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The natives of Australia are black people called “Bushmen.” They can’t count even up to ten nor write their names nor read a single word. About the only thing they know is how to get food. They wear very little clothing. Instead of clothing they paint their bodies, and they raise bumps on their skin by scratching it with the edge of a shell and rubbing clay into the scratches. The more bumps they have on their bodies, the more beautiful they think they are.
The Bushmen have a peculiar plaything called a boomerang. It is made of a piece of wood shaped like a new moon. They throw it into the air away from themselves, and it turns round and round like a wheel and, if properly thrown, will come back to the thrower. I have several boom-erangs which I have learned to throw. A friend of mine once said, “I hear you know how to throw a kangaroo.” “To throw a kangaroo!” said I. “No, not even a Bushman can do that.”
The capital of Australia used to be a city called Melbourne. But a new city called Canberra has been built for the capital. It is a made-to-order city. The city was laid out, streets made, a capitol built, and houses put up, and then people moved in. The chief city is Sydney.
The healthiest country in the World is southeast of Australia. It is called New Zealand. You will remember that Zealand is a part of Denmark and you may remember that it is the healthiest country in Europe. New Zealand is made of two big islands that look something like Italy or a boot turned upside down. They do not seem to be far away from Australia on the map, but it takes four or five days to get to them by ship from Australia. In the northern part of New Zealand are natives called Maoris, but they are quite different from the Bushmen in Australia. They used to be cannibals, but they have brains, and they learned so much from the white men that now some of them are as well educated as their teachers, and are even members of the New Zealand Parliament.
