70 Australian Life 



difficulty in obtaining the extra labour required 

 at these seasons, and no question of paying rail- 

 way fares or incurring any unnecessary expense. 

 In any district where there is a prospect of obtain- 

 ing such work, the man with the swag may be 

 found, and he is usually a capable and experi- 

 enced labourer. If he is not, his prospect of ob- 

 taining work, or of keeping it should he obtain it, 

 is a very slight one. The system so far as it has 

 been outlined is absolutely a convenient one for 

 the pastoralist, who is able to pick and choose 

 among the many men who continually apply for 

 work, and to replace an incompetent man at a 

 day's notice with one thoroughly up to his work. 

 But the system has engendered an unwritten bush 

 law, which entails a considerable expense upon 

 the station-owners, and probably is responsible for 

 much of the obloquy which has been heaped upon 

 the "swaggie." 



The law in question, the observance of which 

 has become one of the standing grievances of the 

 pastoralist, is that every swagman asking for 

 work shall at least be given food enough to carry 

 him on to the next station. It need hardly be 

 said that the hospitality extended to the man with 

 the swag varies in degree and in kind. Some 

 station-owners decline to observe the rule at all, 

 and advertise that all applications for work must 

 be made to their accredited agent in some neigh- 

 bouring township. Others expect some work to 

 be performed in return, such as the cutting of 



