"He is the equivalent of the American 'tramp,'" said Mr. Watson, "and abounds freely in Australia. He is fed and lodged at the stations, where he is careful to arrive at sundown or a little later, and hence his name. If he gets there before sunset he is requested to move on to the next stopping-place, or else he is asked to make himself useful at some kind of work during the remaining hours or minutes of the day. He abhors work, and therefore times his arrival to avoid it. Sometimes a group of these fellows will rest by the way-side a mile or so from a station, waiting for the sun to disappear.
"Many a vagabond makes an easy living by wandering from one station to another, pretending that he wants employment but carefully avoiding it. The sundowner is as insolent as the American tramp; by Australian custom he is welcome to supper, lodging, and breakfast, the food consisting of tea, sugar, bread, and beef or mutton, and the lodging being in his own blankets on the floor of the men's hut or the wool-shed. I have had a dozen or more of these 'travellers' on a single night, and my monthly average is not less than one hundred and twenty. Sometimes a party of them has been so unruly and so threatening in their demands that I have been compelled to send for the local police to carry them away.
"On one occasion," the gentleman continued, "a ruffianly traveller drew a knife and threatened to stab my cook, because the latter refused to give him a mutton-pie that had been prepared for the men, the travellers' table being filled with cold beef as the only viand. I had him handcuffed and taken to the police-station, where he was recognized as a man who was 'wanted' for a robbery somewhere up country.
EVENING SCENE AT AN UP-COUNTRY STATION.
"As a general thing, the squatters hesitate to quarrel with the sundowners, preferring to suffer their impositions rather than run the risk of having their buildings and fences burned, and other depredations committed. Of late years the number of vagrants seems to have diminished, but the supply is yet far in excess of the country's needs."
Note.—Since this book was put in type the laboring classes in Australia have united in a popular agitation against the Mongolians, and have compelled the leading governments to adopt stringent measures. The poll-tax on these immigrants has been increased in New South Wales from fifty dollars to five hundred dollars; their naturalization has been prohibited altogether; rigid restrictions are imposed as to residence and trading; and vessels are allowed to land only one Chinaman for every three hundred tons. Chinese merchants are allowed to trade in certain districts of the provinces, but the number for each district is limited to five. These restrictions were authorized by a government bill which was passed by the Colonial Assembly without a dissenting voice. The resident Chinese have been attacked by mobs at Brisbane, and immigrants and cargoes have not been permitted to land at Sydney and Melbourne. The Colonial authorities of Queensland and Victoria favor a policy of complete exclusion, and in New Zealand the Premier has publicly announced his conversion to the same views.