114 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



clition, says: "This extraordinary and inexplicable cus- 

 tom must have a great tendency to prevent the rapid 

 increase of population, and its adoption may perhaps 

 be a wise ordination of Providence for that purpose, 

 in a country of so desert and arid a character as that 

 which these people occupy.'* Professor Stuart summar- 

 izes hi* very instructive paper in the following conclu- 

 sions : 1. Nothing whatever can he definitely stated as 

 to the origin of the custom. 2. The operation doe- not 

 necessarily render the man sterile. Tt merely dimin- 

 ishes his fertility: what the degree of diminution may he 

 will depend entirely on circumstances. 



THE SURVIVING ABORIGINES. 



A large number of natives still live in unexplored 

 parts of northern Australia in their original state. The 

 civilized portion has become a government charge like 

 our Indians. They are extremely lazy and depend al- 

 most entirely on the government support. (Fig. 25.) 

 I visited two of these settlements, one at La Perouse 

 on Botany P>ay, seven miles prom Sydney, and the other 

 at Coranderrk, near Healeville, .forty miles from Mel- 

 bourne. At each of these places there are about sixty 

 persons, most of them half-castes. The first colony 

 lives on a 40-acre tract of land : the latter has 5.000 

 acres set aside by the government for their exclusive 

 use. At La Perouse they live in small huts made of 

 corrugated iron: at Healeville there are small frame or 

 brick houses. Some of the oldest members of these 

 settlements retain their original type and were children 

 when Sydney and Melbourne were villages. All of them 

 speak English and the children have lost the language 

 of their parents. 



SYDNEY. 



Sydney is a prosperous, growing city with 450,000 

 inhabitants. The houses are built of stone, brick and 

 cement or brick alone. Most of the main thorough- 



