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FIVE YEARS UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS
FIVE YEARS UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Rev. F. C. Spurr. FIVE YEARS UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS Experiences and Impressions By FREDERIC C. SPURR Late Minister of First Baptist Church, Melbourne CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1915 TO My Children, Norman Félix and Madeleine Dorothy , who spent their five “years of awakening” under the Southern Cross, and chiefly to their Mother, My Wife and Comrade , who made Australia not only her home but her workshop, in which she tried, with much success, to do someth
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PREFACE
PREFACE
For five years, during my residence in Australia, I had the privilege of contributing to the English Christian World a large number of articles on life in the Commonwealth. These articles excited a great amount of interest amongst all classes, and brought me a vast correspondence, which made it abundantly clear that even well-educated people at home know little about the inner life of Australia. This book is an attempt to throw some light upon that far-off country, and to make Australia “live.”
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FOREWORD AUSTRALIA’S PLACE IN THE EMPIRE
FOREWORD AUSTRALIA’S PLACE IN THE EMPIRE
The average Englishman and the average Australian have at least one thing in common: each of them is profoundly ignorant of the inner life of that country in which his fellow-subjects, separated from him by a distance of twelve thousand miles, dwell. The average Australian knows by name the chief cities of Britain; he knows a little about British exports and imports; he knows as much of English politics as scanty cables and the letters of special correspondents inform him. If he is a religious m
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CHAPTER I GOING TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
CHAPTER I GOING TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
To the Australian shores there pass, in ever-increasing numbers, steamers of every size and of every nationality. They go from America, from India, from Japan, from China, from France, and from Britain. The world has discovered Australia to be a fine continent for business. Year by year the tonnage of steamers grows. It is a far cry from the little cockle-boat of 300 tons which touched at Sydney Harbour a century ago to the new majestic liners of 13,000 tons which now ply between Tilbury and Syd
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CHAPTER II THE GOLDEN WEST
CHAPTER II THE GOLDEN WEST
Passengers from England to Australia via the Cape generally touch Australian soil first at Albany. They thus miss the true “gateway” into the country, Fremantle. This latter city is the port for Perth; it is the traveller’s first introduction to Australia if he travels via the Suez and Ceylon. And glad is he to behold land once more after the monotonous voyage of ten days across the Indian Ocean. A languid air steals over the ship during the time it is in the region of the Equator. At night the
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CHAPTER III AN ACCOMPLISHED MIRACLE AND A PREDICTION
CHAPTER III AN ACCOMPLISHED MIRACLE AND A PREDICTION
The problem of obtaining water, of conserving it, and of distributing it, is the problem of Western Australia. In the Eastern States there are many natural waterways, which in part solve the question of irrigation. In the West there are few or none. Until a year or two ago Nature wore a stern aspect outside the few inhabited spots in the West. The desert stretched for hundreds of miles. The country was trackless. Transit was accomplished by the aid of camels. There were no wells or oases to reli
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CHAPTER IV ADELAIDE, THE QUEEN CITY OF AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER IV ADELAIDE, THE QUEEN CITY OF AUSTRALIA
No person could desire a better introduction to Australia than that which the city of Adelaide affords. It is the port where passengers, weary of the long sea voyage from England, disembark, to entrain for Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Adelaide is a true garden city on an extensive scale. Less compact, and containing fewer noble buildings than Melbourne, it excels that city in the beauty of its situation and in the ample verdure which everywhere abounds. Around it, guarding it, lies a ring of
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CHAPTER V THE ROMANCE OF MELBOURNE
CHAPTER V THE ROMANCE OF MELBOURNE
What the over-learned but fascinating Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” wrote of Australia, nearly three centuries ago, remains true for vast numbers of people in the Old Country to-day—it is a terra Australis incognita . It is not to the credit of Britons that they know so little of the outlying parts of their great Empire. Doubtless things have advanced since the day when a London lady said to a prominent cleric who was leaving England for Melbourne, “So you are going to preach to the ab
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CHAPTER VI THE BEAUTY OF SYDNEY
CHAPTER VI THE BEAUTY OF SYDNEY
Robert Louis Stevenson, who knew and loved the Southern Pacific, declared that he loved Sydney “for its bits of old London and Paris.” That sentence raises the veil, and reveals to the stranger one of the chief characteristics of Sydney. “It is so English!” is the exclamation of all Britons who see it for the first time. Its English-like character is at once its charm and its drawback. Its charm, for it transports the visitor immediately to the Old Country; its drawback, for it is not at all Aus
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CHAPTER VII AT BOTANY BAY
CHAPTER VII AT BOTANY BAY
Years ago the Christy Minstrels sang a droll song about the adventures of a Chinaman in Botany Bay. London audiences rocked with laughter at the mention of the famous convict settlement. Had they better understood all that was meant by Botany Bay they might well have wept. Fresh from reading the story of Captain Cook’s travels, and the subsequent story of the penal life in New South Wales, I find myself in an excellent mood to appreciate a visit to the famous spot which is known as the birthplac
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CHAPTER VIII BRISBANE, THE QUEEN CITY OF THE NORTH
CHAPTER VIII BRISBANE, THE QUEEN CITY OF THE NORTH
From Victoria to Queensland is an ascent in many ways. To begin with, it means a railway journey of nearly thirteen hundred miles from south to north. Each mile brings one nearer the tropics. Each hour the heat grows more intense; each day the sky bluer and brighter. I travelled from Sydney by steamer and made the ascent by sea. Even then there was the experience of expansion; of greater warmth, and the first faint perfume of the Lotus land. I returned by railway, and thus completed the circuit.
