during the past six or
seven years. A sea-wall has been erected, and
there is a broad walk all round the little bay.
It is a pleasant sight to sit on the rocks and
watch the rolling ocean, and see the steamers
passing to and fro on their way to Melbourne
arijd the South, or to Brisbane and the North.
The water of Coogee Bay is generally a
bright blue, and it rolls up on to white
silvery sands, where scores of children play
and romp to their hearts' content.
It is one of the great advantages of Sydney
that such places as Coogee are within half
an hour's ride of the General Post Office.
These pleasant sea-resorts are within reach
of all,, as a few pence expended on a tram
88
Town and Bush
ride is sufficient to convey a whole family
there and back. What a relief it must be to
a hard-worked man to be able to run out to
such a charming little spot when his day's
labour is over, and get a fresh sea-breeze for
a few hours, to put life and vigour in him for
his next day's toil!
Coogee Aquarium is a popular place of
amusement, and concerts are held there on
Sunday afternoons. Mr. Larmour, the pro-
prietor, has fought hard to keep these concerts
going, and so far has succeeded, despite the
lawful and unlawful attacks the ' Chadbands '
and 'Pecksniffs' have made upon him. Occa-
sionally on Coogee Sands a good race-horse
may be seen, come down from one of the
numerous stables in the vicinity for a swim or
to bathe his rather ' dicky ' legs. Good fish
are caught in the bay, and may be bought
almost as soon as they are taken out of the
water. The fish-supply of Sydney is not
what it ought to be, and it is a treat to secure
a few fresh denizens of the deep for the table.
Beautiful Sydney 89
It is a pleasant drive round by Coogee and
over the hills to La Perouse. Then back
again by the La Perouse road, and so on to
Sydney.
I am inclined to dwell upon the many
natural advantages Sydney possesses, because
very few travellers who do not reside there
for some years have any idea of the charm of
these small outside places. Men who visit
Australia, and, after remaining there a few
weeks, write a book about it, ignore these
picturesque spots ; probably they have never
seen them. It is my aim to draw attention
to the great attractions city life presents in
the colonies, more especially in Sydney. By
doing so, I may perchance induce a few
desirable people to settle there, and it is
permanent residents Australia requires. To
a man of moderate means there is no more
delightful place for him to make his home in
than Sydney. It is a place where a man can
not only make his home, but also feel he is at
home.
90 Town and Bush
Round the harbour are numerous pleasure
resorts, all within from fifteen minutes to
three-quarters of an hour's steam from Cir-
cular Quay. These numerous bays are being
built round, and private residences may be
seen peeping out from various nooks and
corners, all having fine views from the
windows.
Double Bay, Rose Bay, Watson's Bay,
Middle Harbour, Mossman's Bay, Neutral
Bay, North Shore, Manly, and the Para-
matta River, are a few of the delightful
resorts within a short distance of the city.
Manly is a flourishing seaside town, and is
becoming a populous centre. Mossman's
Bay runs between high land, on which are
built private houses. It is a pretty little
spot, and not more than a quarter of an hqur's
steam. Double Bay is reached by tram and
bus, and is a charming little place. Potts'
Point is the swell part of Sydney, and may
be left to take care of itself. I am writing
for ordinary folk, not people whose pockets
Beautiful Sydney 91
are lined with gold, which seldom benefits
outsiders.
It is one of the most beautiful sights near
Sydney to drive along the South Head Road
to Watson's Bay, which nestles at the back
of the great South Head entrance to the
harbour. Double Bay is skirted, and then
Rose Bay is driven round. This is a splen-
did level stretch before the hill is reached.
Gradually the road winds higher and higher,
until, upon reaching the level at the top, a
magnificent panorama suddenly fbursts upon
the view. What a glorious sight it is, this
view from the heights over Sydney's harbour
and city ! No words of mine would do justice
to it. In one glance the eyes roam over a
grand picture of water and land. In the
distance the various large buildings stand out
prominently, and can be checked off one by
one. All the objects of interest with which
the harbour abounds can be seen. Far away,
the solitary stone bastion of 4 Pinch Gut,'
standing out in the harbour, looks like a
92
Town and Bush
miniature fort. A glimpse of the yachts and
steamers darting to and fro is caught in
the blue water below. Everything seems to
harmonize. It is a picture full of life and
colour—a picture such as Nature loves to
form, and man often loves to mar.
At Watson's Bay -the lighthouse towers
aloft, and at night the great revolving light
casts its gleams over land and sea, and I
have often watched it from my bedroom
window in Sydney, as it seemed to search
the room through and through. It is a
wonderfully powerful light, and of immense
service to seamen. A stroll on the rocks,
and the place where the Dunbar was wrecked
is reached. I have often stood on this spot,
and pictured the ill-fated ship coming steadily
on to her doom. As we returned from
Hobart on one occasion, the captain pointed
out the spot to me, and I saw how easily it
could be mistaken for one of the Heads at the
opening to the harbour. To stand above on
the towering heights and look into the terrible
.Beautiful Sydney 93
depth below, where the waves lash in their
pent-up fury, and the jagged rocks angrily
resist the foaming waters, is enough to make
the strongest man shudder as he thinks of
that ill-fated ship.
The Dunbar was nearing port. She was
within sight of her haven of refuge, the calm,
smooth waters of Sydney Harbour. The
perils of the long voyage had been over-
come. 'On came the Dunbar, making for
that false Head which shattered her to utter
destruction on the cruel rocks, and drowned
every living soul on board, with, I believe,
one exception. It was awful to think of,
and as the sea roared and tossed upon the
rocks, I could almost fancy I heard the crash
of the ship as she struck, and the shrieks
and cries of her unfortunate passengers and
crew. So furiously do the waves beat on the
rocks of South Head during a storm, that
the spray actually dashes over the top, and
falls like a heavy mist upon the village down
in the hollow. Watson's Bay should always
94 Town and Bush
be visited by anyone desirous of seeing the
finest panoramic views of the harbour, and
also for the interest that attaches to the place
itself.
There are many suburbs of Sydney not on
the harbour that are almost equally delightful
to live in. Lady Robinson's Beach is a
popular resort, and attracts crowds of visitors,
and a pleasant place for a picnic is Sand-
ringham. Botany is not a particularly attrac-
tive place, although it is on the shores of the
famous Botany Bay.
Up the line towards Parramatta there are
many charming suburbs, such as Ashfield,
Burwood, and Strathfield, where pretty villa
residences are erected, and where the gardens
are a blaze of bright-coloured bloom.
Of all the suburbs of Sydney, however,
I prefer Rand wick. Perhaps it is on account
of my partiality to horses and racing ; but
apart from being the Newmarket of New
South Wales, Randwick is a charming place.
The soil is sandy, and the suburb is hilly,
Beautiful Sydney 95
and the many substantial residences there
add to its attractions. It is handy to the
city, and also to many places of interest.
I ought to have mentioned Bondi, another
popular seaside resort where holiday folk
assemble in crowds. Here there is a large
aquarium and pleasure-grounds, good baths,
and a long stretch of beach.
I think I have said quite sufficient about
the beauties of Sydney to prove it is a
desirable place to live in. As for the climate,
as I have already remarked, for nine months
out of the twelve it would be bad to beat.
December, January, and February are hot,
and February is, to my way of thinking, the
worst month in the year. The winter is
simply delightful, and also the spring. There
are no hot winds worth speaking of, and
although the atmosphere is not always as dry
and bracing as one could wish, it is far better
than that of Melbourne.
A southerly buster occasionally comes along,
and while it lasts makes things lively. It
g6 Town and Bush
generally gives timely notice of its approach,
and then careful housewives see that every
window in the house is tightly shut. The
southerly buster is well named. The wind
comes in bursts and whirls the dust about
in clouds, and causes people to stagger
round corners and up side-lanes in order to
avoid its force. The buster, however, makes
up for the inconvenience it causes by clearing
the heated atmosphere, and is generally
followed by a refreshing shower of rain.
In the hot months the Blue Mountains are
the favourite resort, and here an invigorating
breeze can be obtained. The scenery of the
Blue Mountains is majestic in its grandeur.
At Leura, Katoomba, and Mount Victoria,
the scenery is glorious. Range upon range
of mountains clothed with trees to the
summit; densely wooded hills and valleys ;
waterfalls dashing down from immense
heights, and rushing away down the valley
amidst luxuriant tropical vegetation ; giant
ferns and trees, glorious lilies in all their
Beautiful Sydney 97
splendour of dazzling white and brilliant
green; wild-flowers of all kinds, many of
which would be highly prized if grown in
the conservatories in colder climes ; the
beautiful waratah, raising its stately crimson
flower on a long, thick stem, much after the
style of a dahlia, but far more effective ; birds
of brilliant, gaudy plumage, but, alas ! devoid
of that sweet melody which makes an English
woodland scene seem like an enchanted spot.
The Jenolan Caves, famous throughout
the world, are easily reached from Mount
Victoria. These caves are truly wonderful,
and were discovered in 1841 by James
Whalan and a couple of mourfted police, who
were in search of the notorious bushranger,
McEwan. The caves are most extraordinary,
and may be safely described as one of the
wonders of the world. There is some of the
wildest scenery in Australia in this district,
which is easily reached from Sydney. The
sportsman will find ample occupation here.
The artist can revel in most lovely bits of
7
98 Town and Bush
landscape, whilst the naturalist, geologist, and
botanist will find plenty of scope. The
shaded gullies abound in orchids, and there
are some of the prettiest tree-ferns ever seen.
Fresh caves are constantly being discovered,
and it is impossible to estimate the extent of
the wonders of this district.
Having given a faint idea of some of the
beauties of Sydney and its surroundings, I
must now endeavour to depict the darker
side of its city life.
CHAPTER VI.
the dark side of sydney life.
The Australian larrikin is different from any
other type of low character I have ever seen.
The English rough cannot be compared with
him, although brutality and cowardice are
prominent in each. Larrikinism is rampant
in most Australian cities. A typical larrikin
is easily distinguishable from an ordinary
ne'er-do-well. He has a language, manners,
and dress peculiarly his own. How and
where these larrikins are bred it is impossible
to tell, for many of them seem at some remote
period to have been born to better things.
These idle, dissolute youths—they are mostly
young—consort together for the purpose of
waging war upon society. They band to-
ioo Town and Bush
gether in 'pushes,' and are known by the
names of the localities in which they reside—
such as the ' Rocks Push,' the ' Gipp Street
Push,' or the ' Woolloomooloo Push,' as the
case may be.
A larrikin alone is harmless, for the simple
reason he is too cowardly to attack anyone
unless supported by members of his push.
It takes at least half a dozen larrikins
to tackle one fair-sized man, and he has a
good chance of defeating them, provided he
can use his fists before he is stunned by a
brick or a stone. Peaceable men have been
done to death in the streets of Sydney and
Melbourne by these brutes. I recollect one
unfortunate man being killed in Lower
George Street, Sydney, and left lying in the
road until he was discovered by a passer-by.
Sailors have been murderously assaulted by
these pushes when under the influence of
liquor. Men have been robbed by them and
brutally ill treated/and policemen have been
severely mauled by them. The larrikin is
The Dark Side of Sydney Life ioi
no respecter of sex. He takes a fiendish
delight in frightening girls and women until
they are half dead with terror, and occasion-
ally they suffer disgusting indignities at the
hands of these fiends. Even children of
tender years are attacked by them, and often
rendered nervous for the remainder of their
lives.
On holidays the larrikins hold high festival.
They select a favourite resort, and make for
it in the hope of destroying the pleasure of
respectable people. At Chowder Bay, on
the shores of the harbour, a push of larrikins
made a descent one holiday. They collected
all the old bottles and other missiles they
could find, and when a crowd of people were
enjoying themselves, dancing and holding
sports, they descended upon them and bom-
barded them with the ammunition they had
collected.
Most of them are hideous-looking fellows,
whose features bear traces of unmistakable
indulgence in every loathsome vice. There
io2 Town and Bush
is no redeeming feature about the larrikin.
He does not possess one good point. He is
not even faithful to the members of his own
push. He is utterly selfish and brutal, and
lives to indulge in every vice he knows.
There is no reclaiming him—the task is
beyond human power. He laughs and scoffs
at everything wholesome. It is not in his
nature to understand how any man can be
honest.
I have seen the larrikin on many occasions
and in divers places, and he is an unhealthy
sight to look upon. His touch is contamina-
tion, his name synonymous with everything
that is bad. He is a sneak, a thief of the
lowest type, and in the depths of degradation
to which he can sink goes lower than the
vilest Asiatic.
The man who invents a method of stamp-
ing out larrikinism will deserve well of the
country. At present there is no remedy for
the disease, but it is held in check as much
as possible. Most larrikins are born such, but
The Dark Side of Sydney Life 103
there are a few exceptions. The cheapness of
meat has, I. think, a good deal to do with the
nourishing of the larrikin element.
These larrikins gorge themselves with
meat in an almost raw state. Their orgies
are disgusting, and no respectable wild beast
in the Zoo would behave with half their
beastliness over a meal. If they possessed
the means, they would drink themselves to
death. They have been known to raid a
public-house and ransack it of everything on
the premises. Smashing windows is a
favourite pastime with them. When they
dare not smash windows, they perform upon
the faces and bodies of their female acquaint-
ances, familiarly called ' donahs.' It is
strange, but true, that there are many un-
fortunate women and girls who are infatuated
with these brutes who illtreat them.
Many a wretched woman hands over the
wages of sin to these fellows, and the coin is
received with curses and blows because it is
not enough to satisfy them. I know a case
104 Town and Bush
in which one human devil—he can be called
by no other name—lived on the proceeds of
the infamy of his sister and his own wife,
both of whom he had terrified into the life
they led.
Their parents have no control over them.
Many an aged mother goes in terror of her
life from a larrikin son. They are a scourge
and a pest, and should be stamped out as
such. There is far more danger to Australia
in her larrikin element than in the presence
of Chinese. A low Chinaman I always
thought the vilest creature on earth until
I became aware of the ways of the larri-
kin.
I am no advocate of the lash. It is de-
grading enough to imprison a man, without
flogging what little manhood there may be in
him out of his body. In the case of the
larrikin, however, it is different. He never
had, and he never will have, a spark of man-
hood in him. Therefore flog him, because
he does not feel any degradation, but he
The Dark Side of Sydney Life 105
howls at the mere thought of corporal punish-
ment.
A larrikin, when in full dress, presents an
extraordinary spectacle. He has a slouch
hat, stuck on the back of his head in order to
fully expose the greased fringe or curls that
cover his low forehead. His face is of the
lowest cast, and he generally has a grin on it.
All larrikin grins are formed on the same
fashion—a cross between the snarl of a
hyena and a dingo. He wears no collar, but
a bright-coloured handkerchief round his
neck. His coat hangs loosely on him, and
he has no waistcoat. His trousers are
fastened tightly round his waist by a strap at
the back, and his shirt-front bulges out and
hangs slightly over in front.
His nether garments he pays particular
attention to. They are the ' hall-mark ' of
genuine larrikinism. They fit tightly all the
way down, and then are bell-shaped at the
bottom—the wider the better, in order to show
very little of his boots. The larrikin, if he
io6 Town and Bush
takes a pride in anything, does so in his feet.
He cramps and pinches them, and has high,
cut-under heels on his boots, which give him
a stilted, jerky walk. He seldom carries a
cane, as it would interfere with his exercise
in the bottle and brick throwing department.
Think of the most villainous-looking creature
you have ever seen, and dress him in this
fashion, and you will have some faint idea of
the real larrikin.
There are many Chinese dens in Sydney
and Melbourne. Lower George Street,
Sydney, is a Chinese quarter. A dozen years
ago it was far worse than at the present time.
There are many respectable Chinese mer-
chants in Sydney, and they do all in their
power to stamp out the vices of the lower
classes of their race.
One of the most respected and popular
citizens of Sydney is Mr. Quong Tart. He
has the manners of an educated European
and th£ habits of a gentleman. He is a good
employer, and a man of unbounded gene-
The Dark Side of Sydney Life 107
rosity. His wife is an Englishwoman, and
Mr. Quong Tart sometimes poses as a
Scotchman. It is an unaccustomed sight to
see a Chinaman in kilts, and to hear him sing
a Scotch song.
Mr. Quong Tart is partial to the Scotch—
the men, not the whisky—and puts on the
kilt, sings a Scotch song, and dances the
Highland fling with great gusto. He is a
liberal patron of all manly sports, and his
name may generally be found on a subscrip-
tion - list. When stump orators rant in
Sydney Domain, and say ' the Chinese must
go,' they forget there are Quong Tarts and
other members of that race like him.
An opium-den, with which is generally
combined a fantan and lottery shop, is not
a pleasant place to enter. The noxious
fumes seem to pervade the whole building.
There is always a peculiar smell about a
Chinese shop. It is an indescribable smell.
It is not altogether offensive, and yet it is
offensive. It is a sickly odour which clings
108 Town and Bush
to everything—the sort of odour a man seems
to feel, and wants to wipe off his clothes when
he gets into the fresh air.
Chinamen of the lower orders always look
sleek, fat, and greasy. They are great eaters,
and delight in fatty food. I have seen them
eating poultry literally swimming in fat, and
ducks and geese are one mass of oily sub-
stances when served up to their taste.
Opium-dens are, I suppose, very much
alike the world over. I have been in them
for purposes of investigation in Sydney,
Melbourne, and Brisbane. I will endeavour
to describe one of these dens in Sydney.
The front of the shop has once been
respectable-looking, but has become ashamed
of the foulness within, and lost all pride and
cleanliness. The window is dirty, and papers
with Chinese hieroglyphics on are stuck on
the glass. Inside the window bare boards
with more Chinese papers, and perhaps a
few empty quarter-chests of tea, a pair of
Chinese slippersj an odd fan or two, and a
The Dark Side of Sydney Life 109
screen. Flies pay particular attention to these
windows, and seem to know they are free
from molestation.
The entrance door is plain wood. There
is a curtain at one side, and a small counter.
Behind the counter sits a sleek-faced China-
man and a lean, skinny, shrivelled, parch-
ment-faced countryman, whose hands are
like a skeleton's covered with dried skin.
The sleek man has a dull, yellowish com-
plexion ; the other man is as dead-looking as
a mummy. One takes his opium, if he takes
it at all, moderately ; the other cannot live
without it.
Pass inside and see the men playing fantan,
and gambling their last coin and their valu-
ables away. There are Europeans here as
.well as Chinamen. Most Chinamen are
gamblers. Many of them work in order to
gamble and smoke* opium. They are allttoo
intent upon the game to take notice of
strangers.
In a small room at the back of the building
no Town and Bush
are men and women in various stages of
stupefaction with opium. Some are lying on
the floor, apparently dead. Others are half
dazed, and gaze about with lack-lustre eyes.
There is no attempt at decency on the part of
either men or women. Sex is forgotten in
this den of infamy.
It is by means of opium that girls are lured
to destruction by these yellow fiends. There
are women and girls so degraded that life
with a vile, low-bred Chinaman becomes
possible. Can anything more horrible be
conceived ? The sight of a low opium-den
is too fearful to describe. Suffice it to say
the most morbid-minded individual could not
overdraw the picture.
The Chinese are excellent gardeners, and
many of them good cooks. Many people
have a decided objection to eat vegetables
grown by Chinamen. Australian cities would,
however, be badly off for vegetables if there
were no Chinese gardeners. The bulk of the
white men who sell vegetables purchase them
The Dark Side of Sydney Life hi
from Chinamen, and retail them at a con-
siderably higher figure than the yellow men
charge. Chinese gardeners quickly turn a
most unpromising plot of ground into a first-
rate garden. Although not desirable citizens,
they are industrious and thrifty.
The great objection to low-class Chinamen
is their filthy habits and their gross immo-
rality. Fallen women become an easy prey
to them, and even children are lured to
destruction by their apparent kindness.
In every large city there are profligate
men and fallen women, and Sydney is no
exception to the rule. Vice, however, is not
flaunted in the face of virtue to the same
extent as in London. There are certain
streets in Sydney a respectable woman would
not care to walk along alone after dark.
Sydney, however, is by no means an
immoral city, and the vices of colonial cities
have, I think, been much exaggerated.
There are desperate characters who will
stick at nothing, but the police check crime
ii2 Town and Bush
admirably. The magistrates and judges are
severe upon the lawless, and the use of the
lash is frequently resorted to. Two men,
desperate characters, it is true, were hanged
for a murderous assault upon the police,
although no man was actually killed by them.
Baby-farming is not unknown, and there are
the usual sensational outrages at intervals.
The Divorce Court list has a long record of
those who are married but not mated, and
are desirous of untying the nuptial knot. In
the gaols may be found all classes of people,
including a sprinkling of erstwhile members
of the Legislative Assembly who have gone
wrong.
Numerous people I have met on this side
of the world labour under the erroneous im-
pression that there is no poverty or actual
starvation in the colonies. I have seen
many terrible cases of genuine distress in
Australian cities.
The loafer, the genuine article, is seldom
in dire distress. He manages things better
The Dark Side of Sydney Life 113
than that. In the first place, the real loafer
detests work of any kind. He scorns to
labour for his daily bread. He possesses an
amount of cheek beyond imagination. He
seems to occupy his time in concocting
schemes of £ how to live without work.'
There are hundreds of loafers in every
Australian city. They can be divided into
several classes.
The loafer who has seen better days, and
who is- constantly reminding people of the
fact that he is a gentleman-born, is, I think,
the most contemptible of the lot. There is
a shabby gentility about him that appeals to
anyone innocent of his real character. He is
always expecting a remittance from ' home '
by the next mail, and wishes to negotiate a
loan on account. In a lordly sort of way he
requests the loan of a ' fiver' for a week or
two. If the 'fiver' is not forthcoming, he
is very glad to accept a shilling, or even the
price of a drink.
