Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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Eastern s ' .opes and makes them very fertile, but the greater part of Western Australia is a desert. But as a whole, Australia experiences fewer climatic variations than any other continent because of its distance from the Antarctic and because of the uniform character of the land. In Queensland the climate is almost tropical but it is kept cool by the sea breezes which are very regular. South Australia has a very pleasant climate with really only two seasons. When it is winter here in Canada it is summer in Australia. Many people who go south to escape the Canadian winter would enjoy the sunshine of Australia, and perhaps many of them do. The arid parts of the interior are mostly covered with a dense growth of bushes known as scrub, which is very hard to get rid of and very difficult to make a way through, often being covered with thorns. The eucalyptus tree is quite widely scattered and is found in the form of scrubs to tall trees. Large tracts are covered with grasses of some three hundred species. The most important is the kangaroo grass. There is another shrub which grows in some regions called the salt bush ; this grows to about two feet high and flourishes in saline soil. The sheep which feed on this produce very fine wool and are free from certain diseases that attack other sheep. The plant life of Australia is divided into two sections, the tropical plants, palms and others, and the desert-like growth of the interior. The floral life of Australia is also the oldest, the richest, and the most peculiar in the world. Of twelve thousand known species of plants, half are to be found in Australia. Of Australia ' s crops, wheat is the most important. She is ranked among the Big Four wheat growers. After wool, wheat is her most valuable product. Fruit grows well in many parts of Australia, especially in the State of South Australia, where there is so much sunshine. The commonest fruits are peaches, apricots, citrus fruits, grapes (from which is made the wine that is exported in great quantities to Canada) , and raisms. Australian raisins are on the Canadian market now and are being used more and more. South Australia is one of the very few places where olives can be grown to perfection; the olives exported from here are among the finest in the world. Irrigation is very necessary in many parts of Australia, and great dams have been built in the last few years, and some are under construction now. From the Murray River water is pumped over the land and there is a dam being built on it. Artesian wells are very much used. There are nine areas where this water can be reached, the most important being the Great Artesian Basin of about six hundred thousand square miles. Some of these wells yield three million gallons a day. Very many people know nothing of Australia, yet know the animals. These are therefore very important. No one could hear a kangaroo mentioned without thinking of Australia, and it is true that these animals are completely different from any now living. They, as is the continent, are relics of a dead age. The kangaroo, the koala, or native bear, the duck ' billed, claw ' webbed ' footed, beaver-tailed, furred platypus which lays its eggs and suckles its young, are only to be found in Australia. Every bird but a few of the very northern and very southern kinds are represented from the kookaburra to the wren. Australia has climbed to fame over the backs of her sheep — often quoted and very true. Gold Australia has, yet her wealth lies in her wool. Australia will always be a wool-grower. If by irrigation she can make her huge, arid areas more fertil e, cattle will be grazed. Canada imports a great deal of Australian wool, which is the finest in the world. The merino sheep has long, silky, soft wool which can be made also into felt. To get this beautiful wool the Australian sheep were crossed with English and Spanish varieties. The result is the wool we use in -Canada. In the last few years the Australians have been using sheep for food, and now a good deal of mutton is exported. Australia is rich in minerals, the most important of which, I think, is. coal. She has gold a.t Coolgardie and other places; silver at Broken Hill; copper, lead, diamonds, emeralds and opals and other lesser minerals. But with coal, all her mines can be worked. It is one of Canada ' s drawbacks that she has no great coal mines. Australia has a great future, therefore, in manufacturing. She has 21,657 factories already and very soon, I think, Australia will send to Canada many of the goods which she herself cannot make. Although, perhaps, the fact that Great Britain is a manufac- turing country will be a hindrance. The Aborigines of Australia are a very backward race; brown, not black, with an inferior body development; they are not much more advanced than cave-men. The generally accepted theory is that they came from the Malay Archipelago and are of Drairdeon stock. They have a very heavily developed brow ridge, such as had our ancestors, thousands and thousands of years ago. They are sometimes useful in locating water, or finding escaped prisoners in the bush. But they are fast dying out. In Canada, on the other hand, the native population is increasing. It will not be long before Australia is an entirely white continent. [ 17 ]

