look after themselves under primitive
conditions.

Life on the Australian goldfields, though wild, was not unruly. There
was never any lynch law, never any "free shooting," as on the American
goldfields. Public order was generally respected, though there were at
first no police. The miners, however, kept up Vigilance Committees, the
main purpose of which was to check thefts. Anyone proved guilty of
theft, or even seriously suspected of pilfering, was simply ordered out
of the camp.

The Chinese were very early in getting to know of the goldfields in
Australia, and rushed there in great numbers. They were not welcomed,
and there was an exception to the general rule of good order in the
Anti-Chinese riots on the goldfields. The result of these was that
Chinese were prevented by the Government from coming into the country,
except in very small numbers, and on payment of a heavy poll-tax. When
this was done the excitement calmed down, and the Chinese already in the
country were treated fairly enough. They mostly settled down to growing
vegetables or doing laundry-work, though a few still work as miners.

The objection that the Australians have to the Chinamen and to other
coloured races is that they do not wish to have in the country any
people with whom the white race cannot intermarry, and they wish all
people in Australia to be equal in the eyes of the law and in social
consideration. As you travel through Australia, you will probably learn
to recognize the wisdom of this, and you will get to like the Australian
social idea, which is to carry right through all relations of life the
same discipline as governs a good school, giving respect to those who
are most worthy of it, by conduct and by capacity, and not by riches or
birth.

We have stayed long enough at Ballarat. Let us move on to
Melbourne--"marvellous Melbourne," as its citizens like to hear it
called. Melbourne is built on the shores of the Yarra, where it empties
into Hudson Bay, and its sea suburbs stretch along the beautiful sandy
shores of that bay. Few European or American children can enjoy such
sea beaches as are scattered all over the Australian coast. They are
beautiful white or creamy stretches of firm sand, curving round bays,
sometimes just a mile in length, sometimes of huge extent, as the Ninety
Miles Beach in Victoria. The water on the Australian coast is usually of
a brilliant blue, and it breaks into white foam as it rolls on to the
shelving