Nothing pleases this class of loafer more
8
ii4 Town and Bush
than to buttonhole a man in a bar and give
him his history. To hear this loafer talk,
one would imagine him to be the most ill-
used man in the world.
The parks and the Domain are the haunts
of loafers. They occupy the best seats, and
take good care not to move for anyone.
When tired of sitting, they pick out a shady
spot, and proceed to indulge in a prolonged
sleep. Scores of men can be seen yawning
and idling at almost any time in Hyde Park
or the Domain. It is anything but charity
to give assistance to these able-bodied
loafers.
There are men, however, who are willing
to work, but cannot find employment. I have
seen such men standing at the side-door of a
cheap restaurant, waiting for a few broken
victuals to be handed to them. Refuse-boxes
are put outside many shops at night, and I
have seen men turning over the contents in
the hope of finding some stray bits of bread
or meat. Such men must be driven well-
The Dark Side of Sydney Life 115
nigh to desperation, to adopt such means of
staving off hunger. The wives and families
of these men suffer greatly.
The Government assists men to go up-
country to obtain employment. I have
known cases where a man has had his rail-
way-pass given him to go to Bourke, five
hundred miles west, in order to get work.
In a fortnight or so this mans wife comes
before the magistrate and charges her
husband with desertion. The man is
brought back in charge of the police. He
appears in court, expresses penitence, and
promises to go back to his wife. He is
let off with a caution, and then his wife and
himself inwardly chuckle at the successful
way in which this up-country trip has been
managed. Government starts relief works,
and the men decline the wages offered. The
Australian working man has a very big idea
of his own importance. Strikes are frequent,
and cause the usual amount of misery. The
seamen in their last strike must have lost
116 Town and Bush
thousands of pounds in wages. They had to
give in, and many of them have not had a
chance of employment since. I shall have
more to say about strikes and unionism and
labour agitators later on.
An enormous amount of liquor, good, bad,'
and indifferent, is consumed in Sydney.
The bad quality of much of the liquor sold
has a good deal to do with the drunkenness
seen there. Drink is expensive, and runs
away with a vast amount of money. In most
cases a drink costs double, sometimes treble,
the amount it does in England. A man
must earn very good wages to indulge at all
freely in drinking. In summer the heat
makes working men thirsty, but they seem
to forget that the more they drink the more
they require. I do not think drunkenness is
on the increase in Australia. It is on the
decrease, if anything. Twelve years ago an
enormous amount of brandy was consumed.
At the present time whisky is the favourite
spirit. British beer never tastes the same
The Dark Side of Sydney Life 117
in the colonies as it does in the old country.
Colonial beer is not to the liking of every-
one, although some local firms brew a good
class of stuff. There are too many hotels in
Sydney, and if they were reduced by one-
half there would still be an ample supply. It
is a libel on the Australians to call them hard
drinkers. The born colonials do not drink so
heavily as the men who go out there from
other countries. The duties on liquors are
very heavy, and this has a good deal to do
with lowering the quality of the spirits, etc.,
sold. Heavy duties do not benefit the con-
sumer. If there were less bad liquor, there
would be much less intoxication. To drink
inferior spirits in a hot climate is a sure way
to either kill a man or ruin his brain powers.
Although heavy duties on spirits, etc., bring
in an enormous revenue, they are not alto-
gether desirable.
CHAPTER VII.
marvellous melbourne.
Marvellous Melbourne is a term often
applied to the Victorian capital, and the city
is not unworthy of it. Melbourne is the best-
laid-out city in Australia. Its streets are
wide and long, and the cable-tram system is
perfect. Melbourne differs very much from
Sydney. It would be unfair to compare
them as cities, because they are built on such
different lines. If Sydney is an old-world
city, Melbourne is certainly one of the newest
of the new. It is indeed wonderful to con-
sider the rapid growth of such a place as
Melbourne. The buildings are palatial, and
it would be a difficult matter to find two
finer streets than Collins and Bourke Streets.
Marvellous Melbourne 119
Wide and even, and beautifully clean, with
the cable-tram running up and down the
centre of each, Collins and Bourke Streets
excite the admiration of all.
Although Melbourne, is not so well situated
as Sydney as regards harbour accommoda-
tion, Port Phillip Bay is a lovely spot. The
river Yarra runs from the city into the bay,
and it has taken an immense sum of money
to make it navigable for inter-colonial
steamers.
The large ocean liners do not come up
the river, but usually berth at Port Mel-
bourne. Most of my visits to Melbourne
have been at Cup time, when the city is seen
to the best advantage. At ordinary times
the streets appear well-nigh deserted,
although this may easily be accounted for,
owing to their great width and length.
What would look like a crowd in Pitt Street,
Sydney, would appear to be only a small
gathering of people in Bourke Street or
Collins Street. During the many times I
120 Town and Bush
have been in Melbourne I have explored
most of its suburbs, and seen a good deal
of its people. There is a vast difference
between the people of the various cities of
Australia. Melbourne people are go-ahead,
and have plenty of push. They move about
smartly, and, like Londoners, never seem to
have a moment to spare. I do not think the
people who rush most get through more
solid work than others who go about their
work in a slower way. As far as I can
iudge, I should say there is more solidity
about Sydney than Melbourne.
The Melbourne ladies dress well, and
there are few slovenly men. There may
be more style about Melbourne than Sydney,
but I doubt if the people, as a rule, are
more prosperous. Melbourne has suffered
much from over - speculation and land
booms.
In 1889 Melbourne was a far different
place to what it was in 1894. Year after
year it seemed to get worse, and the tightness
Marvellous Melbourne 121
of money became more marked. The crisis
in the money-market affected Melbourne more
than any other city. That she will recover
is certain. No Australian city can possibly
be long doomed to universal depression; and
Melbourne will make a rapid and surprising
recovery before long.
The environs of Melbourne are charming.
There are few pleasanter trips than to go
down Port Phillip Bay to Geelong or
Queenscliffe. Geelong possesses a harbour
of its own, and it is a quiet, picturesque
spot. The famous St. Albans Stud is near
Geelong, and many a big winner has hailed
from that quarter. Mr. W. R. Wilson, the
owner, is a popular racing man, and loves to
own a good horse. It is a pleasant way of
spending a day, to take a run down to Gee-
long and back ; and the steamers are excel-
lent.
Brighton is another seaside resort easily
reached by train. St. Rilda, however,
is the fashionable seaside place, and trams
122
Town and Bush
run there every few minutes. The esplanade
at St. Kilda is well worth seeing. It is a
good sail from St. Kilda across the bay to
Port Melbourne.
The gardens in the suburbs of Mel-
bourne are perfect pictures, and roses grow
in the most luxuriant manner. At Toorak
there are palatial residences ; and at Arriii-
dale and Caulfield there are some lovely
homes. I have spent many hours in these
places, and the more one sees of them the
better one likes them. The last time I had
a look round Melbourne suburbs was in 1894,
and then it was positively painful to see the
vast number of houses to let. It was not
only moderate-sized houses that were tenant-
less, but gentlemen's residences were closed,
or merely left in charge of a caretaker. In
some instances there was no one in charge,
and the once beautiful grounds, that were
gay with flowers and echoed with the merry
laughter of children, were neglected and soli-
tary. It must have cost many a heartache,
Marvellous Melbourne 123
leaving these lovely spots, full of old associa-
tions and connected with the happiness of
families.
Let us hope that before long a change will
come over the scene again, and the trans-
formation be of a brighter character. I was
told by a gentleman, well informed, that at this
time there were over twenty thousand houses
to let in and around Melbourne. Many of
these houses will go to ruin. Vagabonds go
round to the empty tenements and strip them
of everything portable. They break into
houses and remove the fixtures, and even
the piping is not safe from them, as they
tear it up to sell it for old lead. Coppers
are coolly carted away; and I have seen
houses literally stripped of everything by
these thieves.
In more prosperous times Melbourne did
not suffer more than other cities of similar
size from these thieves; but the scarcity of
employment drove men, who would otherwise
have been honest, to desperation.
124 Town and Bush
A well - known member of a firm of
auctioneers at Prahran, an important suburb
about three miles from Melbourne, gave me
a graphic account of how money was made
and lost in the land boom in Victoria. He
had suffered from the epidemic himself. One
year I knew him as a rich man, worth fifty
thousand or more. The next year he told
me he had not only lost all his money, but,
what was still worse, he owed calls on various
land speculations that he would not be able
to pay if he worked hard for years. Land,
he said, went up by leaps and bounds. One
estate he was in was bought for a little over
a hundred thousand, and resold in a week for
over double that amount. This kind of sue-
cessful speculation caused men to lose their
heads.
Not contented with reaping a modest for-
tune, every man who had made, money
fancied he would in a few weeks become a
millionaire. Some few men reaped enor-
mous profits, and had the sense to stick to
Marvellous Melbourne 125
the money they made. The majority, how-
ever, went on the principle of much would
have more.
Land was bought at prices ridiculously
high. Even the land companies and some
building societies were tempted into these
absurd speculations. Men purchased shares
in companies, on the off chance of being able
to sell before the money was required to pay
up their calls.
The gentleman I have alluded to stated
, he had incurred liabilities to the extent
of many times his capital. Unfortunately,
he had bought heavily when the boom
was about to end. The consequence
was, the syndicates he was in bought land
at a high price, and found themselves saddled
with it. The purchase-money not being
forthcoming, the vendors came down upon
the members and secured all their available
capital. This made rich men poor in a few
days.
The last time I saw this once wealthy
126 Town and Bush
auctioneer he had a.small hotel in Sydney,
which was taken in the name of his head-
servant. It would have been impossible for
him to run it in his own name, as he would
have had to sell out in order to pay various
calls for which he was liable. These calls
hang like a millstone round a man's neck,
and he never recovers his lost status.
Melbourne, like Sydney, suffers consider-
ably from the Chinese curse, and also from
larrikinism. Collingwood roughs are about
the worst specimens of human brutes on
earth. They are savage and cruel, and de-
light in kicking a man until he is well-nigh
dead, or in ill-using a woman who happens
to fall into their clutches. Off Bourke Street
are many notorious Chinese dens, and some
of the private bars in the lower-class hotels
are hotbeds of vice. There is one small
hotel in Bourke Street where half a dozen
flash barmaids are kept, and one would be
more than sufficient to dispense the poison
kept there. The duties on spirits are higher
Marvellous Melbourne 127
in Melbourne than Sydney, and consequently
the liquors, as a rule, are worse.
At Cup time Melbourne is not the most
moral city on the face of the globe. There
is an influx of undesirable citizens from all
parts of the colonies. Bourke Street at this
time of the year is a sight almost without a
parallel, more especially on the eve of the
Cup. So dense is the crowd of people, that
it is well-nigh impossible to move about, and
it is with difficulty the tramcars run.
On an ordinary Sunday, and also on
Saturday nights, Bourke Street is the
favourite promenade of the masses. Thou-
sands of people of all ages and both sexes
promenade up and down with monotonous
regularity. At every street corner groups of
boys and girls stand, and their coarse laughter
indicates the bent of their conversation.
Strange to say, while Bourke Street is
crammed with people, Collins Street, on the
opposite side of the block, is quiet, and very
few people are to be seen in it. The crowd
128 Town" and Bush
pitch upon a particular street and take
possession of it.
Taken all round, the crowd of an Austra-
lian city is good-humoured, and seldom rough
and disorderly, except upon some special
occasion, such as New Year's Eve. Rough
in manners many of the people are, but be-
neath this exterior they have warm hearts and
plenty of good nature.
Melbourne cannot boast of so many pic-
turesque parts as Sydney, but the Botanical
Gardens are very fine. The Zoological
Gardens are much larger than in Sydney and
contain a fine collection of animals. These
gardens are neatly laid out, and well repay
a visit. One of the best walks round Mel-
bourne is over the Princes' Bridge and along
the road to St. Kilda, past Government
House. It is a wide level road, well wooded,
and having many beautiful residences on
either side.
Hot winds and dust-storms in Melbourne
are something to be remembered. The heat
Marvellous Melbourne 129
becomes almost unbearable, and, combined
with the dense clouds of dust, makes any
outdoor work most uncomfortable. Ladies
have some difficulty in keeping their feet, and
the wind whirls them round corners in un-
ceremonious fashion. As a place of residence,
I much prefer Sydney to Melbourne, but of
course there are thousands of people who
would not exchange Melbourne for any other
city in the world.
Melbourne people are justly proud of their
city, and they have every reason to be so.
It is, as I have- stated, a marvellous place,
and built on a scale of magnitude that would
accord with a population three or four times
its present size. Many of the new buildings
are seven or eight stories high, and there
are enough offices in Melbourne to accommo-
date all the requirements in that direction for
another half-century. There is a tendency
to overbuild in Melbourne, as in other places
in Australia. Rents were at one time ab-
surdly high ; but they have come down to a
9
130 Town and Bush
more reasonable, but still very large, figure.
It must require big profits to pay expenses
in such a city as Melbourne. In another
chapter I shall refer to the cost of living and
other matters in Australian cities. People
who intend trying the colonies like to learn
about commonplace things connected with
them. Many of the so-called guide-books,
etc., that I have read do not afford much
accurate information about the life of Austra-
lian cities. They give excellent descriptions
of buildings and other places, but neglect to
explain what sort of a life a new-comer is
likely to lead. This can only be done by
one who has long resided there.
CHAPTER VIII.
christmas and new year.
What a contrast Australia affords to the old
country at Christmas! This festive season
is just as much thought of under Australia's
burning sun as it is amidst the snow and frost
of England. I have spent Christmas in
Queensland and New South Wales, and
found it thoroughly enjoyable. On first ac-
quaintance with an Australian Christmas, one
can hardly imagine it is that season of the
year. To indulge in roast goose and plum
pudding with the thermometer at over ninety
in the shade is making a toil of a pleasure.
Christmas in the colonies is a great time for
picnics and outdoor merry-makings. As a
rule it is brilliant weather at this time of the
132 Town and Bush
year, and there is very little chance of being
caught in a storm or compelled to abandon
an outing owing to the unfriendly nature of
the elements.
The Australians can therefore prepare to
hold high festival without much fear of a dis-
appointment. And certain it is that great
preparations are made to give Christmas and
New Year a fitting reception. For weeks
beforehand there has been much fattening of
poultry and a great making of cakes. Shop-
keepers are alive to the fact that Christmas
will bring in a lot of ready money, and that
they will be able to dispose of goods that
cannot be sold at any other period of the
year. One of the first signs of approaching
Christmas may be seen in the stationers'
shops, where the times of the latest mails to
arrive in London before December 25 are
posted. Christmas cards for friends in the
old country fill the windows, and many of
them bring joy and delight when friends and
parents receive them on the other side of the
Christmas and New Year 133
world. Some of these cards are of exquisite
design. A bunch of Australian wild-flowers
painted in true colours forms a fitting
souvenir, or perhaps a view of some choice
spot in the harbour or up the Blue Moun-
tains. Thousands of these cards are mailed
to England about six weeks before Christmas,
and reach their destinations before the all-
eventful day. Then come the pictures from
the London illustrated Christmas numbers,
and they arrive in ample time to be displayed
before the end of December arrives. Some
of these Christmas publications are published
a long time ahead, and it would not be at
all surprising to read that at Christmas, 1897,
the annual for 1898 had just been issued.
If Christmas Day happens to fall on a
Friday, the probabilities are no business will
be done until the following Tuesday or Wed-
nesday morning. They are wonderful people
for holidays in the colonies. An odd day's
holiday is not regarded as a special blessing.
What the native requires is the day before to
134 Town and Bush
prepare for the holiday, then the holiday
itself, and then the remainder of the week to
gradually get over it. At Christmas time a
little extra indulgence is permissible, and
most employers of labour are only too willing
to extend the holidays after the bustle and
worry coming before them.
Of course the grocers make special dis-
plays. Mr. James Kidman, an ardent sports-
man, and likewise an extensive retail grocer,
generally manages to collect a crowd round
his windows in George Street and Oxford
Street. Mr. Kidman is great on cheese.
He orders a couple from Bodalla, and each
weighs two or three tons. These huge
monsters he places on a couple of drays, and
has them drawn in triumph through the
streets by a team of bullocks, with black
native drivers to look after them. They are
afterwards placed in the shop windows, when
it is a case of cut and come again at them by
many people, in the hope of securing one or
more of the numerous coins that are stated
Christmas and New Year 135
to be buried in the interior. This mode of
advertising pays, and Mr. Kidman is generally
alive to the advantages of publicity.
Whether times are bad or good, there
always seems to be plenty of money, and to
spare, at Christmas. Most people manage to
save up a few shillings for this particular time,
and the rejoicing is universal 11 is a bustling,
busy scene in Sydney on Christmas Eve, but
on New Year's Eve the young men of the
period are abroad, bent on mischief and mad
pranks. There is no busier time of the year
than Christmas, and a roaring trade is done
in hampers and all the picnic necessaries.
And what picnics they are! Monster
organizations, some of them, others on a more
modest scale. The harbour resorts are be-
sieged, and picnic-parties camp so near to
each other that the wonder is they do not
amalgamate and combine the contents of their
hampers. Somehow they generally keep in
separate groups until one party runs short,
and then a deputation of borrowers is sent
136 Town and Bush
round. The costumes of these merrymakers
are in keeping with the climate. The young
men start out arrayed in white flannels, and
with broad-brimmed hats that would not be
unlike Japanese sunshades if they had sticks
in the centre. Collars are at a discount, just
the usual turn-down on the flannel shirt, with
perhaps a tie round the neck. A pair of
white boots and a sash round the waist, and
the male picnicker is complete. And the
lady friends who are invited to the picnic are
arrayed in the lightest of attire — gauzy
looking white or coloured dresses that seem
as though a puff of wind would float them
away and leave their owners lamenting.
And such hats! They would do credit to a
florist, so tasteful are the decorations.
The Australian girl at a Christmas picnic
is about as fairy-like a mortal as one would
expect to see out of a pantomime. They go
out in parties of ten or a score, or even more,
and the prettiest spots in and around Sydney
ring with their merry laughter. There is no
Christmas and New Year 137
shivering in the cold, no fear of getting
chilled, no danger of rheumatics from sitting
on damp grass. Nature has laid herself out
at her best advantage for these Christmas
picnics, and if it is a trifle hot—well, it is
better than being choked with fog and damp,
and half starved to death into the bargain.
And if the shades of night fall fast, and day-
light quickly fades into darkness, what matters
when the evening air is as balmy as zephyr's
breezes, and there is not a chill in the night
wind ? After the glorious sunshine of the day,
the shades of night come ^as a welcome
change. As these picnic-parties are home-
ward bound, the sound of music echoes
across the waters of the harbour, and then
comes a chorus of song. The day has been
merry, and so let the night be.
If ever there was a place where peace on
earth and goodwill towards men ought to
reign supreme, it is in Australia at Christ-
mas. And after some years of experience, I
can safely say that such a state of feeling
138 Town and Bush
prevails at this season. There never was a
lighter-hearted joyous throng than is to be
found among the Christmas holiday-makers
in the sunny South. All past feuds seem to
be buried for the time, and although they
may arise again when Christmas is past and
gone, nothing is heard or seen of them then.
Boxing Day is the day of days for a
grand round of enjoyment. From early
morning until late at night, the holiday-
makers throw care to the winds, and give
themselves over to pleasure. Racing, cricket,
yachting, bicycling, and sundry other sports
and pastimes, find thousands of votaries.
At Rand wick the Australian Jockey Club
hold their Midsummer meeting, and there is
seldom a bigger crowd on this famous course
than on Boxing Day. At the Association
Ground there is probably a cricket match
of importance going on either between
England and Australia or between the
inter - colonial teams. The harbour is
alive with yachts, and regattas are being
Christmas and New Year 139
held in different paits of this splendid
water.
At night there is a rush for the theatres,
where pantomimes are produced under trying
circumstances. Although the heat is intense,
this does not prevent people from crowding
round the doors early in order to be stewed
for several hours in an atmosphere much like
that of an oven. It is a far different thing to
go to the pantomime on Boxing Night in
Sydney to what it is in London. There is
the same struggle to gain admission, but there
is more chance of being baked than frozen,
when waiting for the doors to open. Her
Majesty's and the Lyceum are generally first
in favour, and the pantomimes produced
there would do credit to many London
theatres. It is trying work for all engaged
in the production of these pantomimes.
The large theatre is packed with people,
and this adds to the already stifling nature of
the atmosphere. With the heat so intense,
the good fairies of the play must be comfort-
140 Town and Bush
ably cool in their scanty costumes. In the
snow scenes, the ' property ' icicles hang down
in a limp fashion, and it would not sur-
prise anyone to see them drip, drip, drip,
on to the stage. The snowballs seem in-
clined to melt and flow in a stream into the
orchestra.
The demon of the play has a lively time
rousing up the fire that is to consume the
hero and his attendant sprites. The mere
sight of flames makes the already perspiring
audience mop their faces more freely with
huge pocket-handkerchiefs. It is a curious
sight to look from the stage at the crowded
house when hundreds of pocket-handkerchiefs
are being used as fans or towels. I have seen
pantomimes before and behind the curtain in
the colonies, and it is doubtful which is the
hotter, the audience or the players. From
seven till eleven, or later, this sultry kind of
enjoyment goes on, and people seem sorry
when the curtain falls on the final act of the
harlequinade. Then as the crowds surge out
Christmas and New Year 141
of the places of amusement, night seems
turned into day, and the streets are once
more filled with a merry, laughing throng.
It is long after midnight before many of
these pleasure-seekers reach home, but it is
surprising how fresh they are the end of
such a day.
On New Year's Eve the rougher element
is let loose. Bands of youths, with more im-
pudence than brains, parade the streets and
make night hideous with unearthly sounds.
