340 TiMEHRI. 



that is if the labour expended in its produ6Hon was 

 taken into account at its present market value. A good 

 deal of the work done on grants (Licenced) is performed 

 *' Buck fashion/' a most unbusinesslike, unmethodical, 

 and unsatisfa6lory kind of labour swapping system. No 

 grantholder that I have ever come across, with one ex- 

 ception, could ever give me any comprehensive idea, 

 supported by data derived from former experience, of 

 what he was about to do, had done or was at present 

 doing ; they all seem to be totally devoid of any calcu- 

 lating power; their ideas of space, time and quantity 

 being summed up in the well worn and edifying phrases 

 of not too far, not too long, (in the latter a period of 

 time is inferred) and a heavy bush, or a mass of green- 

 heart. 



All the grantholders on the river are in debt, with 

 perhaps one or two exceptions at most. Some are more 

 heavily in debt than others, but it matters little to them 

 whether the debt be large or small, as they never had 

 any money when they started, nor do any of them possess 

 realizable property sufficiently valuable to be wotth a 

 creditor's trouble and expense to take away. I pity some 

 from the bottom of my heart, a few who really deserve 

 it. Generally, the chief aim on taking out a grant, is to 

 make a living off the provisions and advances obtained 

 from people who are foolish enough to believe all that is 

 told them and to keep the grant running as long as 

 deception can be made to manage it. If the grantholder is 

 a smart fellow, he can generally make his grant run three 

 fools at a time. The fools usually consist of his labourers 

 and two merchants in town, preferably Portuguese, or 

 still better one merchant in town, and the other PatersON 



