PRESIDENTS ADDRESS—SECTION I. 189: 
sweeten social intercourse. Had there been a marked deficiency 
in this respect, it would have been so phenomenal in his case, that 
Jonson would surely have referred to it rather than to a matter 
of such small comparative interest as his friend’s imperfect 
knowledge of Latin and Greek. But to come nearer home, it 
may be asked, What of the future of Australasian literature ? 
Obviously the time has not yet arrived for the production by 
writers of Australian birth, of work requiring long literary 
apprenticeship, original research and learned leisure, but it may 
confidently be said our literature of a lighter character, whether 
periodic or otherwise, already indicates a very great amount of 
native ability. The weekly press, though dealing more largely 
with English fiction, affords a certain amount of publicity, 
encouragement, and training to native writers, several of whom 
have in consequence been enabled to undertake work of a more 
ambitious or permanent character. We have, for instance, seen 
of late that a novel by a former well-known contributor to the 
Australasian has had a wide acceptance even at home, and as its 
gifted authoress, “‘Tasma,” resided in Tasmania from childhood, 
her book, which treats largely of local scenes and subjects, may 
truly be regarded as indigenous. The same may be said of other 
recent works by Rolf Boldrewood—a pseudonym familiar to 
readers of the local press—which from their wealth of startling 
incident, brilliant descriptive power and true local colouring, have 
secured a very large amount of public favour. Other native 
writers too, I have reason to know, are coming to the front. An 
authoress of world-wide repute at home, Mrs. Humphry Ward, is 
a native of Tasmania, but having left that colony at an early 
age, cannot be claimed as an Australian writer, nor do I think 
that other than home influences are visible in her works. Several 
novels, thoroughly Australian in scope and character, have been 
written locally, or from local experience, though not by native 
writers. Among the best known are: ‘Geoffrey Hamlyn,” “ His 
Natural Life,” and “The Broad Arrow,” all of which are likely 
to live, as they present well-drawn and interesting pictures of 
scenes peculiar to a past phase of colonial life. And as in prose 
so also in poetry, Australian influences have already inspired 
some admirable work, though for the most part the writers have 
been born and nurtured under other skies. Among these a 
foremost place will readily be accorded to Adam Lindsay 
Gordon, whose brilliant lyric and descriptive poems, many of 
them redolent of bush life, have taken a firm hold on the public 
mind, and will be long and deservedly held in appreciative 
memory. Some of them, indeed, will no doubt take permanent 
place in our national literature. A peculiar interest, at the 
same time, due to what is known of his unfortunate life 
and chequered career, attaches to much that Gordon wrote. 
Chivalrous feeling, refined taste, scholarship, and the true spirit 
