inds a city friend or two
waiting for him, treats them to champagne, of which, at ten shillings per
bottle, they drink no end. Very well. His horse is in the stable at seven
shillings and sixpence a-night, his own bill varies from six to eight
pounds per diem, and at the end of a fortnight my settler is called upon
to hand over a cheque upon his banker to the tune of a hundred pounds, or,
if he has no bank-account, his promissory note at a very short date. Away
starts the settler back to his solitude; he has given his bill, and he
thinks no more about it; but the bill finds its way quickly into the hands
of an attorney, and in eight days there is an execution out for recovery,
with an addition of ten pounds already incurred in legal expenses. The
sheriff's bailiff rides to the station and demands payment of the whole.
He gets no money, but settler and bailiff return in company to Melbourne:
a friend is applied to; he discounts a bill for the sum required. The
attorney is paid the amount by the hands of the sheriff. The bill once
more becomes due, and is once more dishonoured; expenses run up like
wildfire. This time there is no escape, and a portion of the stock must be
sold to avoid ruin--and it is sold sometimes at a fearful sacrifice. This
is no insulated case. It is the history of nine-tenths of the thoughtless
fellows who dwell away in the Bush. Such gentlemen at the present hour, in
consequence of the depressed state of the stock market, are all but ruined.
Any one of them, who twelve months since purchased his flock of two
thousand sheep at eighteen or five-and-twenty shillings, can only reckon
upon a fourth of the amount in value _now_. It is increase only that
enables him to pay his servants, and he has as much off the wool as
affords him the means of living. The sale of his wethers would not pay for
the tear and wear of bullocks and drays; and if any profit does by any
chance arise, it can be only from occasionally catching a few head of
cattle, which, as they run wild in the woods, the settler can keep no
account of, and only with difficulty secure when they come to a lagoon for
water, where they are watched, because at one time or another they are
certain to appear. Horses are very dear in Melbourne: a useless brute,
which in England would be dear at ten pounds, sells here quickly for
thirty; a good saddle horse will fetch a hundred, and I have seen some
tolerable cart horses sold for fifty and sixty pounds. In