Life in the Cities 1 1 1 



tected industries of the country. To do him jus- 

 tice, he does not complain of this, for there is no 

 more staunch adherent than he to the protective 

 principles which, rightly or wrongly, he connects 

 with the high scale of wages he is able to earn. 

 The necessary luxuries of the working-man, tea 

 and tobacco, are both cheap and of good quality 

 in Australia. When the Australian tariff was 

 framed, the Labour representatives in the Com- 

 monwealth Parliament, by a clever combination 

 with the Free Trade party, obtained the exemption 

 of tea from any duty whatever, contending that it 

 is one of the Australian working-man's necessities. 

 A comparison between the prices paid by the 

 British and Australian workman for tobacco is 

 not easily effected, since the Australian usually 

 smokes the best American tobacco, which he buys 

 in the form of a hard plug containing little mois- 

 ture. I recently obtained in London, after a good 

 deal of trouble, a plug of this tobacco, for which I 

 paid two and sixpence. In Australia, the same 

 article would have cost, at most, but one and six- 

 pence. There is another luxury that costs less to 

 the Australian than to the British workman, and 

 it is to his own credit that it is so. The Austral- 

 ian contrives to spend a smaller sum upon intoxi- 

 cating drink, although the public-house prices of 

 beer and spirits are higher in Australia. 



These are some of the material advantages 

 which the workman enjoys in Australia, and 

 they have their natural complement in social 



