AUSTRALIA. 10!) 



merited praise. What Australia needs to develop its 

 slumbering resources and to increase its prosperity is 

 a larger population. The present population of this 

 great country is less than 5.000,000, and statistics show- 

 that for the last ten years it lias rather decreased than 

 increased. Japanese and Chinese immigrants are, by 

 a recent act, absolutely excluded. For some time these 

 yellow people paid $500 for the privilege of entering 

 the country. Abject poverty and begging are almost 

 unknown. All classes of people take a keen interest in 

 educational and charitable institutions. The typical 

 Australian is neither a European nor an American; he 

 exhibits qualities that indicate the geographical location 

 of his country half-way between the European and 

 American continents, from each of which he has as- 

 similated habits and customs which characterize his 

 thought and action. He has acquired the business tact 

 of the American and retains the love for recreation and 

 amusement of the Europeans. 



THE NATIVES. 



The aborigines of Australia appear to be quite a dis- 

 tinct race and have nothing in common with the South 

 Sea Islanders. They bear a closer resemblance to the 

 Africans in the black or dusky brown color, thick lips, 

 short, flat noses, narrow, high and sloping forehead, 

 copious growth of jet black, straight hair. Men- 

 tally they are far beneath the Polynesians. (Fig. 

 23.) They live a nomadic life, without a permanent 

 habitation, and rely on fish and game for sustenance. 

 They were a fierce, warlike people who with spear, ar- 

 row, clubs and boomerang fought the whites persistently 

 until they became convinced of the utter uselessness 

 of their efforts to resist the superior force of the in- 

 vaders. Even now the natives of Queensland in the 

 dense forests and jungles occasionally show a hostile 

 attitude toward the pioneers in the steadily advancing 

 line of civilization. The natives, who numbered him- 



