deeds, and even perhaps his own, will not bear recollection ; while not unfrequently the Scotch emigrant, a rigid Presbyterian, is forced, on a Sunday evening, to learn a lesson of practical toleration by receiving the visit of a Roman Catholic priest! All travellers are universally welcome throughout the far districts, literally stopping, as the blacks call it, "all about." There is something positively ludicrous in the coolness with which a total stranger rides up to a station, turns out his horse, and, confident of his reception, makes himself at home as quickly as possible, with a very secondary care as to what the proprietor may think about his proceedings. This is also the custom among the labouring classes, and in addition to the hired servants there are often assembled several others, some from the neighbourhood, and some wholly unknown, to pass the night among their fellows at a head station. The most irksome part of the economy of a stock establishment in the interior of New South Wales is the management of the labouring classes, over whom the owner or the superintendent has so little hold that considerable dexterity is required to keep matters in a proper state. Working men are usually hired by the year, seldom with any intention on their part of staying beyond that time. The wages are not paid weekly, but at the expiration of the term of agreement, though in the interim a portion of them is advanced if desired. A written character is seldom given or required, the only questions asked of a new man being whether he is free, or a "ticket of leave holder," and if he is competent to perform his work; if he can give a satisfactory answer on these points his previous conduct is seldom looked into, so long as he does not grossly misbehave. This is one of the many bad effects arising from the scarcity of labour, from which most new colonies suffer, and which is at present the most serious drawback to the rising prosperity of Australia; for there the labourer cares little to keep any situation but a very lucrative one, well knowing that he need not be long out of employment whenever he is really desirous of obtaining it. Of those among the labouring classes who emigrate to Australia, the best, as may naturally be supposed, do not ordinarily find their way very far into the interior; being eagerly sought after, they naturally prefer to live in the vicinity of the capital, and in the more civilized districts. It is only the inferior class, for the most part, who push off beyond the boundaries of the colony; and the difficulty which residents in the bush find in procuring good, or even tolerable servants, can only be known to those who have experienced the vexations of a search after "a steady couple." It frequently happens, in contradiction to what might be expected, that those labourers who have been most exposed to hardship in the old country are the most troublesome and fastidious when they find themselves in another. There was a story current in our part of the colony of a stockowner who was much pestered by the complaints of one of his shepherds, an Irish emigrant, to the effect that his weekly allowance of tea was insufficient. But as it was ample for most men, the proprietor instituted an inquiry into the matter, and discovered that the illadvised grumbler knew so little of the use and value of his new acquisition, that he was in the habit of boiling the leaves, and eating them with his meat by way of a vegetable. Churches are now being erected in most parts of the far districts in the interior of Australia, which before had been grievously in want of them; and when their widely scattered and migratory population receive the benefits arising from an organized system of religious instruction, we may reasonably hope for a visible change for the better in the aspect of society, but up to the present time the general tone of morality, especially among the working classes, has been extremely low. The two most glaring vices, intoxication and profane swearing, prevail throughout the interior of New South Wales to an extent hardly conceivable but by those who have actually witnessed it. in the Upon hearing a party of what are called "old hands country talking together, not under the influence of liquor, but in their usual manner, or perhaps slightly excited by some recent occurrence, a stranger might not unreasonably suppose that he was listening to a race of people who had forgotten their mother tongue, and adopted that of the devil in its stead. From the force of constant example, which is always so very contagious in this particular, the native-born youths often inherit this way of talking, and grow gradually callous to its enormity, thus handing down to succeeding generations one of the most pernicious legacies of the old Botany Pay convicts. Additional incentives to this vice are found in the exciting character of the pursuits in the interior, and in the nature of the climate, which, fine as it is, has, from its extreme dryness, a tendency to produce irritability. It is melancholy to witness the effect of this habit, which, until better means for checking it are taken, must naturally be a widely spreading evil; most painful of all is it to hear the aborigines, a race declared by many to be so rude that all instruction is thrown away upon them, adopting in their quarrels, and even in their ordinary discourse, the worst expressions of their civilized brethren, from an intercourse with whom they have not only gained no advantage, but have learned unconsciously to blaspheme their Maker. Theirs has been the education of Caliban "You taught me language, and my profit on 't Is, I know how to curse." The prevalence of intoxication is hardly less universal; a drunkard in the interior of New South Wales cannot, like those among the