lony, also appointed by the Queen. Educational facilities,
especially as regards primary schools, are abundant, attendance upon
which is compulsory. Where children reside at some considerable distance
from school, free passes are given to them on the railroads to
facilitate compliance with the legal requirement.

One of the first thoughts that dawned upon us after we had time fully to
realize this state of affairs in these Antipodes was that as compared
with our own country this is a land of curious contradictions. Here the
eagles are white and the swans black; the emu, a bird nearly as large as
the ostrich, cannot fly, but runs like a horse. The principal quadruped
here, the kangaroo, is elsewhere unknown; and though he has four legs,
he runs upon two. When the days are longest with us in America, they are
shortest here. To reach the Tropics Australians go due north, while we
go due south. With us the seed, or stone, of the cherry forms the
centre of the fruit; in Australia the stone grows on the outside. The
foliage of the trees in America spreads out horizontally; in this
south-land the leaves hang vertically. When it is day with us, it is
night with them. Here Christmas comes in midsummer; with us, in
mid-winter. Bituminous and anthracite coal are with us only one
color,--black, black as Erebus; but they have white bituminous coal
here, white as chalk. We are thousands of miles north of the equator;
they are thousands of miles south of it. The deciduous trees with us
shed their leaves in winter; with them they are evergreen, shedding
their bark and not their leaves,--the gardens of Alcinous being not more
perennial than the length and breadth of this favored land.

In proceeding with our subject it is proper to begin with New South
Wales, at whose capital we landed, this colony being also the oldest if
not the wealthiest province of the entire country. Not only her mineral
wealth and great agricultural facilities, but her commanding position
and numerous admirable harbors will ever enable her to maintain
precedence among her prosperous and wealthy sister colonies. As
originally founded, New South Wales embraced the whole eastern seaboard
of Australia; but in 1851 the southern part was formed into the province
of Victoria, and in 1859 the northern part was divided into a separate
colony, called Queensland, still leaving her an extensive sea-coast of
eight hundred miles in length. When we say that New South Wales is t