Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-05-17
PEOPLE or AUSTRALIA.


ed them the Australians as a people
have become tall and straight like
their gum trees, broad-shouldered.
deep-chegted and wiry. They are clear
of eyes and skin, of remarkable sound
ness and whiteness in their teeth of
luxurant, tine-textured hair. Bertil-
lion says: When you see these char
acteristics generally marked you may
know you are IN the presence of Y
great people
Magnificent distances stand before
them wherever they travel within
| their own country, and the ong travel
develops endurance and calm power
against adYersities, as well as the gift
to laugh at the smaller difficulties and
embarlassments of everyday life. The
| G40000,000 worth of products which
the country exports annually to Eng
land comes chiefly from the vast inter
ior, and there are hundreds and hun
dreds of men dwell in stations separat-
ed by days of journeying.
millions of gum trees, they tend fiocks
of sheep numbering upwards to 100000
per flock. There among the far
stretching hills and mountains they
round up ranges bearing $1,000 to 30
OOO head of cattle. And the life that
these men lead leaves it's impress upon
| the nation.
Men who dwell in the interior of
| Australia are ever in the presence of
valleys, plains ana gorges stretching
! in all directions, with mountains push
| ing upon mountains till, in the hazy
distance, they are lost in the skyline
no mans land, desolate, untenated;
| theirs if they want it, only most of
them already have more than they
know what to do with The immens-
| ity, the colossal expansion presided
over by an almost awe-inspring still
ness, become either maddening or sub
lime, according to the temperament.
Curiously enough, it is usually the sub
unity that prevails.
Another effect, and one that plays
equally strong in shaping the quail
ties of the nation, has arisen from con-
tact with the wilderness. The Austria
! lians that lived in great solitudes
| could not afford to be exclusive. They
| felt out for a hand. Their hospitality
was eager. The bush was open house.
! Thus his environment forced away in
| herited eXclusiveness and the Austral-
| ian became different man from the
Britain-broader, franker and more
unselfish. He mas outgrown repres-
sion and the sense of superiority. He
has had enough experience to give him
wholesome sense of humor. He
has worked hard enough to appreciate
relaxation. He has borne into the new
land the liking of his home country
for sport, but he has followed it on
broader scale. He has horse races,
as in England; but he has kangaroo
hunts, which make the hare hunting
of England seem like schoolboy's play.
tinent. There have been times when
boCh life and the continent were hard
to hold, but the probation period is
passed. Australia for Australians has
become an unchanging impulse of all
the people. The inhabitants have come
to realize that the. power to grow, to
spread their influence beyond the
country's borders-in other words, to
assume nationallty-is now theirs
Aspirations ABOVE mere money
making have been generated. Austria
lians feel the desire 10 rub against the
people of other countries, and to test
the gifts and requirements of their
long struggle in the redemption of the
continent, In other words, political
ambition has arisen. The federation
is the means chosen to realize that
ambition.
THE people of Australia love the
home government and presumably
never will separate from it; but they
have become sufficiently important to
possess the anatomy and the practical
participation in governing which be-
long to state that is an integral part
of any central government. Prior to
the federation their governors were
appointed in Downing street. Their
legislators had no personal voice in
Parliament. They themselves had no
equality or intercourse with the great
political centers of the world. All
these developing responsibilities
were cut off from them-responsibili-
ties which, above all other things, are
needed to awaken into action the high
est intellect and the strongest judg-
ment of a people. The Australians
aspired to become factor in the de-
cision of world problems. &C. Sheri-