THE AUSTRALIAN EDWARD K i NQLAKE EX-LIBRIS G. & N. INGLETON THE Australian at Home Notes and Anecdotes of Life at the Antipodes INCLUDING USEFUL HINTS TO THOSE INTENDING TO SETTLE IN AUSTRALIA BY EDWARD KINGLAKE. Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. LONDON : The Leadenhall Prefs, 50, Leadenhall Street, E.G. George Robertson & Company, Melbourne, Sydney, & Adelaide. [THE COPYRIGHT OF THIS WORK is RESERVED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF THE BRITISH DOMINIONS.] THE LEADENHALL PRESS, SO, LEADENHALL STREET, LONDON, B.C. T 4,570. Stack Anna* 00 6 Australian at Home. I. IN the first book given to the world by the witty Monsieur Max O'Rell the following remark was made : " John Bull is a colonist if ever there was one." To English ears this, of course, was a mere truism. Every Englishman takes pride in the fact that the colonies, past and present, of his native land are quite unparalleled in the history of the world. They have, in the case of the United States, been the foundations of a new nation. Time only will shew what they will be in the case of Australia. There is a strong party which confidently asserts that the continent of the south is to take her position in the future as an independent power in the world. Speaking for myself, I will only say here that I do not think the event of separation is very close at hand. In my opinion she will not sever her allegiance to England for many years, although there is no saying with certainty what the future may bring forth. As for the present, in spite of the loud prophesying of a knot of politicians and a portion of the press to the A 2 4 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. contrary, the idea of "cutting the painter" is not popu- lar. Could a plebiscite be taken even at this time of strikes and labour agitations, the great opportunities for the promulgation of democratic principles, it is cer- tain that there would be an overwhelming majority in favour of the old order of things. But the most surprising thing about John Bull and his colonies is his absolute ignorance of what they are really like. A few better informed members of society, whose numbers are however increasing after this book appears there will no longer be an excuse for any want of information on the subject of Australia have some sort of appreciation of life in the colonies, but nobody who has not visited those portions of the Empire has really formed correct ideas about them. Indeed I may say that many who have actually been among us have gone away hugging unto themselves most grievous fallacies, and often have afterwards imparted their erro- neous notions to the world. No less a man than James Anthony Froude is an instance in point. His book, " Oceana," contains no chapter about Australia that can be accepted in its entirety as correct, and some of his errors are almost inexplicable.* Still, a visitor to * Extract from J. A. Froude's " Oceana." "We rose slightly from the sea, " and at the end of the seven miles we saw below us in a basin, with the river " winding through it, a city of a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, not one " of whom has ever known, or will know, a moment's anxiety as to the recurring " regularity of his three meals a day." At the time at which this was written, Adelaide, the city referred to, was convulsed with the clamour of multitudes of unemployed workmen petitioning the government for assistance. Still, as Mr. Froude says in another part of his book, one can learn more from some people when they are wrong than from most others when they happen to be right. " Oceana " was a deeply interesting and instructive book to one who already knew Australia in spite of its many inaccuracies. THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 5 these shores, though many of his impressions may be false, actually sees us and knows what we are like. When the first Australian Cricket Eleven went to the old country, fourteen years ago, and surprised all England by the excellence with which they played the game that John Bull had previously imagined was not understood out of his own island, there is a story that on a certain railway station in Yorkshire an old farmer, who had come to see their arrival, was heard to remark " Whaat be's them thaay ? Why 'urn baant blaak." He was genuinely astonished at the fact. Now without saying that educated Englishmen imagine that their fellow-countrymen change the hue of their skin when they settle on the other side of the world, or that the wives of Australians are incapable of presenting their husbands with anything but sable pledges of their affection, I yet maintain it a fact that ignorance, not much less crass even than this, is rife among them. Only a few years ago a young fellow who was com- ing to Queensland went shopping in London accom- panied by a friend. He was buying things for his outfit. Presently he remarked to the other " Now I am going to my tailor to be measured for a new dress coat of thin cloth. The nights are so very hot in Brisbane." " What ! " replied his friend, in amazement. " A new dress suit for Australia ! My dear fellow, I assure you no one thinks of wearing anything but riding breeches and a crimson shirt out there." 6 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. This same young man expostulated with his friend for including in his luggage a silk hat. " You'll never use it," he said, " or if you do you'll be laughed at and probably get sunstroke. All Austra- lians wear what they call a " cabbage tree." What a sensation one would cause by appearing at a reception at Government House, or a garden party at Darling Point* or Toorak* in a " cabbage tree ! " Not but that it is much preferable, merely considered as head gear, to what Truth calls u that hot and heavy and that hard high hat." But fashion shudders at the bare idea. The reign of the " stove pipe," or as the Americans have it, "the plug," is as secure in Australia as anywhere. Why it is so popular I do not know. I have been told that it is the preference of the ladies for it which makes its mode so fixed. I cannot say if this be so. It is quite unsuited to a warm climate, but one can no more discard it, at a wedding for instance, in Sydney than in Kensington. Fashion is quite inexor- able on this point. Some of the governors of the Australian colonies and the members of their staffs have endeavoured at times to set more reasonable fashions in male attire. They would appear in cool grey tweeds and straw hats in public, but their example was seldom followed, and one noticed that after they had been some time in the country they gave up their well-meant attempts and became as irreproachable in their attire as costume plates. * Fashionable suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne. THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 7 On the lawn at the great race courses, Flemington and Randwick, they would be seen in the sweltering heat of summer and autumn in heavy frock coats reaching to the knees, with almost enough stuff in the skirts to make a hammer cloth for a mourning coach. Sir Hercules Robinson was the only governor I know of who stuck to his tweeds all through his reign, but even he was never bold enough to have them made into anything but the terrific frock coat. It is to be regretted that society will not allow a dress more in accordance with the demands of the climate to be worn. I think the idea suggested by Du Maurier, in Punch, some years ago, to elaborate our present under-clothing into outer-clothing, a better one for Australia even than England. But on this topic of dress I am digressing. The general lack of appreciation of Australian life by its mother country is my theme at present. The ignorance of which I speak seems to arise from indifference rather than anything else. Why do people without relatives or interests in Australia or the other colonies want to bother their heads about these places at all ? That seems the question implied by the attitude of many Englishmen. This indifference of England to her colonies in ordi- nary matters is shown by the behaviour of the great daily papers of London. Just notice the number of cablegrams that come from them and compare with those from other countries. It would seem that England