A Homestead History. By Alfred Joyce. (Melbourne and Oxfor University
Press. vas. 6d.) THIS book represents a type of historical material that needs imme diate safeguarding from the effect of waste-paper appeals. I consists of the letters and reminiscences of early pioneer pastor life in Victoria and Port Phillip by Alfred Joyce, who embarked o the in days' journey from London to Melbourne in 1843. Th reminiscences of that period written much later Cm 1896) contain fascinating account of the voyage with its monotonous food a pastimes and of the early Melbourne—an incongruous mixture bullock yards, wattle huts and more sophisticated stucco building Joyce and his brother bought a sheep-run for £5o, and by 1851 h prospered enough to refuse an invitation to return home to father's business, with the explanation that they could now 1 forward to an income of ka,600. There are interesting descriptio of the aborigines, of the primitivt postal and medical services, a the beginning of gold-mining, to which Joyce was never reconcile "The colony is ruined in the social point of view by the pr el these gold minor." (and incidentally hampered from an point of view by the increased cost of labour). The letters perhaps more •interesting, as they are certainly more
than the reminiscences, but both are of great interest to Australian historians and entertaining to the general reader.
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