Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/322

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NATIVES LEARN TO SAVE MONEY.
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would find, to their chagrin, laid outside the door by him in orderly fashion and untouched.

The Governor's original grant of twenty acres being insufficient to support the number of savages who had already joined the Benedictines, the monks petitioned for thirty acres in addition, which were not only granted in freehold, but they were also allowed the use of a run of one thousand acres for pasturing their sheep and herds. In the winter immediately following this concession Father Salvado parcelled out allotments and gave seed-corn to those natives who had helped him in the previous harvest, and it was not a little pleasant to see the eagerness with which the boon was accepted, the ground cultivated, and bird-scaring carried on by the same men who, but a year before, had laughed at him as mad for throwing corn into the ground.

Observing that they were not only delighted to possess something of their own, but that, like other human beings, they worked in proportion to the recompense which they received, his next step was to make them a payment in money for all piece-work done for the monastery. This did no good at first as they either lost their money or gave it away; he therefore explained to them that by saving it up they would be able, in course of time, to send to Perth for new clothes, or to purchase a pig, a cow, or even a horse. The result was that the native labourers were content at the end of each week to leave their pay in his hands, when the money was placed in a chest fitted with divisions, and the name of each depositor written over the special compartment that belonged to him.

It was a great delight to each workman, when Saturday came, to turn the money over in his hands speculating on