The Australian 251 



The lust of wandering takes possession of him, 

 and on a reasonable excuse he must gratify it. 



This restlessness is accentuated by the uncer- 

 tainty of the conditions under which he lives. 

 Change meets the Australian at every turn: he 

 never knows what a year may bring forth. Two 

 good seasons convert the land into a smiling 

 paradise, gladdening the eyes of man with 

 pictures of easy prosperity and happy animal life. 

 Two dry years make it a desolate hell, horrible 

 with sights and sounds of dead and dying ani- 

 mals : unsightly, forbidding, and altogether 

 sordid. The year's work of the settler is at the 

 mercy of the seasons; he lives for ever in dread 

 of drought, flood, bush fire, and those plagues of 

 rabbits and locusts that are continually descend- 

 ing upon him. The cities, too, are quick to feel 

 the pinch of bad seasons, with their consequent 

 scarcity of employment and increase in the price 

 of commodities. Therefore every Australian 

 State has its percentage of floating population 

 that flies at the approach of ' ' bad times ' ' to seek 

 easier conditions within the borders of a neigh- 

 bouring State. 



This uncertainty has bred in the Australian a 

 taste for speculation and a fine courage in the 

 face of adversity. He has learned to count the 

 risks, and makes an excellent loser. To have 

 planned and toiled for nothing is but part of the 

 game of life, and a fresh start must be made with 

 a stout heart, and as often as not with a jest 



