OUR SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 



299 



moment, and within five years of tlie time the stream of the new 

 popuhxtion set in, responsible govei-nment was conceded in its present 

 full measure — though not without the temper of the past expressing 

 itself in a whimsical proposal to create a ])L'erago with hereditary titles 

 and legislative privileges. The scheme was strangely out of touch 

 with the new spirit. It developed a mood of antagonism that carried 

 the new movement, perhaps, even further than it might otherwise have 

 gone ; and a few years saw the introduction of the princi])le of manhood 

 suffrage, the throwing open of the public lands to settlement before 

 survey, the abolition of State aid to religion, the establishment of a 

 popular system of education, and the base-course laid for the ])rogress 

 of subsequent legislation. The ]iopnlation, which for the whole con- 

 tinent numbered less than 150,001) in lH-1-4, stood at 197,108 for New 

 South Wales after the separation of Victoria in 1851, rose to 357,978 

 by 1861, and more than doubled itself in the course of the next twenty 

 years, while the census of 1891 showed a total of 1,165,300. 



In considering the conditions under which our population lives, the 

 first fact to strike the observer's attention is the decided preference 

 shown for town life. The characteristic is connuon to most countries; 

 but to people at a distance the circumstance is the more noticeable by 

 reason of an impression that the life of the colonies is largely a life of 

 " the bush,^' the sheep-run, or the gold-field, or at least of the open 

 air. The average intending colonist does not usually correct this 

 impression until he arrives in New South Wales, while many of the 

 critics who write about us never seem to trouble about the facts of the 

 case at all. In the section in this volume dealing with the towns of 

 New South Wales, something is said on this point ; and liere we may 

 content ourselves with observing that out of the whole population 

 of the colony 691,956 are town-dwellers. It might be better if the 

 case were otherwise, and, indeed, a disposition has set in of late years 

 to devote more energy to the direct development of natural resources. 

 But the prosperous conditions of existence in the colony, and the rapid 

 advances in the command of the comforts and arts of life have had 

 a great deal to do with the inclination of the population to collect in 

 towns. When the country was new and just beginning to show its 

 possibilities there was a tendency to take up vast tracts of country for 

 the breeding of sheep, or to enter upon the active work of alluvial 

 mining. Those Avho went out to open up the country risked their lives 

 at first in flood and drought, and at the hands of the aborigines ; but 

 that stage passed away, the social conditions solidified themselves, and 

 people settled down to enjoy the fruits of their prosperity. A large 

 population collected in Sydney, as well as in the more important inland 

 centres, surrounding itself with the comforts and elegancies of life. 

 Taste began to assert itself ; the University and schools of art and 

 public libraries came into being ; the desires and aspirations of leisure 

 began to make themselves felt; and the wants of the population made 

 employment. Wages, the attractions of towns, the facilities for the 

 education of children, soon drew the people away from the country 

 and settled them around the larger centres. 



Under normal conditions the life lived in New South Wales in these 

 circumstances commands a high degree of comfort. The average of 

 personal expenditure on food and drink alone was higher last year. 