took absolutely no interest in the doings of her children, so very seldom does she care to receive any news of them. 8 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. A friend of mine who a year or two ago paid a visit home (expressive and universal term), and became for some time the guest of one of the fellows of a very celebrated college at Oxford, gave me a somewhat amusing account of his conversations at dinner in hall there every day. He had, of course, been duly intro- duced by his host to the other dons, who were all desirous of showing him civility and politeness. Hall, however, was the only place where they met together, and the routine each day was invariable. Presumably the dons were of the opinion that the gentleman from Australia could take no interest in anything not connected with that land. He was always addressed with some remark about it by one or other of them at the very outset. This was generally of a geograph- ical nature, and I regret to record that it not infre- quently showed that one may become a college don without any very extensive knowledge of the works of Messrs. Hughes, Keith, Johnston & Co. Thereupon the visitor would set to work with the handle of his fork and trace upon the tablecloth an outline of the sea coast of Australia, in the vain hope of correcting the erroneous ideas of his listeners. No use. The very next day they would have quite forgotten all he had explained to them. Though at the time they had been civilly attentive it would have gone out of their heads as completely as a schoolboy's lesson, and conscious that he had informed them of the position of the capital of South Australia only the day before, he would be sur- prised to hear one say, " Oh ! Adelaide, yes ; let me THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 9 see, you were saying that was the chief town of Queens- land and very hot." After the first day or two my friend found it best to restrain his inclination to correct the impressions of the dons. He began to have suspicion that they did not altogether relish his wholesale demonstration of their errors about such unimportant trifles of topography. Thenceforth he always acquiesced in their opinions, and quite gave up his sketch maps on the cloth. One thing at least benefitted by this course the college table linen. It is my aim in these modest pages to portray, in a desultory and sketchy fashion, Australia as she is. I hope my future experience will not prove that I ought to have been warned by the widespread indifference to the particular colonies with which I am acquainted that I was choosing a subject wholly without interest to English readers. Though the college dons politely listened to the instructive discourses of my friend, I am positively certain that if he had taken the trouble to write them down for them they would never have been read. I can only hope such will not be the fate of these notes. CHAPTKR II. *n^^T*NY one who walks through the streets of / ^ the great Australian Capitals will find in j them a very fair percentage of pawnshops, A *^^"* with their three golden balls dangling in front. I believe the origin of this sign lies in the fact that it was the distinguishing mark of the Lombards, the founders of the banking system of to- day, though I have heard it given as an explanation that the three balls are there because it is two to one against anything that goes in coming out again this is merely by the way. In these pawnshops he will see, if he look, that the articles most commonly pledged are revolvers. There is always a great preponderance of them over anything else. Revolvers of all descriptions are there by the score Colt's Navy, British Bulldog, tiny Derringers. If you happen to require such a thing here is the place to get one more cheaply than anywhere else. For a long time this plethora of pistols was a puzzle to me. " How," I asked, " did it happen that so many people who required the assistance of their 'Uncle' possessed revolvers? " At last I hit upon THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. II the explanation. It seems that the very first contribu- tion to his outfit that the intending " new chum " makes before leaving home is a six-shooter. When the unfortunate wretch, packed off to this country, too often like so much useless lumber, begins the downward path, it is the first thing he parts with. Hence the numbers to be seen in the windows of the pawnshops. Doubtless their original owners had vivid ideas of bush- rangers and desperadoes to be met with, who went through the streets of roaring Melbourne, or that law- less mining city, Ballarat, and infested the adjacent bush where the countless herds of kangaroo and emu roam at large beneath the dark and dreary eucalyptus. No doubt he thought he might have occasion before long to empty an ounce or two of lead into some grim ruffian who went seeking whom he might devour, or rather rob, in these outlandish parts of the world. The idea is only on a parallel with all his others about Australia. This young man who comes out to the colonies to try his luck has so many points of interest that I am going to say something about him first. One can tell the new arrival, the young man from England, at once. The reason is that he has such a good complexion. He is ruddy and fair to look upon. He also, as a rule, wears higher collars than his Austra- lian cousins, though there are not wanting plenty who follow his example in this respect. However, the colonial dandy may indulge in high collars if he choose, but the bloom on his cheek is beyond his attainment. The climate is against it. Few of the native youth 12 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. have a pink and white skin, their faces are generally a somewhat sallow monochrome and seldom very plump. The English boy of twenty is nearly always plump ; and oh ! don't the mosquitoes know it. They batten on him. If he happen to arrive here in the summer, his face in two or three days is so covered with pustules that one might imagine him to have the small pox. Insect pests always make for strangers. I am told that a certain interesting species, said to breed spontaneously in the mortar of London houses, returns the mosquitoes' compliment, having a particularly keen appetite for Australians. This, at least, should be a slight comfort to the smarting new chum ; it is some sort of a set off for his inflictions. The statement, however, is given on hearsay evidence only, and I may as well say that my informant was a medical student. Perhaps this dis- counts its value. The young Englishman is sent out here to make his fortune. He generally does nothing of the kind. Many a one returns to his friends at home again as soon as he can scrape together enough to pay for his passage. I know a case of a clergyman lending the son of an English general twenty pounds for this purpose. He had no security that it would be repaid beyond the word of the young man, whose story might have been a false one. However, he did receive, after some time, two ten pound notes from the general, but instead of any word of thanks for what had been done for his son there was a somewhat curt message which led the clergyman to infer that the general officer would have THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 13 been better pleased if his charity had not extended quite so far. He was evidently not overjoyed at the reappear- ance of his young hopeful. It really is very hard on many young fellows to be shipped off in the way they are to Australia. They are fools in the first place to come, but really their parents who are older and ought to have better sense are most to blame. A boy of eighteen or twenty has, as a general rule, a healthy fund of sanguineness with which to start on life's journey. The best thing a father can do for his son is to supply the ballast necessary to steady him. He has, or ought to have, the experience that youth lacks. Instead of allowing his boy to profit by it, he sends him off into an unknown land wholly on his own resources, where it is ten chances to one that all his capital of hope and determination will be transferred into misery and despair. Would any father think he was giving his son a fair start in life by providing him with a small amount of money and