Life in the Cities 117 



cities are in no way restricted. The efforts of the 

 police to break up the bands are checked, in some 

 cases, by the unwise leniency of honorary magis- 

 trates, and by the extreme difficulty in proving 

 any punishable offence against the ringleaders. 

 The larrikin, leaning against the dead wall and 

 spitting idly into the gutter, is an eyesore in the 

 Australian cities, and an intolerable nuisance as 

 well. When his worst passions are roused, he is 

 a positive source of danger, and the perpetrator of 

 many cowardly crimes, the consequence of which 

 he too often contrives to escape. His existence 

 may well be a source of uneasiness to those con- 

 cerned in the future of the new nation. 



The worst slums of the Australian cities are 

 undoubtedly those quarters given up to the occu- 

 pation of the coloured aliens, especially the Chi- 

 nese and Hindoos. The greater part of the laundry 

 work has lately passed into Chinese hands, and 

 the Chinese cabinet-maker has also entered into 

 very serious competition with the Australian 

 tradesman. These men gravitate to the most 

 undesirable quarter of the town, and, by herding 

 together in defiance of all laws of sanitation, ren- 

 der it still more undesirable. Opium -dens and 

 gambling-houses are open night and day, and 

 form an attraction for the most degraded of the 

 white population of both sexes. Chinatown has 

 an aspect and an odour all its own; an air of 

 shabbiness and dinginess pervades the buildings, 

 and from the open doors come indescribable 