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CHAPTER IX QUEENSLAND, THE RICH UNPEOPLED STATE
CHAPTER IX QUEENSLAND, THE RICH UNPEOPLED STATE
The northern territory of Australia constitutes the “grand problem” of the Commonwealth. How vast a problem that is no man can realise until he in person visits the north. There, in very truth, is the colour line, drawn, not by the caprice of man, but by the hand of Nature. And the grand question to settle is, Can the white man live and toil in the north as he does in the south? One party says “No,” the other party says “Yes.” When the question is finally settled, then a great era of prosperity
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CHAPTER X THE ROMANCE OF QUEENSLAND SUGAR
CHAPTER X THE ROMANCE OF QUEENSLAND SUGAR
The marvel of Queensland grows upon one the more the country is studied. I have spoken about its vast territory, its small population, and its almost infinite possibilities in many directions of development. There remains one thing further to note—viz., the possibilities of Queensland as a sugar-producing country. Already this mere handful of population has developed the sugar industry in a remarkable way. Last year, for example, there were nearly 131,000 acres of land under cultivation for suga
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CHAPTER XI THE AUSTRALIAN WINTER AND SPRING
CHAPTER XI THE AUSTRALIAN WINTER AND SPRING
The seasons in Australia are, of course, the exact reverse of those in England. The longest day in England is the shortest day in Australia, and vice versa. June 21st is Australia’s midwinter day; December 21st is midsummer day. The seasons are not so strongly divided from each other in Australia as in England. In early September, when the days in the dear Old Country contract and the nights lengthen, spring bursts suddenly upon Victoria; the days are sensibly longer and the nights are shorter.
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CHAPTER XII BUSH HOLIDAYS
CHAPTER XII BUSH HOLIDAYS
The ideal holiday in Australia is a holiday in the “bush.” There are two Australias—one of the cities and towns; another of the country and the bush. The “country” is the cultivated portion of the land, reclaimed from desolation. In whichever direction the traveller passes, he soon encounters the “country,” and begins to understand something of the enormous wealth of the soil. Great farms come into view, covered with a multitude of sheep and oxen and horses. The soil in the north-east of Victori
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CHAPTER XIII SOME BUSH YARNS
CHAPTER XIII SOME BUSH YARNS
In this our lazy midsummer holiday in February, our resting-place is on the margin of the “bush.” As befits the occasion and the place, we have laid in a stock of bush stories, and in particular we are yielding ourselves to the enchantment of “We of the Never Never”—that frankly true and weird story of life in the Northern Territory, where a man’s nearest neighbour is sixty or ninety miles away. And then, just as we finish the “Never Never” stories, there comes into our holiday life a dear old s
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CHAPTER XIV A HONEYMOON IN THE BUSH
CHAPTER XIV A HONEYMOON IN THE BUSH
It is to one of the most highly esteemed citizens of Melbourne that I owe the following thrilling narrative. He is a gentleman whose personal service, influence, and money have for many years been freely used for philanthropic, evangelistic, and general Church work. He is one of my own personal friends. It is necessary to say this at the outset as a guarantee of the truthfulness of the story which I am about to relate. Otherwise the reader might be excused for believing that a parson, hitherto w
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CHAPTER XV THE HIGHWAYMEN OF THE BUSH
CHAPTER XV THE HIGHWAYMEN OF THE BUSH
A country spacious and sparsely inhabited. A land where men found gold or reared cattle. A remote part of the world into which Dame Fashion dare not penetrate. And, above all, a domain dominated by the terrible bushranger. Such was my earliest conception of Australia. Such is the conception of it which still obtains in the minds of thousands of British people. And how different is the reality! The country certainly is spacious and sparsely inhabited. Men also get gold and rear cattle, but not as
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CHAPTER XVI A SQUATTER’S HOME AND DAUGHTER
CHAPTER XVI A SQUATTER’S HOME AND DAUGHTER
It was the first time I had seen a real live squatter and his daughter, and the spectacle produced quite a shock. It was so unexpected, so utterly contrary to all that I had imagined. Every living word conveys an image to the mind of him who employs it, and I had my own notion of what a squatter was. This was derived, at an early age, from reading books on Colonial life, and later from the unflattering description given by Darwin in his “Voyage Round the World.” Mr. Darwin described a squatter a
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CHAPTER XVII THE HARDSHIPS OF THE BUSH
CHAPTER XVII THE HARDSHIPS OF THE BUSH