a few clothes and sending him, without a single introduction, to one of the large English cities where he was not known, to shift for himself ? Say Manchester or Birmingham for instance. I think not. And yet men are sending their sons no better equipped to Sydney and Melbourne by every ship. "It is different in the colonies," they say, "everyone gets on there." What a fallacy ! " Of course you know we don't expect that our sons will find things in Australia quite so so well, so civil- ized as in England. He must expect to 'rough it' a 14 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. little." Such is a remark I have heard. "That will not hurt him," they say. Exactly : they do not expect to find civilization, but they expect to pick up gold in the streets. Some un- educated people absolutely think that in Australia gold can be had for the stooping. Many well-educated men are very slightly better informed, and they act on their mistaken ideas. That is the worst of it. They come here, or send their sons, expecting to be able to pick and choose out of any quantity of short and easy methods of making money, the one they like the best. Soon they find what a terrible mistake they have made. There is just as much civilization and refinement to be had in Melbourne as in London. Just as much luxury, though in a more limited compass, provided you can pay for it ; as for the gold it is equally hard to get in both places. In 'London if a young man has a certain amount of brains, friends, influence, and capital, he will get on. So will he in Sydney, in Brisbane, anywhere. Without, he will fail on either side of the world. But surely in the country where there is so much land people object. The answer is decisive enough. "You might as well send your son wandering over the Weald of Kent or Dartmoor as send him into the country in Australia without capital." In the older colonies the palmy days of squatting are gone. The land is nearly all "taken up " now, and without capital is hard to obtain. A very wealthy but illiterate Australian grazier, who had made his money THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 15 out of the land held by him on pastoral lease from the Crown, is reported to have said, after a trip to England, that it was u very good country, very good country indeed. But all taken up." In Victoria and New South Wales it will soon be the same. I am not going into the land question here. Pastoral leases, pre-emptive leases, conditional purchases, mining leases, all these engines for the acquirement of Crown lands must be inquired into in other places. It is only my business to touch on the social aspect of Australia, and on this social question of the young man in search of fortune I say it is a blameworthy, nay, a wicked thing to let them come out on mere chance. Properly equipped they will get on. In some pro- fessions and callings there is less competition necessarily than in the older countries. This is what they can take advantage of provided they are fit and competent, and of steady habits. The " bad lots " and " ne'er-do-wells " of families who are shipped off to Australia to get them out of the way of the old folks at home, who prefer their room to their company, generally have short and inglorious careers. They run through their money, and then sink lower and lower till they become beggars, loafers in the parks, turning their hands to odd jobs now and again to keep things going. Begging is the most lucrative course open to them. " It is a poor street," one of them is alleged to have said, " out of which a chap can't get ten shillings." If they could keep this average up they might make a 1 6 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. fortune in time. Unfortunately for themselves, as soon as they have got enough to get comfortably drunk upon, they generally repair to the nearest public house, and perhaps spend the night in the lock-up as a con- clusion to their success. Some try to reform. I have known several. One of my acquaintance "got religion." He did not express it in that way, I believe, because it was through the instrumentality of a rather high church Anglican clergyman that he altered his life. The clergyman found him on his beam ends, helped him, and got him a situation. He became a member of the choir and took a class in the Sunday School. His manners were those of a gentleman, and he made friends. Hardly any besides his benefactor knew to what straits he had been reduced. He kept in the right way for nearly twelve months, but one Sunday afternoon some of the Sunday School teachers on their arrival saw the child- ren shouting and whooping round a man whose coat- tails they were plucking in derision. A leering, blear- eyed figure approached them, and to their horror they found it was Mr. N. in a state of intoxication. He ap- plied to each of them in turn to lend him a shilling, saying, with a cunning twinkle in his eye, " It's Sun- day, but I know where I can get the drink." * After this he disappeared altogether. The way to find out about young fellows of this description is to go round the public parks in the evening. They congre- * Public houses are not opened in New South Wales on Sunday except at the back door, THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 17 gate here to sleep ; on the wharves, too, you will find them at night. They are generally ready enough to enter into conversation, and the stories they tell are sometimes curious in the extreme, and I should not believe them implicitly. Many have sunk to this level through their own fault, some are the victims of mis- fortune only. For these we should have nothing but pity. One of them created a sensation once by taking up a piece of blue metal in the street, dashing it through a shop window, and deliberately waiting to be appre- hended. He said he would have food and lodging in gaol, at liberty he could get neither. This young man described himself as a clerk. He could get no employment. He was told everywhere that there were more clerks applying for situations than situations to be filled. Another instance of the uselessness of pro- miscuous emigration. A clerk's calling is not the only one overdone. That of the governess suffers from the same malady. Some very extraordinary disclosures were made a few years ago in connection with an agency that had been estab- lished in London for sending young ladies in search of situations out to Australia. The particular one to which I refer was nothing but a gross fraud. I am glad to say it exists no longer. One unfortunate young girl was actually induced to come to Sydney with no more cash in hand, after the expense of her passage had been met, than three pounds. She was told that this sum would be ample to provide for her wants for the short time she would have to wait before taking her pick of the B 1 8 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. eligible situations innumerable ladies would anxiously solicit her to accept directly her advertisement appeared in the papers. She was soon undeceived. The first application she made was sufficient to show her the truth. She found herself one of forty anxious to secure the place. Fortunately for her she found friends who tided her over her bad times, though a good deal more than three pounds was spent before she was comfort- ably settled as a governess in a gentleman's family. Parallel with all this is the fact that Australia has, and will have for years, room for a much larger popu- lation than she possesses. There is nothing she wants more than people to till her soil. The method of settling them upon it is a question in which there re- mains a great deal yet to be done. Irrigation, however, and other results of advanced civilization will work wonders in the near future. Rapid strides are being taken already in this direction, and when once the water problem is solved the prosperity of the land will far exceed its present point. CHAPTER III. V character of the average Australian is in most respects the counterpart of that of the Englishman. Of the latter, Max O'Rell says : " For making himself at home wherever he goes, John Bull has a talent all his own. Nothing astonishes, nothing stops him. Cosmopolitan in the highest degree he is at his ease in the four corners of the