n afternoon went a long rickshaw ride through Blacktown to the North
Beach. There saw a number of well dressed Eurasians, boys and girls,
paddling so timidly, they let the water come over their toes and no
more; also saw a net lifted outside the surf, full of fish like spent
herring. What a scramble there was for them on the beach by all
classes--what fun and laughter, each one robbing the other. The fish
were out of condition and not of market value. I saw one blow struck but
it was not returned, the man hit merely looked dreadfully offended, and
the jabbering and laughing went on in a second. What a pity it is the
railway spoils the north shore--it is the same in Bombay, Dundee,
Edinburgh, and Madras, the best parts of our towns sacrificed. I believe
if we owned Naples we would put a railway round the Bay.

I had the satisfaction of seeing the surf log-rafts at work again, and
also saw one put together. When not in use the logs lie apart, to dry I
suppose, and acquire buoyancy. It took not more than eight minutes to
pull the four legs into position and string them together. The roping
was done with a thin one-inch coir rope quickly and neatly, not so tight
as to make all quite rigid. The actual roping took about two minutes.
Here is a jotting of the way they are made. The logs at longest are
about seventeen feet. It is as well to take note of these sort of
things; you never know when your turn at the desert island may come, and
young relations have desert islands at home. Or again, such a craft
might come in handily in some out-of-the-way Highland or Norwegian loch,
with one boat on it, and the trout rising in the middle.

[Illustration]

1st January--_continued_.--This is a terribly long yarn for one day and
it is not done yet! We went to the Government House reception in the
evening in our best war paint. It is a yearly reception, I believe,
given to all and sundry to keep them loyal, the very thing to do it too!
and I know another country, north and west, where such shows might have
this effect--if it is not too late--Drove there in our hired victoria in
the hot dusk, and dust, in a rout of carriages, gharries, rickshaws,
dog-carts, and every sort of wheeled craft imaginable; nabobs and
nobodies, spry young soldiers in uniform, minus hats, driving ladies in
chiffons and laces, natives, civilians, eurasians, now one ahead then
the other, till we met in a grand block at the great gates, and then
strung out orderly-