Occasionally one of these ; pushes' take pos-
session of an arcade, and then law-abiding
and peaceful citizens give them a wide berth
in that particular quarter. The streets of
Sydney on New Year's Eve are not plea-
sant places; half-drunken mobs of larri-
kins rush from place to place, clearing all
before them, and smashing windows and
lamps. This sort of thing is continued in the
suburbs until an early hour on New Year's
Day.
At midnight there is a great ringing of
142 Town and Bush
bells, the whistles of steamers in the harbour
are turned on at full steam ; tin trays are be-
laboured with rolling-pins, or any other
weapon that comes handy ; dinner-bells are
violently rung in private houses ; doors are
flung wide cf^en to let the Old Year depart
and the New Year come in ; house-to-house
visitations take place, and the callers are
generally invited inside to toast the New
Year. I have heard many discordant rows
in my time, but, for a veritable pandemonium
of hideous sounds, give me Sydney on New
Year's Eve.
After the adventures of the night, people
rise refreshed and ready for action. But few
ill effects of the midnight revels are notice-
able, and New Year's Day is given a chance
to wear them off.
Christmastide in Australia is a round of
jovial festivities. The sun shines a welcome
on all, and the clear blue sky adds a charm to
the scene such as winter climes do not know.
It is well worth while spending a Christmas
Christmas and New Year 143
in the colonies in order to see how the
children of these sunny climes revel in
the lightness and brilliancy that surround
them on all sides.
CHAPTER IX.
sunday in the domain.
Domain orators thrive in Sydney, and their
propagating ground is the Domain. These
gentry find Sunday anything but a day of
rest. Most of them work harder on Sunday
than any other day in the week. The man
with a grievance airs it, as well as himself, in
the Domain. His grievance probably gets
the more air of the two. There must be
something wonderfully fertile about Sydney
Domain, for grievances grow apace there, and
from small beginnings assume proportions so
vast that the original grievance becomes lost
in a mass of verbiage hardly understandable
to the speaker himself.
Monster demonstrations are held here on
Sunday in the Domain 145
various occasions. When a strike is on, the
labour agitators stir up the public in the
Domain, and at the conclusion of their ora-
torical efforts pass round the hat to reap what
harvest they may.
But it is on Sunday afternoon that the
Domain is crowded with a variety of men
whose object is to talk their particular hobby
to death. I have seen men who indulge
freely in intoxicating drink during the week
face an audience in the Domain on Sunday
afternoon and deliver stirring lectures on the
evils of intemperance. These men probably
act on the principle that experience teaches
them the true nature of the evils of over-
indulgence in strong drink. The same
feeling causes the clergyman to read all
the debatable novels he can secure, in
order to be able to properly dissect their
contents-.
It is a praiseworthy object, no doubt, but an
officer wishing to test the value of ammuni-
tion and the power of a rifle would hardly go
10
146 Town and Bush
so far as to have a bullet put into him to
prove its efficacy.
At the entrance gate near the Catholic
Cathedral on Sunday afternoon a crowd of
itinerant vendors of indigestible commodities
assemble. There is the old lady who dis-
penses pea-nuts and ginger-beer, a mixture I
have never been able to thoroughly under-
stand the attractions of. Next to her is an
Italian, whose ice-creams produce extra-
ordinary effects upon the youngsters who
greedily devour them. Fruit-sellers of all
kinds do a good trade. The audiences of
Domain orators require to be fortified to
receive the desperate language hurled at
them. General Booth's soldiers are to be
found in the Domain, although it is not one
of their happiest hunting-grounds. Even
the men of ' blood and fire' find things
rather warm here on a hot summer's after-
noon.
An evangelist—it is his own description of
himself—stands under a large tree and en-
Sunday in the Domain 147
deavours, in his own particular way, to
rescue souls from destruction. Under- the
next tree, a few yards away, a man who
calls himself an atheist endeavours, to the
best of his ability, to root up the good seed
the man 'next tree' to him is sowing. To
stand between the two and catch occasional
snatches of the discourses is highly divert-
in g.
In nine cases out of ten the atheist has more
lung-power than the evangelist. They have
one thing in common : both perspire freely,
and melt with the heat of the sun and the
power of their convictions.
The Socialist orator has a rare time of it
on Sunday afternoon. He is a very earnest
man. He is so impressive that he squeezes
smiles and applause out of his audience; he
proclaims a sentiment which his hearers
seem to agree with—namely, that all men
are equal. Then he calls some man a fool
for contradicting one of his statements. As
all men are equal, I suppose the orator is
148 Town and Bush
also a fool, otherwise he would be guilty of a
contradiction.
I once heard a Domain Socialist declare
that Australia would never become a great
country until every wealthy man in it was
made to disgorge his ill-gotten gains for the
benefit of the masses. He failed to explain
what the masses would do when they had
secured these gains, also whether they
would condescend to keep the men who had
been compelled to disgorge.
No Prime Minister of any nation could,
in the opinion of the Socialistic orator, do as
much for the people as he would if he had
the chance. These men are much bigger-
fools even than the misguided folk who
believe in their utterances ; they burst with
self-importance all the. time they are preach-
ing humility and the rights of man. There
is no more conceited ass than a Domain
Socialist. What a pity he cannot be brought
to regard himself in this light!
Would - be aspirants for Parliamentary
Sunday in the Domain 149
honours air their eloquence here. No
subject comes amiss to them. They can
discourse with authority upon any question,
which appears to be a desirable thing in a
politician. None of these men have ever
earned three hundred a year, but they would
like to have the chance, by being elected as
members of the Legislative Assembly, where
their salaries would be safe.
I have often wandered from group to
group, and watched the men and their
audiences. It is an instructive sight as well
as amusing; it shows the power a man pas-
sessed of a free flow of language has over
the masses. This power may not be lasting,
but it influences people for the moment, and,
if exercised at the proper time, may cause
a great deal of harm.
They are orderly crowds in the Domain
on Sunday afternoon. I have been in scores
of times, and never seen a fight or a brawl.
This is rather remarkable, when the language
used is inflammatory. Some of the speeches
150 Town and Bush
are witty, and some of the audience wittier.
It is confusing to a temperance orator to
be reminded . by a man in his audience as
follows:
4 What are yer giving us, George ? Why,
you and me had a drink together last
night!'
It does not improve the eloquence of a
Socialist, when he says boldly, ' No man
ought to possess more goods than any other
man,' to hear a voice say :
4 Then, sell that house of yours, Bob, and
divide the proceeds.'
The evangelist says in a voice of thunder :
' It is your ruin and degradation. It saps
the life out of you. It degrades your man-
hood. It makes you lower than the beasts
of the field. Rob the working man of his
beer ? Beer indeed ! What is beer ?'
' Malt and hops, you fool, with a dash of
sugar thrown in !' yells an expert in that line,
who does not relish hearing his standard
tipple run down.
Sunday in the Domain 151
The strike-leader, after an eloquent dis-
course, does not appreciate the question as
to how much he gets out of the hat after it
has been handed round.
There is much good-humour in these
crowds. All sorts and conditions of men,
women, and children are represented. The
nursemaid, taking the children out for an
hour or two, finds the Domain an excellent
place for the youngsters. She also finds
amusement such as she most relishes for
herself. She pays more attention to would-
be admirers than to the discourses of the
various lecturers. Soldiers and sailors mingle
with the crowd, and the dark-skinned, tur-
baned coolies in their white, flimsy garments
and gaudy Indian silk sashes afford a strik-
ing contrast to the folk clothed in more
civilized garb. Summer costumes both of
men and women in these warm climes are
picturesque enough, and each one follows a
fashion of his or her own.
Taken as a whole, the scene in Sydney
152 Town and Bush
Domain on Sunday afternoon would afford
ample scope to the artist, who would find in
it plenty of colour and effect. Such a picture
would afford a pleasing change from the
somewhat monotonous canvases usually to
be seen in art galleries and exhibitions of
local paintings.
After spending an hour or two in the
Domain, a walk through the streets will show
they are well-nigh deserted. People are glad
to leave the hot pavements, and either take
tram, rail, road or boat to one of the numerous
pleasure resorts. Coogee is a favourite place
on Sunday afternoon, and the scene along
the Randwick road and through the Cen-
tennial Park is animated. Fast trotters
in sulkies bowl along at a great pace,
and when each driver wishes to show his
horse can go faster than any other on the
crowded road the race becomes exciting. It
is wonderful how collisions are avoided, but
there are very few accidents.
The colonials are not great church-goers.
Sunday in the Domain 153
They prefer sermons from Nature to dreary
discourses from the pulpit. St. Andrew's
and St. Mary's, the English and Roman
Catholic Cathedrals, are, however, generally
well filled. At St. Mary's the singing is
quite on a par with the requirements of a
Roman Catholic Cathedral, and when any
great singers are in Sydney they generally
give their services on Sunday in the church.
The climate has a great deal to do with
the moderate attendances in most of the
churches. Fashionable preachers, however,
generally prove a draw, but curiosity is the
main attraction in these cases. There are
many good clergymen in the colonies, but
they are scattered over a wide area. There
are also many clergymen who would certainly
have been better suited in some other occupa-
tion. Inferior preachers are the rule, not the
exception. In times gone by there must
have been many liberal Churchmen in Aus-
tralia,.for there are many handsome churches
in various parts of the colonies.
154 Town and Bush
No distinction is nmde between church
and chapel. They are all churches, and
people of ' other denominations,' as they are
generally classed, when not members of the
Established Church, would be highly indig-
nant if they were alluded to as chapel-goers,.
There are High and Low Churchmen, and
Churchmen whose consciences will allow
them to be either High or Low as occasion
may require.
Revivals take place at intervals, and under
the excitement of the moment many people
suddenly develop religious fervour. I am
afraid the effect of these periods of excitement
is not lasting, for I have come across some
queer cases of backsliding not many weeks
afterwards.
A wave of temperance, too, is felt, and for
a time there* is a desperate war waged
between the licensed victuallers and the
advocates of non-intoxicating beverages.
After an absence of over ten years from
England, I have noticed since my return a
Sunday in the Domain 155
great change in the Sunday mode of
life.
In former days, the man who did not attend
church regularly was regarded as a kind of
social outcast. It is very different now.
There is far more freedom on Sunday than
there used to be. It is not considered a
flagrant breach of Sunday laws to ride a
bicycle on that day, or to go for a drive, or
even to have a picnic. There is a tendency
to more freedom, which very much resembles
the way Sunday is spent in the colonies.
English people are prejudiced in favour of
old-fashioned notions, and in many respects
are far behind newer countries.
What the colonials have been doing for
years, England is gradually beginning to
do at the present day. It is a relief to
find Parliament has at last come to the
decision that it is better for people to attend
picture-galleries and museums on Sunday
afternoons than to walk three or four miles
out of town, pass as bona-fide travellers at
156 Town and Bush
a hotel, and sit in the bar smoking and
drinking.
It has taken* years to drive this notion
into the heads of British legislators. Aus-
tralia has for years shut up her hotels all day
on Sunday, and opened her picture-galleries,
museums, etc. England has for years opened
her hotels at stated hours, and shut up her
educational resorts. The balance is decidedly
in favour of the Australian method, and at
last Englishmen are beginning to see it
in the same light. The Church should be
the first to welcome this change, because it
will give people a taste for mental refresh-
ment instead of bodily. I admire the out-
spoken, manly sentiments of the Dean of
Rochester.
If there were more clergymen like Dean
Hole there would be more church-goers. I
don't think Dean Hole would refuse to
house bicycles in the vestry, provided he had
room, if the riders wished to attend service.
Sunday in the Domain 157
I am sure he would not if the rider had a
good rose in his buttonhole.
There can be no harm in a rational way of
spending Sunday, and this the Australians
have seen for many a year.
CHAPTER X.
travelling.
Travelling has not yet attained the pitch of
perfection in Australia that it has reached in
older countries, but it is going ahead by leaps
and bounds.
The railways have been vastly improved
during the last dozen years. So long as the
railways remained under political control and
influence, it was impossible for the Commis-
sioner or Commissioners to conduct them as
he or they thought best in the interests of
the colonies.
The life of a Commissioner for Railways
when he was at the beck and call of every
insignificant member of Parliament can be
more easily imagined than described. All
Travelling 159
the railways of importance belong to the
Governments of the various colonies. State
railways are considered by many people to
be impracticable and unremunerative. They
are, if badly managed, but so would any
railway be under similar circumstances. Since
Mr. Eddy took over the post of Chief Com-
missioner of Railways in New South Wales
he has made the lines pay, as a whole, and
pay well. He and his fellow-Commissioners,
three in all, have, however, had a great ad-
vantage over Mr. Goodchap, whose place
they filled upon his retirement. Mr. Good-
chap did wonders in the position in which he
was placed. H9 was hampered by that
bugbear of Australian progress, political
control. His successors were freed from
it almost entirely.
In days gone by members of Parliament
thought it their bounden duty to their con-
stituents to induce the Government to build
a railway line to the districts they repre-
sented.
160 Town and Bush
A would-be member of Parliament who
stated plainly on the hustings that he did not
see his way to urge the Government to build
a railway in the district would have had no
chance of election. The consequence of this
ought easily to have been foreseen. Lines
have been built where they had no business
to go, and where they will not be profitable
for many years to come. Under the old
system of railway management, it mattered
very little to members of Parliament whether
the railway officials reported favourably upon
a proposed line or otherwise. If a majority
of the House voted a sum of money for a
line to go to a certain locality in a certain
direction, there it must be taken, whether
the railway experts liked it or not.
There was a give-and-take kind of feeling
existing amongst members of the House.
Certain of them would band together and
decide they must have a railway to tap the
constituencies they represented. These con-
stituencies probably extended some hundreds
Travelling
161
of miles in a sparsely-populated country. It
would have been an excellent plan to have
railways tapping every part of the colony,
had it been possible, but the question, Would
such a policy pay ? had to be considered.
When the Government has to borrow
millions of money to make these railways,
and pay interest on these millions for many
years, it behoves it to be careful that there
shall be some prospect of an adequate return
for the expenditure.
But the give-and-take politicians thought
nothing of all this. There was no other
constituency worth considering but their own.
Mr. B. wanted the line to go in such a
direction to such a place. Mr. A. wanted a
huge court-house and post-office in his con-
stituency. If Mr. B. would ,vote for Mr.
A.'s court-house and post-office, Mr. A.
would vote for Mr. B.'s railway. This is
what I mean by the class of men I have
styled 'give-and-take politicians.' It is a
pernicious system, and it is not played out
11
162 Town and Bush
yet. ' Log-rolling' is an accomplishment
colonial members excel in. They have so
many 1 axes to grind ' that it is no wonder
' log-rolling' follows.
With the appointment of Mr. Eddy, a new
system of railway management was intro-
duced. Even members of the Assembly
commenced to show signs of returning reason,
and to think the management of the rail-
ways should be removed from political
control.
No one who has not lived there can fully
understand the great improvements that have
been made in railway travelling on the New
South Wales lines during the past five or six
years. The suburban traffic has been com-
pletely changed by the laying down of an
additional two lines of rails, making four in
all. Stations have been enlarged and im-
proved. Bridges and walls have been
rebuilt; in fact, a wonderful change has come
over the whole suburban line from Sydney
to Strathfield. In addition to the vast im-
Travelling 163
provement made in existing lines and rolling
stock, the speed of the trains has been greatly
accelerated.
Mr. Eddy and his colleagues do not
confine their attentions to the working
of the railways at headquarters, but they
constantly travel over the whole system,
which entails an amount of labour little
understood in England. Mr. Eddy believes
in inquiring personally into any requests or
suggestions on the spot, so that he can judge
for himself what is required. It would have
been a great loss to New South Wales had
Mr. Eddy thrown up his appointment, as he
was inclined to do, a year ago. I have
alluded to railway management rather fully,
because it is mere justice to Mr. Eddy to do so.
Travelling on the railways in Australia is
becoming more and more luxurious. On the
overland route between Sydney and Mel-
bourne, which I have traversed many times,
every attention is paid to travellers. The
Pullman-cars are luxurious, and the sleeping
164 Town and Bush
accommodation as good as could be desired.
There are only first and second class on most
lines, and the first is the class used by many
people who in England would travel third.
There is, however, not such a vast difference
between first and second as between first
and third on home lines. I am afraid the
increased comfort of railway travelling will
have the effect of inducing members of
Parliament to travel about too much. The
paid legislators of New South Wales hang
upon their watch-chains a small gold badge,
which somewhat resembles a masonic emblem.
This badge passes them free, on the railways,
to any part of the colonies, and also on the
tramways.
It would be far better if members were only
granted free passes to visit their con-
stituents. Under the present extraordinary
system, a member of Parliament can travel
thousands of miles without contributing six-
pence to the working expenses of the line.
The average legislator is dear enough at any
travelling 165
price, without this additional burden of
carting him about free being thrown upon
the country.
And not only does the member travel free,
but he has the audacity to ask for free passes
for his wife, and perhaps a whole string of
relations as well. It was amusing to read a
Victorian list of gentlemen and their wives,
families, and friends who had been carried
free over the railways during a certain
period.
Some of these free travellers must have
given up house, and taken to boarding out in
railway carriages, judging by the time they
must have occupied them.
I have known a prominent politician enter
the sleeping-car at Albury, and ask for a
berth. When told they were all occupied, he
merely asked that some gentleman should be
requested to turn out. As the gentlemen
who had turned in had paid for their berths,
and the politician was travelling 'on the nod,'
they declined to move, and this august per-
166 Town and Bush
sonage had to find a resting-place in the
smoking-saloon.
The assurance of these free travellers is
unbounded. They always want the best
seats, and assume an air of importance that
ill becomes their appearance. It is sincerely
to be hoped Mr. Eddy will be able in time to
curtail the privileges of these free travellers.
He will have a difficult task, as members
think more of their own pockets than of
serving the country ; but if he makes up his
mind to amend this particular system, he
will.
There is direct communication by rail from
Brisbane to Adelaide, via Sydney and
Melbourne. It is a long, tedious journey,
but saves an immense amount of time on the
ocean route. To a man with spare time on
his hands, and who is a good sailor, the ocean
route is preferable.
There are many excellent steamers on the
coast plying between intercolonial ports.
Some of diem are as large as the mail-
Travelling 167
steamers of the smaller class. There is great
competition, and fares are very cheap. On
many of these boats it is surprising what
good tables are kept, and the wonder is how
it pays. It is a pleasant voyage round the
coast of Australia from North Queensland to
Adelaide in South Australia. It is an
admirable and economical way for a tourist
to see the chief ports of this great continent.
The intercolonial steamers generally remain
long enough, even at the smallest port, for a
run ashore. Some of the scenery down the
Queensland coast cannot be equalled in
grandeur and beauty.
The best views of the large cities of
Australia are always obtained as they are
approached from the coast, and not inland.
Sydney reached overland from Brisbane
gives the traveller no idea of its extent
or importance, nor does Melbourne if
the traveller is landed at Spencer Street
station instead of sailing up Port Phillip
Bay.
168 Town and Bush
Brisbane as seen from the river is far
more picturesque than viewed from Roma
Street station. Adelaide is a considerable
distance from the Semaphore, where the
mails are landed ; but Port Adelaide is, I
think, within six miles of the city. Adelaide
is about the farthest inland, from where
the mail - steamers anchor, of any large
town.
To reach many of the inland towns, it is
necessary to take coach after leaving the
train. A ride on an Australian mail-coach is
not the height of enjoyment. There is an
enormous amount of bumping and jolting,
and you are forcibly introduced to your
neighbours on the same seat, whether you
like it or not. The drivers of these coaches
are experts at the game. It matters
little whether they are half asleep or
wholly awake : the coach gets there just the
same.
After one of these coach-rides, a timid
traveller will have serious thoughts of doing
TRAVELLING I 69
the return journey on foot. If he is a
pious traveller, he will at once thank
a merciful Providence for delivering him
from the many dreadful dangers he has en-
countered.
The coach-drivers of the colonies are a
free-and-easy set of men. They can drive a
team with wonderful skill. I have seen a
driver handling a team of six horses going at
a hand gallop light his pipe, holding the
match in the same hand as the reins. The
man who fancies himself as a whip may smile,
and say this is an easy thing to do. Let him
try it. If there is a good head wind, he has
a very outside chance indeed of blowing a
cloud.
The horses attached to these coaches are
sure-footed and hardy, and have great
powers of endurance. They must also have
wonderful constitutions, for they can drink
cold water eagerly with their sides soaking
wet and their flanks heaving. In some of
the rougher parts of the country these coaches
170 Town and Bush
traverse ground where there is no road, and
only a faint indication of a track, which, how-
ever, the driver and his horses seem to have
no difficulty in following. The way the
coach-wheels avoid tree-stumps is marvel-
lous.
If the passengers are a sleepy lot, and un-
communicative, likewise sparing of liquor to
the driver, the Jehu will rouse them to a
sense of their enormities by giving them a
jolt at intervals over a fairly high stump. I
have never met the traveller yet, bar the
driver, who did not consider his escape from
sudden death was miraculous after one of
these jolts.
As for the driver, he enjoys them. Jolting
seems to do him good. He is the primary
cause of these jolts, and he is delighted at the
effect. These jolts seldom fail to arouse the
travellers, and to convey to them what is
required of them.
The railways of the colonies are gradually
being extended, and it ought not to be many
TRAVELLING I 7 I
years before there is a great trans-continental
railway system. When this is accomplished,
millions of acres of new country will be
opened up.
CHAPTER XI.
crisis and panic.
The staidest people are apt to lose their
heads when the savings of a lifetime are in
danger, and small wonder at it. During the
Bank crisis in Australia a few years ago
there was a genuine panic. I was in Sydney
at the time, and I shall never forget the
scenes outside the banks, or the excitement
amongst the people, which rose to fever-
heat.
