CHAPTER I
Thirteen first-class passengers—four women, three men and six children—boarded a steamship at Durban for Australia. The vessel was a cargo ship, but had accommodation for a small number of passengers. She had started from a Swedish port in the Baltic Sea with a full cargo of pine lumber. The distance from the Baltic port to Durban is 8,000 miles, and the ship's final destination was to be Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, over 7,000 miles further east. Speaking about long voyages, this one should satisfy the most ambitious.
A Swedish woman, with two children, boarded the ship at her home port, with Sydney as first landing. From Sydney she intended to sail to the South Sea Islands, until she reached Vavau, Tonga (Friendly Islands), still 2,000 miles further east from Sydney, where she and the children were to join her husband. The time required to travel from the Baltic seaport to Vavau was over three months, counting stops.
From Durban to Melbourne, 6,000 miles, the fare was only $100 first class. Food was good, the ship steady, and weather fair. Our captain was a jovial soul, and the passengers proved a congenial group. The vessel was well manned by a white crew.
The second day out again found the albatross and Cape pigeon as our companions. Later we sailed down to latitude 39, south of which sailors term the "roarin' forties," where the weather became chilly. Two islands—St. Paul and Amsterdam—were the only land seen during the voyage, and not a single ship. One cultivates a genuine respect for seafaring men when traveling on ships that bring one in intimate touch with them. They are so thoroughly versed in the science of navigation that they know to a foot's space almost what part of the sea they are sailing over.
One of our lady passengers, returning to Australia, her native country, had her three children with her. Years before she and her husband left for South Africa, where fortune smiled on them; she was returning a wealthy woman. A New Zealander and his wife, an Australian, also were returning from South Africa. A baby had come to their home in Boerland and they were returning to Kangarooland to show the hopeful to their friends.
A feature of the sea at night in that stretch of the Indian Ocean represents what might be termed a starry marine firmament. The water contains phosphorous in sections, and, when opposing forces clash, bright, blue-white lights come thickly to view and twinkle and scintillate on crests of waves made by the wash of a vessel. These sparkling beams have their season during periods of contact, when, like embers, they gradually flitter away as the waves assume their normal level. From bow to stern the water line of a ship will be aglow with star-like streaks, the wake of a vessel appearing as a "milky way," this marine illumination taking place where the sea is "plowed" by merchantmen, as it were.
"Is that Rottnest Light ahead, captain?" asked the New Zealander. "Aye," answered the skipper. "We'll anchor outside the breakwater about 3 o'clock in the morning." We had been sixteen days out from Durban, and every one had a good voyage. In the forenoon, after the port doctor had completed his examination of the passengers and crew, we passed through the channel and into the harbor, and soon were alongside a dock at Fremantle, West Australia. We had reached Leg Three.
"What Ho!" is the national salute of Australia when countrymen meet, and if the reader will allow me to step slightly in advance of my notes, I shall take the liberty to offer, "What ho!" to "the Down-unders." The use of the term "Down-unders" is explained by Australia being situated almost in a direct line under that section of the globe constituting Europe.
"A White Australia" is the slogan of the people of the Antipodes, and the first thing one notices on coming from any of the black countries is the absence of black men about the docks.
Twelve miles up the Swan River from Fremantle, Perth, the capital and metropolis of the State of West Australia, is located. It was in 1827 that Captain Stirling sailed to the mouth of the Swan River, where Fremantle is located. He decided the location would make a good settlement site. Perth later sprang into existence, however, and grew so fast that Fremantle, with a population of 18,000 people, is but a port for the State Capital.
Big things are met with in Australia, and the State of which Perth is the official center is about four times larger than the State of Texas.
One inwardly joins with the people of the Commonwealth in their national slogan when the industrial activity is so strikingly contrasted between "Darkest Africa" and "White Australia." Australia is seen at her best when coming from any of the black belts.
The European style of passenger coach is in use, and the freight cars are also European, some of these not one-third as large as the American box car. Small locomotives are also in use. The country from Fremantle to Perth is sandy, the only verdure growing being the eucalyptus, or gum tree, as it is called. Homes seen along the railway track were of red brick.
When Perth—with a population of 60,000—was reached—well, it looked like one of the busy cities of the North. Smokestacks, streets crowded with people, splendid buildings, all work being done by Europeans, all vehicles drawn by good horses—no oxen in sight; streets asphalted—in that far-off land one will find as busy and as up-to-date a city as exists anywhere. Credit for this substantial condition of things is more strongly emphasized when it is remembered that West Australia is very hot, more suited to black races than white.
Clean streets, with bright-colored red-brick residences, one story in height, are prominent in this section of the country. A large number of working people are their own landlords, and those who do not own their own homes pay $3.50 weekly rent. The weekly system of paying bills—house rent and store bills—is the custom in Australia. As the government owns the railroads, postoffice and other public utilities, the employes in these departments, as those of municipal and private employers, are also paid weekly. This has proved a good system.
