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children. Like Alessandro Quanchi, who was once fined by the authorities for not
sending one of his children to school (cf above p, 126), Italian-speaking parents
continued to keep their offspring at home to help mn the family farm or business. The
expectation was that sons and daughters would leam the skiUs of their parents: he
wdth the prospect of taking over the family property, she of marrying and raising
children. Breakdown of this pattem threatened the Italian speakers' way of life, the
constant change and risk-taking which characterises capitalist economies (of which
they were now a part) challenging more tradhional way of thinking. Most second
generation Italian speakers thus continued in the occupations of their parents ~
becoming farmers, hoteUers, bakers, blacksmiths or grocers. Some moved away from
the district to further these pursuits but the majority remained close to the family home
and the security of kinship ties. A number ended in poorly paid jobs as labourers and
shop assistants. It was only in the third and fourth generations that significant
occupation change occurred, some looking to professional careers as teachers, doctors
and economists. The acquisition of a formal education ~ and the ability to change and
improve which its attainment implies ~ had emerged as a new survival tool.
It is difficult to know if, at the end of their lives, the Italian speakers still
yeamed for retum to their homelands. Certainly the majority had only chosen British
citizenship (in the 1860s) in order to acquire land or hotel licences or (in the 1880s and
1890s) to receive a govemment pension and, well into the next century, the Ticinesi
were celebrating Swdss National Day (a holiday introduced in Switzerland at the tum
of the nineteenth century) as a symbol of their lasting patriotism (cf above p, 87),
During the many decades they had been resident in Australia, Italian speakers had
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