The Argus at KellyGang 27/4/1880 (3)
Selectors
In many instances families might be living in larger huts if they only chose to employ some of their time in building, additions; the materials are abundant enough and the erection of extra rooms would not involve every much about. But the poorer selectors, whilst struggling to increase their small income and clear off liabilities, appear to think only of ploughing-of getting as many acres under crop as possible and leaving household comforts unattended to. Their sleeping rooms are small and ill lighted and children and parents have often to crowd into one small apartment. The older boys are found beds in the cooking and eating room; or a lean to shed may be built for them at the back. Fully a third of the selectors met with in the Benalla district were living in this rough, unsatisfactory way. On the other hand, many were occupying comfortable homes. Their houses might not be all equally showy, but they were stoutly built, well ventilated, floored with pine or hardwood, and adequately furnished.
Two-thirds of the selectors are carrying on under circumstances which may be regarded as satisfactory. Townspeople might not like to squeeze themselves into such small cottages as many even of the more prosperous selectors are content with, but on a farm there is less occasion to keep up an appearance of state than in the main street of places like Benalla or Shepparton. Assuming that a fair view was obtained during the three days trip of the situation of affairs in the district generally, it may be safely concluded that three fourths of the selectors are in a hopeful position. Half of them are already fixtures. Wherever a man had begun with adequate capital, he was found doing well, his land was carefully tilled, the fences good, the stock numerous and healthy. If, however, a beginning had been made on 320 acres with only £200 or £300, and the first two or three seasons had been unfavourable the children were poorly clad, their hut small, their furniture scanty.
The fowls and pigs (if any) were wandering round about the house, and sometimes into it. In one case, where a wooden cottage had been erected on piles, the camping place of the poultry was between the flooring boards and the ground. In another they were making free with one of the detached bedrooms. The fact appears to be that many families (say, one out of every three) have gone upon the land with no well calculated scheme, but only an intention to fence, clear, and plough, trusting that their small stock of money might keep them supplied with food and clothes until they gathered in their first harvest. But supposing one of their pair of horses should meet with an accident and their cows starve and die, as they often appear to do when put upon the selection before the grass has had time to grow plentifully, then the selector has to find a storekeeper or some other person to lend him money to buy fresh stock, and once he gets into debt his liabilities grow very rapidly. Most of the poorer selectors seem to have been quite unprepared to cope with a bad season or the loss of animals through disease or cold weather. So far as could be ascertained by inquiry there were no cases of dummyism in the Benalla district. Where holdings had changed hands the original selector had either been replaced by a neighbour or by a man new to the district who meant business.
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