The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1908-01-14
AUSTRALIA.
Gray and Monotonous, but Vast, Pa
tient and Fascinating


Australia is in itself a monstrous
continent. 1t is as large as the United
States; its 100000 Of people are scat
tered in narrow fringe along the
streams and shores of the southern
and eastern seaboard. The vast inte-
rior-''the dead heart of Australia"-a
region as large as the Mississippi val
ley. is a trackless. rainless waste of
sand and alkali, while the intervening
hills. the bush and scrub, are scantily
occupied by sheep stations and by min
ing camps The vast north Of Austria
LA is in part a tropical jungle, in part
a blistering Sahara. The fates denied
to Australia the gift of high noun
tainS to catch the snow and hold the
water; hence her rivers are few and
precarious; hence at too frequent inter-
walls the great drought comes, and the
desert spreads its smothering arms,
crowding man and his dependents
backward toward the sea. 1t is a mo-
notonous country in its physical as
pects The forests on hill, valley, rock
and swamp are all of one pattern
eucalyptus. eucalyptus. the gray trunks
of the gum trees of many species-as
far as the eye can see. Without noun
tains and streams there is little room
for variety. 1t is monotonous in its
industries-cattle. sheep, horses-its
one fine art the breeding of the per-
feet Merino sheep. 1t is monotonous in
its towns. One story, light brown,
with implanted roof of corrugated iron,
is the description of nine tenths of the
Australian homes Corrugated iron
means clean rain water, and Australia
can afford to waste none Of it. 1t is
monotonous as to population. The Eng
lishmen came first to Australia, and
they are still holding it against all
Corners. The way is made rough for
| immigrants who do not speak English,
and for well or ill-in many ways for
each-the ruling minority, the labor
vote, is sternly set on white Austria
lia," with all which 1t implies. The
history of Australia is monotonous. 1t
contains the story of hard struggles,
of bitter sufferings, deserved and I'M
deserved; of lawless courage and reck-
less bravery, but the causes served
were individua Australians never
had a common enemy, and their rec
ords show no glorious war and no up
rising of common feeling. The achieve
ments of Australia belong to the cate
CORY of individual deeds of peace.
With all this the color Of Australia
is gray; the land, the towns, the spirit
of her people, Her literature has
sober touch, and this difference in
tone shows itself in its way In the
life of the universities. In America.
as in Brownings verse, 1.-The flower of
life is red" The American student
knows that 1.-THE world is his oyster"
He knows that "he can get what is
coming to him." that in proportion to
his talents, his training his sobriety
and persistency of purpose will be his
success in any affair he undertakes.
But though Australia may be gray
and monotonous she is vast, patient,
fascinating The mightiness of the
land to be conquered, the huge rooTni-
ness of the continent, the vistas of fu-
ture national greatness, all these grow
on one, and all these find their reflex
In the student life and in the rising
literature of the commonwealth. That
Australia will be the birthplace of
great men in the future no one can
doubt Their coming will not be due
to the lopsided political administration
nor to state ownership nor to the cod
ding of the laDorer, but to the persist
ence of her fine old English stock I'M
der man making and man inspiring
conditlons.-David Starr Jordan in APP
pleton's.