labouring classes in England, spend his wages in daily or weekly visits to the ale-house, but, after the manner of a buccaneer of old, or a sailor at the end of a long cruise, having been debarred by circumstances from his favourite dissipation, he makes amends by plunging deeper into it when he has it within his reach. After living perhaps at a distance of many days' journey from the possibility of indulgence in this vice, he finds himself, at the expiration of six or twelve months, master of a good sum of money, perhaps (with the exception of a trifle spent upon clothes) the whole of his yearly wages; after receiving which he repairs alone, or with one or two congenial spirits, to the nearest public-house or "grog-shop," where, in the course of a few days, he often dissipates the whole earnings of the past year. Many of these men have a custom of placing their whole stock of money in the publican's hands from the very commencement of their visit, with the intention of drinking as much as they think sufficient, and receiving the balance. They are apt to consider this a highly prudent plan, as it prevents the possibility of their pockets being rifled by their companions while they are in a happy state of unconsciousness; but they too often find that they have only fallen from Scylla into Charybdis, and literally "reckoned without their host," whose hands, which readily closed upon their money, cannot easily be induced to relax their grasp. Some of these road-side "grog-shops" are the curse of the neighbourhood, and are particularly dreaded by the sheepowners whose stations are adjacent, and who are obliged to be constantly on the alert to prevent the neglect and loss of their flocks from the effects of tippling among their shepherds. The proprietors of these houses are frequently men of very indifferent character, whose sole object is to make money and decamp as soon as possible; and, not contented with getting the unfortunate labouring man's money in the proper, or rather improper, course of business, they have been detected in making great additions to his account while he is in a state of insensibility, trusting that when he recovers he will be entirely unable to dispute the items. A strong instance of absolute slavery to this habit was afforded by a man in our neighbourhood, who had repeatedly started for the purpose of visiting his relations in the vicinity of Sydney, but who had not succeeded in reaching them during a space of several years, being unable to guard his pockets against the Siren influence of the road-side inns, from one of which he would constantly retrace his steps with exhausted means, to toil again, like a modern Sisyphus, for an end that he was never to attain. I was once riding alone through the bush, on my way to Sydney, and as I approached one of these road-side inns I became sensible of an indescribable sort of scuffling sound, which gradually increased as I came to the entrance, where, like Petruchio, I found " no attendance, no regard, no duty;" but as both man and horse were hungry, I walked in, and soon penetrated the mystery. In an inner apartment some eight or ten men, the whole of the visible inmates of the house, were deeply engaged in a pugilistic mêlée, apparently without there being any private quarrel in the case, for each individual, without any invidious distinction, was, in sporting phraseology, "pitching into" his nearest neighbour. The owner of the house, upon seeing me, extricated himself from the fray, and tried to accomplish an apology; but I saw that there was little prospect of the restoration of order for some time, so I resumed my journey, speculating whether returning sobriety, or the total extinction of the combatants, would first occur to bring matters to a conclusion. However slight, and even ludicrous an impression such scenes as these may make at the time, they must painfully recur to the mind in moments of reflection, and cause us to fear that if proper steps are not taken by those who have the power, by Government as far as it can act, and by individuals each in his own sphere, to check the progress of vice in an infant colony, retribution may one day fall heavily on those who have been guilty of this neglect. If, upon the approach of the white man, these majestic forests are to echo to the uncontrolled sound of riot and debauchery, it would have been better that their deep silence had remained unbroken for ever. In one of the southern districts a fine soda spring was discovered, and on the strength of this a bush inn had been erected in its vicinity, its owner speculating on the probability of its bringing him a quick sale of spirits, by admixture of its water with acid and alcohol. In this he was not disappointed, for it soon became a favourite beverage among his customers, until the following characteristic incident took place. It entered the heads of a party of carousers at the inn that a great deal of time and trouble would be saved by converting the whole well into one large effervescing draught, and for this purpose they collected a great quantity of spirit, sugar, and acid, and having showered them down into the water and stirred it about with a pole, they awaited the mighty result: this, the story goes on to say, proved unsatisfactory; little besides mud came to the top, and the spring never recovered the outrage. At these inns in the interior little else is drunk but raw spirits, for a mixture with water is commonly considered equivalent to spoiling both. It is terrible to see the state to which a man is sometimes reduced who, in a warm climate like that of Australia, has been drinking new and bad liquor for several days, during which he has eaten little or nothing. He suddenly awakes out of a drunken sleep and finds that his money is all gone, and with |