CHAPTER IX 

 LIFE IN THE CITIES 



A USTRAIylA has so often been described as 

 /~\ the paradise of the working-man that the 

 phrase seems to have lost part of its meaning from 

 constant repetition. The factors conducing to 

 the satisfactory condition in which the Australian 

 artisan finds himself are primarily those he has 

 established for himself, namely short hours of 

 labour and high wages. But these conditions 

 apply elsewhere, and notably in the large Ameri- 

 can cities, where the working-man is, neverthe- 

 less, far from being as well off as in Australia. 

 In the first place, the housing difficulty does not 

 exist for the Australian workman. There is not 

 one tenement building in all Australia, for every 

 family can obtain a comfortable cottage at a mod- 

 erate rental. A well-built house with five rooms 

 and a bathroom, within comfortable walking 

 distance of his work, can be got for about ten 

 shillings a week, a sum which does not bear so 

 high a proportion to his weekly earnings as the 

 seven and sixpence which the British workman 

 has to pay for two or three rooms in a gloomy 

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