111 pages. The covers are rubbed, the title page is loose, there is a short closed tear on its outer edge, and the inner one suffers from loss where lengthwise a blank section has been neatly cut. There is another short tear on the outer edge of page 103. Else clean, unmarked and solid. A pencil inscription on the dedication page relating to the Meaden family."Meaden was a businessman, temperance worker and poet.....Meaden wrote verse for the press and won literary prizes between 1879 and 1880. He was in demand as a public speaker. Meaden won a prize for the best poem to be spoken as a prologue to the opening ceremony at the Geelong Industrial and Juvenile Exhibition in 1879 and a gold medal for the best essay ' On the Benefits of Total Abstinence from Intoxicating Liquors'. He was also awarded in 1886 a prize of one hundred pounds for an essay on the 'Commercial History of Australasia' and fifty pounds for an essay on ' Beneficial Influences of a Protectionist Policy Upon the Colony of Victoria, Having Special Regard to Her Industries'. Meaden also won smaller amounts for essays on the question of Sabbath observance and other subjects. He was a founder of the Victorian Alliance, a temperance organisation, and became corresponding secretary in 1888. Meaden established and edited its journal, the Alliance." (Auslit) He also wrote as Eucalyptus.