He was the first of a large number of young fellows who came to me asking for an introduction to some employer or other in the city—an Englishman, of course, newly arrived from the Old Country and in search of work. Unable to find a suitable billet at home, he had converted all his available possessions into cash and had set out for Australia, that El Dorado in which men were reputed to pick up gold and to rise, with incredible swiftness, to fortune. He was a young fellow of excellent education
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CHAPTER XVIII AMONGST THE ABORIGINES
CHAPTER XVIII AMONGST THE ABORIGINES
When the first settlers came to Australia they found in possession of the country a black population, representing a humanity low down in the scale. The native population was never in reality so large as many persons have imagined. It is difficult to arrive at exact figures, because in the north there are still large numbers of natives living in a state of practical savagery. These roam about at their will. Where the white man has penetrated, however, the black has gradually receded. When the bl
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CHAPTER XIX THE GOLDEN CITIES
CHAPTER XIX THE GOLDEN CITIES
Two cities of Australia lay claim to the designation of the “Golden City”—Ballarat and Bendigo. Needless to say that the cities are rivals, and needless further to say that I am not so foolish a man as to enter into any dispute as to which is the better city. Both cities have been very kind to me, and each of them has its own peculiar charm. Ballarat is built upon an eminence many hundreds of feet above the sea level, while Bendigo is built upon a plain, and is, therefore, a much warmer place th
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CHAPTER XX THE MIRACLE OF THE MALLEE
CHAPTER XX THE MIRACLE OF THE MALLEE
Let no man declare anything to be impossible until he has seen the Mallee; he will then be in a position to affirm the reality of natural miracle wrought with the co-operation of man; he will know that a desert can blossom as the rose, and that the place where jackals lay can become a glorious human habitation. I have just beheld this miracle and now hasten to declare it. The Mallee is an immense territory embracing about one-quarter of the State of Victoria—that is to say, twelve millions of ac
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CHAPTER XXI THE ANNUAL SHOWS
CHAPTER XXI THE ANNUAL SHOWS
Once a year, at least, each Australian State gives demonstrable evidence, in the most attractive manner, of its natural wealth. Every State has its annual Agricultural “Show” to which all loyal people pay homage, for a display of the stock and the produce of a country is more than a pastime, it is a revelation of power and possibilities. Here is an immense tract of country, covering thousands of square miles. Less than a century ago it was a wild “bush” covered with the gum tree and every variet
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CHAPTER XXII AN INTERLUDE—A DUST STORM IN SUMMER
CHAPTER XXII AN INTERLUDE—A DUST STORM IN SUMMER
The day had been intolerably hot. A copper haze hung over the landscape, weighing upon it with the solemnity of a funeral pall. All life was weary. The leaves of the blue gum tree drooped in a manner unusual for them. The flowers hung their heads upon their stalks as if the oppression of the atmosphere was insupportable, and the day for the shattering of the fragile floral vase had arrived. Men returned home from their labour, and after the evening meal refused to stir out either to concert, lec
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CHAPTER XXIII CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER XXIII CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
While it may be far from exact to say, with certain modern philosophers, that climate creates and explains religions, it is undoubtedly true that climate exercises a modifying effect upon certain of the traditional observances of religion. Christmas is a case in point. A man brought up in a northern clime associates the great festival with the shortest day, and often with the sharpest weather. Keen frost, deep snow, biting winds, roaring fires, bare gardens—these are the framework of his Christm
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CHAPTER XXIV SOCIAL LIFE IN AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER XXIV SOCIAL LIFE IN AUSTRALIA
It is intensely interesting in a new country like Australia to watch the evolution of the aristocracy. The process is very rapid. That old idea about ten generations being necessary to make a gentleman has no countenance in that part of the world. Ten years or less now suffice. It is all a question of money-bags, and money is made with great ease and rapidity in Australia—at least by some. A heavy gamble in land will change a man of moderate fortune into a wealthy person. Indeed, when one comes
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CHAPTER XXV LABOUR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER XXV LABOUR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA
The increasing number of immigrants arriving on Australian shores is an eloquent witness to the fact that Australia is slowly winning a reputation “at home” as the “working man’s paradise.” There are always a few malcontents in every community, and amongst the immigrants there is no exception to this rule. Some come out expecting to find slabs of gold awaiting them in the streets, and they are disappointed when they discover that they will be required to work hard, especially if they go upon the