The storm had been brewing for some
time, and many business men had watched
the gathering clouds anxiously. Some of
them prepared for the storm, and conse-
quently weathered it moderately well ; but
Crisis and Panic
173
there were others—the majority—who had
no means of averting the danger.
There is such a thing as being too pros-
perous. It is not good for a country to have
all smooth sailing. Australia had been going
ahead by leaps and bounds for many years,
and she was to have a lesson that will prove,
let us hope, a salutary check. General de-
pression must follow over-indulgence and
over-speculation. The ridiculously high price
of land, the enormous rents, the ease with
which loans were negotiated with the banks,
the high rates of interest, the large dividends
declared by certain banking and land and
investment companies, all combined to bring
about the crisis and panic alluded to—at
least, such is my humble opinion, as an indi-
vidual who had taken note of these things.
Large sums of money were advanced upon
inadequate securities. .When bad times came,
the heavy rates of interest charged crippled
the squatters and land-owners. It was a
notorious fact that many large stations were
174 Town and Bush
practically run by the banks. If the owners,
or ostensible owners, of these stations failed
to make them pay, it was hardly likely the
banks running them would reap a profit.
I shall allude to no particular bank or
banks, and a mythical bank would do just as
well to illustrate what I mean. It is the
principle of the whole business I am trying
to prove is wrong. Many of the land and
investment companies and deposit banks
combined were never in a position to carry
on legitimate business from their initiation.
The banks of this description that had some
pretensions to fulfil the promises made in
their prospectuses suffered by the ghastly
failure of these other banks. It was no un-
common thing for some of these deposit
banks to offer to per cent, on fixed deposits
for, say, a period of twelve months. No
bank with any pretensions to the name can,
I maintain, do this and not come to grief.
If 10 per cent, be a fair interest for deposits,
what sort of exorbitant interest must a bank
Crisis and Panic 175
charge for loans to clear a profit and accept a
risk!
It is satisfactory to know that some men,
who lent their names and acted as directors
on such banks, were brought to book for their
actions. Some of them exchanged their seats
at the directors' table for a much harder seat,
and a table not covered with green baize or
russian leather, but with oakum or some
other prison goods. No pity ought to be
shown to such men. They were Jabez
Balfours on a small scale, but the scale was
quite large enough to upset the balances—in
the banks — of a good many unfortunate
people. Hundreds of working men lost all
their savings in these burst-up deposit banks.
Money was taken over the counters, in some
of these banks, when those responsible for
the management knew it was as good as gone
the moment it left the hands of the depositor.
Surely there is no more despicable, treacher-
ous action than this. Imprisoned directors,
justly suffering for the misery they had
176 Town and Bush
caused, wailed, through their friends outside,
about their wives and families. Hundreds of
wives and families of men they had ruined
must have cursed them and cried aloud for
justice.
I read several of the glowing prospectuses
of these banks. They were very attractive
—too attractive for my taste. They held out
inducements to investors, and to depositors in
particular, that were certainly alluring. It was
the depositor they wanted to catch—the man
with the ready money. No wonder working
men and others, who had saved a few hun-
dreds, were tempted by that 10 per cent.
Many men drew money out of the savings
bank to invest in these concerns. There are
men now in Australia who still feel the pinch
of almost poverty, and will feel it for years to
come, from investing in these banks.
But what of the legitimate banks, the well-
established banks, the prosperous concerns
that in some instances had paid dividends
to shareholders of from 15 to 25 per cent. ?
Crisis and Panic 177
In Melbourne, the genuine bank crisis was
even worse than in Sidney. In one or
two instances, banks there went utterly
to smash. I recollect hearing the first
rumour of impending trouble in a Sydney
tram-car. A well-known trainer of horses
was my informant, and I have a shrewd
idea where he received the tip from. I
shall not mention names — I have more
respect for my publishers than that. The
trainer in question said to me—this may not
be the exact conversation, but it is substan-
tially correct:
' Have you any money in ?' naming a
prominent bank.
I smiled at the mere supposition. Fancy
a pressman and a struggler with literature
being possessed of a banking account! The
notion tickled me immensely, and my smile
expanded into a laugh.
' It's no laughing matter,' said the trainer.
'If you have any money in , draw it
out.'
12
ij8 Town and Bush
I lamented the fact that I had no money
in that bank, and added :
'If I had, I should be only too happy to
leave it there, unless I wanted to buy a race-
horse.'
It was his turn to smile now.
' You know better than that,' he said.
' Well, I reckon a race-horse would be
hardly as safe as the bank,' I replied.
' I doubt it,' he said. ' I've just been to
draw what money I can out.'
' Why did you not draw it all out ?' I asked.
' Can't,' he said. ' Some of it's on fixed
deposit, and they asked me to give notice of
withdrawal. They'll be shut up before I can
get it.'
' Are you serious ?' I said.
'Never more so,' he replied. 'But you
needn't make use of it. It might scare
people.'
I knew what a statement of this kind would
mean if made public. The state of the
public mind at that time was such that a
Crisis and Panic 179
rumour, well authenticated, would cause a
panic. I held my tongue, but I was inter-
ested, as I knew the trainer was intimate
with persons likely to be ' in the know.'
A week after this conversation the crash
came. One bank closed its doors, not being
able to stand the run on its coffers. In some
mysterious manner people had got wind that
there was something wrong. A steady run
on the bank developed into a wild rush, and
there was no means of stopping it. Many a
sound bank has been compelled to close its
doors owing to a senseless panic. This was,
however, no mere senseless panic in Australia
or in Sydney—it developed into that later
on.
Of course the closing of this bank caused a
run on other banks. Never was there such
a clamouring for money before. People who
managed to withdraw their money hastened
to place it in those small secure compart-
ments of the Safe Deposit Company. Thou-
sands of sovereigns were locked up, and thus
180 Town and Bush
withdrawn from circulation. No wonder the
banks could not stand the drain on their gold-
chests.
Vast crowds of excited people struggled
frantically to reach the bank counters. The
pavement, even the roadway, was blocked by
the struggling masses. Men picked up the
morning paper eager to see what bank had
closed its doors. Bank after bank had to shut
up, until people began to wonder whether
there was a bank in the city that would
stand firm.
Some of them did—the Bank of New
South Wales, the Bank of Australasia, the
Union Bank, and the City Bank, amongst
the number. They must have felt the
unusual pressure, but they met all the
calls made upon them. When the other
banks, not those named, had closed their
doors, the senseless part of the panic com-
menced.
A rush was made on the Post-Office
Savings Bank and the Savings Bank of
Crisis and Panic i 8 i
New South Wales, both guaranteed by the
Government.
Going down Barrack Street one morning,
I saw an immense crowd of excited people
outside the head office of the Savings Bank
of New South Wales. They were depositors
eager to withdraw their savings, which were
much safer there than anywhere else. There
were hundreds of women with blanched,
eager faces, clutching their deposit-books in
their hands. I spoke to one woman on the
outskirts of the crowd.
' Are you going to draw your money out ?'
I asked.
She looked at me as much as to say, 'What
business is it of yours ?'
Interpreting her glance, I said :
'You may think it is no business of mine,
but if you'll take my advice, you'll leave your
money where it is. It is safe there. You
may be robbed of it if you take it out.
The bank is guaranteed by the Govern-
ment.'
182
Town and Bush
' And if it is,' she said, ' I wouldn't trust
the Government with my money. I've
earned it by hard work, and I mean to
have it.'
She pressed forward into the crowd, and
probably stood there for hours.
It was a glorious time for thieves and pick-
pockets, and many women were relieved of
their money after struggling so hard to get it.
This rush on these banks was ridiculous, and
when people recovered their senses, the
money they had withdrawn was deposited
again with rapidity.
It became necessary for the Government
to take steps to allay the panic, and to restore
public confidence. Had this not been done,
it is impossible to say what might not have
occurred. Many people who had money
deposited in the banks that had closed their
doors went about offering to sell out at
ridiculous prices. Pound notes issued by
these banks dropped in value. I saw some
change hands for fifteen shillings, and I
Crisis and Panic 183
believe many were, when the excitement was
at its full height, disposed of for half their
proper value.
Tradesmen more enterprising than their
fellows posted notices in their windows
that full value in goods would be ex-
changed for these notes. Some hundreds
of pounds must have changed hands in this
manner.
Sir George Dibbs, I forget whether he
was knighted at the time, or had uttered his
famous saying of ' D Chicago!' was
Premier. Whether people agree with Sir
George in politics or not, it ought to be
acknowledged that at this particular time he
kept cool and collected, and acted in a states-
manlike manner. He took steps to make
the notes of these banks a legal tender, and
in doing so he acted in the right direction,
as after-events proved. He restored by
his tact and promptitude confidence in the
Savings Bank of New South Wales, and also
in the Post-Office Savings Bank. It would
184 Town and Bush
not interest the general public to relate fully
how he carried out his schemes. It suffices
to say that, if Premier Dibbs had not acted
in the prompt mariner he did, unscrupu-
lous people would have had the chance of
reaping an excellent harvest. I firmly
believe thousands of pounds were lost to
hard - working people, who got rid of
pound notes at a considerable loss on the
principle that ' half a loaf is better than no
bread.'
It was Premier Dibbs's action in reference
to these notes that put a stop to the traffic
in them. Sir George Dibbs is an obstinate
man, once he has made up his mind as to the
right course he ought to pursue. He is a
man who is not afraid to do what he believes
to be right. His bitterest political opponents
do not in their heart of hearts doubt his
honesty of purpose.
One instance will suffice to show he will
carry out his intentions at the risk of
damaging himself politically in the con-
Crisis and Panic 185
stituericies. Two ruffians, Williams and
Montgomery—much the same type of men
as the Muswell Hill murderers, Milsom and
Fowler—were condemned to death for a
murderous assault on the police. There was
a feeling amongst a certain class of people,
that, as the condemned men had not com-
mitted actual murder, they ought not to be
hanged. The law of the land permitted the
hanging of these men. It was the eve of a
General Election.
Sir George Dibbs is no fool when an
appeal to the electors has to be made.
He is a veteran in politics, and knows
most moves on the board. He knew, no
man better, that his trump cards—in this
case to catch the votes of a certain class of
electors to whom political opinions are a
secondary consideration—were named Wil-
liams and Montgomery. If he sanctioned
the reprieve of these *men—for practically,
except as a matter of formK it rested with him
—he knew it would cause many a vote to be
186 Town and Bush
cast for himself and party in the ensuing
battle. He also knew that, if he declined
to listen to the appeals for a reprieve, he
would lose hundreds of votes, and they were
wanted, every one of them, at that particular
period.
To his credit, be it recorded, he refused to
budge from the position he had taken up,
and the men were hanged. " I do not go
so far as to say Dibbs and Co. would have
carried the elections had these men been
reprieved, but I do say such a course of
action would have secured them many hun-
dreds of votes. I think this incident shows
plainly that Sir George Dibbs can stick to
what he believes is right, even at the loss of
political power and favour.
Following on the bank crisis and panic
came the 'reconstruction period.'
The banks announced that business was
suspended pending reconstruction. It was
amusing to hear the remarks passed upon
this reconstruction. One person declined to
Crisis and Panic 187
settle with his butcher and baker because, as
he jocularly remarked, he was reconstruct-
ing.
Another man named a race-horse Recon-
struction, in the hope that the animal might
pull through in a race. Everybody seemed
bent upon going in for reconstruction in some
shape or form. If business was bad, the
tradesman said there was nothing for it
but to reconstruct. This reconstruction was
made an excuse for almost every kind of
liability.
Men stated they could not meet their busi-
ness engagements until the banks had re-
constructed. It was surprising how banking
accounts increased and multiplied. Men
who never claimed to have banking accounts
before the crisis, now alluded to the amounts
they had on fixed deposit, and which they
were afraid they might never be able to draw
out.
' I'm a bit short, old man. My money's all
locked up in that blessed bank. Could you
i88 Town and Bush
lend me a fiver until they have recon-
structed ?'
This was the sort of thing one constantly
had to encounter.
When the banks published their scheme of
reconstruction, depositors and others sat down
to study it. This reconstruction scheme
was probably about the only way out of the
difficulty. It was only on this scheme being
recognised and passed by the shareholders,
etc., that the banks could carry on business
again. Reconstruction therefore commenced,
and is probably going on still. There must,
however, be a large amount of money locked
up for some years, and this necessarily
cripples the colonies.
Capital cannot be invested, because it is
locked up, and this must be a hindrance to
progress. Some infatuated people think we
can do without capitalists. The fallacy of
this is shown by the state of the colonies at
the present time. It is the locking-up of
capital, combined with a temporary loss of
Crisis and Panic 189
confidence from outside, that has thrown
Australia back a good half-score years. The
country will recover and become prosperous
again. Such a land cannot fail to do so, but
it will take time.
CHAPTER XII.
living in the colonies.
Since my return to England, many people
have asked me if it is not much more expen-
sive to live in the colonies than in the
mother-country. My answer to that, from
my own experience, is an emphatic ' No.'
You can get more for your money in England
than in Australia—I mean a greater variety
—but the actual cost is much the same. A
rich man is, no doubt, able to spend his
money to more advantage in London than in
either Sydney or Melbourne, although this
also is open to question. London society is
exceedingly exclusive, and a colonial, even if
a millionaire, finds some difficulty in making
headway in the Metropolis of the world.
Living in the Colonies 191
Money will procure most things, but it is
not true, as I have seen it stated in print
more than once, that money alone will buy a
man or woman the entree into the best ' sets '
in England. The rich man coming from a
distant country will find what I state correct.
After an enormous outlay, altogether out of
proportion to the results, he may obtain some
sort of a footing in society, but he will find, if
he be not very careful, he will quickly lose it
again. Every man, to be happy, ought to be
contented in his own station in life. The
man who enjoys the money he has made
spends it on pursuits that please him most.
In making the statement that the cost of
living in Australia is not greater than in
England, I mean in proportion to the wages
earned. Taken all round, the average wage
of a working man in the colonies—I mean a
man who works for his living—is higher than
in England.
House rents are high in the large cities of
Australia, absurdly high when the accommo-
192 Town and Bush
dation is considered. Most Sydney houses
of the middle-class type are built without
much regard to comfort or climatic condi-
tions. Houses of the best class are beyond
the reach of citizens who have not ample
means. I think house rents being so high
have much to do with encouraging men to
remain single. The single man can live
comfortably in Sydney or Melbourne for a
small sum. Even labourers, and such-like
working men, have to pay ten shillings a
week for a very small tenement indeed.
Seventy-five pounds a year is a stiff price
for a house containing four fair living-rooms,
a couple of attics, and a small kitchen, with
no garden, except a small patch in front and
a diminutive back-yard that a respectable dog
would regard as a limited domain, and there
are many such houses in Sydney at this rent.
Ten or a dozen miles out of town a decent
cottage costs a pound a week. There are
many at much less, but I am writing now of
a cottage suitable for a middle-class man.
Living in the Colonies 193
The rates are generally, in these cases, in-
eluded in the rent, which is a more con-
venient plan for the tenant, and also for the
collector ; and it cannot make any difference
to the landlord, as he charges rent in pro-
portion.
The cost of labour is responsible, in a great
measure, for the high rents. There are
houses near where I am at present residing
—about fourteen miles from London, beyond
Richmond—letting at seven and six a week,
that would bring from twenty-five to thirty
shillings a week in Sydney, say in Surrey
Hills or Paddington. Rent is the one great
expense in the colonies.
The price of meat, however, almost if not
quite makes up for this. I have no hesita-
tion in saying that I could run a house well
(in the meat line) in Sydney for six weeks on
less than the butcher's bill here comes to in
two weeks. Meat is wonderfully cheap in
Sydney, it costs more in Melbourne, and it
is very low in price at Brisbane. Ordinary
13
194 Town and Bush
articles of food are just as cheap in Sydney as
in London, even cheaper. Imported goods,
such as grocers sell, are of course slightly
dearer; but when we think of the distance
they have come, it is wonderful how they can
be sold at the price.
I have often seen it stated that it costs
fifty per cent, more to dress well in the
colonies than in England. Rubbish ! I will
guarantee to get as good a suit of clothes in
Sydney for four guineas as can be got
in London for the same price, and as well
cut.
Four guineas will no doubt be considered a
low price for a suit. Some people—generally
they cannot afford it—pay six guineas. Let
them, with pleasure. I am writing for men
who wish to live within their means, and at
the same time dress as gentlemen. It is
unfair to the colonies for travellers, who visit
them for a bfief period, to return and relate
how awfully dear everything is there. These
men know nothing of what they are talking
Living in the Colonies 195
about. In the first place, they probably select
the most expensive establishments, and take
the prices there as those- ruling throughout
the city. It would be just as reasonable
for an Australian to go to the most fashion-
able West End tailor, and quote his
prices as those ruling in London gener-
ally. If the best shops in Sydney or Mel-
bourne had their prices compared with
the best West End shops in London, I
fancy the balance would be in favour of the
former.
Fruit is very cheap in the colonies—and
what luscious fruit it is ! A fruiterer's window
in Sydney or Melbourne is a glorious sight
in the season.
Luscious grapes from three - halfpence
up to sixpence a pound, as good as any-
one could wish for. Peaches — and such
peaches !—at a fraction of the cost they are in
London; a dozen peaches cbuld often be
bought in Sydney for the price of one decent-
sized peach in London. Bananas at two-
196 Town and Bush
pence a dozen when plentiful, apricots,
melons, passion-fruit, guavas, Cape goose-
berries, custard - apples, mangoes, pears,
apples, walnuts, filberts, oranges—and such
oranges ! not half dead and leathery—tama-
rinds, pineapples, figs, strawberries (dear),
damsons, lemons, plums, citrons, etc. These
are fruits named at random as I think of a
shop-window in Sydney. In Brisbane I have
bought good juicy pineapples at threepence
a dozen, and I have no doubt a cartload could
be had for half the price a respectable English
pineapple costs. Fruit-growers around Syd-
ney complain that it hardly pays expenses
to send the fruit to market. At Ryde, or
near it, I have seen bushels of fruit rotting
on the ground because of a glut in the
market.
The orange groves are simply lovely when
the golden fruit is ripe and glistens amidst
the dark green foliage. Naboth's vineyard, I
am certain, was never in it with some of those
around Sydney. At Albury, the border town
Living in the Colonies 197
between Sydney and Melbourne, the country
teems with grapes, and the wine made in this
district is excellent.
Australian wines ought to be more used
than they are at present. It would be far
better for Australians to drink more of the
wine of the country and less imported
rubbish. The concoctions named port wine,
and which are imported, are simply vile ; a
muddy stream is comparatively clear to most
of the foreign port. There is good port to
be bought, but it has to be searched for, and
this is a dangerous kind of exploration when
sampling goes on.
Light wines are not as much thought of
as they ought to be. My experience of
the colonies is that the people pay more
attention to imported articles and wines
than to their own products. This ought
not to be so. Such a country as Aus-
tralia, with her vast resources, ought to be
almost independent of outside supplies.
The wines of the country are much purer
198 Town and Bush
and far more healthy to drink than Scotch
whisky and brandy, or even imported bottled
beer.
The amount of gas in some of the imported
bottled beers would be useful for anyone fond
of ballooning. A limited consumption is
calculated to make a man seriously think of
taking his gas by meter. Drink is dear, and
runs away with a lot of money. Many
brands of whisky sold are never heard of in
England, and I doubt if Scotland would be
proud to own to them. There may be ' three
stars' on the corks, but the amount of stars
the whisky causes consumers to see is incal-
culable. Whisky-and-milk causes visions of
the Milky Way. In such a climate the light
wines of the country ought to have a large
sale.
I have said wages are high. This has
been my experience. A good man is seldom
overpaid, but an inferior man may be. It is
obviously unfair, as some unionists want, to
place all men in a certain trade on the same
Living in the Colonies 199
footing as regards wages. The skilled man
ought to be able to earn more than the man
not so gifted.
Domestic servants are scarce, the good
ones few and far between. This is not an
uncommon thing, even in England. There
is loud lamentation in the old country about
the scarcity, likewise the haughtiness, of the
domestic servant.
The old-fashioned servant has gone out of
fashion. The domestic servant, faithful and
true, who gloried in her twenty or thirty years
of service in one family, is well-nigh extinct.
But the domestic servant in Australia,
to use a common expression, 4 takes
the cake.' She ' takes the cake ' in more
senses than one when it is ' her night
out.' Her night out! It would be a diffi-
cult matter to discover, not which is her night
out, but her night in.
Most of these domestic servants are im-
ported articles, and therefore it would be
unfair to saddle their peculiarities 'on to the
200 Town and Bush
colonies. The wages asked by mere girls
who know very little about household duties,
and nothing at all about cookery, are exor-
bitant. From ten, twelve, fifteen, and twenty
shillings a week is what they ask, usually
from twelve to fifteen. These wages would
not be too large, provided the girls knew
anything.
The majority of them think of nothing
but going out at night, and their faces
are very long indeed if they do not get
the whole day when it is a public holiday.
As for obtaining a general servant capable of
managing a house for a small family, such a
person would be almost worth her weight in
gold.
The working men, labourers, and others
have an exaggerated idea of their own
importance. This is not entirely their own
fault. Miscalled labour leaders have had
much to do with inflating these men, until
some of them are on the verge of explosion.
More about them anon.
Living in the Colonies 201
I think I have shown that living in
Australia is not dearer than in the old
country, but cheaper, despite high rents and
wages of servants. I have often heard men
say in Sydney :
' If I had ^300 a year in England, it would
go as far as ^500 out here.'
Such a statement has not a particle of
truth in it. How men and women live in
England, on the miserable salaries they
receive is a mystery to me. The bulk of the
clerks and shopmen in England have
wretched salaries ; they are far worse off
than the labourers. This is also the case in
Australia. Men of the clerk stamp will find
almost as much difficulty in obtaining employ-
ment there as in England.
