Short Stories in Prose and Verse by Henry Lawson

This is an attempt to publish, in Australia, a collection of sketches and stories at a time when everything Australian, in the shape of a book, must bear the imprint of a London publishing firm before our critics will condescend to notice it, and before the "reading public" will think it worth its while to buy nearly so many copies as will pay for the mere cost of printing a presentable volume.

The Australian writer, until he gets a "London hearing", is only accepted as an imitator of some recognised English or American author; and, so soon as he shows signs of coming to the front, he is labelled "The Australian Southey", "The Australian Burns", or "The Australian Bret Harte", and, lately, "The Australian Kipling". Thus, no matter how original he may be, he is branded, at the very start, as a plagiarist, and by his own country, which thinks, no doubt, that it is paying him a compliment and encouraging him, while it is really doing him a cruel and an almost irreparable injury.