land_ in the cities and their suburbs, house-property is by no
means a remunerative investment. Nevertheless, there is always a great
demand for it. The colonist is very fond of living in his own house and
on his own bit of ground, and building societies and the extensive
mortgage system which prevails enable him easily to gratify this desire.
I believe that at least ninety out of every hundred house-properties in
Australia are mortgaged up to at least two-thirds of their value. Out in
the suburbs ground-rents are still low--very low indeed in comparison
with the selling value. The reason of this is, that it pays to buy a
house with a large piece of land attached, and to cut the land up and
sell it in building allotments a few years afterwards. If you can get a
fair rent for the house, the land will pay its own way.

Architecturally speaking, there is little to admire. If the public
buildings fail in this respect, the private houses have at least the
advantage over them, that for the most part they do not pretend to any
architecture at all. Many of the architects are self-taught, and have
served little or no apprenticeship to the profession. Indeed, it should
rather be called a trade, since they often are merely successful
builders, who have taken to planning and superintending the erection of
buildings, instead of erecting them themselves. This is one reason why
private houses incline rather to the practical than to the beautiful.
Another cause is the practical spirit of the colonists, which looks upon
expenditure for mere ornamental purposes as wasteful and extravagant.
Unless a man is really rich, he cannot afford the imputation of
extravagance which any architectural expenditure will bring upon him.
With his business premises it is different. Everyone understands that a
merchant spends money in ornamenting his business premises, just as a
tradesman dresses his shop-window. But the tradesman does not dress the
drawing-room window of his private house. Neither, therefore, the
merchant. Besides this, it cannot be too thoroughly understood that
Australia is before everything a money-making place, and that anything
like unremunerative expenditure with no possible chance of profit is
considered foolish in all but a man who has made his fortune. With money
so dear, and the chances of turning it over rapidly so frequent and so
remunerative, such expenditure becomes little less than a sin. Everything
ornamental not only costs