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On 15 May 1877, the ninth Perini child was bom and named Vincent James. In
the same year Vincenzo was appointed Inspector of Weights and Measures for the
Daylesford district, a position which he held until 1883; paid at the rate of 50 per cent
of the revenue, he was one of few Italian-speaking immigrants to supplement his
income with paid employment.^' The family's chief source of income, as listed in
Wise's Post Office Directory for the 1880s, came from their vineyard and hotel,
although an mterest in mining had also been retained through the Commissioner's Reef
gold mine. In 1885 Vincenzo obtained another paid position as auditor of the Shire, a
post which he held each successive year until 1899 when he was opposed.^* His
understandmg of accounting and bookkeeping continued alongside his understanding
of more ancient exchange systems, such as barter, which persisted as a feature of his
life within the Swiss-ItaUan community. On 13 April 1879 the Perinis produced
another son Battista Arnold, his name an expression of his dual ethnicity. Two years
later, on 13 Febmary 1881, a brother Franklin was bom foUowed on 3 September
1882 by a sister EUen Anastasia. This was another example of a child being named
after one deceased: each family member would have been named 'baby Perini' until it
had survived a year or so. On 28 May 1885 Violetta Pierina arrived and, on 1 April
1887, James Luigi, both of whom were given Italian names. The last child William
Alfred was bom on 12 August 1888. Anastasia Perini had given birth to thirteen
children m a period ranging over 22 years.
Though he worked hard, Vincenzo was not a strong man and suffered many
years from pain in his hip. In 1890, he underwent major surgery which may have been
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