Cirrus@Austlit

Editor's note: In this series of articles, Mr Stephens skims some of the cream of Australian humour - which is already a national product not quite the same as any other nation's humour - and describes the characteristics of our chief humorous writers. His first example is Mr James Edmond, who was born in Glasgow in 1859, came to New Zealand in 1878, and to Australia in 1884. He joined the Sydney Bulletin staff in 1886, and was Editor from 1902 to 1916. He resides in Sydney. He is placed first in this series because, as Mr Stephens says, 'no other man in Australia wrote so many funny things for so long a time'.