i8o Australian Life 



neighbours these are the township's main 

 constituents. Local society consists of the bank 

 manager, doctor, clergyman, and a few others, 

 with lower positions assigned to the school-teacher 

 and police-constable, the latter usually a superior 

 man and invariably an influential one. This 

 circle is regarded as consisting of city folk, and is 

 viewed with distrust and suspicion by the locals. 

 The feuds and scandals inevitable in village life 

 are embittered by this jarring of town and bush, 

 and to the policeman, if he is tactful, falls the 

 task of keeping peace between the parties. 



The visitor who studies the life of Australia in 

 a bush township can hardly escape the con- 

 clusion that this must be among the least sober 

 of all countries of the world. The conclusion 

 would be an erroneous one, as statistics will 

 prove, but there is no doubt about the amount of 

 hard drinking that goes on in the bush town- 

 ships. There may be seen the bushman, who 

 has not known the taste of intoxicating drink for 

 months, indulging in an orgy in which he invites 

 all comers to participate. The occasional "bursts" 

 of more frequent visitors to the place are equally 

 obvious, for the little township concentrates the 

 drunkenness of a whole district. The moral fibre 

 of the young man called upon to live in such sur- 

 roundings, perhaps as bank clerk, or civil ser- 

 vant, must be stout, or he will run considerable 

 danger of yielding to the infectious atmosphere. 

 Life in the bush township is supremely dull, 



