Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/106

88 a price your Irish pork and butter, leather, and shoes, would produce here! No shoes in the whole colony, except a few made in India, not worth a farthing. Another sow has farrowed in the bush; only four youngsters alive—how provoking!

23rd.—Purchased a cow for £2 10s. My stock of black cattle now consists of ten, great and small, with a prospect of increase. Heard that many settlers are expected, and, consequently, that our land will rise in value. Busy all day ricking my hay, which the men carried in a sort of hand-barrow: there are four tons yet remaining in the field, and the quantity in rick is ten tons. Transplanted celery early in the morning.

25th.—This has been a very scorching day, hotter than yesterday, when I was an hour in the water, cutting, sawing, and raising stumps of trees. Thermometer 90° in my room. Johnny has gone to Guildford for 2 cwt. of wheat for the pigs; this with garden vegetables will keep them in condition. James (not in the sulks at present) has been mowing in the distant field.

27th.—A great change in the weather; it being now cloudy and threatening rain, with high wind. Black servants, I find, are very serviceable in this colony; on them we must eventually depend for labour, as we can never afford to pay English servants the high wages they expect, besides feeding them so well. The black fellows receive little more than rice—their simple diet.

This is an excellent settlement for labourers, if they would honestly preserve their engagements. Government seem desirous to establish a colony on the most thrifty scale, and every part of it should be uniform and consistent with the general plan. If an officer holding a high office under Government receives but £300 a-year, it is out of all proportion to give from £24 to £36 a year, and diet, to a menial. We are in great want of stock; and have been wofully