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Australia ' s Prize Essay Competition I AST Summer the Australian Government issued pamphlets for a competition, requiring the J candidate to write an essay on Australia. The aim of the competition was to stir up the interest of Canadian boys and girls in a country about which none of us know very much. Informa- tion for such an essay could be gathered from reference books and various guide leaflets but the value of the essay was to depend largely on the deductive reasoning and vision of the candidate concerning the possibilities of further trade contacts with Canada and Australia and speculation-; about the future of the latter. Though this involved a considerable amount of labour, a most novel and attractive prise was offered — a trip to Australia. Twenty candidates, at least, from each school wrote the essay and the best one was chosen to be sent on to the Provincial Judges. All the essays of the girls of Trafalgar were fairly good. Forrest Burt ' s was chosen as the best, with Jean Scrimger s a close second. Others worthy of mention were those of Betty McCrory, Ruth Mallory, Faith Lyman and Betty Brodie. As Forrest ' s essay has beer, sent away, Jean Scrimger ' s, published below, is an example of the result of the competition in Trafalgar. From the province four essays were chosen. Much to the delight of everyone Forrest Burt s was one of the number. With this to encourage us, we all live in high hopes that Forrest ' s essay will continue to be successful, for as yet the final result is not known. Australia OF all the continents, Australia is the most interesting. It is the newest in civilization and the oldest in formation. Its animals, many of its plants, and its natives, are left over from an age long passed away. White people have been in Australia little over a century, yet large and modern cities have grown up in all the states. Melbourne, Sidney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and the capital city, Canberra, are among the most important. Australia is wholly in me Southern Hemisphere, with the South Pacific Oceon on the East and the Indian Ocean on the West. The first person to sight, or at least report, Australia was a Frenchman, away back in 1503. Then in 1688 an Englishman, William Damper, landed and brought home a story of a very strange animal which took the most gigantic jumps; the kangaroo, o f a urse. And everyone has heard of Captain Cook who, in 1770, sighted, it is thought, what is now Cape Everard. But until 1788 there were no settlers; in that vear eleven ships arrived and the settlers began what is now the city of Sidney. In 1800 there was a gold-rush. People flocked into New South Wals and Victoria. When the gold fever began to die down and the gold become scarce, many went home, but many stayed; they turned from mining to agriculture and made Australia their home. A great find of gold will always draw people, and some of them will always stay. The gold-rush did much to help on the colonization of Australia. Australia has an area of nearly three million square miles, to be exact, 2,974,581 square miles, an area almost equal to that of the United States. There is a population of six and a half million in Australia now, and it is rapidly increasing. Australia ' s death-rate is the lowest in the world. Of the six and a half million people, n ' nety-seven per cent are British stock and eighty-four per cent Australian born. The natives are dying out as any backward race must which comes in contact with a higher civilization. The only tongues spoken in Australia are English, and the native dialects, and these latter are not recognized. Whereas in Canada, French is used all through Quebec Province and part of Ontario. In Canada, too, the Indian is increasing and in the far North the population is mostly Eskimo. There are many things in the formation of Australia which are different from any other country. One is its very compact outline; only in a few places is the coastline cut up, the most outstanding being the North-West corner facing the Timor Sea. Even so, the most beautiful and the safest harbour in the world is found in Australia — the harbour of Sidney. Australia ' s coast-line only measures 8,880 miles, which is the smallest proportion of coast-line shown by any continent. Along the North-East coast lies the Great Barrier Reef, the happy hunting ground oi scientists and naturalists, but hv no means so well loved by captains bringing their ships into port through it This reef is very old and many sea-plants and sea-animals are found on it which are found nowhere else. Navigation inside it is very difficult and was more so when old sailing ships were used, which either went very slowly inside, or by a longer route outside. The only mountains oi importance are those of the Great Dividing Range, but they are important enough as they have a great influence on the climate of Australia. The rain falls on their [ 1 1

