Page:The Irish in Australia.djvu/360

 satisfaction," said the leader of '48, "to find that in this colony the Irish have distinguished themselves by their industry, intelligence, enterprise, and good conduct, as well as that their exertions have for the most part been rewarded with success; but the satisfaction is greatly enhanced when I perceive that they retain in this hemisphere those features of the national character—those noble impulses, those generous emotions, those genial susceptibilities—which I have been elsewhere accustomed with loving pride to extol as the attributes of our race."

A second conspicuous feature in the character of the typical Irish-Australian is the remarkable facility, and the pronounced success, with which he has adapted himself to the administration of municipal and parliamentary forms of government in these newly-created states. Coming from a country in which the fewest possible governing privileges are grudgingly granted to the people, the signal all-round ability displayed by the Irish settlers in Australasia, in the work of both local and general government, is little less than marvellous, considering the previous absence of any adequate training for such positions of authority and responsibility. They seem to possess an intuitive acquaintance with the rules and forms of popular government, and a ready tact by which this invaluable knowledge becomes easily translated into action for the benefit of their fellow citizens. Special references have been made in preceding pages to the number of Irish-Australians who have distinguished themselves in the parliamentary arena, but it must not be forgotten that there are hundreds of their brother Celts all over the colonies doing equally good and useful work on a less lofty platform as mayors, presidents and councillors of cities, towns and shires. Many a business Irishman in Australian