I should never advise a man, not prepared
to work hard at laborious toil, to go out to
the colonies unless special advantages were
offered. Australia has ' dudes ' enough and
to spare in her large cities. They bear a
202 Town and Bush
striking resemblance to the English ' dude '
or ' masher.' They could not by any
stretch of the imagination be mistaken for
gentlemen.
CHAPTER XIII.
country scenes.
It would be a difficult matter to travel in a
country more diversified in scenery than
Australia. There is the barren waste and
sandy desert, miles upon miles of unexplored
country that has never had a white man's
foot set in it. There is ample scope for the
adventurer in these wilds. He can risk his
life, and travel in a land whose wonders
are as yet hidden from the knowledge of
man.
Vast cities are to be seen, and quiet, peace-
ful hamlets and villages ; the bustle and the
excitement of the miners' camp, and the
stillness of the farmer's life.
Station life can be studied by the traveller.
204 Town and Bush
He may inspect flocks and herds that would
astonish any English farmer—millions of
sheep, hundreds of thousands of cattle.
The vineyards and the orchards are there
in perfection.
There are vast forest scenes magnificent in
their grandeur, and there are deserts and
barren tracts of land awful in their desolation
and loneliness. There is the cultivated land
and the sandy desert, the fields with verdure
clad and the ' paddocks' burnt brown as
sand. I may explain that an Australian
paddock often contains more acres than a
fair-sized farm in England.
There are wonderful caves and beautiful
valleys. There are winding rivers, and snug,
bays and harbours, enclosed within the most
lovely scenes. No words of mine would
convey to the reader the vastness of the
country, or the loveliness and variety of its
scenery.
I will endeavour, however inadequately, to
give a brief sketch of a few scenes I have
Country Scenes 205
been privileged to see. I consider it a privi-
lege to look upon Nature in all her wondrous
beauty in any country, and Australia is aland
of wonders, and here Nature has been left
untouched by man.
First of all let me write of a scene in the
Blue Mountains of New South Wales. How
aptly named these mountains are ! Seen from
a long distance, it is difficult to distinguish
which is mountain, which cloud and sky.
That jagged, bold projection looks like a
rock, until it suddenly melts away, and we
know it to be a cloud ; and as the cloud
moves, the "mountains show clear and -bold.
There is a delicate blue haze hanging upon
them : it is not the blue of the sky, and
it is not the blue of the sea ; it is not
the blue of an artist's picture of 4 summer
days,' nor is it the blue of the peacock's
gorgeous plumage. It is a Blue Mountain
blue—an altogether indescribable and peculiar
blue. It is so delicate in tint that if it melted
away and became lost it would cause no sur-
2o6 Town and Bush
prise. I have in summer, when the heat has
been intense and the atmosphere clear, seen,
from the outskirts of Sydney, this peculiar—
almost weird—blue tint on the mountains.
The colour seems to cling to the summit,
which at this distance looks like a bold out-
line on a map. It becomes darker down the
side of the mountains, and loses its colour at
the base.
In these mountains of blue are some ex-
quisite pictures. There is the vastness of an
Alpine region combined with a Peak of
Derbyshire scene. There is mountain and
hill, valley and dale, cascade and waterfall,
river and rivulet, all side by side in this
wondrous district. It is a paradise for the
tourist, and the botanist, artist, geologist,
sportsman, and naturalist, will find themselves
in the midst of a country peculiarly interest-
ing to them.
One scene I have a vivid recollection of.
A mountainous slope, shaded on all sides by
large trees, whose roots cling to the rocks,
Country Scenes 207
twisting and twirling round thern like huge
snakes, leads into a shady gully of the most
beautiful nature. A waterfall of small dimen-
sions trickles down the rock and wends its
way through a bed of bright green moss, the
colour of which is quite refreshing after the
glare of the hot sun. In the midst of a large
bed of this moss, which seems to have
formed itself into a kind of plateau, are
hundreds of large lilies; their green leaves
hang gracefully on thick stems, and the
white flowers, cup-shaped, and with orange-
coloured centres, contrast with the foliage
surrounding them. This sweet spot is
shaded on all sides by overhanging rocks,
in every crevice of which grows a plant or
fern. Many of these rocks are covered with
wild creepers, which hang down and trail
over the surface, much in the same manner
as creepers do in a conservatory.
No glass is required here to grow the most
beautiful flowers. No stove-pipes are there
to supply heat in order to nurture them.
Town and Bush
There is no occasion for anxiety as to whether
there is too much air or too low a tempera-
ture, or whether the sun is too powerful, and
shade must be provided.
This is one of Nature's greenhouses, and
the patent can never be infringed. Nature
knows exactly what is required, and supplies
accordingly. Some of the plants in this con-
servatory of Nature, situate in the Blue
Mountains of New South Wales, love sun-
light, and they find it creeping down on to
them' through an opening in the leafy
screen.
Others like shade, and an overhanging rock
or a large fern or tree protects them from the
sun. Some prefer a dry atmosphere, and are
fixed near the summit, where the damp does
not reach. Plants and ferns with a liking
for a moister spot grow near the stream, or
are constantly kept damp by water dripping
on to the moss surrounding them.
And how artistically everything is arranged !
No unsightly pots or boxes are necessary in
Country Scenes 209
this conservatory of Nature. The colours
blend harmoniously, and in the midst of a
mass of ferns one is sure to find some bright
flowers. Orchids grow here in profusion,
and the gullies of the mountains are full of
these strangely beautiful flowers. Jasmine
clings and twines round the branches of
trees.
The acacias are luxuriously beautiful and
graceful. The rock - lily and the wild
fuchsia are seen in all their splendour.
All kinds of clematis grow in this spot.
A bouquet can be selected whose beauty
and variety it would be difficult to surpass.
There are no song-birds to make the scene
still more enchanting, but parrots call aloud,
and birds twitter in the branches of the trees.
A gaudy-coloured parrot may flutter down
on to the moss for a drink, or a lizard may
run across the rocks and disappear in some
obscure haunt. The botanist will find ample
employment, and an artist would revel in
such a scene.
14
2io Town and Bush
If a sportsman wanders about the Blue
Mountain district between Mount Victoria
and the Jenolan Caves, he will have to take
good care he does not get lost, or fall down
some deep hole, or slide down a mountain-
side with more rapidity than he cares for.
Although the ground is uneven and the
country rough, and sometimes dangerous,
the sportsman will be amply repaid for the
hard work he must undergo. It is not
advisable to go out of the beaten tracks,
unless accompanied by a guide who knows
the country thoroughly. In many places the
only guide to the traveller is a mark on the
trees, and there is no track or pathway. It is,
however, when straying from the beaten track
that the best sport is tp be found. The sports-
man will find, if he has good luck, at the end
of the day he has secured a very mixed bag.
There is far more pleasure in looking
for your game than in standing in a corner
and firing at a crowd of driven birds
almost a§ tame as barn-door fowls, This
Country Scenes
2 II
cannot be called sport. It is not worthy of
the name. It is an appetite for slaughter
that must be satiated.
Parrots are difficult to shoot, as they fly so
high, and also swiftly. A chattering in the
trees denotes where they are. Stalk them,
and the chances are they will be off before
you are within gunshot. Then the best plan
is to remain hidden under the tree they have
just left. The parrots are almost sure to
return again, as they are partial to particular
trees and spots. There is no mistaking their
return. They announce their approach loudly
enough, and no sooner do they settle on the
highest branches than they proceed to go into
committee and discuss the affairs of the parrot
kingdom. A steady aim will bring from two
to half a dozen fluttering down on to the
ground. Sometimes the birds sit quite close
together, and then there is a chance of a good
haul. The lucky birds fly quickly away,
screeching as they go, but in about half an
hour they will probably return to investigate
212
Town and Bush
and hold an inquiry into the disappearance of
their comrades.
Having bagged a few parrots, the sports-
man looks out for other game. He walks
along, eyeing the scrub and rocks for a
wallaby. Suddenly he is made aware that
the road to fame and wallabys is not par-
ticularly safe. He is brought down with a
bang, and finds his feet entangled in a mass
of undergrowth. Having untangled himself,
he proceeds onward, and presently sinks up
to the armpits in an unseen hole. These
pitfalls are generally carefully concealed by
vegetation. He is rewarded at last by
potting a wallaby. A dingo may run across
his path, but he allowTs the wild-dog of the
woods to make tracks. These dingoes are a
terrible nuisance in some parts. They are
not unlike a cross between a fox and a sheep-
dog. They have a sharp, vixenish head,
shaped like that of the fox, and a bushy tail
that generally curves upwards. Their colour
is a mixture between that of the fox and a
Country Scenes 213
yellowish sheepdog. I have known these
dingoes to commit terrible ravages in a flock
of sheep in the course of a night.
The native bear is oftener taken alive than
shot. He is a funny little chap, and peers
out from his favourite nooks in the trees in
an amusing fashion. The native bear is of
an inquiring turn of mind, and even when in
captivity wants to find out all about his
surroundings. He is a grayish - coloured
animal, with a good deal of the miniature
bear about him, and rolls himself up ball-like
when asleep.
Hares may be shot in large numbers round
the jenolan Caves district, and these animals
are in many parts a regular pest. The
kangaroo-rat, wombat, opossum, flying fox,
platypus, and occasional wild-horses, may be
found in this mountainous district. Among
the birds may be mentioned the bronze-wing
pigeon (a beautiful bird), the wonga-wonga,
lowry, plover, magpie, cockatoo, kingfisher,
gill-bird, laughing jackass, etc.
214 Town and Bush
Dense gum-tree forests are found here,
and miles of mallee scrub. The gum-trees
are most remarkable. They are gaunt and
bare and ugly, and yet there is a strange
weirdness about them that cannot be called
other than picturesque. On a moonlight
night the gum-trees have an extraordinary
appearance. Their whiteness and their great
height and scraggy branches make them
look for all the world like witches trans-
formed. The branches stretch out in all
manner of fantastic shapes. The twigs at
the end resemble sharp bony fingers on a
long withered arm.
The road from Mount Victoria to Jenolan
Caves goes through close upon forty miles of
wonderful scenery. The deep valleys and
precipitous gorges are extraordinary. The
Great Dividing Range has to be crossed,
and then there is a descent to the caves.
On every side the scenery is full of wild
grandeur.
The traveller looks upon it with a feeling
Country Scenes 215
akin to awe as he realizes its vastness, and
also the fact that the hand of man has had
nothing to do with it. He sees this wild
country untouched, and miles upon miles of
it untraversed. The air is pure and refresh-
ing, and such a scene, or succession of
scenes, could not be found in any other
country.
CHAPTER XIV.
up-country race-meetings.
In a former book I have described how
racing is conducted at the headquarters of
the turf at Flemington and Randwick, and it
may not be uninteresting to have some idea
how race-meetings are carried out up-country.
I will not mention any particular place by
name, but will select a typical one and call
it ' the annual meeting of the Gumtree
Jockey Club.'
Jockey Club is by no means the high-
sounding and select club it is in England.
There are any amount of Jockey Clubs in
Australia, and even in the Bush the term
Jockey Club is often added to the name of
the place where the races are held.
Up-country Race-meetings 217
The announcement that the annual meet-
ing of the Gumtree Jockey Club would be
held on a certain date did not arouse much
enthusiasm in Sydney. Several members of
the sharping fraternity were interested in it.
These up-country race-meetings are often
profitable scenes of action for such men. No
matter how hard-up they may be, they gene-
rally find the means to travel by train and
coach a distance of five hundred miles or
more.
Gumtree is a small hamlet, but it must
have its Jockey Club. Gumtree folk would
deem it a great oversight if there was no
annual race - meeting. The local publican
owns a horse, and the blacksmith owns
another, and it is only on the racecourse
the respective merits of these animals can be
tested.
The Jockey Club meetings are held at the
Gumtree Arms, and the business transacted
takes' a considerable amount of washing
down. The chairman, probably the landlord,
2 I 8
Town and Bush
has a lively time, but generally manages to
get the business through. The date of the
fixture is arranged, the number of races and
amount of stakes decided upon, a secretary
appointed, and the meeting advertised in
some of the local papers. When these pre-
liminaries are settled, the secretary, and
perhaps the chairman, proceed to Sydney in
order to obtain a few entries from head-
quarters. It looks well to have the names
of a few well-known horses figuring in the
list.
No matter whether they start or not, the
mere fact that such horses have been entered
for the Gumtree Handicap of one hundred
sovereigns, distance one mile and a half, is
recorded, and throws a glamour over the pro-
ceedings.
The secretary and his companion return
from Sydney and report progress at the next
meeting of the Gumtree Jockey Club. They
are called over the coals for incurring so
much expense. At this the secretary rises
Up-country Race-meetings 219
indignantly and states he has a good mind to
throw up the whole business. Peace being
restored, the final touches are put to the
programme.
The Gumtree racecourse is not as smart as
Kempton or Sandown. There is no per-
manent grand-stand. A temporary one has
been erected for the officials and a few of the
best set in Gumtree. The course itself would
not be a bad one if properly laid out. It is
a mile round, and fairly level ; but jockeys
have been known to narrowly escape
sudden death from encountering a tree
as they ride round. The course is not
fenced in, and people roam about as they
like.
On the day of the races the scene is ani-
mated. From the surrounding district
people drive or ride in to the races. They
come in all sorts of vehicles, and on all sorts
of horses. Some men ride the horses that
are to run in the races to the meeting. The
train brings in a goodly number of people, who
22o Town and Bush
tramp the three miles to Gumtree course
without a murmur.
One or two reliable bookmakers are
present, and several who are unreliable.
The country folk, dressed in their best, are
quite as anxious about the result of the
Gumtree Handicap as racing men are' over
a Melbourne Cup. They back their fancy
freely, and enjoy the sport thoroughly. The
surroundings matter very little to them ; all
they are interested in is the racing.
The jockeys are mostly up-country lads,
but the publican, who owns the favourite, has
secured the services of a Sydney rider. It is
noticeable that the betting on the Gumtree
Handicap is somewhat peculiar. The
favourite is steadily laid against by certain
men from Sydney. These men never seem
tired of laying the publican's horse. Perhaps
the fact that the jockey who is to ride came
up with them in *the same carriage from
Sydney has something to do with it.
However this may be, the landlord of the
Up-country Race-meetings 221
Gumtree Arms is no fool. He has quietly
informed the jockey that if he does not try to
win he will not only ' wring his neck,' but
deliver him over to the inhabitants of Gumtree
to deal with as they think fit. If he wins,
the publican promises him a substantial
present.
Preferring cash to blows, the jockey
decides to leave the Sydney sharps in the
lurch, although he has been bribed to
lose.
There are ten starters for the Gumtree
Handicap. The local starter is by no means
an expert with the flag, and the jockeys take
very little notice of him. The starter's mind
is made up on one point. He means to let
the favourite get away well. Not only has
the starter his ' bit on,' but he knows very
well, if the landlord of the Gumtree Arms
does not consider the start satisfactory, there
would be ructions, and no chance of running
up a score for the next six months. . So the
favourite gets well away, and, to the unbounded
222 Town and Bush
delight of the Gumtreeites, romps in an easy
winner.
Then there is a scene of wild joy. The
landlord of the Gumtree Arms becomes a
hero. He 4 shouts ' for all hands, and, as he
runs the booth himself, it does not cost him
much.
It was easy enough to back the winner,
but the Gumtreeites find it a much more
difficult matter to obtain their money. The
4 speilers ' cluster together when the favourite
wins, and the first backer of the winner,
when he asks for his money, is politely
told to wait, as an objection is about to be
lodged. Of course, no objection is lodged,
and the 4 speilers ' determine to fight their
way out of the difficulty.
The usual row takes place, and, blood and
bad language flow freely. The men from
Sydney, however, beat a retreat, and carry
with them a moderate amount of booty as a
sort of recompense for blows received.
At some up-country race-meetings I hav^
Up-country Race-meetings 223
witnessed curious proceedings. At one meet-
ing the judge placed the third horse first,
and stuck to his decision. He had a cast
in his eye, and a wag remarked that this
caused him to miss the two first horses.
It is more probable the man in the box had
a trifle on number three.
Calcutta sweeps are often drawn on the
races, at the principal hotel in the town, the
night before the event is run.
The names of the horses are drawn by the
chairman, each subscriber having put in a
pound share. The horses are then put up for
auction. Suppose a man draws Daylight;
he has paid a pound into the sweep ; if Day-
light is favourite for the race, perhaps he will
be run up to ten pounds or more before he
can buy Iris horse in, or he may let it go if
he so desires. If Daylight is a rank outsider,
the drawer may feel inclined to sell at any
price in order to get rid of it. The pool
occasionally amounts to a considerable sum,
and I have known a man purchasing the
224 Town and Bush
favourite at a stiff price to have a lot the best
of the odds on the day of the race. The
hotel-keepers in the town where the race-
meeting is held often give a considerable
sum of money to the race club in order to
have the meetings of the club and the Cal-
cutta sweeps held in their hotel. This brings
them in a lot of custom, and makes the hotel
the headquarters during the race-week.
Picnic race-meetings are got up in various
parts of the country. These meetings are for
amateur riders only, and as a rule they are
well managed. These clubs are supported
by the members, who pay an annual subscrip-
tion. Only invited persons can attend the
bulk of these meetings. A lot of betting
takes place on the races, and the amateur
bookmaker is very much in evidence. From
personal experience, 1 know that the amateur
bookie is well up in all the little tricks of the
trade supposed to be the sole property of the
professional layer. The amateur bookmaker
resides in the up-country town near which the
Up-country Race-meetings 225
picnic races take place. He has a remark-
able way of scenting a ' dead un,' or of find-
ing out a non-starter. He does not impart
this knowledge to the members of the
picnic club to which he himself belongs.
Oh dear no! that would be altogether too
idiotic. He quietly makes use of the
knowledge he obtains to fleece his fellow-
picnickers. Some amateur bookmakers of
this class could give points to a profes-
sional when a shady transaction has to be
recorded. .
The owners of the horses running at picnic
races are generally men of means. Some of
these horses are trained in metropolitan
stables with a view of running at the meeting.
Good amateur riders can always obtain a
fair number of mounts in a season at picnic
meetings. There is more of the professional
than the amateur about them. Many young
fellows, however, stick to the legitimate
object for which picnic race-meetings were
first established. They ride their own horses,
r5
226 Town and Bush
and often train them, and are delighted at
scoring a win.
Some of these picnic race-meetings are
most enjoyable, but others are anything but
sociably conducted. After the picnic and the
races, a ball generally follows in the best
public room available in the town. The
expenses of the ball are defrayed out of the
club funds, and consequently it is a rare
opportunity for some members to take it out
in champagne—which they do with a ven-
geance.
Some years ago there were very good
race-meetings held up-country, and good
stakes were given. As racing increased on
the metropolitan courses, however, the up-
country clubs suffered in consequence.
Owners and trainers did not care to send
their horses on an expensive journey of some
hundreds of miles, when a larger amount than
was offered in the country could be picked
up almost any Saturday near home. At the
present time it takes an up-country race-
Up-country Race-meetings 227
club all its time to clear expenses. There
are scores of country clubs in existence, but
the sport afforded by them is, in the majority
of cases, of a second-rate order. Racing, like
most other things, can be overdone, and the
up-country meetings are gradually feeling the
keen competition in the large towns. There
is a lot of genuine enjoyment to be got out
of up-country race-meetings, and it is to
be hoped it will be many a long year before
they cease to exist.
CHAPTER XV.
eight- hours day.
The Eight-hours demonstration in the large
cities and towns of Australia occupies a
somewhat similar position, as a spectacle,
to that of the Lord Mayor's Show in
London.
The working men of Australia demonstrate
on the eight-hours day that a third part of
the twenty-four hours is quite sufficient for
them to work. In that time they are sup-
posed to labour and do all that they have
to do.
In Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and
Brisbane, Eight-hours Day is religiously
observed, although it does not necessarily
fall on the same date. Many towns of minor
Eight-hours Day 229
importance also seta day apart for its celebra-
tion. These demonstrations are all very
much alike, and to describe one eight-hours
day in any colony will suffice for the whole.
Great preparations are made beforehand
for the proper celebration of Eight-hours
Day. Startling advertisements appear in the
papers, announcing where the fete will be
held after the usual procession. An Art
Union is generally run in connection with
the show, and valuable prizes are given. In
Sydney the day is generally recognised as an
off-day for work, and the majority of the
business houses are closed.
On the morning of the eventful day
Circular Quay presents a bustling and ani-
mated appearance, for on this spacious ground
the various members of the different trades-
unions assemble to form in processional order.
Flags and banners, strange devices on carts,
bands of music, and all the usual parapher-
nalia connected with such processions, are to
be seen here.
230 Town and Bush
Everything is in perfect order and every-
one orderly, for it is nine o'clock in the
morning, and the effects of the demonstration
are not to be seen at this hour. When the
clock has got round to nine at night, it would
be a somewhat difficult task for the marshals
to organize a procession. The route taken
by the procession is generally along George
Street to the Redfern Railway-station, and
from thence the people proceed by train to
Rosehill Race-course. Every window in
George Street is filled with spectators. The
post-office steps are lined with people, who
stand half a dozen or so deep all along the
route. It is a great time for the youngsters,
who fully appreciate the show provided for
them.
As a spectacle, the procession is creditable,
and well worth seeing. I have witnessed
processions in London' that by no means
equal that of the eight-hours day in
Sydney.
The different trades are all represented,
Eight-hours Day 231
and they draw for places in the line of march.
Most of the trades-unions have handsome
banners, which are carried in front of the
members, and are beautifully painted with
allegorical pictures. On lorries may be seen
men at work at their trade. The black-
smiths have a shoeing forge, and are hard at
work blowing the furnace and shaping the
shoes for a pony that looks very much in-
clined to jump for it into the crowd below.
