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 ever. I saw carpenters' hand-saws sold at one of these sales not long since at 1s. 6d. each. Mechanics and labourers in Sydney are glad to obtain employment now at wages 40 or 50 per cent, lower than they were receiving a year or eighteen months back, and their money at the week's end is in many instances uncertain.

Nearly all provisions are, however, now at very moderate prices; bread is fourpence the 2 lb. loaf, and beef and mutton fourpence per pound, but house rent is excessively high.

You must not infer from what I have said that we are here in any danger of starving, for bad as things are at present I believe they are so much worse in England that I wish you were all in safety here. I ought to state that the great cause of an overabundance of labour now in Sydney is the objection which men feel to going into the interior, for, seeing that 'life has ample room' in the country, there can be no fear of a general dearth of employment for a hundred years to come, provided the amount of capital be proportionate to that of labour.

As yet I am quite unsettled in my purpose for the future, or whether or not I shall remain in the colony, but I hope I shall be more decided in the course of a year or two. I am beginning