NOTES FROM AUSTRALIA.


Letters from working-men have been published in great numbers by the
home-press, but a voice from the tradesman has seldom been heard; or,
if heard, has not been attended to. I trust in some measure to supply
the deficiency to those middle-class townsfolk who seek to emigrate to
Australia.

_1st_, I can only reconcile the different accounts furnished by
emigrants--believing people to write as they think at the time--by
remembering that some have come from quiet rural places, and others
from populous towns. The first will consider Geelong--its beautiful
bay, ships, and steamers, as a hustling, improving, and increasing
town, laid out for a future provincial capital; the last will regard
it as a dull, detached series of villages, which will some day be a
large town. A modification of these causes, allowing for age,
temperament, circumstances, and station in life, will explain any
ordinary discrepancy in the accounts from this country.

_2d_, The various accounts of the climate must in a measure be traced
to the same causes. People used to out-door labour in Britain find the
winter so mild, that everything is lauded to the skies; those used to
nice, roomy, convenient houses at home, finding themselves so very
differently situated, condemn climate, prospects, and everything. Both
may convey a false impression. The cold or heat by the thermometer is
no test of sensation; days, however warm, are exceedingly agreeable,
except the hot-wind days, which are absolutely indescribable, yet I
have seen some men work out all day in the worst of them. They cause