The morning call., 1892-04-05
SIDE LIGHTS FROM AUSTRALIA.

| The condition and progress Of Australia
| must always possess interest for Calfor-
mans. there are SO many analogies between
that continent and this coast, ana therefore
| the report of David Lindsay's expedition,
| just read to the Royal Geographical Society,
and the account of General Booths recent
travels IN Australia, are worth reading.
! Australia, as every one knows, resent
! bles the United States Ia the respect
| that il is a vast cup surrounded by an ele-
waited rim; thu rim being fertile and bedded
on plutonic rocks over which copious drift
has flowed; the interior being mostly arid
desert with patches of alluvial prairie.
| The Australians have reached the same
! stage of knowledge of their country which
| Americans had attained with regard to theirs
! forty years ago. when it was ali axiom that
I agriculture was impossible, with few ex-
| ceptiODs, west OF the hundredth meridian.
Forty.nine fftieths Of Australia is track
less desert, and nine-tenths of it is sup
posed TO be irreclaimable. TO ascertain
how far this is the fact the various proyin-
cial governments have been sending out
every year exploring expeditions TO cross
the continent in every direction; their re-
ports remind the reader of the repo rts Of
Lewis and Clarke and Fremont. They
generally agree in calling the interior mostly
an arid desert; but Mr.. Lindsay reports
that on his recent expedition through West
Australia and South Australia he encoun-
tered clumpS OF bushes and forests Of trees,
which imply some fertility in the soil. and
some water
General Booth. who went TO Australia to
feel his way for the solution of the English
labor problem by promoting the migration
OF three millions of English people to that
continent, is quite hopeful of its future
| agricultural possibilities He thinks that
vast areas Of what is called the Australian
| desert are admirably suited for the habitation
of man. Under existing laws Australia has
improved upon cur homestead law by do-
| mating, absolutely without payment, to
every new settler quarter section of land
provided he will occupy it. General Booth
thinks that it would be far better to give
settlers six acres and q pasture field, and to
supply them-on credit-with farm tools,
seeds and such cattle as they require 10
| begin farm work with. He pointed out one
! place, Darling. back of Brisbane in Queens
/ land, on which there are now a few sheep
/ runs. but which. under cultivation. would
| support the 100000 people who cannot
! find subsistence in England
The trouble in Australia is the very same
| trouble which the census has disclosed in
/ this country. 1t is the tendency of new
| settlers to flock to tie cities. There as
| here, cities are oyercTowded and the labor
markets are periodically glutted. while fer
tile fields lie fallow for want Of labor. Me-
bourne is a present example. Since Gen.
eral Booth left, the labor situation in that
city has become deplorable, and restitution
Of the most saddening nature prevails
| among the working classes. The savings
which had been accumulated for such an
| emergency were expended in the year $780,
and it is almost impossible to find work.
| Even before this crisis occurred, statistics
were laid before the Parliament of New
South Wales which showed that through
I tie prevailing rate of wages was high, CON-
petent and respectable artisans in Sydney
were earning on the average less than $40
week The standard wages Of dock labor
er5 was shilling-say - cents-au hour,
but there were so many Of them competing
for work that the majority of them were in
extreme poverty. The problem for public
men was how TO transfer these unemployed
men from fields where their labor was in
| excess Of the demand to fields WHERE il
| would command proper remuneration.
IN the northern portion of South Austria
liza. which is well within the tropics, the
Chinese have effected landing aud the ex-
| elusi0n laws passed by the Provincial Par
| lament have proved imperative. They
have found land on which, according to
| General Booth they raise large crops Of
wheat II wUuld seem that it would be bet
| ter for the wOrkmen of Sydney and Mel
| bourne to take up some of this land, espe-
| ciaily as they can get it for nothing. than TO
| 90 on working for $40 a week in the cities.
| They place their Government in the absurd
| position of having in one place millions OF
acres of fertile land, which it cannot even
! give away, and millions of men in England
| who would consider themselves fixed for
| life il they could get a small piece OF land.
Our problem in this country is not as
| ridiculous as that. But still we are begin
ming to suffer and it seems that we are
hereafter destined to suffer more from the
erroneous distribution of our labor supply.
There are few large cities in the United
| States in which a strange mechanic can
rely upon finding steady work at a normal
rate of wages