Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/98

62 to elude the force of this injunction, by saying it applies to persons, and not to nations. Is not this making the commandment of none effect by the tradition of men?

8th mo. 15th. We crossed the Derwent to Kangaroo Point—a distance of about three miles—in an open boat; and travelled along a cart track through the Bush, to the house of a Government Surveyor on Clarence Plains, whose wife was our fellow-passenger from England. Here we were received with that hospitality for which the settlers in this country are justly celebrated, and of which we largely partook during our journeying among them. There are several houses in this direction; but as is generally the case in this country, most of the land is unenclosed, grassy forest. The few fields which are near the houses are fenced with posts and rails.

16th. We visited one of the Government Schools, many of which are established in different parts of the Island. They are generally imperfectly organized on the plan of the English National Schools, which is far from working well with the small and irregular attendance general in this country. This originates in the lack of interest, induced by the schools being free, the want of a proper value for education on the part of parents, the unsettled and undisciplined habits which prevail extensively, and from the circumstances in which the settlers in a newly-occupied country are generally placed. Many of the people in this district were formerly resident on Norfolk Island; from whence they were removed by the Government: they have had too little education themselves to be able to estimate its value for their children.

17th. We visited a chain-gang stationed at Kangaroo Point, consisting of twenty-nine men, employed in making roads, &c. While speaking to the men as they sat on the ground at the dinner hour, a Scorpion came out of a log upon their fire, and attempted in vain to escape from the heat; it became affected with convulsive movements, by which its tail struck its back. Probably something of this kind may have given rise to the notion, that a scorpion commits suicide by stinging itself when surrounded by fire. Scorpions are common in this country among decayed timber; they are of small size, and their sting is not much worse than that of a wasp. A green,