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Thank you very much for your letters,
likewise thank
down to the
mail from here consisted of 14 letters of business, thanks
or otherwise & 2 parcels & cost me 3/5 ½ altogether; & I
was confronted with one thin envelope i.e.
a total cost of 1d!!! However I trotted down again
day
do things in a complicated way here, so that was all
right.
Before I forget
being so jolly careful with my papers at
think I must have left that Fitzroy paper between the pages
of a
in that attaché case of
wards
thing copied too. You might tell
kind of thing she has along to the
key
the afternoon I left & posted it back registered to him
first mail home. You might keep those letters: one or two
of them I wanted to keep but I forgot which; so if you shove
them in with my other papers they will be all right. And
that green cardigan: you can fix it up if you like & send
it along & I will send
by the last mail. Thanks for the snaps you enclose (& also all
the other enclosures).
he didn't give me the key of that leather cabin-trunk (I assume
it has a key); & I will have to get one made I suppose. I
meant to mention it in my last letter when you could
have posted it to
pages my brain got rather numb. To
the one of you was certainly pretty good, I but I
didn't see a great deal of me, who was presumably the hero
of the piece.
pose
he was supposed to have matured and broadened his
gence
tured
As you can see by my address I have hopped out of
the
style once more. I changed over yesterday, understanding that
after the last connecting boat from live live
on the Orient. It isn't too bad either. I have a single-berth
cabin on the top cabin deck, porthole opening over the
promenade on to the sea, & only two doors from the deck
itself considered longways. See diagram.
Plenty of room in the cabins. Stewards nice young polite
young fellas. Everything just so. Saloon a bit tawdry
but food first-class of its kind. They say the
is a tub compared to the new
boats, but she'll
do me. Chairs in the music-room all nice and new —
covered with parrots & peculiar trees, piano fair, library
with some quite interesting books in it. & So on & so forth.
But it's a pity you can't see my cabin. I wallow.
The only thing is that bathing facilities are pretty poor till
I left home, I can stand that for a couple of days. I meant
on leaving the
have prominently displayed: "Don't be so mean with the butter";
but I see that all the joints are like that. I went to buy some
butter to eat with
but I got a bit of a shock when the bird charged me 1/1 for
½
far enough out, you certainly can get a 3-course meal for
a bob. But I didn't risk one of those, having my future to
think of. I found a joint called the
tell you about that before?, — where you help yourself to what
you want & can get a good lunch or tea for 1/- lettuce, radishes,
cheese, etc & a roll; or you can pay a darned lot also if
you're not careful. This is a good place on the whole. But you
can get an average meal for 1/6 if you don't expect anything flash.
Fish is very expensive though. So much for food. I really think
the best thing is to live on a boat
Well, I have seen a good bit more of
last wrote, though I haven't been outside it, & don't think I'll
have time yet, though I wanted to see a bit of the country.
I trotted out to the Carver's the other night, per boat &
train & displayed my tramping photos. I find they come
in very handy to fill up gaps in the conversation; &
they worked off some of theirs on me, so it wasn't so
one-sided as it may seem. Then about 10 o'clock just as I
was moving towards the door
Theosophy and Mrs.
talk books, I'll say goodnight". So I said I would say
goodnight too & get; but he said "Oh! the night's young yet"
And started off again. I gathered from what he said that
he thought a bloke of my commanding intellect would be
able to do a great deal for the world if I got the right
spirit; but I managed to tear myself away before
conversion set in. I said after a while hauling
out my watch, Excuse me but what time does the
last train go? Oh, he said, there's plenty of time yet; what
is it? I said 10 to 12. Oh dear dear he said studying
a time-table; then it's just gone! So he put on his
boots & took me down to the last train, which dropped
me in some godforsaken place whence I walked a
couple of miles to a wharf to catch the Drunk's Ferry
about ½ past 1; & got to bed at last about 2.15. Yes,
it's a great thing is Theosophy. They find out a great many
of the details by clairvoyance — mostly by
& this
as gospel. Eg. the room in which
the disciples after the crucifixion held exactly 240 people.
