Author's Preface: Lest the writer should be accused of using too many characters in this book, he ventures to suggest that one who seeks to reproduce the likeness of a whole countryside must paint on a broad canvas and with many colours, for such an impression cannot readily be created by the aid of half a dozen characters in a drawing-room.
Conroy's Flat, or something very like it, exists within a few miles of a well-known country town in western new South Wales, and probably its prototypes are to be found elsewhere. The picture is not consciously exaggerated, neither is it claimed to be typical of the country. The writer has only tried to show, as well as his meagre skill allows, and with the aid of a series of characters such as may be found anywhere, something of the life of a rather unprogressive community, hidden away among the western ranges. If the picture be not altogether pleasing, it is none the less true to life. John Truran.
