POLITICAL AND SOCIAL. 



'443 



exceptions being the legalization of marriage, in certain of the colonies, with a <! 

 wife's sister. The peculiar boast of Australians in legal matters is. of course, Tori' 

 Act, for the expediting of the transfer of real estate. Sir R. R. Torn-ns was for some 

 years Collector of Customs at Adelaide, where his duties brought him in contact with 

 the shipping interest. He was led to apply the method of the transfer of shipping by 

 registration to the transfer of land. It took many years to perfect the theory, which was 

 not definitely accepted by the South Australian Legislative Assembly until the year 1858. 



LITERATURE AND ART. 



" T ^HE conditions of colonization in Australia for many years after the date of the 

 first settlement were not such as to favour any remarkable development either in 

 the field of literature or of art. We have seen that fortunately for the material progress 

 of the colonies, they received the kind of population best suited to do the pioneer 

 work of colonization, rather than a 

 cultured or leisured class with the 

 time and taste to cultivate the 

 more polished graces of life. The 

 rough-and-ready duties which the first 

 colonists were called upon to dis- 

 charge, and the lives of toil and 

 active effort they were compelled to 

 lead, were more favourable to the 

 development of a hardy race of practi- 

 cal men than to the pursuit of those 

 studies that have their issue in either 

 literary or artistic performance. In 

 this, of course, the Australian colonies 

 only followed the example of the 

 older countries of the world. It was 

 necessary that the Continent should 

 be made habitable by the labour of 

 men's hands before a population could 

 be settled within its borders. 



We have seen that the first 

 comers proved themselves capable of 

 the discharge of this pioneer duty, 

 and it was not to be expected that 



in the midst of such a population that the finer flower of civilization would show itself until 

 some time after the preparatory stages had been passed. Wealth and leisure came after- 

 wards. Fathers left to their sons the heritage of the results of their original effort, 

 labours that confronted the first comers were passed on to the succeeding generation in 

 the shape of results ready to its hands, and the sons of those who first reclaimed the 

 primeval wastes for settlement found that they could enjoy the leisure and means of which 



ADAM 1.IMISKY tiOUPoN. 