The Society of Marine Engineers and the
Seamen's Union generally come in for more
than an average share of applause. They
have a lifeboat on their lorry, manned with
sailors, dressed in picturesque costumes.
Various small ships and boats are carried
aloft, and the band plays nautical airs as the
men march along. The bakers have huge
loaves, the larger ones denoting the size of
the loaf under Free-trade, and the smaller one
under Protection. Various firms of biscuit
manufacturers are represented by their carts,
from which men throw a constant shower of
232 Town and Bush
biscuits into the crowd. The confectioners
also throw packets of sweetmeats, which,
needless to say, are eagerly scrambled for by
the young ones. There is no danger in
these scrambles, because the crowd is not
dense, and the packets, etc., are thrown over
the heads of the people standing on either
side of the line of march. Bakers at work
making bread take excellent aim with pieces
of dough, and nothing suits them better than
to hit a top-hat with one of these sticky
missiles. The representatives of the tobacco
firms also throw small plugs among the
crowd, and hundreds of ounces must be
distributed in this manner.
On one occasion the chief brewery in
Sydney had a huge barrel on a lorry, and
several smaller ones, from which beer was
drawn and handed to thirsty souls in the
crowd. There was a large attendance at the
tail-end of that cart, and the drawers did
a roaring trade. -
The butchers generally had a good show,
Eight-hours Day 233
and also the printers, who were followed by
the news-lads of the city, a noisy crowd of
urchins whose occupation hardly entitled
them to be considered eight-hour workers.
At the end of the procession of unionists
came various carts and carriages, repre-
senting firms in the city. It took the pro-
cession close upon an hour to pass any given
spot, and everything went off without a hitch.
The scene at Redfern Station on Eight-
hours Day is bustling, and the officials have all
their work cut out to arrange for the convey-
ance of the people to Rosehill. Train after
train departs crammed full, and yet there
seems to be no appreciable diminution in the
crowd.
At Rosehill Race-course, an admirable
place for the crowd, various sports take place,
and other forms of amusement, which keep
the folk well occupied until evening, when
many of them return to town in order to
attend places of amusement or knock about
the city.
234 Town and Bush
But there is more in Eight-hours Day
than a mere procession and round of amuse-
ment. On this day the working men cele-
brate the principle that eight hours' labour is
enough for any man in one day. Most
people will feel inclined to agree with the
eight-hours principle who have lived for
any length of time in the colonies. In
such climate eight hours' hard work, more
especially in summer, is enough for any
man.
Eight hours' manual labour, with a heat of
perhaps 90° in the shade, is calculated to
take a lot out of a man. These unionists
do right to celebrate this day, and they may
well be proud of it. No one can find fault
with this eight hours' labour question. If
men would work hard for eight hours at a
fair rate of wages, there would be no
grumblers. Many men, however, fail to
carry out this principle. They work eight
hours in a certain fashion, and grumble at
the pay received.
hJGHT-IIOURS DAY 235
Unionism is a fine thing, no doubt, but
at the same time it is tyrannical. There
is very little freedom in unionism, as I have
found it in the colonies. Men willing to
work are compelled to cease work in order
that discontented fellow-workmen may have
the chance, often a remote one, of satisfying
their demands. Unionism is all very well,
but I fail to see why a man earning two
pounds or more a week should be compelled
to cease work because another man is
not satisfied with that amount. I am quite
aware that unionists argue that, if every
man did as he wished, there would be no
unions.
I noticed the eight - hours procession
after the seamen's strike in Sydney was
not so imposing as usual. That strike was
ill advised, because the men never had
the remotest chance of winning. It was
a disastrous strike, and caused much
poverty and suffering to innocent women
and children.
236 Town and Bush
The shipping companies were prepared for
the strike, and, although they were incon-
venienced, the steamers were got away in
fair time. The men who advised that sea-
men's strike have a lot to answer for.
Hundreds of men have not been able to
return to their occupations since that time.
Their places were filled by new hands, and it
was hardly likely the employers were going
to throw over men who had come to their
assistance in the hour of need.
The labour leaders, not necessarily labour
members, are powerful in Australia. The
eight-hours day is a great day for them, and
they are justly proud of it. But these labour
leaders ought to be very careful how they
give advice. I do not doubt their honesty,
but I cannot help doubting their judgment,
when I have for years seen their childlike
blunders and the lamentable results. It may
be a rash assertion to make, but I fully
believe the labour-leaders are in a great
measure responsible for the depression and
Eight-hours Day 237
lack of employment in the. colonies at the
present time.
The men by their ill-advised action have
frightened capital out of the country, or,
rather, from coming into it. With the labour
market constantly in an unsettled state, a
feeling of insecurity prevails. Capitalists
find some difficulty in securing suitable
investments at anything like a fair rate of
interest. I believe many thousands of
pounds would be invested in the colonies if
more reliability could be placed upon the
labour market.
I have talked to labour leaders in Sydney,
and most of them are not men who could be
relied upon in a crisis. Their great aim
appears to be to set labour against capital.
This they succeed in doing to a great extent.
If they would consider the harm they do the
men they are supposed to guide, they would
hesitate before adopting such high-handed
measures. It is a great and noble thing to
be a leader of men, but there is a pro-
238 Town and Bush
portionate amount of responsibility attached
to it.
The Australian workman has a will of his
own, and he is sure in time to see through
the folly of his leaders. If the working men
in the colonies would only consider how
much better off they are than the working
men in older countries, they would be more
contented with their lot.
Lack of employment there must be at
certain times. This is so in every country.
Men out of employment are, however, in a
far worse state in England than in Australia,
especially during the winter months. The
cities in the colonies are overcrowded, while
the country wants many more thousands of
settlers in it.
It seems strange that men should prefer to
starve in a city to working in the Bush. It
is the fascinations of city life compared with
the loneliness of the Bush that tempt them
to remain in the towns. A man can save
money up-country, but it quickly melts away
Eight-hours Day 239
in a town. The labour leaders seem to
favour men remaining in the towns, because
it gives them more control over their
actions.
CHAPTER XVI.
politics and politicians.
When a country is not in a prosperous con-
dition, and the finances are in a bad state, it
is customary to blame the political party in
power. Granted that Parliament has much
to do in making or marring the fortunes of a
country, it is hardly fair to saddle everything
upon members' shoulders.
I have heard people say in Sydney :
' We are always likely to have bad seasons
because Dibbs is in power;' or, 'We never
expected the country to prosper, because
Parkes is in office.'
The late Sir Henry Parkes was a central
figure in the political life of Australia for
many years. He was a remarkable man, and
Politics and Politicians 241
had a remarkable appearance. No man's
appearance favoured caricature more than
that of Sir Henry Parkes, and he got plenty
of it. During the ten years I was in
Australia, a week seldom passed without the
head of Sir Henry Parkes figuring in some
paper, comic or otherwise.
I shall never forget the first time I saw
this extraordinary man. It was in the
Sydney Art Gallery. I saw a tall, robust,
commanding figure standing before a picture.
There was no stoop in the figure then, and
no tendency to round shoulders. The head
was massive, and a mass of white hair curled
down under the back of the hat, and came
below the collar. There was character in
this back-view.
When the figure turned round, I saw a
face full of intelligence, coarse in feature but
striking, and in many respects noble. It was
in every sense of the word a massive head.
The hair was very white, even then, and
flowing ; his eyes were restless under bushy
16
242 Town and Bush
eyebrows; the nose somewhat big, and
nostrils wide and large. The mouth was
concealed by a white moustache, and a long
white beard reached down below the open-
ing of the waistcoat. The forehead denoted
much power and intelligence, and seemed to
me unusually high. I asked an attendant
who it was, and he looked at me in amaze-
ment.
' You don't know Sir Henry Parkes when
you see him ? Well, you must be a new-
chum !' was his reply.
Considering Sir Henry was born, I think,
in 1815, and it was in 1887 I first saw him,
he looked wonderfully young and active for
his years. It was my lot to hear him speak
on many occasions after this. He was not
what I Should call an elegant speaker, but he
had a convincing way with him. He could
not bear unseemly interruptions, and his
temper was none of the best when ruffled in
this manner.
It was a great pity Sir Henry Parkes did
Politics and Politicians 243
not gracefully retire from politics before the
last General Election, when Mr. George Reid
came into power. Had he done so, I firmly
believe at that time a pension would have
been granted him, and that he would have
thus avoided much worry and trouble, and
have lived some years longer.
Sir Henry Parkes was not the man to be
easily brought to believe the people had lost
faith in him. His popularity was on the
wane for some years, but I do not think he
knew it. As a stanch Free-trader, Sir Henry
Parkes was naturally directly opposed to Sir
George Dibbs. Although he had not been a
Free-trader all his life, he was a stanch sup-
porter of the policy for many years. Every
public man is open to attack. Some bitter,
even cruel, attacks were made on Sir Henry
Parkes. He may not have been a business
man, but his financial troubles were not
caused through any desire on his part to
wrong people, as it was more than once
hinted in print. Judging by results, Sir
244 Town and Bush
Henry Parkes had but little capacity for
financing either his own or the country's
affairs.
Sir George Dibbs is more of a financier
than his rival. The one great fault Sir Henry
possessed was egotism. His ' Fifty Years in
the Making of Australian History ' clearly
shows this, and probably accounts for the
comparative failure of the work. The writer
did not realize what he anticipated from it.
There was much humour in Sir Henry
Parkes, and he was fond of his little joke.
He evidently believed in married life, as he
entered the bonds of wedlock three times.
His bitterest enemies must acknowledge that
Sir Henry Parkes was a remarkable man, and
that he deserved better treatment than he
received in his latter days.
Sir George Dibbs, the leader of the Pro-
tectionists in my time—he is not now—was
in his way as remarkable as Sir Henry
Parkes. Sir George is tall—considerably
over six feet, I should say. He is not so
Politics and Politicians 245
bulky as Sir Henry was, but he has plenty
of substance about him. He has a keen,
sharp face, with a not unkindly expression.
His manner is not calculated to put a nervous
person at ease. He. is somewhat abrupt, and
not unfrequently uses language which cannot
be considered parliamentary. Interviewing
Sir George on a ticklish subject was a deli-
cate job. I recollect, on one occasion, a
gentleman on the press told me he had been
to see Sir George Dibbs, who was then
Premier, on an important matter.
' What did he do ?' I asked.
' You may well ask what he did, not what
he said,' was the reply. ' He hurled a heap
of language at me, and if his boots had been
off, he would probably have shied them at my
head. He cooled down, however, in a few
minutes, and when he saw me still waiting, he
entered into conversation, and I got what I
wanted out of him.'
Sir George Dibbs may be hasty, but he is
just. He never had the hold on the people
246 Town and Bush
Sir Henry Parkes once possessed, nor had he
the control over his party the elder politician
secured.
Mr. George Reid, the present Premier of
New South Wales, is an out-and-out Free-
trader, at least he poses as such. He
is a Stout man, with a full face, and wears
an eye-glass. He is a ponderous man to
look at, but he is a fluent speaker. His
popularity in Sydney is great, and, like
every man when he first assumes the reins of
office, his actions are keenly watched. It
was the direct antagonism of Mr. George
Reid that upset the political apple-cart of Sir
Henry Parkes.
The Legislative Assembly of New South
Wales contains many able men, and many
members who ought not to be there if
reckoned upon their merits. Scenes occur in
the Assembly that can only find a parallel
when the Irish members become unruly in
the House of Commons. It is not a pleasant
sight to see a couple of members of the
Politics and Politicians 247
Assembly engaging in a hand-to-hand en-
counter in the precincts of the House, followed
by a rough and tumble, until their friends
separate them.
If duelling were in fashion, some of the
members would find their time fully occupied.
I know many members personally, and some
of them are men who have the interests of
the colony at heart. Others are merely in
the House for purposes of their own, but they
are found out sooner or later.
Federation was a burning question during
the last two or three years of my stay in
Australia. It went with a great flourish of
trumpets at first. The idea of a United
Australia federated with the Empire had
its attractions.
There is so much petty jealousy between
the various colonies that I doubt if United
Australia is possible for many years to come.
In time there will probably be one Parliament
for Australia, but it is hardly likely to even-
tuate at present.
248 Town and Bush
Intercolonial Free-trade will have to come
first. Victoria still holds on to Protection,
although she has carried this policy to such
an extent that much of the shipping has
been driven away from her ports. There can
be no unity so long as' one colony imposes
heavy duties on the goods sent into her ports
from another colony.
United Australia is a grand subject for
platform orators to handle. It sounds big,
and tickles an audience. Come to put it in
practice, and obstacle after obstacle arises to
bar the way of progress. The great battle to
be fought, after intercolonial Free-trade has
been established, will be as to where the seat
of government shall be fixed. It cannot be
in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, or Brisbane,
so many politicians assert, because no one
colony would consent to Parliament House
being in the capital" of another colony. It
cannot be in Adelaide or Brisbane, and
Melbourne would not permit it to be in
Sydney, or vice versa. Albury, the border
Politics and Politicians 249
town between New South Wales and Victoria,
has been suggested. Albury is much nearer
Melbourne than Sydney, but as it is in New
South Wales, the people of this colony might
not offer objections to it.
There are Separatists in Australia, but
they are in a minority. I think, setting
apart Free-traders and Protectionists, the bulk
of the people and their representatives might
fairly be compared to the Liberal Unionists
in England. There is no universal desire
for separation from the old country at present.
In years to come, when Australia is a great
nation, she will probably follow the example
of the United States, but she will accomplish
it peacefully. There will be no war. Such
an outrage upon society is impossible in these
times between England and Australia, and
no sensible people thought for one moment
a war between England and the United
States was probable. Such a suicidal policy
could never come to pass. The Australians
have too much sense to be hounded on
250 Town and Bush
by outsiders, They are quite capable of
managing their own affairs. The people are
self-reliant, energetic, full of enthusiasm, and
never know when to say die. Writers have
sneered at Australian men and manners, but
they have had no cause to do so, except
it be their own failure to succeed in the
country.
1 One man one vote ' came into operation a
few years ago. Electors' rights were issued.
The following is a copy of my own :
'No. 7,583. New South Wales Elector's
Right. Residential qualification. Electoral
District of Sydney, Flinders Division.
' Division Flinders. The holder hereof
(name), of (number of house and street),
whose name is signed hereunder, is entitled,
being duly enrolled, to vote at Elections
of Members of the Ass.embly in the above
Division of the above District, being qualified
in respect of manhood and of residence in
such division. (Then follow the signatures
Politics and Politicians 251
of the Registrar, or his representative, and
my own.) The 13th day of February, 1894.
This elector's right will expire on the 31st
day of December, 1896.'
When voting at the place appointed, the
elector's right is produced, and endorsed by
the officer in charge. The usual method of
balloting is adopted.
This is an admirable plan, and works well.
Probably improvements will be made in the
manner of distributing electors' rights. A
mistake was made when the candidate for
election was not required to put up a deposit,
which was forfeited if he did not receive a
certain number of votes. At the last General
Election scores of men went to the poll who
would not have done so had they risked the
forfeit of a deposit. Some of these men
actually received no vote, others had one.
These gentlemen were not bashful, and
plumped for themselves.
Only one man can be voted for. This
252 Town and Bush
method of voting places every elector on a
level at the polls. It is the true meaning of
manhood suffrage. It places the rich man on
the same footing as the poor man.
Curious scenes take place at election times.
A late Minister of the.Crown was bombarded
with highly-scented eggs, and flour was freely
scattered over him. The language used is
sometimes hot, very hot indeed. Men call
each other hard names, and look terribly
fierce when they meet in the street. Up-
country the candidates have a lively time.
Occasionally they have to swim a river to
get to a distant part of their electorate.
Sometimes they have to ride scores of miles
to a meeting of perhaps half a dozen
people.
I have been at a farmhouse when the candi-
date has delivered a long speech, to not more
than ten people, in the front-room. I have
heard two candidates stand on the hustings
on nomination day and blackguard each other
like pickpockets, until the presiding officer'
Politics and Politicians 253
had to intervene. The hustings has fortu-
nately been done away with.
It was a common trick up-country, where
lamps were used, for them to be emptied,
and when the hall-keeper went to light up
for the meeting, not a glimmer shone forth.
Boards in platforms were loosened, and the
chairman found himself suddenly lowered
from the view of the audience. One unsuc-
cessful candidate informed me he had a dozen
men rowed across a river at considerable risk,
and then, as he put it, ' every blessed man
voted for my opponent.' He knew they had
done so because there were very few electors
polled at this spot. The expenses of a
General Election in a colony of the size of
New South Wales were enormous in days
gone by. Every tradesman seemed to think
it was the right time for getting something
out of the Treasury.
The labour party have made great head-
way in all the colonies. Some of the men
elected are duly impressed with their responsi-
254 Town and Bush
bilities. Others think ^*300 a year a fat
salary, and draw it and enjoy it. Labour
ought to be represented in Parliament, and,
if intelligent men are elected, the party must
do an immense amount of good for the men
who elect them. The labour members, how-
ever, are often divided amongst themselves,
and then their power for good is reduced to
a minimum. They allow individual opinions
to influence them to the detriment of their
party. Mr. George Reid tried to conciliate
the labour members by appointing one of
them Postmaster-General. I rather fancy
this appointment caused considerable heart-
burnings in the ranks of labour members.
Each member of that party felt he was
quite competent to have held the office of
Postmaster-General.
The LegislativeCouncil cause the Assembly
much' anxiety. Many members wish to see
the Upper House abolished. Mr. George
Reid promised to reform the Legislative
Council, but I doubt whether he has done so.
Politics and Politicians 255
When a candidate is defeated in the con-
stituencies, he often finds himself elevated to
the Upper House. It is a kind of retreat for
the rejected of the people.
The wisdom of abolishing the Legislative
Council altogether is questionable, but there
is room for improvement in it. The Legis-
lative Council ought to be composed of men
who have worked hard in the public life
of the colony. It ought to be an honour-
able reward for great public services ren-
dered.
Men, however, are pitchforked into the
Council, merely for political purposes, who
have" no right to be there. Why should a
man, who is rejected by the people as not
good enough for the Assembly, be placed in
the Council, where he can do no end of
harm ?
Members of the Council are entitled to the
prefix Honourable before their names. It
requires great care in choosing men who are
entitled to be called Honourable in every
256 Town and Bush
sense of the word. Had every appointment
to the Council been made because the re-
cipient was worthy of the honour, it would
stand in little need of reform."
CHAPTER XVII.
the australian press.
Tpie newspapers of Australia compare more
than favourably with those of other countries.
A glance at any of the leading papers shows
their proprietors are enterprising, and in-
formation from all parts of the world is
obtained at a heavy cost.
The cablegrams occupy the leading space,
and naturally are read with interest. Any
interruption in the cable service is regarded
by the great newspaper-reading public as
little short of a calamity.
In times gone by, when there was no com-
munication by cable, news from other
countries only reached Australia at long
intervals. Old pressmen have often told me
l7
258 Town and Bush
of the adventures they had in endeavouring
to be first in the field when a ship arrived
fr6m England.
It was no uncommon thing at that time
for representatives of leading papers to
take boats and row to Sydney Heads to
meet the long-expected vessel. There was
a desperate struggle to be first on board
the vessel to secure the latest files of
English papers, correspondence, etc., and
to interview the skipper and other officers
on board.
Now all is changed. The cable flashes
the latest intelligence from one side of the
world to the other, and anything of import-
ance that has taken place in the old world is
soon learnt in the new.
Although the cable intelligence is varied,
and generally accurate, still there might be
improvements in it. News of very little
interest to people in the colonies is often
transmitted over the wires. Some of the
London correspondents appear to have but
The Australian Press 259
little idea of what most interests the readers
of the papers they represent.
The London correspondent of an Australian
paper ought, I think, to be a man who has
lived several years in the colonies, and been
connected with the press there. He would
then have an accurate idea of the kind of
news most sought after, and from a vast mass
of items coming under his notice in London
he would be able to select the most interesting
news.
Some of the representatives of colonial
newspapers in London have never been
abroad, and consequently are at a disadvan-
tage. They do their best for the papers
with which they are connected, but they
are handicapped through being purely local
men.
Many Australian journalists have had press
experience, not only in the old country, but
in America and other places. Such men are
invaluable on an Australian paper, because
they are able to decipher the correct meaning
260 Town and Bush
of cable messages that would not be so easy
to understand by a local man.
It is wonderful how a cable message
expands when handled by the editor of this
department of a newspaper. A few brief
words gradually extend to several para-
graphs.
This expansion of cablegrams is perfectly
legitimate if the man who deciphers them is
well up in his business. It may, of course,
be carried too far, and a gentleman with an
imaginative mind occasionally places some
startling and not entirely accurate news before
the public.
To a great extent the public are responsible
for the highly-coloured accounts that appear
from time to time. A bald statement of
facts is not enough for newspaper-readers.
They prefer to take their news well spiced,
and tasty to their literary palate. The
demand for sensations is on the increase, and
therefore the supply must be kept up.
This applies to newspapers in all parts of
The Australian Press 261
the world, but American journals may be
placed at the head of the poll as caterers for
the public in this direction. It is no uncom-
mon thing in an American paper to have half
a dozen headlines in bold type, each one of a
startling nature, to attract attention to four or
five lines of news.
In Australia the headings to the cable-
grams are often longer as regards the
number of words than the actual cablegram
itself. It taxes the ingenuity of the cable
editor to find suitable headings; but he is
generally fully equal to the occasion.
The doings of the Australian eleven in
England attract more attention than all the
other cablegrams put together. There is far
more eagerness to see the number of runs in
a match than the number of killed and
wounded in a fight.
The career of an Australian horse on the
English turf is duly chronicled every week,
sometimes every day, and it is quite as im-
portant to know that Paris III. has a cough
262 Town and Bush
as to learn that the Prince of Wales has a
severe cold.
