Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/86

 and hut-keepers, which require little bodily strength, and in which men of all kinds soon become proficients, if they are honest enough to do their duty by their employers. The wages of this class of men are at present twenty pounds per annum, with the rations I have before mentioned; but I anticipate a fall to fifteen pounds, or even to twelve pounds, rations continuing of course the same. Under the present system of tenure, married people not being much in request from the difficulty of accommodating them, and from their being little work for women in the bush, a married I couple cannot expect at most more than five pounds above these rates of wages, and if they have young children not any thing more.

Amongst the most interesting topics connected with a country which a man is about to adopt as his home, may be ranked the inquiry into the state of society, and the class of men with whom he is likely to be thrown, and with whom he must to a certain extent identify himself; and I think I may safely say, that there exist in the district of Port Phillip the materials of a very good society. Bachelors, however, predominate over married men; and such ladies as live in the bush are necessarily less locomotive than their husbands, so that they are but seldom seen in Melbourne, whither the latter are occasionally brought by the calls of business, and this circumstance also adds to the preponderance of male over female society. The loss, too, is much felt of some one to take a lead in society, of something in the shape of a government house, something in short to servants, or men willing to undertake the duties of shep- [sic]