AUSTRALIA, BY RICK ROGERS. 301

Australia sends out to other people more gold and wool than anything
else. In Victoria alone, one billion of gold dollars has been taken out
of the earth, and if you count New Zealand and Tasmania, there are
between sixty and seventy million sheep, owned by the people this way ;
enough to stock a small farm. They have coal and railroads and the
telegraph in Australia, and all they need to make them become a very
great people is to become a part of the United States, and then be
annexed to Concord.”

Amid the patriotic applause of the Guild, the speaker ceased.

“ Australia is a singular place,” observed Uncle Nat. “She is queer
for her very size as an island, being so very big. She is queer for her
immense sheep-farms ; queer for her gold mines ; queer for her animals,
and queer for almost everything.”

“There are two great seasons in Australia: the wet and the
dry. Sometimes it is pretty hot, and fierce wind and dust storms
rage; every climate, though, has its disadvantages as well as its
advantages.

“There is a big island north of Australia that I wish the boys
could see— New Guinea. Its mountains are wild, and the people
are savages; but the soil is rich, and the climate temperate, and some
day New Guinea will be heard from. Colonists are sure to go
there. Then there is Tasmania, south of Australia, an island about
three quarters as large as Ireland; one hundred and seventy miles
long, and one hundred and sixty miles wide. It is fertile in soil, and
not severe in climate. Convicts were sent there once, but this has
stopped now, and a better class of residents go there. Its capital
is Hobart Town, and the place is an enterprising one. Well, if we
do not see these places, there will be enough for us to look at in
Australia, and we will make for Sydney fast as possible.”