earth. . . . John Bull is proud, brave, calm, tenacious." The same may be said with truth of the Australian. He is all that, and yet there is a difference between them. The Frenchman is far more enthusiastic than the English- man. The Australian, as an individual, will be found less willing to shew his feelings than either. This is especially noticeable in youth. Ask an English boy if he would like to have a half-holiday from school. He will reply, a My eye, wouldn't I jist." Ask an Austra- lian, you will get a languid " I don't mind." It is not from any reluctance to lose the full advantages of his educational opportunities, that he answers thus. It is only his manner. He will enjoy the recreation quite 82 20 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. as much as the other. Above all things, an Australian school boy dreads making himself ridiculous. He must be thought a man. He shews this in his games. The only ones that he really cares for are those which men play. As for any which exercise the imagination, he thinks them effeminate, and despises them. To pretend, or as he would say to " gammon," that things are different from the reality for the purpose of a game seems to him childish and silly. There is one exception, I remember, which was tolerably common at a school of which I had some experience. The boys used to pretend that they were a court of justice, and appoint a judge, jury, and policemen. The latter would scour the play ground for prisoners, who were duly tried and invariably found guilty, and sentenced to so many blows with knotted handkerchiefs, which were thereupon administered without any hope of commutation or diminution of sentence. I think, however, the love of using (or rather misusing) their handkerchief in this manner, had more to do with the predilection for this pastime than any delight in the exercise of their imaginations. One result of this lack of enthusiasm, is that the principle of nil admirari is carried to excess by Austra- lians. You have achieved something if you can get a colonial youth to express astonishment or admiration. He usually takes everything with an air of cool indiffer- ence. Not because he is cynical or supercilious, simply for the reason that it is not his way to do anything else. He can get as excited as anyone but he seldom thinks it worth while. He has a genuine hatred of fuss. THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 21 In some cases his lack of interest arises from other causes. There is an authentic story of an Australian youth of good estate, who at the age of seventeen was sent for a year's travel in England and Europe, for the enlargement of his mind, under the care of a tutor. He had hardly arrived before he despatched letters to the trustees of his property, saying that he wished to return he did not desire to see any more old buildings, and he objected on the score of expense to the continua- tion of the tour. He was unwilling to go on with it as he did not see why his money should pay for a pleasure trip for his tutor, who insisted on putting up at the best hotels, and was spending a great deal more than Young Australia thought necessary. He got his own way and returned to the land of his birth, where he became a man of much influence. Though he had no romance in his nature, and above all things objected to the unnecessary expenditure of any portion of the plentiful stores of his wealth, he was endowed with much common sense and did some good work in the Parliament of his colony. The educational advantages in Australia are great. Every child is compelled to go to school. In New South Wales parents or guardians are fined unless they send their children a certain number of days. In a school year there are about two hundred and twenty five, to escape the fine a child under the age of fourteen must make one hundred and forty attendances. If, however, the child be certified up to a certain standard, he can claim exemption from these provisions before 22 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. that age. Attendance officers, called truant inspectors, go and examine the books of the state schools periodi- cally, and then visit the parents of those children who have not fulfilled the required conditions. Unless satis- factory reasons for the absence are given, a summons issues at once. The fee payable at these state schools is threepence per week, and it is remitted altogether in some cases. Persons, for instance, who take state children (that is, foundlings and destitutes), and bring them up under the boarding out system, are required to send them to the nearest school, but need not pay any fee. There are also in the cities ragged schools which are free. In the country, wherever there are twelve children, a school may be demanded. When the numbers are so few it is generally a half-time school. That means that the teacher divides his time equally between two institutions, giving in the fortnight five days to each. Perhaps his two schoolrooms may be as many as fifteen or twenty miles apart. It is of course only in the back blocks away from the towns that these are to be found. The bush children to be seen in them are funny little things. As different from those of the cities, as a London street arab from a young rustic, yet they are also quite different from the latter. There was one case I heard of where a " Zummerset " couple had taken up a " selection " on a squatter's run far back, their nearest neighbours ten miles away. They had several children who could have had but very little communication with THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 23 any but the members of their own family. There was no school near enough for them to attend. Both father and mother spoke the broadest dialect, not one of the children had a trace of it. They all had the colonial accent, which is almost identical with the cockney twang commented on in Punch, under the heading of " Poor Letter O," and " Poor Letter A," some time ago. Ou becomes t'aow, through the nose, and a becomes i. Bush children as a rule are very shy and do not know how to play. I know a lady who sent for one to train her as a housemaid. When she arrived she was found to be much younger and smaller than had been expected. Charitable motives led the lady to keep her though she was too young to be of much service. Her mistress with kind intentions told her that she might have part of the afternoon for play. The child did not enjoy it. She simply did not know how to play. She had never done it at home, and after a while she came and asked to be given something to do. I must say that in this she was not following the traditions of her class. Though these children cannot play, they know quite well how to be idle. Of course besides the state schools there are higher schools for the children of the wealthier classes, and there are innumerable private institutions. In no place in the world can a first-class education be obtained more cheaply than in Australia. It does not stop at the schools either, there are three universities in Aus- tralia proper, and one in New Zealand. They are open to women as to men medical schools and all. The 24 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. severity of their examinations is the most noticeable thing about them. The work required for a poll degree in Arts at Cambridge or Oxford, is much less than for a pass at Melbourne or Sydney. In honours it is different. A first in greats at Oxford means a good deal more than first-class classical honours at a colonial university, yet the man who gets the latter has some- thing he need not be ashamed of. The standard in mathematics is hardly up to that of Cambridge, though it is not many years since a Sydney man followed up his colonial triumphs with the senior wranglership. I will say something more about the universities presently, we have not done with the schools yet. There are not in Australia any institutions exactly cor- responding to the public schools of England. There are State supported high schools and grammar schools, and there are large establishments under the auspices of the different religious denominations, Church of Eng- land, Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, &c. The latter, in that they are composed of boarders almost