LONELY AUSTRALIA : THE UNIQUE CONTINENT 



521 



very rich. It is stated that one in six 

 Australians owns property, and that one 

 in four has deposits in savings banks. 



HIGH SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES POORLY 

 ATTENDED 



One of the anomalies of Australian life 

 is their attitude toward education. In a 

 country where the government digs a 

 man's well, sells him fish, and tells him 

 when to open his store, and where 98 per 

 • cent of the adult population can read and 

 write, it is strange indeed that interest in 

 higher education should be so slow in 

 developing. 



Free public education from kinder- 

 garten to a university degree, giving equal 

 opportunities to rich and poor of both 

 sexes, is not known in Australia. The 

 numbers enrolled in secondary schools, 

 both public and private, and in universi- 

 ties are therefore relatively small. 



The States of Washington and Victoria 

 have about the same population, but the 

 Washington high schools enroll four 

 times the number of pupils and the State 

 University enrolls four times as many 

 students. 



One reason for the small number of 

 students in the university and secondary 

 schools is doubtless the tuition charges ; 

 but this obstruction is partly removed by 

 scholarships and stipends of various sorts 

 granted to deserving pupils at public ex- 

 pense. 



To my mind the chief reason is the low 

 valuation placed on higher education ; too 

 few are willing to obtain it at a personal 

 sacrifice. Stories of American boys and 

 girls without money, who by the thou- 

 sands work their way through school and 

 college by sacrificing their holidays and 

 vacations, performing menial services 

 and living on meager fare in cheap lodg- 

 ings, read like fiction to the son of the 

 Australian laborer. 



AUSTRALIANS AT PLAY 



With a short, easy day for the business 

 and professional man and for the wage- 

 earner, with Saturday afternoon free and 

 frequent holidays, the Australian has the 

 energy and the time for amusements, 

 which, because of the climate, take largely 

 the form of out-of-door sports. Horse- 



racing is a national interest, to an extent 

 unknown in other countries, and race- 

 courses are as much a part of a com- 

 munity's equipment as streets and ceme- 

 teries. 



Metropolitan "cup days" in spring are 

 the Easters of Australia, the days on 

 which fashionable women display their 

 new gowns and hats. For the great races 

 people come to the cities by thousands, 

 the streets are crowded, and the hotels 

 packed to the limit. Ordinary work prac- 

 tically ceases ; freedom and gaiety prev? 1 ! 

 and money is lavishly 'spent. The atti- 

 tude of the community is like that of an 

 American student during an intercollegi- 

 ate foot-ball match. 



Unfortunately horse-racing is not only 

 the national sport ; it is also the national 

 vice. Where thousands see the races, 

 tens of thousands bet on them. A lack 

 of knowledge of horse or rider or owner 

 is no deterrent, for there is little pretense 

 of an honest race. The grand prize of 

 $25,000 to $100,000— occasionally $300,- 

 000 — is irresistible. The gambling spirit 

 pervades all classes and all occupations. 

 To quote an attorney general of New 

 South Wales : "Clerks and shop girls will 

 stint themselves of food and office boys 

 pilfer the stamps to buy a ticket or share 

 in one of these lotteries . . . nine- 

 tenths of the embezzlements and for- 

 geries and breaches of trust which come 

 before the Australian courts are directly 

 due to horse-racing and its concomitants." 

 In spite of editorial and pulpit utterances, 

 of votes in the hands of women, of efforts 

 of the Commonwealth government and 

 mild legislation by States, the evil con- 

 tinues. 



As in the United States, the "movies" 

 often constitute the chief indoor amuse- 

 ment, but the universal recreation is the 

 picnic, which in Australia reaches its 

 highest development. Men, women, chil- 

 dren, families, clubs, churches, lodges, 

 and miscellaneous groups are out on pic- 

 nics afternoons, Sundays and holidays. 

 Two picnics a week are not unusual ; a 

 young lady of my acquaintance had five 

 to her credit. The picnickers walk, ride 

 horses, take wagons, or go by motor, 

 street car, train, or boat. They go to the 

 shore, to the woods, to rivers, to pictur- 



