WCP2201

[1]

Inverquharity

Tasmania

26 Dec, [18]93

My dear Dr Wallace

I received yr post card & subsequent letter of 17 Nov, & was delighted to get the latter. I am writing to one or 2 friends to try to get me some of the mature yams[?], that <will> grow for you; but this may be difficult as they are only found in virgin forest land of a certain kind & (I think near rotten old stumps only, & I don't happen to know any people living in these back parts & doing clearing just now. I am sorry the last bulbs I sent came to grief. I will send the next[?] in a stronger casing. I am getting a supply, a better one than before; they are now in their natural earth waiting till it is time to take them up. Also I have asked L Rodway, a Dentist but an enthusiastic botanist to get me as many Orchid bulbs as he can & he has promised to do so. I think he knows all there are, or nearly. Also any seeds of curious plants I will send. One of the orchids I have got is called the [illeg.] [later note: "ant"] orchid because it has an artificial (so to speak) <leaf?> standing at the entrance [2] to the flowers, in exact imitation of the central [illeg.] & one doesn't know why. One ant should attract other insects but Rodway tells me that when an insect lights on the ant the ant <buts?> them up with a spring[?] against the back of the flower & so jams them against the pollen & then lets them go. I have also got a plant, not an orchid or at any rate it has no bulb which has a spring under it like an arm placed akimbo & when irritated the arm springs up & hits itself on the top of the head so to speak. I don't know why. I shall try to get the seed of it.

I am much interested in the Parish Councils Bill, but judging by the papers <Hyder?> & <Swinton> have sent me, this <if really> a distinct movement in our direction it is likely to fall very far short of the essentials we want. The main things we want are <perhaps> compulsory purchase without needless formalities & absolute free hand to make what improvement the tenant likes. It is an advance to see the Daily News even noticing any proceeding of [3] our Society. I exchange notes now & then with Max Herscher[?] President of Victorian Single Tax League, & was much struck with his proposal to aim at getting the while land value, not leaving the landlord in a [5 words illeg.] , but looking over my comment (written hastily) I see I have said more than I intended and appear to be almost a convert to Single Tax, which is far from being the case. — the Trade depression here is dreadful, & scores of men [3 words illeg.] for employment. I give them all (nearly) a day or 2 to help them on & gratified they are for it. Not one of the scores I have employed has ever ask me what wages I mean to give but took the work offered there and then; & not one has grumbled at the wages I have paid them. I give them all 10/- a week & keep — they have to sleep where they can — some in an old flea haunted hut, some in the barn some in the [illeg.] and cook for themselves: but not [4] has grumbled, not one has misbehaved.

I may about say that every one has given a fair day's work according to his ability. Some a first [illeg.] day's work & plenty have thanked me on leaving for the few days work I have given. This in the Australian Colonies the "Working Man's Paradise"! I began giving a month's work then down to a week, half a week, & now down to 2 days — as they came too thick & my means ran short. It is wonderful how patient & well behaved too the men are. I see them coming by more gaunt & dilapidated every month — nearly all possessed of nothing but the clothes they stand up in & little of that. I have been taking up their case in the papers as you may imagine, I don't know whether with any effect, but a movement is being made b y the good[?] & by others for "getting the purple on the Law" but in an absurd way that must fail. They have got so far as to recognise that eh Law question is in some way [5] at the bottom of the difficulty but they don't in the least understand how. They don't dream of forcing into[?] [illeg.] the withheld opportunity already appropriated but are proposing to put them on the unalienated Crime Laws. That is on the land so poor, so far off and so densely timbered that Capitalists won't have them — & they propose to put the men who happen to be unemployed on these refuse lands, without [illeg.], without the [2 words illeg.] to go there or knowledge of what to do when they get there — to select these men carefully, superintend & control them — advance[?] them money & so on — all artificial and unnatural process that can't succeed. I have hammered at them trying to explain that we want simply to force[?] into use the withheld opportunity all around us, & things will then right themselves — the arable lands in the Settled districts & along the railway [illeg.] now held under sheep — the Mineral [6] lodes [illeg.] by mining[?] companies defying the labor clauses that bind them & employ so many men — the withheld building sites round every turn causing overcrowding at the centres[?] & forcing up all city rents &c but so far I don't seem to have converted anybody.

As to our Minerals, we have all sorts, but chiefly tin, silver & gold (in that order), We have also copper, iron, coal, all sorts, but the 3 first named are the chief ones — so far. As to gold I have a better opinion of it than you have. Putting aside that it is an object of beauty & ornament, which al nations & men have prized on that account & useful for that alone — there is the more important recommendation of it being the best standard of value yet discovered, the least fluctuating, the most durable & portable & so on. It would be worth getting for that reason & for the others. I have [illeg.] all my money spread so [7] far, [and] have concentrated each venture in one gold mine which we are opening up & which promises exceedingly well. There are 32000 shares in it & I am making own 450 such shares to the <L.N.> as my contribution, felling deep regret and almost shame that for 2 last years I have not be able to contribute my social offerings. I think the mine will turn out well if only for <L.N.'s> sake. It will I hope yield once it begins to pay at least as much as I have been accustomed to give. Perhaps all [illeg.] should, as you say, he works for the general good but as they are rich, I & the L.N. May as well have the benefit of it rather than others & less [illeg.] people. For my part, as long as there is such downright waste, I would develop all minerals without stint, in full confidence that natures <bad> storehouse will yield either fresh stores of them as yet undiscovered or substitute [2 words illeg.] for them — for example us & the anticipated exhaustion of England's coal. I feel quite calm, as [4 words illeg.] [8] since at all that coal [2 words illeg.] — light, heat, power — & we are [illeg.] getting nearer to the time when we shall be able to call on the forces of Nature [4 words illeg.] the winds, the waves, the tides, the currents to supply the electricity. As to food supply we are within sight though not within [illeg.] of what will make Malthus shrivel up & disappear — <fuel> [illeg.] sufficient & we can make these barren lands bear & the rich lands bear more to an indefinite, unimaginable extent, & yet here is 4/5 of the air all round us, waiting to supply us with the chief principle of [3 words illeg.]. I know that other elements are wanted besides [illeg.], but [illeg.] is far & away the Chief option and given that, the food difficulty is practically settled.

I do not pretend to understand the currency question, & it would take too much of my limited brain power away from other subjects to go in for it. But I quite agree with you that "Cheap Money" will do very little good in presence of withheld opportunities. I liked P Weeks' last article in the papers in [illeg.] it helped me to understand the matter better. The [2 words illeg.] argument I understand is that 2 metals to choose between , the cheaper will always drive out the dearer. But that has its inconveniences[?]. Hoping you will find time to drop me a line now & again as you have [illeg.] done.

I am Always [illeg.]

A. J. Ogilvy [signature]