accusing him of indolence and inefficiency, and the Colonial Board of Education took advantage of the outcry to practise a little economy in issuing a completely new reading of the terms of the schoolmaster's appointment. He had been appointed in England to his post during the colonial secretaryship of the Duke of Newcastle, at a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds a year, with a free passage to Australia on the same conditions as those on which the Government chaplains receive their passage-money, namely, that half the sum shall be refunded to Government if they return to England before the expiration of three years. Ordinary minds had hitherto supposed that this stipulation was framed to prevent imposition upon the Government, but the new interpretation which was given to it by official intellect made it as clear as daylight that the appointment itself was good for three years only. It was therefore notified to the schoolmaster that, if he thought fit to retain his post beyond that period, he must content himself with receiving a payment of one hundred pounds a year only, instead of one hundred and fifty.
In this case the schoolmaster's course clearly was to commence an action at law against the Colonial Board; but to do so would have required a far greater sum than that which he sacrificed in resigning his situation. He shook off the dust of Barladong from his feet, and with his wife and family left the colony for Melbourne, proceeding thither by the advice of my husband, who felt sure that such real abilities as a teacher, although low-rated in Western Australia, would be certain of appreciation in Australia Felix. It was hard to be driven away,