Cable intelligence published one morning
is sometimes contradicted the next, and at
times it takes three or four different messages
to arrive at a correct solution. This is in the
majority of cases, from my experience, the
fault of the senders of the cable intelligence,
who condense to such an extent 'that the
deciphering of a cable is almost as difficult
as reading the hieroglyphics on an Egyptian
mummy.
Englishmen in the colonies sometimes
smile at mistakes made in cablegrams, but
the colonials may well laugh at a London
paper that calmly announces that some event
has happened at Melbourne, New South
Wales. There must be a lamentable amount
of deficiency in Australian geography at
some newspaper offices.
Australian journalists can hold their own
with any pressmen. One test, and a severe
one, is that Australian pressmen can generally
The Australian Press 263
manage to secure good berths when they
come to London.
An Australian pressman has a wide experi-
ence. He meets strange adventures,
and he sees many different countries. He
travels thousands of miles, and writes, I was
about to say, on a thousand different subjects
—he certainly has to expatiate on widely
diverse matters.
The Hansard reporters in the various
Legislative Assemblies and Councils are
capable, hard-working, thoroughly conscien-
tious men. As shorthand writers they cannot
be beaten by any other body of men. Their
accuracy is simply wonderful, when the
wretched way in which many members speak
is taken into account.
The amount of twaddle a Hansard man
has to listen to is appalling. A glance
through any volume of Hansard reports will
show this. The Parliamentary reports in all
the leading papers are comprehensive, and
the summaries excellent. 4 Notes in the
264 Town and Bush
House' are often very amusing, and at
the same time give the gist of the proceed-
ings.
When a Minister goes on tour, he is gene-
rally accompanied by two or more pressmen,
and his utterances are telegraphed from the
various towns at which he speaks. When on
a Ministerial tour, the pressman generally
writes interesting articles on the country
through which he travels, and makes in-
telligent useful comments thereon. There
are many excellent descriptive writers on the
Australian press, and they furnish much enter-
taining reading.
The leading papers are ably edited by men
who would make their mark in the jour-
nalistic world in any country. Such papers
as the Melbourne Argus, the Sydney Morn-
ing Herald, the Melbourne Age, the Sydney
Daily Telegraph, the Adelaide morning
papers, and the Brisbane Courier, are
amongst the best in the world. It would be
invidious for me, and also presumptuous, to
The Australian Press 265
say which is the best paper in Australia.
Where there is such a uniform excellence,
the question of premiership is best left alone.
The Melbourne Argus and the Sydney Morn-
ing Herald are generally recognised as the
leading journals, but there are thousands of
people who pin their faith to the Age in
Melbourne, and the Telegraph in Sydney.
It is a pleasure to read any of the great
morning papers.
The offices of these papers are on a scale
of magnitude and completeness that invari-
ably surprise pressmen from other countries.
The Argus office, in Collins Street, Mel-
bourne, is a fine building, and fitted with the
latest inventions in newspaper machinery.
The Sydney Morning Herald\\2& a large place
at the corner of Hunter and George Streets.
The Brisbane Courier buildings are, I should
say, the largest in the colonies, and the
wisdom of erecting such a palatial edifice may
well be doubted. When I first went to
Brisbane, the Courier buildings, in Queen
266 Town and Bush
Street, were of modest dimensions, and the
paper then was equal to what it is now. One
of the most comfortable newspaper-offices is
that of the Daily Telegraphy in King Street,
Sydney, and the editorial department is
looked after in a manner worthy of all
praise.
The price of newspapers has been lowered
during the past few years. The Sydney
Morning Herald, the Argus, and the Bris-
bane Courier, were twopence each when I
landed in the colonies. The penny papers,
however, obtained such headway that it was
found advisable to reduce the papers named
to half their former price. Although now
sold at a penny each, they are produced
equally well as when sold at twopence. The
only alteration is in the price. A glance at
the advertisement columns of the leading
morning dailies will show what valuable pro-
perties they are. I would, if I had the luck
to make a choice, prefer shares in the Argus
or Herald to any gold-mine at Coolgardie.
The Australian Press 267
Probably the profits are not so enormous as
they used to be, but they must be very large
even in these depressed times. What t'hese
large newspapers clear when a land boom is
on I should not care to speculate upon.
The evening papers do not bear com-
parison with the morning journals. The
Evening News and the Australian Star in
Sydney have large circulations, as also the
Herald in Melbourne and the Telegraph
and Observer in Brisbane. Special editions
are almost as frequent as in London, but they
have not yet taken to bringing out evening
papers at half-past ten or eleven in the morn-
ing. When an execution takes place, how-
ever, the description of the horrible scene is
generally on sale soon after the event. What
a morbid desire many people have to read
these ghastly details !
Australia excels in weekly journals. They
are far ahead, as newspapers and illustrated
journals combined, of any I have ever seen.
I do not mean to compare them as illustrated
268 Town and Bush
papers with the best of the London produc-
tions, because they are not equal to them.
What I do maintain is the large weekly
papers in Australia, as weekly papers which
contain a summary of a week's news, arpar
excellence the best in the world. The Aus-
tralasian, published at the Melbourne Argus
office, is an extraordinary paper; it contains
not only the news of the week in an attrac-
tive form, but also numerous special articles,
serial tales, short stories, graphic descriptions,
notes on news, leaders, and correspondence
from all parts of the world. The agricultural
department is of special interest, and so is the
sporting department. It is liberally illus-
trated with splendid pictures of a variety of
subjects, from the latest fashions to the most
recent winner of a big race. Exquisite land-
scape photographs are reproduced. Society
beauties figure in its pages ; pictures of
important events, and portraits of eminent
men. Cricket, football, racing, and every
other sport, is fully illustrated. The Austral-
The Australian Press 269
astan, in fact, contains information on an
endless variety of subjects, and is produced
in a highly artistic manner.
The Adelaide Observer is another fine
weekly paper, and, as an illustrated weekly,
the Weekly Press, published at Christchurch,
New Zealand, takes a lot of beating. The
Sydney Mail and the Town and Country
Journal, both published in Sydney — the
former at the Herald office, and the latter at
the Evening News office—have large circula-
tions. They are copiously illustrated, and are
edited on somewhat similar lines to the
Australasian. The Melbourne Leader, pub-
lished at the Age office, is another excellent
illustrated weekly, which has been reduced
from sixpence to half the price, and it is a
wonderfully cheap production. Mr. McCul-
loch, the Victorian Racing Club judge, is
engaged on the Leader, and his sporting
articles are a feature of interest in the paper.
The Queenslander, issued from the Brisbane
Courier office, is a fine property.
270 Town and Bush
The Sydney Referee and the Melbourne
Sportsman cater for the sporting tastes of the
community solely. The Referee is a well-
written paper; it is ably edited, and contains
a vast amount of interesting information on
sporting and theatrical subjects. Both this
journal and the Sportsman have a high
standing.
Sunday newspapers are the exception, and
not the rule, in the colonies. The Sunday
Times in Sydney is the leading paper of this
class. When it was first started it had an
adventurous career for some time. The
authorities tried hard to suppress. it, but
failed; and the endeavours to put it down
were probably the best advertisement it could
possibly have had. Prosecutions did not
daunt the editor, and he continued to
bring out the paper Sunday after Sunday.
Even the boys selling the paper on Sunday
were not exempt from the attentions of the
police.
The Sunday Times is now firmly estab-
The Australian Press 271
lished, and no antiquated law will ever be
able to put it down. In Melbourne they
have no Sunday papers. It is against the
law. The first man who has the pluck to
successfully annihilate that law, and publish
a Sunday paper in Melbourne, will make a
fortune. It can be done, but it will take a
lot of money. The public will support the
attempt; of that there is not a shadow of
doubt.
The Sydney Bulletin, published weekly,
stands alone in Australia. It is totally
different from any other paper. The Bulletin
is a smart journal, full of wit and humour,
satire and pungent comment on men and
things. Mr. Phil May, the well-known
caricaturist, was on the staff of the Bulletin
for some years, and did excellent work. Mr.
Hopkins—' Hop.'—is now the artist, or the
principal artist, and his drawings are clever.
The Bulletin fears no man, nor does it favour
any man. It is Australian to the backbone
—I mean the editor's backbone. It scorns to
272 Town and Bush
pander to any class. Some of the Bulletin
skits are very witty. There is always a
hearty laugh to be got out of it. In its
columns writings by many of the best Aus-
tralian authors can be found. Rising talent
can generally find encouragement from the
Bulletin. Its theatrical criticisms are racy,
and although some actors or actresses may
not relish the comments occasionally made,
it is generally a case of being cruel to be
kind. Its society pars are smart, and its
up-country and back-block jokes cannot fail
to cause merriment.
I think I have given a fair idea of how the
press stands in Australia. There are scores
of good papers besides those I have men-
tioned, but space will not allow me to
enumerate all I can remember. Every
town of decent size has its one or two news-
papers. A newspaper seems as indispensable
in an Australian town as the butchers' or the
bakers' shops. In towns of not ten thousand
inhabitants there are often four newspapers,
The Australian Press 273
two of them probably dailies. Nearly every
small village, as it would be called in
England, has its weekly paper to record
local events.
18
CHAPTER XVIII.
literature and art.
There are, many able writers in Australia
who will leave their mark on the literature
of the colonies. There is a tendency to
deprecate literary effort in Australia, and
sufficient encouragement is not given to local
writers by the press and the publishers.
Most of the weekly papers publish serial
tales, but in nine cases out of ten they are
written by English or American authors,
although Australian writers can furnish quite
as good material. ' Robbery under Arms'
was first printed in the Sydney Mail, and
there are other novels which have been
accepted by editors of these papers, but they
are few and far between. I have no reason
Literature and Art 275
to complain of the non-acceptance of' works
of my own, as the bulk of them appeared in
serial form in Sydney before being published
in London. One reason novels are accepted
from London houses to publish in serial form
is that they are supplied at a very cheap
rate. Still, I think the press ought to en-
courage local efforts. Notices of books by
Australian writers are often brief, and the
English press is more generous to Australians
in this respect.
Most Australian authors have to come to
the London market in order to get their-work
published. This does not say much for the
enterprise of colonial publishing houses.
There are one or two firms who occasionally
take up a local book, but the issue of Aus-
tralian published books is small.
It ought to be the aim of all who have the
welfare of Australia at heart to foster and
encourage local literature and art. Every
great country has a literature of its own, and
surely a continent like Australia ought not to
276 Town and Bush
be behindhand in this respect. Considering
the population, the reading public is large, and
their literary taste varied. A good novel is
sure to have a ready sale in the colonies,
but I am afraid if the writer is an Australian
the book is not regarded with favour. There
are exceptions, of course, but what I mean
is, if a book by a new author is brought
out, the London writer would be more likely
to attract attention than the colonial. No
doubt, in time, all this will change, but it
was certainly the case when I was in the
colonies.
The manager of a colonial publishing
house said to me, when I took him a manu-
script to look at:
' It is a first-rate yarn. If you will take
my advice, you will send it to a London
publisher. It will sell much better if it is
brought out in the old country.'
' Will your firm take it up here ?' I
asked.
' They would require a guarantee for any
Literature and Art 277
novel by a local author they published,' was
the reply. ' You see, it's this way : The
public here do not care to buy a book
without it is stamped by the approval of a
London house. They seem to think, if a
London firm will publish a book, it is worth
reading. It is a kind of hall-mark of
merit.'
I took the advice given me, and have not
regretted it. I believe the manager's opinion
to be right.
There is ample material in the colonies to
found novels of all kinds upon, and also
literature of a more solid kind. Up to date
I have not been able to discover a history of
Australia that teaches in a simple, direct
manner the history of the country. Because
Australia is a new country, it does not follow
she has no history. She has a most interest-
ing history of over a century, and, if put
together in a readable form, it would be an
exciting and instructive work. Such a history
ought not to be a dry compilation, mere
278 Town and Bush
bald facts culled from official documents,
although they would necessarily be referred
to for accuracy in dates, etc. To popularize
Australian history is the first step, and to do
this the record must be graphically written.
It would not be necessary to sacrifice facts
for effects. To my mind, there is no more
fascinating study than the history of a
country.
Most school-children like history. The bulk
of them certainly prefer it to geography. It
is a mistake in Australian schdols to pay more
attention to English than Australian history.
Surely, every child ought to learn the history
of its own country. A popular school history
of Australia ought to be in use. At present
the children are more likely to correctly
answer questions in English than in Aus-
tralian history.
Trashy novels of the 'penny dreadful'
order, I am sorry to say, sell as freely in the
colonies as in England. It would be a
blessing if a prohibitive duty was imposed on
Literature and Art 279
them. It would help to lessen the circulation,
which is desirable.
Amongst the most widely-read of Aus-
tralian authors, Rolf Boldrewood, the author
of ' Robbery under Arms,' etc., is one of
the most popular. The author has been in
a responsible public position for many years
which brings him into contact with a variety
of queer characters. He knows the country
he describes thoroughly, and is quite at home
when relating old bushranging stories, many
of which are founded on fact.
Another Australian author who is coming
to the front is Louis Becke, whose South Sea
Island stories are graphically told. There is
not a man in Australia, or, for the matter of
that, anywhere else, who knows more about
life in the South Seas than Louis Becke.
Many of his short stories were first published
in the Bulletin. Marcus Clarke's 1 For the
Term of his Natural Life' is a book any
author might be proud of. Had Marcus
Clarke lived, he would have reaped a well-
280 Town and Bush
earned reward for his great work. Gordon's
poems will always be widely read in the
colonies, and ' The Banjo ' has just published
a book of verses that must prove highly
attractive.
Such writers as Fergus Hume, Nesbitt,
Boothby, Ethel Turner, B. L. Farjeon, and,
I believe, Dick Donovan, hail from Aus-
tralia. There are many others I cannot
enumerate, but these occur to me as I am
writing.
Ethel Turner is an attractive writer,
and is rapidly -making headway. Haddon
Chambers spent several years in Australia,
and his brother, when I knew him, was on
the Sydney Daily Telegraph. He is now
writing short stories for the American papers,
which take well. If more encouragement
were given to local writers, many good
books on Australian subjects would see the
light.
Ther6 are some fine picture-galleries in
Australia, those in Sydney, Melbourne and
Literature and Art 281
Adelaide being specially worthy of notice.
These galleries contain many valuable works
of art, by artists of the Royal Academy and
others. New pictures by well-known artists
are" constantly being purchased. Much in-
terest is evinced in any new picture, and
when the announcement is made that it has
been placed in position, there is always a
rush to see it.
The colonials are fond of good pictures,
and are justly proud of their art galleries,
and the collections are becoming more
valuable year after year. The works of
local artists are purchased for the galleries,
a certain number being selected each year,
when they are considered of sufficient,
meiit.
The Sydney gallery is situated in the
Domain, and is admirably suited for the
purpose, the light being good and showing
the pictures to the best advantage. The
Melbourne gallery is also a fine one, and so
is that in Adelaide. It was a happy thought
282 Town and Bush
that suggested an exchange of pictures be-
tween these galleries a year or two ago.
This gave the public an opportunity of seeing
a variety of new pictures, and the attendances
at the various galleries were largely in-
creased.
Local artists have some lovely scenes upon
which to exercise their skill. The Blue
Mountains alone would furnish subjects for
hundreds of grand paintings. New Zealand
is a favourite resort for artists, and some of
the grandest scenes have been depicted on
canvas.
The market is necessarily limited for the
purchase of pictures, but colonial artists
ought to be able to place their work in
London. As in literature, so it is in art—
there is a tendency to underestimate the skill
of local men. There ought to be a National
Gallery in Australia for the works of local
artists. It would take some time to form,
but the pictures could be got together by
degrees. In years to come it would be
Literature and Art 283
a most interesting exhibition. Not only
would it show the improvement made in
art, but it would be, to a certain extent,
a pictorial record of the progress of the
country.
There are' many historical scenes local
artists ought to paint. Such pictures become
more and more valuable as time rolls on.
There is no better way of interesting children
in their country's history than by showing
them historical paintings and explaining their
meaning. Children are seldom met with
who do not like pictures, and occasionally
naive and amusing, and at the same time
appropriate, criticisms are heard from
them.
Year by year Australian literature and art
will come to the front, and ought to be care-
fully fostered and encouraged by the Govern-
ments and the people.
Australians should always try to think the
best, not the worst, of local efforts in litera-
ture and art. Kindly encouragement goes a
284 Town and Bush
long way, and when given it need not be
devoid of criticism. No true artist objects
to have his work criticised, if the criticism be
just.
CHAPTER XIX.
bush fires.
Fire and water are two great enemies
Australians have to deal with. The fire
comes during periods of drought, when water
is scarce, and floods come after the fires have
ceased, and do as much damage as the
devouring element.
It is not easy to describe Bush fires. How
they commence is often a mystery, and it is
often quite as mysterious how they are got
under. When there has been no rain for
months, and the ground is hard-baked, and
the long rank Bush grass is shrivelled and
dry, and as easily ignited as tinder, the
least spark of fire will cause a conflagra-
tion.
286 Town and Bush
Anyone who has not been through the
country during a drought can have very little
idea of its melancholy appearance. Not a
green blade of grass is to be seen, and
animals die by the thousand. It is not in
these very bare districts the danger from
Bush fires is so great; it is round the peaceful
farmhouse, where the land is more under
cultivation, that the great danger arises.
Perhaps a careless tramp or sundowner may
throw down a lighted match, after he has
secured a smoke, and then go on his journey,
little recking of the ruin he has left behind.
But this carelessly dropped match often
causes a great fire and terrible devastation.
The dry wood and grass where it has been
thrown soon ignites, and, if there is a breeze,
the flame is fanned until the fire extends on
every side.
The first sign of a Bush fire brings terror
into the household at the station. There is
no mistaking that long, low. dense mass, that
Bush Fires 287
looks almost like a cloud connecting the sky
and the earth. It gradually becomes larger
and larger, and behind it a thin line of
flame is seen. Then the air for miles
around becomes heavy and oppressed, and
there is a strange, stifling, burning smell
about.
The fire travels rapidly. It licks up
everything that will burn ; and as the wind
blows it onward it increases in volume.
The startled cattle know what a dreadful
enemy is upon them. They sniff the air,
snort, and paw the earth, and a look of fear
comes into their eyes. In a few moments
after making the discovery a stampede takes
place, and the thunder of their galloping
hoofs can be heard amidst the dull roar and
crackle of the fire. Every living thing in
the line of fire endeavours to make its escape
from the flames.
If there is water near at hand, they make
for it, in the hope of swimming across and
288 Town and Bush
finding safety oil the opposite, bank. It is
pitiable to see the mad fright of these poor
creatures.
All is excitement at the homestead when a
Bush fire breaks out. Beaters at once form
a guard round the buildings and advance to
meet the attack, beating down all fuel, to
stop the flames from spreading. It is a
desperate task, fighting a Bush fire. The
summer heat is in itself intense, but the
scorching flames make it ten times worse, and
in this inferno men—ay, and women too—
often have to fight, not only to save
property, but life itself. The hot wind
blows the intense heat straight into the
faces of the beaters ; but they labour
on with almost superhuman exertions, and
sometimes are rewarded by winning the
victory.
Very often, however, they are defeated,
and have to ride for life, leaving the home-
stead to be burned to the ground, and the
Bush Fires 289
crops to be destroyed. There is no time to
waste when chased by a Bush fire.
It is an awful but grand sight to look upon
a mass of blazing country. On one side,
where the undergrowth is dense, the flames
leap high into the air, and twist and twirl
round the almost leafless trees like huge fiery
snakes. In another part the flames come
creeping along the ground like a river of fire,
licking up everything in their way. All
round the country for miles the smoke hangs
like a dense black pall.
A Bush fire amidst the mountains is a fine
sight, and can be regarded without any
thoughts of serious danger arising.
When residing in the Bathurst district of
New South Wales, I have often seen fires
on the Blue Mountains, many miles distant.
These fires cause quite a dense haze, almost
like a fog, to hang over the plains below.
At night-time the scene is weirdly beautiful;
the belts of fire curling around the mountains
*9
290 Town and Bush
have a strange effect. Many people have
lost their lives, and others all their property,
in these fires, and when the heat has been
so intense, and everything is dry as tinder,
there appears to be no guarding against
them.
After a period of drought and heat, during
which the Bush fires rage, there is often
heavy rain, followed by severe floods. The
ground is caked so hard that the water pours
on to it, and for a time runs off as it would
from a housetop. The creeks soon fill up
and run over, and flood the country for
miles.
I recollect at Bourke, about five hundred
miles west of Sydney, in the Darling River
district, a terrible flood occurring after one of
these periods of drought.
The rain fell in sheets for several hours,
and the town of Bourke became in danger of
being washed away. The inhabitants set to
and built embankments to keep out the
Bush Fires 291
water, and the bulk of them removed their
goods to higher land outside the town. The
place was cut off from all communication,
and the trains were stopped.
When it was found the people were in
such sore straits from lack of provisions,
relief was sent from Bathurst and other
towns, and had it not been for this timely aid
matters would have been very serious.
In this brief chapter on Bush fires, I trust
the reader will pardon me for inserting here
a few verses I wrote for a Sydney paper
some years ago.
The reason I publish them is, not because
they possess much merit, but they fairly
describe how a ride for life is sometimes
undertaken in order to escape from one of
these fires.
292 Town and Bush
'A HERO'S GRAVE.
'Although 'tis years,ago, my friends, the story I shall
tell
Is well worth the relating, and 1 remember well
How, as we sat at Old Jasper's table one sunny
Christmas Day—
The wine in our glasses sparkling, and each one feel-
ing gay,
'Jasoer took up a massive snuff-box and passed it o'er
to me,
Saying, "Take a strongish pinch, my lad; it'll do thee
good, thou'lt see."
I took the box from Jasper, looked at him with a smile,
Said, " This is a horse's hoof, and must have travelled
many a mile."