entirely, most nearly resemble Harrow, Marlborough, and others. The Church of England School in Melbourne, and the King's School in Parramatta, N.S.W., both under Anglican rule, are fine scholastic institutions The Roman Catholics also have large and flourish- ing colleges in all the chief Australian cities. Queensland is celebrated for the excellence of her state aided grammar schools, and the Sydney Grammar School, which receives a government subsidy, and is managed by a board of trustees, is a splendidly con- THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 25 ducted establishment. The fees at all these places are very low : for day boys, from three to four guineas a quarter ; for boarders, very reasonable terms. The grammar schools and high schools in the large cities are mostly attended by boys in the immediate neighbourhood, though some of the masters receive boarders from places at a distance. There is a very strong family resemblance between them and corre- sponding English schools. A large percentage of the masters come from England, and they follow the tradi- tions in which they themselves were brought up. The one great difficulty of which they complain is the task of infusing public spirit into the scholars. This is- especially hard in the large day schools. I am afraid the Australian boy is ever keen after his own interest. He believes in the substance, not the shadow. Esprit de corps is all very well, but he won't inconvenience him- self in the least for the sake of it. He objects to be put to any trouble for such a trifle as mere sentiment. In his sports, about which he is so ardent, he acknowledges, that the honour and glory of winning a race is very well, but he prefers it accompanied by a silver cup. Most Australian boys get on well in the world and perhaps this spirit is at the bottom of their success. All the public institutions are efficient. Of course,, the value of all education depends primarily on the boy or girl. If they deliberately set their mind upon it they can defeat the efforts of the best instructors. Hence r plenty who go to these schools do not derive so much benefit as they might. What I mean by saying that 26 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. they are efficient is that all have there a fair chance to learn, and are made to do so as far as they can be. With private schools it is quite a different matter. There are many of them and their characteristics are diverse. A few, a very few, are known as places where a boy will learn something. A great many have a reputation for the excellence of the table ; others make a point out of the fact that no corporal punishment is inflicted. These schools are the especial favourites of mammas, who suffer such tender solicitude for their young hopeful's comfort. The head-master of one I knew, always inserted in his advertisements that the use of the cane was unknown in his academy. It was, but his favourite method of punishing boys was banging them about the head with a book. Such little attentions as digging a sharp pointed lead pencil in their scalps, bumping their heads on the desk, or giving a sharp upward tug to their back hair, he was very fond of paying : a form of corporal punishment infinitely worse in my idea than flogging, provided that the latter is reserved for serious breaches of rules only. I may mention that in the large schools the rod has only to be used sparingly. The private schools advertise largely. Every trick to attract attention and obtain pupils is tried. The daily newspapers are inundated with advertisements, especially towards the end of the vacations. They fill many columns, and are arranged in alphabetical order, according to the initial letters. One sharp witted indi- vidual used to take advantage of this fact in order to keep his name at the top. His notice began : THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 27 A backward boy quickly advanced in his studies at Mr. Fourstar's Collegiate School. A, B, A, C. It would require some ingenuity to get in front of these letters. Another gentleman who was very lavish of space in his advertisements, was guilty of something much worse than this. The name of his school first appeared in large capitals. Then, Mr. Blank, head master, assisted by masters, The senior classical master. The senior mathematical master. The junior classical master. The junior mathematical master. The first assistant general master. The second assistant general master. The master of the lower school. Assistant master of the lower school. Sundry drill masters, music and dancing masters, &c., &c., were thrown in at the end like the " supers " on a theatrical programme, and the whole formed a goodly array. It was nowhere said that all these appointments were held by different persons. As a matter of fact, they were all filled by one man, who was in the number of his offices, like Mr. Gilbert's " Pooh Bah," the Lord High everything else except executioner. Mr. Blank was Lord High executioner in this case I sup- pose. Oh, but no ! This was one of the schools, I recollect, where no corporal punishment was ever administered. It was very successful. There is a great art in keeping a private school. These are two of the principal canons : 28 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. Humour the parents. Please the boys. You will do the latter if you give them plenty to eat and little to do. Another valuable hint I would give to all who intend starting in this profession, is never to send a boy home with an unsatisfactory report. If you can't testify to his excellent work and conduct, say that he is making rapid improvement. The improving line is always safe. If you tell the truth and say the boy is idle and lazy, his name will promptly be removed from your books. There is a story of a teacher in a private school, a very able man and a good master, but alas ! he had a failing who has not, as Mr. Guppy remarks with a fine insight into human nature. At the end of the first quarter he was asked for reports of the boys in his form. He gave them honestly. However, they did not suit the head- master at all. They were far too uncomplimentary. It was represented to the teacher that he had dwelt with undue weight on the boys' faults ; he was requested to add something about their excellencies. His latter remarks were the only ones sent home to the parents. By the end of the next term his failing had come so pro- minently into notice that he and the school were about to part company. On being asked once more for reports of the progress of his class, he declined to furnish them. " You may ' cook ' them yourself this time," was his cruel remark to the headmaster. However, there are many private schools conducted by capable men, where boys are well taught and receive a good education. THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 29 There are in Australia equal educational advantages for girls as well as boys. Girls' grammar schools and high schools are to be found. There is generally an entrance examination to these, and those who pass are educated at them for a very small fee. Of course there are numbers of private schools also. Some of them are excellent. The University Public Examinations, junior and senior grades, held each year in New South Wales and Queensland, and the Melbourne Matriculation Examination, are regarded as the greatest tests of effi- ciency. Every school vies with the others in the number of candidates it sends up, and prizes it takes. As many as twelve to fifteen hundred candidates will present themselves for examination by the Sydney University in one year. Besides these, large number's annually matriculate and follow the courses of lectures in arts, medicine, science, engineering, or music. The universities are all supported by the state, and some of them have large revenues from private bequests. A gentleman who died in England a few years ago, left a quarter of a million to the Sydney University to use as the senate thought fit. The Ormonde College at Melbourne, was founded entirely at the expense of one man. Rich Australians find a very favourite mark for their munificence in the universities. There are colleges within them, at which many of the students live. They are connected with the religious denominations. Thus, St. Paul's