And so forth on the population & domestic peculiarities of
the population of
wasn't much good. The scoffer
wants
the business, however; or a terrible retribution awaits
him. But as I said, an earnest intellectual bloke
like me could do a lot for the cause if I took the
necessary steps in the way of self-control, diet,
etc etc etc. Diet plays a good part in the business,
so I daresay
& urge its importance on everybody else in her
curious
might give her the good word. I got a good deal of
religion in the
had such fun. There were crowds there, listening to heated
discourses on
him so to his face") the
ment
alism
Catholic churchmight may be doing an
article on this for the
education in humanity. I dare say
but it couldn't be any funnier. The
in full blast, too, & various persons with Union Jacks;
I had a look in at the museum on the way down &
thought it a very gratifying sight & but when I got to
the
for religion. The
Australian public by turning on an afternoon address
on "What I Saw at
principal of the
night after they had a sing-song tournament; so you can
see at what a hectic speed
Did I tell you I met
of
the Clerk of Exams, who showed me round. I was
introduced to the Librarian, who was very chatty; gave me
me all his troubles. They have 160,000
for students. They have a great big reading room full of
dows
most used are kept in a
sev stack-room of seven floors;
the floors are very thick glass; the librarian gives honours
students the run of the place; but the others have to ask for
books over a counter. He doesn't like the system himself
but can't do much. The stack-room is a freezing place for
winter
it's
also it's impossible for anyone to work in the reading
room owing to the heat. The books are arranged on the
Dewey system; & he was surprised & shocked to hear of
Horace. The history section is pretty good. He was an
interesting lad,
evidently a good librarian. Then the Clerk of Exams
took me in charge again & showed me over the Union
Building; my oath, the male students at least do
themselves well — reading room, common room,
billiard room, shop run by
ber'setc & small
dancer etc, & a magnificent dining room very white &
light & high & airy with paintings lent by the Art
Gallery. (They have a stunner collection of Hilden water-
colours at the Art Gallery by the way — did
see these? Also some good etchings). It cost about
£27000 to build I think; & about £19000 a year to
run; they work things out so as just to pay expenses.
They hope to add a residential block later on. The
Senate built this place for them. And yet my Clerk
was writing about College spirit in the old familiar
way.
Then I have been to the
found some rather juicy ones there for my thesis & am
working on it now, hoping to extract the plums by the time
I leave. The library is a fine place with a big
section, mostly Australian and some NZ, with a lot
of photograph copies of journals of
it is strongest on history & topography, travel and so on.
It has nothing like the collections of rare & beautiful
things the
moved out of
think) incunabula alone. He left about £60 000 a year
for upkeep — they spend about £3000 a
stuff.
strolled in & presented my general letter of
from
Reader's ticket & made me free of the place. So I'm
not doing badly — I wouldn't mind staying a
night
Let's see where else I've been — out to
pital
middle of the opening of a new wing. It is run by the
as I arrived in the middle, i.e. just after the speeches &
just before the afternoon tea, everything was lovely.
letter of thanks some day;
but my pen hand is too
weary for this mail.
I must tear into town anyhow to post this
me he was a
who edited the told him I'm gave him the latest news of the
old school, told him I wasn't a
a way as to imply that it was the dearest wish of my
life to be one, if I could only figure out the way,
& said I was afraid I didn't know the
very well. He seemed mildly surprised at this last
(
derful
rallied & asked me round to tea some night. But I
explained very sad-like that I was afraid owing to a
rush of engagements that that was impossible. It was
a good afternoon-tea though.
Then I
went
for some music; they have a grand piano not as good
as it looks, but playable; & she sang,
again which
was a great pleasure to hear again. And last night
we went to
over these two
I hope the
well. Scotch accent a bit wanting in this, though,
according to
3 bob in the gallery. You buy numbered tickets too, &
thus automatically reserve your seats.
Well, I leave on Saturday, & I don't quite know
where I'll write from next;
Keep on taking care of yourself,
my love & kind regards around judiciously