Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/170

 of civilized communities, may roam through the grassy wilderness, with his horse, gun, and kangaroo-dogs, with a thousand times more freedom than the wildest chiefs of the African deserts, or American savannahs.

However, even in the most distant regions of New South Wales, beyond the limits of location, there is much more intercourse among the squatters, or licensed occupiers of land, than would be imagined. In those districts near the coast, many of the squatters are retired officers, who are often married men, with large families; of course, wherever female society extends its influence, the bush-life of Australia is deprived of much of its roughness, and the agrèmens of civilized life are in some measure preserved by small social reunions, music, boating parties, races, &c. In the inland districts the squatters are, however, generally unmarried, most of them being young men of education and of good connections at home. The life they lead is of the most wild and reckless character, their only amusements in the country being kangaroo hunting, with the occasional excitement of a hurdle race, or steeple chase. They generally travel down once a year to Sydney, to sell their wool, and purchase supplies for the ensuing year. During their brief residence in town they participate largely in all its gaieties, to make amends for their long banishment in the wilderness.

The squatters of New South Wales are, on the