in Sydney, and Trinity College in Melbourne, belong to the Church of England ; Ormonde College and St. Andrew's, in 30 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. Sydney, to the Presbyterian ; St. John's, Sydney, to the Roman Catholics, &c. All students, however, attend university lectures, which are given by the professors and their assistants. In Sydney, special courses are given in the evening for the benefit of students who have to earn their living by day. The medical schools and hospitals in Melbourne and Sydney, are fully equipped and perfectly appointed, and have numbers of students. No expense is spared to make them complete, and the examinations are exhaus- tive and require a high standard of attainment. It is necessary in order to keep up the prestige of the quali- fication to have them severe. The authorities by only admitting competent men to the degree of M.B., want to shew that some prophets are worthy of honour even in their own country. The colonial universities are fine institutions. They are, however, making such rapid strides, that the ques- tion of finding employment for all the young men who go through them, is now looming ominously as a diffi- culty. It will be a serious one if their pace outstrips the progress of the country. I remember hearing the surprise expressed by an eminent scholar in England, when he heard that a rela- tive of his had been taking high classical honours at a colonial university. u Why does he bother his head about Greek out there ? " he asked, " I cannot understand so much atten- tion being given to classics in Australia, I should have THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 3! thought that young men would be thinking of the land more than their books." It's all very well to think about land ; but a man without capital, or one who is not strong enough for the rough life on a back block selection, won't help himself much by merely thinking about it, his chance of success in a profession or business on the other hand may be a very good one. This is the reason why so much attention is paid to the higher branches of education. CHAPTKR IV. the universities to the professions is in the natural order of things. Let us look at professional life in Australia. First to be considered is Law. In some of the colonies they have amalgamated the two branches, not so far, as I am aware, with any conspicu- ous benefit to the public. The fact that a man may be solicitor and barrister at the same time has no very great effect in cheapening lawsuits. A sort of natural selection occurs under amalgamation. One man will only do one sort of work. He has to be paid. If your case involves other sorts, somebody else has to be paid also. It comes round to pretty much the same thing in the end as under the old order. In New South Wales the most extraordinary and antiquated state of things is still in existence. This colony enjoys the distinction, I believe, of being the only English possession where the old system of pleading still obtains. Obsolete and inadequate as it is, it yet sticks like a leech on the courts. It is, however, not that quintes- THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 33 sence of technicality which commended itself so strongly to Lord Wensleydale, who remarked when an unfortunate plaintiff was nonsuited because his action had been labelled "Trespass" simply instead of " Trespass on the Case " " No doubt it is hard on this particular plaintiff. I am given to understand he is completely ruined, but if you abolish the distinction between ' Case ' and ' Trespass,' pleading, as a science, is gone for ever." Behindhand as she is, New South Wales is not quite so far "out of it " as this. She keeps to the system in force in England from the time of the Common Law Procedure Act of 1854, un til the much vaunted fusion of Law and Equity under the Judicature Acts of 1875 or thereabouts. The latter have not been conspicu- ously successful as " fluxes " it must be admitted. Common law and equity are still distinct, although they are not supposed to be, but at least a suitor who wants to go to law can tell a plain straightforward story of his case, and a defendant is at liberty to give a plain answer to it. The nonsense by which a man in his first plea denies the plaintiff's allegations, and in the second confesses and avoids them, or endeavours to do so, being specially allowed by order of a judge in chambers to take this curious course, is "gone for ever." No doubt Lord Wensleydale, were he alive, would deeply regret the fact. The thing is no more sensible or logical than the three celebrated answers of the Irishman charged with assaulting a peaceable citizen c 34 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. ist. That he did not do it. 2nd. That he was drunk when he did it. 3rd. That he had not been on the day of the offence within twenty miles of the place where it was committed. The statements of one side in an action in New South Wales are often as compatible with one another as those of the Irishman, and yet they may be made by those who are in the right. It is the absurd system which is responsible for the anomalies. One result of retaining the pleading of the English Procedure Act of 1854 is, that the book of precedents compiled for that system by Messrs. Bullen and Leake of the Middle Temple, still finds a sale in New South Wales. It was published at \ us. 6d., but the third edition (the only one of any use) being out of print is hard to obtain, and a second-hand copy will now realise six or seven guineas in Sydney. I commend this fact to the notice of English barristers who have any old law books. The volume is absolutely useless to them and if they should hit upon it they have a good opportunity of making an honest penny. The other colonies have Acts corresponding to the Judicature Acts of England, but in all, law reform is badly wanted. The cost of suits is tremendous. It is useless to go to law without a long purse. The cases go from one court to another until the final appeal is made to the Privy Council. No civil action in which the interests involved do not amount to more than five hundred THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 35 pounds can be taken so far. It would be interesting to know how much of the costs five hundred pounds would satisfy in the majority of instances. I once heard a very eminent Q.C., then a distin- guished leader of the bar in one of the chief colonies, say in court that he would rather crawl on his hands and knees a distance of twenty miles than be involved as a party in a suit. He did not object to be involved as leader of a side in three suits at once with a hundred guinea fee and refreshers of thirty guineas a day from each. The system under which such things are possible is a pernicious one. It benefits only the three or four leading counsel whose names appear in every case. It is veritably a goose that lays golden eggs for them. The country is a goose also to submit to it. The obtaining of law and justice might be made much cheaper and easier, and this would benefit the legal profession quite as much as the public. The amount of litigation we have under the present state of things when the very name of " Law " is a bogie that frightens a man out of his wits, of itself proves that if once we could get a system of dispensing justice at anything like a reasonable price, the number of courts would have to be doubled, trebled, and quadrupled. " That would be a great calamity," I hear some fossilized old battener on the high fees of the present state of affairs object. " Litigation should be dis- couraged as much as possible." This in a country which has for the very first maxim of its jurisprudence: " There is no wrong without a remedy." c 2 36 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. Many a wrong has to go without remedy, because if one tries to obtain it one has to submit to wrongs a thousand times worse than the first. In most of the colonies the legal profession is overdone. In those where the barristers and the solicitors are distinct, the majority of the former have a bad time. The work is all given to a few. I do not say done by them, because they neglect half of it. A solicitor, for self protection, has to brief a big