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A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



and a moss that is green as grass puts a beautiful if not a healthful coat over many 

 old shingle roofs. The new, however, is fast out-growing the old. The banks have 

 shown their appreciation of the importance of the place by the superior style of their 

 premises. The Ma it land Mercury, the oldest paper in the northern district, has expressed 

 its belief in the future by building substantial offices, and the churches make display 

 of faith by solid and beautiful works. The Hospital is a large building, on a good 

 site, and the schools, both State and private, are large and handsome, well-finished and 

 well-furnished. Several factories have taken root, and some hundreds of the inhabitants 

 find regular employment in tanning leather, making boots and shoes, building carriages, 

 sawing timber, manufacturing tobacco, brewing beer and making brooms. But the farmers 

 are the main-stay and support of the place, for the land about Maitland is so rich and so 

 easily worked that the freehold of a hundred acres is a fair fortune. Some blocks used 

 solely for lucerne-growing have been sold at upwards of one hundred pounds an acre. 

 The farmers of the district have also developed an aptitude for skilfully and economically 

 managing their own business. They were, for a long time taxed by the commissions of 

 middle-men ; but in a happy moment they adopted the idea of a " Farmer's Union," 

 every member of which should bind himself to sell his produce at auction. The market 

 or fair was inaugurated. It needed no elaborate building, a space of open ground near 



the railway station, with a few 

 sheds for perishable articles, 

 being sufficient. 



To this market-place on 

 Wednesday in each week come 

 the farmers and the townsfolk, 

 and many dealers from the Port 

 and the metropolis. The gather- 

 ing is large and unique of its 

 kind. Nowhere in Australia, 

 perhaps, could you find a more 

 thoroughly representative as- 

 semblage of Australian-bred men 

 and women. The settlement 

 is very old, and many of the 

 farming- people are natives of 

 the second and third generation. 

 There are clear indications of 

 the distinctive Australian type, 

 the sallow on men's faces blot- 

 ting out the russet which their 



grandfathers brought from England. There is very little superfluous flesh amongst either 

 the men or the women. But if the people are beginning to vary a little from the 

 English type, the produce they bring to market varies still more. 



Certainly the pigs of all sizes, with the dressed sheep of an abnormal fatness, 

 would be familiar enough in England, as would also the crates of poultry of all 



THE CHURCH OF ENCI.AM), J'ATEKSON. 



