They seemed delighted to stick to their
German speaking, and would not even try to speak English. One amusing
feature in the scramble as to allotments was that each tried, in most
cases, to get trees, stones, and rocks in preference to clear ground, as
if so much additional wealth. The trees might have had value for
firewood, but in the other items they had probably more than they
bargained for. We secured the land for them at a pound an acre, and the
fact of their being so largely settled upon it raised its value at once
considerably. All the land thereabout has now risen to many times this
first cost. Many more Germans have since, as I understand, settled upon
other land.
The exact value of the German immigration to Australia may be to us a
differing estimate, but I think we mostly give it a decided welcome.
Lord Grey, as I recollect, was attacked in Parliament by the political
opposition for thus spending money on foreigners which might have better
gone to our own destitute, etc., etc. And I myself was repeatedly so
attacked, but always in a like merely political opposition way, when
anything is let fly at an opponent that will serve the momentary
purpose. In the heat of the O'Shanassy contest for Melbourne, for
instance, I was accused of having told the Silesian peasants that they
were wanted to set an example of sobriety to the drunken Irish.
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