Urban Australia 107 



cause ot their propinquity to the sea-coast, all 

 these big Australian cities are healthy, and can 

 boast a low death rate. That they continue to 

 increase in proportion to the population of the 

 country behind them is not due to these causes so 

 much as to the fact that they offer to the working 

 class such advantages as no other cities in the 

 world can offer. The attraction that city life has 

 for the humbler classes is evident even in the 

 Old World, where the contrast between the con- 

 ditions of town arid country life is not so marked 

 as in Australia. Here the reasons for flocking 

 to the cities are obvious enough. To quote the 

 Bulletin, the most powerful organ representing 

 the opinion of the Australian working-man: "A 

 trade, and regular work at that, made at union 

 wages, is worth more than the average six hun- 

 dred and forty acres of land available for selection 

 in any Australian state. It is hard reasoning on 

 a cash basis, not silly hankering after city life, 

 that brings the young bushman to town." 



