I had one opportunity of taking "old friends and fellow-colonists" in a
wholesale fashion. The committee of the Benevolent Asylum complimented
me by so pressing an invitation to visit an institution which I
remembered and was interested in from its first commencement, that it
was imperative on me to find the time to do so. The spectacle was alike
most edifying and most interesting. The institution had enormously
extended since my time, both in its accommodation and the number of its
inmates. There were nearly 700 men and women, all of them helpless and
destitute, and nearly all passed into old age. Some who were paralyzed
in their lower limbs, and unable to move about, were put out in a
sheltered place in the sunshine, to busy themselves in various ways of
their own choosing, and we particularly noted two rather pretty young
women, whose lively expression of face indicated no lack of happiness,
and whose neat and nimble fingers turned out quantities of daily work.
There was a considerable section of the blind, who were systematically
treated, and had a library of their own. In one of the rooms were two
dying men, one already past consciousness, the other still observant and
even lively, but not expected to survive the night. Amongst so many and
such aged people this sight was too familiar to greatly disturb the
others. One of these was understood to be related to an English
nobleman, and had passed through much adversity of colonial life. His
face was still singularly indicative of the gentleman. Such cases are by
no means rare in Australian experience.
Our inspection was completed by a view of the kitchen and larder, and
the interesting spectacle of about 300 of the men engaged together under
one roof at dinner, every one of whom revelled in solid beef to his
heart's content. Included in their number were twelve Chinamen, who
seemed as comfortably at home as any of the others, and whose presence,
perhaps, helped to impress a Chinese Commissioner, who had lately
visited the Asylum, and who had left his record in the visitors' book to
the effect that such an institution was an honour to mankind.