viii INTRODUCTION. 



describing the wondrous achievements within little more than a 

 human lifetime, and the yet more wondrous possibilities of this 

 young land without feeling a glow of patriotic pride that he 

 belongs to such a country, so he must be doubly a dullard who 

 could write them without himself being moved with something of 

 the spirit of the brave deeds or bright visions he was recounting. 

 This in truth has been the editor's chief difficulty — rather to restrain 

 the zeal of some of his contributors, if not exactly in painting the 

 lily or gilding the gold, at any rate in making what was meant to 

 be simply a plain matter-of-fact record of Australian progress read 

 like nothing so much as an Arabian Nights tale. Not indeed 

 that even that would be in every case such an extravagance. There 

 have been marvels, not to say miracles, in Australia's short story, 

 outrivalling Sindbad's ; magical transformations — witness Ballarat 

 or Broken Hill — to which Aladdin's palace was the merest mush- 

 room. But the object of this book being to set forth, not the 

 romance, nor even the wonder of the country's progress, but the 

 plain facts of its position to-day, and chiefly the practical side of 

 that, there has necessarily been som^e pruning in this direction, and 

 hence if any of these papers seem wanting in the warmth or colour 

 proper to the subject, let it be put down to the strictly business 

 scruples of the Editor, and not to any lack of enthusiasm on the 

 part of the writers. 



Of course there are subjects dealt with here which needed no 

 such precautions. It would have been difficult for instance for 

 Professor I'itt Cobbett to "enthuse" much on his subject, the 

 ]^aw and Constitution of New South Wales, admirable as on the 

 whole both are, or for ]Mr. Harris Curry on his, the Laws relating 

 to Crown Lands, though he does properly describe them as 

 " characterised by comprehensiveness and liberality." Both these 

 papers will be found excellent digests of their respective subjects, 

 and for all interested in either subject — and who are not ? — very 

 useful for reference. Commerce and speculation naturally go to- 

 gether, and doubtless in some quarters, in a sense, the most purely 

 speculative papers in the book may be said to be the commercial. 

 To some extent this was inevitable, since, as one of them admits, 

 the change in the fiscal policy is still too recent to allow of any full 

 or fair judgment, much less positive prediction, as to its results. 

 At the same time it can hardly be called mere speculation to say 

 that "with the loosing of her fiscal bonds the commercial supremacy 

 of New South Wales is assured," seeing that that appears to have 



