LIFE AND WAGES IN AUSTRALIA. 55 



short term. Some of these prices rule all over the country, but are liable to rule lower, 

 rather than higher, outside of Melbourne. 



In the country sheep-shearers can earn 7s. to 14s. per day for about four months in 

 the year; shepherds, '30 to 10 per year, with rations. The common labourer can count on 

 15s. to 20s. per week, with rations : these consist generally of 14 Ibs. meat (usually mutton), 

 8 Ibs. flour, 2 Ibs. sugar, and a quarter of a pound of tea. Of course, where fruit or vege- 

 tables are plentiful they would be added. The meat, bread, and tea diet, however, is that 

 characteristic of the whole country. In the great sheep runs and cattle ranges * it would be 

 the shepherd's diet invariably. 



Mr. Trollope advises the poor man to save for three or four years, and then invest in 

 land, which in some places is to be had at 3s. 9d. an acre, payable to the Government in 

 five instalments of ninepence per acre. Of course, he would require money for the erection of 

 a house, farm implements, &c. The great trouble with most men working in the bush as 

 shepherds or shearers, or at the mines, or elsewhere at distant points, is that the enforced 

 absence from civilisation and social life makes them inclined for reckless living when they have 

 accumulated a sum of money. The tavern-keepers of the nearest town or station reap all the 

 benefit, and there are numbers of men who, for ten or eleven months of the year perfectly 

 steady and sober, periodically give themselves up to drink until their earnings are melted. It 

 is called " knocking down " one's cheque, and it is a common practice for them to hand such 

 cheque to the publican, who lets them run on recklessly in drink and food until he considers it 

 exhausted. A good story is told by Mr. Trollope of a man who had been accustomed to do this 

 at regular intervals, but who on one occasion, having some loose silver, (C planted" his cheque 

 in an old tree, and proceeded to the usual haunt, where he set to work deliberately to 

 get drunk. The publican showed evident doubt as to the propriety of supplying him 

 freely. Why had not the man brought his cheque as usual ? The tavern-keeper at last put 

 him to bed ; but the man, though drugged and stupefied, had his wits about him sufficiently 

 to observe and remember that the host had examined his clothes, his hat, and boots, for 

 the lacking cheque. Next morning he was ignominionsly expelled from the house, but he 

 didn't mind : the cheque was found by him safely in the tree by the roadside, and he surprised 

 his master by returning to the station a week or two before he was expected richer than he 

 had ever come home before. Let us hope he was cured of that form of folly for ever. 



The gold yield of Australia for the twenty years between 1851 and 1871 was 

 50,750,000 ozs. But gold-fields die out sooner than most mines, and Australia has a more 

 permanent source of prosperity for the future in its coal and iron-fields, which are in close 

 proximity to each other. The coal is already worked to great profit, and is one of the 

 principal steamship fuels of the Pacific. 



The steamship route homeward from Australia is that by the Indian Ocean (usually 

 touching at Ceylon), then reaching the Mediterranean viii the Red Sea and Suez Canal. 

 These points of interest have already been fully described in early chapters of this work. 



* In 1872 there were 41,000,000 sheep and 4,340,000 horned cattle in Australia. The tinned meat and extract 

 vrorks employ a large number of hands at good wages. 