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Although the mind of the Aborigine is too primitive to be trained, Australia is taking good care of the education of the white children. Primary education is a government function and is free. Children must go to school between the ages of six and fourteen. In all the states there are junior and senior technical colleges, in which are given, in the first, general courses in technical and cultural subjects; in the second, special courses in trade, commerce, law, medicine, science, music and architecture can be taken. There are many scholarships for the schools and colleges offered each year. Up till 1901 each State of Australia was independent, deriving its power from the British Crown, and ' having a Governor representing the King. This was not very satisfactory, one of the inconveniences being the difference of the gauge in the railways, and it was necessary to change trains at each border. On January 1st, 1901, the Australian Commonwealth was formed. This gave to Australia the status of Dominion. The Government was modelled on that of the United States of America. There is a Governor-General appointed by the Crown. Then there is a Federal Parlia- ment composed of six members from each State, and a House of Representatives elected from districts. There is a ministry which has power to force a decision if there is a deadlock between the houses. A High Court was formed which is very like the Supreme Court of the United States. The Commonwealth is very powerful and has successfully put down coloured labour. It has looked after the interests of agriculture and all Australia ' s other activities so well that now she is a power that counts. Australia owes the solidity and soundness of her finance to the wisdom and foresight of her Government. In the year 1932-33 Australia ' s imports came to the value of £58,000,000, but the value of her exports came to £97,000,000. This balance has done much to keep up her credit in America, Canada and Britain. In 1931 an agreement was reached between Australia and Canada in which the two countries agreed that Australia would not send to Canada that which she herself produced, and Canada would not send to Australia what she produced. The two countries grow one or two of the same things but in many wavs thev are different. The chief export of Australia to Canada is raisins and currants and with these go wines. Many people know this because the name is always printed on the packages of raisins and the bottles of wine; but what many people do not know is that Canada uses a great amount of Australian wool, and since no other country in the Empire produces wool of such a high standard, Canada might possibly use Australian wool exclusively. Not long ago a pact was signed between Canada, Australia, U.S.A. and the Argentine, as the four greatest wheat producers. These countries agreed not to export more than a certain amount of wheat per year. Canada, Australia and the United States have so far kept the rules, but the Argentine shows signs of selling as much as she can and no less. In the year ending March 30th, 1934, Canada imported Australian goods to the value of $5,902,587. Of the products Canada exports to Australia, timber is the most important. The Australian timber is mostly hardwood, and Canadian softwood is in demand. Australia also imports Swedish timber. Next in importance comes canned salmon and, as Australia will never have more salmon than she has now, that trade is likely to flourish. Canada sends cotton manufactured goods to Australia and also automobiles, more than she sends to any other country. The total value of Canada ' s exports to Australia in the year ending March 30th, 1934, was $7,312,574. Very soon I expect Australia ' s exports to, will equal her imports from, Canada. Australia has 27,798 route miles of railways and 6,099 miles of airwavs, which is a very great achievement for so young a country. Travelling is also now very comfortable and modern, as many who have visited Australia have said. We are hearing a good deal about Australia just now; in the papers and in the magazines are pictures of the Duke of Gloucester attending races and meetings, giving speeches and receiving flowers. In the London K[ews and many Canadian magazines have appeared pictures and diagrams of Melbourne ' s Armistice Memorial. Over three hundred thousand Australians volunteered for active service in the Great War; and Australia, having been through her baptism of blood, has a right to call herself a nation. Australia and Canada, the two largest Dominions of the British Empire, almost exactly on top, or underneath, each other, have always been linked in people ' s minds. Yet there are great differences between them, and these differencs, some big, some small, should be taken advantage of to bring them more closely together. Jean Scrimger, Age 15 years. 181