246 Australian Life 



have never seen the British Islands, are never- 

 theless accustomed to speak of them as "home." 

 The impression is confirmed by many of the 

 Australians who visit England, and especially by 

 the Australian politician whose eloquence is in- 

 spired by the theme of colonial loyalty, and the 

 absentee landlord who spends in L,ondon the 

 income derived from his Australian possessions. 

 These people are largely responsible for the fic- 

 tion of the "colonist " whose interests, as well as 

 his allegiance, are altogether in the keeping of 

 the Motherland. 



The real Australian is no unwilling exile. 

 The day is not far distant when an Australian 

 paper will publish a companion picture entitled 

 Christmas in England. It will show a tall, lean, 

 clean-shaven man, correctly and uncomfortably 

 clad, cowering over a dull fire in a Bloomsbury 

 boarding-house. It is midday, though the gas is 

 lighted, and he has just discovered by a visit to 

 the street door that there is an inch of slush on 

 the pavement, and that fog prevents his seeing 

 across the narrow street. So the Australian falls 

 a-dreaming. His first dream for he has many 

 is of a tree-dotted plain, warm with joyous sun- 

 light. So far away as the eye can carry through 

 the pure clear air, the skyline ends the day in a 

 low blue rampart of hills; but his imagination 

 ranges far beyond those to the very centre of the 

 vast unknown continent that is his birthright. 

 Yes, and though the dreamer see as many visions 



