L27 7 0

Note.—­That if he had not had two children to provide for in a second bedroom, nor indulged in the luxury of a chest of drawers, the whole of his furnishing would only have cost him L17 3s.

Before closing this letter, a word as to what may be called the accessories of the household.  But few families have any large quantity of plate, and electro has almost entirely superseded silver; metal is not common for dishes, and is quite unknown for plates.  Nor is the crockery at all a strong point even in the wealthiest houses.  In the shops it is almost impossible to get anything satisfactory in this line; and until the exhibitions, nine Australians out of ten had no idea what was meant by hand-painted china.  The difference between china and earthenware is, it goes almost without saying, little if at all appreciated, much less that between hand-painted and stamped ware.  The display of cut-glass at the exhibitions was almost as great a revelation to colonists as that of porcelain; hitherto all middle-class and most wealthy households have been contented with the commonest stuff.  Table-cloths and napkins are also very second-rate, and sheets are almost invariably of calico.

SERVANTS.

That servants are the plague of life seems to be an accepted axiom amongst English ladies of the upper middle class.  When I hear them discussing their grievances over their afternoon tea, I wish them no worse fate than to have the management of an Australian household for a week.  It is not every Englishwoman whose peace of mind would survive the trial.  Many a young English wife have I seen unhappy in her married life in the colonies, mainly on account of her domestics.  And yet I doubt whether the colonial mistress makes as much fuss about her real wrongs as the English one about her imaginary grievances.  Of course she can, if drawn out, tell you enough ridiculous stories about her servants to fill a number of Punch; but if they are only fools she is well content, and it is only when she is left servantless for two or three days that she waxes wroth.

Where mistresses are many and servants are few, it goes almost without saying that large establishments are out of the question.  Given equal incomes, and the English mistress has twice as many servants as the Australian, and what is more, twice as competent ones.  Even our friend Muttonwool only has six coachman, boy, cook, housemaid, nurse, and parlourmaid.  I don’t suppose there are a hundred households in all Australia which keep a butler pure and simple, though there must be several thousand with what is generically known as a man-servant, who gets twenty-five shillings a week, all found.  A coachman’s wages are on the average about the same.  The ‘boy’ gets ten shillings.  Man-cooks are rare.  A decent female cook, who ranks out here as first-class, earns from fifteen shillings to a pound a week.  For this sum she is supposed to know something about cooking; yet I have known