BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER. 233 



he and his mate had turned out at least 400 feet of sawn 

 timber in the week on the public account. It speaks 

 Avell for the industry of the community and the energy 

 of the administration, that the sawyers, carpenters, and 

 other mechanics made such good progress with their 

 work that in less than three M-'eeks from the day of 

 landing Government House was completed, and the 

 Chaplain records in his diary on the 9th March, " The 

 Lieut. -Governor slept in his house for the first time." 

 This first wooden Government Mouse was not on the 

 same site as the brick building of later years, but stood 

 on the spot now marked by the main entrance of the 

 Town Hall. 



So soon as the Lieut.-Governor had got his house Gen, Order, 

 built he turned his attention to agriculture. A gang of ^^^^^ March, 

 some thirty men was sent to prepare ground for wheat for 

 the use of the settlement. The place chosen was near 

 the locations where the settlers had been set down a 

 month before, on the shore of a bay named Farm Bay. 

 This appears to have been at Cornelian Bay, at what 

 was long known as the Government Farm, but is now 

 occupied by the Cornelian Bay Cemetery. The farm 

 was placed under the charge of Mr. Thomas Clark, who 

 had been brought out from England as Agricultural 

 Superintendent. 



Collins' next care was to get his people housed under 

 better shelter than canvas tents afforded. They were 

 encouraged to use their spare time in building huts. 

 This was an employment for Saturday afternoons, for 

 Sundays — after service, when that was held — and for the 

 occasional holidays allowed for the purpose by the 

 indulgence of the Governor. The huts M'ere of most 

 primitive construction, being for the most part what 

 old settlers will remember under the name of wattle- 

 and-dab — or wattle-and-daub — with a rush thatch. Let 

 me give you an idea of what a wattle-and-dab hut 

 was like, and how it was built. Four corner posts were 

 stuck in the ground, and upon these wall-plates were 

 rested or nailed ; further uprights were then added, and 

 long rods of wattle from the bush were interwoven with 

 the uprights, openings being left for door and windows. 

 Mortar M^as then made of clay and loam, into which was 

 mixed and beaten up wiry grass chopped up as a substitute 

 for hair. This mortar was dabbed and plastered against 

 the wattles outside and in, the roof covered in with flag- 

 grass, a chimney built of stones or turf, a door and 

 window added, the earthen floor levelled, and a coat of 



