We meet here to offer a tribute of gratitude and affection to the life and work of one of our most dearly loved Australians. Academic practitioners of letters concern themselves with the appraisal of Henry Lawson. It has been their preoccupation through the years to measure him by standard yardsticks and to lean heavily on sticks wielded by men overseas who have known literature, but sometimes have not known Australia.

That is to have only half the numbers on the slate, for it has been demonstrated that a writer here can attain to accepted or current standards in his work without contributing a tittle to Australian literature.