Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-05
Life in Northern Australia.

The most delightful thing in the life of northern Australia is its sans souci ap- pearance. Existence is literally outdoors, and people live here as if burglars were unknown. have ridden past houses in the early morning, and have seen the ve- randas filtered with books bric-a -brac, walking sticks, hats, lamps and other arti- | cles, and the doors wide open. Night af- ter night things are left so, and they are ! not stolen.
 Stealing is punished in Queensland with | the greatest vigor. A man might be gull | ty of manslaughter, and stand in better odor with the authorities than the thief. have ridden to a plantation late at night, | turned my horse into the horse paddock, | entered the house, struck a match, found sofa, lain down, and awoke in the morn | ing to find lite bustling about me, my breakfast ready, and 1 an utter strangerI Such is the freedom of the life. I was traveller. I suppose did not look like a | vagabond; they appreciated the desire on my part not to disturb their rest, and they | apologized for the hardness of the sofa! Every planter has not merely one room l ill his house which is called the strangers room, but several, and they are seldom | empty. In the days that visited Pride, the planter, there were six guests beside myself there. Imagine house through | which the warm air will blow from side to | side and from end to end, with group of buildings as dormitories at the left, and another group as kitchens and stores at the right; and graced with all the con- forts and with little of the conventional stiffness of metropolitan life; which has | dignity without show, and elegance with l out heaviness-and you have the planters | home.
 | Put roses and bamboos, oleanders and camellias, Hines and oranges, laurestinus and jasmine, pineapple and bongainvillia, the glorious pawpaw and granadilla, ten his court, and perhaps an observatory, and you have planters garden. Then put inside the house and garden healthy generosity, a great self-reliance, a mind | given to insisting bluntly on the wisdom of it's connections, hand ready to pour you out glass of sherry or Indite a phil | ippic against government or Sir Samuel | Griffith, who has opposed Polynesian la
 bor. and that is Pride, the planter.
 What you find of lightness and com fort in the house of Pride, the planter, you find in degree in all the north. Order and cleanliness reign. You may miss al | times verdure and foliage, but never that
 Villages and towns are swept and gar
 nished, and the people love flowers. And | go straight across the continent to Perth
 Albany, York or Geraldton, and the same
 thing may be found.
 You will find coupled with this energy
 self lf-confidence, freshness, aggressive as
 sertion and generous warmth. Because
 these have always been difficult question,
 to face, because unexpected circumstance
 have called for immediate action, becaus,
 development has come by leaps ant
 bounds, and because there have been strug
 gies between class and class, there ha.
 been produced an outstanding race of men
 irascible, yet hospitable; strenuous anc
 stalwart, yet not robustious; explosive
 yet not troublesome; uncompromising, ye
 generous. That is the true Australian
 The rough persistency and selfshness o
 trades union are not Australian. It i,
 English, with sense of freedom bor
 rowed from easier conditions of life, ant
 knowledge of power gained from ths
 most perilous forms of American ant
 English existence It is engrafted Austra
 lia-Australia in the cities-that is ultra
 democratic. Australia itself moves il
 ample assertion, but it has also sound sen
 timent or patriotism. Its natural tenden
 cy is toward hero-worship, but the facult!
 has not scope, for want of heroes. NJ
 great crisis has drawn the colonies togeth
 CT, and of late years but few of the les
 men have gone into public life.
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