The street car system is good, cars being of the double-deck type. This was the first place the American system of street-car transfers was noticed.
One finds here a splendid park square with plenty of free seats and space, flowers and grass. In a larger park, a short distance away, is a zoo. There is also a museum, art gallery, a good library, hospitals and schools.
Many people were gathered in the larger park on a holiday, and had brought lunch with them. The thermometer registered 107 in the shade. At one place in the park a big kettle, three feet high, hung over a wood fire, was boiling. The holiday-makers came to the kettle for hot water to make tea. It looked out of place to see hot tea drunk in such weather, yet tea is the non-alcoholic drink of that country, and is said to be the best for that climate. The city employed the man who boiled water for the tea.
Swan River is said to be the home of the black swan, the graceful bird that makes ponds and lakes so attractive in many parks in the world.
Good meals could be had for twenty-five cents. Grapes were selling for four cents a pound, and peaches, melons, and other fruit sold at a proportionately low price. Mutton sold at four to six cents a pound; beef, from ten to twelve cents, and pork at twelve cents.
Educating the young is a pronounced characteristic in West Australia. The schools are maintained by the State, are free, and attendance is compulsory from the age of six to fourteen years. Twenty-one dollars is the sum the State fixes for the schooling of a scholar. Scholarships of the value of $250 a year are offered annually for competition among pupils between the ages of 11 and 13 years. Other inducements are made to bring out the best that is in the growing generation. In sparsely settled farming districts, where ten or more children are to be found, the State reaches out a beneficent hand to qualify the child for the battle of life. In addition to appropriations for their schooling, and where the children must ride to school, 12 cents a day is paid to the person in whose vehicle the children are carried to and from the schoolhouse. Where a railroad runs through these sections, and the children ride on trains to and from school, no fare is charged.
Very liberal inducements are held out to persons taking up government land. Twenty years' time is allowed the settler in which to pay for his farm, and the interest charged is four to five per cent. Residential growth and improved conditions, of course, result from the transaction.
To prevent destruction of crops by rabbits, which do a great amount of damage to growing grain in some parts, the government has gone to the expense of building rabbit-proof fences about tracts of land it has for disposal. The quality of wheat, oats and other cereals is of the best, meriting the awarding of first prizes at world expositions where they have been on exhibition. Sheep-raising is another great asset of Western Australia.
The rich gold fields of this State are located from 300 to 350 miles east of Perth, in the heart of a desert, of which a large area of West Australia is composed. In 1884 gold was discovered in this section of the Commonwealth, but a greater rush to the mines occurred in 1890-92, when the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie finds became known. In this industry a hundred thousand persons are engaged. Before a railway was built over this barren stretch of country from the coast to the mines, many an adventurous soul perished during his journey in quest of the precious metal. No water is found in this district, that needed in homes and for treatment of the ores being "imported," pumped from a dam near Perth through pipes of 30 inch diameter for this great distance. Besides gold, copper, tin and coal are mined. Black workers are excluded.
Wages paid are more equalized than in other countries. Laborers receive a minimum of $2 a day, and mechanics from $2.50 to $3 a day. Eight hours is a day's working time.
Newspapers are fully abreast of this hustling city. Printers receive $21 to $25 a week, the hours of work on newspapers seldom exceeding six. I had been offered work in Perth, but, my destination being Melbourne, I continued eastward.
We had traveled 4,300 miles from Durban to Fremantle, and 1,700 miles separate Perth from Melbourne. Twelve hundred miles of that distance was to be across the Great Australian Bight.
Fourteen hours' sail east from Fremantle, Cape Leeuwin was reached, the most westerly point of land of the Australia continent, and one of the most dangerous points for ships in the world. The distance traversed to clear the Leeuwin is 25 miles.
Dutchmen were early explorers in Australia, and parts touched bore the names of the head of the exploring parties, and sometimes the captains of the ships. Some of the names were Eendracht Land, Nuyts Land, De Witt Land; but of all the places given names by the Dutch, Leeuwin Cape is the only one well known. That part of Australia was early known as New Holland. The Dutch set foot on West Australia 200 years before Fremantle became a settlement.
Across King George's Sound, on which Albany is located, we sailed, when the Bight was entered. The Bight is famous for its rough sea; accounts of the vengeance it has wreaked on mariners, travelers and ships would fill many pages.
