Home and Social Life 175 



military uniforms; the newly moneyed set, cast- 

 ing a suspicious eye upon the latest recruits to 

 their ranks. There is, in addition, a large num- 

 ber of pleasant people who have come for the sole 

 purpose of enjoying themselves, and set about 

 doing so very naturally and thoroughly. 



There is, further, an inner circle of Australian 

 society, whose doings are chronicled with great 

 exactness and intimacy by the society papers. 

 For obvious reasons, no attempt is made at a 

 rigid definition of this circle of "the very nicest," 

 for that would defeat the end for which the 

 society paper exists. One gathers that its ideals 

 are drawn from high life elsewhere, and that a 

 close acquaintance is maintained with the latest 

 movements and customs of the best English 

 society. It may be urged, with some truth, that 

 no better model could be taken, but it has re- 

 sulted, rather unfortunately, in the permanent 

 transfer to England of some of the people and 

 much of the money that Australia can ill spare. 



There are, naturally, thousands of refined and 

 well-bred people, for whom neither the exclu- 

 siveness of this circle of "the very nicest," nor 

 the entry to Government House and the social 

 cachet it is supposed to give, have any special at- 

 traction. To outline their social life would be but 

 to describe the ordinary existence of the educated 

 Anglo-Saxon middle class everywhere. Formali- 

 ties and conventions may be slightly modified, but 

 they are by no means dispensed with entirely. 



