Outcasts of Civilisation

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 123, 9 April 1891, Page 4

Outcasts of Civilisation

A rotr^spotident of the London "* Field. 1 writing from Sydney, sayl : — Will you allow me space in columns to L refer to a social que*ti«a I of some importance, apd, Jt ia with regard -to- the- -utterly reckless way in which ybuog* J meri are drafted off from England to ( Australia ? Not a steamer reaches us in the colonies without bringing scores of these unfortunates, >vho are simply run out of their homes T>y their parents. The situations they occupy in the colonies are potato* peelers" at~inferior hotels, washers- up at sixpenny —restaurants, ' T hilliardK markers, and similar menial and de grading positions. Let anyone take a turn along the Yarra and the wharfs in Melbourne, or through the Domain in SydneyJ and lie will find hew ■cbuniß by the score. In all the cities -and in the oush towns of the culonitß> they are Ihd outcasts ofiour civilisation, without money and without a trade. - We are told that these young men Come here to seek their fortune!, but froui^what they say it is evident that in reality '-heir parents, or relatives] pay their passages to Australia in the: ihope of never seeiug them again. As I write to-day in ydney, «ome~five weeks tromCfifistjcuas, I can positW^jjvfassefi ,' that ! 1 (an ! get 1,000 men^a'^ 'forty-eight hours' notice to worl^for^mek at 10s a week and food. In fact, the gigantic L 'llabbr strike which~~fcss"' "just '"ended "broke down owin^ 1 ? the unemployed ready by thou«a¥dsP to take the place of the etrikisyg; '- -Competition amon^r the laborfng^classes is relatively as keen in Australia as it is in England ; and in the~face of that fact, Jjre'ople. must - admirthat the reason' why the young - men are sent away from England to .- Australia is that they are bnjiy in : the way at" r hom«i. In some cases they brings out with them, : say £100, and then the riot that has caused their » migrafion quickly shows^ itself, and .- Bhow6,~alßo, why they were ■" fired • out." .They put up at the best hotel, bring | lexers of jntro3^ictipn (Which ' count IfoeJa. very HtUe in'the colonies), -> wear patent leathers aud an eyeglass, :^and go through their small hoard in -v^nagnificenfc -style. From^the hotel - they descpud to " apjartments, 1 ' theuce ? To cheap tioarding houses, and so on * -ilown to jthe Domain, (nubile park), ~w\:etf^ix6j[ uiay £c |ol(iu^ in ■- stage of squalor, dirt, and wretch- - *ess, Jto^y nothing | pi- j^jnifij and rheumatfcß. Perhaps they manage to . get into the country 1 or 'into Norlhern - Queensland, where ,the end comes quickly from rum ot fever . a With reeard to^ the .country let me say a -word . Young Englishmen are also sent out here to acquire what is caj^, colonial experience, ,an<l "go 'on' to "* sheep . station for the purpose. They are put to such work as skinning sheep that have died from disease' or ex~haußtion, ring- barking trees, or any other drudgery that "will-' Eeep them .. going from daylight till after dark. In the bush they are terrify handi- - • capped, because all the young native whites are born horsemen, have grown - up aoiiDK ftheep And cattle, can brand . »'jiil < heai i , : 'and work in a lambing j-niup. .wild, while they are still mere 1 h d » h£ve "acquired all the "knowled ge that the young Englishman <jf twenty _yeats ha«yet to learn. There is one - -point T should like to touch pn, and that to the number of scions of noble ZBuglishiioiises that are to be found starving in the colonies. Hern in « Sydoey,; in the Domain,- are Van- - daleurs, Talbots, De Courcys, Stanley«» -FitstOsbornes, etc., enough to make a peerage.