On a Selection 45 



standing argument in favour of the contention 

 that many of the supposed necessities of civilisa- 

 tion are in reality but superfluities. With a 

 dozen sheep, a few cows, and a patient old horse, 

 the cockie and his wife settle down to the work 

 of clearing and fencing their holding, brave and 

 resolute, and happy if they have but a few pounds 

 in the bank to keep them in their initial struggles. 

 So much for the beginnings. Let us now visit 

 a selection which has been taken up for some 

 years. There is the same hut, now sadly dilapi- 

 dated, and with a lean-to added to serve as a 

 dairy, and another roughly constructed room to 

 provide sleeping accommodation for the growing 

 family of children. The selector may be able to 

 afford a much better habitation, and probably in- 

 tends to provide one. He will talk of a situation 

 he has chosen, superior in every way to that he 

 now occupies. His wife, faded and prematurely 

 aged with the hard work, or the worry of a large 

 family, looks forward with a pathetic cheerfulness 

 to the change. Meanwhile, what is the use of 

 trying to improve the old house? So the bark 

 roof continues to leak, and the earthen floor to be- 

 come mud, while the door will not shut, o;r will 

 not open. These things are ignored as the selector 

 talks of the conveniences of the new house he 

 means to build. A walk around the selection 

 shows that its owner is master of every imagin- 

 able makeshift. "Dog leg" fences, made of long 

 saplings, supported on improvised and shaky 