"Do you think we'll have a good voyage through the Bight, captain?" asked a passenger. "The barometer indicates fair weather," he replied. Continuing, he said: "The last time we came through we had very 'dirty' weather. Slowly the heavy sea was forcing us to shore. I saw we could not keep our course with safety, so I pointed the nose of the ship to the storm, but for 24 hours we gained only half a mile against the force of the sea." "Did you fear for the ship?" "I wasn't afraid," he answered, "so long as the engines stood the strain; but they were taxed for every ounce of power. Look at the black mark on the chart. That is where a vessel went down," he added. When a sailor uses the term "dirty" weather, as stormy and rough seas are called by seafaring men, a landlubber will be at a loss to find a word in any dictionary to describe what he thinks of such weather. We fortunately had good weather through the Bight.
Cape Otway, about a hundred miles west of Melbourne, marks the eastern end of the line that divides the Southern Indian Ocean from the Southern Pacific Ocean, and the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa, marks the western end of the line dividing the Southern Indian Ocean from the Southern Atlantic Ocean. The distance separating these two points is 6,000 miles. The meeting of the currents of the two seas, confined by the western coast of Australia, makes the water very rough in the great bay, or Bight. From Cape Otway eastward we were in the Southern Pacific Ocean.
Twenty-seven days after leaving Durban we sailed into Port Phillip and up the Yarra River to Melbourne, where the Swedish vessel was made fast to a wharf. "I trust we succeeded in treating you right," said the captain on going down the ship's ladder to the wharf. "Fair weather through life," were his parting words.
It is said an American laid out the city of Melbourne; if that be so, this one service reflects much credit on the land of his birth. In a world contest for the Commonwealth's capital site design an American of Chicago was awarded first prize. Australia aims at having the most attractive capital in the world, to be located at Canberra, in the State of New South Wales. American civil engineers also have taken a prominent part in the construction of the large weirs or reservoirs that the Commonwealth has erected for land irrigation purposes. Melbourne's streets, 99 feet in width, run at right angles, are kept clean and well paved. Built on each side of these grand thoroughfares are splendid buildings, utilized for banking, trade and general business purposes. What are called alleys in Melbourne are wider than most of the business streets in Buenos Aires. All goods brought to and from business houses go by the back entrance. The sidewalks are free of all incumbrances, such as iron doors and gratings. No abrupt steps from the sidewalks are met with here, the walk, at an incline, sloping gradually into the roadway.
One feature, though, mars that well-laid out, well-built and well-managed city. It is a privately owned and privately managed street railway system, which is of the antiquated cable type. Some fifteen years ago a franchise was granted by the city to a company to install street railways, of cable type, for a term of 20 years. The fare is six cents, and the light in the cars is from murky, coal oil lamps. The street railway company is getting all it can out of the system, for it is well aware that at the expiration of the franchise the city will not renew the agreement, but will at once tear up the present line and construct a modern one, more in keeping with Melbourne.
Melbourne is the capital of the State of Victoria and temporary capital also of the Commonwealth. Victoria is termed "The Garden State," and the prosperity of the country is reflected in every part of the city by the splendid homes of its citizens. They are healthy looking, well fed and well dressed. This State, being visited by a regular rainfall, suffers less from drought than West Australia, South Australia or New South Wales.
The arrangement and scope of parks is admirable, and seats are free. Streets, boulevards and roads here could not be bettered. Within the city limits are over 5,000 acres of parks and public gardens. An imposing Parliament House, a splendid museum, art gallery and a zoo are other notable features.
Americans are not the only people who speak with a "twang," for one meets persons in the capital city whose "twang" would make a down-east Yankee green with envy. Still all have the British accent. By nature, the Australian is unreserved, and seems more American than British.
Melbourne is termed the "American City," and in the nature of wearing apparel there is no difference in the cut of the clothes. In South Africa, among the English-speaking people, the brand of England is stamped on most customs, but in Australia there is a difference.
Splendid college buildings, with nice grounds; training schools, technical schools—at every turn the air is punctured with turrets and spires on buildings in which the citizens of Victoria are taught the sciences that enable them to take a leading part in the advancement of the world.
The weather being so moderate in Australia, parks so attractive, and bathing beaches so convenient to the coast cities, indoor life loses its charm. In Melbourne the weather seldom gets cold enough to freeze, and, if so, it would occur not more than one or two nights during the winter season. The mean temperature of that section of Australia is 55 degrees.
Athletic sports are very popular, as the weather permits of such recreation the year round. Horse racing, as an amusement, has a strong hold on Australians, and the same horde of nondescripts and non-producers found in other countries, who live by their wits on "the sport of kings," thrive and flourish here on the money of those who earn an honest living.
