Charges, Rates, Taxes.— Railway charges are, if anything, less than on the roads owned and worked by private companies in other countries. The conveniences for traveling are good. The government control of waterworks and sewage systems for the large cities has proved economical and satisfactory. The land tax is not heavy enough to be burdensome. Municipal and local rates are low in compari son with England. The total rates in the Aus tralian cities, including water rates, on prop erty worth $500 per annum, would be from $50 to $100, while in and around London it would be from $150 to $300.
Employer and Employee.— The relations between the employer and the employee are generally harmonious; occasionally disputes may arise but they are nearly always settled without those long strikes which result in heavy loss to both resisting forces and engender so much bitterness of feeling. The employers as a rule pay good wages, the hours worked are short and the employees are provided with favorable sanitary and safety conditions. Being thus satisfied that their treatment isjust, they in their turn do their best to give full value in their work for the wages they receive.
Literature, Art and Song.— According to Mr. Coghlan, who is a statistical authority, Aus tralia has as large a number of first-class news papers, considering its population, as any other country in the world, while in the matter of letter-writing the only two countries that sur pass it are the United States and England.
That Australians have a taste for literature cannot be denied; what they read may not al ways be of the highest standard, and what they write may sometimes lack artistic finish, but one must recollect that theirs is comparatively a new country, Its real growth has taken place during the last 50 years. Other couutries have not risen rapidly to literary fame. The first settlements of America were made two centu ries before the world had the benefit of Irving, Longfellow, Emerson or Lowell. England's men of letters were not numerous or renowned until many generations had passed away.
While in literature Australia may not up to the present have produced writers of marked distinction, yet there are those of more or less note whose productions are of no small merit, and who have thrown the bright sunshine and free life into their work. The same may be said of art. While no one person stands out as a producer of highly valuable pictures there are several who have the true artist's spirit and have made creditable displays at the Royal Academy in London and the Salons of Paris. But when one considers musical artists, Austra lia has no need to feel ashamed. With the climatic conditions it naturally follows that those who are musically inclined have suc ceeded; and to-day, in proportion to her popu lation, Australia is stated to have more prominent musical talent of world-wide repu tation than any other English-speaking country.
Taking the residents of Australia as a whole they are a happy, prosperous and contented people. They have of course the political and theological differences which are common to all nations. The leaders of public thought en deavor to convince by reason not by force. Occasional dissatisfaction is expressed. It is questionable, all things considered, whether any country in the world is more congenial as a place of residence for the following reasons: The death-rate is lower, the primary production is greater, the wages are higher, the standard of living is better, the houses are more substantial and surrounded with more land, the hours of labor are shorter, telegraphic communication is cheaper, the weather is brighter, the laws more liberal, the wealth more evenly distributed and class distinctions fewer than in almost any other country.
Besides all this, Australia, in the matter of language, is more English than England or America. One can hear more foreign lan guages spoken in New York or London in a day than could be heard in Australia in a year. Consult Taylor, (Australia of To-Day) (1906) and Moore, (Australian Literature and (1913).