Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 440, 21 January 1857, Page 4

Extracts.

HOW WE LIVE IN AUSTRALIA. (From the • Empire.') Why do we people in Australia persist in living like people in England? Why do we resolutely Ignore the difference of latitude, and, with the change of climate, make no corresponding change in our habits of life ? Every " new arrival," unless he has heeu forewarned, complains of disappointment. A long sea yo\rage satisfactorily tei mutated, the colonist,, in vivid curiosity and animal spirits, prefers to go forth to explore the unknown territory. He.is on the watch for adventure. • He expects to see something,if not rich, at least strange —something out of the old beaten ' European routine—and he finds just the counterpartof what he left sixteen thousand miles behind him. The manners were to be foreign erough to he interesting —the style of architecture light and airy—the dress of that picturesque character i Avhicn one is accustomed to associate with a warm sun. When the slave sets foot upon ! British soil :his chains burst from around ' him, and these charming illusions are dis-

peiled so soon as the immigiant touches ' Australian ground. The houses, to all appearance, would suit the most respectable families in Brompton or Camden . Town— the costume wouid fail to attract notice <jven from the observant crossing-sweeper in Piccadilly —and as.for the manners, when the cries of the pieman fall upon his ear,or when he sees some unlucky cripple knocked down

and run overby au omnibus which is steeplechasing in George-street' with a rival conveyance, John Bull can hardly help fancying that, instead of having stopped at the antipodes, he has sailed completely round the i/oi'ld, and is once again back in Holborn. -Assuredly, the dictum," Ccelum, non aninium, -_mutant gui trans mare currunt," was never so literally illustrated. We have brought i with us, and established under these new skies, not only the old political institutions, but the old domes!ic usages and social peculiarities of Englishmen. This hasty reproduction in Australia, of forms and customs which were .the slow growth o r far different circumstances is, no doubt, partly attributable to the' Englishman's proverbial dislike of innovation. That a thins: is old is with. him one good reason at least for being attached to it. Age renders the object venerable, whether it *)e a tree, or a law, or a family. This deep-ro°*e" principle in the Anglo-Saxon race is,1'] 6 parent of some of its most chnracteiistic .virtues and foibles. Amongst the latter.t' 1*I one with which we are now concerned i«" le national "incapacity readily to meet alteie(^ circumstance 5!. We do not easily ad aP& oniselves to new conditions,—and of t" ls want of pliancy the Crimean disasters! whic" were in a "•ieat measme caused by the effect, furnish a striking illustration. Theie is vet another reason fur our obstinate reten-

tion at the antipodes of Norfhern fashions. The founders of the colony of New South Wales did not find (as Olive and his precursors found in India) any native civilised race, whose mode of life would have harmonised with the country and the climate, and might have been adopted hy the invaders. Had *nch a race existed here, the tenacity with which we cliiiir Jo the traditions of onv niicesto'-j!, would doubtless be overcome. Put what could he made of thp aboriginp* of . "New Holland ? Our communication with these poor children of nature has not enriched us with a sinarle useful art or appliance. If in Hie va*t interior of this continent the pquatter is able, now and then to tun; (heir gavage instincts to account, or if one of their peculiar weapons snjfg'e<«Jrt a hint of- doulitful value to some scientific j>ioj< etor —that is all the benefit which we ha\c deuved,ov are

likely ever to derive from the primitive inhabitants of the land. But whatever the causes may be. the facts remain patent, and palpable. Under a burning Australian sun we array ourselves much as many people, do in England iv the depth of winter. The change from a chilly to an oppressive temperature, from an overcast to a cloudless sky. has induced no accommodating alteration in the colour or the texture of our clothes. By some singular perversity*, indeed,, black, which in warm weather ought to- be. avoided as much as possible, seem,s-to be .more a favourite hue here than it is at home. Our hats are resolutely black and uncomfortable. To white bats even the street boys seem to have an instinctive antipathy, and pursue the enterprising wearers of. those articles with remarks which are notcomplimentary. The houses in which we live are, for the most part, ill ventilated, devoid of verandahs, and as confined in space as if we had" not an entire continent before us to build upon. The churches in which we worship partake of the general unfit ness —the pews being so constructed that, if the occupants kneel I down, partial suffocation is a necessary consequence of their devotion. The most obvious measures of defence against the climate are disregarded. Some adventurous individual, with a strong mind and a contempt, for popular opinion, may now and

then be seen protecting himself with an umbrella against the rays of the sun, during the hottest portion of a broiling day. Such a" person we are wont to regard with respect and admiration. We [look upon him as a public benefactor—as one of the few early exponents of a reform which must at some time be triumphant. Again, for long years the dust had been the plague of the city. The inhabitants, shutting' their eyes as tisrhtl)' as possible, enduring the pest in helpless submission. At length to soitip ' inventive genius the idea suggested itself of abating the nuisance by a proper application of water. This was too daring an exppriment to be tried at first on a large scale : and although perfectly successful so far. still in by much the greater number of Sydney streets the cool sprinkle of the water-cart is never seen or heaid. Even ice, which one might have supposed was in summer almost a necessary of life, is an article of very l'ecetit importation. Why stop to remark that we are not less inconijn ou* in our diet than in '.he rpst of our style ot living? Why add to the list of inconsistencies which eieiy one admits, and wonders at, and adopts ? That our beverages aie too potent —ih&t parents eat, and suffir their children to eat, too gieat a quantity of animal food—these are facts which no one will deny. We work

too much, eat too much, dress too much, and do almost everything as if our aim were to draw as violent.a contrast as possible between our,habits as they actually are and our habits" as they ou»ht naturally to be. Our object is bad, but we have at least the credit of success. Why not. however, attempt to remodel our customs upon rational principles, and to give§to our Austrf=)inn settlements a distinctive Australian stan p ? Such a revolution would not only condi cc to the health and comfort of the coloni-ts; it wouidalso lend to oi igufality -of geniusand independence yf character. The Auetrnliau mind, which at" present'has no individual existence, would assert its idio-. syncracy; and art and literature would feel the impulse. - Many inducements to absenteeism T .would disappear, and the people would come more and more to regard the country as their home. " Holding our hends," as .we do, 'Mo other siars," and "breathing in converse seasons." why shou'd our manners alone remain uuthuiiged?