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CHAPTER XXVI DEAD FLIES IN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
CHAPTER XXVI DEAD FLIES IN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
In the year 1913 Messrs. Fred. B. Smith and Raymond Robins, the leaders of the “Men and Religion Movement” in America, paid a visit to Australia. They were received with open arms, and everywhere they gathered immense audiences of men to listen to their remarkable message. Mr. Smith has, since his tour, given his impressions of the conditions in Australia with singularly clear penetration. He says: “Here we found that from the law-making end about everything that could be dreamed of for the good
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CHAPTER XXVII AUSTRALIAN POLITICS
CHAPTER XXVII AUSTRALIAN POLITICS
I have no intention of discussing Australian politics. All that I shall attempt is a little portraiture, without the slightest “touching up.” In 1910 Labour was triumphant at the elections. Looking through the list of triumphant candidates, I observe there were two labourers, a bricklayer, five miners, an engine-driver, an engine-fitter, a plumber, two farmers, a hatter, a traveller, a tailor, a pattern-maker, a quarryman, an orchardist, a watchmaker, a physician, an agent, two barristers, and t
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CHAPTER XXVIII RELIGION IN AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER XXVIII RELIGION IN AUSTRALIA
In 1912 there were published the statistics of the religious census for the entire Commonwealth, and they form instructive reading. The face value of the figures is considerable. They seem to show that Australia is an extremely religious nation. The vast majority of the people claim to belong to one or other of the Churches. The Episcopal Church is at the top with 1,710,443 adherents; Roman Catholics and “other” Catholics, whatever that may mean, come next with a total of 999,450 persons. Then f
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CHAPTER XXIX IN VAN DIEMEN’S LAND—AN IMPRESSION
CHAPTER XXIX IN VAN DIEMEN’S LAND—AN IMPRESSION
The sight of a map such as this map of Tasmania which lies before me causes an Englishman who beholds it for the first time to deal severely with himself, to interrogate himself concerning his habits, to assure himself beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is really temperate. For it is a study in topsy-turvydom, and the contrariness of the thing lies either in the remarkable map itself or in the man who reads it. Imagine a nice fat slice of the middle of the map of England, clearly cut out and c
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CHAPTER XXX THE ROMANCE OF TASMANIA
CHAPTER XXX THE ROMANCE OF TASMANIA
If, to the average Briton, Australia represents the limit of distance from “home,” what can Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Islands of the Southern Pacific represent? They are the limit beyond the limit; the uttermost stretch of far-awayness. That is the reason, perhaps, why Englishmen think of Tasmania with a shiver, especially if they happen to know its history. The present name of the island—Tasmania—holds less of terror than did the former name—Van Diemen’s Land. There was something sinister
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CHAPTER XXXI A PARADISE OF FRUIT
CHAPTER XXXI A PARADISE OF FRUIT
Who in England does not know the Tasmanian apple—rosy, juicy, and expensive—appearing about Easter, and continuing until the English orchards yield their own annual output? A foreign and delectable fruit is this apple, welcome enough in the off season “at home.” I am writing in the very heart of Tasmania, in the midst of a wonderful valley, covered with huge crops of hops and apples. We have done two days of motoring, and in the aggregate have covered many thousands of acres, yet never have we l
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CHAPTER XXXII THE OUTLOOK IN TASMANIA
CHAPTER XXXII THE OUTLOOK IN TASMANIA
I freely admit that Van Diemen’s Land greatly fascinated me. Its varied scenery, its mountains, its mild climate, its fertility, each left their impression. I was fortunate enough to fall into the kind hands of several gentlemen who have greatly helped in the making of Tasmania, and they made my tour not only a pleasure, but the means of acquiring a great deal of information about the actual state of the country and its immediate prospects. With two or three motor-cars at one’s disposal, driven
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CHAPTER XXXIII REVIEW
CHAPTER XXXIII REVIEW
A period of five years is sufficiently long to enable a man to correct or to confirm his earlier impressions of a people. Looking backward, I find I have very little, if anything, to correct of my first impressions of Australia and its people. It may be an advantage, therefore, to set down in better order than is possible in fugitive correspondence some of the deepened impressions which a careful study of Australian life has created. During my sojourn under the Southern Cross I visited the capit
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