s, and the government encouraged the practise. Sometimes, though, it
happened that the husbands were inclined to abuse and beat their wives,
but this did not happen often, as the wives had the power, like other
employers of assigned servants, of sending their husbands to be flogged.

"Whenever, in the early days, the sentence of a convict expired, he was
given a farm at Paramatta, or in its neighborhood, and in this way quite
a farming community grew up. The agricultural features of Paramatta have
continued down to the present time, and all about it there are pretty
farms and gardens, which make the place look very much like an English
town of the same size. It is regularly laid out, the principal street
extending about a mile back from the landing place, with a width of two
hundred feet. Many business men of Sydney have their residences here,
and there is a goodly number of public buildings, including hospitals,
asylums, churches, and the like.

"Our attention was called to several manufactories, but we were less
interested in them than we were in the orange groves and orchards, which
are numerous and extensive. They showed us some orange trees which they
claim are the largest in the world, but whether that is the case or not,
I am unable to say. They showed us one tree from which ten thousand
oranges had been taken in a single year, and after we had looked at the
orange groves, we were shown through several flower gardens, which
seemed to be literally masses of flowers. When we returned to Sydney by
the boat, we observed that the banks of the river were lined with flower
gardens, and were not surprised to learn that almost the entire flower
market of Sydney is supplied from Paramatta.

"We were unfortunate in not being here in the season of fruits, as they
told us that the Paramatta oranges are among the finest in the world,
and the same could be said of the other fruits grown in the place. I
think we have said before that the climate of Australia is very
favorable to the cultivation of fruits, those of the tropics as well as
those of the temperate zones showing a universal tendency to thrive in
the genial atmosphere."

Dr. Whitney and his young companions spent two or three days at some of
the country residences in the neighborhood of Sydney, and were charmed
with the warmth of the hospitality and the beauty of the places that
they visited. It was impossible for them to accept a tenth part of the
invitations they