Reprint Of Early Australian Classic

A NOTABLE aspect of Australian publishing over the last four or five ** years has been the large number of attractive reprints of long out-of-print books relating to Australia’s early history.

Among the latest to appear is Peter Cunningham’s “Two Years in New South Wales”, which is generally considered to be easily the best account of life and manners in Australia in the 1820’s. The volume has been republished by the Royal Australian Historical Society in association with Angus and Robertson.

Cunningham, a Scottish surgeon, first saw Australia in December, 1819, when he arrived in Sydney as surgeon-superintendent of the convict transport “Recovery”. He made four other voyage to New South Wales in the same capacity during the next nine years.

Not one of the 600 convicts he superintended on his five voyages died—a notable achievement for his day. The secret of his success was such diversions as dancing, singing, reading and learning to write.

Cunningham travelled widely in New South Wales in the periods between his voyages, and in January, 1825, he took up a land grant at Dalswinton on the Hunter River. He spent most of that year establishing a farm at Dalswinton, and a good deal of the years 1828-30.

Cunningham’s book is written in the form of 34 letters, and is believed to have been based either on letters that no longer exist, or on a journal or diary.

If you are a Sydneysider or New South Welshman, you can open it almost anywhere and find some vivid and often amusing comment on the life of 140 years ago that makes an interesting comparison with the life in the same areas today. (TWO YEARS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. Angus and Robertson. $7.50.)