The Argus at KellyGang 19/4/1880 (4)
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Many cases like the last one were seen where hopefulness was coupled with rough living and plenty of work; but ere long a very distressing set of circumstances fell under notice. The husband was out ploughing, behind a pair of horses, and the wife was occupied in "burning off" which meant hauling small logs and boughs to the heaps of dead timber, and keeping several fires in a state of activity. The children, too small to be of any use, were amusing themselves picking up sticks, and following their mother about. They were very poorly clad all of them and had evidently not worn new clothes for several seasons. The husband was very glad to leave off ploughing to have a consultation. With his friend and adviser the bailiff. He took up 320 acres in February, 1877, beginning with a capital of £200. He had fenced all the land in, and was now getting 70 acres ready for sowing. Last season the crop was good, but the season before he did not gather in a single bushel.
Nothing looked better in the summer of 1878-9 than the standing corn but owing to the rust the grain never formed in the ear. He was depending on the harvest of 1879 for the means of clearing off liabilities and did not realise a penny. In this instance the selector had bought a stripper, on bills, in anticipation of the harvest. Having no means of meeting the bills he had to make arrangements with his storekeeper for an advance. In 1878 the account against him stood at £64 and though he sent £154 worth of corn to his storekeeper in January last, there was still a heavy balance against him in the books. The storekeeper was dealing very fairly with him, charging 12 per cent on the bills, which were renewed from time to time and threatening no pressure. The lease was due, but the selector could not take it up until he paid £96 in rent - ie £64 arrears under the licence, £16 under the lease, and £16 more coming due. Should the harvest of 1881 turn out a good one, he would be able to clear off his debts and raise enough money on the lease to carry him on for the future. Just now he was in doubt how to act. Having only paid £32 (one year's rent), ought he to forfeit the amount, as some advised, and start afresh under the Act of 1878 paying only £16 a year instead of £32?
So long as he was without the lease, no one except the Crown could dislodge him; but he saw no hopes of being able to pay rent, or any of his other obligations, before next February. The horses and plant were covered by bill of sale, and there was nothing on which he could just now raise any money. He bought 100 sheep on credit for £44 some time ago, but they got out through the fences, and 80 had been lost It was likely when a muster took place at the station that most of them would be recovered. The man he bought the sheep off would take them back, and if they fetched within £10 of what was due on them probably he would be satisfied. Sheep had fallen in price since the purchase of this flock. He had two horses before beginning to plough but one took ill and he was obliged to borrow £5 to buy another.
This was the case of a man absolutely destitute of ready cash, with 10 barrowed months before him, no means of raising any funds, and carrying on only by the forbearance of the storekeeper, whose long bill was produced for our inspection. The first half of the account was contained in one line - "account rendered," and the remainder filled two pages of foolscap. No item in it looked unreasonable, and the goods supplied consisted chiefly of requisites for earning on farming. The family lived in a bark hut, divided into two apartments by a partition. The inner room, where all the family slept, was not lighted by any window. Indeed, but for two doors the whole place would have been dark. A mud floor worn into holes and dusty, walls with a few paper decorations, some sacks of wheat kept for seed, a wide fireplace, a kettle swinging over the fire, a table, and a piece of dried meat hanging in a smoky place - these were the only noticeable features of the interior. In the old gold - digging times rough men would have been contented with similar lodging but it could not be said that the place was a suitable one for bringing up three children, shortly to be increased to four.
The children being under six, were too young for school but in a year or two it would be safe to let them walk by themselves across the bush to the schoolhouse. It cannot be said that selectors in distress have failed for want of industry. Here was this one, out first thing every morning with his horses ploughing, preparing the ground for a harvest 10 months distant, and his wife (who would not be equal to field work long) helping him in the afternoons at " burning off." Everything in this instance was depending on the results of the harvest of 1881, and favourable weather in the meantime - on a fall of rain at proper intervals, dry days at ripening time a good yield, assistance in money from the storekeeper at reaping and threading (for the harvest labourers must be paid in cash) and a good market when the grain is ready for sale - a good market depending on the state of affairs in Europe as well as on the condition of things here. And when the corn is being threshed out, the storekeeper will be standing by to make sure of the bags of grain. Until his account is squared up there will be nothing available for the payment of arrears of rent or for the purposes of another season's preparations. If anything, the facts of this case have been understated.
When recently lecturing on the position of the selector, the Bishop of Melbourne described some very distressing cases where the family were without the ordinary supplies of food. Persons going about the Benalla district tell us of many such cases which they met with last winter, but that was in "the rust year." Had it not been for the good harvest of 1880, one could well believe that there would have been little food in the hut we were now visiting; but that harvest revived the credit of the selector temporarily; meat could be got from the butcher, and tea and sugar from the storekeeper. As for clothes, what they had would stand some more patching, and the children seemed to be able to get along without milk, provided bread was plentiful.
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