The Australian Woman 163 



sympathetic and just perception of the meaning 

 of the music. From the singing of the church 

 choir in the little back blocks township to the 

 concert given by the pupils of the musical con- 

 servatorium of the capital, there is everywhere 

 abundant evidence that Australians have not only 

 a true love for music, but the gift of musical ex- 

 pression. The eagerness in grasping any means 

 of improved cultivation and knowledge is proof of 

 this, as well as the enthusiasm with which skilled 

 performers are welcomed and heard. Music is 

 the one art that has received genuine and notable 

 encouragement in Australia. 



The Australian woman who earns her own liv- 

 ing has had to encounter less prejudice and oppo- 

 sition than has been the case elsewhere. In the 

 professional class, women have come rapidly to 

 the front, and women doctors, dentists, and lec- 

 turers are matters of everyday existence, being 

 accepted as readily as their male counterparts. 

 One Australian capital possesses a lady, who, 

 having developed marked business ability as a 

 house and land agent, applied for and obtained 

 an auctioneer's license. Her sales are conducted 

 with a promptness and readiness of which any 

 male auctioneer might well be proud, and her 

 repartees to interrupters at the outset of her career 

 were peculiarly crushing. In the financial crisis 

 following the period of over-speculation in land 

 there were many examples of young ladies who 

 devised novel and useful methods of replacing 



