The man who sells you a dozen of wine in the morning sits by your side at Government House or Bishop’s Court in the evening, and the highest officials are not unfrequently the least esteemed socially.  A happy consequence of this social jumble is, that with certain exceptions, which are, of course, getting more numerous as we advance in civilization, a gentleman can do anything here and still be considered a gentleman, provided he behaves himself as such; and the semi-menial employments of distressed gentlewomen do not bring with them one half the loss of social position that they generally entail in England.  The smaller community is more narrow-minded than the large, but its sight is keener and more accurate in details.  It is true that art, science, and literature are entirely without status in Australia, but then personal distinction of whatever kind is far more get-at-able than at home.

If it strikes a visitor as utterly ridiculous that a society, the greater part of whose members are essentially parvenus, should assume the tone and mode of thought of an old-world aristocracy, we must yet acknowledge that that society keeps up a great many traditions of refinement which are in great danger of being lost sight of in colonial life.  The outward and visible sign may be absurd, but the inward and spiritual grace is none the less concealed within it.  That Australian society keeps up a number of social superstitions which might with advantage have died out during the journey across the ocean is undeniable, but it is also true that it preserves at least an affectation of higher civilization.  It contains the majority of the gentlemen and ladies by birth and education in each city, and they go far to leaven the whole lump.  The parvenu has the merit of seeking after better things, and his imitation of aristocracy, if it necessarily falls far short of the mark, at least removes him a step or two above the way of thinking common to the class he sprang from.  His daughters, with that superior adaptability inherent in women, are quick to catch the manners of the gentlewomen who move in their circle, and become infinitely superior to their brothers, even when the latter have been sent to finish their education at Oxford, or Cambridge.  It is wonderful how much more easily a lady can be manufactured than a gentleman.

Of the hospitality of ‘society’ in all the towns it is impossible to speak in too high terms.  The stranger has but to bring a couple of good introductions to people who are in society, and provided he be at all presentable, the doors of the most exclusive houses will be opened to him.  Young men of education and manners are everywhere at a premium, and the colonies are still small enough for it to be a distinction to have just come out from England.  Unless you know your company it is always wise to avoid asking questions about or making reference to the earlier days of the people you meet.  For all that, you will hear everybody’s history, often, I suspect, with additions and exaggerations.  In such small communities everybody knows everything about everybody else, and the man who has gone down in the world naturally delights in telling you of the time when he bought half a pound of sugar at Jones’s shop, or when Brown worked in his garden while Mrs. Brown was his scullery-maid, Jones and Brown being now two social leaders.