A benevolent person whom we knew proposed the establishment of a savings' bank for the shepherds, and endeavoured to induce an old colonist to assist him in the scheme, but only met the answer, "Teach 'em to save their money? that's not what we want; if they once begin saving they will be our servants no longer!" And the stupid old man, who had himself begun life as a day labourer in England, could not be brought to see that to improve the condition of individuals would help to enrich the community at large.
Good servants, however, who were bent on saving, could contrive to put by money in spite of all disadvantages; and a French convict, who afterwards bought land and did very well, once brought to my husband as much as thirty-eight pounds of his earnings, with the request that he would take care of the sum for him. I was glad when the Frenchman carried away his bank-notes a few weeks afterwards, for in Western Australia no one feels safe with money in the house or on the person, so that cheques are given for sums as low as half a sovereign.
Money, however, is so very scarce in the colony, that if we wanted change for a five-pound note we were generally obliged to take a part of it in little scraps of paper, on which were written "orders" upon different persons for the value of a few shillings; while labour was by no means the only commodity which was paid for by the primitive practice of barter. There was nothing uncommon in hearing of a dog being exchanged for a gallon of wine, or of a sempstress receiving a couple of fowls in return for needlework—an embarrassing mode of transacting business, even when people are ever so well disposed to pay what they
