Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-08

cost him 25 cents a dozen, his beer so cents
a gallon and his tobacco from 81 to $1.5O a
pound.
The Australian has to pay as much in the
way of house rents as the average Amer
lean workman, and he has as rule poorer
accommodations. In Sydney three-room
fat costs about 50 month or something
like IS cents per room per week. A four
room house costs about $40 and a five-room
house about So a month. Very few of the
laboring men live in houses of more than
five rooms unless they have grown-up sons
or daughters to contribute to the family
earnings.
What They Eat and Drink.
AS far as can see the workingmen live
very well Few of them have wrinkles in
their stomachs or holIows in their cheeks.
The average cost of the food consumed per
inhabitant is sS4 year. while our average
is less than $50 a year They are great
meat eaters, and in New South Wales last
year they ate 96, 600 tons of beef, $4,000 tons
of mutton and S,eo0 tons of pork and ba-
con, footing up a total of 100000 worth
OF meat for one colony alone. The meat is
good, too You will find no bettes mutton
anywhere, and he beef is as fat and as
juicy as the best cuts of Chicago
l am surprised at the amount of tea
which these Australians drink. They swill
tea as the German swills beer Every
person has his cup of tea every after
noon, and, like as not, another cup
OF so later in the evening. They drink
more tea than any other nation except the
russians. They drink it everywhere. 1t
is served without extra charge at hotels.
and at the railroad stations it is given out
at so much per cup at the same tables
always served with milk and sugar,
and every person takes four Jumps.
The people have sweet teeth and they eat
50 much sugar that their teeth are often
decaNed. This is n good Mace for a dem
tist and / am surprised more American
dentists do not come here to practice.
AS to whisky and beer. the consumption
is large. 1t varies in different parts of
Australia. Here in New South Wales they
drink less than in Victoria. and everywhere
less than in western Australia, where the
consumption of whisky amounts to about
five gallons annually for every man. wo-
mansand child in the county or from
twenty to twenty-five gallons per fam
lily. The amount of beer consumed there
averages twenty-four gallons per head, or
about a, hundred gallons per family per
annum.
More Food and Less Work.
Speaking of cost of living, Mr.. Coghan
shows that the Australian has to work less
for his food than any other man in the
world. except the American. He quotes
Mulhall, the great statstician, as his
authority. showing that it takes less
work to buy food in the United States,
Canada and New South Wales than in
any other country. He shows that the
Germans and Russians have to work twice
as many days during the year to fin their
StomachS the Americans Australians.
The Australian must work 112 days for his
food and the American only 76, while the
Englishman has to put in 121 days, the
Frenchman works 49, days, the German
141, the Russian 1876 and the Portuguese III
days per annum for the same purpose The
Australian and the American feed hett
than any of the others: they eat more,
drink more and spend more. Indeed, it is
estimated that it costs about $500 per year
to keep an Australian.
L:bor Settlements.
One of the queer labor movements of
Australia resulted in the establishment of
number of labor colonies or settlements
in the different states. This occurred along
about the panic of 1892 and 1898, when
there was a vast number of unemployed.
Several of the colonies set aside lands for
settlers and advanced money to them. In
some settlements the lands were held in
common, and in others they We're so ar
ranged that after a given time the people
could vote whether they should continue
to hold them as a settlement or should di-
vide them UP among themselves. There
are two such settlements in New South
Wholesome at Wilberforce and the other
at Bega. The Bega settlement is about 800
miles west of Sydney and twelve miles
from the coast, on the Bega river. To reach
it you go on the railroad to within seventy
four miles of the place and then take
coach, or you can go by steamer twice a
week. The settlement has twenty-eight
families and is said to be a success
South Australia has similar settlements
a hundred miles from Adelaide
OIL the Murray river. Each of these
settlements was given 10000 acres to hold
in common and each was advanced
something like $1,000 for buying tools
and stock. The people have built houses
set out orchards and are engaged in
farming of various kinds. They have
1 am told. many lemon and olive orchards
and flocks of sheep They work but eight
hours, the days labor beginning and
ending with the blowing of a horn. They
have a common store and have attempted
to run their villages on socialiStic lines.
have not visited the settlements, but
understand that they are doing fairly well,
although there is some dissatisfa ction as
to the division of work, the bachelors
claiming they have to work more for what
they receive than the married men who
have families Thirteen years after the
foundation of each settlement the men,
bers expect to decide by vote whether they
shall continue to hold the lands in common
or divide them. The probability is that the
vote will be in favor of division.
FRANK G. CARPENTER
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