man, or his client will blame him if things go wrong, and say that if he had had decent counsel he would have won the case. This course is not open to him when it it equally goes wrong in spite of the services of the great Mr. Wigan Gowan, Q.C. The amount of his fees are amply sufficient to remind the client that he had as strong a Bar as could be retained on his side. Most likely the aforesaid Mr. Wigan Gowan has been popping in and out of two other courts during the process of the suit, in order to earn his refreshers there. In the meanwhile the Junior Bar starves. At present it is everywhere overcrowded. There is more room for solicitors. They can go out of the metropolis and settle, and sometimes in the large inland towns they get into very good practices. There is on the whole far more scope for solicitors than barristers. In those colonies where the two professions are not amalgamated, the most rigid system of etiquette is observed, just as in England. Red tape and sealing wax are in abundant use. The seniors, however, are THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 37 the only members of the bar who can make solicitors understand that it is one of the best traditions of the profession to receive the fee with the brief. They are able to insist on their cheque before going into court. The obscure junior has to wait for his money until the solicitor chooses to send it to him. Some of them never choose. Barristers must not advertise, nor must they accept work except through a solicitor. These are the fund- amental principles on which the etiquette of the bar is placed. Some counsel, however, do both. They are not, as a rule, popular in their profession. The advertising barrister, generally, is one who travels the circuit of the County Courts and Quarter Sessions through the country. These minor circuits are held four times a year. The gentleman is never one who has much reputation in the metropolis. His method of advertising is clever, frequently he gets it done for nothing. He makes a point of being very civil to the editors of all the country newspapers, and never comes to their town without inviting them to dine with him at his hotel. In the next issue of their journals para- graphs of this kind are pretty sure to appear. At the recent Quarter Sessions held in this town, the most interesting feature was the able defence of William Sykes (arraigned for sheep stealing) by that eminent Counsel, Mr. Puffan Blow. A finer forensic effort, containing at the same time force, fire, and feeling, it has seldom been our lot to listen to. We are glad to be able to state that the jury adequately responded to the eloquence of Mr. Puffan Blow, and the prisoner left the dock without a stain on his character. 38 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. He is always throwing out hints about standing at the next Parliamentary election for any electorate he may happen to visit. One may commonly read such things as this : We hear that the well-known barrister, Mr. Puffan Blow, has declared his intention of offering himself as a candidate for Parliament for this district at the next election. Mr. Puffan Blow is a free trader with leanings towards protection, and if returned would be sure to serve his constituents faithfully and well. He knows better, however, than to really go to the poll, or at least if he is fool enough when the idea first takes him to think he will get in, one attempt is ample to convince him of his mistake. He does not try a second time, though he still drops his hints about it. There are also to be found members of the bar who transgress the other rule about being approached by clients only through solicitors. A legal friend of mine was once on a visit to some friends in the country. He was surprised one day to hear that a man wanted to see him on business. Going to him he found a rustic individual who said that hearing he was a u legal gent " he had ventured to come and ask him for the address of a respectable firm of solicitors who would conduct a case with reference to the recovery of some land to which he thought he had a title. "I've got a barrister already," he remarked, "this is the last letter I received from him." My friend read it and found it to contain an opinion that the case was worth fighting, and expressing hopes THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 39 of success. It was from a barrister whose name was perfectly well-known to him. " I recommend you to consult Mr. Blank about the solicitor in whose hands to place this matter," he said. "As you know him already I think he is the best one to ask, as he might not care to work with the solicitor I should advise you to go to.' ! The rustic suitor acquiesced. " I shouldn't want to do any thing disagreeable to Mr. Blank " he observed, " he's been very good about this and he has agreed not to charge any fee unless we get the verdict." My friend smiled grimly and congratulated the would-be suitor on his good luck in finding such a treasure. It is only fair to say that there are but few barristers in the colonies who are in the habit of doing things like this. The incomes made by the profession of the law, taken all round, are very comfortable. One or two men in Melbourne and Sydney make as much as eight thousand a year at the bar. Those in the second rank will often earn three or four thousand a year ; the young juniors who have friends among solicitors may reach five or six hundred. A great many, however, never get a brief. Solicitors with any sort of business make from seven hundred up to three or four thousand a year clear of expenses, some perhaps more, but not many. In all large Australian cities there are tribes of doctors, and New South Wales is the elysium of quacks. Victoria and Queensland have medical acts restricting 40 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. the practice of medicine. New South Wales has none, consequently the columns of the newspapers are filled with advertisement of herbalists, medical clairvoyants, system mongers of all kinds, who commend their cheap fees and remedies to the gullible public, and drive a roaring trade. A select committee was appointed about three years ago by parliament to inquire into this state of things and report on the advisability of providing a medical bill for New South Wales. The evidence given before it was startling in the extreme. It was published at length in some of the daily papers. Intelligent men could come to but one conclusion on the matter, but there are as yet no signs that the bill is forthcoming. Both qualified and non-qualified men were examined. The testimony of some of the latter was in the highest degree amusing. Here are some extracts from the official report : Mr. Michael G , called, sworn, and examined What are you ? A herbalist. What do you mean by that ? I cure all diseases of the eye with an external application and internal medicine. Of what character are your remedies ? Purely herbal : no poisons. Are there no vegetable poisons ? It is vegetable matter, vegetable extract not of a poisonous nature. You call yourself a botanical oculist ? Yes. You give advice on other subjects beside the eye ? I treat the stomach, the liver, spleen and heart, for these are connected with the eye. When did you study medicine ? About twenty-five years ago. Under whom ? My own, as it came into my head. You never had any teacher? No, only the Almighty. The Bible is my guide to botany, and the Almighty promised me every herb bearing seed on earth to be my food and nourishment, and I read in my own Bible that there was a man blind for four years and he could be cured ; and I found out that cure from the Holy Scriptures. The Bible I study is my guide to botany, and THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 4! Almighty God is my physician, my teacher, my guide in every form. Which version of the Bible do you study ? The Douay. In answer to a question as to what he was doing four years previously, before he began to practice medicine, this gentleman said : I was working at a circular saw. I was working as a labourer for the Corporation of Balmain and as a generally useful man. Do you have many patients ? Yes, hundreds. They pay you certain fees I suppose ? I charge them according to their means. But you are