thoroughly conversant with the subject. With this object in view, therefore, I submitted to Mrs. H. Wicken what I required. I knew Mrs. Wicken to be well qualified for the task from the following facts, namely, that she had previously been successful in her culinary writings ; that she was a Diplomee of the National Training School for Cookery, South Kensington ; and that she occupied the responsible post of lecturer to the Technical College, Sydney. My propositions were that the recipes were to be written purely for Australian use, and that they were to be of the strictly economical order. Mrs. Wicken accepted the task, and it can only be hoped that her efforts will meet with the approbation they deserve. In their original form the three chapters on Aus- tralian Food Habits, Australian Fish and Oysters, and on Salads, appeared in The Daily Telegraph, Sydney. I take this opportunity, therefore, of ex- pressing my sense of obligation to the Proprietors thereof for their courtesy in permitting me to make complete use of these three contributions. As they now appear in chapters they have been revised, con- siderably altered, and materially added to, for the purposes of reproduction in book form. 143, Elizabeth Street, Hyde Park, Sydney. September 1893. A FABMKE being on the point of death, and wishing to show his sons the way to success in farming, called them to him and said — " My " children, I am now departing this life, but all that I have to leave " you you will find in the vineyard." The sons, supposing that he referred to some hidden treasure, as soon as the old man was dead, set to work with thuir spades and ploughs and every implement that was at hand, and turned up the soil over and over again. They found indeed no treasure ; but the vines, strengthened and improved by this thorough tillage, yielded a finer vintage than they had ever yielded before, and more than repaid the young husbandmen for all their trouble. So truly is industry in itself a treasure. — The Fables of Msop. ( xxiii } CONTENTS. PART I. THE ART OF LIVING IN AUSTRALIA. CHAPTER I. THE CLIMATE OF ACSTEALIA. Their semi-tropical climate hitherto unrecognised by the paglS ■ people of Australia — Eeasons advanced for this state- ment ; early gold-mining era influences still at ■work, and Anglo-Saxon heredities — Hot months and cooler months ; temperatures of the Australian capital cities — Fluctuations of temperature and barometric pressure not extreme — Equability of Australian climate a marked feature — Not many successive days of great heat — Humidity of atmosphere in different colonies — A dry heat always preferable to a moist heat — Duration of the different seasons, and months apportioned to each season — Prevailing winds, and role of hot winds . 3-20 CHAPTER n. THE ALPHABETICAL PENTAGON OF HEALTH FOK AUSTKALIA. The Alphabetical Pentagon a convenient form of remembering that the Jive essentials of health — namely, Ablution: the Skin and the Bath ; Eedroom Ventilation ; Clothing ; Diet ; and Exercise — occur in alphabetical oidev , 21-23 CHAPTER UI. AbLUTiON THE SKIN AND THE BATH. Important and numerous functions of the skin — The skin itself and its different parts— The use of the scarf skin^ S. 1003. ^ xxiv CONTENTS. PAGES

AI-modernized reading of the original text

thoroughly conversant with the subject. With this object in view, therefore, I submitted to Mrs. H. Wicken what I required. I knew Mrs. Wicken to be well qualified for the task from the following facts, namely, that she had previously been successful in her culinary writings ; that she was a Diplomee of the National Training School for Cookery, South Kensington ; and that she occupied the responsible post of lecturer to the Technical College, Sydney. My propositions were that the recipes were to be written purely for Australian use, and that they were to be of the strictly economical order. Mrs. Wicken accepted the task, and it can only be hoped that her efforts will meet with the approbation they deserve. In their original form the three chapters on Australian Food Habits, Australian Fish and Oysters, and on Salads, appeared in The Daily Telegraph, Sydney. I take this opportunity, therefore, of expressing my sense of obligation to the Proprietors thereof for their courtesy in permitting me to make complete use of these three contributions. As they now appear in chapters they have been revised, considerably altered, and materially added to, for the purposes of reproduction in book form. 143, Elizabeth Street, Hyde Park, Sydney. September 1893. A FABMKE being on the point of death, and wishing to show his sons the way to success in farming, called them to him and said — " My " children, I am now departing this life, but all that I have to leave " you you will find in the vineyard." The sons, supposing that he referred to some hidden treasure, as soon as the old man was dead, set to work with thuir spades and ploughs and every implement that was at hand, and turned up the soil over and over again. They found indeed no treasure ; but the vines, strengthened and improved by this thorough tillage, yielded a finer vintage than they had ever yielded before, and more than repaid the young husbandmen for all their trouble. So truly is industry in itself a treasure. — The Fables of Msop. ( xxiii } CONTENTS. PART I. CHAPTER I. Their semi-tropical climate hitherto unrecognised by the paglS ■ people of Australia — Eeasons advanced for this statement ; early gold-mining era influences still at ■work, and Anglo-Saxon heredities — Hot months and cooler months ; temperatures of the Australian capital cities — Fluctuations of temperature and barometric pressure not extreme — Equability of Australian climate a marked feature — Not many successive days of great heat — Humidity of atmosphere in different colonies — A dry heat always preferable to a moist heat — Duration of the different seasons, and months apportioned to each season — Prevailing winds, and role of hot winds . 3-20 CHAPTER n. THE ALPHABETICAL PENTAGON OF HEALTH FOK AUSTKALIA. The Alphabetical Pentagon a convenient form of remembering that the Jive essentials of health — namely, Ablution: the Skin and the Bath ; Eedroom Ventilation ; Clothing ; Diet ; and Exercise — occur in alphabetical oidev , 21-23 CHAPTER UI. Important and numerous functions of the skin — The skin itself and its different parts— The use of the scarf skin^ S. 1003. ^ xxiv CONTENTS.

The art of living in Australia