AUSTRALIA es) 
The Australian artisan has been able to establish 
for himself short hours of labor and high wages. There is 
no housing problem for the workman in this island com- 
monwealth as there is in the large cities of this continent. 
It is said that there is not one tenement building in ail 
Australia, for every family can obtain a comfortable cot- 
tage at a moderate rental. A well built house with five 
rooms and a bath-room, within comfortab!e walking dis- 
tance of his work, can be got for about ten shillings a 
week, a sum which does not bear so high a proportion to 
his weekly earnings as the seven and sixpence which the 
British workman has to pay for two or three rooms in a 
gloomy tenement. A garden in front of the cottage, and a 
plot of ground of respectable dimensions behind it, belong 
as a matter of course to the Australian workmen’s dwelling. 
It has been said that the workman is able, if he wishes, to 
live within comfortable walking distance of his work. ‘The 
tendency cf the Australian middle class is still to occupy. 
the more distant suburbs, so that the suburbs of an 
Australian city nearest to the actual city area will usually be 
found in the occupation of the humbler classes. But 
should the workman choose to rent a cottage a few miles 
out of the city, he is admirably served by train and tram, 
or by a cheap and rapid ferry boat service. The conven- 
ience and cheapness of the State-owned suburban railway 
lines can only be appreciated by those who have acquired a 
wide experience of profitearning railways in other lands. 
The trains are run frequently and punctually, and a scale 
of fares within certain hours enables the workman to travel 
at an expeuse that is always economical. Thus the ten 
shillings a week he pays for a cottage near town will pay the 
rent of an even more comfortable dwelling six or seven miles 
away, as well as the additional cost of his railway fares. 
There he will have a plot of land, perhaps half an acre in 
extent, where he can gratify his tastes for gardening and 
poultry keeping to the fullest extent. The cheapness of 
