so BUSH HORSES 



chums," The expense and difficulty in keeping 

 servants prevent colonials from being luxurious. 

 There is a heavy Chinese poll-tax ; so cooks and 

 gardeners are in greater demand than if the 

 "heathen Chinee" was allowed to land untaxed, 

 like an English emigrant does. 



As a rule, colonials are boisterously indepen- 

 dent. They refuse to toady a moneyed snob, 

 and evince little sympathy for a cultured man 

 who is inclined to be finikin. Such a breezy 

 specimen of our English aristocracy as Lord 

 Charles Beresford would make a Governor after 

 their own hearts ; the tone of Australian thought 

 is pre-eminently healthy and outspoken. 



Bush life, as may easily be imagined, is apt 

 to become extremely monotonous ; and yet the 

 scenery is cheerful ; the dazzling white gum-tree 

 trunks, so tall and slender, have a peculiar charm 

 for the settler ! Let us endeavour to describe a 

 few familiar objects " up-country." If we may 

 be pardoned for using an expressive Irishism, 

 the extensive plains resemble an ocean of land, 

 for when we look out seawards only a few passing 

 ships catch the eye ; so, when first sighting an 

 Australian plateau, there is but little else to notice 

 beyond thin belts of timber, dotted about here and 

 there like islands, amid coarse yellow tussock- 

 grass. 



Noises a great distance off may be heard — the 

 tinkling of a bell on a working bullock, grazing 

 miles away ; as also the loud report of a heavy 

 bullock-whip, and the much shriller crack from a 

 stock-whip. 



