256 Australian Life 



the Australian in all his weakness, and his cheer- 

 ful endurance of the calamities that follow only 

 partly justifies him. 



giving in the almost continual presence of sun- 

 shine, the Australian is naturally cheerful and 

 good-humoured. Although subject to change, 

 his life holds no extreme of poverty and want, 

 no abyss into which he may be plunged without 

 the possibility of emerging. The signs of hard- 

 ship and suffering are not always before his eyes, 

 nor has he to contend with the class distinctions 

 that serve elsewhere to advance those who are al- 

 ready ' ' up, ' ' and deter those who are ' 'down' ' from 

 rising. He learns initiative from observing that 

 those who have risen owe their success to oppor- 

 tunities deftly seized, while courage in the face of 

 failure is his unalienable birthright. Each of his 

 fellows is potentially an easily made friend, char- 

 itable of his failings and appreciative of his vir- 

 tues. Circumstances and surroundings have 

 combined to create of him an industrial Bohemian, 

 with the Bohemian failings of thriftlessness and 

 lack of prudence. With borrowed money, he has 

 provided his big cities with every modern con- 

 venience of necessity and luxury, and with bor- 

 rowed money, constructed long railways in order 

 that they may be fed by the country behind them. 

 Now, just when the prospect of a broader national 

 life lies open before him, he finds his revenues 

 consumed by the heavy burden of interest these 

 developments have entailed. How the Australian 



