TROPICAL INDUSTRIES 67 



to his life and actions. Another took to collecting birds' 

 eggs ; another to the study of botany ; another to photo- 

 graphy. Each wreathed, according to his predilections, a 

 flowery band to bind him to the earth, finding that even 

 the life of a settler may be filled with " sweet dreams, and 

 health and quiet." But the great majority seem to have 

 taken to the scrap heap of Federal politics with such 

 ardour that they clutch but the fag ends of the poetry 

 of life. 



Many become great readers and are knowing and 

 knowledgeable. Those who drift away from country life 

 are for the most part men who hustle after the coy damsel 

 fortune by searching for minerals, and just as many who 

 have succeeded in that arduous passion settle quietly on 

 the land. Each may and does desire amendments to 

 and amelioration in his lot. There is still left to all the 

 healthy impulse of achievement, the desire for something 

 better, the noble and inspiriting virtue of discontent. 



Rare is a deserted home. Even the first rough dwelling 

 of a settler possessing the slenderest resources is invested 

 with tender sentiments. There is his home a poor one, 

 perhaps, but his own, and to it he clings with desperation, 

 sees in and about it attractions and beauty where others 

 perceive nothing but untoned dreariness, unrelieved hope- 

 lessness. His little bit of country may be remote and 

 isolated, but Nature is warm and encouraging, and profuse 

 of her stimulants here. She responds off-hand without 

 pausing to reflect, but with an outburst of goodwill and 

 purpose to appeals for sustenance. She has no despondent 

 moods. She never lapses in prolific purposes. She may 

 be wayward in accepting the interferences of man, but all 

 her vigorous impulses are expended in productiveness. 

 She cannot sulk or idle. Kill, burn and destroy her 

 primeval jungle, and she does not give way to sadness and 

 despair, nor are any of her infinite forces abated. Spon- 

 taneously she begins the work of restoration, and as if by 

 magic the scar is covered with as rich and riotous a pro- 

 fusion of vegetation as ever. Nature needs only to be 