' Old Jasper's eyes they sparkled as I passed him back
the box;
He put his arms upon the table, and his hands together
locks.
I could see there was a struggle, by the teardrop in his
eye;
Not a sound, not a murmur, fell from us till that big
drop was dry.
Bush Fires 293
' A minute, not more, it took him, and the tear went
back again;
I was sorry that my question had caused the old man
pain.
Then he filled his glass and stood up, and the follow-
ing toast he gave,
" Drink now, my lads, to the memory of a gallant
hero's grave !"
' We honoured the toast, in silence, then quietly down
we sat
Till a youngster said to Jasper, " What made you give
us that ?"
" Why did I give you that, boys ? Would you like to
hear the tale
Of how a gallant hero fell—did his duty without fail ?
' " 'Tis a score of years, this very day—I'm sure about
the date,
'Cause on that fatal Friday I nearly met my fate;
The sun was blazing fiercely, the wind was blowing
hot,
Bush fires had been raging, causing losses in the crop.
' " 'Twas a day such as you youngsters have hardly ever
felt—
A heat so fearful, scorching enough to make one melt;
294 Town and Bush
I sat at the open window, and a stupor o'er me came
Till I heard a gentle whinnie and a voice calling my
name.
4 44 Rousing myself, and looking, I saw out on the lawn
My favourite horse, Clanronald, as graceful as a fawn;
His nose was rubbing gently against a small white
hand :
'Twas my dead sister's daughter's, the prettiest in the
land.
444 I called, and she came to me, and left Clanronald
there;
She sat upon my knee whilst I fondled with her hair;
But soon the heat o'ercame us, and we fell sound
asleep,
Till a fearful roaring roused me, and I sprang up with
a leap.
4 44 Out on the lawn I rushed, boys, the child still in my
arms,
For many and many a mile around 'twas naught but
blazing farms.
Not a minute to spare, for death was there in every
leaping flame;
What should I do to 'scape it ? " Help ! help ! in
Heaven's name!"
Bush Fires
295
( "Thank God ! there's hope. Clanronald'sthere, but
sniffing danger nigh;
No time for saddle or bridle—if the fire gets up, we
die !
On his back I leap and press his flanks, the young one
in my grip,
I give the word, the brave horse starts, and o'er the
fence we slip.
' " You've heard the tale o' Mazeppa's ride ? It wasn't
worse nor ours—
Across the plain I ride barebacked, as from the flames
we scour;
Clanronald knew 'twas life or death, and his strong
limbs extend;
Brave horse! When once in safety I vowed to make
amend.
' " On, on, we flew ! A fearful ride, by heated flames
we're chased;
Never o'er flat or steeple has such a course been
raced.
For twenty miles we travelled with a speed as swift as
wind,
At last the pace began to tell—the flames were left
behind!
296 Town and Bush
' " Down the trees came crashing, we heard them all
around,
As the giants of the forest fell, I glanced round at the
sound;
I saw a sight appalling, that filled me with dismay—
A huge black cloud of choking dust for miles behind
us lay!
' " Cattle were burnt by thousands, few animals escaped,
The flames devoured all living things with a fearful,
deadly hate.
Not a blade of grass left near us, all scorched and
shrivelled up;
We were the sole three living things escaped the deadly
ruck.
( " The wide, deep river looms in front—once crossed,
the danger's o'er;
I shout, Clanronald knows my voice, and, gasping
more and more,
The brave horse makes his effort, and lands us on the
brink.
Another shout !<—We're in the stream ! Will brave
Clanronald sink ?
1 " He struggles on with all his strength, at last the fight
is done—
We're landed and in safety, the desperate battle's
won !
Bush Fires
297
But as Clanronald scales the bank his giant strength
gives way,
His life's blood was exhausted, in the throes of death
he lay.
' " Ah ! who can tell the pang, boys, that hero's death
gave me ?
I saw him die with a saddened heart—there ! under
that fine old tree :
As he turned his eyes up at me, and gave a deep, deep
groan,
I fell on his gallant body with a long, heartrending
moan.
'" If that horse was not a hero, I've never seen one
die,
And I've been in the army and heard the battle-cry;
He saved two lives that fatal day, for which he gave
his own,
Enough to call him hero, boys, I fancy I have shown.
' " Under yonder tree he's buried—a tombstone o'er his
head—
No grave is better tended in the churchyard filled with
dead :
The flowers are blooming o'er him to keep his memory
green,
And many a time and often a tear's shed there
unseen."
298 Town and Bush
' As Jasper's story ended, the door was opened wide,
And a maiden—graceful, beautiful—came up to
Jasper's side;
He took her hand, said, "Look, lads! 'tis the lass
that rode with me
On noble, brave Clanronald, who's lying 'neath that
tree."
' Then all rose from the table, and went with one
accord
To the grave of brave Clanronald, the hero they
adored;
As we stood around that grass-plot on which the
flowers grew gay,
We thought of the ride that Jasper had—just twenty
years that day !'
CHAPTER XX.
up-country theatricals.
Theatrical companies often meet with
lively and anything but pleasant experiences
when touring in the country districts of the
colonies. Actors and actresses from the old
country visiting Australia, and merely play-
ing in the principal towns, have only a faint
idea of what up-country travelling is like with
a company.
The towns are far apart, and some of them
only accessible by coach, and it may easily be
imagined that coaching with an extensive
wardrobe is somewhat- difficult. Actors
who toured in some of the far-distant
parts of New South Wales have given
300 Town and Bush
me amusing accounts of their troubles and
trials.
One very popular actor, a member of a
leading company in Sydney, thought he
would embark upon the perils of management
on his own account.
He.was of a sanguine temperament, and
not to be daunted by the failure of others,
and he informed me one morning he was
about to undertake a tour out West. He
indicated 'out West' by a comprehensive
sweep of his arm, which appeared to point to
as many quarters as a weather-cock in a gale
of wind.
' All right,' I said; ' but if you take my
advice, you wilk remain in Sydney. I have
been out West myself, and I know what diffi-
culties you will have to surmount.'
' My dear fellow,' was the reply, ' there are
always difficulties to overcome in our profes-
sion. I have got over a good many, as you
know, and I mean to take on this trip.
Up-country Theatricals 301
They have not had such a good all-round
company as the one I have got together in
the West, and we have an excellent reper-
toire, and not too much baggage. We shall
pull through all right, never fear; so "just
one" to drink success to the tour.'
It certainly was a very fair company he
had selected for the tour, and they had half a
dozen good plays to produce. The actor-
manager and his company left Sydney in the
best of spirits. They had an adequate
capital to start on, which, by the way, numer-
ous travelling companies do not possess, but
trust to making expenses as they go along.
When the actor returned to Sydney, he
had a tale of woe to relate ; but all the loss
and disappointment he had experienced failed
to damp his spirits. He was ready to tackle
work again in the city, and leave others to
experiment ori tour.
Here is his account of the venture, as
nearly as I can recollect it:
302 Town and Bush
'We left Sydney, as you know,' he com-
menced, ' as full as a body of actors and
actresses could be of enthusiasm. That was
about all we had left when we landed back in
Sydney, and some of us had deuced little to
enthuse about.
' We made a fair start at Bathurst, and
then toured into various parts. I thought it
would be a wise plan to visit some country
towns where they seldom had a company like
ours.
' We should have done very well, I
honestly believe, but the weather was dead
against us. I never saw so much rain in my
life. It poured in torrents for weeks.
Wherever we went, the rain was our advance
agent. If the man in front of us went to
arrange for the billing of a tpwn, it was a
hundred to one all our posters were washed
off long before we reached there.
'We had some good printing, too,' he said
with a sigh. .' I bought a lot cheap in Mel-
Up-country Theatricals 303
bourne. You should have seen some of those
posters! They had not much to do with the
plays; but that is rather an advantage, be-
cause, when the rustics do not see a repre-
sentation of a particular poster on the stage,
they fancy they must have made a mistake,
and come again the following night to see
if it is on then.'
* Don't you think that is a bit rough on the
public ?' I said.
'Not a bit of it!' he said. 4 They all do it
up-country. What do you think '
(naming a well-known manager of a touring
company) 4 did ? They were announced to
play 44 Rob Roy," and I'm blessed if there
was not a huge poster of that bullock on the
Bovril advertisement stuck up, and 44 Rob
Roy To-night," above it in big letters. The
manager explained matters by saying it was
the nearest approach to a Scotch poster he
had in his possession. It was, he said, a
Scotch bullock, and, as Rob Roy had been
304 Town and Bush
unwell and going in for Bovril, he thought
there was no harm in putting up the
poster.'
' And you took that yarn in ?' I asked.
' My dear chap, after recent experiences, I
can take anything in—even whisky sold at a
Bush pub.'
Continuing, he said :
' One night we were announced to play in
—— Hall. It came on to rain as usual. I
went into the hall about an hour before the
doors were to be opened, and found most of
the seats wet with the water dripping from
the roof.
' I expostulated with the hall-keeper about
the wretched state of the roof. He explained
that the people in those parts did not mind a
bit of wet, and so impressed this upon me
that I commenced to think the inhabitants
rather preferred a leaky hall to a sound
one.
'The doors were opened to time, and the
UP-COUNTRY THEATRICALS 305
big rush commenced. One small boy wan-
dered in, having claimed to be admitted at
half-price. Not liking the wet seats, he sat
on the back of one, with his feet on the seat.
When the time for the performance com-
menced, however, much to my surprise, we
had a paying house.
'We played the "Romany Rye," and, I
can tell you, we had a difficult job to produce
it on such a small platform. However, the
show went all right until the storm came on.
Lord ! how it did come down—I mean the
rain. But I should not have been at all sur-
prised had the whole place been blown away.
' I was on the stage, and a kind of mist
seemed to envelop the audience. The rain
was coming through the roof in torrents.
Presently I saw a lady about half-way down
the hall put up her umbrella. I thought I
should have exploded, it looked such a
comical sight. The people behind her could
not stand this obstruction, so yelled out:
20
306 Town and Bush
" Put that gingham down !" " Bash it in,
Tom!" etc. The lady took no notice, until
the people all round stood up and roared at
her; then she quietly put the umbrella down,
and sat in the wet. I was in hopes the
audience would go for the hall-keeper, who
was a surly kind of fellow ; but they sat out
the play, and went home thoroughly satisfied
and wet.
'We were coaching from one place to
another, and, when crossing a ford, the water
was so high that some of our baggage was
washed away, and we never recovered it.
Such pleasant incidents as this, however, did
not daunt us, but when it came to getting
bogged, and having to remain two days and
nights in a swamp, we became desperate. I
was much put about for the ladies of our
company, but we made them as comfortable
as we could under the circumstances.
' At last our coach-driver suggested we
should struggle on to a certain spot on the
Up-country Theatricals 307
Darling River, where we could hail a cargo-
boat, and bargain for our conveyance towards
Bourke. He said it was impossible for him
to take us all on in the coach, considering the
terrible state of the ground.
4 Anything was better than remaining
where we were. We had all taken severe
colds, and had but very little food, and were
well-nigh starved out.
' We reached the river bank, tramping
most of the way, our baggage being on ,the
coach, and it was as much as the horses could
do to pull it along. Here we had to camp
again, and it was nearly twelve hours before
a river-boat came along.
' We hailed the boat, but the skipper
seemed reluctant to pull up. After some
hesitation, he did so, and then I commenced to
bargain for our conveyance towards Bourke.
He was a hard case, that skipper. He saw
our desperate plight, and he made the most
out of it. I felt inclined to throw him in the
308 Town and Bush
river, lie was such a Jew in the matter of
fares.
' A bargain was struck, and we went on
board, baggage and all. Here we encoun-
tered more difficulties. There was no place
to sleep in for the ladies, so we had to rig up
a cabin on deck with boxes and canvas.
' When we eventually reached Bourke, we
were all done up, and, what was worse, our
money was nearly all gone. I took the best
place there was in the town, and we prepared
to play. The very first night there was a
hurricane, and the roof of the place was lifted
clean off and deposited some distance away.
I had taken the hall for a week, and I'm
blest if they had not the temerity to demand
payment for the full week, after the roof was
gone!
' We managed to get the train from Bourke
to Sydney, and here we are, and you don't
catch me touring up - country again in a
hurry.'
Up-country Theatricals 309
This is a very fair sample of what some
companies have to put up with on such
tours.
I recollect another company having a
bad time up - country, and the leading
actor thought he would take a benefit to
help him on his weary way. He seemed
popular in the town, and looked forward
to clearing a few pounds. On the night
of his benefit he found the audience was not
numerous enough to pay for the rent of the
hall.
Many country newspapers fight shy of
theatrical agents. I have often seen notices
on the office doors :
' All theatrical advertisements must be
prepaid.'
As a rule, however, these companies pay
their way. It is rough on a good company
to follow in the wake of a show whose
manager has not paid up.
Up-country managers are up to all kinds of
310 Town and Bush
tricks. A well-known actor-manager once
stepped on to the stage before the curtain
went up, and said :
* Ladies and gentlemen, I have here a
telegram just received from the Governor, in
which he wishes our company every success
on tour, and states he was on one occasion
delighted with a performance we gave.
Now,' ladies and gentlemen ' he went
on, when there was an interruption in the
body of the hall. A man said in a loud
tone:
' Drop that bosh, Mic, and get on with the
show. We've had that blessed wire read
every time you've been here.'
Roars of laughter followed. The actor,
quite unabashed, said :
' Oh, it's you, is it ? Ladies and gentle-
men, I must apologize. I assure you I had
quite forgotten I had made use of this
telegram here before. However, it will
come in handy elsewhere,' he added, with a
Up-country Theatricals 311
wink at the audience, as he placed the paper
in his pocket.
The performance went with a swing after
this good-humoured encounter.
When Frank Lincoln was touring up-
country, piloted by Mr. Lewis John Lohr,
they came to Bathurst. Mr. Lohr asked me
if I wanted an order for the show.
' Don't mind if I do, umpire,' I said.
He pulled out a card, and wrote on it :
' Admit Nat Gould and family, also his
sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts, and all
Bathurst.'
It was early in the morning when he
gave me this, so it must have been genuine.
Frank Lincoln was a wonderful mimic, and
one night, when he went up after the per-
formance to a gentleman's house, he set all
the dogs in the place barking, and made the
roosters fancy it was morning by his clever
barks and crows. It was a regular pande-
monium about midnight.
312 Town and Bush
There is money to be made touring up-
country, but the risk is greater than the
profits warrant.
Country audiences are peculiar. If they
fail to appreciate a show on the first night, it
is all up with the entertainment for the
remaining nights.
Such a man as Frank Lincoln, who can
give an entertainment single-handed, and has
very little baggage to carry about, can face an
up-country tour with every chance of success.
It is, however, a laborious, and often
unprofitable, task for a dramatic company to
make such a tour. The route ought to be
well planned out beforehand, and a capable
agent sent on ahead—a man well acquainted
with the country.
It creates a good impression in a country
town for an agent to pay cash down for what
he requires. The company he represents
gain considerably if their agent has created a
favourable impression.
Up-country Theatricals 313
Where there are three or four newspapers
in a small town, the advertising becomes an
item of importance. It would never do to
advertise in one paper and not in all. It is
curious how often notices of performances
depend upon advertisements. It ought not
to be so, but such is undoubtedly the case,
and I am afraid this system is not altogether
confined to country towns. Every per-
formance ought to be criticised on its
merits.
I trust these stray notes will not be pro-
nounced wearisome, now the reader has
managed to reach
the end.
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RICHARDSON, Samuel.
207 .Clarissa Harlowe
208 Pamela
209 SirCharlesGrandison
SCOTT; Michael.
210 Tom Cringle's Log
211 The Cruise of the
" Midge"
SCOTTi Sir Walter.
212 Waverley
213 Guy Mannering
214 Old Mortality
215 The Heart of Midlo-
thian
216 Rob Roy
217 Ivanhoe
218 The Antiquary
219 Bride of Lammermoor
220 The Black Dwarf and
A Legend of Montrose
221 The Monastery
222 The Abbot
223 Kenilworth
Scott, Sir Walter—continued.
224 The Pirate
225 The Fortunes of Nigel
226 Peveril of the Peak
227 Quentin Durward
228 St. Ronan's Well
229 Redgauntlet
230 The Betrothed and
The Highland Widow
231 TheTalismanandThe
Two Drovers
232 Woodstock
233 The Fair Maid of Perth
234 Anne of Geierstein
235 Count Robert of Paris
236 The Surgeon's Daugh-
ter
The Set, in 25 Volumes, price 50/-
SMED LEY, Frank.
237 Frank Fairlegh
238 Lewis Arundel
239 Harry Cove rdale's
Courtship
240 The Colville Family
SMOLLETT\ Tobias.
241 Roderick Random
242 Humphry Clinker
243 Peregrine Pickle
SUE, Eugene.
244 The Wandering Jew
245 The Mysteries of Paris
THACKERA Y, W. M.
246 Vanity Fair
247 Pendennis
248 The Luck of Barry
Lyndon
WARREN, Samuel.
249 Ten Thousand a Year
250 The Diary of a late
Physician
Fourteenth] - Koutiedge's Railway^Library Advertiser.
[Issue.
Gold Medals, Paris, 1878 :1889.
JOSEPH GILLOTT'S
Of Highest Quality, and Having
Greatest Durability are Therefore
CHEAPEST.
Numbers for use by BANKERS—Barrel Pens, 225, 226, 262 : Slip Pens, 332, 909,
287, 166, 404 , 601, 7000. In Fine, Medium, and Broad Points.
Obtained from
all Ladies' Out-
jitters, Drapers,
also from the
Stores <$■ Chem-
ists. Packets oi
one dozen, at
13, 1,7. and
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Mention Rout-
ledge'a Rail- t JW
WAT Librabt. *
In 6d. Pkts.,
i doz.
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Use after ac-
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Address "The Manageress," Th8 Sanitary Wood Wool Co., I<td., 26, Thavies Inn,
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InsiBt on having
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TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS when
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STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold.
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For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on
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BIRKBECK BUILDING SOCIETY.
How to Purchase a House for Two Guineas per Month.
BIRKBECK FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETY.
How to Purchase a Plot of Land for Five Shillings per Month.
THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars, post free.
FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager
Fourteenth]
Routiedge's Railway Library Advertiser.
[Issue.
Bm |b ba Hh I' - the original Anti-Catarrh
jH I l|| B%H « PV IhHM I i Smelling Bottle, is the only
'TLnVeUBR™ COLJI' AdST1d0Rf|
vQLD® ll THROATS by Inhalation.
=• I Shun inferior substitutes. Of
URES CATARRH, SORE THROATS,
and HAY FEVER. J$7"
SULPHOLINE
^^OTTLES.
LOTION.
- A SPOTLESS SKIN.
A BEAUTIFUL COMPLEXION.
REMOVES ALL DISFIGUREMENTS.
K EATING'S
POWDER
HAS NO EQUAL
for Preserving and' Improving
THE SKIN & COMPLEXION.
It Removes and Prevents all
ROUGHNESS, REDNESS,
TAN, CHAPS, &c.,
and keeps the Skin
SOFT, SMOOTH, AND "WHITE,
At all Seasons of the Tear.
"BEETHAM'S" is the only Genuine. Bottles, Is. and 2s. 6d."
M. BEETHAM & SON, CHEMISTS, CHELTENHAM.
(pffitrmfrer
Fourteenth] Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser. [Issue.
SPECIALTIES from the - Laboratory
OF
THOMAS JACKSON,
1896. Strangeways, MANCHESTER. 1896.
JACK^OWTS BET4ZTNE RE^C7\
For taking out Grease, Oil, Paint, from Carpets, Curtains,
Clothes, Drapery, Dresses, be the material Cotton, Linen, Silk,
or Wool, be the Texture Fine or Coarse.
It cleans admirably Gloves, Slippers, Furs, Books, and Cards. It may
be used to thin Artists' Oil Colours as a quick drier as well as to clean the
Brushes and wash Gilding, &c., where water would be mischievous.
In Bottles at 6d., Is., & 2s 6d.; by Inland Parcel Post, 3d. more.
H.R.H. PRINCE ALBERT'S CACHOUX,
HIGHEST AWARD
WORLD'S EXHIBITION, CHICAGO, 1893.
Dainty morsels in the form of tiny
silver Bullets which dissolve in the
mouth, and surrender to the Breath
their hidden Fragrance.
Price 6d. and Is. By Post 7d.
and Is. Id.
JACKSON'S Chinese Diamond CEMENT.
FOR CHINA, GLASS, AND WHAT NOT.
T. J., in making this Cement, has constantly kept in view the
production of an article fit for general household purposes, to repair
damages, so that the mended articles would, with average care, be able
to do duty alongside the sound ones. It surpasses in neatness, in
strength^ in cheapness, and retains its virtues in all climates. It has
stood the test of time, and in all quarters of the world.
Sold in Bottles at 6d. and Is. each ; by Inland Post, Is. 2d.
ABROAD at Current Rates where a Post Parcel Service is Open and
subject to the Regulations of the Day.
SOLD BY DRUGGISTS AND OTHER BUSINESS HOUSES. 1896.
100,000. 13.8.96. S. & B.
BROOKK'ig ®O.A :4s
FOR SCRUBBED : TTHEN TABLES AND VLOO^S '
The.World's mos*• mat-.-- 'fo=i- . •;• uul Polisher. Ma'c-'ii Tin Mve Silvejf,
'Copper like GcM, Pain' ;•>• * *•;,■•■ . >' .><sa Ware like Mir-ort, Hy-: "»ea
S%rthems'»'. 0>- .•»• iike Marble, Marble Whi
SOLD. BY GROGE'^P. iRONVlONGSRS AND '.-■&HF.MIST8.
utmvtiu e'vatit, ei;ckavsr and printer, racquet court, fleet street, i.oi'on.; e^q.