"Mate" is the way Australians address each other, and for an off-hand salute, sounds better than "Bill" or "Stranger." "Right, ho," with scarcely a sound of the "h," is used entirely in place of our "All right." A man with a small business—say, a news store, green grocery, or printing office—is termed a "cockatoo" news dealer, a "cockatoo" grocer and a "cockatoo" printer. The term "cow" is used to express displeasure or disgust with fowl, animals and even inanimate things. "On the wallaby trail," or "on the wallaby," is applied to a fellow "on his uppers." "No chop" means there is nothing in a proposition made to the fellow who says "No chop." "He 'bally' well knew he was wrong" is an instance of how the word "bally" is used here, as in England. "Tucker," in Australia, is the term used when speaking of food, in the same sense as "grub" in America.
The educational system of Victoria is of the same high character as that of West Australia. The sum required to educate a scholar a year is $19, $2 less in Victoria than in West Australia. It is the boast of State and government officials that a child whose parents live in isolated parts receives as good teaching as children in city schools. With such a splendid school system, it is needless to touch on the advanced intellectual position of Australians.
Government pensions for both husband and wife are paid when they have reached the age of 60 years, and when their income does not exceed $250 a year. The pension paid is $2.40 a week each, $4.80 for the old couple. Citizens who are incapacitated, and have not reached the age of 60 years, are also paid the $2.40 a week. Young persons deformed or mentally incompetent also receive the pension, or, rather, their guardians do. In cases where a man dies and leaves a widow and children without means of support the government looks after them. Any representative citizen living in the community in which the fatherless family resides will accompany a family to court. He tells the judge the circumstances attending the bereavement of the family, and declares the widow is unable to support herself and children. The mother then surrenders her children, and they become wards of the State. When that phase of law has been gone through, the judge next appoints the mother guardian of the children. Each child thereafter receives $1.20 a week from the State. The children must attend school, though, from the age of 6 to 14 years. This is the minimum sum given by the State, but there also are municipal and other funds to help needy citizens. Should a boy of such a family become apprenticed to a trade after leaving school, the employer pays the wages of the boy not to the mother, but to a State official, in charge of that department. The boy's earnings are put in a savings bank until he has reached his majority. Reports are made as to his habits from time to time, and, should he be of an industrious nature, the money that he has earned while an apprentice is returned to him when he has become a journeyman. How many poor, fatherless boys in other countries have several hundred dollars handed them at 21 years of age?
No State or municipal poorhouses are found in Australia. Homes, however, are provided for infirm persons, but these are maintained by religious and charities bodies. The State, of course, would lend a helping hand were these organizations crippled for funds to carry on their laudable work.
To help settlers cultivate government land, from $250 to $10,000 is advanced to an immigrant who means well. Certain conditions in the nature of improvements and residence must be complied with. The time given the settler in which to pay back money advanced is 20 to 33 years. The interest charged is four to five per cent. If drought or other agencies renders the settler's crop a failure and he has no money to meet his payments, the government does not swoop down and take his farm, but advances more if circumstances threaten to drive him from the land. He will be looked after until he has good crops. The government has yet to lose a copper from advancing money to settlers. Agricultural Department officials visit farmers to teach them how to get best results from the soil. The land does not become freehold property, however, but is leased for a long term.
Two persons out of every five of the citizens of Victoria have savings bank accounts. The average wealth in this State per head of population is $1,253. An income tax is collected on all salaries of $1,500 and over. The tax becomes greater in proportion to the larger salaries or incomes received.
Previous to 1901 each State was a separate division, fixing its own customs dues, legislating only for itself, and at each State boundary line were custom houses and State officers. The federation of States into the Commonwealth took effect January 1, 1901.
There is an average of three beeves to each person, and 20 sheep to each inhabitant. Mutton, beef, cheese, wine, fruit, grain, flour, wool, hides, tin, silver, copper and iron ores are exported from that far-off country to centers north of the equator.
Melba, the opera singer, is from this State. In Paul Kruger, South Africa produced probably the greatest man born south of the equator, and the fair State of Victoria has reason to be proud of the diva, the most widely known woman born south of the equatorial line. These two seem to be the total of the Southland's contribution in recent times to the world's great personages.
Some Chinamen live in Melbourne, but a majority of them came to Australia years ago. These are mostly engaged in furniture manufacturing, and Mongols practically control the industry. The slogan, "A White Australia," is as pronounced in Victoria as in other States. To gain entrance to Australia an Asiatic must pay an immigration tax of $500.
Good newspapers are published in that city, but none issues Sunday editions. Printers on these earn from $25 to $30 a week. Other mechanics receive $18 to $21 a week.
Meat sells from 6 to 12 cents a pound; eggs from 20 to 36 cents a dozen. House rent, which is paid by the week, runs from $3.50 to $4.50.
Class distinction is usually foreign to any new country, but the lines are tightly drawn between labor and capital in Australia. Skilled mechanics and laborers generally stand together in political matters on election day, and the employer, capitalist and that class of citizen oppose the labor party.