Australasia, 1688-1911, Vol. 5 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Australasia, 1688-1911, Vol. 5

The present volume, like its predecessors in this work, deals with the foundation of new English settlements by the old British stock. Like the settlements in Canada, but unlike those in the tropics, the colonies in Australia and New Zealand grew into new English nations; the history and circumstances attending that growth and national development, with its divergence from the parent people, are the subject of the following pages.

It has been a task of no little difficulty to rescue from old newspaper files, from mildewed forgotten pamphlets, and the tedious records of too often stupid travellers, the original materials on which the present book is largely based. Prolonged research has frequently revealed nothing but literary rubbish; but occasionally I have found the crudely expressed letters of old travellers quite extraordinarily illuminating in their revelation of the forces that were moulding the new English society in Australasia. The letter from an emigrant to New Zealand, for instance, which is quoted at the opening of Book XXII., throws considerable light on the social jealousy and class hatred which existed in England, and which largely accounted for the determination to make and keep Australia a democratic country among the free settlers of the middle nineteenth century. We know what the literate and governing classes thought about the illiterate and governed; we have little to show what the governed thought about their governors. The letter in question helps to supply the gap.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.