Country and Climate 3 



ing up, to whom many of the British customs 

 would be traditions instead of things remembered 

 with sentimental pleasure, and that to the suc- 

 ceeding generation even the traditions would be 

 lost. 



For instance, the Englishman born celebrated 

 Christmas Day in Australia in the good old-fash- 

 ioned style, with a smoking hot joint, and an 

 abundance of rich puddings and pies. His Aus- 

 tralian-born son in many cases maintained the 

 custom, although fully alive to the absurdity of 

 such fare at a season when the thermometer stands 

 at more than one hundred in the shade. The 

 present-day Australian may often be found spend- 

 ing his Christmas Day in some shady fern-tree 

 gully, clad in the easiest of clothes, and with 

 everything as cool as it is possible to be made. 

 The Australian climate renders the English 

 Christmas festivities practicall}' impossible. In 

 the same way many other customs carried from 

 Great Britain to Australia by the pioneers of the 

 new race have been modified by conditions against 

 which the first-comers struggled, but which their 

 grandchildren accept as part of their everyday life. 



For this reason, any one seeking to make ac- 

 quaintance with the Australian life of the present 

 day must bear in mind that it has essentially 

 changed during the past twenty years, and that 

 in another quarter of a century it will probably 

 have advanced yet another stage in its evolution. 

 The chief factors conducing to this evolution are 



