THE AUSTRALIAN GIRL.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 335, 19 January 1889, Page 4

THE AUSTRALIAN GIRL.

The British girl is plump, rosy and fair when she has not to work too hard in a mill or a shop. There is no sun to burn her, no hot winds to dry up the surplus lymph, nothing to hurry her in' the process of ripouing and development. She remains a girl a long while and seems to become freshor and moro atti active until her fortieth year is past. There is very little hurry and worry in her life and sho keeps young and lasts a long while, if not carried off by the strumous diseases that affect people who live in a damp and rainy climate and have more than the ordinary proportion of the glandular and lymphatic in their composition. They take their pleasures mildly and naturally, and many of their enjoyments are ot the more passive sort. All this tends to longevity, and produces the matronly fulness that Byron hints at more than once. Transplant the British girl and she has to become moro like her cousin. She has the * new chum ' ways tor a little while, but fioon has, to take on the higher rat o of li\ ing that, is forced upon the Australian by climate and other circumstances. ' - The Austialian standard of beauty is not pink and white beauty even now, and will become lots and lets so. The typical Austialian girl picked out of many instances is rather taller than her cousin ; thin, active, graceful, her complexion inclines to olive, her hair is dark and a little inclined to curl, her eyes arc large, dark and expressive, and her features are irregular, piominent, and full of character. She ripens into womanhood earlier than her cousin and her features become prominent and set at an eai Her age. She has ' crow's icet ' at thirty or even before that age, and deep, permanent wrinkles cross her forehead Irefluently before sho is twenty-five. For beauty she has to depend very much upon expression, and fortunately she has an expre&sivc and mobile face and an attractive and vivacious manner. The puie-tinted, pink and white, mild, regular-featured, and slightly inane beauty ot colder climes could not compete with the Australian beauty on her own ground. The Austialian type of beauty certainly differs from that of any of the European types ; the Spanish and Italian types are fuller bodied and rounder cheeked, as if their more humid climates put more moisture into the composition of the body — a thing not unlikely She is moie like the American girl of the eastern States, but diners very materially even from her. The American's voice is hard and twangy, the Australian's, is generally highly musical and liquid in its tones. Not that the Australian sings her speech— she has no time for that ; she produces the musical tones in part by softening the ' r,' 'n' and 'g' in part, by dwelling on the vowels, and in part — perhaps mostly — by a distinctly musical cadence in her speech ; a sortof tunefulripple that flows in her speech and carries her words merrily along with it. Something similar is heard in the speech of many of the Sou tli Sea Islandcis, and in the "Maoris and half-caste women ot New Zealand, only in those tho music is distinctly minor, many of the tones having a decided wail in them. The Australian girl's \oice is not minor ; it is major, and suggestive of comradeship and trustworthiness. Plainly, she is developing a womanhood that shall be aa distinctly Australian as that of Spain is Spanish, that of Germany, (Jeiman, that of America, American, etc., etc. No matter in what rank you study the Australian girl, you will find that she is full of comradeship. 'When an English ghl marries she becomes a housewife ; she is married partly to the house you provide for her and paitly to you : the Australian marries you and means, to have youi company. Notice any Australian gathering, and you will sec that it is composed of tho two sexes in about equal proportion. The sisters, the svecthcaits, the wives, aucl even the mothers all get their outing. They do not make a point of staying at home to mind the house ; they prefer to go out and mind their brotheis and other male relations, and small blame to them for that. If you understand the girl and give her all the freedom she wishes, and treat her as a comrade and ancqual, you will find her quite as sensible and trustworthy as her peer in Britain. She is sharper wilted and moro practical than her cousin ; readier and fuller of resource. If in her domestic arrangements theic are a few articles wanting, she is never at a loss ( .she can extemporise them. A bottle will take the place of a paste-pin ; a clean towel that of a collander ; etc. Her house is more of a camp than an Englishwoman's house is, she can change quarters without much of domestic convulsion. Gi\e her an hour s notice and she will be ready to go with you almost anywheic; the Englihh girl would like to know a week in advance and make everything ready and pro\ido for all possible contingencies ; she would carry her house on her back if she could, just as tho snail does. Plainly she har> to be judged by a standard \ery much difl'erent from that ot the British girl with which she is sometimes unfairly contrasted. Tho English girl's life would not be possible in Australia ; the country is producing the girl it needs.