practising medicine for your livelihood ? Yes, and the benefit of the public. But for your livelihood and as a means of gain ? No ! I had to leave my work. I was curing for two years for nothing and I got such a name that the public took me out of work. I could not serve both masters, so I made a little charge. I had to leave my work, the patients were shoving me. You always examine your patients before you treat them ? Certainly. Have you any knowledge of anatomy ? Yes, in my own idea, not the doctors' idea of to-day. My system is a new one. Have you studied it ? Yes, upon animals. Did you ever study human anatomy ? I learn more from the animal kingdom than the human kingdom a jolly sight. There is not a blind animal under the sun I did not take and examine him and had his eyes out. And I had pig's eyes and the nerves of pig's eyes is just like the nerves of men's eyes, and man's eyes is like the roots of a tree, and all diseases of the human eye comes through the nerves of the eye, and man gets blind from the morbid state of his body. Have you one special remedy in which you have more faith than others ? Yes. How did you discover it ? Experimenting on my own eye. And on nobody else's ? On myself first. What gave you the idea that this remedy would be good for the eye ? Well, I will explain. When I goes out in the morning to look for herbs I prays to the Almighty to direct me, and, if it is His will, to hand into my hands that which is requisite for me. I went out, month after month, and I used to give month about for each kind of herb. I went on this particular morning, 2$th December, 1882, and I went forth in God's name as usual and I picked up this herb and I came home and extracted that and applied to my eyes, and in the morning when I got up my eye was closed, swelled, and when I opened the eye the putrid discharge that came from the eye flew into the glass. "Well," I said to my Missis, Mrs. G " This is what is blinding my eye. Now," I says, " I will stick to this and see what recom- pense I derive from it." I kept at it, using it every night in bed, and in six months I could see a little bit like a red spark of fire from a 42 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. candle. I kept on for six months and I could see daylight, and this was four years last Christmas night, and I am now able to see every- body. Professor Stuart, of the university, told me that if I found a remedy that would cure my eye it would be worth the university of gold, and Dr. Evans and Dr. MacKellar told me I would never see with it. And you do ? Yes. How many times did you pray for direction ? Every night and morning. And your prayers were only answered on one occasion ? I prayed to the Almighty " That Thou would enlighten my understanding, inflame my will, uplift my body, and sanctify my soul. That Thou will be pleased to have mercy on me and restore me my sight that has been lost through the disease that Thou had put on me when I was a child." In that prayer you said nothing about the Almighty directing you to a remedy ? Then I went and looked for herbs and tried one one month, and another, another month, and I extracted all these herbs, month by month. I went out on this particular morning as usual, and mind you I was fifteen years at this, and at last I picked up this herb on the 25th December, 1882, and it has done good for me and others, and it is a grand thing to find it out. I should like to say I lost $ by coming here and that my patients are being neglected. Four shillings does not pay me for coming here to-day. I am $ out of pocket. I am run with patients and I am doing a lot of good and I think I ought to be appreciated for it. So much for the botanical oculist. I may as well mention, however, that before the members of the select committee, who evidently showed a lack of appreciation for his talents, allowed him to get back to his anxiously waiting patients, they extracted, with some difficulty, from this pious person a few interesting particulars of his previous career, in which hurried and secret departures false names an illegitimate child, were among the things mentioned. With reference to his testimony that Professor Anderson Stuart, of the Sydney University, had said that his remedy would be worth a university of gold, evidence was given by the Professor that he had had an inter- THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. 43 view with the botanical oculist, but remembered making no such statement. " He came to me," said Dr. Stuart, " on the ground that I was a director of Prince Alfred Hospital, and he desired me to use my influence to have a certain number of patients placed at his disposal so that he might compete with the doctors at the institution in the treatment of eye cases. I answered that I could and would do no- such thing, and after some parleying, which convinced me that the man was an arrant quack, I dismissed him." Did you examine his eye ? No. The following are some of the answers of a clairvoyant : What is your calling ? Clairvoyant and medical herbalist. You never had any other calling ? As a boy I was a bootmaker. Explain the meaning of the term medical clairvoyant ? That is an impossibility : the common name of the thing is far-seeing, or second- sight. What do you profess to do as a medical clairvoyant ? To treat people, to diagnose. When did you find out that you had this faculty ? Through a mesmeric influence. Are you influenced by some higher power not belonging to this world ? That is beyond my power to say. Some say it is a lower power because it has been asserted that I am influenced by the devil. It is not for me to say. How the power comes I am unable to define. When a patient comes to you what do you do ? You want to get at the secrets of my theory ; I decline to answer the question. You are asked how you deal with a patient. I cannot tell : being under clairvoyant influence I do not know. Are the names of the remedies for each particular complaint conveyed to you through this influence ? It must be so, because each diagnosis is quite separate, and each person separate. If I came to your rooms and wished to have a remedy for some complaint, what course would you take ? I should not do anything- whatever. What would be done to me ? Well, I do not know. But you in corporeal presence are there : would you speak to me and see me ? As far as I can ascertain the faculty of speech is the same, but I know nothing at all. Then how do you get into or when do you get into the mesmeric or clairvoyant state ? It occurs every morning. Do you remain in it the whole day ? No. You go into it for every fresh case ? No. What are your hours ? Nine to twelve. Do you remain in it from nine to twelve ? No, there is a. 44 THE AUSTRALIAN AT HOME. break at times when the brain gets overstrained. Do you go into this state at will? No. It is impossible to inform you how I go into it. Does it come every day ? Yes, unless the system is over tired. Does it come on Sundays ? Never on Sundays. It omits that day of the week ? Sometimes, if the system is overstrained it omits two or three days. There were several of these clairvoyants examined, not one of them knew " how he did it." Some had to keep attendants to come and wake them up after they had been in their trance a certain time. There was much mystery surrounding their processes and the various influences seemed capricious in their behaviour, sometimes keeping their subjects enthralled for days, resolving themselves into cataleptic fits, and doing other strange and marvellous things, not the least of which was the extraction of many half-guineas from the pockets of hundreds of people in supposed posses- sion of their senses. These pseudo physicians had in some cases made fortunes. One had retired on his profits and lived on his estate in the Blue Mountains : from grooming horses he had passed to doctoring them, and from doctoring horses to doctoring asses (of the human species, male and female). Another, with airy impu- dence, informed the committee that he was worth c. LONDON: The Leadenhall Press, 50, Leadenhall- street, E.C. [Two-and-Sixpence. A STORY OF STOPS. By Mrs. DAVIDSON, of Tulloch, author of " Kitten's Goblins." Prettily Illustrated by the authoress. 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