Australian Tales - Setis

landlord or his agent, demanding a little more rent than they could
possibly make off the farms; and the same farms have remained
unoccupied for years afterwards. I have also seen the shelves of a trader's
warehouse filled with old-fashioned, or shop-worn goods, which he
might have sold long before, at a moderate profit, but he chose to hold
out for higher prices until his goods were almost unsaleable. Stores filled
with grain and breadstuffs have often been over-run by devouring rats
and weevils, while the owners have been waiting for famine prices,
though they ultimately had to sell out at a ruinous loss.
Covetousness, and the passion for driving hard bargains, or, in other
words, extortion, is sadly prevalent the wide world over; and it would
perhaps be unfair to particularise itinerant fishmongers, cabmen, or any
other special class in the community, as the most incorrigible. I am
prepared to demonstrate that such policy is a most unwise one; but I
think I need not trouble myself to do so, as most persons who have tried
it, have proved it so by their own experience; and some even more
disagreeably than did the nervous little man who coveted my umbrella;
besides, I have no faith in the power of mere human efforts, or dictums,
to effectually cure that or any other extensive evil. I will, however,
venture to offer a few words of advice, to newly-arrived immigrants
especially; many of whom I have seen in our city of late, and to whom I
tender my congratulations and hearty welcome. Doubtless some of them
have brought their strength and skill to labour, as their only capital, to
this new land; and they will generally find that they have not brought it
to a bad market. You have an undoubted right, friends, to make the most
you can of your capital, in common with every one else in the
community; but I would kindly caution you not to be too extravagant in
your expectations of immediate returns. At the present time there is a
depression in the labour market, which perhaps most of you have
discovered. That can be but temporary, still it is the case, and not many
employers of labour are in a position to pay extreme wages just now.
Beware, then, how you refuse steady employment, from good masters, at
fair remuneration; and if you should be tempted to do so, think for a
moment of my poor scared friend in the balloon. The same reflection I
would recommend to any other person who is prone to driving hard
bargains. I may just add my opinion, that employers will not act wisely if
they take advantage of the present temporary depression, to drive too
hard bargains with their employés; for by doing so they may drive away
useful servants, and perhaps create a prejudice against themselves,
which, to say the least, must be undesirable.
If some folks do not really think the “Proverbs of Solomon” are
obsolete, they sometimes act as if they thought so; or, indeed, as if they
never thought of them at all. There are many men in this land — and
elsewhere too — who have cause to regret that they did not allow those