worth their weight in gold, when suddenly their eyes were opened to the fact of having been cruelly taken in! These "treasures" had turned out unprincipled and dishonest. Two of them, being somewhat imposing in appearance, had taken to ballgoing; and actually went to one county ball (where their masters were amongst the distinguished guests) dressed in rose-coloured tarlatan over white silk, wreaths, &c.; this little frolic being passed over, they conjointly gave one day, in their masters' absence, a grand pic-nic, and did not hesitate to empty, as nearly as possible, their benedicts' wine-cellars. This conduct compelled their employers to dismiss them.

These foolish women may, perhaps, now be in the depths of misery and starvation, and yet they had the chance of leading a life of ease and comfort, such as many a poor lady in the colony might envy.

I have written thus lengthily, and, I fear, wearisomely, on the subject of colonial

there

servants, as I think that some (if any be amongst my readers) who have a prospect of making their home in the colony may be interested in learning my experiences of them.

CHAPTER IX.

Housekeeping Market Prices in Melbourne Prices up the Country-Ice-Carriage and Cab Hire Jingles - An Honest Omnibus Driver-Dress - Advice to Ladies.

HOUSEKEEPING expenses and all articles of food, with some few exceptions, are still very much higher in Australia than they are at home; though they are considerably less than they were in the early days of the gold discovery. A day or two before I left Melbourne I noted down the market prices of some of the necessaries of life, as follows:

Bread, 9d. the 4 lb. loaf.

Butter, 1s. 8d. a pound-in summer, 3s.
Cheese, 1s. 9d. a pound.

Eggs, 3s. 6d. a dozen in winter-1s. 6d. a
dozen in summer.

Bacon, 1s. 6d. a pound.

Mutton and beef, 5d. a pound.

Steaks, 7d. a pound.

Turkeys, from 17s. to 25s. each.

Fowls, from 7s. 6d. to 10s. a couple.

Cream, 4s. a quart.

Milk, 10d. a quart.

Apples, 8d. a pound.

Potatoes, at the rate of 14 lbs. for 1s.

Cabbages, from 3d. to 1s. each.
Tea, 38. a pound.

Coffee, 2s. a pound.

Loaf sugar, 10d. a pound.

Raw sugar, 4d. and 6d. a pound.
Coals, 37. a ton.

Everything in the way of provisions is to be had quite as good as at home, with the exception, in my opinion, of meat; which, cooked soon after being killed, is generally very tough, and much coarser than it is at home.

There is every facility afforded to housekeepers in Melbourne for getting up a dinner, on short notice, if regardless of expense. The grocers' shops are most complete. Fresh fruits, preserved in bot

tles, are sent out in great abundance from America and England. Ready-made jellies of all kinds are to be had in bottles from England; and all sorts of game, &c. are sent out ready cooked, preserved in tins, such as hares, partridges, venison, ducks, &c.

The first time I saw a hare appear on a colonial table I was somewhat startled, and my imagination carried me back at once to the pleasant shooting season in old England, with all its genial country parties-with which there are none to compare in the colony. Visions of friends or relatives marching off on the 1st of September, armed cap-à-pie for slaughter, and of benignant old gentlemen, mounted on well-trained shooting-ponies and chuckling with delight, suddenly flitted before my eyes.

I have received from a very practical old resident of Sandhurst (formerly called Bendigo, an important town on the Diggings, containing 25,000 inhabitants) a